2 articles 2nd is 'The Friends of Durruti' [WS 38] ********* The Spanish Revolution of 1936 ********** from Workers Solidarity No 36 Many people would agree that the anarchist principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs" is a nice idea. A self managed society with everyone having a real say in how things were run is a lovely ideal. They might nod along to the lyrics of "Imagine" by John Lennon but then equally shake their heads and tell you that such a thing could never work "in the real world". You would probably be told that people are just naturally greedy and self-centred and such a thing would end in chaos. However throughout the history of the 20th century ordinary working people have succeeded in taking things into their own hands and making a go of it. Nowhere, however, has come closer to a fully self-managed anarchist society then large areas of "republican" Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Here, for a short space of a few years, both on the land and in the factories workers and peasants demonstrated that far from chaos anarchism was an efficient, desirable and realisable method of running society. This account of the enormous social revolution in Spain is mainly taken from Gaston Leval's "Collectives in the Spanish Civil War". Leval was a French anarchist exiled for resisting the World War I draft who spent many years in exile in Spain and Latin America. He returned in 1936 just in time to document the revolution in economic and social organisation as it occurred. Rather then take off for the front he saw the importance of these changes and attempted to make a record of some sort for the future. The extent of collectivisation on the land was unprecedented. Estimates of the numbers in collectives range as high as 5-7 million directly or indirectly involved (from Leval himself). Certainly millions took part to some degree from periods of weeks to as long as three years as fortunes fluctuated in the war. At the height of collectivisation there were 400 collectives in Aragon, 700 in the Levant and 300 in Castile. Of course many just refuse to believe that so many people (whether landless or with fairly large holdings) would voluntarily collectivise. FORCED COLLECTIVISATION? One accusation which is repeated by almost all historians of the Spanish civil war is that the columns of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT union enforced collectivisation at the point of a gun. Ironically enough this was first put about by no less an authority the Spanish Communist Party but it is still accepted as gospel by the majority of historians of the civil war. Of course this doesn't stand up to even a glance at the facts. The CNT was a mainly industrial union based in Barcelona and Madrid. In many areas such as Castile and Aragon their numbers were extremely low. For example there were only 34,000 members of the CNT in Aragon, Navarre and Rioja all areas where most of the land was collectivised. The military columns of the CNT moved immediately to the front and mostly took no further part in the collectives. As Leval puts it, they "lived on the fringes of the task of social transformation being carried out". Some far sighted militants such as Durutti realising their importance sent some members back to the collectives. But these were skilled organisers not armed troops. Finally in all the collectivsed areas there were many "individualists" who were allowed to hang on to their land. Far from been harassed to join they were often allowed to avail of the many free services of the collectives. Though their numbers declined with time in many cases they remained a significant minority. This couldn't have happened if collectivisation was forced. ARAGON Let's take a closer look at one region- Leval's first example: Aragon. An estimated 69.5 % of Aragon's 430,000 inhabitants in the revolutionary zone took part in collectives in total, with up to 400 collectives established. When Leval arrived in February 1937 there were 275 collective villages with 141,430 families organised into 24 cantonal federations holding their first conference in Caspe. Obviously over the seven months since the Fascist coup in July this was a major achievement . He visited the main collectives of seven of these federations. Collectivisation occurred in a similar way in most of them. After the major landowners had fled the land an assembly was held. It was decided to seize all land and machinery hold it in common . Teams were formed to various jobs, each electing recallable delegates to a village assembly. A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL To distribute the common stock of goods rationing or a family wage was brought in. Given the low level of Spanish agriculture and the demands of the war it wasn't possible to jump immediately to communist distribution (i.e. free goods for all) in Aragon (or most other areas) . However there was a major increase in living standards along with a greater say for everyone and a huge range of free social services. In the village of Graus, for example, the family (which persisted as the main social form) wage meant a 15% increase in money going into households. All services such as electricity and gas were free as well as free and hugely improved medical, educational and entertainment facilities. Overall this meant an increase in living standards of 50-100%. There were many increases in productivity and efficiency. In several areas huge new projects were made possible by collectivisation. In Esplus there were four new piggeries producing hundreds of animals and the sheep herd increased from 600 to 2,000. In Mas de Las Mantas a huge collective bakery handled all the baking previously the exclusive task of women in the home. In Alcorisa there had been a 50% increase in cultivated land and centralisation of tailor's shops brought a 66% increase in production. These are just a few examples where the landlord system had held back the efficient use of land while peasants and labours had faced starvation every year. At the February meeting of the cantonal federations measures were been taken to set aside areas of land for research into better seed production in each canton. It had been suggested, for example, that virus free potatoes could be raised in the mountains of upper Aragon These type of innovations could never have been dreamed up by the landlords who relied entirely on cheap labour (without "wasting" money on machines) to keep them well heeled while the majority starved. The Federation was also attempting to promote exchanges between collectives with richer ones distributing food and machinery to those in less well off areas. The collectives also supplied the major cities voluntarily (unlike the case in the Russian civil war(1921) where forced grain seizures by the Bolsheviks killed off any fellow feeling between rural and urban workers). They also sent spare supplies to columns at the front. INDIVIDUALISTS The conference also took an interesting attitude towards 'individualist' farmers which contrasted with Stalin's murderous forced collectivisation in the 1930s. The individualists were left to their own devices though the collectives were under no obligation to give them any aid (in practice most did). However they were totally forbidden from employing workers and they lost automatic inheritance rights. Many individualists did eventually go over to the collectives and they were usually won over by example and not forced. Aragon is only one of the regions covered. In some other areas there was almost a fully communist system in operation. For example in the Naval collective in Huesca a system operated were you just went to the collective store and took what you needed. Contributions and withdrawals were recorded and all was reduced to simple accounting. In most areas this just wasn't possible and rationing was the order of the day. However the achievements are sill impressive given the miserable state of Spanish agriculture in the first place. INDUSTRIAL COLLECTIVES The CNT was a mainly urban anarcho-syndicalist union drawing much of its support from workers in Barcelona and Madrid. For this reason it may seem surprising that industrial collectivisation did not go as far as that on the land. However it must be remembered that many of these industries depended almost totally on countries outside Spain for both markets and raw materials. These were almost immediately cutoff by the European governments on the grounds of "non-interference" in Spain's internal affairs. Also most factories had to retool for the war effort which made huge demands on labour time. Even allowing for this, however, as Leval points out there was not true socialisation in many cases "but a worker's Neo-Capitalism". By this he meant that the framework of capitalism was maintained with workers running factories, selling goods and sharing the profits. CNT His loyalty to the CNT prevents him from pointing the finger here. Their refusal to drive the revolution through to it's logical conclusion, abolishing capitalism and refusing to share power with the bourgeois in government must be singled out as the decisive reason why industry wasn't entirely self-managed. The CNT's syndicalism left them uninterested in politics and political power. They left the parliament and state structure intact which gave the bourgeois a base from which to rebuild. They should have destroyed the government's political power entirely and used the arms and gold reserves seized to further the revolution. BARCELONA All things considered, the achievements in industrial collectivisation were still amazing and surprised foreign observers like George Orwell. 3000 enterprises in Barcelona were collectivised. A council was elected by an assembly of all the workers to run each workplace. Each section elected to delegates to liaise with the council on day to day matters. The council sent recallable representatives to a council for each industry which drew up general plans for that industry. All the major services were greatly improved. Equal wages were paid to all grades and the general wage level was increased for most workers. For example all the small electricity generators in private hands were linked together and new dams and generators built to give a more efficient system. The water supply which had been erratic was improved with supply going up to 150,000 cubic metres fairly quickly (Leval explains, however that it couldn't be increased much further as most existing natural catchments were been used and, presumably, there wasn't time to build reservoirs). Perhaps the most dramatic improvement was on the trams, the major method of transport in Barcelona. Five days after the fascists were beaten off the streets the trams were running under workers' control. The fleet had been increased from 600 to 700 by the repair of 100 trams previously discarded as un-fixable. A new safety and signal system was built. Track and roadway repaired and improved, an automatic breakdown warning system installed and many lines re-routed. Passengers carried increase from 183,543,516 to 233,557,506 at a standard class cheap fare. Tell that to anyone who maintains workers are too ignorant to run things themselves! The Spanish revolution proved conclusively, if only briefly, that given a chance workers and peasants can run things themselves a lot better then the bosses. The elimination of the profit motive and the undistorted application of technology improved life greatly for those involved. Workers' self-management and the agricultural collectives didn't collapse due to some flaw in human nature. They were smashed by fascist attacks from the front and Communist tanks in the rear (for example a division of tanks under the command of the Communist general Lister was used to destroy most of the Aragon collectives). Anarchism as a method of organising society faced the test of history and passed with flying colours. Des McCarron ********** The Friends of Durruti *************** from Workers Solidarity No 34 THE WAR in Spain (1936-1939) has often been portrayed as a simple struggle between Fascism and democracy. In fact it was anything but. A military coup launched in July 1936 was defeated by worker's action in most parts of Spain. There then followed a wide ranging social revolution (see Worker's Solidarity 33). As many as 5-7 million were involved in the collectivisation of agriculture and thousands in worker's control of industry. About 2 million of these were also members of the oldest union in Spain the anarcho- syndicalist; CNT. As with all revolutions a counter-revolution followed quickly on the Spanish revolution. This was spearheaded by the Spanish Communist party. These were faithful adherents to Stalin's foreign policy of sucking up to France and England in the hope of military and economic alliances. They resisted the revolution at all stages and found willing allies in the Spanish republican and socialist forces. All took pains to convey to the world a struggle between fascism and democracy. They also took steps to try and make it such a struggle by smashing collectives and factory committees and sabotaging the efforts of revolutionary forces at the front. However even more worrying is the fact that the "anarchists" of the CNT made little attempt to combat these forces. In fact four became government ministers. One tendency within the CNT; the Friends of Durruti resisted the growing reformism within the CNT. In this review of their pamphlet; "Towards a Fresh Revolution" Conor Mc Loughlin outlines their importance to modern anarchists. "We are not interested in medals or in general's sashes, we want neither committees or ministers" Bueneventura Durruti - Solidaridad Obrera Sept 12 1936 "The government has posthumously granted the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the illustrious Libertarian leader Buenaventura Durruti on the anniversary of his death"- Solidaridad Obrera April 30 1938 The friends of Durutti were setup in 1937 by rank and file members of the CNT and memders of CNT columns resisting militarisation. "Towards a fresh revolution" was published in 1938 as "a message of hope and a determination to renew the fight against an internationalism." It's a short and relatively easy read at 43 pages. It is obviously aimed at activists in the CNT and it pulls no punches in it's attacks on the Spanish bourgeoisie and "colaborationists" in the CNT. However be warned it does assume a certain amount of background knowledge of the history of the CNT and the Spanish revolution. It would be useful to read in conjunction with Vernon Richard's "Lessons of the Spanish Revolution" JULY 19th 1936 The pamphlet begins by recalling the massive gains made by Spanish workers in areas where they had succeeded in beating the fascist coup. The coup had been defeated by workers facing down the military often with their bare hands. It had been defeated without any help from the popular front government who refused to arm the people. This was to be repeated throughout the course of the "civil war". The workers confronted fascism with revolution the government proved more afraid of revolution then fascism (which is not to knock the many genuine anti-fascists in some of the government parties.). The July events triggered a massive social revolution throughout Spain. (see Workers Solidarity no. 33). Workers took over in the factories and on the lands and began the creation of a self-managed communist society. Millions were involved in agricultural communes and worker's self management in the factories. The pamphlet however poses the central question. Why, when a clear majority supported and took part in the building of a social revolution, wasn't this pushed forward by the CNT; the massive anarcho-syndicalist union. Their answer is brief: "what happened had to happen" Why was this sellout inevitable as the FOD maintain? Why did leading anarchists move on to become leading ministers in the Spanish government? In explaining their apparently fatalistic view of the CNT the FOD go on to show how the CNT was devoid of any revolutionary theory or programme. They had "Lyricism aplenty" and detailed plans had been laid down as to how an anarchist Spain would operate at their national conference in Saragosa in May 1936. But they couldn't get from A to B, from bread and butter struggle to a future libertarian society. For this reason they handed the revolution to the tender mercies of the Socialists, republicans and Communists. These forces which emerged without a shred of support from the July events were not slow to rebuild. Instead of destroying it they propped up the Spanish state in it's hour of need. As the FOD put it: "It breathed a lungfull of Oxygen into an anemic, terror stricken bourgeoisie." Garcia Oliver one of the "leading militants" who was shortly to enter the government without even consulting the Union's members claimed he had avoided "an anarchist dictatorship". This shows a complete and crass lack of understanding of the essential tasks of an anarchist organisation i.e. the smashing of the state and the transfer of power to worker's and peasants. The CNT and Spanish workers were to pay in blood for this collaboration. We acknowledge the great work of the CNT in propagandising anarchism and the struggle against Franco. But we must stand with the FOD in absolute condemnation of the deferring of revolutionary politics to class collaboration. The FOD had a programme which could have won the support of the Spanish masses and led them to anarchism and the destruction of Fascism. However they were too small and too late. The need for such a programme as outlined in "How anarchists should organise" in this issue has never been more pressing MAY 3 rd 1937 By this stage the counter-revolutionaries in the "republican" camp felt confident enough to provoke a fight with the Barcelona working class. Police under the command of Rodriguez Salas, the public order commissar, attacked the telephone exchange. They were strongly resisted by CNT organised workers inside. Barricades soon sprang up all over the city. Fighting broke out with the CNT and POUM (non-Stalinist Marxists) quickly gaining the upper hand over government and PSUC (Stalinist controlled Catalan "Socialist" party). After an armed stand off the workers were finally persuaded to lay down arms by the CNT "leadership". The FOD strongly urged workers to remain put and were in the thick of the fighting. They pointed out that the workers had won and now controlled Barcelona (after a steady erosion of their position since July 1936). They insisted that workers stayed put. They issued a manifesto calling for the disbanding of the army and parties which had supported the coup and the establishment of a revolutionary Junta to continue the war. It is worth explaining exactly what they meant by this Junta since the word has very bad associations. They wanted the Junta to control only the war effort. It was to be made up of elected, recallable delegates. The economy was to be under the control of workers through their syndicates. For issuing these demands they were attacked as traitors and agent provocateurs. The CNT brokered peace was an abandonment of the revolutionary Barcelona workers. Several thousand troops arrived from Valencia. There were mass arrests, executions and immediate press censorship. The destruction of the POUM and CNT by Stalin's CHEKA agents began. The May events were a vital turning point in the Spanish revolution. The collectives were crushed throughout republican areas soon afterwards. Worker's control was smashed and militarisation completed. The "peoples army" then suffered massive and bloody defeats at the hands of the fascists. We would agree with almost all the FOD's positions summarised at the end of the pamphlet. These include; 1. That the war should have been a continuation of the revolution with a democratic worker's army. 2. All available arms and money should have been seized by the workers. (The CNT spent most of the war guarding the government's 2,259 pesatas in gold! This money which could have aided the revolution was exported to Russia to buy the arms that helped destroy it.) 3. No collaboration with the Spanish bourgeois 4. Real worker's unity 5. Total socialisation of the economy and food distribution 6. Equalisation of pay rates 7. No armistice with Foreign imperialist powers. To this we could only add the immediate granting of independence to remaining Spanish colonies. The FOD were armed with a revolutionary programme that could have brought Spain towards anarchism and crushed the Fascists. But they were too small and to late to hope to win workers to it's implementation The need for anarchists organised with such a programme has never been more pressing. We are attempting to build one. Conor McLoughlin