The CNT in the Spanish Revolution: Volume 1

433 Pages·2011·4.6 MB·English

by  José Peirats

The CNT in the Spanish Revolution
Volume 1
José Peirats Valls
Edited by Chris Ealham
Translated by Paul Sharkey and Chris Ealham
Special thanks are due to the unstinting and generous support in this project of our dear friend and
compañero Federico Arcos, who also provided most of the photographs used in all three volumes of this
edition with support from the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies
The CNT in the Spanish Revolution Volume 1
First English edition published January 2001 by The Meltzer Press,
PO Box 35, Hastings, East Sussex TN34 2UX
This edition © 2011 by PM Press
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ISBN: 978-1-60486-207-2
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Dedicated to the Generation of 1936
‘A la Generación del ’36 (1936)’.

We do not make war just for the sake of making war. Were our movement compelled
to be encapsulated by one blunt adjective that adjective would not be “warlike”, but
“revolutionary”.
There is yet time for us to express ourselves in the most readily understood form
possible. Defi nite facts and defi nite ideas must be given their proper names. There must
be an end to this mistake of double entendres which complicate the dictionary. And
the fact is that frequently a play on words is followed up by the fait accompli. “War” has
been so loudly trumpeted as a synonym for “revolution” that we have been induced to
invest in this war with all of the bellicose accoutrements that were always odious to us:
the regular army and discipline. The same thing has happened with discipline in the
proper sense. There have been comrades aplenty who, despite their bona fi des, have
fl irted with the term and spoken to us of discipline while painting this in colours dia-
metrically opposed to freedom.
This, far from rendering discipline more humane, is a bestialisation of freedom. It
is not so very long ago that an attempt was made in our circles to peddle a version of
discipline implying order and responsibility comparable with anarchy. Such an endeav-
our always called to our minds the idea of “good government” or “tutelary authority”,
as opposed to despotic or blatantly authoritarian government. And just as it has not
been possible to sort governments into good ones and bad ones — since in fact there are,
rather, only bad ones and worse ones — we have come to learn with the passage of time
that all discipline is a tributary of regimentation.
We aver that all wars are inauspicious. Were it our belief that we are making a war,
we should be the fi rst to desert. The fact is that war never erupts to the advantage of
those who infl ict and suff er its ravages.
We are not fi ghting here to advance anyone’s private interests, though there will
be no shortage of bigwigs who will seek to commandeer the fruits of our struggle and
gamble on the ups and downs of our successes and our reverses, turning our rearguard
into a stockjobbers’ lot.
Our fi ght is against privilege and not for the nation, a fi ght for liberty and not for
the fatherland, a fi ght for anarchy and not for the Republic. We risk our lives for the col-
lective good and not for a privileged caste. While one of us remains standing, the social
revolution, which is the driving force behind our liberation movement, will never want
for defenders and combatants, whether they use pen, fi st, word or rifl e.
We do not make war; war is always made for the purposes of someone else, and
fought out between the brethren who are poor in spirit. We make revolution for the
benefi t of all human beings and against the cliques who are hangovers from parasit-
ism and self-centredness. And as we are making revolution, not one square metre of
reconquered ground must be subtracted from the process of transformation, despite the
froglike croaking of those whose lack of spirit and mettle inclines them to dabble in the
stagnant waters of politicking.
— Editorial from Acracia (Lleida), 1936–7

Contents
Glossary of organisations viii
The history of a history xi
Introduction 1
Chapter One From the Bellas Artes Congress to the
Primo de Rivera dictatorship 7
Chapter Two From the military Directory to the Second Republic 17
Chapter Three The Republic of Casas Viejas 31
Chapter Four From the November elections to the October Revolution 55
Chapter Five 6 October 1934 in Asturias and in Catalonia 72
Chapter Six The end of the ‘black biennium’ and
the Popular Front triumphant 83
Chapter Seven From the Zaragoza Congress to 19 July 1936 93
Chapter Eight Spain in fl ames 116
Chapter Nine The revolutionary achievement 133
Chapter Ten The dilemma of revolution and war 156
Chapter Eleven The CNT in the government of Catalonia 168
Chapter Twelve The CNT in the government of the Republic 182
Chapter Thirteen Politics and revolution 198
Chapter Fourteen Consequences of the Confederation’s collaboration 243
Chapter Fifteen The collectivisations 264
A chronology of José Peirats’s major writings 343
Notes 347
Index 386
Glossary of organisations
BOC Bloc Obrer i Camperol/Worker-Peasant Block; an anti-Stalinist commu-
nist party
CADCI Centre Autonomista de Dependents del Comerç i de la Indústria/
Autonomist Centre for Shop and White-Collar Workers; a Catalan
white-collar and shop workers’ union, the leading union in this sector
CEDA C onfederación Española de Derechas Autónomas/Spanish
Confederation of Autonomous Rightists; the main rightist party in the
1930s, of quasi-fascist persuasion
CGT Confédération Genérale du Travail/General Confederation of Labour;
Europe’s leading anarcho-syndicalist union before World War One, it
later fell under socialist and communist infl uence
CGTU Confédération Générale du Travail Unitaire/Unitary General
Confederation of Labour; formed by communists and allied to the RILU
CNT Confederación Nacional del Trabajo/National Confederation of Labour
CRT Confederación Regional del Trabajo/Regional Confederation of Labour;
the regional bodies that made up the CNT
ERC E squerra Republicana de Catalunya/Republican Left of Catalonia; a
middle class republican party
FAI Federación Anarquista Ibérica/Iberian Anarchist Federation; the pan-
Iberian federation of anarchist affi nity groups
FIJL Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias/Iberian Federation of
Young Libertarians; the anarchist youth movement
FJS Federación de Juventudes Socialistas/Socialist Youth Federation; the
youth movement of the PSOE
FNTT Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de la Tierra/National Federation
of Land Labourers; the UGT agrarian workers’ union
FOUS Federación Obrera de Unifi cación Sindical/Workers’ Federation of
Trade Union Unity; a dissident communist union federation close to
the POUM
FSL Federación Sindicalista Libertaria/Libertarian Syndicalist Federation;
a moderate anarcho-syndicalist answer to the FAI formed during the
power struggles in the CNT prior to the civil war
ICE Izquierda Comunista de España/Communist Left of Spain; a small
Trotskyist grouping which helped form the POUM in 1935
GLOSSARY OF ORGANISATIONS ix
IWA International Workingmen’s Association; the world organisation of
anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist groups
JCI J uventud Comunista Ibérica/I berian Communist Youth; the PCE youth
movement
JJ.LL Juventudes Libertarias/Young Libertarians; the Catalan association of
young anarchists
JSU J uventudes Socialistas Unifi cadas/Unifi ed Socialist Youth; an amalga-
mation of the JSU and the JCI under Stalinist hegemony
PCC Partit Comunista Català/Catalan Communist Party; a dissident commu-
nist group which helped form the BOC in 1930
PCE Partido Comunista de España/Communist Party of Spain; the offi cial
pro-Moscow communist party
POUM Partido Obrero de Unifi cación Marxista/Workers’ Party of Marxist
Unifi cation; a dissident communist, anti-Stalinist party
PSOE Partido Socialista Obrero Español/Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party; the
Spanish social-democratic party
PSUC Partit Socialista Unifi cat de Catalunya/Unifi ed Socialist Party of
Catalonia; the Catalan Communist Party formed at the start of the civil
war in order to rival the power of the revolutionary CNT-FAI and the
POUM
RILU Red International of Labour Unions; Comintern union federation
SS.OO S indicatos de la Oposición/Opposition Unions; made up of anti-FAI
anarcho-syndicalists
UGT Unión General de Trabajadores/General Workers’ Union; the PSOE-
affi liated union movement
USC Unió Socialista de Catalunya/Socialist Union of Catalonia; a quasi-
Fabian-socialist party which split from the PSOE due to the latter’s cen-
tralist stance on the national question. Very close to the E RC before the
civil war, it later joined the PSUC.
U de R Unió de Rabassaires/Union of Sharecroppers; a Catalan tenant farmers’
union close to the ERC