The Spanish Civil War, a pivotal period in the history of the 20th century, is also the one that has been the most obscured, the most distorted, the most betrayed. There are many reasons for this and they require some decryption of the many complicities involved in maintaining this falsification.
While it is fairly easy to discern the actions of Franco’s supporters during the dictatorship, who had every interest in erasing the traces of their crimes and shamelessly sought to attribute them to their enemies, the attitude of the “historians” from the various parties of the republican camp deserves a much more in-depth analysis.
Because these parties, which have become institutional: social democrats, liberals, reformed Stalinists, republicans and neo-divers, are the ones that still occupy the landscape of our pseudo-democracies. Their lies today are not very different from those they deployed then; their motivations are the same, their baseness similar.
The facts are there: they preferred to let fascism win rather than let the revolution unfold and the people decide their own future.
The Spanish Civil War is a historical mirror in which they would rather not look at themselves.
For all those who feel in no way represented by these people and who have retained a taste for truth and hope for a different future, the works gathered here will provide the essential elements for understanding.
Spanish Cockpit by Franz Borkenau
Report on the social and political conflicts in Spain (1936-1937)
If Spanish Cockpit is considered a reference work, it is because Borkenau is the only historian and commentator of this civil war who combined a first-rate mind with an in-depth political education. He knew how to ask the right questions, he saw the front and the rear regions and proved to be a remarkable observer. There is no more perceptive or truthful testimony on this war. (…) That is why, beyond the model of what any analysis of a revolution should be, Spanish Cockpit is also one of the best books ever published on Spain.
Hommage à la Catalogne (Homage to Catalonia) by George Orwell
The Spanish Civil War, in which Orwell took part in 1937, marked a decisive point in the career of the great English writer. As a member of the militia of the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), the future author of 1984 experienced Catalonia at a time when the revolutionary spirit was breaking down all class barriers. The outlawing of the POUM by the communists made him abhor the “political game” of Stalinist methods, which demanded the sacrifice of honor for the sake of efficiency. His testimony, through pages that are sometimes lyrical and always deeply moving, has the very accent of truth. Both reportage and reflection, this book remains, today as in the past, a true breviary of freedom.
At the time, we may have sworn and railed violently, but we realized afterwards that we had come into contact with something unique and precious. We had been part of a community where hope was more normal than indifference and skepticism, where the word “comrade” meant camaraderie and not, as in most countries, collusion to play jokes. We had breathed the air of equality.
Very early on, I realized that no event was accurately reported in the newspapers; but in Spain, for the first time, I read articles whose content had literally nothing to do with the facts, going far beyond the ordinary lie. I saw the story told, not in relation to what had actually happened, but according to what suited the ideology of each of the parties.”
Le labyrinthe espagnol (The Spanish Labyrinth) by Gerald Brenan
Social and political origins of the civil war.
In every revolution, there are moments when one can believe that humanity’s most beautiful dreams will come true. Those who visited Barcelona in 1936 will not forget this exhilarating experience. As time went by, their testimonies reached a wider audience. In Spain, the fate of the civilized world seemed to be at stake.
La Guerre d’Espagne (The Spanish Civil War) by Burnett Bolloten
The Spanish Civil War: Revolution and Counterrevolution
One of the main reference works on the Spanish Civil War, the revolution and the Spanish counter-revolution. A must for anyone interested in this crucial period and its truth. Bolloten spent a large part of his life tirelessly gathering testimonies and documentation.
A truly exemplary work of history that allows one to fully grasp the issues of a revolutionary period, with, in its main conclusions, the obvious nuisance of party apparatuses seeking to grab power and short-circuit popular liberation movements.
The Spanish Revolution was the most singular of the collectivist revolutions of the 20th century. It was the only radical and violent revolution to take place in a Western European country and the only one that was, despite the growing communist hegemony, truly pluralist, driven by a multitude of forces, often competing and hostile. Unable to openly oppose the revolution, the bourgeoisie adapted to the new regime in the hope that the course of events would change. The manifest impotence of their parties very quickly prompted the liberals and conservatives to seek an organization capable of stopping the revolutionary current launched by the anarchist and socialist unions. Only a few weeks after the start of the revolution, one organization alone embodied all the immediate hopes of the petite and middle bourgeoisie: the communist party.
On July 18, 1936, during my summer vacation in Spain, I found myself in the middle of a civil war and a revolution in the space of a few hours. Little did I know that I would spend the next forty years collecting, sorting, digesting and assimilating the largest collection of sources ever gathered by a single person. United Press sent me to the Aragonese front and then to Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona, the main centers of political activity, where I began to collect all the documents available.
In twenty-four hours, minds that seemed resistant to any change evolved in an astonishing way,” wrote a famous anarchist a few days after the revolution.
Barricades à Barcelone (Barricades in Barcelona) by Agustín Guillamón
The CNT from victory in July 1936 to defeat in May 1937
When, in the early morning of July 19, 1936, the rebel soldiers came out of their barracks thinking they would easily take Barcelona, they found themselves facing the defense committees of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) supported by an entire working class population up in arms against fascism. In the late afternoon, General Goded, one of the organizers of the uprising with Franco, who had arrived from the Balearic Islands to take command of the city, had to admit defeat. This popular victory forced the Republican government to organize resistance against the nationalists, instead of making a pact with them. In Catalonia, the armed workers found themselves not only masters of the streets, but also in charge of numerous businesses abandoned by their owners. Their organizations, and first and foremost the most powerful of them all, the CNT, which had only been legal again a few months previously, took part in the management of the war against the fascists, of the economy and of all social activities. But by giving absolute priority to this fight against fascism, the CNT leadership helped the State to reclaim the power acquired by the workers with weapons in their hands.
It was also in Barcelona, in May 1937, that a new stage in this reconquest took place, despite a powerful armed response from the workers, which was followed by their political defeat and a wave of repression against revolutionary militants.
Le Bref Été de l’anarchie (The Brief Summer of Anarchy) by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Biographical novel about the Spanish anarchist Buenaventura Durruti (1896-1936), who died while defending Madrid against Franco’s forces. His journey is recounted here through a collection of documents: extracts from reports, speeches, leaflets, brochures, memoirs, interviews, etc.
It didn’t take Durruti long to realize that the Central Committee was just a management body. There was discussion, negotiation and voting, there were files, bureaucracy was being done. But Durruti was no desk jockey. There was shooting going on outside. He could no longer bear this state of affairs. He set up his own division, the Durruti Column, and took the road to the Aragon front at its head.
Durruti dans le labyrinthe (Durruti in the labyrinth) by Miguel Amoros
In what is known as the Spanish Civil War, Durruti embodies the attempt, opposed by both the Stalinists and the “government anarchists”, to achieve revolutionary anti-fascism; to wage, as he put it, “war and revolution at the same time”.
We are not fighting for the people, but with the people, that is to say for the revolution within the revolution. We are aware that in this struggle we are alone and that we can only count on ourselves.
Ma guerre d’Espagne à moi (My own war in Spain) by Mika Etchebéhère
A woman at the head of a column in battle.
Reading this account by Mika Etchebène of the Spanish Civil War as she experienced it in 1936, 1937 and 1938 is to confront an experience of which we have been totally deprived, we poor new citizens of the early 21st century. In these times when the armed struggle for one’s ideas and the very use of violence have become the exclusive privilege of the State and its police, we feel a kind of uneasiness (a euphemism) in the face of the powerlessness to which we have been reduced. After all, we must recognize that we are not the heirs of the victory of those heroic fighters who risked everything for a better world, but the heirs of their defeat; and that the world they hoped for is certainly not ours. But what does that mean then, what sense can we give to our admiration for Mika and his comrades-in-arms from the depths of our pacified domestication? Yes, yes, it was a different era and no doubt different people, probably with different characters. But what kind of people are we then and what kind of “character” do we have left?
Are we so deprived that when it comes to heroism, we are content to contemplate the heroism that the cinema stages for us, or to count the victories obtained in all the video games that are kindly offered to us? In fact, have we become mere spectators of a life and a world that are rapidly escaping us?
Les fils de la nuit (The sons of the night) by Antoine Gimenez
Memories of the Spanish War
The first part of this work consists of the original manuscript of Memories of the Spanish War, by Antoine Gimenez. He recounts everything he experienced in the Durruti Column, between 1936 and 1938, on the Aragon front. The second part is devoted to a critical study of the International Group of this column (stationed in Pina de Ebro), focusing on the main episodes of the war in its area of intervention, on the peasant communities and, more generally, on the groups of snipers, the “Sons of the Night”, which were formed under the control of the columns.
See our review of the book: here
Les collectivités d’Aragon – Espagne (The Collectives of Aragon – Spain) 36-39 by Félix Carrasquer
First-hand testimony on the achievements of the collectives created by the peasants of Aragon.
Félix Carrasquer and his brothers founded the Eliseo Reclus school, where the principles of libertarian pedagogy were put into practice.
After the outbreak of the civil war, he took part in the peasant collectivization experiment and created the School for Activists in Monzón.
During the second year of collectivist production, harvests increased by 20 to 30%. How is it possible, we are told, that production increased when a high percentage of young people were mobilized for combat?
However, it is easy to understand this phenomenon if we take into account the enthusiasm that some older men felt towards the community, which encouraged them to go to work when they would not have done so in any other situation. Many women also joined the collectivists…
Le rêve en armes (The dream in arms) by Julius Van Daal
Launched in July 1936 to counter the putsch of the nationalist military, the Spanish revolution drew its formidable energy from the community and vindictive impulses of the libertarian people.
In Spain in 1937, where Stalinists and social democrats were united with the secular petty bourgeoisie in the face of fascist barbarism, and where the republican state, abandoned by the great democratic powers, was subject to the demands of the USSR, the left in power once again took on the counter-revolutionary task.
Les chemins du communisme libertaire en Espagne (The Paths of Libertarian Communism in Spain) by Myrtille – Giménologue
And anarchism became Spanish 1868-1910 (volume one)
After retracing the highlights of the encounter between Spain and anarchism in the days of the IWA, in this first volume the author discusses the “two ways of interpreting the meaning of life and the forms of the post-revolutionary economy” that were stirring at the very heart of the CNT before July 19, 1936.
And it was in Spain that the only known implementation of the main revolutionary objective put forward by Marxist and libertarian movements in the 19th and 20th centuries began on that date – to varying degrees and in some places only: the abolition of wage labor.
Les Chemins du communisme libertaire en Espagne (The Paths of Libertarian Communism in Spain) by Myrtille – Giménologue
Anarcho-syndicalism, labor unionism and anti-capitalism, 1910-1937 (volume 2)
After retracing the highlights of the encounter between a section of the Spanish working classes and anarchism at the time of the First International, in this second volume the author addresses the “two ways of interpreting the meaning of life and the forms of the post-revolutionary economy” that were stirring at the heart of the CNT and the libertarian mosaic from 1910 to 1936. After July 19, 1936, part of the movement, nourished by a solid culture of direct action, enthusiastically embarked on a beginning of the exit from capitalism, unprecedented in its scale and duration, an experience from which lessons remain to be learned.
The Paths of Libertarian Communism in Spain by Myrtille – Giménologue
(New) Lessons of the Spanish Revolution, July 1936 – September 1937 (volume 3)
“To what extent was the revolutionary movement responsible for its own defeat?” Vernon Richards asked in 1953. In Spain in 1936, what remained of the libertarian communist project after July 19th when, by propelling it into Catalonia, Aragon and the Valencian country, a number of CNT-FAI militants realized that they were going against the grain of their organization? How can we still talk about the end of capitalism when an anarcho-syndicalist union is “collectivizing” the productive sector under the aegis of the State, encouraging the working class to adapt to “the economic and industrial panorama of the world,” and putting off the abolition of wage labor indefinitely?
Carnets de la guerre d’Espagne (Diaries of the Spanish War) by Mary Low and Juan Brea
Mary Low (1912-2007) surrealist poet – see https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Low
The notebooks paint an extremely vivid picture of loyalist Spain, both at the front and in Barcelona and Madrid, during the first phase of the war when large sections of the population believed that all men were equal and were able to act in accordance with this conviction. Through a series of small, intimate, everyday vignettes, this book shows us what human beings are like when they try to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine. No one who found themselves in Spain during the few months when there was still belief in the revolution will ever forget this strange and moving experience. George Orwell
You are not yet completely corrupted,
You are not all pimps, bankers and cops,
You can still glimpse the magic emerging on your pale horizons. Mary Low
Tribute to the Spanish Revolution by Miguel Amoros
It was, without doubt, the most beautiful fight for equality and freedom in Europe during the first phase of the world’s industrialization, but the combined forces of spectacle and the development-destruction of the territory destroyed most of the realities of the popular breeding ground that shaped its spirit: neighborhoods, culture, know-how, dreams of a future to be built. Proletarian consciousness, that historical and determined form of human consciousness, has dissolved in contact with the solitary crowds and the extreme diversity of particular struggles: techno-industrial totalitarianism (the current stage of capitalism) has obviously not abolished classes but has uniformly massified that of the greatest number. The main driving force behind this inhuman story seems to be, for the time being, the competitive struggle within it to avoid ending up in the camp of the permanently superfluous. Those for whom the mega-machine will only ensure the strict response to vital needs based on merit – the acceptance of domestication. But our few protests, fears and anger can do nothing to stop us sinking into the dark times of a society of work without work. In order to loosen the shackles a little, we would first need to rediscover active solidarity, the need for others who, in the past, organized collective survival when necessary, while nurturing the struggle for a broader life.
It is through this detour into the past of practices and ideas that we will rediscover the hidden treasure of revolutions, such as these two ideas essential to understanding the action of the “Friends of Durruti” and the Spanish revolution as a whole: class feeling – the desire for equality – and self-organization – the firm rejection of all bureaucracy, of all forms of representation that are not strictly controlled and revocable at any time. (…)
With these two ideas alone, we cannot do everything, but without them, we cannot do anything essential if we want to restore a collective and emancipatory meaning to the great game of necessity and freedom.
Sabaté Guérilla Urbaine en Espagne (Sabaté’s Urban Guerrilla in Spain) (1945-1960)
Born on March 30, 1915, in Llobregat, Catalonia, Francisco “Quico” Sabaté was an anarchist militant particularly known for having braved the Franco dictatorship, through actions in the city with his face uncovered, largely military. (Urban maquis, of which the memory still survives today.)
Among the maquis militants, “Quico” Sabaté was for a long time the most popular figure.
The “national liberation” was celebrated in Spain with a veritable bloodbath, in a climate of murderous madness that lasted for years. From Barcelona to Seville, from La Coruña to Valencia via Madrid, the blood of Spanish anti-fascist youth flowed. The firing squads shot day and night. A mere accusation and a man was sent to his death. (…) How many Spaniards fell in this way between 1939 and 1943? We will probably never know the exact figure. Hundreds of thousands, but … how many?
Les Anarchistes espagnols – Les années héroïques (The Spanish Anarchists – The Heroic Years) – (1868-1936) by Murray Bookchin
There was a time when Barcelona, among other Spanish cities and villages, was an anarcho-syndicalist enclave: factories, public transportation and public services were managed and administered by committees and workers’ unions, most often from the working and popular classes. For nearly three generations, anarchist ideas and practices experienced what the author describes as “heroic” years.
First published in 1976, this book is a fast-paced account of the history of anarchism in Spain from the end of the 19th century to the eve of the social revolution of 1936. Based on a variety of sources and hailed as a cornerstone of anarchist historiography, this classic by libertarian ecologist Murray Bookchin allows us to challenge, with supporting evidence, the received idea that a libertarian society is an unattainable utopia.
The fundamental question raised by Spanish anarchism is whether it is possible for people to acquire full, direct and collective control over their daily lives, to manage society in their own way, that is to say not as a “mass” guided by professional leaders, but as entirely free individuals, in a world without bosses or subordinates, without masters or slaves.
REBOUNDS:
- Read our review of “The Sons of Night – Memories of the Spanish War – July 19, 1936 – February 9, 1939”: La Colonne Durruti in vivo
- Read our “Critical File” article: Revolution and Collectivization in Spain (1936-1937)
Translated by TerKo with the help of a free translation tool.