Chapter 23 : The Problem of Militarization

The Problem of Militarization

January 1937: The Problem of Militarization. To the comrades, to the confederal columns; Statement by Vivaldo Fagundes; Protest before the libertarians of present and future regarding the capitulations of 1937 by an ‘uncontrollable’ from the Iron Column; Address by Federica Montseny, 3 January 1937; Militarization — March 1937: Dissolution of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils; February 1937: Memorandum from War Committee of the Iron Column, 16 February 1937; April 1937: An Open Letter to Federica Montseny; April 1937: Confidential letter from an agent of Negrín, 15 April 1937; Unpublished letter to Max Nettlau from Emma Goldman; September 1937: The international debate on war and revolution; Pierre Besnard’s reply to ‘Catastrophic Revolution’; June: Anarchist Intelligence and Security Services; Trotsky and the POUM.

The Problem of Militarization. To the comrades, to the confederal columns

The full text of this statement was re-published in July in El Amigo del Pueblo, the paper of the Friends of Durruti group:

‘ … The efficiency of the centuries is not going to have any greater influence on the fighting … the factors responsible for the stagnation of the Aragón front have nothing to do with good or bad organization, nor with this or that system, it is, rather, a question of the quantity and quality of war materials, as we believe everyone is aware. If this had not been the case, we ourselves, rather than our comrades in the rearguard, would have long since expressly demanded all haste in its [militarization] being imposed upon us, and we ourselves would have insisted upon it…

‘We have no desire to acknowledge the authoritativeness, in matters relating to the vanguard, of people who have no connection with them. This does not mean to say that some reforms may not be necessary, reform which we place before the Confederal and Specific Organization for its consideration. We take the view that acceptance of them may offer a solution to problems having to do with the fastidiousness of anarchist awareness and with belligerent organization ... well, the results have been shown.

‘…The arguments put to us by the committees are at odds with the experiences of the past six months. Apparently, the government is making the provision of abundant equipment conditional upon our militarization… To date, so far as war materials are concerned, the comrades of the rearguard have trusted in the efforts of others… France, Russia and now the Madrid government. Is this not so? Reality is enough to make us firmly convinced that only our efforts matter, that wherever the comrades have worked to boost the manufacture of war materials and put their heart and soul into this, there we can depend upon something and they rescue us from danger. The problem is one of war materials! War materials! We have to make them ourselves with our own sweat and initiative, overcoming difficulties and persevering. As the committees themselves admit, they can offer no guarantee that the Madrid government will issue us with those materials even if we do militarize. That being the case, the trespass we should commit against our beliefs would be repaid only with an empty promise. ‘We have no wish to go any further along the road where the confederal organization has compromised itself in the sphere of trade union and political trespasses, and now trespasses of a military nature, conflicting with our anarchist consciousness. Those of us who set off for the front towards the end of July made the comrades of the rearguard the repositories of the patrimony of the confederal organization, the accumulation of the revolutionary anxieties, sacrifices and hopes of the many who have fallen in the fight against capitalism. And now, according to those comrades, militarization is an inevitability which we have to accept unless we want everything to be lost and history to pass a harsh verdict upon us. We are sensitive to that verdict and to live up to our responsibility. We make these observations for the benefit of the generations yet to come and offer you this present organizational layout which, if accepted, will rescue much of the essence of our beliefs from foundering.’”

The staffing and specialties of Companies, Regiments and Divisions and the formation of a single collective command for the Aragón front

‘As militants, we offer for the consideration of the Organization and of the confederal columns this present proposal, which we believe may be in tune with our anarchist beliefs:

Companies are to be made up as follows:

Four 12 man squads = 48 men, who shall comprise one section.

Four 48 man sections, = 192 men, who shall comprise one company

One battalion shall comprise 3 infantry companies and one specialist company.

A specialist company (machine gunners, mortars and Bern gunners) shall comprise 84 men; together with the three infantry companies they shall add up to 660 men, or one battalion.

One regiment shall comprise 3 battalions, giving a total of 1980 men.

A brigade shall consist of 2 regiments of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery and specialized services.

A division shall comprise 2 brigades.

All of the above units are to be officered by technicians who have graduated from the special war academies. We shall, so far as possible, ensure that such positions on the Aragón front are filled by personnel from the special war academies sponsored by the Libertarian Youth (FIJL). In each of these units a political delegate is to be appointed by the members of said units and he shall have oversight of morale and administration, leaving the technician to his own area of competence.

No emblem, signifying different positions of each of them will be acceptable. It shall be possible to remove the technician on the request of the units, with complaints being presented before a tribunal at company, battalion, etc., level.

Battalion Committees are to be formed on the basis of company delegates, Divisional Committees by regimental delegates and a Committee of single command of the Aragón front by divisional delegates.

Given this guarantee of representation from the level of the joint command of the staff of the Aragón front right down to company level, orders for operations to be made will not be liable to debate. Courts may be set up to sit in judgment of breaches of discipline … if minor, at company level, and in more serious instances, at divisional level. Such courts are to be made up of political delegates. The degree of sanction to be imposed for said breaches is to be prescribed in accordance with the rules of the loftiest justice, with stress being laid at all times upon the extreme gravity of the offense.

On behalf of the Durruti Column:

The 4^th Gelsa detachment

The Acción y Alegria group

The International Group

The artillery batteries

The machine-gunner sections and other centuries

(Reprinted in El Amigo del Pueblo, No. 5, 20 July, 1937)