Chapter 6 : November 1936

November 1936

ON 30 OCTOBER, an optimistic editorial in Solidaridad Obrera noted: ‘The Generalidad Council has embarked upon a series of measures that will, incontrovertibly, have an impact upon the course of events. Mobilization has been decreed for all citizens who are of an age for military service. And, as expeditiously as the present situation requires, the classes of 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935 have just been called up. In addition, the Council, whose jurisdiction covers Catalonia, has seen fit to invest these formations in the antifascist zone with military overtones. The militarization of combatants may be distasteful to those idealists whose opinions are consonant with their ideas about the noxiousness of units that act in accordance with the dictates of orders. which are more or less arbitrary. But the course of events on the battlefields makes it commendable that militians should adhere to instructions drawn up for the implementation of war tactics. One of the quintessential aspects of war is the military code. The revolution has smashed to smithereens the lengthy code worked out by Alfonso’s brass hats and entirely abolished the phenomenon of barrack-drilled masses consonant with a servility that the capitalist regime instituted for economic reasons… We are not familiar with the contents of the new military code worked out by those individuals whom the antifascist organizations have appointed to positions of responsibility. In our estimation, the Code which the revolution needs at the present juncture in the war must be of clearly revolutionary derivation.’

A more detailed perusal of the ‘mobilization’ decree made clear the reactionary intent of the Caballero government. The following day’s edition of Solidaridad Obrera carried a prescient reappraisal:

‘… It is one thing for us to recognize, as we all do, the need to regulate the whimsicality and volubility of the militias and furnish a strict basis for the fighting men’s sense of responsibility, even going so far as to enforce rigorous penalties on those who, once having committed themselves most solemnly, quit the field of battle, but this unfeasible corralling within the parameters destroyed by the army mutiny itself is quite another. Article No. 2 of the decree, which applies to enforcement of the existing Code of Military Justice until such time as a new Code for the militias may be devised, has made the most lamentable impression.

‘Above all there is clearly a total lack of any grasp of reality or any clear appreciation of what has occurred. In the view of many antifascists of liberal outlook, the revolution is not yet a fait accompli… There is still a vulgar mentality that wishes to revert to the situation that existed prior to 19 July and which had been destroyed by the inexorability of the revolutionary process… Such conduct merely succeeds in demoralizing the multitudes, diminishing their enthusiasm and elan and turning the vast multitudes who have volunteered to face death into, not the revolutionary people’s army such as the militias can be, but, rather, a flock of scared and unenthusiastic folk who fight on even though they have lost the vigor and strength which only great social upheavals produce in the collective soul. No. Militarization of the militias, mobilization of the proletariat and of all the antifascist population cannot, must not, mean that the old army is resurrected. Let us devise new solutions, a new concept of duty and honor, far removed from the rigid, aristocratic Code which, were it something solid might serve to manure the land. Instead, the people’s heroism has endorsed new concepts of struggle and of life that we can raise to the heights of moral codes, to the stature of implacable and inexorable laws of war…’[55]

The militians were outraged by the proposal to militarize the popular columns. The War Committee of the Durruti Column on the Osera front immediately sent off a letter, dated 1 November, to the Generalidad Council informing them of its refusal to comply with the decree:

‘ANTIFASCIST MILITIAS— DURRUTI COLUMN

Headquarters

TO THE GENERALIDAD COUNCIL OF CATALONIA

IN LIGHT of the Decree on militarization of the militias, the DURRUTI COLUMN’s War Committee, articulating the feelings of each and every one of the individuals enrolled in it, states the following:

The fascist military provocation of 19 July gave rise to an authentic and incontrovertibly popular movement by which, among other things, the hierarchical organization of the military and the Code of Justice alluded to in Article 2 of the aforementioned decree stand utterly condemned.

This column, formed spontaneously in the heat of that protest in the streets of Barcelona and subsequently swelled by all who have felt an identification with our ideal, enjoys unity of lay out and of aims and its individual members discipline themselves in every regard bearing upon the attainment of their aim of routing fascism. If the aim of discipline is to improve upon the contribution of the individual, this Column can furnish ample proof of such effectiveness in the work carried out on the front by our militians, and the constant advance of our positions is our finest testimony in favor of self-discipline.

The militians of this column have confidence in themselves and in us who lead it through their express and unreserved delegation. This being so, they believe, and we share their belief, that the decree of militarization cannot improve upon our fighting capabilities but will instead lead to suspicions, misgivings and repugnance such as they have noted and would redound in a real state of disarray.

The proffered argument according to which the enemy fights well provided with equipment in great abundance obviously cannot be solved with militarization of the militias.

In view of all that has been set out above, this committee, in response to the clamor of protest raised in this column by the aforementioned decree, finds itself called upon to refuse its acceptance.

In communicating this formal and specific decision, and taking the line that the struggle upon which we are embarked should not on this account slacken, we ask this Council, our freedom of organization, and ask that it supply a detailed answer which may, as speedily as possible, bring to an end the state of anxiety which has been created.’

Osera front, 1 November 1936

On behalf of the WAR COMMITTEE

(Signed) B. Durruti

FOLLOWING the entry of the CNT into the Madrid government Domingo Navasal observed in Solidaridad Obrera:

‘Spawned in the fever of revolution the committees of the armed Corps have not been designed to seize command of their units, but, rather, observing all the formalities, have only been concerned with what has been truly necessary; with monitoring the activities of those who do wield command and ensuring that those who carry out the orders do not impinge against revolutionary norms. In principle, this healthy activity on the part of the committees was considered indispensable and those who always thought along revolutionary lines would not have failed somehow to perform a duty which, had it not been performed, would find us in dire straits today…

‘In proceeding directly towards the establishment of a unified command, the committees of the armed corps, working in close conjunction with the Workers’ and Soldiers’ Councils, cannot be considered anything other than keen and dependable collaborators: for in one way or another their sole mission is to ensure that the organisms which they monitor do not deviate by as much as one single iota from the revolutionary trajectory upon which we have embarked. But it appears to be the case that people who style themselves revolutionaries and who, undeservedly no doubt, hold office and feel their prerogatives jeopardized, are resentful of this “interference”, as they describe that which is only proper, and are straining with all their might to get an absolutely free hand in their decision making. And this state of affairs cannot go on. When we finish off the fascists we shall see whether we can leave those who occupy official posts a free hand in their intrigues. For the present, what we cannot tolerate is that anyone — no matter who he be — should permit himself the luxury of dispensing with a control that we, the lower orders, the ones who in the last analysis have made and are making this revolution are obliged to mount… ‘[56]

CNT entry into Madrid Government November 1936

At 10.30 p.m. on 4 November 1936 the Spanish government issued a news bulletin that the CNT had joined the government: ‘Being of the opinion that at the present moment none of the forces fighting against fascism ought to be left out of the government and that circumstances require that everyone have a share in its responsibilities and that each of the said forces may feel itself directly represented in positions of authority, the head of the government has advised the head of state to broaden the government by giving representation to the National Confederation of Labor.This suggestion, having met with acceptance from H.E. the President of the Republic, the head of the government proceeded immediately to reshuffle his council of ministers. As for the pol)tical outlook and program of the government, once reformed, they shall remain as they have been hitherto.’[57]

That same day the Barcelona CNT paper Solidaridad Obrera explained its decision with a self-assurance reminiscent of Lenin in the summer of 1917:

‘The entry of the CNT into the central government represents one of the most momentous events in this country’s political history. As a matter of principle and conviction, the CNT has at all times been anti-statist and hostile to government under any form. But circumstances, nearly always superior to men’s wishes though determined by that will, has wrought a transformation in the nature of the government and the Spanish state. At present the government qua the regulating instrument of the organs of the state, no longer represents a source of oppression for the working class, just as the state no longer represents the source of the division of society into classes. And with the CNT’s entry into them, both will the more completely cease to oppress the people. The functions of the State are to be curtailed in accordance with the labor organizations to orchestration of the country’s economic and social affairs. And the government will have no preoccupation other than the proper management of the war and the co-ordination of the work of the revolution on a larger scale.

‘Our comrades shall present the government with the collective or majority decision of the toiling masses previously assembled in huge general assemblies. They will espouse no personal or whimsical objectives but rather the decisions freely reached by the hundreds of thousands of workers organized by the CNT. There is a historical necessity hanging over everything. And the CNT accepts that historical necessity to serve the country, with the emphasis on winning the war promptly and lest the popular revolution be disfigured.

‘We have absolute confidence that the comrades chosen to represent the CNT in the government will be able to accomplish the duty and the mission entrusted to them. In them we should see, not the individual personalities, but the organization they represent. They are not governors nor statesmen,, but warriors and revolutionaries in the service of victory over fascism. And that victory will be all the more speedy and complete the greater the support we may give them.’[58]

The news of the entry of the anarcho-syndicalist leadership into central government was bitterly denounced by militia papers such as Linea del Fuego, the paper of the Iron Column,[59] but the majority of the CNT membership accepted the news calmly. It should be stressed, however, that of the CNT’s approximately two million members, perhaps only 300,000 or so would have described themselves as anarcho-syndicalists or anarchists. It was for this reason that only articulate minorities and ‘uncontrollable’ elements, particularly in the militias, expressed their anger and discontent by subjecting the ‘influential’ militants to public criticism. But, according to Peirats,[60] ‘in many militants opposed to collaboration, there was an unavowed complicity, in that they railed about their sense of outrage whilst letting it all continue.’ The exigencies of the war and ‘force of circumstances’ left the majority resigned to the decision with an air of fatalism.

The international anarchist movement was, however, to prove less amenable to the ‘circumstances’ argument. At a meeting of the anarcho-syndicalists International (IWMA/AIT) in Paris in December that year, the CNT’s National Committee explained the problems, which it felt justified its entry into government. It argued that probably the CNT could have unleashed a successful revolution, but to have done so would have meant fighting on three fronts, against the military insurgents, against central government and against foreign capitalism:

‘Levante was undefended, hesitant with the army contingents still inside their barracks; our people were in the minority in Madrid; Andalusia was in chaos, with groups of workers armed with fowling pieces and sickles fighting in the hill country. What the situation in the north was, was anyone’s guess, and we could only suppose that the rest of Spain had fallen to the fascists… What is more, the nervousness of foreign consular representatives was shown in the presence off our ports of many foreign warships … in the south our comrades, armed with shotguns, were resisting courageously but losing ground. They were reinforced with rifles, machine guns and artillery dispatched from Catalonia and thereby weakening the thrust of revolution in Catalonia. Levante at last, determined to storm the barracks, had to be sent rifles and machine guns…The Aragón front with its 30,000 odd militiamen wound up almost devoid of ammunition. We would have needed about 6,000,000 shells a day and we had not a single one … The bourgeois democratic governments would have prevented us buying or receiving war material…’

‘In the end, we were invited to present the revolution under a less aggressive guise by dissolving the Central Committee of the Antifascist Militias. It was put to us that it would be better if the Generalidad government were rebuilt in Catalonia, under the presidency of a liberal bourgeois, like Companys, who would lead foreigners to believe that the revolution was being directed along less radical channels… So formidably and powerfully organized were we and so absolutely did we control political power, military power and economic power in Catalonia that, had we so desired, we had only to lift a finger to install a totalitarian anarchist regime. But we knew that in our hands the revolution would have burned itself out and that we anarchists would have received no effective support from abroad, nor could we have hoped for any such support.’

Referring to the growing pressure from the central government on the revolutionaries’ positions, the report continued:

‘Our columns, the strongest numerically and the most combative, were the very ones least well provisioned by the government and already our comrades were subject to persecution and intrigues… those in positions of power constantly obstructed the CNT’s work of construction and expropriation… We lacked the real basis for a policy of social reconstruction in that we lacked gold. In Catalonia we were systematically denied money, provisions and weapons. Likewise, in Levante and elsewhere in the rearguard where the CNT was boycotted…Marxists and republicans were in collusion and, since they were in charge of money and arms, they favored their own supporters, allocating them supplies, arms, positions of command, means of communication and transportation… Catalonia had to organize its foreign trade by competing abroad with the rest of the country, in both the feeding of her citizens and in the provisioning of the Aragón front. Those in government, exploiting our desire not to shatter the unity among antifascists or interrupt official relations with countries abroad, abused their privileged diplomatic circumstances to sabotage us viciously at every turn…’

The arguments advanced by the CNT National Committee were undoubtedly weighty. However, the CNT’s entry into government, prompted, in part, as Federica Montseny, the anarchist Minister of Health, explained it: “in order to prevent the revolution deviating from its course and in order to pursue it beyond the war, and also in order to oppose all possibility of dictatorial endeavors, wherever they should come from”, proved to be an utter failure. The CNT were playing the state’s game according to the state’s rules and the anarcho-syndicalist leadership were absolutely powerless to resist it.

Nor did the ‘circumstances’ argument of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist movement satisfy the international anarchist movement. Writing in the French anarchist press the respected writer Sébastian Faure rebuked the CNT-FAI leadership with devastating lucidity:

“If reality contradicts principles, then these principles must be mistaken in which case we should lose no time abandoning them; we should be honest enough to admit their falseness in public and we should have virtue enough to devote as much ardor to combating them and being as active against them as formerly we did in their defense. Similarly, we should strive forthwith to seek out more solid, more just and less fallible principles. If, on the other hand, the principles upon which our ideology and tactics depend still hold, regardless of the circumstances, and are as valid today as ever they were, then we should keep faith with them. To depart, even for a short space of tune in exceptional circumstances from the line our principles indicate we should adopt, is to commit a grave error, a dangerous error of judgment. To persist in this error is to commit a grievous mistake, the consequences of which lead on gradually to the temporary jettisoning of principles and, through concession after concession, to the absolute final abandonment of principle. Once again, this is the mechanism, the slippery slopes which can lead us far astray”. [61]

The anarchist ‘notables’ quickly discovered that their powers to influence events in Cabinet were minimal.[62] The socialists controlled the six most important ministries: War, Sea and Air, State, Housing, Labor, Interior, and the Presidency. The CNT, on the other hand, had to settle for four: Industry (Juan Peiró); Trade (Juan López Sánchez); Justice (García Oliver); Health (Federica Montseny). Largo Caballero retained supreme executive power through his control of the War Council. Having successfully wedded the CNT leadership to the government, Caballero quickly began to undermine union control of the militias and restore to the state its monopoly of violence. He made it quite clear that he was not prepared to provide weapons to any units not prepared to accept militarization and convert to regular army formations. Equally serious, perhaps, was the fact that the decision by the CNT leadership to accept government office with a largely nominal of responsibility was a clear signal to both the Stalinists and the socialists of the confused thinking and weakness which characterized the CNT leadership. The anarchists had become, of their own volition, the agents of the state and servants of officialdom. Through their commitment to an illusory antifascist unity with bourgeois liberal and Marxist parties the CNT leadership had become totally compromised and were preparing the scenario for the coup de grace:

“The telegraph brings us the news — which we hereby make public — of the CNT’s entry into the government.

This is tantamount to accepting that which we have always denounced, thereby shattering the very foundations of our ideas.

Henceforth there is to be no more talk of freedom, but rather of submission to ‘our government’, the only organ with the competence to run the war and manage our economic life.

Four ministries have been allocated to the Confederal Organization (…)

Four junior ministries occupied by four individuals who have never taken an interest in the issues their posts will be concerned with (…), incompetent, inept politicians.

The story continues. The state strengthens itself and all with the backing of an Organization which styles itself libertarian.

For how long comrades?”

(Quoted by Nestor Romero, Agora, No. 3, Autumn 1980, Ed. Pensée et Action, Toulouse, p. 37).

THAT SAME EVENING, at 9.30 pm on 4 November 1936, Buenaventura Durruti broadcast a speech over Radio CNT-FAI from the organization’s transmitters in Barcelona. Everyone was anxious to hear his reponse to that day’s news that four anarchists had joined the Madrid government: Federica Montseny, Juan García Oliver, Juan López and Joan Peiró.

The Durruti Column itself had failed to take Zaragoza. The main problem having been the difficulty in procuring weapons, ammunition and supplies. Durruti had tried everything in his power to acquire arms. He had even dispatched some of his milicianos on a punitive raid against Sabadell at the beginning of September to force the surrender of the weapons stored there for the use of a Sabadell Column that had not been formed. Also, the Decree militarizing the Militias had become effective on 20 October and friends and enemies alike were waiting to hear what Durruti had to say.

People began gathering around the loudspeakers hung from the trees in the Ramblas some time before the speech began. These normally churned out revolutionary anthems, music and news reports, but on this occasion the atmosphere was electric with expectation.

The militarization decree had been hotly debated within the Durruti Column itself, which had decided not to accept it in that it did not hold out any prospects of improving the fighting capabilities of the milicianos who had volunteered on 19 July, nor did it offer a solution to the chronic shortage of arms. The Column also rejected the need for a barrack-style discipline and argued that revolutionary discipline was superior to it: “Milicianos yes, soldiers never”.

Durruti, as the Column delegate, used his speech to spell out the sense of indignation and betrayal felt by the milicianos on the Aragon front at the clearly counter-revolutionary turn of events and developments behind the lines.

Durruti’s broadcast began at 9.30 pm:

“Workers of Catalonia: I direct these words to the Catalan people, the selfless people who, four months ago, lowered the boom on the military goons who sought to ride roughshod over it. I bring you greetings from your brothers and comrades fighting on the Aragon front. They are within kilometers of Zaragoza and in sight of the towers of the Pilarica.

“Despite the threat looming over Madrid, we should bear in mind that we are a risen people and that nothing in this world is going to make us back down. We shall hold out on the Aragón front against the Aragonese fascist hordes and we turn to our comrades in Madrid to tell them to hold out, for the militians of Catalonia will do their duty — just as they took to the streets of Barcelona to crush fascism. The workers’ organizations ought not to forget the over-riding duty at the present time. On the front lines as well as in the trenches, there is but one thought, a single aim. Eyes are fixed, looking ever forward to the sole aim of crushing fascism.

“We ask the people of Catalonia to have done with the intrigues and internecine strife: to prove yourselves equal to the circumstances; set aside all rancor and focus on the war. The people of Catalonia have a duty to live up to the efforts of those fighting on the front. There is nothing for it but for everyone to mobilize. And it must not be thought that it is always the same people who should be mobilizing. While Catalonia’s workers must shoulder the responsibility of serving on the front, the time has come to require sacrifice from the Catalan people living in the cities too. We need an effective mobilization of all workers in the rearguard, because those of us already at the front want to know the caliber of the men we have at our backs.

“Let me address the organizations and ask them to cease their squabbling and intrigues. Those of us at the front require honesty of them, especially from the National Confederation of Labor and the FAI. We ask the leaders to act with honesty. It is not enough for them to send us letters at the front egging us on and for them to send us clothing, food and ammunition and rifles. They too must prove equal to the circumstances and look forward into the future. This war boasts all of the drawbacks of modern warfare and is costing Catalonia dearly. Leaders must take it on board that if this war drags on, a start must be made to the organizing of Catalonia’s economy and a code of conduct in economic affairs. I am not prepared to scribble more letters just to secure an extra crust of bread or glass of milk for the comrades or children of a militiaman while there are councilors who can eat and drink their fill. We turn to the CNT-FAI to tell them that if they, as an organization, control the economy, they should be organizing it properly. And let no one think right now about wage rises and cuts in working hours. All workers, especially CNT workers have a duty to make sacrifices and work for as long as may take.

“If we truly are fighting for something better, the militians who blush when they read in the press of the donations raised for them and when they see the posters asking for aid for them will prove it to you. Fascist planes fly over us, dropping newspapers in which we can read of funds raised for their fighters, the very same as yourselves. So we have to tell you that we are not beggars and do not accept charity in any form. Fascism stands for and is, in effect, social inequality. Unless you want those of us who are fighting to confound those in the rearguard with our enemies, do your duty.

“If you would make provision against that danger, you should form a granite block. Politics is the art of chicanery, the art of living the high life [drone-like] and this must give way to the art of toil. The time has come to invite the trade union organizations and political parties to have done with this once and for all. There must be proper administration in the rearguard. Those of us at the front want to feel that there is responsibility and reassurance at our backs and we insist that our organizations look out for our wives and our children.

“If the militarization decreed by the Generalidad is meant to scare us and foist an iron discipline upon us, you are sadly mistaken. You are mistaken, councilors, with the decree militarizing the militias. Since you prattle about iron discipline, I say to you: come with me to the front lines. We who are there do not accept any discipline because we have enough conscience to do our duty. And you will see our order and our organization. Then we shall go down to Barcelona and ask you about your discipline, your order and your control, which are non-existent.

“Rest easy. There is no chaos and no indiscipline on the front. We are all responsible, and we know the prize you have entrusted to us. Sleep easy. But we left Catalonia entrusting the economy to your care. Take responsibility and discipline yourselves. Let us not, through our incompetence, spark another civil war in our own ranks after this war.

“If there is anyone thinking that his party may be in a better position to impose its policy, he is mistaken, because fascist tyranny can only be resisted by means of a single force and there should be only one organization with a single discipline. There is no way in this world that these fascist tyrants are going to get past us. That is the watchword here at the front. To them, we say: “You shall not pass!” And it is up to you to chorus: “They shall not pass!”

PEOPLE DISCUSSED Durruti’s speech for hours after the broadcast ended— about what he had stated with his customary forcefulness and integrity. His words echoed loudly and passionately through the Barcelona night, embodying the innermost thoughts of the working class. His were words of caution, reminding the workers that they were revolutionary militants. Durruti did not look upon anyone as a god, any more than the working class regarded him as one. He had stated that the militians confronting fascism on the battlefield were not prepared to let anybody belittle their liberating, revolutionary message. This was not a fight for any Republic or bourgeois democracy — but a fight to see the social revolution succeed and the proletariat emancipated.

There was not one word of demagogery or rhetoric in the entire speech. They were hard, harsh, words for those at the top — and for those at the bottom, the workers and for the CNT hierarchs ensconced in hundreds of positions of responsibility; for the rank-and-file citizen and Generalidad councilors or brand new anarchist ministers. It was a diatribe against bureaucratization of the revolution and an indictment of the government’s policy, whether CNT personnel were in it or not. In the rearguard there was a deplorable tendency to mistake duty for charity, administration for command, function with bureaucracy, responsibility for discipline, agreement with decree and example with order and command. The threats to “go down to Barcelona” revived the fears of the bourgeoisie’s political representatives, although even then it was too late to repair the fateful mistake made back in July when the revolution was postponed “until after Zaragoza has been taken” due to the theoretical shortcomings and lack of foresight in the anarchist movement. But a threat to the authorities did not go unanswered: Durruti’s words, directed at his own class, was tantamount to a revolutionary testament. A testament rather than a proclamation because his death was a death foreseen which posthumous deification turned into an enigma. The CNT membership of the day was not persuaded that soviet agents were acting responsibly, a belief quickly rebutted for political reasons and without proper investigation by the CNT-FAI’s regional and national committee members.

The rebirth of state power alarmed militants, but for the most part protest was muted. Disoriented by the CNT’s entry into government the conscious rank and file anarcho-syndicalists limited themselves to re-affirming their commitment to anarchism in the hope that they could influence the consciences of the ‘comrade’ ministers.

However, it is also equally certain that all of the fronts, including Madrid, had, for many months, been controlled by the people in arms through the militias. The charge that the natural chaos of the early months of the war was due to the ineptitude on the part of the militias is totally unfounded. The mutinous army, well armed and disciplined, had been preparing their coup for at least two years previously. The people in arms, on the other hand, had rescued half of Spain from the army in the space of 48 hours. Had they received the arms and munitions they needed, it is also likely they could have taken Zaragoza and Huesca in the first weeks of the war, thereby increasing the likelihood of ultimate victory. The Spanish republican bourgeoisie, with good reason, was more frightened of its own working class than fascism. While the popular militias confronted the rebel army at the fronts, the republican government set about making war in the rearguard. Its overriding concern was not the prosecution of the war, but the restoration of the paraphernalia of law and order with which to defend the interests of the state and the institutions of capitalism.

In October Camillo Berneri had noted:

“From a trustworthy source, we know that since the start some 8,000 Germans have entered Spain, commanded by Russian officers. It is obvious that Madrid is organizing its own tercio (foreign legion), which, well armed and well commanded, will be able to restore order. The increase in the police forces (Guardias de asalto and Guardia Civiles) and the mass arrival of Moscow’s Moroccans must give us pause for thought.”[63]

The anarchist counterattack against militarization was again spearheaded by the Iron Column and the anarcho-syndicalists of the Levante. The matter was discussed at a Plenum of Syndicates held in Valencia on 13 November, 1936.[64] The position of the Iron Column was stated thus:

“Ideologically, we remain the enemies of all governments. What interests us is facts. There is a lot of talk about fascism and how fascism is a threat, and this is our belief: but we see and we note that everyone is saying that they agree to compromise for the purpose of aiding the men in the front lines, and that all that is agreed to is agreed in the expectation of rendering the struggle more effective: we have yet to see the fruits of so many compromises and such widespread acceptance of things which have always been repugnant to us. We wish to pose one specific and clear -cut question. Everyone is aware that there is a scarcity of materials on the Teruel front, and you all know the remedy lies in the hands of the government. That remedy was not forthcoming earlier, when we were not in the government and it is not forthcoming now when we are in it. Before they gave us nothing. The position now is precisely the same (…) We want the representatives of the regional Committee to tell the government this — and we want an answer”.[65]

The following day, Fragua Social published this statement approved by the Iron Column:

“ … We are fighting to destroy fascism and for our ideal, which is Anarchy. Every act on our part should tend not to bolster the state but to destroy it progressively: we must make the government completely redundant. We accept nothing which runs counter to our conception of anarchism, a conception which must became a reality: because one cannot preach one thing and practice another.”

A few days later, on 17 November, the Iron Column delegate addressed the CNT Regional Congress in Valencia:

“ … There are comrades who think that militarization will solve everything. We, on the other hand, say it will solve nothing. In place, of corporals, sergeants and officers graduating from the academies we offer our own organization, and we do not accept militarization. The Iron Column and all the columns of the CNT and FAI and other columns which are not confederal have not embraced military discipline (…).

“We have no need of braid and, consequently, we cannot consent. The only outcome would be a switch from a federalist structure to a barrack style discipline, which is precisely what we do not want…”

It was not merely on political grounds or fear that the CNT might disintegrate that moved the members of the Iron Column to reject militarization, but a deep conviction concerning the essential basis for pursuing any social activity, in this case the war effort, based on anarchist principles. The delegate continued:

“There is constant talk of united militias. Our thinking is that, tomorrow as well as today, association on the basis of affinity should prevail. That individuals should associate on the basis of their ideas and their temperaments. That those who think along these or other lines should unite their efforts to achieve common aims. If columns are formed in a ragbag fashion no practical results will be forthcoming.”

Militarization — November 1936

The Regional Committee of the Levante backed the CNT-FAI national leadership and did little to support the refractory Iron Column’s urgent request for men, provisions and munitions:

“This boycott was a serious matter for the Iron Column. In the early months of the war it had been able to rely upon its own recruiting campaigns and upon confiscations carried out with the aid of anarchist controlled committees in villages and towns behind the lines. But a decline in revolutionary fervor and the discredit into which the column had fallen in libertarian circles meant that its appeals for volunteers were incapable of furnishing it with an adequate supply of fresh recruits for the relief of men at the front. Furthermore, the committees were being supplanted by regular organs of administration, in which the more revolutionary elements were no longer the preponderant force.”[66]

Anger and dismay at the prospect of militarization and the new Military Code spread throughout the militias. The German anarchists from the International Group of the Durruti Column somewhat hopefully suggested that direct democracy should be the guiding principle in drafting the proposed military code: the abolition of saluting, equal pay for all, press freedom (newspapers to be available at the front), freedom of discussion.[67]

Interviewed by the French anarchist paper L′Espagne Antifasciste, Durruti spoke of the proposed militarization:

“…This decision by the government has had a deplorable effect. It is absolutely devoid of any sense of reality. There is an irreconcilable contrast between that mentality and that of the militias … We know that one of these attitudes has to vanish in the face of the other one.”

November 1936 proved to be a milestone in the civil war. Having surrounded Madrid the mutinous army made a supreme effort to overrun the capital. The bourgeois government of Largo Caballero, together with the newly appointed anarchist ministers, fled the capital on the 6 November to Valencia while the people of Madrid rallied to the city’s defense to cries of ‘Long Live Madrid Without Government!’

Under strong pressure from Federica Montseny acting on behalf of the Council of Ministers, Durruti, increasingly dismayed about the steady erosion of the gains of the social revolution in the rearguard while the militants were sacrificing their lives daily, reluctantly agreed to broadcast an appeal for militia volunteers to save Madrid. The appeal was broadcast on CNT-FAI radio on 4 November. Durruti made it quite clear to the bourgeoisie that the social revolution would not be overcome in the name of antifascism:

“The time has come to demand sacrifices also from those living in the cities. There must be effective mobilization of all workers in the rear, for we who are already on the front want to know what sort of men we can rely on in our rear … if the object of the militarization decreed by the Generalidad is to intimidate us and foist an iron discipline upon us, that is a mistake and we invite the authors of the decree to came out to the front and get a taste of our morale and discipline. Then we shall go and compare those with morale and discipline in the rearguard … We who have left Catalonia entrust the management of the economy to you. You must also live up to your responsibilities and discipline.”[68]

Durruti left Aragón with about 1,000[69] volunteers and made his way through Lerida, Barcelona, Valencia and then on to Madrid. At the Bakunin barracks in Barcelona he gave another memorable speech to his comrades in arms:

“Do you want to come with me to Madrid, yes or no? It is a question of life or death for us all. We will either conquer or die, because defeat will be so terrible that we could not survive it. But we will conquer. I have faith in our victory. I only regret that I speak to you today in a barrack. Some day barracks will be abolished and we will live in a free society. And Durruti gave such a description of a society without injustice and cruelty that most of the men who were listening cried. And when at the end he asked the question again: Are you coming with me, yes or no? it was such a unanimous ‘Yes’, so sincere and so deep that I can never forget it.”[70]

By the time Durruti and his volunteers arrived at the Vallecas barricades on the outskirts of the besieged capital on 14 November his column had risen to around 1,800 militians.

The Flight of the Government

The first major decision foisted upon the new anarchist ministers in the Caballero government was that of abandoning or remaining in the besieged capital. At a hastily summoned Council of Ministers, Caballero proposed moving the government to Valencia. This was opposed by Justice Minister García Oliver. Having abandoned fundamental principles by becoming members of a government their credibility would have been further diminished by being seen to be abandoning Madrid to its fate. Oliver referred the matter to the National Committee of the CNT, National Secretary, Horacio Prieto, advised them: “Hold out, but if you risk a crisis, then give in.”[71]

The government left Madrid for the safety of Valencia on 6 November. Their departure did not go unnoticed by the Defense Committee of the CNT who determined to show them that the people in arms were still masters of the situation. Cipriano Mera, the anarchist military commander of Madrid, sent out a bulletin to all militia units on the Valencia road of inform them of the flight of the ministers and ordered their detention. The ministers were halted at the CNT checkpoint in Cuenca by a militia unit led by an anarchist militant called Villanueva. The ministers, including the anarchists, with the exception of García Oliver who had traveled by another route, protested but the militia unit, whose orders were to disarm and prevent people leaving Madrid, treated them as ordinary deserters. One complained bitterly: “This is too much. I am the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I am going to Valencia”. The militiaman replied: “Your duty as minister is to stay with the people at this dramatic hour. Fleeing, you demoralize the fighters.” The communist ministers Jesús Hernández and Vicente Uribe were also disarmed and when asked what he was going to do, Villanueva replied that as he returning to defend Madrid the following morning he would take the ministers with him and intended to “ put you in the front lines when we go into battle.” “But this is criminal”, they replied. Villanueva went on: “ It would be worse if I shot you as you deserve.”[72]

Villanueva, after contacting Eduardo Val, Secretary of the Defense Committee of the CNT in Madrid, released the ministers a short time later. Before they climbed into their cars to continue their journey to Valencia, Villanueva advised them:

“The Organization has freed you against my will. You can go to Valencia, but never forget today’s flight — and even more the heroism with which the people of Madrid are fighting.”[73]

The ministers were not to the forget the ignominy of their humiliating arrest at the hands of the people’s militia and the incident strengthened their resolve to break that popular organ of the revolution at the earliest opportunity.

Madrid — The Death of Durruti

The defense of Madrid was bloody and vicious. It lasted from 7 November until 20 November. On his arrival on the evening of 14 November, Durruti was given responsibility for a sector of the University campus where another column, Libertad López Tienda, commanded by a certain ‘Negus’ of the PSUC, the Catalan Marxist party, was also located. At dawn the following day, 15 November, both the Durruti and Libertad López Tienda columns launched a head-on attack in an attempt to prevent the Moorish troops crossing the Manzanares river. The pressure was too great. Fresh nationalist reinforcements under General Asensio managed to force their way into the School of Architecture having wiped out most of the Libertad-López Tienda Column and around a third of Durruti’s men.

On 17 November, German Junker aircraft began their intensive blitzkrieg bombing raids wreaking death and destruction throughout the city. That day Durruti wrote what were to be his last words:

“I have come from the land of Aragón to win this fight which today is a question of life or death, not merely for the Spanish proletariat but for the world as a whole. Everything hinges upon Madrid and I will not attempt to disguise my delight at finding myself face to face with the enemy, if only because it lends nobility to the struggle. Before taking my leave of Catalonia, I asked that those involved in the struggle be conscientious. I am not referring to the poor in spirit or those who are lacking in vigor. I mean those of us committed to pressing onwards, ever onwards. Rifles are of no avail if there is no determination, no ingenuity in their use. There is no question that the fascists shall enter Madrid, but they must be repulsed soon, for Spain must be retaken. I am happy in Madrid, I make no bones about that; it delights me to see her now with the composure of the serious minded man who is alive to his responsibility and not the frivolity and bewilderment displayed by a man when the torment looms.”[74]

Just after midday on 19 November, Durruti, accompanied by his driver Julio Graves, Miguel Yolde, Bonilla and his Generalidad-appointed military adviser Sergeant Manzana, set out for the Clinical Hospital, the scene of serious fighting with Moorish troops. Noticing a group of militiamen he thought were deserters, Durruti stopped the car and got out to order them to return to their positions, which they did. As he opened the car door to reenter, a burst of machine gun fire from inside hit Durruti in the chest at point blank range. According to Miguel Yolde and Sergeant Manzana the bullets came from Durruti’s own machine gun when it accidentally knocked against the car door. According to Bonilla, however, the third occupant, the fatal shots were fired ‘deliberately or accidentally’, by Sergeant Manzana. Interestingly enough, according to García Oliver, Durruti never carried a machine gun, only a pistol.

Buenaventura Durruti, the ‘troublesome priest’ of anarchism, died from his wounds in the early hours of November 20 aged 40 years.

Not convinced that Durruti’s death was the accident or the work of a sniper as presented by the National Committee of the CNT, and worried that Madrid was a trap designed to eliminate the anarcho-syndicalist militants, what remained of the Durruti Column wanted to leave the Capital immediately. The hasty arrival of Federica Montseny managed to persuade them to remain on in Madrid. García Oliver, in spite of the personal doubts he claims to have harbored about Durruti’s death had no faith in the capacity of the rank-and-file to accept the circumstances of the death at face value and judge for themselves. It was he who took it upon himself to release the manipulative lie that Buenaventura Durruti had died as a hero at the hands of an unknown sniper.

On 21 November the National Committee of the CNT and the Peninsular Committee of the FAI issued the following statement:

“Workers! The snipers of what has come to be known as the “fifth column” have floated the fallacious rumor that our comrade Durruti has been vilely murdered by an act of treachery. We caution all comrades against this foul slander. It is a base maneuver calculated to smash the proletariat’s redoubtable unity of action and thought [which is] the most efficacious weapon against fascism. Comrades! Durruti did not perish through any act of treachery. He fell in the fray as have so many others fighters for freedom. He died a hero’s death: while carrying out his duty. Let us be unanimous in rejecting this despicable innuendo calculated by the fascists for the purpose of smashing our indestructible unity. Reject it without euphemism and in its entirety. Pay no heed to irresponsible types who peddle fratricidal rumors. They are the revolution’s greatest enemy!”[75]

Durruti’s body was taken by car to Barcelona where the funeral took place on 23 November. It was one of the most important working class demonstrations in the history of the Spanish labor movement with over half-a-million people lining the streets of the Catalan capital to pay their respects to an indomitable working class hero. Durruti was laid to rest beside his closest comrade, Francisco Ascaso, who had died in the assault on the Ataranzas barracks four months earlier, and an earlier anarchist victim of vicious state repression, Francisco Ferrer Guardia.

But they had to kill Durruti twice. On the anniversary of his death the ‘spin doctors’ of the Stalinist Negrín government went into over-drive to credit Durruti with the coining of a phrase — originally devised by Ilya Ehrenburg, in a doctored interview with Durruti and later backed by the CNT-FAI’s higher committees. It depicted him as saying the exact opposite of everything he had always said and thought, forswearing the revolution: “We renounce everything except victory.”

Unfortunately, no complete and reliable transcript exists of Durruti’s 4 November speech, because the anarchist press at the time both sweetened and censored the living Durruti.

Once dead, Durruti could be deified. He was even promoted, posthumously, to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Popular Army.

Command of the Durruti Column passed to Sergeant Manzana and Miguel Yolde, both of whom were soon to play an important role in imposing militarization on the column.

NOTES