2. FRAGA

Another small town, without wealth or comfort. At the junction of the Barcelona-Saragossa-Madrid highway, in the region of Aragon, on the slope of one of those hills that one finds throughout the region, Fraga, a little town with 9,000 inhabitants, the leading town in one of the provinces of Aragon, gives the impression of a large city of badly cobbled streets and dilapidated old hovels. From these hovels, simple and friendly workers emerge; the streets are full of life, and the town, which is usually so quiet, is today bustling with activity.

Here, too, those who were always exploited, and who used to work incessantly only to die of hunger, these workers of the farms and the workshops, have taken their own destinies into their hands. This was not difficult, for as soon as the first news of the military uprising and the people’s reaction reached the town, the few active fascist sympathizers here rapidly disappeared. Others, however, old exploiters linked to the regime, owners of houses and stores, or sympathizers with capitalist exploitation, preferred to remain and accept the new life introduced by the workers of the town.

All the farm workers support the CNT and the FAI. There is no other group in the town, neither political parties nor the UGT, except for a small office of the Esquerra Catalana, which represents the petty bourgeoisie, who number no more than a few dozen. A thousand workers support the CNT, all the workers who take an interest social questions. One single federation includes all the trade unions. This is the case for one very simple reason. Almost all the inhabitants of Fraga are employed in agricultural work. The rest work in the few workshops that are indispensable for the needs of 9,000 people: a blacksmith’s shop, a rope-making shop, a carpentry shop, etc. The few workers employed in these workshops, whose needs and working conditions are so closely bound to the region’s agriculture, have now joined the Trade Union of the agricultural workers.

This Trade Union, however, is far from being a mere trade union such as one finds in any capitalist country. It is not just a trade union in the narrow meaning of the word; it is also a collectivized enterprise. All the members of the Trade Union are members of a work collective. The product of their labor is delivered to the Trade Union, which distributes the basic necessities to everyone. Forty percent of all the cultivated land in the district is exploited by this collective. Membership is voluntary, but for those who wish to cultivate their land individually, regardless of the size of their property, they are allowed to exploit the labor of their immediate family members, without the assistance of any other wage workers. An ingenious table sets forth the number of animals that are allowed to these individualist families: the numbers vary depending on whether the farms in question are located in fertile valleys or stony hillsides. If the parcels in question are wheat fields or fruit orchards and vegetable gardens (the cultivation of figs is particularly important in the region), everything has been arranged in advance so that the distribution should be fair and that everyone should have the same agricultural opportunities.

The family wage is the other aspect of this system of allocation. If everyone performs the same amount of work, the standard of living is likewise the same for all. The products of their own labor: wheat, fruit, olives, etc., are freely available. As for the remainder of their needs, each family receives a weekly quantity that increases in accordance with the number of family members and the number of working adults.

This wage is not received in the form of banknotes from the Bank of Spain, for the simple reason that they would be useless, since they have no value in the monetary circulation of the town. Small cards printed by the Trade Union, representing a nominal value that varies from ten centímos to twenty-five pesetas, serve as consumers vouchers. Only these cards will be accepted by the barber, the rope-maker and the office of distribution of food products, which is of such great importance in the town.

A traveler who wants to spend the night or stay permanently in Fraga, must go to the Committee to exchange his money issued by the Spanish Republic for local vouchers. And a person who wants to leave Fraga must also go to the Committee, submit the reason for his trip and the amount of money he needs; the Committee will then exchange his local vouchers for Spanish banknotes.

Similarly, if the Committee thereby concentrates in its hands the responsibility for trade with other towns and regions, if it sells the products and buys other goods in accordance with the assets and the needs of the town, not all of its exchanges are carried out on the basis of money. For the most important needs, it is testing a system of direct exchange. The Committee takes a few truckloads of local products, especially wheat, corn and fruit, and sends them to the regions that need them. At their destinations, the Committees or Trade Unions give in exchange for them products they have in abundance, products that Fraga needs.

The Fraga Trade Union therefore operates not only as a corporative working class organization in the framework of collective labor, but is also the organizer of all the town’s supply networks and all of its consumption.

But this local Federation of the CNT has yet other responsibilities. It exercises full control over the administration of the town. In collaboration with the Agricultural Land Allocation Commission, whose activities we have summarized above, another commission has the responsibility of equitably fixing the amount of rents. No one is permitted to possess more than one parcel of real estate or, more generally, to occupy more land than he is entitled to by virtue of the size of his family. The Commission engages in a careful inspection of this allocation in order to obtain the most equitable result. The Trade Union is also responsible for cultural life. A cinema, a theatrical company, and several newly formed orchestras, testify to the efforts of the comrades, effectively supported by the passionate members of the Libertarian Youth, to establish and to provide opportunities for the enjoyment of all the culture that was previously denied to the townsfolk, despite the “Social Republic”. An educational group has been formed, that bears the name of the greatest teacher of them all: Francisco Ferrer.

The visitor, welcomed with the comradery and the friendship for which our revolutionary comrades in Spain are so famous, will continue on his journey, but before allowing him to leave the town, the comrades teach him one of their most recent lessons.

First: once the fascist air force finally made an appearance in the region—still a long way from Fraga—the comrades immediately proceeded to take precautionary measures to guarantee the safety of the inhabitants. Modern bomb shelters have been constructed throughout the town; we note in passing that there are no specialists or technicians, either in this field or any other in Fraga; everything is done by the workers themselves.

Second: these workers, these young people who are so avid for new knowledge, have created a public library. Everyone has contributed their own books, the few volumes that they have managed to acquire with such difficulty over a lifetime of illegal struggles; and they have also added everything that was of value in the libraries of the rich people who fled. Through well-illuminated and pleasant reading rooms the visitor is led, amid the books, with well-justified satisfaction.

Fraga has provided a good example of how the new life is organized by the trade unions of the revolutionary workers.