Collectivizations: The constructive achievements of the Spanish Revolution : Essays, documents and reports

Notes
See the short biographical article by Nick Heath at: http://libcom.org/history/partos-pal-1911-1964-aka-paul-polgare-pablo-polgare-folgare for the various pseudonyms employed by Paul or Pablo Folgare, a/k/a Paul Polgare, a/k/a Pal Partos. The original Spanish edition of 1937 utilized the Spanish version of Souchy’s first name, but not Folgare’s [Note added by the translator of the English edition]. The collectivization process in Russia never went beyond this stage. André Gide describes this in his book, Retour de l’URSS, as follows: “We visited a model Kolkhoz in the neighborhood of Sukhum. It dates from six years back. After having struggled obscurely for some time, it is now one of the most prosperous in the country. It is known as ‘the millionaire’ and is bursting with life and happiness. This Kolkhoz stretches over a very large tract of country. The climate ensures a luxurious vegetation. Th... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Part 4, Chapter 3 : Membrilla
3. MEMBRILLA In the rocky countryside of La Mancha, to the southwest of Ciudad Real, one finds Membrilla. In miserable huts, the poor inhabitants of a poor province; 8,000 people, but the streets are not paved; the town has no newspaper, no cinema, no café, no library. It did, however, contain many churches, which have all been burned. In 1920 some workers founded a branch Trade Union of the National Confederation of Labor. The militants underwent continuous persecution; the organization was even dissolved during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. The reestablished Republic reintroduced political freedom, but economic conditions did not improve, and the town was just as poor as before. Five years passed in this way, without anything having changed with regard to the social conditions of the town. When the military uprising began, on July 19, there were seven Civil Guards and several dozen fascists... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Part 4, Chapter 2 : Fraga
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. Oth... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Part 4, Chapter 1 : Lécera, An Aragonese Town Where Libertarian Communism Is A Reality
Part 4 - Libertarian Communism 1. LÉCERA, AN ARAGONESE TOWN WHERE LIBERTARIAN COMMUNISM IS A REALITY Lécera is a model town—Its characteristics—The understanding of the Revolutionary Committee—The administration and remuneration of labor—Distribution of products—The outpost of Monte Lobo—Belchite, two thousand five hundred meters from us—A talk with Captain Luis Jubert A MODEL TOWN FOR THE NOBILITY OF ITS SENTIMENTS Lécera is the largest town in the province of Zaragoza and belongs to the judicial district of Belchite. The latter town is twelve kilometers distant. Lécera has 2,400 inhabitants and possesses some industry, including a plaster factory. The rest of its economy is based on agriculture, its most important crops being wheat, grapes, saffron and a smaller quantity of miscellaneous grain crops. (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Part 4, Chapter 11 : Blanes
11. BLANES A PLACE THAT USED TO BE A HATEFUL LOCATION OF EXPLOITATION OF THE WORKERS Just before arriving at the town we encounter the concentration of buildings of the SAFA, a well-known factory producing artificial silk. When we look at this factory, when we converse with the workers employed in it, we must remind ourselves of all its odious past: the phases of struggle provoked by the management of this factory. SAFA operated with Swiss and French capital, and Romanones and Ventosa y Calvell were also major shareholders in the enterprise. The workers were treated with the most extreme despotism, as if they were servants born to endure every kind of insult and the most outrageous provocations; they were paid paltry wages for the unhealthiest jobs. Many became ill due to their work in the factory, so that the shareholders could see their profits rise. There were three major strikes at SAFA that demonstrated... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Vilanova I La Geltrú
8. VILANOVA I LA GELTRÚ Every town we visit has its own particular characteristics that distinguish it from the other towns. In Vilanova i la Geltrú, a city of some twenty thousand inhabitants, municipal life has been influenced to the greatest possible extent by the federalist principle. The Municipal Council is composed of the following comrades: 7 from the National Confederation of Labor; 6 from the “Esquerra”; 3 from the POUM; 4 from the PSU; and 2 from the “Rabassaires”. There is neither a mayor nor a president. The comrades who assume the administrative functions are members of the various pertinent commissions for the normal functioning of municipal life. Each session of the municipal council ele... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Miscellaneous Industries
3. MISCELLANEOUS INDUSTRIES Hispano-Suiza—The optical industry, born from the Revolution—The collectivized C.A.M.P.S.A. of Catalonia HISPANO-SUIZA The workshops of this important enterprise are working most intensely and with the greatest variety for the supply of the working class militias. The trade union organizations proceeded from the very beginning to confiscate the factory, and the workers have been entirely reorganized under the direction of the institutions created by the proletariat for that purpose, adapting the factory to the needs imposed by the civil war. Never before has a factory’s production been so completely transformed from peacetime to war production. All war production in the factories of the metal in... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Gerona
2. GERONA THE TRACES OF THE PAST There are towns that do not lose, with the incessant passage of the years, their aspects that are evocative of distant eras; they preserve within them the traces of what they once were. Walk anywhere in Gerona and you will see everywhere the traces of its past: narrow streets, aristocratic mansions that preserve the severity of their times of splendor, old churches, high, thick walls, typical street corners, typical sights, in short, your imagination will fly towards times past which will never return. Gerona is a city where the influence of religion has weighed heavily on the consciousness of its population. With its tenacious and incessant proselytizing zeal, the Church had been molding minds, and dominati... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Agriculture
7. AGRICULTURE The Resolutions of the Plenary Assembly of the Agricultural Workers of Catalonia—Statutes of the Section of Collective Labor of the Trade Union of Valls—The organizational plan for the agricultural, livestock and industrial wealth of Sollana RESOLUTIONS OF THE PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE AGRICULTURAL WORKERS OF CATALONIA The Presentation, which provided a detailed study of the different characteristics that distinguish Catalonian agriculture, as well as a profound analysis of the psychology of the peasants of the region, allows us to summarize the following orientations, in the hope that they will serve or be capable of serving as a guide for the planning of the path that we must follow and that will lead us to the ac... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Arenys de Mar
10. ARENYS DE MAR TOWNS AND CITIES We wanted to visit sparsely populated towns as well as densely populated cities. We have constantly observed that in the small towns more significant social programs of a revolutionary type have been implemented than in the more populous cities. Perhaps this is in part due to the fact that a small town is less complicated compared to a city. What interests us is what has been achieved, or plans that are being considered for implementation. We take into consideration the importance, or the congenial character, of all those initiatives that have been undertaken to establish a new era. This is what we are trying to highlight in our brief reports gathered among the confederal areas, as we visited various towns... (From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)