[1] Arnold Lunn, Spanish Rehearsal, London, 1937, p. 272

[2] Noam Chomsky, ‘Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship’, American Power and the New Mandarins, New York, 1967, p. 76.

[3] Pere Gabriel, Anarquismo en España, in G. Woodcock.

[4] Ibid.

[5] For the full text of the Preamble and Program of the Alliance see Sam Dolgoff (ed.), Bakunin on Anarchism, Montreal, 1980, pp. 426–428.

[6] Diego Abad de Santillán, Contribución a la historia del movimiento obrero español, Mexico, 1962, Vol 1. p. 116.

[7] Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism, London, 1938, p. 86.

[8] Gabriel, op. cit., p. 364. ‘Out of a total membership of 26,585 in 1911, some 12,000 were from Catalonia, some 6,000 were Andalusians and a little more than 1,000 Valencians.’

[9] Ibid.

[10] Juan Diaz del Moral, Historia de las agitaciones campesinas andaluzas, Madrid, 1967, p. 277.

[11] Pere Gabriel, Historia del sindicalismo español, Paris, 1973, p. 16, gives a total membership of 750,000 and a Catalan membership of 450,000.

[12] José Peirats, La CNT en la revolución española, Toulouse, 1952, Vol. I, Ch. 1.

[13] With the exception of those marked * all CNT National Committee Secretaries belonged to Barcelona-based National Committees: José Negre (last secretary of Solidaridad Obrera and first of the CNT in 1910. The almost immediate outlawing of the Confederation makes it unclear whether, when the CNT was reconstituted in 1914, Negre became secretary again.) Manuel Andreu (November 1915 to August 1916); Francisco Jordán (until February 1917 when he resigned the post from his prison cell); Francisco Miranda (until July 1919; he was replaced for a time by Manuel Buenacasa between August and November 1917); Manuel Buenacasa (until December 1918); Evelino Boal (murdered March 1921); Andreu Nin (until May 1921); Joaquín Maurín (until February 1922); Joan Peiró (until July 1923); * Paulíno Díez (until March 1924) (Seville); * Garcia Galán (until June 1924) (Zaragoza). (It is not known if there was a secretary from June 1924 to September 1925.)* Gonzalez Mallanda (September 1925 to June 1926) (Gijón); * Segundo Blanco (until November 1926) (Gijón); Juan Peiró (until mid-1929); Ángel Pestaña (1929); Progreso Alfarache (1930; temporarily replaced either by Manuel Sirvent or Arín); Angel Pestaña (until March 1932); Manuel Rivas (1933); Miguel Yoldi (1934); * Horacio Martínez Prieto (1935–1936) (Zaragoza; temporarily replaced by David Antona and Antonio Moreno until September 1936); * Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez (November 1936 until February 1939) (Madrid–Valencia). Source: El Movimiento Libertario Español, Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibérico, Suplemento 1974, entry 336).

[14] Redención, Alcoy, August 1922.

[15] Díaz del Moral, op. cit.

[16] Ángel Pestaña, Terrorismo en Barcelona, Barcelona, 1979.

[17] Miguel Sastre, La esclavitud moderna. (Quoted in Peirats, Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution, Toronto, 1977, p. 32.)

[18] Peirats, La CNT, op cit., vol. I, p.11 (n).

[19] Ricardo Sanz, Los Solidarios, Toulouse, 1966.

[20] The core of the group consisted of: Francisco Ascaso, waiter; Buenaventura Durruti, machinist; Rafael Torres Escartín, pastry cook; Juan García Oliver, waiter; Aurelio Fernández, machinist; Ricardo Sanz, textile worker; Alfonso Miguel, cabinet maker; Gregorio Suberviela, machinist; Eusebio Brau, foundry worker; Marcelino Manuel Campos (Tomas Arrate), carpenter; Miguel García Vivancos, driver; Antonio del Toto, laborer. Over the years the membership changed; some died, some left while others joined. A number of anarchist women were associated with the Los Solidarios group, including Julia López, Maria Luisa Tejedor, Pepita Not, Ramóna Berni and Maria Rius. Other names linked with this influential group were: Mas, A. Martín, Palau, Flores, Ballano, Boada, H. Esteban, P. Martín, J. Blanco, Pérez Combina, Batlle, Sosa. Antonio Ortiz and Francisco Jover also joined the group during the dictatorship.

[21] Gabriel, op. cit.

[22] Angel María de Lera, Ángel Pestaña — Retrato de un anarquista, Barcelona, 1978, p. 225.

[23] Julián Casanova, Anarquismo y revolución en la sociedad rural aragonese, 1936–1938, Madrid, 1985, p. 15.

[24] Solidaridad Proletaria, 21.3.1925

[25] ‘Sentido de Independencia’, 25.9.1925

[26] E. López Arango with Diego Abad de Santillán, El anarquismo en el movimiento obrero, Barcelona, 1925, pp. 10, 37, 38, 47, 57, 136.

[27] A number of sites have been given as the location for the second session. Peirats places it on the beach at Cabanel (Los anarquistas y la crisis política española, Buenos Aires, 1964, p. 276); Tomás Cano Ruiz cites Malvarrosa (Confederación, 8.8.1937, p. 1); José Llop claims it was Tremolar (El movimiento libertario español, p. 289); Progreso Fernández names El Saler. All these beaches are in the vicinity of the Grao de Valencia.

[28] Interview with Progreso Fernández, ‘Anarquismo en el mundo’, Bicicleta, No. 11, Barcelona, 1977.

[29] A resistencia anarco-sindicalista a dittadura: Portugal 1922–1939, Edgar Rodrígues, Lisbon, 1981, p. 238.

[30] Ibid p. 242.

[31] Paul Preston, The Coming of the Spanish Civil War, London, 1978, p. 9.

[32] El movimiento libertario español, Paris, 1974, p. 295.

[33] Broué and Témime, The Revolution and the Civil War in Spain, London, 1971, p. 57; James Joll, The Anarchists, London, 1979, p. 245; Frank Jellinek, The Civil War in Spain, London, 1938, pp. 92–93; Gabriel Jackson, The Spanish Republic and the Civil War 1931–1939, Princeton, 1965, p. 20; Raymond Carr, The Spanish Tragedy, London, 1977, p. 15; George Woodcock, Anarchism, London, 1963, p. 358; Franz Borkenau, The Spanish Cockpit, London, 1937, p. 37; Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War, London, 1977, p. 68; Arthur H. Landis, Spain The Unfinished Revolution, New York, 1972, p. 26; Gerald Brenan, The Spanish Labyrinth, Cambridge, 1976, p. 184; César M. Lorenzo, Les Anarchistes espagnoles et le pouvoir, Paris, 1969, pp. 66–68; Felix Morrow, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain, New York, 1974, p. 100.

[34] Brenan, op. cit., p. 184.

[35] Joll, op. cit., p. 245.

[36] Ronald Fraser, Blood of Spain, London, 1979. p. 548.

[37] Bicicleta, op. cit.

[38] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 287.

[39] Ibid p. 290.

[40] Broué and Témime, op. cit., p. 57.

[41] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., pp. 293–8.

[42] Francisco Carrasquer, ¿Ha habido una ideología política en el anarquismo Español?’ Cuadernos de Ruedo Ibérico, Nos. 35–57, Jan–June, Paris, 1977, p. 163.

[43] Jellinek, op. cit., pp. 92-–93.

[44] Borkenau, op. cit., p. 37.

[45] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 288.

[46] Fidel Miró, Catalonia: los trabajadores y el problema de las nacionalidades, Mexico, 1967, pp. 45–50.

[47] Brenan, op. cit., p. 249.

[48] Lorenzo, op. cit., pp. 66–68.

[49] Bicicleta, op. cit.

[50] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 231.

[51] Carrasquer, op. cit., p. 177.

[52] Woodcock, op. cit., p. 358.

[53] Jackson, op. cit., pp 126–127.

[54] Ibid.

[55] Jellinek, op. cit., pp. 92–93.

[56] Brenan, op. cit., p. 251.

[57] Morrow, op. cit., p. 100.

[58] Jackson, op. cit., p. 126.

[59] Carrasquer, op. cit.

[60] Mikhail Bakunin, God and the State, in Dolgoff, Bakunin on Anarchism, op. cit., p. 230.

[61] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 288.

[62] Carrasquer, ibid.

[63] Molina, op. cit., p. 223.

[64] Llop, op. cit., p. 290.

[65] Fidel Miró, a member of both the FAI and the FIJL, argued that this structure was undemocratic as it permitted the influential groups to dominate and manipulate the meetings to their advantage. The meetings themselves were rarely raided, according to Miró, because the danger to the police from heavily armed FAI members. (Op. cit., p. 49.) It is equally possible the police depended on these meetings for their intelligence on anarchist plans.

[66] Llop, op. cit., p. 290.

[67] ‘La FAI a la CNT’, Acción Social Obrera, 6.4.1928.

[68] Letter from the National Committee of the CNT to the Valencia Local Federation of Anarchist Groups. Quoted by Alexander Schapiro in his confidential report to the AIT on the CNT: Rapport sur l’activité de la Confédération National du Travail d’Espagne, 16 décembre 1932–26 février 1933.

[69] Ibid p. 30.

[70] Robert Michels, Political Parties, New York, 1962, p. 365.

[71] General Emilio Mola, Obras Completas, Valladolid, 1940, pp. 351–353.

[72] El movimiento libertario, op. cit., p. 175.

[73] Acción Social Obrera, 7.12.1929.

[74] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I, Ch. 2.

[75] Diego Abad de Santillán, De Alfonso XIII a Franco, Buenos Aires, 1974, p. 171

[76] Elizalde was suspected of being a police informer but no evidence was ever adduced to substantiate the whispered allegations against him. (‘Open letter to “Comrade Juan Ferrer”, France, December 1970’; quoted in Juan Gómez Casas, Historia de la FAI, Bilbao, 1977.)

[77] Ricardo or Rafael Pena, also known as Carlos Chavez (born Lisbon 1889, died Panama 1975). Pena was a well-known militant in the Seville area as well as in Oporto and Lisbon during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. He worked closely with the Portuguese anarcho-syndicalist union, the CGT, and the Portuguese Anarchist Union, and was associated with the editors of La Batalla and Comuna. He returned to Spain in 1927 where he became an active militant in the CNT and played an important part in ousting the communists who had seized control of the Seville CNT unions in 1930. He represented Seville’s textile union at the CNT Congress the following year. Active throughout the period of the Republic he became secretary general of the Andalucian CNT at the outbreak of the military rising. It was in this capacity that he attended the Andalucian FAI Congress in Almeria. He later commanded a confederal centuria in Malaga. (Cuadernos para una enciclopedia histórica del anarquismo español, No. 28, Vitoria, 1984.)

[78] Letter from Molina to Juan Gómez Casas, 28.6.1975. (Quoted in Gómez Casas, op. cit.)

[79] El movimiento libertario, op. cit.

[80] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 24–28.

[81] Ibid Vol. I. Ch. 2.

[82] Acción Social Obrera, No. 92.

[83] Bernardo Pou and Jaume Magrina, Un año de conspiración (antes de la Republica), Barcelona, 1933, p. 28.

[84] Acción Social Obrera, 16.5.1930.

[85] Fraser, op. cit., p. 187.

[86] Mola, op. cit., p. 572.

[87] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit.

[88] E. Horacio Prieto, Marxismo y socialismo libertario, Paris, 1947, p. 109

[89] ‘El sindicalismo y el problema politico de España’, El Combate Sindicalista, Valencia, 6.9.1935.

[90] ‘La CNT ante el momento actual’, Solidaridad Obrera, Barcelona, 14.5.1931.

[91] The activists of the Los Solidarios group had been dispersed throughout the dictatorship. Durruti, Ascaso, Vivancos and Jover formed the Los Treinta group (not to be confused with Pestaña’s treintistas) that had been active in Europe and Latin America while García Oliver and others had been in prison. There had also been disagreements between Durruti and Oliver that were finally patched up, if not resolved, in the summer of 1931 when all the comrades were reunited. According to Marcos Alcón, when the Republic was proclaimed, Aurelio Fernández returned to Oviedo and had no contact with the others. Sanz, Jover and Vivancos confined their activities to work within their respective CNT unions: ‘They never attended FAI meetings except on a limited number of occasions. Their meetings were with one another since they all worked in the textile industry.’ (Letter in Gómez Casas, op. cit., pp. 141–142.) When the group met again at the first meeting of the Anarchist Groups of Catalonia in 1931 they discovered another group had adopted the name during the period of the dictatorship. To avoid confusion the comrades decided to change the name to the Nosotros group.

[92] Solidaridad Obrera, 21.5.1931.

[93] Abel Paz, Durruti: The People Armed, Montreal, 1976. p. 104.

[94] Murray Bookchin, The Spanish Anarchists, New York, 1977, p. 236.

[95] Brenan, op. cit., pp.258–259.

[96] Paz, op. cit., p. 107.

[97] Barrington Moore Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, London, 1981, p. 506.

[98] El Sol, 31.5.1931.

[99] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I, Ch. 2.

[100] Bookchin, op. cit., p. 237.

[101] Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, Memoria del Congreso Extraordinario celebrado en Madrid los dias 11 al 16 de Junio de 1931, Barcelona, 1931, p. 208.

[102] Ibid.

[103] Ibid p. 123.

[104] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I, Ch. 3.

[105] Ibid.

[106] Ibid.

[107] Ibid Vol. I, Ch. 2. Molina did, in fact, attempt to address the Congress as the official FAI representative, but the syndicalist-controlled National Committee refused to let him speak because he was a spokesman for ‘an external organization.’

[108] ‘Conferencia de la FAI celebrada en Madrid durante los dias 8 y 9 de Junio’, El Luchador, 19 June 1931.

[109] De Lera, op. cit., p. 279.

[110] Fraser, op. cit., p. 549.

[111] Ibid.

[112] Francisco Ascaso, Peninsular Committee of the FAI, 1937.

[113] Carr, op. cit., p. 41.

[114] Raymond Carr, Spain 1808–1975, Oxford, 1982, p. 625.

[115] Woodcock, op. cit., p. 363.

[116] Brenan, op. cit., p. 255.

[117] Broué and Témime, op. cit., p. 57.

[118] Quoted in Santillán, Contribución, op. cit., p. 106.

[119] Miguel Maura, Así cayó Alfonso XIII, Barcelona, 1966, p. 289.

[120] De Lera, op. cit., p. 282.

[121] ‘Confederación Nacional del Trabajo a todos los trabajadores’, Solidaridad Obrera, 16.8.1931.

[122] ‘La misión social del sindicalismo’, Solidaridad Obrera, 23.6.1931.

[123] Alejandro Gilabert, La CNT, la FAI, y la revolución española, Barcelona 1932, p. 14.

[124] In 1928 members of the pestañista Solidaridad group included the Portuguese Germinal de Sousa, a member of the 1936 FAI Peninsular Committee which approved the CNT joining the Caballero government; Progreso Alfarache, a member of the CNT National Committee until 1936; Patricio Navarro, the member of the Catalan CNT Regional Committee who ordered confederal militants to return to work during the October 1934 uprising; Antonio García Birlán, later the FAI representative on the Generalidat’s Economic Council and councilor of health in the 1936 Catalan government. Juan López Sánchez, one of the four CNT ministers in Caballero’s 1936 government was also a member of this group. (Cuadernos para una enciclopedia, op cit., No. 25.) According to Ramón Álvarez (El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 159), Regional Secretary of the Asturian CNT, other members included José María Martínez, Segundo Blanco, the CNT minister in Dr Juan Negrín’s Cabinet, and Avelino G. Mallada.

[125] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 231.

[126] De Lera, op. cit., p. 282.

[127] Marcos Alcón, secretary of the CNT’s Glass Workers’ Union and a FAI affiliate, visited Joan Peiró to ask him to explain why he had signed the manifesto. ‘When the manifesto came out, I took the day off work and set off for Mataro to get Peiró to give me an explanation… For the glass workers of Spain Peiró was a symbol. He and I had an especially high regard for one another…Upon reaching the plant where he worked I said to him: “What’s the meaning of this here signature?” His reply was categorical. “That son of a bitch” — a reference to Pestaña — “stitched me up!” Peiró was a man easily caught off guard. He was too trusting. After the trickster had decamped, he realized that he had been duped and let loose a broadside.’ (Letter from Alcón in Gómez Casas, op. cit., p. 147.)

[128] Letter from García Oliver to John Brademas dated 9.3.1953. (Quoted in John Brademas, Anarcosindicalismo y revolución en España (1930–1937), Barcelona, 1974, p. 81.

[129] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit.

[130] La Tierra, 2.9.1931.

[131] Brenan wrote: ‘All that summer their influence [the FAI’s] in the CNT was increasing, and in October they were able to force the resignation of the editor Juan Peiró, and of the whole staff of the famous anarcho-syndicalist paper, because they refused to support the FAI policy of revolutionary action by small groups.’ (Brenan, op. cit., p. 255.)

[132] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I. Ch. 3.

[133] El movimiento libertario español, op. cit., p. 163.

[134] Ibid p. 169.

[135] Ibid p. 237.

[136] In a letter to Juan Gómez Casas (27.6.1974; quoted in Gómez Casas, op. cit.), García Oliver claimed he had never belonged to the FAI: ‘I was never a militant, nor a member of its committees. While I was imprisoned, they tricked Ascaso and Durruti into affiliating our group, which at the time did not exist, to the FAI. The Nosotros group was formed to provide some bureaucratic satisfaction.’ However, Juan Manuel Molina, who was Peninsular Secretary of the FAI until 1935 (with the exception of 1932 when he was in jail), claims that García Oliver succeeded him. The confused relationship of the Nosotros group to the FAI is referred to by José Peirats.

[137] La Tierra, 3.10.1931.

[138] Brenan, op. cit., p. 254.

[139] Thomas, op. cit., p. 103.

[140] Broué and Témime, op. cit., p. 56.

[141] Miguel Iñiguez states that the Figols uprising was ‘the exclusive handiwork of the FAI’. Juan Manuel Molina and Diego Abad de Santillán both argue in their memoirs it would be more accurate to say it was organized by the Los Solidarios/Nosotros group ‘who were often indistinguishable from the FAI’.

[142] El Luchador, 10.6.1931

[143] Cristina Borderías, La insurrección del Alto Llobregat enero 1932: un estudio de historia oral, Masters’ thesis, University of Barcelona, September 1977. Pedro Flores, ‘Ramón Vila Capdevila’, Ruta, No 40, Caracas, 1980.

[144] J. M. Keynes, General Theory, London, p. 383.

[145] Santillán, Contribución, op. cit., p. 125.

[146] Schapiro, op. cit., pp. 33–38.

[147] CNT, Madrid, 2.6.1933.

[148] Pestaña, a watchmaker by trade, had been a full-time paid official of the CNT for five years, during which time he had not worked at his trade. Perhaps this accounts for the oligarchical attitudes he had developed by the time of the Republic. See ‘La expulsion de Angel Pestaña’, Boletín de la CNT, March 1933.

[149] Bicicleta, op. cit.

[150] Paul Preston, The Coming of the Spanish Civil War, London, 1978, p. 61. Grandizo Munis, Jalones de Derrota: promesa de victoria, Mexico, 1948, p. 74.

[151] Solidaridad Obrera, 3.12.1932.

[152] Peirats says there existed a ‘sort of super FAI which spoke in the name of the peninsular organization, but neither belonged to it nor was answerable to it. When I say that there was another FAI above those of us who were its official representatives I am referring to Ascaso and Durruti and in particular to García Oliver, the real Robespierre of the revolution.’ (Letter in Gómez Casas, op. cit.; see also the letter to Frank Mintz, op. cit.)

[153] Schapiro, op. cit., p. 8.

[154] ‘Papeles inéditos de Azaña’, 8.1.1933. Quoted by Joaquín Arraras, Historia de la Segunda Republica Española, Madrid, 1964, Vol. II, p. 79. See also Peirats’s Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution, Toronto, 1977, p. 98.

[155] According to the FAI paper Tierra y Libertad, the influence of the FAI in Medina Sidonia was ‘decisive’; with 14 groups in the area it rivaled the CNT. (Tierra y Libertad, 11.3.1932.)

[156] Carr, Spain 1808–1975, op. cit., p. 625. Eric Hobsbawm (Primitive Rebels, Manchester, 1978, pp. 79–92), in support of his thesis that Spanish anarchism was ‘millenarian’ and lacked ‘organization, strategy, tactics and patience’ implies that the Casas Viejas rising, the example from which his ‘millenarian’ conclusions are drawn, was called on the orders of Seisdedos, who exercised ‘ascendancy over the masses.’

[157] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I. Ch. 3.

[158] Manuel Azaña, Obras Completas, Mexico, 1966, Vol. II, pp. 540–541. (Cortes, session of 2 February 1933.)

[159] Paz, op. cit., p. 137.

[160] The FAI delegate at the May 1936 Zaragoza Congress of the CNT set the official record straight as to the role of the anarchist organization during the events of January 1933: ‘We fell in for a revolt prepared by the CNT. And we had to look on even as the Confederation’s mouthpiece disowned us… Not that we are complaining. We know that the labor organizations, whenever they get involved in the process of revolution, necessarily fall into contradictions. And contradiction is not the same as betrayal… To backpedal was impossible. There was ongoing pressure from every quarter in our movement. Anything that did not suit the current whipped up by revolutionary zeal became suspect. One has to know what it means to order a retreat, as was the intention upon learning that the railwaymen would not be striking.’ The FAI delegate’s statement concluded: ‘So the CNT does not acknowledge January? And the FAI does? The revolt was the CNT’s. The defense cadres are the CNT’s. And the order was handed down to them by the Confederation.’ (Solidaridad Obrera, various dates, May 1936). According to Juan Gómez Casas, the FAI had apparently been approached beforehand but had insisted on two preconditions before committing itself to supporting the revolt. First that five or six guerrilla fronts be opened up on a national basis to support the diversionary revolts in the villages. Second, to increase confederal dues to finance the purchase of the material wherewithal for the revolt.

[161] CNT, 11.2.1933.

[162] El movimiento libertario, op. cit.

[163] Letter from Peirats to Frank Mintz, 7.6.1985. ‘Specific’ means specifically anarchist as opposed to anarcho-syndicalist.

[164] Victor Alba, Histoire des républiques espagnoles, Vincennes, 1948, p. 257.

[165] If the written support of Levante and Asturias is included there were 632 groups representing 5,334 individuals (8.43 members per group). Neither the North nor the Canaries were represented. In an article appealing for more members, José Benet wrote: ‘At the moment there are many anarchists who do not work within the FAI, directly or indirectly. We remind all of these of the need to form groups and affiliate to the FAI.’ (‘Una llamada urgente’, Tierra y Libertad, 8.8.1933.) Figures for the FAI have been grossly exaggerated. David Miller, a writer on anarchism, puts the membership from 1930 onwards at about ’10,000 militant anarchists’ who exercised ‘hegemony over the union’ (Anarchism, London, 1984, p. 137). Brenan also puts the figure at ‘around 10,000’ (op. cit., p. 184, n.2) while Woodcock claims a 1936 membership of 30,000 jumping to 150,000 in 1937 (op. cit., p. 363). Hugh Thomas gives a 1936 figure of 160,000, ‘much the same’ as the Socialist Party (op. cit., p. 523).

[166] Memoria del pleno nacional de regionales de la FAI, Barcelona, 1933, p. 12.

[167] Solidaridad Obrera, 31.10.1933.

[168] Solidaridad Obrera, 17.11.1933.

[169] Paz, op. cit., p. 147.

[169] Paz, op. cit., p. 147.

[171] José Peirats, The CNT in the Spanish Revolution, Hastings, 2001, vol. 1, pp. 65–67

[172] Ibid Vol. I. Ch. 6.

[173] Diego Abad de Santillán, La FORA: ideología y trayectoria, Buenos Aires, 1933, p. 292.

[174] Ibid p. 288.

[175] Ricardo Mella, ‘La bancarrota de las creencias’, Cuestiones Sociales, Valencia, 1912.

[176] Santillán, Contribución, op. cit., p. 289.

[177] Letter from Diego Abad de Santillán, quoted in Miró, op. cit., pp. 65–68.

[178] Miró, op. cit., p. 54. Miró (p. 61) states that the proposal to expel the Nosotros group took place at the end of 1934. The proposal, which originated from the A group, whose members included Jacinto Torhyo, Abelardo Iglesias, Ricardo Mestre and other well-known anarchists, was based on the charge that the tactics of struggle advocated by the Nosotros group did not coincide with anarchist ideals and were more compatible with the communist tactic of creating the social revolution through a coup d’état.

[179] Bicicleta, op. cit.

[180] Miró, op. cit., p. 61.

[181] The Z group was an offshoot from the Nervio group, which had joined the FAI towards the end of 1935. It had almost absolute control of the Juventudes Libertarias of Catalonia until 1937. The group contained a considerable number of leading militants of the JJ.LL, and helped keep the anarchist youth organization in Catalonia under FAI influence.

[182] Juan García Oliver, El eco de los pasos, Barcelona, 1979, p. 156

[183] Diego Abad de Santillán, ‘Anarquistas Españoles y la Revolución de Octubre de 1934’, Tiempos Nuevos, II, No. 1, 10.1.1935, p. 5.

[184] Leviatán, No. 7, November 1934, pp. 11–15.

[185] Oliver, op. cit., pp. 163–164.

[186] Presencia, Paris, 1967, p. 46. According to Peirats, García Oliver attended a ‘restricted’ meeting of ‘notables’ immediately prior to the January CNT Regional Conference. This meeting, which apparently ‘took place behind the back of the organization’, was to forestall an active and dynamic anti-election campaign such as that which had cost the left the elections in November 1933. ‘Out of it’, notes Peirats, ‘undoubtedly came the summoning of the conference which did indeed recommend a low-key campaign against the elections’. The members of the Peninsular Committee of the FAI were also committed to supporting the left in the elections. ‘The initiative in the campaign’, wrote de Santillán, ‘originated with the Peninsular Committee of the FAI.’ (Diego Abad de Santillán, Contribución a la historia del movimiento obrero español, Vol. III, p. 267.)

[187] In 1931 the provinces with more than 35 per cent abstentions were: 35–40 per cent, Oviedo, Barcelona, Seville, Granada, Almeria, Murcia; 40–50 per cent, Cádiz, Málaga, La Coruña; 45 per cent+, Pontevedra. There was a solid CNT presence in all these provinces. In the 1933 elections the provinces with over 35 per cent abstentions were: 35–40 per cent, León, Almeria, Teruel, Lérida, Gerona, Barcelona; 40–45 per cent, La Coruña, Pontevedra, Zaragoza, Tarragona; 45 per cent+, Huesca, Seville, Cádiz, Málaga. In the 1936 elections the results of abstention were: 35–45 per cent, La Coruña, Lugo, Zamora, Cádiz, Almeria, Murcia; 40–45 per cent, Burgos, Guadalajara, Málaga; 45 per cent+, Teruel. (Source: Jean Becarud, ‘ La IIe République espagnole’, doctoral thesis, Fondation National des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 1962.)

[188] Abad de Santillán throws some light on how this shift came about: ‘Little by little we began to focus attention upon more substantial activities (i.e. conspiratorial struggle) and the FAI rallied the best equipped, most learned, most responsible militants. The dissidents took a back seat: we published magazines, books and pamphlets and held local, regional and national meetings with a certain caliber of agenda… Today as yesterday we have had hotheads, revolutionaries in a hurry. But the FAI ceased to be an exponent of such hotheadedness from at least 1934.’ (Letter in Miró, op. cit., pp. 65–68.) Progreso Fernández was one of those who ‘took a back seat’ by retiring from the FAI (Bicicleta, op. cit.) Peirats was another of the militants worried by this shift in direction. While agreeing in principle with tactical voting, ‘I quit the editorial board of Solidaridad Obrera in a gesture of protest. I was convinced that this change of pace spoke of the secret desire to see the Left win the elections. I had no shortage of evidence and grounds for believing this. Politicians call this disparity of conduct ‘the politics of anti-politics’. Indeed, unless it has a fixed position, valid for any eventuality, apoliticism loses its status as principle to become mere opportunism.’ (Peirats, Examen critico-constructivo del movimiento libertario español, Mexico, 1967, p. 27).

[189] Memoria del Pleno Peninsular celebrado el dia 30 de enero y 1^o de Febrero de 1936, El Comité, Barcelona, 1936

[190] Gómez Casas states that the ‘revolutionary preparedness studies’ had been drawn up by Santillán’s Nervio group. (Gómez Casas, op. cit., p. 210.)

[191] Memoria del Pleno Peninsular celebrado el dia 30 de enero y 1^o de Febrero de 1936, p. 11.

[192] Ibid. pp. 31–32.

[193] Peirats, La CNT, op. cit., Vol. I. Ch. 6.

[194] Paul Preston, The Coming of the Spanish Civil War, London, 1978, p. 178.

[195] Gómez Casas, op. cit., p. 213.

[196] César M. Lorenzo, Les Anarchistes espagnoles et le pouvoir, Paris, 1969, pp. 92–93. This was a reference to the resolution that attempted to spell out a clear definition of Libertarian Communism. Horacio Martínez Prieto, a building worker who joined the CNT only late in life because he considered himself a ‘pure’ anarchist, was to become the architect of governmental collaboration. His rise to prominence began and ended with the Republic: in 1932, a year in which he visited Russia, he was editor of the paper CNT, by 1934 he was vice-secretary of the National Committee of the CNT and by 1936 National Secretary. On his return from Bilbao in September 1936 where he had been the CNT representative of the Vizcayan Provincial Defense Committee he orchestrated a sustained campaign to ensure the CNT joined the Republican government. Following various National Plenums of Regionals, including one in October that he summoned on his own authority, he was awarded powers to negotiate CNT participation in government with Azaña and Caballero. In November 1936 he represented the FAI Peninsular Committee at the Barcelona Assembly which confirmed CNT–FAI participation in government. Denounced that same month as a traitor during a national conference of regional delegates, he stepped down as national secretary. The following month he was appointed director general of trade alongside former treintista Juan López. In December 1937 he headed the CNT delegation to an extraordinary congress of the AIT where he justified the CNT’s governmentalism. By April 1938 he was a CNT under-secretary for health in the Negrín Cabinet. At the end of the year he was fully committed to the FAI becoming a political party (‘Estudio Polemico’, Timón, Barcelona, September, 1938, p. 2) and was also urging that negotiations be opened with Franco.

[197] ‘Comunismo y anarquismo’, Tiempos Nuevos, 6.6.1936.

[198] Hobsbawm states that the call for resistance came from the Republican government, but for the anarchists, ‘the call came from a body the movement had always refused, on principle, to recognize.’ (Hobsbawm, op. cit., p. 91.)

[199] Santillán, La revolución y la guerra de España, Barcelona, 1937, p. 34.

[200] Ibid pp. 34–35.

[201] Federico Escofet, De una derrota a una victoria, Barcelona, 1984, p. 231.

[202] According to García Oliver, neither de Santillán, Montseny, Felipe Alaiz, Carbó ‘nor any of those who, at meetings and assemblies, set their caps at the leadership of the CNT–FAI, which was tacitly in the care of Ascaso, Oliver, and Durruti. They regarded themselves as the cream of the intelligentsia and this, it seems, exempted them from having to fight in the streets.’ Oliver, op. cit., p. 176.

[203] Solidaridad Obrera, 19.7.1936.

[204] Escofet, op. cit., p. 352.

[205] Marx and Engels, The Class Struggles in France, 1848–1850, Moscow, 1962, p. 130.

[206] Abel Paz, Paradigmo de una revolución, Choisy-le-roi, 1967, p. 144.

[207] Oliver, op. cit., p. 183.

[208] Ibid p. 145.

[209] Solidaridad Obrera, 19.7.1937.

[210] Hans Kaminski, Ceux de Barcelone, Paris, 1937, p. 181.

[211] Noir et Rouge (Paris), No. 36, December 1967.

[212] Reportaje del comité nacional de la CNT a la Conferencia de la AIT, December 1937.

[213] The question of winding up the Militias Committee and withdrawing from its various subsidiary organs came up for discussion a few weeks later during the regional Plenum of the Anarchist Groups of Catalonia at Sitges on 21 August 1936). The question was no longer being debated as a matter of principle, but as a ploy to force the withdrawal of the POUM and other minor Marxist and Catalanist parties from the Committee. (Acta del pleno regional de grupos anarquistas de Catalunya celebrado en Barcelona el 21 de agosto de 1936.) By ensuring POUM representation, Companys was playing a complicated double, perhaps even triple, game. According to Maximo García Venero, Companys summoned leading POUM members, including Julián Gorkin, and told them ‘If you do not help me to contain the anarchists I have made up my mind to resign the presidency.’ The POUM representatives managed to have themselves issued with several dozen machine guns, numerous rifles and ammunition. And, as was only logical, they were recognized as a force with a right to be heard and represented in Catalan life.’ (Maximo García Venero, Historia del nacionalismo catalán, Vol. II, Madrid, 1967, pp. 431–432.)

[214] Oliver, op. cit., p. 186.

[215] ‘[However] the FAI ideology had taken a step backward; the CNT in February had not given the cue to boycott the elections, and the restored Treintistas won acceptance for their point of view more than once in the weeks that followed.’ (Broué and Témime, op. cit., p. 57.)

[216] Oliver, op. cit., p. 186.

[217] Oliver, op. cit., p. 190.

[218] ‘Estado, anarquismo y la historia’, Juan Peiró, Timón, Barcelona, October, 1938, pp. 69–70.

[219] ‘El Comité Central de Milicias Antifascistas de Catalonia’, Solidaridad Obrera, 18.8.1937.

[220] This was the only meeting of the Militias Committee that Durruti attended as a CNT delegate. Perhaps he also sensed the contradictions that existed between the governmental role of the Militias Committee and the local organs of the social revolution.

[221] Santillán, op. cit., p. 169.

[222] Manuel Benavides, Guerra y revolución en Catalunya, Mexico, 1946, p. 190.

[223] Solidaridad Obrera, 9.10.1936, p. 3

[224] Machiavelli, The Prince, Ch. XVIII.

[225] Peirats, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 242–244.

[226] Santillán, ¿Por qué perdímos la guerra Madrid, 1975

[227] Diario Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalonia, 11.10.1936.

[228] Santillán, op. cit., pp. 244–245.

[229] Solidaridad Obrera, 4.11.1936.

[230] Carr, The Spanish Tragedy, op. cit., p. 112.

[231] Marcos Alcón, ‘Recordando el 19 de Julio de 1936’, Espoir, 20.7.1975, p. 3.

[232] Alejandro Gilabert, ‘La hora del anarquismo’, La Protesta, Buenos Aires. Quoted in Las pendientes resbalizadas, Montevideo, 1939, pp. 85–86.

[233] Sébastien Faure, ‘La pointe fatale’, Le Libertaire, No. 559, 22.7.1937.

[234] Caballero’s first offer of a ministry without portfolio was accepted in principle by the National Committee of the CNT headed by David Antona, acting general secretary following Horacio Prieto’s resignation. This provisional (and secret) decision (which had designated Antonio Moreno as the ministerial candidate) was rejected by a National Plenum of the CNT (i.e. the base) on 3 September. By this time, however, the Catalan Regional Committee of the CNT had agreed to participate in the Generalidad government, but had gone without the luxury of referring back to representatives of the rank and file. An alternative suggestion was made that a national government be formed by the two main trade union bodies — the CNT and the socialist UGT and presided over by Largo Caballero. By the second week in September Horacio Prieto had managed to return to Madrid from the Basque country where he had been cut off by the rising. He reassumed the role of General Secretary and reasserted his considerable influence over the National Committee. At a meeting in Valencia he openly criticized the anti-collaborationist decision of the National Plenum and openly advocated CNT participation, provided it had several ministries of note, the Levante Regional Committee supported him. The CNT National Committee was no longer repudiating involvement in politics as a matter of principle — it was merely haggling over the price. A CNT–FAI think tank consisting of Juan López for Levante, Federica Montseny for Catalonia and Aurelio Fernández for the Asturias came up with proposals for a National Defense Council consisting of five delegates from the CNT, five from the UGT and four Republicans headed by Largo Caballero with Manuel Azaña as President. Horacio Prieto convened a further two National Plenums before the earlier decision was finally revoked, one on 28 September and another on 18 October. It was at the latter that the decision, in principle, was taken to join the central government. It was left to Horacio Prieto to handle the details. Prieto proposed the names of Juan López and Joan Peiró, both former treintistas, and Federica Montseny and García Oliver as ‘radical members of the movement in their capacity as FAI militants.’ (Juan Gómez Casas, op. cit., p. 235). Prieto also offered Pestaña a governmental portfolio on the condition he abandon the Partido Sindicalista, but he rejected the offer, quite logically, on the grounds that it was for the CNT to abandon its position, having abandoned its principles. Pestaña commented, somewhat wryly, on the appointment of the anarchist ministers: ‘They have offered them nominal portfolios without any executive value at this moment in time in order to prevent them creating greater problems. What can García Oliver do in the Ministry of Justice? And what can Federica do in a Ministry of Health, which does not exist? What industry is Peiró going to lead if the only one there is of war and Largo Caballero controls that? Apart from the fact that Juan López knows nothing of commerce, the truth is although he knows a lot about industry, neither can he achieve a great deal, because all foreign purchases, war material above all else, also comes under the control of the Chief of State. They have gone in as peasants, to give all with nothing in return, other than perhaps personal vanity.’ (De Lera, op. cit., p. 335). There is considerable confusion surrounding Prieto’s reappointment as CNT National Secretary, he having resigned on a matter of principle at the Zaragoza Congress in May that year. According to his son-in-law (César Lorenzo, op. cit., p. 221) he was reinstated by a ‘reunion of militants’ in June, pending a national referendum. This referendum appears never to have taken place. The ‘reunion of militants’, whoever they might have been, operated in a manifestly undemocratic way. Just weeks earlier the Zaragoza Congress had established clear norms for office holders (only one year at a time and no second reelection). Also, one could ask what views Prieto held with regard to the resolutions concerning Libertarian Communism which had been approved by the rank and file at the Zaragoza Congress, resolutions which he clearly disagreed with, having chosen to resign over them.

[235] On 4 October 1936, FAI members Dionisio Eroles and Aurelio Fernández were appointed executive members of the Council of Safety, a body set up under the egis of the Generalitat to ‘unify’ the various security services. Three weeks later, on 23 October, the obsession of the CNT–FAI leadership with ‘antifascist unity’ widened still further with the signing of the ‘Pact of Unity’ between the CNT and FAI and the PSUC in Catalonia. Article 2 of this agreement stated that although they supported collectivization ‘of everything which may be essential in the interests of the war’, the Council’s understanding was that ‘this collectivization would fail to produce the desired results unless overseen and orchestrated by a body genuinely representative of the ‘collectivity’, in this instance the Generalitat Council. ‘With regard to small industry, we do not advocate collectivization here except in cases of sedition by owners or of urgent war needs. Wheresoever small industries may be collectivized on grounds of war needs, the expropriated owners are to be compensated in such a way as to ensure their livelihoods… In the event of collectivization of foreign undertakings, a compensation formula shall be agreed which is equal to the total capital. We advocate a single command to orchestrate the actions of every combat unit, the introduction of a conscript militia and its conversion into a great People’s Army, and the strengthening of discipline…’ Article 15, however, showed just how far down the road of bureaucratic conservatism this once great libertarian organization had gone: ‘We are agreed upon common action to stamp out the harmful activities of uncontrollable groups which, out of lack of understanding or malice, pose a threat to the implementation of this program.’

[236] Peirats, op. cit., Vol. II. Ch. 24.

[237] Solidaridad Obrera, 10.8.1937.

[238] Ibid.

[239] Ibid 12.10.1937.

[240] El Amigo del Pueblo, No. 6, 12.8.1937.

[241] At the hands of Prieto’s SIM (Servicio de Investigación Militar, the Departamento Especial de Información de Estado (DEDIDE) under Julian Zugazagoitia, the NKVD – and even the killers of the CNT–FAI’s ‘Special Services’ directorate headed by Manuel Escorza del Val, controlled by the CNT’s Regional (Catalan) and National Committees.