CNT in the Spanish Revolution Volume 1

José Peirats, Chris Ealham, Chris Ealham

• Publisher: PM Press
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781604865974
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Anarchism
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The CNT in the Spanish Revolution is the history of one of the most original and audacious, and arguably also the most far-reaching, of all the twentieth-century revolutions. It is the history of the giddy years of political change and hope in 1930s Spain, when the so-called 'Generation of '36', Peirats' own generation, rose up against the oppressive structures of Spanish society. It is also a history of a revolution that failed, crushed in the jaws of its enemies on both the reformist left and the reactionary right.

José Peirats' account is effectively the official CNT history of the war, passionate, partisan but, above all, intelligent. Its huge sweeping canvas covers all areas of the anarchist experience—the spontaneous militias, the revolutionary collectives, the moral dilemmas occasioned by the clash of revolutionary ideals and the stark reality of the war effort against Franco and his German Nazi and Italian Fascist allies.

This new edition is carefully indexed in a way that converts the work into a usable tool for historians and makes it much easier for the general reader to dip in with greater purpose and pleasure.

CHAPTER ONE

From the Bellas Artes Congress to the Primo de Rivera dictatorship

The climate that existed before 30 October 1910 — this being the birthdate¹ of the CNT — was such as to favour the founding of a nationwide, revolutionary labour organisation. The memory of the First International had not faded from workers’ minds. Apart from brief interruptions, anarchist-oriented, revolutionary forms of labour organisation had been commonplace during the whole period leading up to the foundation of the CNT.²

Events in Barcelona in 1909, when the need for some sort of solidarity action by all Spanish workers made itself so sorely felt, strengthened the determination to coordinate the fragmented forces across the country. However, the immediate aftermath of the 1909 ‘Tragic Week’ and the tremendous repression, culminating in the firing squads on Montjuïc, retarded the crystallisation of the Confederation.³

The so-called Bellas Artes Congress held at the Palace of Fine Arts in the Catalan capital on 8–10 September 1911, drew together a huge number of delegates from all parts of Spain. Little is known of its resolutions and proceedings, because of the harsh repression incurred by one of these resolutions, which called for a nationwide general strike in protest at the carnage in Morocco⁴ and in solidarity with the strikers at the Bilbao steel foundries.⁵ The CNT began its revolutionary career with a show of strength in the streets, fighting against militarism and Spain’s ruling castes and earning the organisation an automatic ban. Not until 1914 did the CNT regain its right to a legal existence.

Spanish neutrality during the war in Europe was a stimulus to the class sentiment of the proletariat in industrial areas such as Catalonia. The manpower requirements of industries supplying the needs of both warring camps had two immediate effects: to stimulate both the ambitions of nascent capitalism and also the consequent demands of the proletariat. The trade union movement acquired new meaning for the people. Besides the problem of starvation wages, there was the matter of the rising cost of living.⁶ Capitalising on the effervescence created by these two problems, the republican parties, the PSOE⁷ and Marcel·lí Domingo’s quasi-socialist party⁸ made their play. The so-called ‘ Assembly of Parliamentarians’,⁹ while heralded with the trumpet blasts of a revolutionary apocalypse, was peacefully broken up by nothing more than a decree from the government.¹⁰ That episode put paid to working people’s faith in the shepherds of politics. As a result, the CNT’s unionism discovered its apolitical ideology. The betrayal by the bulk of the republican leadership, including the loud-mouth Alejandro Lerroux,¹¹ culminated in the general strike of 1917, one of the most unanimous revolts by the people of Spain.¹² Those political leaders who were convicted won their freedom the following year owing to an amnesty granted immediately before elections which enabled many of them to secure a parliamentary seat. A telling indication of the intentions of the politicians is to be found in the celebrated retort by Indalecio Prieto¹³ to the majority in congress: ‘Sure, we gave weapons to the people. But it is equally true that we did not give them ammunition.’ ¹⁴

The disrepute of politics was sealed. As the labouring masses began to discover their own strength, they drifted away from the parliamentary quagmire.

Another event that same year endowed the spirit of the workers with a new zeal: the Russian Revolution. The Iberian proletariat greeted this event with genuine enthusiasm.¹⁵

The July 1918 Sants regional congress of the Catalan CNT signalled a new stage of organisational maturity with the establishment of the Sindicatos Únicos, which embraced the various associations in any given branch of industry.¹⁶ A provisional national committee was also appointed, which controlled the direction of the CNT until the 1919 La Comedia national congress in Madrid.¹⁷ One of the Sants congress’s most important resolutions was the decision to organise a propaganda campaign throughout Spain. Many of the meetings in this campaign coincided with regional peasant congresses. Various labour associations and federations affiliated to the CNT en bloc as a result of this travelling roadshow which saw the Confederation’s finest public speakers penetrate into even the most far-flung corners of the peninsula. The rate of recruitment was so promising that the government deemed it necessary to put a stop to the campaign, jailing a huge number of the propagandists.¹⁸ When this was deemed insufficient, the organisation per se was driven underground again and its press organs shut down by governmental order. The workers retaliated, and a few weeks later came the celebrated ‘ La Canadiense’ strike, perhaps the best organised strike by the CNT proletariat, and maybe even one of the best organised in the whole world.¹⁹

1919 found Catalan anarcho-syndicalism at its acme. In Catalonia alone, the Confederation numbered half a million members.²⁰ Alarmed, the bourgeoisie resolved to engage cenetistas in battle, mobilising gangs of paid gunmen whose dastardly deeds were performed under the aegis of the civil authorities.²¹ Activists Pau Sabater²² and José Castillo²³ were the first victims of the guns of these mercenaries. But the intrigue of the employers reached further than this. By way of a reply to the many strikes in Catalonia, in November 1919 there was a lockout by the bosses.²⁴ The lockout lasted for four weeks but was converted into a strike by the workers and, although their energies visibly declined in week ten, the stoppage was prolonged into a twelfth week. This dispute affected upwards of 200,000 workers and ended in a calamitous defeat for the proletariat. It was against this background that the La Comedia congress was held.

The La Comedia congress was attended by more than 450 delegates representing over 700,000 cenetistas.²⁵ Among the accords the one concerned with the statement of the principles of the CNT deserves special mention. It went as follows:

To congress. Bearing in mind that the tendency most strongly manifested in the bosom of workers’ organisations in every country is the one aiming at the complete and absolute moral, economic and political liberation of mankind, and considering that this goal cannot be attained until such time as the land, means of production and exchange have been socialised and the overweening power of the state has vanished, the undersigned delegates suggest that, in accordance with the essential postulates of the First International, it declares the desired end of the CNT to be anarchist communism.

This proposition carried the signatures of Josep Canela,²⁶ Eusebi Carbó,²⁷ Saturnino Meca,²⁸ Paulino Díez,²⁹ Antonio Jurado,³⁰ Enrique Sarralley, Simó Piera,³¹ Mateo Mariné, Enrique Aparicio, Diego Larrosa, Vicente Barco, Emilio Molina,³² Ángel Pestaña,³³ Juan José Carrión,³⁴ Emilio Chivinello, Román Cortés, Mauro Bajatierra,³⁵ the national committee and other delegates.

Following this statement of principles, the congress adopted the following proposition regarding tactics:

Congress agrees that the union of the proletariat ought to be attained through direct action, jettisoning the archaic systems hitherto employed. It condemns the formation of the ‘ Mixed Commission’ of Barcelona but recommends that everyone be satisfied with the declaration made by the regional committee of the CNT in Catalonia, in which it acknowledges its error and undertakes to struggle in accordance with the arrangements and procedures espoused by the Confederation.³⁶ It praises also the repudiation of any findings and agreements the government may have promulgated to regulate the working conditions of farm workers, agreements which tend to split the working class by means of puerile diversions and lead it away from the road to emancipation. The working party (ponencia) recognises the important role played by sabotage as a weapon in the struggle against capital, but recommends that this measure be used intelligently and only where it is deemed proper, opportune and effective.

The congress agenda contained an item concerning unity with the UGT. Some delegations, including the one from Asturias, were fierce in their advocacy of the fusion of the two trade union bodies.³⁷ At the conclusion of the debate, the following proposition from Barcelona’s Construction Union³⁸ was approved:

Given that the tactics and ideas of the CNT and the UGT are diametrically opposed and well defined and, therefore, known to all, we take the line that the amalgamation of the two bodies should not occur. Instead, because the CNT represents a membership tally three times greater than the UGT, the workers inside the UGT should first be absorbed [by the CNT]. Secondly, since the Confederation’s ideas and tactics are known to all and since elements from the UGT have failed to accept their invitation to this congress, they are clearly in disagreement with our ideas and with our desire for unification. It follows therefore that to hold another pro-unity congress would be a pointless exercise, since they would be unable to win us over or bring us round to their way of thinking. Because of this, we propose to congress that the Confederation draft a manifesto addressed to all Spanish workers, giving them a period of three months during which to affiliate to the Confederation, whereafter those unions which fail to do so will be declared yellow and outside the labour movement.

Congress had to tackle the burning issue of the Russian Revolution and the connected question of affiliation to the Third International. The achievement of the Russian people galvanised the world’s proletariat, who greeted it as the event of the century. Spanish workers, and in particular the CNT, which had just raised the demand for the absolute emancipation of mankind from capitalist tyranny, were electrified by Russian events. However, amid the euphoria of enthusiasm, analytical minds and prophetic voices were not missing. Take the case of Eleuterio Quintanilla³⁹ who had this to say on the topic:

The Russian Revolution does not embody our ideas; it is a revolution of a socialist tenor… Its direction and guidance are determined, not by the workers’ interventions, but by those of the political parties. To ensure that Europe’s central and western nations do not surround and strangle the Russian people, we must seek an understanding with the other workers of the world; yet, because I consider the Third International to be political, it is my opinion and belief that there is no reason for the CNT to be represented in it.

Even so, congress approved the following resolution:

The national committee, by way of synthesising the thoughts expressed by the various speakers who have addressed us today, proposes: firstly, that the CNT declare itself a staunch advocate of the principles of the First International as upheld by Bakunin; and secondly, declares that it is affiliating provisionally to the Communist [i.e. Third] International on account of its revolutionary tenor, until such time as the CNT organises a worldwide labour congress that can agree and determine the conditions on which the authentic International of the workers will be governed.⁴⁰

With the congress closed, the martyrdom of the Catalan proletari...