Background

In order to better understand the Revolution, it helps to look at the conditions people were living in at the time. The revolution in Spain did not "just happen". Anarchist thought and ways of organising had been prevalent there for  nearly seventy years, by the time of the Revolution. There was a healthy history of persistent anarchist agitation and revolutionary struggle. Spain had seen a long series of peasant uprisings, insurrections, industrial strikes, protests, sabotage and other forms of direct action. It was their direct involvement in these events, that had prepared and equipped the peasants and workers to organise resistance to the attempted fascist coup in July 1936 and, when they had defeated it in the streets, to take control of the economy and all aspects of their lives.

The old order: private boxes at the bullring & shoe shining the clergy and police

During the First World War Spain had remained neutral, which meant large foreign markets for export of agricultural goods, which, combined with the industrial development in (mainly) Catalonia, meant a boom time. However, in the 1930's, after the Wall Street crash, the whole of Europe was experiencing one of it's worst ever slumps. To make it worse for the Spanish people, Britain and France imposed tariffs barring their exports. In 1936 one million out of Spain's workforce of 3 million, were unemployed (with no dole!); prices had risen by 80% in the previous 5 years, and 67% of the land was 'owned' by 2% of the population. Many workers and peasants experienced major hardship.

The Catholic church was also massively powerful and corrupt (a third of the land was 'owned' by the Jesuits alone!), with priests overtly living in luxury while the peasants around them often starved and were kept illiterate (40% couldn't read or write).  It's not a great surprise, then, that the church was commonly hated..

The C.N.T (Confederacion Nacional Trabajo - National Confederation of Workers)

The C.N.T was the biggest union in Spain at the time, with one million members and it's own daily newspaper, Solidaridad Obrera, (compared to the P.O.U.M, it's nearest rival, who had barely 10,000 members in 1936). Along with it's sister union the F.A.I. (the Iberian Anarchist Federation) the C.N.T was a revolutionary union, concerned with the dignity of it's  workers as well as their pay. The strength of the C.N.T and the widespread acceptance of anarchism, cannot be separated from the structure and tactics of the C.N.T.

 The practice of direct action and solidarity encouraged workers to rely on themselves to  sort out their own problems. The decentralised structure of the anarchist unions had an educational effect on their members. By discussing issues, tactics, ideals and politics in their union assemblies, the members of the union educated themselves and, by managing themselves in their struggles, prepared themselves for a free society.

Through the C.N.T. anarchists principles were applied in people's everyday lives, and their effectiveness ensured that they became commonplace and accepted in a large section of the population. It showed, in practice, that bosses (capitalist as well as union ones) were not needed (out of 1 million members there was only one paid administrator in the C.N.T!). It showed in a very practical way, that workers can manage their own affairs directly and that anarchist principles were not utopian. .

Lead Up To The Revolution

In 1931 a coalition of Republicans and Democrats were elected to power but didn't do much to improve the living conditions for the vast majority of workers. Unemployment stayed high and the working class organisations, especially the CNT, suffered repression with many members being imprisoned. By June 1933 there were 9,000 political prisoners. This new government refused to take on the industrialists, landowners, army officers and bishops. It would not stand up to that minority which owned all the wealth and had all the real power. In the election of 1933 a right-wing coalition came to power.. The wealthy and powerful now had state power and were determined to use it to smash working class and peasant resistance. The right went on the offensive.

Of course, the working class fought back. There were risings in Catalonia and Asturias. Workplaces were taken over and union members took up arms against the state. Unfortunately they were isolated from the rest of the country and were viciously repressed. The massacre that followed the defeat in Asturias was unprecedented with at least 3,000 being executed. But the spark of revolution had been lit!

In the elections of May 1936, there was a landslide vote for the left, bringing the social democrat government of Largo Caballero to power.

The Attempted Fascist Coup

At the same time Moroccan revolutionaries were preparing to kick out Spanish colonial rule and had the support of the C.N.T.  All they lacked was arms. The French Popular Front ("socialist") - the only ones in a position to provide the arms to do the job - refused point blank to do so, and this left the way open to Franco, famed for his viciousness as a general, and his army of fascists, who launched a putsch in Morocco in July 1936, then moved north into Spain .Those in power planned to strike a deal with Franco, which was only smashed by the activity of the organised working class.

Civil War

In certain parts of the country, the fascists made some headway, largely because the government hesitated in responding, and there was little opposition. Andalusia was captured by Franco's troops and by July 21st, a third of the country had fallen. But in Catalonia, and especially in Barcelona, the workers of the CNT showed how to fight!  They declared a general strike and took to the streets looking for arms which the government refused to give them. In the end they stormed the barracks, and took what they needed. They were aided by soldiers who had remained loyal, some of whom turned their guns on their officers.

There is absolutely no doubt that the initial response to Franco's coup was determined by the fact that the CNT and its anarchist ideas held sway among large sections of the working class. There was no waiting around for government ministers to act, the workers took control. Anarchist influence could be seen in the formation of the militias, the expropriation and reorganisation of the land, and the seizures in industry.

Workers joined the militias because they wanted to. They understood the need to fight and the necessity of creating a "popular army". They accepted discipline not because they were told to but because they understood the need to act in a co-ordinated manner

The Durruti column (part of the anarchist militias), for example, showed how to fight fascism. They understood that a civil war is a political battle, not just a military conflict. As they gained victory after victory they encouraged peasants to take over the land and collectivise.

At the time of the election, it should be remembered, the Spanish Communist Party was barely existent, but in his efforts to counter the libertarian forces, Stalin, who provided (and crucially, controlled the distribution of) arms, practically imported a ready made party which gained positions of control and influence.

Although everyone who saw the militias in action had nothing but praise for the heroism they witnessed, the government made a deliberate choice. It chose to starve the revolutionary workers of arms. It decided that defeating the revolution was more important than defeating fascism!

George Orwell (who fought in one of the POUM militias) described the arms situation on the Aragon front. The infantry "were far worse armed than an English public school Officers Training Corps, with worn out Mauser rifles which usually jammed after five shots; approximately one machine gun to fifty men (sic) and one pistol or revolver to about thirty men (sic). These weapons, so necessary in trench warfare, were not issued by the government.... A government which sends boys of fifteen to the front with rifles forty years old and keeps its biggest men and newest weapons In the rear is manifestly more afraid of the revolution than the fascists".

To stack the odds against the working class revolutionaries of Spain even further, is the fact that Hitler and Mussolini were providing massive numbers of troops, tanks, planes etc to kill off the Revolution (though, officially they weren't even there!). They were using Spain as a dress rehearsal for the 2nd world war. In February 1937, there was a total of 50,000 Italian troops in Spain, fighting alongside Franco's! One of Franco's officers was even quoted as saying "What won the war for the nationalist army was it's superior artillery and bombing capacity (both provided by Germany and Italy). You could say the Condor Legion won the war "
 

 The Social Revolution

In 1936, although the Popular Front government still existed it had no power. It was shorn of the repressive organs of the state. Power was split into countless fragments and scattered in a thousand towns and villages among the revolutionary committees that had taken control of the land and factories, the transport and communication systems, the police and the army. The military, economic and political struggle carried on independently of the government - or rather, in spite of it!

Everywhere change was apparent. The whole character of the country changed. Posh restaurants no longer existed. Collective eating houses took their place. A spirit of comradeship was in the air. This was much more than a civil war - this was the social revolution!

The role of women changed. They were in the militias and fought alongside the men as equals. They were organising the collectives and taking up the fight.The Anarchist women's organisation, Mujeres Libres (Free Women), had 30,000 members. It had been active before the Civil War organising women workers and distributing information on contraception. During the war abortion was legalised in the 'republican zone'. Centres were opened for women, including unmarried mothers and prostitutes.

 

In some of the places controlled by the C.N.T. money was abolished, all resources were colletivized with factories and buses emblazoned with the notice "Incautado" (impounded). The workers were now in control!

They had no one to rely on but themselves, and the people understood that. When harvest time came, people were mobilized street by street, the crops being mainly used to feed the fighters at the front. Production was sharply stepped up everywhere, which, when we consider the conditions in which this was happening, is something of an economic miracle! Collectivisation was working!

Workers in the fields rise while churches are bricked up!

The people established their own schools and maternity services; they overhauled the medical services and the gas, water, power and railway services. In Villajoyosa, they built a dam to bring water to a million almond trees! For the first time ever, the Spanish tram system was working properly, the trams painted red and black - the colours of the Revolution!

Freedom Denied

From the moment of Stalin's intervention, with supplies of arms ( all of which were paid for in Spanish gold, and precious few of which actually made it to the fighters at the front!)  the writing was on the wall for the Revolution. With the Russian Communists just a short time away from signing an agreement with Hitler and supplying arms to Mussolini for his invasion of Abyssinia, Stalin's grip over the Spanish Republican government grew and grew. He gradually won over the richer farmers and the moderate bourgeoisie and counter-revolutionary influence took hold. In December, Pravda announced that "in Catalunia the mopping up of Trotskyists and anarcho-syndicalists had already begun"!

In May 1937, after weapons had been completely withheld from Catalonia, the Communists and the right launched their decisive attack on the anarchists and the socialist POUM. After a week of ferocious fighting, which left 500 dead and 1,000 wounded, the C.N.T were driven out of the telephone exchange in Barcelona. The government sent in 6,000 men to disarm the workers, and, effectively, that was that for the revolution - except, of course for the slaughter, torture and repression that followed!

Efficiently organised as the Spanish anarchists had been, this cannot change the fact that Franco's forces and the Communists had access to more and better weapons!

If you tolerate this then you're children will be next...

Conclusions

The scale of the achievements and the many successes of the Spanish The Revolution speak loud of the both the heroism of the Spanish workers and peasants, and of the fact that anarchist forms of organisation - direct action, solidarity and self-management - are not utopian dreams but effective ways of living and working.

We must never forget that the people of Spain had to struggle against enormous odds - from the obvious, ie Franco and his forces, and the thousands of troops and weapons provided by Mussolini and Hitler, to the less obvious, Stalin's attempts to remove the libertarian nature of the revolution; and the lack of support from neighbouring 'social-democratic' governments,

In the words of Noam Chomsky, the Spanish Revolution was "maybe the most successful example of people taking their lives into their own hands" .

Antonia Fontillas, a woman who participated in the Spanish Revolution, has this to say:-   "We supported the concept of loyalty, honesty. Those are the basic concepts of anarchism.....after all, it's about breaking down barriers; not to be subservient and fight to become decent men and women for our own dignity......i think it is our mission as men and women, to defend our dignity, our right to be, our freedom either as a collective group or as an individual."