Benutzereinstellungen

Neue Veranstaltungshinweise

Iberia

Es wurden keine neuen Veranstaltungshinweise in der letzten Woche veröffentlicht

Kommende Veranstaltungen

Iberia | History of anarchism

Keine kommenden Veranstaltungen veröffentlicht
Recent articles by Jorge Valadas
This author has not submitted any other articles.
Recent Articles about Iberia History of anarchism

«Ο Ντουρούτι σ&... Aug 02 23 by Αργύρης Αργυριάδης

Neno Vasco por Neno Vasco: fragmentos autobiográficos de um anarquista Mar 21 23 by Thiago Lemos Silva

Σαμπατέ: Aντίσ&... Mar 13 23 by Αργύρης Αργυριάδης

Review of Ready for Revolution, by Jorge Valadas

category iberia | history of anarchism | review author Sunday December 07, 2014 00:26author by Jorge Valadas Report this post to the editors

A really sharp review of Agustin Guillamon’s Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938 was just published on H-net. Links to the original below.
rr.jpg


Agustin Guillamon. Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938.
Translated by Paul Sharkey.
Oakland: AK Press, 2014. 260 pp. $14.95 (paper), ISBN 978-1-84935-142-3.

Reviewed by Jorge Valadas
Published on H-Socialisms (December, 2014)
Commissioned by Gary Roth
CNT Defense Committees

A vast literature on the Spanish Revolution already exists, and one tends to think that everything about it has been written previously. This is just not true! Augustín Guillamón brings us new proof of how rich and complex this episode of history is and how full of contemporary relevance it remains. The author is an independent historian, who has already written several books on the period.[1] Based on extensive archival research, Guillamón views these events from the side of the radicals. His previous books are centered on the autonomous activity of workers; in other words, the actions taken by workers independently of the organizations which claimed to represent them. In particular, he analyzes the actions, tactics, and strategies of the large institutionalized organizations from the perspective of the rank and file.

In Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938, Guillamón revisits the Spanish Revolution. The Defense Committees were rank-and-file organizations created by members of the anarcho-syndicalist union Confederación National del Trabajo (CNT), which was by far the dominant union force in Barcelona in the 1930s. If the Defense Committees were tied to the union locals of the CNT, they were also independent of the CNT affiliate, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). Guillamón describes the revolutionary process through the life of these committees, their debates, hesitations, decisions, and actions. He begins with the formation of the Defense Committees.

After the failure of the 1933 insurrection, the CNT was both disorganized and greatly diminished in size and effectiveness. Massive state repression had sent its most active militants to prison. During the Asturias working-class insurrection of 1934, the CNT was unable to take part in its stronghold in Barcelona. In the beginning, the debate in the Defense Committees focused on the question of armed direct action in order to counteract underworld assassins who targeted union activists at the behest of individual employers and employer associations. These committees later became local rank-and-file organizations, based in the politically and socially vibrant working-class districts of Barcelona.[2] Guillamón recounts the internal debates within the Defense Committees as they quickly enlarged their fields of activity from self-defense to include other aspects of the social movement.

What is particularly pertinent in Guillamón’s work is the insistence he places on the gap which existed between the political positions of these committees and the strategies of the majority of the anarchist leaders. Even before the participation of the anarchist leaders in the Republican government, a clear separation existed between the rank and file and the top echelons of the anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movement, the so-called Higher Committees of the CNT-FAI. The CNT was far from being a monolithic organization, as is poignantly described by Guillamón. Its leadership was not unified, members did not necessarily follow or accept decisions made by its leadership council, and a variety of ideologies, strategies, and tactics were pursued simultaneously. It was precisely this great diversity of ideas and actions that made the CNT so vibrant and powerful. One can say that there was not one CNT, but several CNTs. That being said, specific ideologies and tactics came to the fore, especially during moments of crisis, often accompanied by fierce resistance and controversy. The pattern of leadership-imposed resolutions and the opposition to them was especially evident in the decision to participate in the post-July 1936 national government, and later on, in the conciliatory attitude adopted during the May 1937 events.

Guillamón also shows how, even before the July 1936 military revolt, military questions and the role of violent action were essential to the debates inside the Defense Committees. In response to the military coup, these questions immediately became topical. Guillamón provides a detailed and precise account of this development, especially the suddenness with which such decisions were made. What comes to the fore is the initiative and creativity of the rank-and-file CNT workers who embraced an outright fight against the military. The Defense Committees had been preparing for such a situation, but ultimately things did not happen as hoped. In any case, it was their experience making autonomous decisions rather than following the dictates of the organized political parties and unions that allowed them initially to overwhelm and defeat the fascist soldiers and their allies.

After the victory over the military, the Defense Committees assumed the task of organizing the ongoing defense of the city. For a few short weeks, they also took over the functions normally handled by the city administration. This gave them real power. It was precisely this new rank-and-file power which the bourgeoisie was eager to destroy when the Higher Committees of the anarchist movement decided to participate in the coalition government, thereby neutralizing the thrust of the Defense Committees towards working-class self-governance. This was the first battle lost by Defense Committees. As Guillamón shows, a fierce debate, with considerable opposition, took place inside the anarcho-syndicalist movement between its leadership in the Higher Committees and the rank and file that identified with the Defense Committees. The government’s concern was the militarization of the appointed local defense groups, the Control Patrols, and their subsequent integration or wholesale replacement within the government’s security forces.

Guillamón’s hypothesis is worth considering. According to him, the Defense Committees had the potential to evolve into revolutionary organizations in the working-class districts. Their evolution was blocked by the strategies and tactics used by the CNT’s Higher Committees. For this, the Control Patrols were armed by the government in October 1936 as a means to neutralize and disband the locally constituted Defense Committees. It should also be noted that the Defense Committees in any case were not organs of direct democracy and did not represent the working class at large. They were not elected, but instead included CNT members known locally as the most militant. Their composition was based on local networking relations, rather than a directly democratic process. This characteristic explains, in part, their inability to effectively oppose the Higher Committees and maintain their autonomy.

Finally, the struggle over supplies became the critical crisis for the Defense Committees. On that question, the Defense Committees confronted again the government’s bureaucracy and security forces, since the departments in charge of economic distribution were under the control of the Stalinists of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC). The pages in which Guillamón describes the debates between the Defense Committees and the Agriculture and Economy Department in the Companys government are most helpful in understanding the Stalinist point of view. Joan Comorera, a hard-line communist in charge of the department, was one of the most violent opponents of the independent leftists clustered in the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and the CNT radicals in the Defense Committees, who, he suggested, acted as “agents provocateurs … poisoning militants’ minds” (p. 142). To defend the state bureaucracy, he accused the Defense Committees of creating their own separate bureaucracy and falsely accused them of having ties to the local mafias. To counteract their influence, he also established a marketplace and retail distribution network that bypassed them altogether. In this confrontation, the Defense Committees did not have the full support of the CNT-FAI Higher Committees, which were consumed by their participation in the Republican government’s antifascist alliance.

This key question about the supply of goods marked a turning point in the revolutionary process. The strikes and riots against the lack of affordable food and other basic products, the high interest rates, and black market activities were the spark for the May 1937 events.[3] The communist attempt to regain control of Barcelona’s streets and social spaces from the radical tendencies represented by the Defense Committees and other groupings should be understood in this light. The defeat of the radicals meant the crushing of the spirit of autonomy that was still so alive and active in parts of the CNT and POUM rank and file. The reinforcements provided to the Republican government by the Stalinists marked the end of the revolutionary struggle. It was a victory of collaborationism versus the militance of the rank and file. The revolutionary spirit was drowned first by the civil war directed against it and then by the regular war against the fascists that buried it altogether: the wars devoured the Revolution.

Guillamón’s text is accompanied by an excellent glossary, which itself serves as a rich introduction to the groups and individuals of the Spanish Revolution. Paul Sharkey’s first-rate translation preserves the spirit and rigor of the original text.


Notes

[1]. See the interview with Augustín Guillamón by Paul Sharkey, where the author talks about his political itinerary, interests, and research projects: http://bataillesocialiste.wordpress.com/2014/08/21/inte...2013/.

[2]. On the intense social and political life of the working-class districts of Barcelona, see Chris Ealham, “An imaginary geography: ideology, urban space and protest in the creation of Barcelona’s Chinatown, c. 1835-1936,” International Review of Social History 50, no. 3 (2005): 373-397. Ealham demonstrates that what was perceived by the bourgeoisie as “zones of misery, disorder and dangerous classes” were in fact a particular field of social and political “worker’s order.” Also see Ealham’s Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Barcelona, 1898-1937 (AK Press: 2010).

[3]. See Guillamón’s recent book on this period: La Guerra Del Pan: Hambre y violencia en la Barcelona revolucionaria, de diciembre de 1936 a mayo de 1937 [The Bread War: Hunger and Violence in Revolutionary Barcelona from December 1936 to May 1937] (Barcelona: Aldarull/Dskntrl, 2014).

Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=42026

Citation: Jorge Valadas. Review of Guillamon, Agustin, Ready for Revolution: The CNT Defense Committees in Barcelona, 1933-1938. H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews. December, 2014.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=42026
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Verwandter Link: http://www.revolutionbythebook.akpress.org/review-of-ready-for-revolution-by-jorge-valadas/
author by Wayne Pricepublication date Tue Dec 09, 2014 08:54author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This is a fine review of a very important book on the Spanish revolution of the thirties. I also found the interview by Paul Sharkey to be excellent.

Austin Guillamon has also written the book, The Friends of Durruti: 1937--1939 (1996), also translated by Sharkey. It was originally published in his journal Balance, and now published by AK Press. It is perhaps the best single account of the most advanced, revolutionary, wing of revolutionary anarchism in that revolution. However, reading it shows that Guillamon is strongly influenced by Bordigaism, which is both authoritarian and statically inflexible. But everything he writes is well worth reading and thinking about.

 
This page can be viewed in
English Italiano Deutsch

Iberia | History of anarchism | en

Fri 29 Mar, 03:52

browse text browse image

19_july.png imageJuly 19: When the people rise up, they write history 02:10 Fri 29 Jul by Various anarchist organisations 4 comments

When the people rise up, they are unstoppable and capable of changing history. These events are repeated from time to time and call into question the normal development of the capitalist “common sense” that there is no alternative. Of course, there is! The action of the people in rebellion, who put their bodies into overthrowing authoritarian regimes, dictatorships or coups d'état, demonstrates the importance of popular power and revolutionary preparation in order for major social transformations to take place. [Castellano]

spain.jpg imageAWSM Statement on 85th Anniversary of the Spanish Revolution 11:28 Tue 20 Jul by AWSM 0 comments

Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) statement on the 85th Anniversary of the Spanish Revolution.

textNew publication: Los Maños : the lads from Aragon ; the story of an anti-Franco action group 18:23 Wed 29 Oct by KSL 0 comments

The Kate Sharpley Library collective are pleased to announce the publication of another study of the anarchist resistance to Franco's dictatorship.

ksl.jpg imageNew publication: One Hundred Years of Workers' Solidarity : the History of “Solidaridad Obrera” 00:53 Mon 19 Aug by KSL 0 comments

Solidaridad Obrera (Workers’ Solidarity), founded in Barcelona in 1907, is the voice of Spain’s Anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT: National Confederation of Labour). These essays were issued to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of “Soli” and together they illustrate the changing fortunes of the Anarcho-syndicalist movement, and its enduring attempt to communicate the anarchist idea.

textNew publication: News of the Spanish Revolution : Anti-authoritarian Perspectives on the Events 02:29 Mon 23 Jul by Kate Sharpley Library 2 comments

News of the Spanish Revolution : Anti-authoritarian Perspectives on the Events. Seven articles published in “One Big Union Monthly”, a journal of the Industrial Workers of the World, July, 1937 to February 1938, plus two later pieces on the experiences of participants.
A collection edited by Charlatan Stew. Published by the Kate Sharpley Library and Charlatan Stew: 2012. 88 pages.

One of the stolen CNT membership cards imageSpanish Revolution material stolen from Barcelona Archive 22:24 Mon 13 Feb by Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular de Barcelona 0 comments

On 1 February 2012, several important documents were stolen from the Biblioteca de l'Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular in Barcelona. Original posters from the Civil War era as well as various other objects also from the period of the Spanish Civil War were taken. If anyone has doubles of this material, please put them aside for the Library. If you see something appear on e-bay or other sites of this kind, alert them! [Italiano]

ainglicia.jpg imageNew publication: Anarchism In Galicia : Organisation, Resistance and Women in the Underground 19:15 Tue 09 Aug by KSL 0 comments

The Anarchist movement in Galicia is unknown to English-language readers. These essays tells the stories of the men and women who built it, fought for it, and how they kept it alive in the face of incredible odds.

orobon.jpg imageNew publication: Valeriano Orobón Fernández: Towards the Barricades by Salvador Cano Carrillo 00:58 Sat 23 Apr by KSL 0 comments

Valeriano Orobón Fernández: Towards the Barricades by Salvador Cano Carrillo is out now, as is issue 66 of KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library.

textNew Kate Sharpley Library pamphlet on the resistance to Francoism. 19:23 Sun 28 Feb by KSL 0 comments

The Kate Sharpley Library are pleased to announce our latest publication:
"Anarchist International Action Against Francoism From Genoa 1949 to The First Of May Group" by Antonio Téllez Solà, translated by Paul Sharkey

84095_edo.jpg imageLuis Andrés Edo : 16:44 Wed 25 Mar by Stuart Christie 0 comments

With the death of Luis Andrés Edo, aged 83, in Barcelona, the anarchist movement has lost an outstanding militant and original thinker, and I have lost a comrade-in-arms, a former cell-mate - and an irreplaceable friend.

more >>

imageThe 1918 flu pandemic in the CNT media Apr 29 by Miguel G. BlackSpartak 2 comments

The notorious flu epidemic of 1918 – known as the ‘Spanish’ flu epidemic – was first reported among US troops bound for the First World War trenches. Given the enormous mobility of troops at the time, the disease was largely free to spread to fresh population centres and so it claimed the lives of 50 million people worldwide. Spreading like wildfire. A powerful example of the destructive power of a pandemic.

imageBuilding a mass anarchist movement: the example of Spain’s CNT Oct 02 by Thabang Sefalala* and Lucien van der Walt 0 comments

The ideas of anarchism have often been misunderstood, or sidelined. A proliferation of studies, such as Knowles’ Political Economy from Below, Peirats’ Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution, and others, have aimed to address this problem – and also to show that anarchism can never be limited to an ideology merely to keep professors and students busy in debating societies. Anarchists have been labeled “utopians” or regarded as catalysts of chaos and violence, as at the protests in Seattle, 1999, against the World Trade Organization. However, anarchism has a constructive core and an important history as a mass movement – including in its syndicalist (trade union) form. It rejects the authoritarianism and totalitarianism often associated with Marxist regimes, and seeks to present a living alternative to classical Marxism, social democracy and the current neo-liberal hegemonic order. It rejects both the versions of Marxism that have justified massive repression, and the more cautious versions, like that of Desai in his book Marx’s Revenge, which claim that a prolonged capitalist stage – with all its horrors – remains essential before socialism can be attempted. It rejects the ideas that exploitation and oppression are “historical necessities” for historical progress.

imageThe Labour Movement in Spain Nov 04 by KSL 0 comments

(Albert Meltzer was a long-standing supporter of the anarchist movement in Spain. One of our friends suggested we make this article available as one of the best things he wrote. It’s also representative of many of the things he cared about: anarchism, history, emancipation and class struggle. KSL)

imageMichael Seidman and "The Spanish Holocaust" Sep 23 by Stuart Christie 4 comments

What has happened to editorial judgement at the TLS [Times Literary Supplement]? What on earth led the editor to commission the patronisingly offensive twaddle from such a pro-Francoist apologist as Michael Seidman in his review of Paul Preston’s “The Spanish Holocaust”?

imageThe Importance of the Spanish Revolution Oct 09 by Julia Doherty 0 comments

Today a social revolution that took place seventy years ago is remembered by libertarian socialists as an example of how our ideas can work. The Spanish revolution came closer to realising the possibilities of a free stateless society on a huge scale than any other revolution in history.

more >>

imageJuly 19: When the people rise up, they write history Jul 29 4 comments

When the people rise up, they are unstoppable and capable of changing history. These events are repeated from time to time and call into question the normal development of the capitalist “common sense” that there is no alternative. Of course, there is! The action of the people in rebellion, who put their bodies into overthrowing authoritarian regimes, dictatorships or coups d'état, demonstrates the importance of popular power and revolutionary preparation in order for major social transformations to take place. [Castellano]

imageAWSM Statement on 85th Anniversary of the Spanish Revolution Jul 20 AWSM 0 comments

Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement (AWSM) statement on the 85th Anniversary of the Spanish Revolution.

textNew publication: Los Maños : the lads from Aragon ; the story of an anti-Franco action group Oct 29 Kate Sharpley Library 0 comments

The Kate Sharpley Library collective are pleased to announce the publication of another study of the anarchist resistance to Franco's dictatorship.

imageNew publication: One Hundred Years of Workers' Solidarity : the History of “Solidaridad Obrera” Aug 19 Kate Sharpley Library 0 comments

Solidaridad Obrera (Workers’ Solidarity), founded in Barcelona in 1907, is the voice of Spain’s Anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT: National Confederation of Labour). These essays were issued to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of “Soli” and together they illustrate the changing fortunes of the Anarcho-syndicalist movement, and its enduring attempt to communicate the anarchist idea.

textNew publication: News of the Spanish Revolution : Anti-authoritarian Perspectives on the Events Jul 23 KSL 2 comments

News of the Spanish Revolution : Anti-authoritarian Perspectives on the Events. Seven articles published in “One Big Union Monthly”, a journal of the Industrial Workers of the World, July, 1937 to February 1938, plus two later pieces on the experiences of participants.
A collection edited by Charlatan Stew. Published by the Kate Sharpley Library and Charlatan Stew: 2012. 88 pages.

more >>
© 2005-2024 Anarkismo.net. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Anarkismo.net. [ Disclaimer | Privacy ]