the conscience of the spanish revolution: anarchist opposition to state collaboration in 1937

309 Pages·2016·1.69 MB·English

by  Daniel Evans

THE CONSCIENCE OF THE SPANISH REVOLUTION:
ANARCHIST OPPOSITION TO STATE
COLLABORATION IN 1937

Daniel Evans

Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
The University of Leeds
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
July 2016
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The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit
has been given where reference has been made to the work of others.
This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that
no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.
© 2016 The University of Leeds and Daniel Evans

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Acknowledgements

This thesis was made possible by an Arts and Humanities Research Council studentship.
Research trips were partly funded by the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at
the University of Leeds and the AHRC Research Training Support Grant Funding
scheme.
The notion of undertaking original research into Spanish anarchism did not occur to me
until I had lived in Spain for a couple of years, and my understanding of the language
was sufficiently developed. I owe a great deal to the friends whose patience and
generosity made that possible, and to the enormous good fortune I had in meeting Uta,
Marc, Gustavo, Alfredo, Vanesa, David, Patricia, the Garcia Anguita family, Oscar,
Mara, Helena, Jordi and many others, particularly the stalwarts of the Spanish soul
scene. Any difficulty that might have been caused by leaving Spain was alleviated by
the presence in Leeds of old friends who made me feel at home again: Carl, Mallie,
Mark, Karen, Juan, Maria and others; and new friends made through political and
cultural activities, in particular those I met through the Critical Cinema group and Leeds
No Borders.
Richard Cleminson and Angel Smith have been extremely supportive supervisors and
their guidance has been enormously helpful in shaping the present work. Many other
friends, colleagues and historians have provided support and advice over the past four
years and I would like to thank David Goodway, Jim Yeoman, Chris Ealham, Dolors
Marin, Peter Anderson, Mercè Lázaro García, Claudio Hernández, Kees Rodenburg,
Gregorio Alonso, Roger De Cal Canterer, Matthew Kerry, Miguel Ángel del Arco
Blanco, Diana Battaglia, Josep Antoni Pozo González, Daniel Mourenza, Francisco de
Paula, Christian Høgsbjerg, and in particular Agustín Guillamón. I am also grateful to
Paz, Iu, Edu, Javi, Silvia, Ruth, Quinnie, Colin, Ana, Arantxa and Andy for providing a
bed and/or a warm welcome on research trips to Barcelona, Madrid and London.
I am very lucky to have a network of loving, intelligent and funny family and friends
that I can rely on for support and encouragement. I would like to thank in particular my
parents, Helen, Rach, Phil, Peter and my much-missed grandmother. Finally, I am
grateful for the love and companionship of my partner Liz. Her empathy,
encouragement and patience have been a constant source of reassurance and support,
and her insight has helped sharpen many of the ideas contained in this work.
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Abstract

This thesis analyses the opposition mounted by anarchists to the policy of state
collaboration, which was adopted by the principal organisations of the Spanish
libertarian movement at the outset of the civil war. Collaboration is understood in broad
terms as the involvement of libertarian individuals and organisations in the
reconstruction of the Republican state following its near collapse in July 1936, a process
that implied not only participation in the organs of governance, but also in the
ideological reconstitution of the Republic as a patriarchal and national entity. Using
original sources, the thesis shows that the opposition to this process was both broader
and more ideologically consistent than has hitherto been assumed, and that, in spite of
its heterogeneity, it united around a common revolutionary programme. Focusing on the
strategies adopted by oppositional anarchists over the course of 1937, from the radical
interpretation of the CNT’s socialisation campaign to the insurrectionary mobilisation
of May and finally to the defence of federalism within the libertarian organisations, the
thesis also sheds light on the turbulent relationship between the responsible committees
of the libertarian movement and its ‘mid-level’ union and affinity group delegates.
The ‘conscience’ of the Spanish revolution, like its Russian precursor, both recognised
and struggled against the role that the principal revolutionary organisation in the
country had assumed in the reconstruction of the state. In the Spanish case, the
resistance to state reconstruction was informed by the essential insight of anarchism:
that the function and purpose of the modern state cannot be transformed from within.
By situating the struggles of the radical anarchists within the contested process of state
reconstruction, the thesis affirms the continued relevance of this insight to the study of
the Spanish revolution.

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At the beginning of my research I had the privilege of corresponding with the late
Antonia Fontanillas, a former member of the Juventudes Libertarias, whose
commitment to preserving the memory of her generation and its struggle for a better
world belied her years and serves as an inspiration. This thesis is dedicated to her.

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Contents

Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... i
Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ii
Contents ....................................................................................................................... iv
Index of Abbreviations ................................................................................................ vi
Notes .......................................................................................................................... viii
Preface .......................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter One: Spanish Anarchists and the State, 1931-1936 ...................................... 16
Republic or Revolution, 1931-1936 ....................................................................... 19
Revolution and State Collaboration, July – December, 1936................................. 33
The Outline of a Revolutionary Conscience........................................................... 56
Conclusions ............................................................................................................ 61
Chapter Two: ‘Socialisation and the People Armed!’ Conscience and Programme,
January-April 1937 ................................................................................................. 65
The anarchist programme and state reconstruction ................................................ 70
‘Let us unite!’: Unity beyond ‘generic anti-fascism’?............................................ 82
Towards a Second July ........................................................................................... 94
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 109
Chapter Three: May 1937. From a Second July to the ‘Spanish Kronstadt’ ........... 112
The Mobilisation of the ‘Anti-State’ .................................................................... 114
The ‘comités superiores de defensa’: from a plan of attack to demoblisation ..... 128
The Experience of Defeat ..................................................................................... 141
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 156
Chapter Four: ‘Permanent Effects of a Temporary Position’, June - July 1937 ...... 161
The ‘anarchist ship back on course’? Debating collaboration outside of
government ........................................................................................................... 165
Anti-militarism, anti-nationalism and the ‘war that is not for true freedom’ ....... 178
‘Ships without honour’: the Regional Plenum of the Catalan FAI....................... 189
Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 198
Chapter 5: ‘Let us be worthy of Anarchy.’ Autonomous action and the defence of
federalism, July – December 1937 ....................................................................... 202
Federalism in defiance of ‘neo-anarchism’ .......................................................... 208
‘Nothing practical can be done’: Autonomous activity and the role of the FAI .. 221
Bolshevisation Abroad: The Extraordinary Congress of the IWMA ................... 233
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Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 243
Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 249
Appendix: Recurring personages.............................................................................. 262
Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 269
Archives ................................................................................................................ 269
Primary Sources .................................................................................................... 270
Secondary Sources ................................................................................................ 278

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Index of Abbreviations

AAB – Agrupación Anarquista de Barcelona – Barcelona Anarchist Grouping
AAD – Agrupación Amigos de Durruti – Friends of Durruti Grouping
AJA – Alianza Juvenil Antifascista – Anti-Fascist Youth Alliance
CAP – Comisión Asesora Política – Political Advisory Commission
CCMA – Comité Central de Milicias Antifascistas - Central Committee of Anti-Fascist
Militia
CGT – Confédération Générale du Travail – General Confederation of Labour
CGT-SR – Confédération Générale du Travail – Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire –
General Confederation of Labour – Revolutionary Syndicalist
CNT – Confederación Nacional del Trabajo – National Confederation of Labour
DAS – Gruppe Deutsche Anarcho-Syndikalisten im Ausland – Group of German
Anarcho-Syndicalists in Exile
ERC – Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – Republican Left of Cataluña
FAF – Fédération Anarchiste de langue Française – Francophone Anarchist Federation
FAI – Federación Anarquista Ibérica – Iberian Anarchist Federation
FECL – Federación Estudiantil de Conciencias Libres – Student Federation of Free
Thinkers
FIJL – Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias – Iberian Federation of Libertarian
Youth
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