Keywords: Spain, Durruti, FOD, May days, CNT


The Friends of Durruti

THE WAR in Spain (1936-1939) has often been
portrayed as a simple struggle between Fascism and
democracy. In fact it was anything but. A military
coup launched in July 1936 was defeated by
worker's action in most parts of Spain.

There then followed a wide ranging social revolution
(see Worker's Solidarity 33).  As many as 5-7
million were involved in the collectivisation of
agriculture and thousands  in worker's control of
industry. About 2 million of these were also
members of the oldest union in Spain the anarcho-
syndicalist; CNT.

As with all revolutions a counter-revolution
followed quickly on the Spanish revolution. This was
spearheaded by the Spanish Communist party. These
were faithful adherents to Stalin's foreign policy of
sucking up to France and England in the hope of
military and economic alliances.  They resisted the
revolution at all stages and found willing allies in
the Spanish republican and socialist forces.  All took
pains to convey to the world a struggle between
fascism and democracy.

They also took steps to try and make it such a
struggle by smashing collectives and factory
committees and sabotaging the efforts of
revolutionary forces at the front.  However even
more worrying is the fact that the "anarchists" of
the CNT made little attempt to combat these forces.
In fact four became government ministers.

One tendency within the CNT; the Friends of Durruti
resisted the growing reformism within the CNT. In
this review of their pamphlet; "Towards a Fresh
Revolution" Conor Mc Loughlin outlines their
importance to modern anarchists.



"We are not interested in medals or in general's sashes, we
want neither committees or ministers" Buenaventura Durruti
- Solidaridad Obrera Sept 12 1936

"The government has posthumously granted the rank of
Lieutenant Colonel to the illustrious Libertarian leader
Buenaventura Durruti on the anniversary of his death"-
Solidaridad Obrera April 30  1938

The friends of Durruti were setup in 1937 by  rank and file
members of the CNT and members of CNT columns resisting
militarisation.  "Towards a fresh revolution" was published in
1938 as "a message of hope and a determination to renew the
fight against an internationalism." It's a short and relatively
easy read  at  43 pages. It is obviously aimed at activists in the
CNT and it pulls no punches in it's  attacks on the Spanish
bourgeoisie  and "collaborationists" in the CNT.  However  be
warned it does assume a certain amount of background
knowledge of the history of the CNT and the Spanish revolution.
It would be useful to read in conjunction with Vernon Richard's
"Lessons of the Spanish Revolution"

JULY 19th 1936

The pamphlet begins by recalling the massive gains made by
Spanish workers in areas where they had succeeded in beating
the fascist coup. The coup had been defeated by workers facing
down the military often with their bare hands. It had been
defeated without any help from the popular front government
who refused to arm the people. This was to be repeated
throughout the course of the "civil war". The workers
confronted fascism with revolution the government proved
more afraid of revolution then fascism (which is not to knock
the many genuine anti-fascists in some of the government
parties.).

The July events triggered a massive social revolution
throughout Spain. (see Workers Solidarity no. 33).  Workers
took over in the factories and on the lands and began the
creation of a self-managed communist society.  Millions were
involved in agricultural communes and worker's self
management in the factories.

The pamphlet however poses the central question.   Why, when
a clear majority supported and took part in the building of a
social revolution, wasn't this pushed forward by the CNT; the
massive anarcho-syndicalist union.  Their answer is brief:
"what happened had to happen"

Why was this sellout inevitable as the FOD maintain?  Why did
leading anarchists move on to become leading ministers in the
Spanish government?

In explaining their apparently fatalistic view of the CNT the
FOD  go on to show how the CNT was devoid of any revolutionary
theory or programme.  They had "Lyricism aplenty" and
detailed plans had been laid down as to how an anarchist Spain
would operate at their  national conference in Saragosa in May
1936.  But they couldn't get from A to B, from bread and butter
struggle to a future libertarian society.

For this reason they handed the revolution to the tender
mercies of the Socialists, republicans and Communists. These
forces which emerged without a shred of support from the July
events were not slow to rebuild. Instead of destroying it they
propped up the Spanish state in it's hour of need. As the FOD
put it: "It breathed a lungfull of Oxygen into an anaemic, terror
stricken bourgeoisie."

Garcia Oliver one of the "leading militants" who was shortly to
enter the government without even consulting the Union's
members claimed he had avoided "an anarchist dictatorship".
This shows a complete and crass lack of understanding of the
essential tasks of an anarchist organisation i.e. the smashing of
the state and the transfer of power to worker's and peasants.
The CNT and Spanish workers were to pay in blood for this
collaboration.

We acknowledge the great work of the CNT in propagandising
anarchism and the struggle against Franco.  But we must stand
with the FOD in absolute condemnation of the deferring of
revolutionary politics to class collaboration.

The FOD had a programme which could have won the support of
the Spanish masses and led them to anarchism and the
destruction of Fascism. However they were too small and too
late. The need for such a programme as outlined in "How
anarchists should organise" in this issue has never been more
pressing

MAY 3rd 1937

By this stage the counter-revolutionaries in the "republican"
camp felt confident enough to provoke a fight with the
Barcelona working class.  Police under the command of
Rodriguez Salas, the public order commissar, attacked the
telephone exchange. They were strongly resisted by  CNT
organised workers inside.

Barricades soon sprang up all over the city. Fighting broke out
with the CNT and POUM (non-Stalinist Marxists) quickly
gaining the upper hand over government and PSUC (Stalinist
controlled Catalan "Socialist" party). After an armed stand off
the workers were finally persuaded to lay down arms by the
CNT "leadership".

 The FOD strongly urged workers to remain put and were in the
thick of the fighting.  They pointed out that the workers had
won and now controlled Barcelona (after a steady erosion of
their position since July 1936). They insisted that workers
stayed put. They issued a manifesto calling for the disbanding of
the army and parties which had supported the coup and the
establishment of a revolutionary Junta to continue the war.

It is worth explaining exactly what they meant by this Junta
since the word has very bad associations. They wanted the Junta
to control only the war effort. It was to be made up of elected,
recallable delegates.  The economy was to be under the control
of workers through their syndicates.

For issuing these demands they were attacked as traitors and
agent provocateurs. The CNT brokered peace was an
abandonment of the revolutionary Barcelona workers. Several
thousand troops arrived from Valencia. There were  mass
arrests, executions and immediate press censorship.  The
destruction of the POUM and CNT by Stalin's CHEKA agents
began.

The May events were a vital turning point in the Spanish
revolution. The collectives were crushed throughout
republican areas  soon afterwards. Worker's control was
smashed and militarisation completed. The "peoples army" then
suffered massive and bloody defeats at the hands of the fascists.

We would agree with almost all the FOD's positions summarised
at the end of the pamphlet. These include;

1. That the war should have been a continuation of the
revolution with a democratic worker's army.

2. All available arms and money should have been seized by the
workers. (The CNT spent most of the war guarding  the
government's 2,259 pesetas in gold! This money which could
have aided the revolution was exported to Russia to buy the
arms that helped destroy it.)

3. No collaboration with the Spanish bourgeois

4.   Real worker's unity

5. Total socialisation of the economy and food distribution

6. Equalisation of pay rates

7. No armistice with Foreign imperialist powers.

To this we could only add the immediate granting of
independence to remaining Spanish colonies.

The FOD were armed with a revolutionary programme that
could have brought Spain towards anarchism and crushed the
Fascists. But they were too small and to late to hope to win
workers to it's implementation The need for anarchists
organised with such a programme has never been more
pressing. We are attempting to build one.

Conor McLoughlin

The above article originally appeared in the Irish
anarchist paper Workers Solidarity.

The Workers Solidarity Movement can be
contacted at

WSM
PO Box 1528
Dublin 8
Ireland.

Further reading
Anarchism in Action: The Spanish revolution    published by WSM as above (#1.50)
Towards a fresh revolution


