During the early stages of the Spanish Civil War, Spanish anarchists and socialists set up an economy in Loyalist Spain that very closely resembled the type of industrial organization advocated by the Industrial Workers of the World. It was also believed by many that this worker-controlled revolution might spell the death knell to fascism and Nazism, and usher in new day for the workers living in a worldwide depression. One of these people was Buenaventura Durruti. In a 1936 interview with world famous journalist Pierre van Paassen, anarcho-syndicalist leader and Spanish Loyalist general Durruti said:

“We are giving Hitler and Mussolini far more worry with our revolution than the whole Red Army of Russia. We are setting an example to the German and Italian working class on how to deal with Fascism.”

Durruti may have been overly optimistic about the abilities of the Spanish anarchist militias (which were more than most excellent) vis-à-vis the Soviet Russian Red Army. After all, the Red Army of Soviet Russia performed very well during World War II—what Russians call the “Great Patriotic War.” But the Spanish Loyalists did have many surprising successes.

As told by Spanish anarchist survivors of Spain’s Civil War (1936-1939) in the Spanish documentary “Living Utopia,” the beginning of the Spanish Revolution ignited on July 19, 1936. Juan García Oliver, Spanish anarchist leader and Minister of Justice in the popular front government, at an early stage of the Spanish Civil War, made the remarkable point that this was the first time the people defeated the army.

But the background of the revolution goes back to at least the year 1868, with the beginning of the anarchist movement in Spain. The anarchists were the most important component in Loyalist Spain, but by no means, the only one. The ability of the anarchists to quickly and spontaneously resist the fascist military rebellion in late July 1936, together with the ability to take over industry and form effective agricultural communes, goes back three generations. The best history of this appears in “The Spanish Anarchists” by Murray Bookchin.

The anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) trade unions and Spanish socialist trade unions were in the vanguard of the resistance to the fascist rebellion, but other groups included the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Workers Party of Marxist Unification, or POUM), the Catholic Basque region, other socialist groups and the Republican Action Party.

In his book “Homage to Catalonia,” published in April 1938, George Orwell wrote that when he arrived in Barcelona, Catalonia, in Loyalist Spain, in late December 1936, he witnessed a true workers’ society. The anarchists were in control of Barcelona. “The working class was in the saddle.” Also in “Homage to Catalonia,” Orwell described there was almost complete equality in the POUM militia, in which he served. The motivations of fear of the boss and bourgeois competitiveness were absent. This was the beginning of the turning point of his life. Among his observations were:

“In the Barbers’ shops were Anarchist notices (the Barbers were … Anarchists)…explaining that the barbers were no longer slaves.”

In describing life in the POUM militias, in “Homage to Catalonia” on the Aragon Front in 1937, Orwell said, “One had been in a community where hope was more normal than apathy or cynicism, where the word ‘comrade’ stood for comradeship… One had breathed the air of equality.”

In New York, the anarchist youth group, Vanguard, in addition to publishing their own magazine, Vanguard, published a monthly newspaper called Spanish Revolution. Herbert Mailer, a prominent Wobbly labor activist was also involved with Spanish Revolution.

In the first issue of Spanish Revolution (Vol. 1, No.1 August 19, 1936); the lead item identified, “From the Press Service of the CNT and the FAI [Federación Anarquista Ibérica]” dated in Barcelona, Spain, on July 24, 1936:

“At the price of bloody battles and sorrowful losses, the Catalon capital has reconquered its title of Red Barcelona. It was a spontaneous popular uprising which answered the first onslaught of the Fascists. The city, deserted in the early morning hours, suddenly awoke as if by magic drum call; the people seemed to rise from the pavements. The armories were seized and in a flash almost everybody was armed.

“The groups of the CNT and the FAI with the help of various workers’ parties and organizations marched resolutely against the Fascists whose aim was to take possession of the strategic points of the city. The latter employed military experts and war technicians, using cannons and machine guns, and though in the minority, they did succeed in delivering death ‘scientifically.’ But nothing could check the popular surge. The hatred against Fascism wrought miracles; party differences and political quarrels disappeared before a ‘popular front,’ not the one which arose from the elections, but the popular front spontaneously created in the streets” (emphasis in the original).

As Spanish Revolution reported, party and labor union-based militias were quickly raised in Catalonia. Most of these volunteers were from the CNT-FAI (about 13,000) followed by the POUM, then the Unión General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers, or UGT) and other groups. Many women also served in the militias, and were involved in the street fighting when the fascists were beaten down in the cities.

The CNT and FAI were anarchist organizations, the first being a trade union, and the second, a political group, aimed at maintaining the purity of Spanish and Portuguese anarchism. There was also the anarchist Asociación Internacional de los Trabajadores (the International Workers Association, or AIT). According to the Spanish documentary “Living Utopia,” a member of the FAI could not have been married in the Catholic church, must not have served in the military, must—if affordable—have sent their children to a Ferrer Modern School, and must not have had any addiction to alcohol or cigarettes, or other substance, and had to be in a faithful relationship.

When the fascist generals rebelled against the Spanish Republican government, three things happened that they did not count on:

First, the Spanish Navy remained loyal to the Loyalist Spain. Second, the Catholic Basque region remained loyal to the government. There was also a considerable presence of anarchist and socialist organizing in the Basque. Catholic priests in the Basque had organized labor unions.

Third, there was a massive spontaneous popular resistance. This resistance resulted in a far-reaching revolution, which went further in Catalonia than in some other parts of Spain. Spanish Revolution was devoted to this revolution. Spanish Revolution described the spontaneous resistance in certain parts of the country.

There were many far-reaching elements of social and economic revolution in anarchistic Catalonia. For example Spanish Revolution reported, “Libertarian Youth Organize the People’s Univ. of Barcelona.”

There was a “Committee to Aid Fascist Victims.” Workers had taken over factories. Peasants had taken over estates and farms. All this was reported in Spanish Revolution.

There were many foreign volunteers who came to Spain to either defend democracy or to support the revolution, but in all cases to fight against fascism. Of course, there was the communist-sponsored International Brigade, the Independent Labour Party contingent, and anarchist volunteers, but much less-known are the number of IWW members who volunteered and fought for Revolutionary Loyalist Spain.

To quote from the Wobbly book “Rebel Voices” published by Charles H. Keer Publishers:

“During the Spanish Civil War, the IWW had an assessment for the support of the [anarchist] CNT and maintained friendly relations with anarchist International Workingmen’s Association. Many IWW fought with CNT forces.”

Following this introductory statement on page 378, there is a moving article by Wobbly Raymond Galstad describing his experience during the Spanish Civil War.

Recently, the Industrial Worker had an article titled “IWW Members Who Fought In The Spanish Civil War” by Matt White (November 2013 IW, page 9). Nine of many Wobblies who fought in the Spanish Civil War were profiled. As this article made clear, IWW members fought with comrades in both the Lincoln Battalion (part of the International Brigade) and with anarchist CNT forces.

In addition to fighting, according to Allen Guttmann, author of the book “The Wound In The Heard: America and the Spanish Civil War” (1962, Free Press of Glencoe), “The Industrial Worker, a publication of the IWW, which gave its eager support to the Spanish anarcho-syndicalists, reprinted dispatches from CNT publications, and exposed the illegal shipment by Texaco, of oil to General Franco.” In the endnotes Guttmann cites the Industrial Worker of May 22, 1937.

Carlo Tresca, who was a Wobbly involved with major Wobbly strikes including the 1913 Paterson silk strike, and published an Italian-language anarchist newspaper, raised money for the Spanish anarchists and gave speeches on their behalf.

In addition to fighting in the Spanish Civil War, raising money for revolutionary Spain, and reporting on Wobblies in Spain, Wobblies also sought to preserve the history of Spain’s syndicalistic revolution. Sam Dolgoff, who since his teenage years was a Wobbly and lifelong anarchist of the anarcho-syndicalist persuasion, published the book “The Anarchist Collectives: Workers’ Self-management in the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939” (published by Black Rose Books Ltd.). Thus we see that the commitment of Wobblies to the workers revolution in Spain included the dissemination of information for historical memory and lessons for the future.

The extent of this workers revolution is proven by the following, as reported in Spanish Revolution:

“The English consulate in Barcelona has sent a list of all its citizens residing in Spain so that the necessary measures might be taken for their security and eventual return. To whom has the English consulate sent these lists? To the official authority which is in Barcelona, the Catalonia government? On the country, the lists were officially sent…to a committee of the CNT.”

But revolution and war were occurring in other parts of the Spain. Let us look at what this first issue of Spanish Revolution says about the struggle in Valencia. On page 4 of the first issue, headlined, “Victory In Valencia,” and datelined “Valencia, Spain (FP)—(By airplane to Paris)” I do not know who wrote this report about Valencia. The story went on to say:

“For a week the tension in Valencia was so great that nobody slept or went home. The workers camped in the streets.

“The civil authorities had refused to open the arsenals and arm the people as Madrid had ordered. At the end of the town, across the river, three regiments of soldiers were confined to the barracks. They gave no sign of sympathy. But their officers were known to be adherents to the fascist rebellion. Any moment it was feared that the troops march in, and occupy the town, and set up a white terror. The workers covered the city with barricades in anticipation of a fierce struggle. They were going to receive the military with cobblestones and kitchen knives and with their bare hands if need be.

“The colonel commanding the regiment called his men in the square of the barracks. ‘We will occupy Valencia this morning’ he said. ‘Tomorrow we will take Madrid.’”

After speaking, “A sergeant named Jose Fabra…killed him. A moment later all the officers” were killed. The soldiers left the fortress and distributed arms to the people. “Fascists in the city began to fire on the loyalists from roof tops.” But the revolutionary forces triumphed in Valencia in the early stages of the Spanish Civil War.

Spanish Revolution published an appeal “TO THE WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES.” They noted that a cable to The Nation which confirmed the reports.

There was a new system of fighting crime. There were civilian patrols. Defendants in criminal cases could be represented by a lawyer or a non-lawyer. People employed in nursing homes were chosen on the basis of their compassion. Workers and peasants controlled most of Catalonia. Businesses where the boss was not pro-fascist were usually not seized. Also, the British government delivered a list of businesses to the CNT-FAI that where not to be touched.

Michael Shelden discovered and wrote in “Orwell: The Authorized Biography” that Orwell’s serving in the POUM militia during the Spanish Civil War was used for recruiting purposed by an organ of the British Independent Labour Party.

A number of members of the Industrial Workers of the World fought on behalf of the Spanish Loyalists, that is on behalf of the Spanish revolution. In what George Orwell said, in his essay “Looking Back On The Spanish War,” this was essentially a class war.

Sadly this revolution was betrayed by the Soviet Union and defeated by Franco’s forces, with German and Italian weapons and manpower. One of the ironies of the Spanish Civil War was that the Spanish anarchists welcomed the Republic in 1931, and would have been willing to live under a republican form of government. But once the fascist rebellion had started, the response was the Spanish revolution.

Many books have been written on the Spanish Civil War, but few on the Spanish revolution that happened at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

In late November 1936 Durruti was killed in the frontlines. The New York Times reported that there were at least 500,000 in Durruti’s funeral precession. Emma Goldman believed that his ideas and ideals lived on. The survivors of the Spanish Revolution said in the Spanish documentary “Living Utopia” that they were fortunate to have lived through that revolution.

Transcribed by Juan Conatz