In Spain during almost three years, despite a civil war that took a million
lives, despite the opposition of the political parties (republicans, left
and right Catalan separatists, socialists, Communists, Basque and Valencian
regionalists, petty bourgeoisie, etc.), this idea of libertarian communism
was put into effect. Very quickly more than 60% of the land was
collectively cultivated by the peasants themselves, without landlords,
without bosses, and without instituting capitalist competition to spur
production. In almost all the industries, factories, mills, workshops,
transportation services, public services, and utilities, the rank and file
workers, their revolutionary committees, and their syndicates reorganized
and administered production, distribution, and public services without
capitalists, high salaried managers, or the authority of the state.
Even more: the various agrarian and industrial collectives immediately
instituted economic equality in accordance with the essential principle of
communism, 'From each according to his ability and to each according to his
needs.' They coordinated their efforts through free association in whole
regions, created new wealth, increased production (especially in
agriculture), built more schools, and bettered public services. They
instituted not bourgeois formal democracy but genuine grass roots
functional libertarian democracy, where each individual participated
directly in the revolutionary reorganization of social life. They replaced
the war between men, 'survival of the fittest,' by the universal practice
of mutual aid, and replaced rivalry by the principle of solidarity....
The collectivization effort was primarily orchestrated by the rank-and-file
members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederaci%C3%B3n_Nacional_del_Trabajo>
(CNT; English: National Confederation of Labor) and the Federación
Anarquista Ibérica
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federaci%C3%B3n_Anarquista_Ib%C3%A9rica>
(FAI; English: Iberian Anarchist Federation), with the two often
abbreviated as CNT–FAI due to the affinity between the two organizations
and the major role of the latter within the former in maintaining anarchist
"purity." The non-anarchist socialist Unión General de Trabajadores
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni%C3%B3n_General_de_Trabajadores> (UGT;
English: General Union of Workers) also participated in the implementation
of collectivization, albeit to a far lesser degree.
Contents
I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in
Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism
were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens
of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin,
all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory
it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There
is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a
foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental
atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized
life—snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.—had simply ceased
to exist. The ordinary class-division of society had disappeared to an
extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England;
there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned
anyone else as his master.
Continuing, Orwell describes the general feeling of the new society that
was built within the shell of the old, offering specific elaborations on
the effective destruction of hierarchical arrangements that he'd perceived
in anarchist Spain <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_Spain>.
This was in late December 1936, less than seven months ago as I write, and
yet it is a period that has already receded into enormous distance. Later
events have obliterated it much more completely than they have obliterated
1935, or 1905, for that matter. I had come to Spain with some notion of
writing newspaper articles, but I had joined the militia almost
immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only
conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of
Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had
been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or
January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came
straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and
overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where
the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size
had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags and with the
red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the
hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties;
almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and
there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop
and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the
bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black.
Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an
equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily
disappeared. Nobody said 'Señor' or 'Don' or even 'Usted'; everyone called
everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos
días'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera;
almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for
trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all
been commandeered, and the trams and taxis and much of the other transport
were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere,
flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining
advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central
artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro,
the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into
the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing
of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes
had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and
foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone
wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of
militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that
I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized
it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for...so far as one
could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no
unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very
few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies.
Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling
of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human
beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the
capitalist machine."
The most notable aspect of the social revolution was the establishment
of a libertarian
socialist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialist> economy
based on coordination through decentralized and horizontal federations of
participatory industrial collectives and agrarian communes. Here are just a
few opinions of foreign journalists who have no personal connection with
the Anarchist movement. Thus, Andrea Oltmares,[6]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-Rocker.2C_2004.2C_p._66-67-6>
professor in the University of Geneva, in the course of an address of some
length, said:
"In the midst of the civil war the Anarchists
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist> have proved themselves to be
political organizers of the first rank. They kindled in everyone the
required sense of responsibility, and knew how, by eloquent appeals, to
keep alive the spirit of sacrifice for the general welfare of the people.
"As a Social Democrat I speak here with inner joy and sincere admiration of
my experiences in Catalonia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia>. The
anti-capitalist <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-capitalist>
transformation took place here without their having to resort to a
dictatorship. The members of the syndicates are their own masters and carry
on the production and the distribution of the products of labor under their
own management, with the advice of technical experts in whom they have
confidence. The enthusiasm of the workers is so great that they scorn any
personal advantage and are concerned only for the welfare of all."
"In three months Catalonia has been able to set up a new social order on
the ruins of an ancient system. This is chiefly due to the Anarchists, who
have revealed a quite remarkable sense of proportion, realistic
understanding, and organising ability...all the revolutionary forces of
Catalonia have united in a program of Syndicalist-Socialist character:
socialisation of large industry; recognition of the small proprietor,
workers' control...Anarcho-Syndicalism
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-Syndicalism>, hitherto so despised,
has revealed itself as a great constructive force...I am not an Anarchist,
but I regard it as my duty to express here my opinion of the Anarchists of
Catalonia, who have all too often been represented to the world as a
destructive, if not criminal, element. I was with them at the front, in the
trenches, and I have learnt to admire them. The Catalonian Anarchists
belong to the advance guard of the coming revolution. A new world was born
with them, and it is a joy to serve that world."
"I was impressed by the strength of the C.N.T. It was unnecessary to tell
me that it was the largest and most vital of the working-class
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working-class> organisations in Spain. The
large industries were clearly, in the main, in the hands of the
C.N.T.--railways, road transport, shipping, engineering, textiles,
electricity, building, agriculture. At Valencia the U.G.T. had a larger
share of control than at Barcelona, but generally speaking the mass of
manual workers belonged to the C.N.T. The U.G.T. membership was more of the
type of the 'white-collar' worker...I was immensely impressed by the
constructive revolutionary work which is being done by the C.N.T. Their
achievement of workers' control in industry is an inspiration. One could
take the example of the railways or engineering or textiles...There are
still some Britishers and Americans who regard the Anarchists of Spain as
impossible, undisciplined, uncontrollable. This is poles away from the
truth. The Anarchists of Spain, through the C.N.T.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederaci%C3%B3n_Nacional_del_Trabajo>,
are doing one of the biggest constructive jobs ever done by the working
class. At the front they are fighting Fascism
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism>. Behind the front they are actually
constructing the new Workers' Society. They see that the war against
Fascism and the carrying through of the Social Revolution
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Revolution> are inseparable. Those
who have seen and understand what they are doing must honour them and be
grateful to them. They are resisting Fascism. They are at the same time
creating the New Workers' Order which is the only alternative to Fascism.
That is surely the biggest things now being done by the workers in any part
of the world." And in another place: "The great solidarity that existed
amongst the Anarchists was due to each individual relying on his own
strength and not depending on leadership. The organisations must, to be
successful, be combined with a free-thinking people; not a mass, but free
individuals." - all three cited in: Rudolf Rocker
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Rocker>, *Anarcho-Syndicalism
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-Syndicalism_%28book%29>, Original
1938, AK Press <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK_Press> Edition, page
66-67.*
The economic changes that followed the military insurrection were no less
dramatic than the political. In those provinces where the revolt had failed
the workers of the two trade union federations, the Socialist UGT and the
Anarchosyndicalist CNT, took into their hands a vast portion of the
economy. Landed properties were seized; some were collectivized, others
were distributed among the peasants, and notarial archives as well as
registers of property were burnt in countless towns and villages. Railways,
tramcars and buses, taxicabs and shipping, electric light and power
companies, gasworks and waterworks, engineering and automobile assembly
plants, mines and cement works, textile mills and paper factories,
electrical and chemical concerns, glass bottle factories and perfumeries,
food-processing plants and breweries, as well as a host of other
enterprises, were confiscated or controlled by workmen's committees, either
term possessing for the owners almost equal significance in practice.
Motion-picture theatres and legitimate theatres, newspapers and printing
shops, department stores and bars, were likewise sequestered or controlled
as were the headquarters of business and professional associations and
thousands of dwellings owned by the upper class.
In many communities money for internal use was abolished, because, in the
opinion of Anarchists, 'money and power are diabolical philtres, which turn
a man into a wolf, into a rabid enemy, instead of into a brother.' 'Here in
Fraga [a small town in Aragon], you can throw banknotes into the street,'
ran an article in a Libertarian paper, 'and no one will take any notice.
Rockefeller, if you were to come to Fraga with your entire bank account you
would not be able to buy a cup of coffee. Money, your God and your servant,
has been abolished here, and the people are happy.' In those Libertarian
communities where money was suppressed, wages were paid in coupons, the
scale being determined by the size of the family. Locally produced goods,
if abundant, such as bread, wine, and olive oil, were distributed freely,
while other articles could be obtained by means of coupons at the communal
depot. Surplus goods were exchanged with other Anarchist towns and
villages, money being used only for transactions with those communities
that had not adopted the new system.
Criticism of the Spanish Revolution has primarily centered around
allegations of coercion by anarchist participants (primarily in the rural
collectives of Aragon <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_Aragon>),
which critics charge run contrary to libertarian organizational principles.
Bolloten claims that CNT–FAI reports overplayed the voluntary nature of
collectivization, and ignored the more widespread realities of coercion or
outright force as the primary characteristic of anarchist organization.[10]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-10>
"Although CNT-FAI publications cited numerous cases of peasant proprietors
and tenant farmers who had adhered voluntarily to the collective system,
there can be no doubt that an incomparably larger number doggedly opposed
it or accepted it only under extreme duress...The fact is...that many small
owners and tenant farmers were forced to join the collective farms before
they had an opportunity to make up their minds freely."
He also emphasizes the generally coercive nature of the war climate and
anarchist military organization and presence in many portions of the
countryside as being an element in the establishment of collectivization,
even if outright force or blatant coercion was not used to bind
participants against their will.[11]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-11>
"Even if the peasant proprietor and tenant farmer were not compelled to
adhere to the collective system, there were several factors that made life
difficult for recalcitrants; for not only were they prevented from
employing hired labor and disposing freely as their crops, as has already
been seen, but they were often denied all benefits enjoyed by
members...Moreover, the tenant farmer, who had believed himself freed from
the payment of rent by the execution or flight of the landowner or of his
steward, was often compelled to continue such payment to the village
committee. All these factors combined to exert a pressure almost as
powerful as the butt of the rifle, and eventually forced the small owners
and tenant farmers in many villages to relinquish their land and other
possessions to the collective farms."
"[V]illagers could find themselves under considerable pressure to
collectivize - even if for different reasons. There was no need to dragoon
them at pistol point: the coercive climate, in which 'fascists' were being
shot, was sufficient. 'Spontaneous' and 'forced' collectives existed, as
did willing and unwilling collectivists within them. Forced
collectivization ran contrary to libertarian ideals. Anything that was
forced could not be libertarian. Obligatory collectivization was justified,
in some libertarians' eyes, by a reasoning closer to war communism than to
libertarian communism: the need to feed the columns at the front."
Anarchist sympathizers counter that the presence of a "coercive climate"
was an unavoidable aspect of the war that the anarchists cannot be fairly
blamed for, and that the presence of deliberate coercion or direct force
was minimal, as evidenced by a generally peaceful mixture of collectivists
and individualist dissenters who had opted not to participate in collective
organization. The latter sentiment is expressed by historian Antony Beevor
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Beevor> in his *Battle for Spain: The
Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939*.[13]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-13>
"The justification for this operation (whose ‘very harsh measures’ shocked
even some Party members) was that since all the collectives had been
established by force, Líster
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrique_L%C3%ADster> was merely liberating
the peasants. There had undoubtedly been pressure, and no doubt force was
used on some occasions in the fervor after the rising. But the very fact
that every village was a mixture of collectivists and individualists shows
that the peasants had not been forced into communal farming at the point of
a gun."
Historian Graham Kelsey also maintains that the anarchist collectives were
primarily maintained through libertarian principles of voluntary
association and organization, and that the decision to join and participate
was generally based on a rational and balanced choice made after the
destabilization and effective absence of capitalism as a powerful factor in
the region.[14]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-14>
"Libertarian communism and agrarian collectivization were not economic
terms or social principles enforced upon a hostile population by special
teams of urban anarchosyndicalists, but a pattern of existence and a means
of rural organization adopted from agricultural experience by rural
anarchists and adopted by local committees as the single most sensible
alternative to the part-feudal, part-capitalist mode of organization that
had just collapsed."
There is also focus placed by pro-anarchist analysts on the many decades of
organization and shorter period of CNT–FAI agitation that was to serve as a
foundation for high membership levels throughout anarchist Spain, which is
often referred to as a basis for the popularity of the anarchist
collectives, rather than any presence of force or coercion that allegedly
compelled unwilling persons to involuntarily participate.
Anarchist authors have sometimes understated the problems that the working
class sometimes faced during the Spanish Revolution during the early period
of the movement. For example, while Gaston Leval
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaston_Leval> does admit that the
collectives imposed a 'work discipline' that was 'strict', he then
restricts this comment to a mere footnote.[18]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-18>
Other radical commentators, however, have incorporated the limitations of
the Spanish Revolution into their theories of anti-capitalist
revolution. Gilles
Dauvé <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilles_Dauv%C3%A9>, for example, uses
the Spanish experience to argue that to transcend capitalism, workers must
completely abolish both wage labour and capital rather than just
self-manage them.[19]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Revolution_of_1936#cite_note-19>
See also