#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #SPAIN #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) ainfos.ca:Josep Rebull, the POUM and the Spanish Revolution by Tommy Lawson (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 19th of July, 2022 marks 86 years since the Spanish Revolution. Every year that

passes is a new chance to reflect upon the successes and failures of such a grand
moment in history. When we study history as revolutionaries we usually consider
the balance of forces, economic factors, ideologies, organsations, culture and
conditions in which something occurs. But sometimes particularly salient lessons
become clear not when analysing the grand abstractions but the insights of
particular figures active in momentous occasions. ---- Largely thanks to the work
of excellent historian Agustin Guillamon, the figure of Josep Rebull has been
rescued from obscurity. A militant of the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista
(POUM) and the Barcelona local of Cell 72, Rebull played a unique and critical
role in the organisation and the rank and file revolt during the 'May Days.'
Rebull was a founding member of the POUM, joining when his organisation the
Izquierda Comunista de España (ICE, Communist Left of Spain) merged with the
Workers and Peasants Bloc (BOC).

The Spanish Revolution erupted as one of the most inspiring moments in history.
In response to a fascist coup, workers took the initiative to spread economic
collectivisation and the establishment of various degrees of workers
self-governance. However the revolution did not resolve a fundamental
contradiction - the skeleton of the bourgeois state was left standing.

The leadership of the revolutionary forces, the anarcho-syndicalist Confederacion
Nacional Trabajador (CNT), the Federacíon Anarquista Iberica (FAI) and the POUM
alike collaborated with bourgeois Republican parties rather than disbanding them.
The new Central Committee of Antifascist Militias (CCMA) represented not only
proletarian forces, but middle class Republicans and the Partit Socialista
Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC) utterly loyal to the Soviet Union. It was under the
banner of anti-fascism and desire to win the war that the state was slowly rebuilt.

By May 1937, many of the gains of the revolution had been rolled back.
Collectivisation in the city was not only limited, the state even attempted to
take control of socialised industries and subject them to appointed management.
Furthermore the free-market in food and supplies had been reintroduced in
Barcelona by the Communist Councillor for the Generalitat1 Juan Commorea, leading
to price gouging by petty producers and near-starvation for many working class
families. In the countryside, small peasants had been encouraged to return to
individual farming practices and abandon the extensive communal practices. The
various democratic militias of the proletarian political organisations were
drafted into a 'regular army' largely under the command of the Communist Party,
eliminating all autonomy and rank and file control.

On the 3rd of May, police officers of the Catalan government stormed the
Barcelona telephone exchange collectively managed by CNT workers, sparking open
revolt2. Barricades quickly formed around Barcelona with the rank and file of the
CNT-FAI and POUM on one side and the Republicans and Communists on the other.

Over several days of intense fighting the revolutionary once again virtually
conquered the city. Something of a coalition had grown around the Barcelona FAI
(opposed to the 'higher committees' of the FAI), the Defense Committees, the
Friends of Durruti and the Local Committee of the Barcelona POUM.3 While all of
these groups had vague ideas on how to proceed, they faltered over several days
of street fighting.

Amongst the anarcho-syndicalists Rebull noted:

'The Barcelona committees not only supported it, but also tried to coordinate it
at the military level. But without having already agreed realisable political
aims, they could not do this. Caught between the will of the base and the
capitulation of the higher committees, the doubts and vacillations of these
committees led in practice to a series of ambiguous and equivocal instructions.'4

For the leadership of his own party Rebull was even more scathing:

'All of the merit for the action belongs to the lower committees and the base of
the party. The leadership did not edit a single manifesto or leaflet in order to
orientate the armed proletariat.'

Ultimately the revolutionaries retreated, encouraged to preserve 'antifascist
unity' by the leadership of all radical parties. But in reality they lacked
clarity, conviction and confidence in the broadness of support for their actions.
Even if the CNT-FAI-POUM had taken Barcelona, they would have been alone in not
only Spain, but the world.

Rebull's views on the course of action during the insurrection were unique and
worthy of exploration. Prior to May, Rebull was already a critic of the POUM's
course of action. He had chastised party leadership for collaboration in the
CCMA, pursuing the Popular Front5 strategy and bureaucratic manoeuvring that
hampered party democracy.

Instead, the Barcelona Local of which Rebull was a leader had called for a
'Revolutionary Workers' Front' that solidified the grassroots workers bodies as
the organs of power. These largely consisted of the 'Control Patrols', the
renamed CNT Defense Committees that were organised on a regional basis, workplace
committees and in rural areas the local delegates councils. By the May Days, the
concrete model would also include the active delegates representing the various
barricades around Barcelona.6

In charge of the POUM press, Rebull acknowledged that the marginal Marxist party
would not be capable of calling significant numbers to the streets. So Rebull met
with Jamie Balius, the journalist known as the mouthpiece of the Friends of
Durruti (FoD). He suggested the FoD and Cell 72 issue a joint leaflet, however
given the marginal size of the 72 Cell it was decided not to pursue that course
of action. The FoD had already angered the leadership of the CNT enough - there
was no reason to split Cell 72 from the mass of the POUM.

Instead, Rebull opened the POUMs printing press to the Friends of Durruti to
publish their leaflets and the lists of demands which caused such a stir on the
barricades. Rebull returned to trying to convince POUM leadership that with
decisive action the revolutionaries could still win Barcelona.

Not only could they have taken certain key buildings, the anarchist masses were
already in the streets, but

'[the POUM]could have organised a Central Defence Committee, based on
representatives from the barricades. For this it would have been enough to first
have held an assembly of delegates from the POUM and some CNT-FAI barricades.'

 From which he suggested would be elected a committee to coordinate a real unity
of revolutionary forces. These would be formed 'by means of the creation of
Defence Committees in the workplace and the barracks.' Here, in Barcelona at
least, would have been the basis of a real workers power.

None of these recommendations were taken on board. In his article on Dual Power
Rebull clarified the lesson made evident to Spanish revolutionaries:

'If you look at reality, you must recognise the necessity for destroying the
bourgeois state and replacing it with a new organ that has nothing in common with
the state of the exploiters.'

Not only that the capitalist state had not been smashed, but the POUM, like many
of the anarchists, had failed to understand how to keep the forms of dual power
alive as proletarian forces were marshalles for a second confrontation with the
state.

So it was by the end of May Rebull was to concede 'The only group that tried to
take a vanguard role was the Friends of Durruti.' He was also astute enough to
understand the POUM should have begun to operate underground, fearing imminent
persecution. Ironically enough, POUM leadership (much like the CNT leaders)
proclaimed May a 'victory', in that the workers showed they were still the ones
who kept Spain functioning.

Within weeks, the POUM would be declared illegal, scapegoated as fascist agents
by the Communists. Their leaders like Andres Nin  rounded up and jailed, tortured
and murdered.

Thankfully Rebull managed to escape to France, where he lived into his 90s and
remained a member of the POUM in exile. Rebull was one of the many mid-level
activists and radicals who attempted to realise the potential of the Spanish
Revolution, not just with slogans but concrete proposals.

An extended and improved translation is available in Agustin Guillamón's book
Insurrection as an appendix.

A Popular Front is a strategic alliance between proletarian and bourgeois forces
in defense of bourgeois democracy.
One cannot help but note delegates of the workplace and the barricade was a
distinctly Bakuninist position. In meeting between the Bolshevik-Leninists and
the FoD a similar view for the basis of workers counter-power was discussed.

https://ainfos.ca/gr/ainfos04166.html
https://www.redblacknotes.com/2022/07/19/josep-rebull-the-poum-and-the-spanish-revolution/
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