#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #ITALY #SICILIA #ANARCHISM #LIBRARY #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Italy, #Sicilia Libertaria: Books. Kill Franco - Pippo Gurrieri (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 With the title Matar, Franco Lorenzo Micheli publishes his fourth book on Spanish

anarchists and their incessant struggle for freedom. The first three, in order:
Los olvidados, The forgotten maquis and A proletarian community, deal in a
non-chronological manner with some salient periods of their exemplary political
and human story: the first the 1920s, the deadly attack on trade unionists , the
groups of pistoleros formed to defend the Confederaciòn and the bitter battles of
the workers against an unscrupulous boss; the third was the effervescent climate
of the early 1930s, the great aggregation capacity of the movement with the
libertarian universities, youth, female and neighborhood associations which,
together with the trade unions and the Federaciòn Anarquista Iberica formed a
true proletarian community; the second deals with the clandestine guerrilla
warfare that after the defeat of '39 will give a hard time to the fascist regime
led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, until its progressive annihilation, which
in any case will never be definitive.

With the fourth volume the author tells us about a specific aspect of the
guerrilla period: the attempts to eliminate the dictator.

The anarchists were convinced, and not wrongly, that once the General was killed,
the regime would collapse in on itself, prey to its contradictions and its many
souls with different and opposing interests, which only Franco was able to keep
together.

Hence the numerous attempts, from the end of the civil war until the early
sixties, put in place to hit "the heart of the state". Most are actions that
require weapons, equipment, money, shelters, connections, complicity, escape
plans. Actions which, moreover, cannot be performed without absolute discretion.

Not all operational bases are beyond the Pyrenees, in French territory; many are
in border regions, or within major cities. Sometimes it is a question of finding
an airplane and pointing straight towards a military ship from where the General
must preside over navy maneuvers; other times to wait for the passage of the
convoy carrying Franco towards his holiday resorts, to blow it up; still others
to secretly organize a deadly ambush during a regime meeting in the capital. Or
focus on the actions of small groups, perhaps of individuals, which can be more
easily camouflaged and neutralized. The fact is that the anarchists have tried
everything, they often arrived at the final instant, but then they had to give up
due to an unexpected event, a breakdown, perhaps the arrival of a school group
with flag-waving children placed between them and the dictator.

So Francisco Franco managed to get through the seventies and die on his own bed.
Without having first dealt severe blows to the resistance, with thousands of
lives of children and adults cut short in the field, tortured and killed in
barracks or prisons, made to disappear in prisons and prison camps. Several
generations of generous anti-fascists and libertarians both idealistic and
pragmatic exterminated with hope in the chest and machine guns or dynamite in hand.

The abnegation, courage, willpower, faith of these women and these men are
incredible; and if the dripping of militants, of clandestine structures,
proceeded, for at least twenty years others took their place.

In this captivating, fascinating, throbbing tale, where there are no heroes but
normal individuals who relate accordingly in abnormal situations - certainly in a
context of defeated, disappointed, terrified, of course, even if it hurts to
realize it - there are also those who have carried out tasks of support,
preparation, organization. Among them also a Ragusan, Franco Leggio, an anarchist
from Ragusa suffering from "Spanishitis" (as the anarchists who have always
supported libertarian Spain were almost disparagingly pointed out even when all
seemed lost). The book talks about Franco, our Franco, on page 86 when he
describes a demonstrative attack in Valencia, in 1962, in a place where the
General had spoken a week earlier. One way to say: here we are, we'll follow you,
sooner or later we'll catch you.

And there he is, Franco Leggio, at the bottom left of the cover, together with
the many generous people who, if they failed to kill the dictator, nevertheless
managed to feed hope.

Pippo Gurrieri

Lorenzo Micheli, "Matar a Franco - The attacks by anarchists against the
general", La Fiaccola, Ragusa 2022, p. 100, euro 10. To have it write to:
info@sicilialibertaria.it

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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