WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE FRANCE SPAIN News Journal Update - (en) France, Anarchosyndicalisme #182: An unpublished text by Anselmo Lorenzo on political maneuvers against Spanish anarchism (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 The text that we give to read below entitled "PROTESTATIONS FROM SPAIN:

RESPONSE TO THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST BUREAU" is an unpublished (or at
least forgotten) text by Anselmo Lorenzo. It was published in Vie
Ouvrière, the newspaper of the original French CGT, that of the
Pelloutiers and the Monattes, in 1910. And yet it still has things to
tell us that echo the situation of anarchosyndicalism in Spain. . ----
Anselmo Lorenzo himself is a forgotten figure of Spanish
anarchosyndicalism. Nevertheless; he is one of its titular figures. He
is from this generation of pioneers, the one that experienced the First
International, that of the debates between Marx and Bakunin, a time when
trade unionism was illegal and did not consist in standing for election
as workers' representatives, the latter preferring to go to direct
action. Tireless propagandist of anarchism, he made the link between the
AIT (International Association of Workers) first era and the Spanish
CNT, participating in the birth of the future Spanish section of the AIT
second era.

Anselmo Lorenzo was considered by the anarchists of his time as a
maestro, a path opener, due to his uprightness, his honesty and above
all his unwavering attachment to the moral and ethical values of
Anarchism. This incorruptible probity has convinced many workers, in
Spain and beyond in all Spanish-speaking countries, of the value of
Anarchism, the highest expression of Order as its contemporary Reclus said.

But Lorenzo was also and above all a man who put his convictions into
action. For more than 12 years, he was the inseparable fighting
companion of Francisco Ferrer, this libertarian pedagogue who created
the Modern School to try to snatch the working masses from the clutches
of the most venomous religious reaction. In 1909, to protest against the
mobilization of reservists (young workers in fact, the sons of the
bourgeoisie who could be exempted for 1500 pesetas) sent to fight in the
colonial war in Morocco, popular Barcelona, anarchist Barcelona -
already - rises. In this grandiose riot, the people affirm their
strength. Some convents are symbolically burned down, without any harm
being done to their occupants. Bourgeois and clerical repression
descended mercilessly. It's Tragic Week. Power must find those
responsible and guilty, and punish them. It will be Ferrer, who will be
arrested, condemned and shot.

But you can never be too suspicious of those who call themselves your
"friends". That the capitalist bourgeoisie seeks to suppress the
anarchists after all, nothing but very normal. But in 1910, the
Socialist Party and their international office stabbed their anarchists
in the back, taking advantage of their weakening following the
repression. It is true that Spain has always been a political "anomaly":
from the time of the First International, the Spanish labor movement had
taken up the cause of Bakunin against Marx. The Marxists are always
trying to get rid of this pebble in the shoe which came to thwart their
plans on the revolutionary comet. And despite their haunting calls for
unity, they still seek to eliminate anarchists, sometimes directly,
sometimes more subtly, by absorbing them. In December 1909, it was the
brutal method that they chose: the Spanish Socialist Party, led by Pablo
Iglesias, launched an appeal to the International Socialist Bureau,
which hastened to relay it to the other European socialist parties, for
their ask them to help them relaunch their newspaper La Intenacional and
thus "by helping the 'socialists' of Catalonia, you will contribute to
extinguishing one of the biggest and oldest centers of anarchy in Europe".

This desire of bourgeois politicians on the left to eradicate anarchism
from the map of Spain made Anselmo Lorenzo react, and it is this text
that we suggest you read again today. We invite sincere militants of
anarchosyndicalism interested in the Spanish question to re-read it
carefully, not with the wet eye of nostalgia, but with the sharp eye of
criticism.

Because it happens that today once again Spanish anarchosyndicalism is
in danger of being suffocated by "friends who wish it well". On the
death of Franco and then with the "transition to democracy", the
bourgeoisie was annoyed to see the resurgence of a CNT which did not
accept the social compromise, which refused the Montcloa Pact, the
historical compromise of the left with the Constitutional Monarchy. , a
CNT that refused the outstretched hand of institutionalization via union
elections. By a whole bunch of more or less subtle maneuvers (the Scala
affair, the infiltration of the forger Enric Marcos at the head of the
CNT, ...) the bourgeois succeeded in dividing the CNT. It must be said
that she could count on the attitude of certain forgers and politicians
introduced into the CNT (including the famous Enric Marcos), which calls
for being reasonable and accepting to play the institutional game. They
even went to tell the US consul in Barcelona, as evidenced by the
Diplomatic Cable of XX XX 1977 revealed by Wikileaks some 20 years later.

Despite this division which aimed neither more nor less to eradicate
once again the oldest anarchist center in Europe, there remained the
irreducible who resisted the siren song of integration.
But for the past ten years, a new wave of attacks against the anarchist
principles of the CNT have emerged, within the venerable house itself.
In the name of a so-called efficiency and a pragmatism that remains to
be demonstrated, everything that constitutes the soul and the heart of
anarchosyndicalism is promptly emptied of all substance. Direct action
by workers is replaced by mediation by lawyers in court. The CNT becomes
a "revolutionary union", even an "alternative union" or "combative". In
the documents presenting the CNT, the political purpose of the CNT -
Libertarian Communism (to paraphrase the title of a book by Isaac
Puente) is never mentioned. Or simply in the mode of nostalgia, an
accessory stored in the dusty aisle of the relics of a distant past.

Guy Bebord in the society of the spectacle described it very well: the
false has become a moment of the true. Today, in Spain as in many
countries, anarchosyndicalism has become a "revolutionary union"
spectacle, the red and black flags have become images whose meaning has
been lost but which make pretty colors on selfies and social networks,
and the acronym CNT has become a registered trademark that needs to be
monetized. Thus, this fraction which took control of the CNT attacked
before a court of the State the irreducible ones of the CNT-AIT for
usurpation of acronym, infringement of the right of intellectual
property; and that she claims compensation in the name of image
rights!!! This CNT-CIT (from the name of its international group, the
International Confederation of Labor) is demanding 900,000 euros in
compensation from the CNT-AIT!!! Almost a million!

And since this CIT is fearless, it dares to label its archive center
with the name of Anselmo Lorenzo! We recognize a real wolf by its
ability to put on the skin of the lambs it has swallowed beforehand, the
better to make people believe that it is one of them.

The conclusion of Anselmo Lorenzo's text, which denounces the dissolving
and poisonous maneuvers of the politicians of his time, is timeless. It
also applies to the current situation and to our contemporary politicians.

"This does not prevent the intelligence and energy of those who remain,
of the invincible, of those who maintain the sacred fire of the idea
against persecutions and deviations, from giving us the assurance that
Barcelona, that the Catalonia, that working-class Spain as a whole will
not fail to fulfill its duty in the light of proletarian demands.»

It is because we are faithful to the spirit of Anselmo Lorezo, whom we
call sincere anarchists and anarchosyndicalists, "those who remain, the
invincible, those who maintain the sacred fire against persecutions and
deviations", where that they find themselves expressing to the CIT and
its sections - just as Monatte and others did at the time when
protesting to the Socialist Office - their strongest disapproval of the
actions of the Spanish section of the CIT against the Spanish CNT-AIT.

Long live anarchosyndicalism,
Long live the Spanish CNT-AIT
Long live the International Association of Workers
PROTESTATIONS FROM SPAIN: RESPONSE TO THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST BUREAU
La Vie Ouvrière, number 12, March 20, 1910

Recently, a Belgian socialist deputy, Mr. Léon Furnémont, traveled to
Madrid to meet with members of the political organization headed by
Pablo Iglesias. There, in a public lecture, he made statements which
were reproduced in the Spanish press, and which read as follows:
"Our gospel, as adopted in all the socialist congresses, is summed up in
the following three propositions:
1 ° The Socialist Pari is a class party, that is to say the party of the
workers, both manual and intellectual, of those who do not have the
means of existence, see themselves obliged to sell their productive
force to capital and live subject to tyranny;
2° The working class must organize itself for political action: that is
to say that alongside its trade union and professional organization, it
must also engage in politics in order to obtain the economic protection
of the laws: for if the laws do not sanction the improvements brought to
the condition of the proletariat, it will not be easy for the latter to
acquire the capacity to transform the social system;
3° The working class must seize the public powers, to carry out the
transformation of the current organization, based on the monopoly with
the profit of some, in a communist or collectivist organization, in
which all the means of production will belong to the nations and to all
humanity, thus founding all classes in one, which will work and enjoy
wealth.

Whoever accepts these three proposals is a socialist. He who does not
accept them, whatever the nobility of his heart, whatever his
intelligence and the ardor of his democratic zeal, is not a socialist.
The consequence of such a program is that any manual or intellectual
worker who
accepts these three propositions - whether English, French, Belgian,
Swiss, German, Russian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. - is not an
internationalist: he is a nationalist, who, ignoring the revolutionary
capacity of the proletariat, asks the legislators and rulers of his
country for protective laws thanks to which the workers will become
capable of transforming the social system.

In this gospel taught by the apostles of the new socialism -
diametrically opposed to this socialism in the name of which the
socialists of Paris and Berlin called themselves brothers and protested
against the Franco-Prussian war; to that socialism which brought
together in Madrid in 1870 and 1871, French workers and Spanish workers
to protest against the patriotic feast of the Second of May, - in this
socialist gospel absolutely contrary to that of the International
Workers' Association, which brought together in a common thought and
action all the workers of the world without distinction of color, creed
or nationalist, - the proletariat is divided into nations instead of
maintaining international solidarity, and the workers are made to
believe that by devoting themselves to national politics and by
entrusting themselves to professional politicians they can hope to see
the transformation of the social system accomplished, which is the
negation of the two great principles of the International: "The
emancipation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves";
"the emancipation of workers is not a local or national problem, but a
social problem which engulfs all civilized countries, and whose solution
depends on their assistance, both practical and theoretical". "The
emancipation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves";
"the emancipation of workers is not a local or national problem, but a
social problem which engulfs all civilized countries, and whose solution
depends on their assistance, both practical and theoretical". "The
emancipation of the workers must be the work of the workers themselves";
"the emancipation of workers is not a local or national problem, but a
social problem which engulfs all civilized countries, and whose solution
depends on their assistance, both practical and theoretical".

Furnémont strikes me here as one of those English milords who, imbued
with the prejudice that Spain is a country of manolas and bullfighters,
go to Seville to attend an artificially prepared "popular rejoicing"
which they take for a spontaneous and authentic manifestation of the
mores of the country, and return home more deceived than ever, imagining
that they have seen the confirmation of their illusory beliefs.
As he said in his lecture, Furnémont believes that the proletariat is
incapable of effecting the transformation of the social system, and that
to acquire the capacity to do so, it needs the protection of the laws;
it is as if the lambs, to free themselves from the tyranny of the
wolves, asked them for their protection. He arrives in Madrid, he talks
with Pablo Iglesias and his entourage, and imagines having made contact
with the whole of the Spanish proletariat: as if there were not a worker
Andalusia of ancient communist tradition, a region Valencia open to
progressive ideas, a revolutionary syndicalist Catalonia of older date
than the International itself, a Cantabrian coast inhabited by a strong
and prudent race, a country where Corunna and Gijon shine like two
beacons of the redemptive thought of the proletariat.

This document begins as follows:
"Since the foundation of the International in Spain, there has not been
in Catalonia, and especially in Barcelona, a serious socialist movement.
The Bakuninists took the lead in the workers' movement from the very
beginning, and they launched violent attacks on the socialists. They
first published in Barcelona a daily newspaper, el Productor, and a
scientific journal, the Revista Blanca. They then published, in an
almost constant manner, a large weekly in Barcelona, and several
newspapers in the other towns of Catalonia. This activity made the work
of the "socialists" very difficult, who contented themselves with
publishing weeklies from time to time, and held public meetings which
the anarchists methodically disturbed and sometimes even tried to
dissolve with revolver shots.

"This abnormal situation, from which the working class suffered
enormously, had noticeably changed following various setbacks suffered
by the anarchists, notably after the strike of 1902." The circular adds
that then,
as the unions "had almost disappeared from Catalonia", we saw "the
socialists entering the battle to reconstitute these organisms on a
surer and stronger basis". And conflating the true and the false, the
International Socialist Bureau continues in these terms:
"The first effort in this direction was made in 1904, contributing to
the constitution of the local Federation of Labor Unions known as
"Solidaridad Obrera". This attempt was very successful, because in 1907
this local federation became regional. A second much more important
effort was attempted by the "socialists" by constituting for the first
time, the "Catalan Socialist Federation" and by founding an important
organ which would bear the title: the Internacional.»

The International Socialist Bureau itself undertakes to demonstrate that
the efforts of 1904 and 1907 did not succeed in constituting a serious
"socialist" movement in Catalonia. He proves it by the very fact of the
request addressed to the central committees of the affiliated parties to
come to the aid of these poor Catalan "socialists", who are not in a
condition to resume the publication of their organ on their own.
"It is absolutely necessary - says the circular - to revive this
newspaper... But our comrades are not able to provide the necessary
means to publish the Internacional. Rather, they should be rescued
themselves. In view of this particular situation, these comrades turned
to the International Socialist Bureau to ask it to come to their aid. To
be able to redo their newspaper with any chance of success, they would
need eight to nine thousand francs. This sum, relatively considerable
for them, they cannot ask for it from the National Committee of the
Spanish Party... As you can see, our Spanish comrades are at a very
difficult turning point in the life of their party.»

On the other hand, these Bakuninists who never knew anything serious,
these anarchists whose "failures" are supposed to have favored the
growth of the "socialist" party, find themselves, according to the
admission of the International Socialist Bureau, to constitute a
formidable force.; so formidable that it is against it that he calls
upon the money of neighboring countries. Listen instead:
"The old Bakuninists are there, ready to start the struggle again and to
take over again the workers' movement and the unions, which are very
shaken at this moment... By helping the "socialists" of Catalonia, you
will help to extinguish one of the greatest former hotbeds of anarchy in
Europe. You will thereby help to build up and strengthen the power of
these "socialists" in Spain, and you will finally intervene in an
effective way in the painful and courageous effort that the working
class of all Spain is trying at this moment (! ).»

I will not discuss further the circular so clumsily issued by the
International Socialist Bureau. This circular, as is natural, aroused
the indignation of Catalan trade unionists, whose organ, Solidaridad
Obrera, stigmatized it in its February 26 issue as a document which
"falsifies the facts in a deplorable way". and which "contains calumnies
prejudicial to the harmony which must reign in the trade unionist camp".
As for the newspaper Tierra y Libertad, it published on March 3, an
answer which I want to give here in full:
"The publishing and redactor group of Tierra y Libertad, of Barcelona,
denounces to the working world the following fact:
"The International Socialist Bureau, in the Belgian newspaper Le Peuple,
the daily organ of socialist democracy, issue of February 8 last,
addresses the central committees of the affiliated parties, asking them
eight to nine thousand francs for the reconstitution of the newspaper
the International.
"In this circular, the International Socialist Bureau, misinformed,
commits inaccuracies which can be qualified as serious and even as
slanderous.

"To avoid the bad effects of this document, which looks like a
government decree, the workers to whom it is addressed should know the
following:

"1° that the fraction called "socialist", which constitutes in Spain the
political group called Partido Obrero (Workers' Party) and the workers'
group called Union General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers),
does not have any importance in Catalonia;
2° That the Revista Blanca was not published in Barcelona;
3° that the Barcelona general strike of 1902, a brilliant movement of
solidarity towards a workers' corporation in struggle with capital, a
movement which astonished the world by its novelty and its grandeur, was
denigrated by the secretary of the steering committee of the suspension.
mentioned Partido Obrero, who gave unfavorable information to the
Council of Trades Unions of England, which had seen with natural
sympathy this grandiose movement.
4° That the local federation of workers' societies constituting the body
designated by the name of "Solidaridad Obrera" was the product of a
spontaneous movement of the Barcelona workers, and not that of the
insignificant "socialist" group in Barcelona which gave hardly, in long
years, the outward signs of existence in Barcelona;
5° That the "Catalan Socialist Federation", whose existence is hardly
noticed, and[what was called its organ]the newspaper La Internacional,
on the one hand, and on the other the federation called "Solidaridad
Obrera» and its organ entitled Solidaridad Obrera, are two quite
distinct things, without possible confusion;
6° That the anarchists never disturbed the meetings convened and held by
the members of the socialist group, and, a fortiori, never fired
revolver shots there;
7° That if it is by helping the "socialists" of Catalonia to put an end
to one of the oldest centers of anarchy - as the International Socialist
Bureau says in unworthy and slanderous language - that we will
consolidate and strengthen the power of "Socialism" in Spain, you don't
have to ask for 9,000 francs from the international workers' federations
to support the newspaper La Internacional: you just have to present the
note at the bottom of the reptiles.

"The International Socialist Bureau, the companies and workers to whom
the unfortunate circular is addressed, and the generality of workers who
do not practice socialism in such a mean way are invited to take note of
these declarations.

"For our part, deeply impressed by the recent declarations of the
workers of the Republic of Argentina who, renouncing their divisions,
have come together in a conscious and powerful union which must be like
the union liquidating the bourgeois society in bankruptcy; admiring the
great emancipatory movement of the workers of Pennsylvania; and desiring
to unite with all the workers of Europe and the world in the idea and in
the work of the emancipation and participation of all in the universal
heritage, we protest against the machinations of these "socialists" who
aspire only to be leaders and deputies, at the cost of submission to
their affiliates, and who transform socialism, the glorious initiative
of the International Workingmen's Association,

Nothing can be added to a response that is as crushing as it is deserved.

May it be understood by the workers' organizations which are asked for
money for propaganda of dubious effectiveness and of a more than
ambiguous character.

Now, as a contrast to the impression received by Furnémont from his
visit to Madrid, it will be good to compare the impression that Jouhaux
reported from his recent visit to Barcelona, where he had been delegated
by the General Confederation of Labour. to attend the big meeting
announced on February 6 and which could not take place. It was in La
Voix du Peuple, from Paris, of February 27, that Jouhaux recounted what
he had seen and heard:
"I was able," he said, "to get in touch with the brave Barcelonan
militants." The impression made on me by this interview was excellent.
Numerically weak as the workers' organization in Catalonia is at the
present time, it nevertheless constitutes a great active and combative
force.

"Contrary to what unfortunately happens too much in our trade union
circles, Catalan workers are animated by a spirit that is largely open
to noble and generous ideas. The trade unionists there are bold and
courageous men whom no attempt, however audacious, frightens. The
atmosphere that hovers over union meetings is one of brotherhood and
mutual sympathy. Workers live the life of their organizations, vibrant
in all its manifestations. This, in my opinion, is where the strength of
a movement lies.

When indifference has disappeared, when people are attached by bonds of
affinity to the fate of their organization, then the latter is truly
strong. This is the situation in Barcelona. With such groupings, nothing
is impossible, everything can be attempted. Failure, far from
annihilating energies, stimulates them for new battles. This is how our
comrades from Solidaridad Obrera declared to me that they were ready to
start the fight again if the government did not grant amnesty. I could
only encourage them in this direction, while showing them the usefulness
of a methodical organization.

"The fault in Catalonia is precisely the lack of organisation. The hot
and exuberant temperament of the Catalans bends with difficulty to a
discipline. However, based on the very high feelings of this
particularly studious people, we can be sure that they will be able to
learn the lesson that emerges from the latest events in Barcelona.

"The main militants have understood this, and it is full of enthusiasm
that, barely emerging from the period of fierce repression, they boldly
got down to this work of reorganization. Before long, workers' Catalonia
will have a powerful and formidable organization. Driven by a fighting
spirit which is her characteristic, driven towards a very high ideal,
the future will be wide open to her.

"This is the impression that I bring back from my too short stay in the
beautiful artistic city of Barcelona.»
With regard to the lack of organization that comrade Jouhaux observed
among the Barcelona workers, I ask to make two or three simple remarks.
Consider that we have just gone through a period of harsh and cruel
government repression; that we find ourselves in a great crisis of
unemployment, where hunger is pushing workers to emigrate; that the
inexperience of the young men and day laborers who come from the rural
districts of Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia is easily reduced by the
eloquent charlatanism of the republicans; that the bourgeois have
recourse to the famine pact against the intelligent and active workers;
and this numerical weakness and this lack of organization will be explained.

This does not prevent the intelligence and energy of those who remain,
of the invincible, of those who maintain the sacred fire of the idea
against persecutions and deviations, from giving us the assurance that
Barcelona, that Catalonia , that working-class Spain as a whole will not
fail to fulfill its duty in the light of proletarian demands.
Barcelona proved this in February 1902 and in July 1909, as many cities
and many regions of Spain have also proved during the period that has
elapsed since the beginning of the emancipation movement of the proletariat.
Anselmo Lorenzo

Editor's note[Pierre Monatte]: To "contribute to extinguishing one of
the largest and oldest sources of anarchy in Europe", the Permanent
Administrative Commission of the Socialist Party voted in its meeting of
February 21, a sum of 500 francs?
Note that no protest was made against this vote, neither on reading the
appeal of the International Bureau, nor since, by any member of the
Administrative Commission, where the insurrectional tendency however has
two representatives[including Gustave Hervé].
We note with even more surprise that in preparation for the vote of
these 500 francs, an article paraphrasing the circular of the
International Bureau appeared in L'Humanité of February 1, under the
signature of André Morizet.

http://cntaittoulouse.lautre.net/spip.php?article1353
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