WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY SPAIN News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Alternativa Libertaria/FdCA #22: Juan Garcia Oliver: the possible revolution. Spain 1936-1947 - Roberto Manfredini (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

Within what can be considered the "Spanish phase" of the European war
(1914-1947), the figure of Juan Garcia Oliver (JGO) is of particular
importance. There are several articles, books and reviews, also in
Italian, which have focused on various historical and biographical
aspects of this leader and militant of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism. The
complexity of the Spanish libertarian movement in that period, the role
played by the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (Cnt) and the
Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) in the Spanish revolution can be
understood through the knowledge and questions that the biographical
research on JGO has raised. A parallel emerges between his militancy and
the different phases of the internal confrontation within the CNT, which
provides new elements to research on the popular uprising against the
military pronouncement, collectivizations, the libertarian presence
within the Caballero government, the fall of the republic, retreat and
exile. His biographical journey, from his birth in Reus on 19 January
1902 to his death in Guadalajara (Jalisco, Mexico) on 6 July 1980, is
also a collective biography of Spain during the civil war and of the CNT
leadership group (Montseny, Santillan, Mirò, etc.) in the face of the
urgency of organisational, program and political choices starting from
the 4th unitary congress of the CNT (Zaragoza 1st May 1936) which
elaborated the libertarian Communist program and the revolutionary
workers' alliance with the Uniòn General de Trabajadores (Ugt )
socialist. The death of Francisco Ascaso, general secretary of the CNT
in Catalonia, during the first clashes of the uprising of July 1936 and
the doubts of Buenaventura Durruti initiated the need for reflection on
the role of the CNT as a whole. The organization of the "Comité de
Milicias" in Barcelona, the collectivizations of the military
industries, the expansion of the anti-fascist front and the entry of JGO
as minister in the government of Largo Caballero are the main elements
of his action. His choice is twofold, anti-fascist front and defense of
the libertarian Communist program, implemented in various areas and
institutions controlled by the CNT, including the government of
Catalonia and the Council of Aragon (chaired by Joaquin Ascaso with
delegation from the Government), in Asturias , with workers' control in
industry, in Cuenca and elsewhere. As justice minister he was accused on
the one hand of iconoclasm and criminality, on the other of not having
operated coherently during the clashes in the May days of 1937. Garcia
Oliver signs the ceasefire and truce, which will last until the end Of
the war. The coup attempt by the forces controlled by the Stalinist USSR
against the libertarian and autonomist militias was thus limited; the
clash would drag on until August 1937 with the attack of Enrique
Lister's troops, controlled by the Soviets, on the council of Aragon to
put an end to libertarian collectivizations. Events that pave the way
for Juan Negrìn's new government. From this moment on, the Spanish civil
war took on a character predominantly focused on military operations,
although still within the Popular and Anti-Fascist Front. There are
direct testimonies from those days which confirm JGO's commitment as
"keeper of the seals" in the defense of the Militia School directed by
the CNT, in the development of new legal norms which ranged from gender
equality to religious freedom for the evangelical and Jewish churches ,
in the approval of the amnesty for social and political crimes, in
active participation in the War Council, in diplomatic activity. This
activity re-evaluated his role during a unique historical period in
terms of social experimentation. The defeat, retreat and exile are
collected in images and texts, such as the last speech at Durruti's
grave, * on the second anniversary of his death on 29 November 1938, in
the Montjuich cemetery. The 26th division of the Republican Army (as the
Durruti column is renamed) is present, the last defense of the rear
guard during the retreat from Catalonia in January 1939.
The libertarian movement during the civil war deepens political
consciousness, creates a new mass communication, JGO is an original
interpreter, "invents" the red-black flag, uses similarities with actors
such as Stan Laurel or James Cagney to build a identifiable public image
which is also part of the ongoing military and political conflict, on
the one hand with fascism and on the other with the agents of the GPU,
Stalin's secret police. But the awareness of one's role is also
personal, when he declares: "Mi muerte will be gris y possibile llegue
con demasiado retraso", in fact he takes us back to the "tomb not
found", JGO is not buried in Barcelona alongside Durruti, Ascaso and
Ferrer . His activity as a political leader ended in 1947 in Mexico
where he had followed the republican government; In that year, Josè
Giral Pereira's cabinet in exile was dissolved, with the CNT present
with Horacio Martinez Prieto supported by JGO. Elements of that period
which led to deep lacerations in the republican, but also libertarian
front, consisted of the division of the territory of the republic into
two parts in April 1938, furthermore the Munich conference of September
1938 blocked the sending of military aid from France and Great Britain
followed in October by the withdrawal of the International Brigades from
Spain. After Stalin's purges of the leaders of the Red Army, the USSR
also began a process of disengagement from the Spanish war which would
end with the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact of August 1939 and
the invasion of Poland in September. The need for the republic to resist
for a few months was hindered by the Soviet strategy which aimed at
exhausting the republican army through useless offensives or battles
which wore down its resistance, until the failure to defend Catalonia
which was occupied by the Francoists in February 1939. Following the
diplomatic recognition of Franco's Spain by France, the president of the
republic Manuel Azana resigned on 27 February 1937. Documents and
testimonies indicate Palmiro Togliatti as the "master of operations" for
the control of the republic by the agents and USSR soldiers in Spain. In
March 1939, the National Committee of the libertarian movement attempted
to organize a retreat from the area that remained republican, the
Center-South and Madrid, there were several attempts by the various
components to take control within the republican alignment and the start
of attempted peace negotiations with Franco. On 4 March 1939 anarchists,
socialists, republicans, CNT and UGT formed the "National Defense
Council" directed by Colonel Sigismundo Casado, following this Negrin
and the leaders of the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) abandoned Spain; on
9 March the IV Republican Army Corps directed by Cipriano Mera blocked
the army units loyal to the PCE who were attempting to take over Madrid.
Although several attempts by the Francoists to occupy the republican
areas were repelled, in early April 1939 the clashes ended with the
victory of the Francoists and only a small part of the republican army
managed to retreat. From this moment a clandestine reorganization of the
remaining anti-fascist forces began. Existing documentation estimates
that there were fifty thousand Spanish veterans of the Republican army
who participated in the Second World War (anarchists, socialists,
internationalist communists), there are six thousand deaths in the
French army, one thousand in the English army, six hundred in the
resistance in France, but the majority, around ten thousand, are killed
in German concentration camps. The main Spanish formations are the 9th
company (La Nueve) of the Leclerc division, the 13th Dble in General
Koenig's 1st Brigade française libre, which participates in the African
campaign up to southern Italy. There are the "Guerrilleros Espanoles"
brigades, part of the XV Corps, which operate throughout the South of
France, while other brigades are organized in the Maquis. In the English
army and navy there are the "Number one Spanish Company - Pioneer Corp",
officers and soldiers who fled to the USSR and enlisted in the Red Army.
The two-year period of '44-'45 of the world conflict represents a
critical period for the Franco regime, largely compromised with both
Hitler and Mussolini. It is no coincidence that in these years we
witness the resumption of internal resistance and the possibility of the
collapse of the regime increases. they make it more real.
The republican government in exile, within the "Alianza Nacional",
reorganizes the opposition political and trade union forces, but in this
phase the decisive role of the allied forces which are already preparing
to redefine the European political balance is also emerging. The
ambiguity of the allies towards Franco's Spain allowed the strengthening
of the regime and, internally, the resumption of a vast action of
repression which would last throughout the 1940s, managing to eliminate
any form of armed or political resistance, in particular that expressed
from the "Libertarian Front". The new world balances imposed by the
nascent confrontation between the USA and the USSR do not envisage a
democratic system in Spain, the last illusions of a collapse of the
Franco regime are extinguished, from protagonists of history the Spanish
republicans return to being only spectators of decisions taken by the
new powers world. Despite the presence of a vast diplomatic boycott and
armed resistance both within and in the South of France, the Franco
regime changed its international position, from that of alignment within
the Axis, to war neutrality, to relocation in the area of British
influence, then in the American one, fitting into the lines of the
Truman doctrine for the Western camp. Various consequences will arise
from this new international situation, including the abandonment by the
Communist Party (PCE) of the armed struggle within Spain, with the
dissolution of the guerrilla movement in 1948. In the two-year period
1948-1950, the the activity of the CNT which scales down the guerrilla
warfare of the "maquis" organized by the Movimiento Libertario de
Resistencia.

   *(https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=RQM-McmeYCI)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Frank Mintz, Graham Kelsey (ed.), Consejo Nacional de
Defensa (March 1939), Cuadernos de la guerre civil n. 5, Fundacion
Salvador Seguì, Madrid, 1989;
   Fulvio Abbate, The anarchist minister, Juan Garcia Oliver a hero of
the Spanish revolution, (with a text by Fernando Arrabal), Baldini
Castaldi Dalai Ed., Milan, 2004;
José Miguel Fernandez, Garcia Oliver: Perfil de un ombre de accion, in
"Libre Pensamiento", CGT Madrid, n. 33-34, 2000, pp. 73-83; Frank Mintz,
Memorias, improvisaciones y olvidos de un ex-minister, in "BICICLETA"
Revista de comunicaciones libertaria, n. 13, Valencia, 1979, pp. 48-49;
Juan Garcia Oliver, El eco de los pasos, Ed. Ruedo Iberico, Barcelona, 1978;
Centenario de Joan Garcia Oliver, in "Royo y Negro", anarcho-syndicalist
monthly publication, IV series, a. XIII, n. 137, October 2001, p. 2;
Michele Serra, An anarchist in a suit and tie, in "la Repubblica" n.
November 14, 2004, pp. 32-33;
Pietro Ramella, The retreat. The odyssey of 500,000 Spanish republican
exiles after the civil war (1939-1945), Lampi di Stampa, Milan, 2003.
www.memorialibertaria.org www.portaldelexilio.org

Il Cantiere n. 20 ottobre 2023 ilcantiere@autistici.org

http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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