#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #SPAIN #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) #Spain, Anarchico Galatea FAI: The anarchist movement and the Spanish civil war - Ninth Part, Posted on September 5, 2022 by galatea (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 V. Mayo sangriento: Barcelona 1937 and after ---- A predictable storm ---- The

"events of May", that is the armed confrontation inside the anti-fascist camp,
are not a bolt from the blue. The signs of a growing tension can be found, as
well as in the killings of La Fatarella at the end of January 1937, in a couple
of accidents in which two important exponents of the opposing tendencies die: CNT
- FAI and POUM on the one hand and PSUC and ERC on the one hand. other. On April
25 Roldán Cortada, exponent of the UGT, of the PSUC and former of the CNT
(treintista wing), was killed in dark circumstances; two days later, in the
village of Puigcerdà in the Pyrenees, Antonio Martín, a well-known anarchist
militant, falls into a conflict with the Generalitat police.
Also in April the protests of the population explode for food shortages, and this
increases the sense of precariousness and tension caused above all by the first
bombings of the Italian legionary aviation, which cause dozens of deaths and
considerable destruction. May Day, the traditional international meeting of
workers' movements, does not see any march or other mass initiatives which, in
the already heated climate, could have given rise to provocations and further
violent clashes.
In those days the Generalitat renewed yet another pressing invitation to the
Patrullas de Control of the workers' organizations to hand over their weapons to
the new unified security service placed under its orders. The prevailing belief
in the working base is well expressed by an article that appeared in "Solidaridad
Obrera" on 2 May: " Comrades, weapons are worth more than speeches!", Followed by
the consistent rejection by the "people in arms". In fact, the Patrullas continue
to operate and void the injunction of the Catalan government, to which they
remind that those weapons were conquered at very high human costs on July 19,
1936 and that they guarantee real and not delegated power, not even through the
CNT - FAI, at the top of the institutions. For some time the forces that oppose
collectivization and in general the revolution in progress have found their
political referent in the PSUC. This party was born in Barcelona in July 1936
immediately after the victory over the coup, in which its members participated
very little, and has grown strongly month after month. His entry into the Catalan
autonomous government initially gave him few places, but soon his space expanded
by exploiting the popularity of the Soviet Union.
The PSUC soon became the USSR's crucial point of reference for bringing the
revolutionary situation in Catalonia under control, a territory where
anarcho-syndicalism and, albeit to a much lesser extent, non-Stalinist Marxism
have a considerable influence on the masses of workers. Furthermore, both allow
themselves to attack the image and politics of the Kremlin, in particular by
denouncing the Stalinist trials underway in 1936. These criticisms, which unite
Marxist dissidence with sectors of the most powerful CNT, give a lot of annoyance
to the Soviet state that presents itself. as the "homeland of socialism". To
underline the strategic function of the PSUC,
The "fratricidal war" between anti-fascists began on 3 May when a group of
Generalitat policemen, under the command of Rodríguez Salas, an officer belonging
to the PSUC, attacked the Telefonica building in the central Plaza de Catalunya.
The stated purpose is to install the delegate appointed by the Companys
government as responsible for running a valuable service that holds de facto
power. The rumor has been circulating for some time, probably, that a telephone
call from the President of the Republic Manuel Azaña was blocked by a Cenetist
switchboard operator who would have mocked the highest political figure. The
offense would constitute the straw that overflows the camel already filled with
the "patience" of Companys, who complains about the indiscipline of most of the
anarcho-syndicalist militants. But the episode, or its representation, it can
also be read as the symbol of the intolerance of institutional power towards a
real power that relies on the control of strategic points, such as the telephone
exchange. This site, occupied after a bitter struggle by the CNT fighters, is
managed collectively by one of its Comité, with some UGT delegates in a
subordinate position. For many militants of the CNT - FAI it is an achievement,
reached on July 19, 1936, not to be missed.
The armed workers of the Telefonica barricade themselves on the upper floors,
while the autonomous police remain on the ground floor. The news immediately
circulated in the popular districts of the city and in a few hours a spontaneous
general strike broke out: dozens of barricades were erected, similar to those of
19 July, around which the shootings multiplied.
A notable part of the members of the CNT - FAI believe that the time has come to
put a stop to the expansionism of the PSUC, which is counting on its alliance
with the ERC. The appeals for calm and confidence launched by the political and
trade union leaders in the course of the negotiations to "resolve the incident"
are perplexing. On the radio, for a couple of days, the proclamations of the
autonomist and communist leaders alternate with those of the anarcho-syndicalist
leaders. Among the latter we hear the voices of two Catalan ministers of the CNT
considered leading exponents of irreducible anarchism: García Oliver and
Montseny. Everyone says they are in favor of ending the struggle, dismantling the
barricades and returning to work and calm, with the promise that those
responsible for the police provocation at Telefonica would be removed. By now the
dead are numbered by the dozen and will reach more than 300 throughout
Catalonia[1]. On May 5, shooting near the headquarters of the organizations was
recorded and two leading exponents of the parties to the conflict were killed.
Antoni Sesé, general secretary of the UGT and manager of the PSUC, is unable to
take possession of the post of new minister of the Generalitat as he falls close
to the Sindicato de la Industria del Espectáculo of the CNT; Domingo Ascaso,
elder brother of Francisco, the hero who fell on July 20, 1936, is fatally shot a
couple of hours after Sesé. secretary general of the UGT and manager of the PSUC,
he is unable to take possession of the post of new minister of the Generalitat as
he falls close to the Sindicato de la Industria del Espectáculo of the CNT;
Domingo Ascaso, elder brother of Francisco, the hero who fell on July 20, 1936,
is fatally shot a couple of hours after Sesé. secretary general of the UGT and
manager of the PSUC, he is unable to take possession of the post of new minister
of the Generalitat as he falls close to the Sindicato de la Industria del
Espectáculo of the CNT; Domingo Ascaso, elder brother of Francisco, the hero who
fell on July 20, 1936, is fatally shot a couple of hours after Sesé.
Meanwhile, the Largo Caballero government appropriates the public order and
defense services of the Generalitat, suppressing the autonomous Catalan offices,
sends a couple of warships into the port and prepares the shipment of thousands
of Guardias de Asalto to re-establish institutional control and public order. On
the morning of May 6, the bodies of Camillo Berneri and Francesco Barbieri were
also found near Plaça Sant Jaume, near the seat of the autonomous government.
Calls to cease the shootings eventually achieve the desired effect, and if any
confrontation continues, overall the intensity and severity decrease
significantly. A group of radicals, both libertarian and Marxist, which is called
Los Amigos de Durruti[2]tries to trigger a revolutionary movement against the
renunciation line of the bureaucracies of the libertarian organizations, but the
intent manages to survive only a few days. On May 7, according to the
Generalitat, he resumes work in factories and offices, as well as in public
transport. The conclusion is hailed as a victory by the PSUC, evidently aware of
the risks taken in those days, while the CNT - FAI declares that the hectic days
ended without winners or losers. In reality, it is not easy for anarchist leaders
to take stock of this tragic conflict that reveals the limits and contradictions
of collaboration in the name of the anti-fascist war. The progressive increase of
influence from formations, such as the PSUC and the ERC, that July 19, 1936
seemed to count for very little, and this to the detriment of the strengths of
the libertarians, implies a very negative judgment on the choice of the CNT - FAI
leadership not to push the revolutionary momentum to the bottom, at least in
Catalonia[3]. On the other hand, as reiterated several times, the confrontation
does not take place only in the richest, most modern and most libertarian region
of Spain.
May 1937 causes the irreversible crisis of anarchist participation in the
government of Largo Caballero. The socialist leader, an expression of the UGT, is
put in difficulty by the pressing request of the PCE ministers to decree the
dissolution of the POUM, accused of "espionage in favor of the enemy" and of
being "the inspirer of the criminal putsch of Catalonia"[4]. The former union
leader, once hailed by the Stalinists as the "Spanish Lenin", refuses to accept
this request and resigns. Two days later, on the immediate designation of Azaña,
a new government was appointed chaired again by a socialist, Juan Negrín, but
this time coming from the current of Indalecio Prieto, responsible for the
organizational and bureaucratic structures of the PSOE and therefore rival of
Largo Caballero. Beyond the socialist label,

The hunt for dissident revolutionaries
After the suspension of the newspaper "La Batalla", the closure of the offices
and the expulsion from local government bodies, on June 16, 1937 the Comité
Ejecutivo del POUM, including the secretary, was arrested en bloc. Andreu Nin,
former member of the government of the Generalitat.

The goal for the Stalinist Communists, in the wake of the contemporary Moscow
trials, is to obtain full confessions from the espionage defendants, in
particular from the most prominent personality, the Catalan Nin. The latter,
after extolling the Russian revolution in the early 1920s and then attacking the
centralization of power in the hands of Stalin and the repression against the old
Bolsheviks, fled the USSR to escape the Soviet police. The interrogations he is
subjected to, in prisons managed directly and secretly by the PCE, are
particularly harsh, but Nin seems not to give in. The inquisitors continue to
torture him to make him plead guilty, according to the practice tested in the
Soviet Union in the trials of the "counter-revolutionaries". As in other similar
cases, the useless questioning leads to death or the impossibility of presenting
the accused in a public trial. The delicate question is resolved with an already
tested practice: liberation is pretended by a Nazi team and his body disappears
in the Madrid countryside. To those who write on the walls: «¿Donde está Nin?»,
The pro-Moscow Communists answer «¡lei Está en Burgos o en Berlín!», The capitals
of Franco's and Nazi enemies. In recent times, research conducted in the KGB
archive in Moscow confirmed that both this and other disappearances were directly
led by the Kremlin. The trial of the other leaders of the POUM was held in
October 1937 and ended with the acquittal of the charges of espionage and
treason, but with a conviction for causing the clashes in Mayo sangriento[5].
In Barcelona and beyond, after the end of the armed conflict, the repressive
institutions proceed with hundreds of arrests of the most radical militants. A
paradoxical situation arises. The CNT apparently keeps its strength almost
intact: the confederal armed columns support a not secondary part of the war
effort, the industrial and rural communities continue to function thanks to the
strong anarchist influence, the trade unions are in full swing. At the same time,
however, hundreds of militants, if not thousands, are arrested on infamous
charges such as having stolen or killed under trade union protection. And the
crimes were also committed in the early stages of the popular armed response to
the coup attempt. To get an idea of the scale of the phenomenon, it should be
borne in mind that in the Tortosa prison, in southern Catalonia,
The response of the Catalan CNT takes place at two levels: promoting the
establishment, inside and outside the prisons, of Comité pro Presos to support
prisoners and the formation, decided by the Comité Regional, of a special
Comisión Jurídica directed by the lawyer Eduardo Barriobero, Republican close to
the CNT and defender in many trials before 1936. In fact, the Comisión is paying
for the progressive loss of real power of the union and little can do in favor of
the "anti-fascist prisoners" who wait for a long time for the relative public
trials to take place. Officials of prisons and judicial offices respond with
sufficiency and generality, unthinkable before May 1937, to requests for precise
information on the contents of the accusations and on the detentions in progress.
The situation seems to have stalled to the point that some unions criticize the
"ghost commission" and go so far as to organize evasions by relying on the
complicity of the employees of the prison structure, appointed at the time when
García Oliver was Minister of Justice. Some illegally freed detainees are then
also made to flee from Barcelona and find protection in the confederal columns at
the front.
Within the various bodies of the CNT there are heated debates on how to operate
in defense of the detainees, who are often accused of wholly spurious crimes. The
union leaders are particularly reluctant to protect the CNT militants who were
most exposed in the clashes of May 1937, who mostly remained without official
organizational support until December 1937.

In a meeting of the Comité Regional of that period, the final motion recognizes
the correct position of the Comité Jurídico against the defense of extremist
elements, even if they are members of the CNT, and delegates any solidarity
commitment to the individual unions who will choose it under their own
responsibility.
Numerous letters of protest are sent from the prisons, in particular from the
Modelo of Barcelona, to the institutional bodies and to the Comité of the CNT. In
general, forms of open struggle are threatened in the case of non-protective
interventions or non-respect for the rights of "anti-fascist prisoners"[6]. The
secretary of the Catalan CNT, Josep Doménech, meets with the Minister of Justice
of the Generalitat to obtain permission to visit the jailed militants, who are on
the verge of unleashing a revolt. After a couple of days, over 200 detainees
deemed "dangerous" are urgently transferred to other prisons in the region and
for a few months the situation remains under the control of the authorities.
Following various forms of protest, from the hunger strike to the destruction of
furniture, which also includes jailed international volunteers, 800 prisoners of
various political tendencies are moved to the new prison residence in the center
of Barcelona, recently inaugurated, and to the work camps in the surrounding
area. It is the latter solution that, in the course of 1938, made it possible to
defuse the prison revolts, with the agreement of the CNT which managed to obtain
many releases.

Keep on...
https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2022/09/06/il-movimento-anarchico-e-la-guerra-civile-spagnola-decima-parte/

Note to the capitol
[1]P. Pagès, Catalonia at war..., cit., p. 209. Altre fonti stimano in circa 500
i morti del maggio 1937.
[2]M. Amorós, The revolution betrayed. The true story of Balius and The Friends
of Durruti, Virus, Barcelona, 2003.
[3]C. Semprun Maura, Libertad!, Elèuthera, Milano, 1996.
[4]P. Pagès, Catalonia at war..., cit., pp. . 211-213.
[5]The burning theme of May 1937 still produces new works. Most recent is the
dense and "equidistant" one by F. Gallego, Barcelona, mayo de 1937, Debate,
Barcelona, 2007. Among the "lined up" we remember at least the anthology
Barcelona, mayo 1937. Testimonios desde las barricadas, Alikornio, Barcelona,
2006 and A. Guillamón, Barricadas en Barcelona, Spartaco Internacional, sl, 2007.
Intentions of ideological reflection on May and on the political line of the
revolutionary left can be found in the work of G. Munis, Lessons of a defeat,
promise of victory, Lotta Comunista, Milan, 2007. To defend himself from the
accusation of having planned and managed the complex plan of the kidnapping,
interrogation and disappearance of Nin, the Trieste communist Vittorio Vidali
refers to the normality of Stalin's eliminations: "Why on earth would I have to
organize that staging?" At that time, if an anarchist or a poumista had to be
shot, it was done without fuss. Let alone if they needed me». In G. Bocca,
Palmiro Togliatti, Laterza, Rome-Bari, 1973, p. 301.
[6]F. Godicheau, The Spanish War. Republic and revolution in Catalonia
(1936-1939), Odile Jacob, Paris, 2004, pp. 297-328.

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2022/09/05/il-movimento-anarchico-e-la-guerra-civile-spagnola-nona-parte/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca