Hi, All,
In 1971, a friend from the commune down the street in Kitchener Ontario Canada lent me a book on the Spanish Civil War that did not focus on the conflicts within the left, on the fight against Franco, or the Soviet counter-revolution in Spain. It was a personal account by a journalist touring the northern areas, especially the Basque region, describing the process of collectivization and the domestic accomplishments of this collectivization.
This book was in English, and yes, it was illustrated with the posters and banners and pamphlets of the time, but what turned me completely on was the details about how in those 3.5 years, the CNT movement was able to build hospitals and roads, raise the adult literacy from 15% to 70% in the Basque region, as well as a description of how this fit with the Basque tradition of communal ownership of fishing vessels.
I have searched every anarchist and leftist bookstore I've come across for this book, which I think I would recognize, but most of the histories focus on the various groups and the politics among all of them, the organizational principles, etc., all of which is good stuff, but when I want to tell people about the accomplishments that are possible from organizing an entire region according to anarchist principles for over three years, I want to have that one book.
I've written to Mondragon's university partner LANKI and haven't received anything back from them. I don't know who to ask for this, and pouring over Bibliographies in old books doesn't yield any Ah-hah moments or other leads that help me with this search.
This is personal to me, and I would appreciate anyone who can suggest where I can get it. Since I'm on a limited income, a link to a pdf would be my favorite reply.
This particular book seems to be very rare, and yet, I think that the entire anarcho-syndicalist movement would benefit from its reprinting or republication as a downloadable pdf.
Thank you in advance,
Cougar
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