1930s
The Anarchist Revolution in Spain - New Statesman
Account by Cyril Connolly in the New Statesman or 21st November 1936 of the anarchist revolution during the Spanish Civil War
"It is in Barcelona that the full force of the anarchist revolution becomes apparent. Their initials, CNT and FAI, are everywhere. They have taken over all the hotels, restaurants, cafes, trains, taxis, and means of communication, as well as all theatres, cinemas, and places of amusement.
The Battle of Cable St, 1936 - Joe Jacobs
Joe Jacobs was in 1936 a local Communist Party activist in London's East End. This is his account of his involvement in the famous defence of the East End against an attempted march by Mosley's fascists.
Joe describes events leading up to the march, including the changes in the CP leadership's tactics as they finally realised their calls for a peaceful demonstration elsewhere would be ignored. His account corrects false impressions later created by official Communist versions of the events.
1931: The Invergordon mutiny
A short account of a strike by a thousand sailors of the Royal Navy that occurred in Northern Scotland in 1931 against proposed wage cuts.
The government attempted to supress all memory of the strike, and although the strikers won partial concessions, the cuts were still imposed and many sailors were punished for taking part.
Class collaboration - old and new, and Open letter to the CNT, 1937
"Class collaboration - old and new", a timely reminder of working class political experience by Joseph Wagner, and A. Shapiro’s Open letter to the CNT which criticised its actions during the Spanish Civil War.
Published in the IWW's One Big Union Monthly, August, 1937
Workers Power and the Spanish Revolution - Tom Wetzel
Tom Wetzel's historical article and analysis of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution, and in particular the activities of the Spanish anarchists within it. In text and PDF format.
Available here as a PDF.
Puente, Isaac, 1896-1936
A short biography of Spanish anarchist Isaac Puente Arnestoy, who was executed on the dawn of the 1936 Revolution.
Isaac Puente Arnestoy was born in 1896 in Las Carreras, near Vizcaya, in the Basque country in Spain, the son of a Carlist soldier.
Statistical information on socialisation in the Spanish Revolution
Statistics on agrarian and industrial collectivisation in the Spanish Civil War, the numbers of collectives and workers involved.
Adequate statistical information is difficult to obtain, but the following data should give a general idea of the extent of the libertarian revolution on the land and in the cities.
1921-1953: A chronology of Russian anarchism
A brief timeline of the anarchist movement and anarchist activity in the USSR, and its repression by Soviet authorities following the Russian Revolution.
“But we do not fear you or your hangmen. Soviet 'justice' may kill us, but you will never kill our ideals. We shall die as anarchists and not as bandits.”
- The anarchist Fedor Petrovich Machanovski at his trial before the Petrograd Revolutionary Tribunal, 13th and 22nd December 1922
1941: Disney cartoonists strike
A short history of a strike by Disney animators in 1941 and the organisation in the years building up to it.
Throughout the 1930s workers of the flourishing entertainment industry of Hollywood had been organising themselves into unions. Stagehands, actors, directors, editors and writers had all successfully, albeit slowly, formed their own organisations through this massive drive for union recognition.
Day the East End said 'No pasaran' to Blackshirts
Next Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of the day that the workers of the East End of London united in defiance of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists and refused to let them march through their streets.
From The Guardian (Saturday September 30, 2006) by Audrey Gillan.
They built barricades from paving stones, timber and overturned lorries. Women threw the contents of chamber pots on to the heads of policemen and children hurled marbles under their horses and burst bags of pepper in front of their noses.
