Spanish civil war

Polarization past & present

An article by J Pierce on the polarization of society during revolutionary upsurges.

Two summers ago, the Phoenix IWW held an event celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution. That same summer, while visiting a friend, I toured various abolitionist, African American, and Civil War historical sites around Virginia. Meanwhile, the struggle over the rights of immigrant workers in Arizona was heating up and everyone, it seemed, had an opinion on the subject.

Introduction: Ready for revolution

Submitted by Kate Sharpley on Jan 23 2014 10:25

The Kate Sharpley Library team discuss Guillamón's work on the CNT's Defence Committees in relation to what we know about the start of the Spanish Revolution and why it's important.

The photographic images of the Spanish revolution are implanted in our memories and too often taken for granted. Iconic figures like Durruti blinking at a notebook or standing smiling in a circle of comrades, Ascaso, rifle on his shoulder, enjoying a chat and a smoke in the bright Barcelona sun shortly before he is killed. Most of all, though, there are the crowds.

The Spanish civil war: revolution and counterrevolution - Burnett Bolloten

This monumental book offers a comprehensive history and analysis of Republican political life during the Spanish Civil War.

Completed by Burnett Bolloten just before his death in 1987, "The Spanish Civil War" is the culmination of fifty years of dedicated and painstaking research.

The meaning of anarchism: theory illustrated by recent practice in Spain - Jack White

Short pamphlet looking at anarchist and socialist views of the state against the background of the conflict between Stalinists and anarchists in the Spanish revolution.

PART I

There has been bloodshed between Anarchists and Stalinist Communists in Catalonia. Many are asking:

(1) Is there so deep-rooted a difference of principle as to provide a philosophical basis for a physical clash?

(2) What is the fundamental principle of Anarchism?

A critical look at the Spanish revolution - Ricardo Fuego

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Nov 28 2013 19:15

A 2010 essay in which the author attributes the defeat of the Spanish Revolution not to its betrayal at the hands of a naïve and incompetent leadership, but to the fact that “If the Spanish proletariat valued acronyms and leaders more than their own interests this was because objective and subjective difficulties stood in the way of their potential to attain a level of class autonomy sufficient to do without such mediations”.

A Critical Look at the Spanish Revolution – Ricardo Fuego

Author’s Note

Response to Agustín Guillamón’s critique of "Critical notes on the text, 'Spain 1936. The exorcism of the ghost of the revolution' by A. Devesa" - Roi Ferreiro

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Nov 28 2013 15:35

Ferreiro’s reply to Guillamón’s critique of his essay on Spain, in which he accuses Guillamón of being prejudiced and incapable of understanding Ferreiro’s perspective, reiterates his position on the subjective deficiencies of the Spanish proletariat in the context of a culturally and economically backward capitalist regime, and maintains that “It is not the defeats of the past that will lead us … to victory in the future. It will be the historical development of the subjectivity of the masses of individuals … determined by the class struggle and the conditions of life, both in its dimension as a socio-political process as well as in its psycho-mental dimension”.

Response to Agustín Guillamón’s Critique of “Critical Notes on the Text, ‘Spain 1936. The Exorcism of the Ghost of the Revolution’ by A. Devesa” (BALANCE. Cuadernos de historia, No. 34) – Roi Ferreiro (Comunistas por la Autoliberación Integral)

The theorization of historical experiences - Agustín Guillamón

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Nov 28 2013 15:22

A critique of Roi Ferreiro’s critique of Andrés Devesa’s essay on the Spanish civil war and revolution, in which Guillamon derides Ferreiro for idealism and the use of elitist jargon, and for his failure to “perceive that the battle for revolutionary history is not just a bookish, theoretical and abstract question, but another battlefield in the class war between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat”.

The Theorization of Historical Experiences – Agustín Guillamón

History is one more battlefield among the many that exist in the class war. We must learn the lessons of the defeats of the proletariat, because they are the milestones of victory.

Critical notes on the text, "Spain, 1936. The exorcism of the ghost of the revolution", by Andrés Devesa - Roi Ferreiro

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Nov 28 2013 15:00

A critique of Andrés Devesa’s essay on the “domestication of memory” with respect to the events of the Spanish civil war and revolution, which is faulted for having placed too much emphasis on the failure of leadership of the CNT-FAI as the reason for the failure of the revolution, which Ferreiro traces to the subjective disposition of the rank and file of anarchosyndicalism, who were too dependent on “their organization”, with which they strongly identified, to break free of its tutelage and their “conformist and passive attitude” towards its collaboration.

Critical Notes on the Text, “Spain, 1936. The Exorcism of the Ghost of the Revolution”, by Andrés Devesa – Roi Ferreiro

Spain, 1936: the exorcism of the ghost of the revolution - Andrés Devesa

Submitted by Alias Recluse on Nov 28 2013 14:37

A brief 2006 essay on the topic of the “domestication of memory” perpetrated by the mainstream Spanish historians with regard to the Spanish Civil War, with particular emphasis on the whitewashing of the role of the Stalinists in the counterrevolution.

Spain, 1936 – The Exorcism of the Ghost of the Revolution – Andrés Devesa

Silenced Memory

“Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument.”
Primo Levi

No more compromise - Pierre Besnard

An article by former IWA secretariat Pierre Besnard about avoiding the mistakes of the CNT during the Spanish Civil War.

Originally appeared in The Vanguard (May 1939)
Provided by the Workers Solidarity Alliance archives in New York