Dulcet Marti, Rosario (1881-1968)

Rosario Dulcet was born in Vilanova i la Geltru in Catalonia on February 2nd, 1881.

Her father, Jaime, a supporter of federalist and republican ideas, sent her to a school that had as freethinking teacher Teresa Mañe a.k.a. Soledad Gustavo (the mother of Federica Montseny). At this school and through her own reading she discovered the ideas of anarchism. At the age of 14 she started work in a textile factory and joins the workers’ society "Las Tres Clases de Vapor ", founded in 1869 and which joined the CNT in 1913.

Rosario soon realised that bread and butter struggles were not enough and what was needed was the total abolition of capitalism. At the age of 20, she became the first woman to live in free union with a man in Vilanova. This was the Vilanova anarchist Antonio Soler Cuadrat, a building worker and vegetarian. This and her activity in the workplace and neighbourhood, lost her and her partner their jobs. They were then put on a blacklist. They both then moved to Sabadell where they were both immediately involved in a textile workers strike in August 1913. She made her first speech at a textile workers meeting.

With the failure of the strike, the couple moved to southern France. At Sete they carried out anti-militarist agitation among troops leaving for the front. As a result of this they were forced to leave for Montpelier.
In 1917 they returned to Barcelona. There Rosario became actively involved in the struggle around the rising cost of living. This was a result of speculation during the war which led even necessities rapidly shooting up in price. This sparked off a series of demonstrations and protests. She was involved in a demonstration of women which attacked several shops.

She intervened at a republican rally where she encouraged those there to leave their political parties and join workers organisations for the destruction of capitalism and the State.

The failure of the August general strike led on to her being actively sought for by the police. She and Antonio fled to Tarragona where they were sheltered by the anarchist Hermoso Plaja.The following year she undertook a propaganda tour for the CNT in Tarragona province, whilst being active in the textile workers union of the CNT at Clot.

After the long and hard strike at La Canadiense in 1919, Antonio was imprisoned for 11 months. It was in this period that the couple decided to separate (Antonio remained a life-long anarchist and obviously still fond of Rosario, sent money to her from exile in Chile up until his death in 1962).

In the 1920s, during the repression under the government led by Martinez Anido, Rosario hid many anarchists in her home, among them Marcelino Silva, who was to become her partner.

She then journeyed to Madrid where she spoke at public meetings along with fellow anarchist Libertad Rodenas, where they denounced the terror against workers being carried out in Catalonia by the bosses and their pistoleros.

During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera she was imprisoned twice for distribution of propaganda and the crime of incitement to rebellion. With the declaration of the Republic she moved to Manresa and took part in many meetings throughout the region. In March 1933 he was delegated to the Regional Plenum of the CNT.
In 1936 with the coming of the Revolution and Civil War she undertook more propaganda tours and collaborated with various rural communities. In May 1937 her partner Marcelino Silva was murdered by the Stalinists along with the Uruguayan anarchist Pedro Tufro. She then undertook in a propaganda tour of Aragon in support of the rural collectives.

With the defeat, she fled to France where he continued her activity. She was a delegate to the Second Congress of the Spanish Libertarian Movement (MLE), held in Toulouse in October 1948. She participated in its Local Federation at La Marseillette. She was a member of the Interdepartmental Committee of Haute Garonne of the MLE-CNT. She then moved to Carcassone, being active in the Local Federation there. Coming out of a Local Federation meeting there she was hit by a bicycle. She died on October 27th, 1968 at the age of 87, an anarchist until her final breath.

Nick Heath

Sources:
Biography of Rosario at:
http://autogestionacrata.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/dulcet-marti-rosario.html
Biography of Rosario at:
http://militants-anarchistes.info/spip.php?article1372
Biography of Antonio Soler Cuadrat at
http://militants-anarchistes.info/spip.php?article10537