In the case of the anarchists (i.e. whatever chaotic vigilante nonsense the CNT/FAI were doing in Catalunya), they were literallly refusing to raise a proper army to contrubute to the war effort against the fascists despite being one of the most populous and industrialised parts of the republican side. The CNT/FAI was insisting on using small bands of barely-trained volunteers for defense, which was very unsurprisingly totally ineffective against the trained and Nazi-equipped forces of Franco. There was only so long that other parts of the republic could do all the fighting on behalf of the CNT/FAI’s self-indulgent nonsense before they actually needed to get serious, and that obviously meant raising an actual army. Of course, it didn’t stop there because elements of the CNT/FAI continued to disrupt enlistment efforts and encourage Catalunyans to boycott their own self-defense, allowing the fascists to very underwhelmingly stroll into Barcelona and begin slaughtering people.
(i.e. whatever chaotic vigilante nonsense the CNT/FAI were doing in Catalunya)
Calling it ‘chaotic’ is a bit absurd considering how well the 3 million+ Anarchists were able to collectively organize and run Catalonia, including public transport, food, weapon production, and universal healthcare (during a war with extremely limited resources), as was well documented in Collectives in the Spanish Revolution by Gaston Leval.
they were literallly refusing to raise a proper army to contrubute to the war effort
The Anarchists quickly formed a voluntary militia of 150,000 men and women (making up 33% of the Republican military forces) with a coordinated bottom-up structure, where the soldiers themselves would elect someone to lead their squad, and all the squad leaders would elect a commander to lead the squad leaders, etc. Every leadership position could be recalled by a vote outside of combat if the people below them felt they were not performing to expectations. They did this to be in-line with anarchist principles, and they likely believed if they became an authoritarian top-down military force, it would introduce the possibility of going the way of the USSR.
This structure was doubted and questioned at the time by a military advisor to Buenaventura Durruti (at the time, the effective leader of the militias):
spoiler to save space
One day Pérez Farràs stated his criticisms to Durruti directly: “You can’t fight like that,” he declared. In reply, Durruti said:
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: I’ve been an anarchist my whole life and the fact that I’m responsible for this human collectivity won’t change my convictions. It was as an anarchist that I agreed to carry out the task that the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias entrusted to me.
I don’t believe—and everything happening around us confirms this— that you can run a workers’ militia according to classical military rules. I believe that discipline, coordination, and planning are indispensable, but we shouldn’t define them in the terms of the world that we’re destroying. We have to build on new foundations. My comrades and I are convinced that solidarity is the best incentive for arousing individual responsibility and a willingness to accept discipline as an act of self-discipline.
War has been imposed upon us and this battle will be different than those we’ve fought in Barcelona, but our goal is revolutionary victory. This means defeating the enemy, but also a radical change in men. For that change to occur, man must learn to live and conduct himself as a free man, an apprenticeship that develops his personality and sense of responsibility, his capacity to be master of his own acts. The worker on the job not only transforms the material on which he works, but also transforms himself through that work. The combatant is nothing more than a worker whose tool is a rifle—and he should strive toward the same objective as the worker. One can’t behave like an obedient soldier, but as a conscious man who understands the importance of what he’s doing. I know that it’s not easy to achieve this, but I also know that what can’t be accomplished with reason will not be obtained by force. If we have to sustain our military apparatus with fear, then we won’t have changed anything except the color of the fear. It’s only by freeing itself from fear that society can build itself in freedom.
From historical records available, the Anarchists forces were surprisingly effective considering they had the most limited resources of any of the Republican factions due to the Stalinists and liberals withholding weapons and supplies much of the time, as well as preferentially withholding the better equipment for themselves. That happened so much, the Anarchist’s were seriously considering robbing the republican bank to acquire the gold needed to finally purchase weapons and supplies on the open market, but decided against it when the Liberal/Stalinist government promised once more that they’d buy supplies for them, but they ultimately did nothing again, screwing the Anarchists for the last time until the war was lost.
For anyone else curious, there’s a very detailed 6-part documentary on the Spanish Civil war that’s quite excellent, and goes into the military and battles aspect as well.
the Anarchist’s were seriously considering robbing the republican bank to acquire the gold needed to finally purchase weapons and supplies
A lot of words holding anarchists to very low standards but this honestly says it all. The CNT/FAI were not remotely serious about fighting the fascists and it’s no wonder everyone else was sick of them.
The Anarchists were only considering that option after repeatedly requesting needed supplies and constantly being stonewalled by the then pro-stalin Republican government, who were in all likelihood hoping to weaken the Anarchists before their betrayal, despite how doing so weakened the war effort dramatically.
And how much supplies did the CNT/FAI provide to the rest of the republic? Answer, nothing at all because they could barely handle their own disfunctional industry. The republic was not obliged to prop up their cosplaying indefinitely. Barcelona had a strong pre-war economy and should have been able to not only stand up on its own, but support other parts of the republic too.
I’m harsh on the CNT/FAI because their incompetence was a significant contributor to tens of millions of people being plunged into facsism for decades. I have possibly been too harsh on anarchists in general, mostly in my experience they are lovely people, but I don’t think they’re serious enough to run a revolution against militarised fascism.
I disagree with your assertion that all 3 million+ people in Catalunya suddenly fell in line with the CNT/FAI’s ideology. There were possibly a few hundred thousand actual anarchists in the region, with huge numbers of people who weren’t thinking about politics scared shitless of the disorganised vigilante militias going around establishing their vision of “anarchism” with zero oversight. Setting up tribunals and executing/imprisoning people with no due process. Whether they were “bottom-up” or not wasn’t really relevant. It was a scary time to be in Spain and the lack of a proper system of government made things much worse for the millions of people for whom this “anarchism” stuff was weird and unknown.
I can point to sources which show the Anarchists were using the profits of the Catalonia transit system to fund sending any excess vehicles to neighboring impoverished provinces which ran at a loss.
Evidence of Transit help
Indeed, alongside a railway line shown in black, 8, 10, 12 red lines represented that number of companies and road transport services which were competing with the railways and among themselves. It was a useless duplication which was to be found especially on the Mediterranean littoral, in the densely populated and prosperous province of Barcelona.
By contrast, on the chart showing means of transport for the province of Lerida, in the interior of Catalonia, there were great expanses, whole cantons without regular communications. Huge areas which, because they were impoverished, were condemned to stagnate in isolation, ignorance and poverty though an improvement in the means of transport could, as often happens, favour some aspect of development of production. And my comrades, who always put social interest, viewed in its global aspect, above corporative self-interest, or of narrow syndicalist outlook, decided that some of the lorries and buses in overabundance in the province of Barcelona should be sent to the province of Lerida. At the beginning, at least, the services would be run at a loss, but profitable services in the Barcelona area would more than compensate for these losses. What was required was to ensure to all the inhabitants of Catalonia then, and later for all the people of Spain, the same chances of well being and happiness. Did not the Collectives in Aragon, the Levante and Castile act in this way?
And how the Anarchists organized access to universal healthcare across much of the eastern part of Spain (not just Anarchists controlled Catalonia), including hundreds of impoverished villages who previously had little to no access.
Evidence of Anarchists rendering aid
in Valencia, then the third largest city in Spain, was the headquarters of a Mutua levantina or Mutual Aid Society of the Levante, founded by libertarians whom this writer got to know in his youth, and who brought together many doctors with different specialities, professional people with experience in the different fields of public health. More than a simple society for mutual aid, it was, basically, an association of practitioners of medicine which extended over the whole region of the Levante and in which the spirit of mutual aid dominated in its most human implications. [135]
You have made confident assertions that Anarchists in the civil war had no military, barely functioned, contributed nothing to Spain, and spread fear amongst the populace, and continue to assert this despite being provided evidence to the contrary, and in fact seemingly dismiss it without even looking at it.
If you’re not a Marxist-leninist, then I have no idea why you have such an extreme negative view of the Anarchists of Spain to the point where you’re not even willing to look at any evidence that may contradict your vendetta against them.
This will be my last response, as I’m not sure further responses will be productive, unfortunately.
(And that gold the Anarchist were considering robbing to finally get the supplies they needed? The pro-stalinist government, who controlled the gold, ended up just sending it all to the USSR, so they really should’ve robbed it, honestly)
In the case of the anarchists (i.e. whatever chaotic vigilante nonsense the CNT/FAI were doing in Catalunya), they were literallly refusing to raise a proper army to contrubute to the war effort against the fascists despite being one of the most populous and industrialised parts of the republican side. The CNT/FAI was insisting on using small bands of barely-trained volunteers for defense, which was very unsurprisingly totally ineffective against the trained and Nazi-equipped forces of Franco. There was only so long that other parts of the republic could do all the fighting on behalf of the CNT/FAI’s self-indulgent nonsense before they actually needed to get serious, and that obviously meant raising an actual army. Of course, it didn’t stop there because elements of the CNT/FAI continued to disrupt enlistment efforts and encourage Catalunyans to boycott their own self-defense, allowing the fascists to very underwhelmingly stroll into Barcelona and begin slaughtering people.
Calling it ‘chaotic’ is a bit absurd considering how well the 3 million+ Anarchists were able to collectively organize and run Catalonia, including public transport, food, weapon production, and universal healthcare (during a war with extremely limited resources), as was well documented in Collectives in the Spanish Revolution by Gaston Leval.
The Anarchists quickly formed a voluntary militia of 150,000 men and women (making up 33% of the Republican military forces) with a coordinated bottom-up structure, where the soldiers themselves would elect someone to lead their squad, and all the squad leaders would elect a commander to lead the squad leaders, etc. Every leadership position could be recalled by a vote outside of combat if the people below them felt they were not performing to expectations. They did this to be in-line with anarchist principles, and they likely believed if they became an authoritarian top-down military force, it would introduce the possibility of going the way of the USSR.
This structure was doubted and questioned at the time by a military advisor to Buenaventura Durruti (at the time, the effective leader of the militias):
spoiler to save space
Source of that quote.
From historical records available, the Anarchists forces were surprisingly effective considering they had the most limited resources of any of the Republican factions due to the Stalinists and liberals withholding weapons and supplies much of the time, as well as preferentially withholding the better equipment for themselves. That happened so much, the Anarchist’s were seriously considering robbing the republican bank to acquire the gold needed to finally purchase weapons and supplies on the open market, but decided against it when the Liberal/Stalinist government promised once more that they’d buy supplies for them, but they ultimately did nothing again, screwing the Anarchists for the last time until the war was lost.
For anyone else curious, there’s a very detailed 6-part documentary on the Spanish Civil war that’s quite excellent, and goes into the military and battles aspect as well.
A lot of words holding anarchists to very low standards but this honestly says it all. The CNT/FAI were not remotely serious about fighting the fascists and it’s no wonder everyone else was sick of them.
The Anarchists were only considering that option after repeatedly requesting needed supplies and constantly being stonewalled by the then pro-stalin Republican government, who were in all likelihood hoping to weaken the Anarchists before their betrayal, despite how doing so weakened the war effort dramatically.
Your extremely harsh characterization of Anarchists as unruly chaotic vigilantes who cannot be worked with is very much in line with USSR anti-anarchist propaganda 🤨
And how much supplies did the CNT/FAI provide to the rest of the republic? Answer, nothing at all because they could barely handle their own disfunctional industry. The republic was not obliged to prop up their cosplaying indefinitely. Barcelona had a strong pre-war economy and should have been able to not only stand up on its own, but support other parts of the republic too.
I’m harsh on the CNT/FAI because their incompetence was a significant contributor to tens of millions of people being plunged into facsism for decades. I have possibly been too harsh on anarchists in general, mostly in my experience they are lovely people, but I don’t think they’re serious enough to run a revolution against militarised fascism.
I disagree with your assertion that all 3 million+ people in Catalunya suddenly fell in line with the CNT/FAI’s ideology. There were possibly a few hundred thousand actual anarchists in the region, with huge numbers of people who weren’t thinking about politics scared shitless of the disorganised vigilante militias going around establishing their vision of “anarchism” with zero oversight. Setting up tribunals and executing/imprisoning people with no due process. Whether they were “bottom-up” or not wasn’t really relevant. It was a scary time to be in Spain and the lack of a proper system of government made things much worse for the millions of people for whom this “anarchism” stuff was weird and unknown.
I can point to sources which show the Anarchists were using the profits of the Catalonia transit system to fund sending any excess vehicles to neighboring impoverished provinces which ran at a loss.
Evidence of Transit help
Indeed, alongside a railway line shown in black, 8, 10, 12 red lines represented that number of companies and road transport services which were competing with the railways and among themselves. It was a useless duplication which was to be found especially on the Mediterranean littoral, in the densely populated and prosperous province of Barcelona.
By contrast, on the chart showing means of transport for the province of Lerida, in the interior of Catalonia, there were great expanses, whole cantons without regular communications. Huge areas which, because they were impoverished, were condemned to stagnate in isolation, ignorance and poverty though an improvement in the means of transport could, as often happens, favour some aspect of development of production. And my comrades, who always put social interest, viewed in its global aspect, above corporative self-interest, or of narrow syndicalist outlook, decided that some of the lorries and buses in overabundance in the province of Barcelona should be sent to the province of Lerida. At the beginning, at least, the services would be run at a loss, but profitable services in the Barcelona area would more than compensate for these losses. What was required was to ensure to all the inhabitants of Catalonia then, and later for all the people of Spain, the same chances of well being and happiness. Did not the Collectives in Aragon, the Levante and Castile act in this way?
Source: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gaston-leval-collectives-in-the-spanish-revolution#toc34
And how the Anarchists organized access to universal healthcare across much of the eastern part of Spain (not just Anarchists controlled Catalonia), including hundreds of impoverished villages who previously had little to no access.
Evidence of Anarchists rendering aid
in Valencia, then the third largest city in Spain, was the headquarters of a Mutua levantina or Mutual Aid Society of the Levante, founded by libertarians whom this writer got to know in his youth, and who brought together many doctors with different specialities, professional people with experience in the different fields of public health. More than a simple society for mutual aid, it was, basically, an association of practitioners of medicine which extended over the whole region of the Levante and in which the spirit of mutual aid dominated in its most human implications. [135]
Much more details in source.
You have made confident assertions that Anarchists in the civil war had no military, barely functioned, contributed nothing to Spain, and spread fear amongst the populace, and continue to assert this despite being provided evidence to the contrary, and in fact seemingly dismiss it without even looking at it.
If you’re not a Marxist-leninist, then I have no idea why you have such an extreme negative view of the Anarchists of Spain to the point where you’re not even willing to look at any evidence that may contradict your vendetta against them.
This will be my last response, as I’m not sure further responses will be productive, unfortunately.
(And that gold the Anarchist were considering robbing to finally get the supplies they needed? The pro-stalinist government, who controlled the gold, ended up just sending it all to the USSR, so they really should’ve robbed it, honestly)