The Labour Party Young Socialists are campaigning among the youth and

[page 16]

By a thousand threads the monopolies, the tops in the civil service, and army and the idea of an alternative government, system and State power is posed to the working class. The advanced workers are already beginning to understand that no lasting progress is radicalisation in the ranks of the unions. The strategists of capitalism speak about the threatening them they see coming from the direction of a radicalised movement, the whole tendency of which is to challenge the very basis of the system. ism by taking a clear political position, by adopting a Marxist programme. The growing political pressure exerted on the Labour Party already fills the ruling There is a marked difference in their attitude towards a future Labour Government The next Labour Government will begin, where the last one left off, with the pressure from the outset for the nationalisation of not just the run-down bankrupt industries, but the 25 leading companies is one indication of future events. Anthony Wedgewood Benn's statement in relation to renationalisation without compensation of industries denationalised by the Tories - which was enthusiastically supported by the overwhelming majority Labour Party and trade union members - served to compound the anxieties Right from the outset, the next Labour Government will, be faced with radical de lands pressure from the capitalists that the brake should be applied. will then use the inaction of the Labour Government to smear it as 'Socialism' in the eyes of the politically backward workers and prepare the way for splitting the Parliamentary This in turn will push the Labour Party to the Left and a mass left wing will begin țo take shape headed by the 'Left' Parliamentarians and T.U. leaders. But these leaders will be incapable of giving backbone to this mass movement. Their programme and perspective have been rundamentally the same It is true that the adoption of the demand for the nationalisation of the 25 companies the terms of the Shipley resolution passed at last year's Labour Party Conference, which called Tory Party, are tound together.

Business personified.

possible on the basis of a bankrupt British capitalism. spectre of Revolution.

banished it wher it returns to haunt The corporeal form of this revolution, constant theme of a 'state within a state' the embryo of this new society.

MAY DAY 1973 class with dread for the future.

and the stand they took in 1964 and the profitable sections.

'public ownership'

of of the bourgeoisie.

by the working class and Past experience has shown Labour Party to form a National Government. was due to pressure from a section of the 'Tribune' More The consequences of this Like the ghost of in their attacks on the T.U.s.

This embryo can only break out of the old 1966 of 'friendly neutrality'

The adoption by the N.E.C. of the that they will choose the latter course. at any time before, the Tory Government is Big are that in the course of the struggle, the This has already lead to a growing Banquo, no sooner do they think that they have so to speak, is for them the unions. Hence the The main danger The trade unions are in fact shell of capital- The capitalists as those of the Wilson leader supporters on the NEC, palely reflecting 15:

[page 17]

for the nationalisation of all the monopolies under workers management and control, with minimum compensation based on need. But the old-guard 'Tribune' ing ter ened ed without facing the most rentess and desper that The threat of civil war would be posed by the capitalists to defeat measures which made 'serious inroads' into the profitable sections of industry. If the Labour Government is to be called to face such a situation why not go the whole hog and propose the complete elimination of the power of the parasites who own the 250 In reality the Labour leadership, if they cannot get the decision reversed will refuse to organising,a mass campaign to gain the support for this programme and the Shipley resolution passed at last years L.P. Conference. The active workers in the union branches and C.L.Ps The recent conferences of the GMWU, the AUEW, the NUM and the TGWU have all voted for onstrates the tremendous political effects on the workers' consciousness of the last three A major confrontation is coming this Autumn between the engineering bosses and three million engineering workers mobilised around a substantial wage claim. The working class will be called in to pay a terrible price for the failure of the Labour leadership to show a way out of the crisis facing British society. Fascist National Front with its 13% share of the vote at ixbridge and 16% at the West Bromwich elections is a warning. The bourgeoisie, with its loss of Empire and its inglorious decay over the past half century has never been in a more exposed position. cure for its sickness, as its counterparts in Spain, Germany and Italy pre-war. It is not at all accidental that Whitelaw put the Trade Unions on the same plane as 'terrorists' or that the Tory Party in its pamphlet'In Defence of Peace' has laid down plans for civil war against the Labour Movement in the next decade. But before fascism will have the opportunity of using the deranged middle class to annihilate the Trade Unions and the labour movement, the working class will have the The most powerful lever for this social revolution will be the mighty trade unions, rearmed with a Marxist programme. The 10 million trade unionists in Britain with their permanently in the dirt by the capitalist system, the low para, the unorganised, ruthlessly exploited workers outside the ranks of the trade unions. To accomplish this task it needs a programme which links the day-to-day demands of the working class on wages, hours, a cut in the working week etc. with the central demana tor the taking over of the 300 monopolies, and the organisation of a socialist plan of production by committees of shop stewaris, housewives and small businessmen. for a £35 weekly wage for 35 hours could be implemented immediately for all on the basis of • society which allows millions to live in misery and squalor, while a handful of -onrho directors or Tory Cabinet Ministers live in idle luxury and decadence will be some This scheme of things is entirely possible if the trade unions and Labour Movement use The Trade Union movement in Britain which has played an enormous role in the history of the British working class is destined, under the influence of a Marxist programme, to Wilson to oppose this demand.

resistance from the ruling class.

monopolies which control 85% of the economy? are looking for such a bold lead.

sweeping measures, for nationalisation years' struggle.

of economic crisis will hit it with pneumonia. opportunity of taking power.

such a programme.

thing of the past.

their power to effect change fulfil an even greater one in the future. 16 of the monopolies.

leadership lined up with This dem- The icy blast It will not hesitate in seeking a fascist Once set in motion they car bring to their feet, all The demand of the AUEW

[page 18]

The Spanish Revolution Spain is in the first stages of a movement in the direction of revolution. recovered from the terrible defeat inflicted by the forces of reaction in ship and looking with sympathy to the struggle of the workers. bourgeoisie is looking for a way out as it feels the pressure of the masses. The repressive machine of the dictatorship has been enfeebled as it transformed into a military police state relying on the state machinery of oppression and repression - consequently it has become transformed into Once the workers, peasants and middle class begin to move into action on a concerted national scale, the hour for the collapse of the regime will have The Fascist regime is completely undermined. the Civil War.

loses all mass support.

a Bonapartist rather than a Fascist regime. downfall.

will the Franco dictatorship be replaced? 1931-37 The middle class is filled with hatred for the dictatora totalitarian fascist state, it has been The great revenge of the working class will begin. BY TED GRANT The working class has This marks the beginning of its By what regime That is the immediate burning 17

[page 19]

The British Marxists, in the spirit of international solidarity, (the Spanish Revolution is also their revolution, as is every revolution in the world) are turning out some material on the Spanish question for discussion of the revolution of 1931 - 1937 is not intended to be comprehensive but to deal with some of the highlights of this period of history of the Spanish Unless the Spanish Socialist Marxists have a clear conception of these events, they will not be able to orient the movement and prepare policies in history, if they are not learned, point to the situation where there can be Marx and Engels worked out their theoretical conceptions on the basis of the experience of the working class, which they generalised into theory. The conception of the dictatorship of the proletariat was worked out by Marx Lenin and Trotsky prepared the victory of the revolution of October 1917 in Russia by the study of the lessons of the Paris Commune and the defeated the defeated Spanish revolution, it will be impossible for the victory of the Spanish Socialist revolution to be prepared in the coming days. ulties of the Spanish comrades in illegal conditions to have access to the necessary material, we make no apologies for turning out material for dismodestly, in arming the cadres of the Spanish Socialists for the tasks the responsibility of the leadership of the Spanish proletariat is all the But the key to victory in Spain lies in understanding the lessons arm the cadres against repeating the mistakes of the past. Spain even today remains a backward country where the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution have not been carried out. bourgeois-landlord regime with a narrow economic base, and without mass support, was defeated in its colonial war against Morroccan independence in 1921-1925 and had to be rescued by the armies of French Imperialism. corruption ana incompetence of the Monarchist regime, led to the setting uD of the Bonapartist-Military Police dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. his, like all Bonapartist dictatorships, tried to balance between the Unions, the C.P. and the Anarchists were illegalised, but the Socialist facing the Spanish proletariat question Socialists of Spain.

within their ranks and internationally. workers' movement.

revolution of 1905.

would have been impossible.

lessons of The history of Spain history are doomed cussion in Spain.

nationalist duty to discuss issues of looming ahead.

the working class of the implications.

of the revolution of 1931-37.

the Spanish workers was such the period 1931-31.

This inglorious Party and Caballero; Leader of the dictatorship!

line with the perspectives of Spain at the present time. more terrible debacle for the proletariat. on the basis of the experience of the Paris Commune. Without this, the success of the Russian revolution is rich in lessons.

to repeat it."

We consider it our imperative, fraternal and intertogether with the Spanish comrades the class the coming revolution in order to try to assist, however A victorious Spanish revolution would be a victory for whole of Europe and would prepare the collapse of capitalism in Latin America and in parts of Africa. Spain is the key to the international situation. Therefore a study of the lessons of this period will and expensive adventure, with the exposure of the in order to maintain the power of the ruling class. the U.G.l. were allowed to maintain a legal existence. the U.G.T.., and the Socialist Party and Young This study of the origins and course The lessons of Similarly, without a thorough study of the "Those who do not learn from That is why, especially with the diffic- It has world-wide Therefore, Trotsky once explained that the heroism of as to have made ten victorious revolutions in • The C....T.

even became a Privy Councillor under

[page 20]

with the world econome to save the More Nume nice pain are should With the world economic slump of 1929, the basis of the regime was the bourgeoisie and landlords tried to unload the burden on to the shoulders the workers and peasants as their already low standards and wages were cut In the Municipal elections of April 1931 the towns, especially the big towns, with the exception of Cadiz, voted overwhelmingly for the candidates In a rigged poll, in the countryside, under the pressure of the aristocect the real feelings of the peasants as events were to demonstrate - it merely showed the terror of the landlords and their agents the Cagiques. In the towns, mass demonstrations of the workers took place when the so powerful was the movement that the Monarchy had to be sacrificed by the peaceful, democratic era of reconciliation of the people had begun which followed, a coalition of Republicans and Socialists was formed. This coalition, because of the world capitalist crisis and the crisis of and landlordism in Spain, was unable to carry out its promises. 4 whole series of strikes of the workers were broken and repressed. Attempts by the peasants to seize the land were answered by using the police was the growth of despair, apathy and inertia among the working class, and series of isolated seizures and local insurrections which were bloodily The Communist Party, in common with all the parties of the then Communist tendencies in the labour movement as Social Fascists, and declaring the Republican-Socialist coalition government to be a "Fascist government". Thus they added to the confusion and disorganisation of the labour movement nowadays terms it, failed to solve a single one of the basic tasks of the: the name of such a coalition with the liberals, the C.P. pretend to change Today, within the ranks of the revolutionaries, within the Socialist question of the "bourgeois-democratic revolution" in Spain, so it is necessary to make a short analysis of the question which is borne out by For a hundred years the incapacity of the Spanish capitalists to carry the bourgeois revolution to a conclusion has always ended in the defeat of the de Rivera in 1930.

of the workers and peasants.

by the ruling class.

of the Socialists and Republicans.

racy and landlords, Monarchists gained the majority. election results were announced.

ruling class.

Republic was proclaimed.

according to the Socialist and Republican leaders. capitalism and troops to suppress these "illegal activities" especially among the peasants.

repressed.

ULTRA - LEFTISM International, had the insane line of "Social Fascism" by this infantile and ultra-left policy. This coalition or bourgeois-democratic revolution in Spain. the reality of class relations.) Party in Spain, Spanish experience.

revolution and the victory of reaction. But the deepening of the slump hit Spain hard, and There was terrible suffering and hunger among But this did not refl- Spain was moving towards revolution; Hurriedly Alfonso abdicated and fled the country. The revolution had begun.

After the elections The consequence of this The C.N.T. and Anarchists engaged in • denouncing all other "Popular Front" government, as the "Communist" Party (At the present time, by changing there is still a lack of clarity in our opinion on this 19

[page 21]

The Spanish bourgeoisie developed late on the scene like the Russian challenged for the supremacy and leadership of the nation by the proletariat. It had many links with the landowners and even the aristocracy. The The church was simultaneously the biggest landowner and the biggest capitalist. Consequently the main task of the bourgeois revolution, the re-distribution of the land and the expropriation of the landlord class, as in Russia, could not Faced with this situation, the Republicans, like the Cadets (Constitutional Democrats) in Russia, preferred always to do a deal with reaction. As the description of events in Spain will show, the Republicans, representatives of capitalism, could not solve the tasks of the bourgeois Lenin and Trotsky, especially the latter, in a country with a similar an implacable and irreconcilable attitude towards the cowardly, liberal With the theory of "Permanent Revolution" advanced by Trotsky even before the 1905 Revolution, he explained that because the capitalists, in consequence of their vested interests, could not give the land to the peasants, take then the task of carrying out the bourgeois revolution falls to assisted the peasants to take the land, would not stop there. the support of the peasants and petit-bourgeoisle, would not abandon pass on to the socialist tasks by dispossessing the capitalof the revolution in Russia, the revolution would spread to the most advanced countries in Europe where the proletariat would be affected and stirred by the The revolution in Russia developed as worked out theoretically by Trotsky. It provoked revolution in Germany, Austria and Hungary, and a revolutionary For many reasons which cannot be dealt with here, none of these revolutions and revolutionary situations ended in victory, and consequently the revolution take a terrible toll of the revolutionary movement in the world, especially The Republican-Socialist coalition government of 1931-1933 was unable to solve the problems facing the Spanish people because it was a government attempted to seize the land and were met by bloody repression by the police Workers striking for higher wages were met by repression and peasants, paved the way for reaction, especially in the countryside. In the journal of the Communist Party, International Press Correspondance, while defending the policy of Popular Frontism, on Page 94 in its issue of 1st August 1936 there is an article entitled "Secrets of Spain" which admits the failure of the Republicans to solve the problems of the bourgeois-democratic bourgeoisie.

be carried out by the revolution.

social structure, understood representatives of capitalism.

action against the Church state, but would always peasants, proletariat.

monarchy and The proletariat, having carried out the power but would Russian Revolution.

situation in France, Britain and Italy. in Russia was isolated.

in Spain.

including and army.

force by the government.

revolution.

20 By the time it was fully formed it was already being capitalists without undermining the capitalist system. this problem.

and the monarchy - the bureaucratic semi-feudal attempt to compromise with it, against the workers But the proletariat, having come to power, abolished the ists, but socialism cannot be built in one country. This led to the reaction of Stalinism which was to representatives of the capitalists.

The landowners invested in industry.

They led the workers to have tasks of the bourgeois revolution With the accomplishment Peasants driven by hunger The despair and disillusionment of the workers and

[page 22]

"'Que te de a comer la Republica?' (What are the Republic giving y u to the land problem dominates politics, because out of 4 Spaniards 3 are peasants (at that time E.G.)....Extreme misery is without doubt a characteristic of them About 1931, 1,173,000 peasants owned 6 million hectares and 105,000 newed the promise ... The law was passed on 15th September. large number of tracts of land, which were to be taken over with or without Also the feudal or non-feudal properties of the Jesuits, as well as those of the Spanish grandees and the monarchists who took part in the coup d'etat of Sanjurjo, were taken over without compensation - farms cultivated or poorly cultivated - with compensation - in other words, the land lease, for which they pay rent to the Institute (of Agrarian Reform) ...This law was a compromise between the claim of the socialists and the resistance of the bourgeoisie; had 5 years after the, establishment of the Caballero, leader of the left socialists, later condemned the socialist coalition with the capitalists In the first years of the Republic, but did not advantage of the failure of the Republicans and Socialists. been enfranchised and came under the pressure of the priests to vote for of Lerroux and the clerical fascists of Gil Robles made big gains. But the coming to power of Hitler in 1933, the crushing of the Austrian workers. in February 1934 alarmed the international working class. all.

landowners 12 million letarians) owned nothing....

In 1873 the first Republic promised because it did not keep its promise.

compensation....

second Republic agrarian reform had hardly started. PEASANTS JOIN THE REVOLUTION draw all the necessary conclusions from it. By the time of the next reactionary candidates.

latter engaged This is one of the great questions in Spain. nectares.

the peasants land.

was not given to the peasants as freehold property: elections in October 1933, reaction had taken In the general disillusion, the right republicans in the usual demagogy of the fascists.

Where 5 million land workers (agricultural pro- It was overthrown In 1931 the Republic of 14th April re- It affected a it was and is granted to Women had They saw 21

[page 23]

the suppression of the workers' organisations and the taking away of the hard Under the influence of this mood, Caballero secretly organised the importwarning, as the Lerroux government moved further towards reaction and began discussions with the leader of the C.E.D.A. of clerical fascism, Gil Robles. class would never tolerate the coming into the government of the fascists as this would mean a move towards the destruction of their organis- Lerroux vacillated and then took the C.E.D.A. representatives into the The Socialist Party replied by organising a general strike, and in This resulted in the seizure of Asturias by the workers, and the organisapoliticians" and had not the Republican-Socialist coalition suppressed and even shot them, they blacklegged and even transported on the railways the Many workers were executed and tens of thousands imprisoned, but because the workers had fought arms in hand, the spirit of resistance remained uncurbed. Unlike the betrayal of the German workers by the Communist and Socialist Party leaders, it was impossible to consolidate a fascist regime. they put the discredited theory, implacably condemned by Lenin, of coalition more palatable to their members and the working class, as the theory of the The bourgeoisie in Spain found themselves in difficulties. they had recourse to the "Strike-breaking conspiracy" of the Socialist Party, Communist Party and "left" Republican Parties to form the Because of the experience of the workers of the "left" Republicans in the period of 1931-1933, they ware distrustful of the Republicans, and the leaders of the Communist and Socialist Parties, behind the scenes to their members, presented the People's Front as a "manoeuvre" where they were "using" the That is the way they persuaded their members to accept it. radicalisation of the workers and of the peasants, the Popular Front slate was in the elections of February 1936, because of the rising tide of Is a result of the Popular Front agreement the left Republican vere given far more seats to contest than their real support in the populatio would warrant, with the result that their number of deputies as compared with -won rights of the German and Austrian workers. condition of slaves.

would not happen to ations and Cabinet.

tion of the Asturian Commune.

stupidity of the anarchists.

troops sent to under There followed of the workers continued.

Stalinist regime in Moscow, had changed the "line" "People's Front" or "Popular Front".

not maintain the reactionary government in power. of resistance of the workers and of the peasants. as Trotsky termed it.

Popular Front.

liberal leaders.

victorious.

parties was inflated.

which the bourgeois left republicans held 153. seats and the Socialist Party 98.

and the so-called centre parties 48 seats. 22 The Spanish workers were determined that the same thing ation of arms, and armed many socialist militants. the Asturias and in Catalonia; armed insurrection. crush the Asturian Commune.

General Franco brutally crushed the movement. the Bien Negrio (The Two Black Years), but the struggle The Communist Party, at the behest of the The P.O.U.M. and the Anarchists joined with the They were reduced to the Caballero issued a This could have succeeded were it not for the Arguing that this was a "struggle between The Moors of the Foreign Legion They dropped the In its place They could They felt the rising tide Under these conditions "People's Front"

The Popular Front secured 268 seats, of The Communist Party won 16 The right wing parties secured 157 seats, However, the vote for the right

[page 24]

The working class, which had learned to distrust the liberals through Within days by direct action they carried out the Popular Front programme. Holidays with pay, 44 hour week and wage increases were imposed Without waiting for an amnesty the workers marched to the jails, tore down the walls where necessary, and released the 30,000 political prisoners still languishing there as a result of the general strike and the Asturian They imposed conditions on the employers not in the Popular employers to re-employ the tens of thousands victimised and to reinstate them The reason for the Popular Front victory in the elections is indicated in the International Press Correspondence of 4th April 1936, Page 46l. ...."Not one of the questions raised by the Bourgeois-Democratic revolution bearable political, social and economic situation which the parties of the right, by their reactionary and fatal policy, have created for the toiling masses, the workers, peasants, clerks, small shopkeepers, etc. "The great experience which the masses have acquired in all their former struggles, and above all, from the insurrectionary movements of October 1934, ...."The 2 years of government of the Radicals and the C.E.D.A. were characterand peasants for their demands and for immediate improvements were brutally gangs, who were protected by the Government were a 'normal' everyday occurrtheir premises closed, meetings and conferences of workers were prohibited. ...."100 death sentences, 30,000 imprisoned and tortured...The landowners and capitalists reduced the wages and worsened the already miserable living conditions of the workers....The wages of the workers in the towns were rereduced from 8-9 pesetas to 1.50 pesetas for men and 60 centimes for women "Unemployment increased from 536,100 in 1933 to 780,242 in 1935. The Budget for 1933 provided 873 million pesetas for public works, but the In its issue of 29th February 1936, the I.P.C. deals with the results of ...."But Spain shows also something else, namely that the People's Front is ...."The working people of Spain, however, gathered in the streets and meets and repeals or does not repeal the reactionary laws! was inflated by the terror and in reality the Popular Front victory was much greater. bitter experience between employers.

insurrection.

Front programme.

taken on after the defeat of 1934, from the factories. with two years back pay.

has been solved.

the heroic deeds of the workers of Asturias. WORKERS UNDER ATTACK ised by a constant state of emergency.

rived of all their achievements.

throttled and suppressed.

ance in Spain.

duced from 10-12 pesetas to 4-5 pesetas. for a working day lasting from sunrise to sunset... matter of fact, however, 1935 Budget provided only 628 million..." the election victory.

not a Parliamentary Coalition (?!).

shouted out with firm resolution workers' clubs and meeting places at once! intimidation especially in the villages. So 1931 and 1933, immediately moved into action. They expelled the fascists and blacklegs, who had been They forced the un the contrary, they have become more acute. The un- The workers and peasants were dep- The strikes and movements of the workers Attacks upon and murders of workers by the fascist Workers' organisations were persecuted and dissolved and Wages in the countryside were As a there are more than 1½ million unemployed in Spain. not going to wait until Parliament Open the Open the prison gates at once!'

23

[page 25]

the Commune and every people's revolution, the masses fraternised with the ...."The fate of the coup d'etat (being prepared by Franco and the Generals) the doors of the workers' clubs and meeting places had already been opened... "The state and municipal employees and also other workers who had been dismissed during and after October 1934 for having taken part in the fighting were reinstated and on the other hand, many employees who had acted as strikebreakers in October were dismissed (in the Madrid municipality alone over 1,000). The reactionary agrarian measures were rescinded. •.."We read in the London sunday papers that the chief of the Gener chief of General Franco, the friend of Gil Robles, and General • Goded the Air Force, who were at the head of the proposed military coup d'etat were simply removed from their positions instead of being stood up against the wall. It is highly probable that all the authorities, all the judges who took part in crushing and sentencing the October fighters are still holding their positions." to increase and strengthen their distrust of the Liberal Government. Liberal News Chronicle of July 20th 1936 announced of the programme of Azana's Government.... "With the support of the left (who still refused actually to join the Government) his (Azana's E.G.) Government announced a programme which was nothing more radical than a return to the constitution of 1931, with quite ordinary reforms such as new schools, public works and the revision of the I.P.C. on Page 294 in a letter from Spain, it reports in a way that unconsciously condemns root and branch the whole policy of Popular Frontism. way very different from what happened after the fall of the monarchy in 1931. noise and rejoicing their action now is much calmer and more far-reaching... ...."In general the movement of the masses all over the country is aimed at the masses back have only had the effect of increasing their militant spirit , the organ of the Left Socialist Largo Caballero, writes as "We shall be on the side of the Government in order to help it to carry Government our unreserved confidence as we did from 1931-1933. was too hard, and we will not renounce our right to criticise in order to maintain the vigilance of the working class, which is now marching forward to the final goal of our class, and, at the slightest sign of weakening, to • This course, dictated by the distrust of the "Liberal" capitalist representatives by the masses, and their pressure was nevertheless false. The armed forces appeared on the scene. troops; they won them over to their side... was thereby sealed.

INDEPENDENT ACTION The masses moved independently.

banking system"

committees and not prepared to rely on the discredited liberals. ...."The masses of While at that time the masses independent action.

'Claridad'

follows:

out the Joint Programme programme does not satisfy us entirely. throughout!) 24 Of course the gates of the prisons were opened, just as It was necessary to begin the setting up of independent prepare the taking of power by the masses. the people are reaping the fruits of their victory in a All the efforts of the Government and its press to hol and strengthening their desire to act on their own. with all the necessary determination, even if this we wilLs nowever set the working class itself against its present allies. But like the glorious fighters of What was necessary was to organise them, They clearly were In the same issue of poured on to the streets with a great deal of (My emphasis) not give en (my emphasis It

[page 26]

yey pron es of the orber and in the ired the is or or prepared for the inevitable struggle by constructing organs of an incipient even if inarticulately and in a certain sense unconsciously, as indicated by Behind the screen, under the protection of the Popular Front Government, Islands, General Sanjurjo and De Llano were moved to Balearics and Moroccor The Syndicalist, Socialist and even Communist Party press were warning of This was impossible, if one accepts the Marxist analysis of class society The power of capitalism depends on the power of the state machine, which is its seera and constitut ascist foret depends onute support of a tin servants, who have been specially selected and picked and educated to serve this is like asking a tiger to turn vegetarian. For class reasons this is That is why, right up to the insurrection, the bleats of the workers' The Popular Front Government did not take action against the Fascist Army At the same time the big capitalists, lavishly supplying them with funds, Cesar Falcon was complaining in the international press correspondence pages: "Since the electoral victory of the people, the Fascist gangs, recovered from the momentary dismay....incited by the reactionary leaders, and especial ly by the big landowners, have started a campaign of provocation and assauit over the country.. Madrid...villages..,with the full co-operation of the Fascist elements in the Army and in the Civil Guard...They relied mainly on thr. passivity of the - Popular Front - Government" The Ministry of the Interior which had pledged itself to a constitutional and tolerant attitude, hesitated (-?-) to take those vigorous measures which both the nature of the offence and popular opinion were demanding...assault on the Socialist Deputy for Madrid....The young students belonging to the - Liberal - ....The leniency of the Government only drove the Fascists further. Jiminez Asua - S.S.P. Madrid Deputy - The Fascists immediately replied by murdering a judge.... What speedy and drastic steps were then taken against should have been character even at that stage.

•the attitude and the conspiracy of the A comedy of musical chairs began.

and to Seville.

the danger of a fascist or military uprising C.P. all exhorted the Government "to take action" The Republicans were representatives, generals and officers of the the capitalist system.

and destroy the whole impossible!

leaders about the Government "taking action" tended to lull the working class and necessary action themselves.

Officers.

How could they when the ruling class relies?

unleashed their reserve weapon:

of the working class.

extending all emphasis) Spanish Falange tried to murder Largo Caballero Ortego Y Gasset - Liberal.....

the duty of the "Left" Socialists to put no trust in the actions of the workers parties.

Generals, monarchists and fascists began immediately. The Army Command was shuffled around.

army caste, police officers and the top civil To take action against these would be to undermine basis of the capitalist state.

A little over two months after the "Great Victory" That was what the masses were striving for Franco was transferred to the Canary But the Socialist Party and in one way or another, of capitalism.

To ask liberals to do , if it had any effect, merely to prevent them from taking the it meant the destruction of the state machine the Fascist bands against the organisations '. (my and bomb the home of 25

[page 27]

the Fascist provocateurs and criminals? Not one." (my emphasis) Constantly up to the period of the Army uprising in July 1936, the 'vorkers parties were appealing to the "Popular Front" Liberal Government to under the leadership of Kamenev and Stalin, up till the arrival of Lenin, used the formula "support for the Provisional Government in so far as... Adoption of this standpoint of the Spanish C.P. and S.P. would have of these parties were as if plagiarised from the policies of Menshevism anc After gaining the promises of the Government to take action and dissolve the Fascist organisations, two months later in the issue of June 4th of I.P.C., Vincent Uribes' writes, "the courts of justice, before which the Fascist are brought, either acquit them, or sentence them to two months imprisonment, cerned contrasts vividly with the barbarous penalties imposed on the workers during the period in which reaction was in power, and with the punishment still dealt out by the courts to workers found with arms in their possession The courts, the police, the army and the Civil Service top layers are the basis of the State, and consequently it was baying at the moon to expect the Liberal politicians who represent the bourgeoisie to destroy their own state machine and leave themselves entirely without defence from any assault by the masses, especially as the army officers had gone over overwhelmingly to the In its issue of July 4th the I.P.C. reported in an article entitled "Secrets of Spain", "There are only a few Republican officers. that there were 3%....then an officer who works for. the chief of staff told "Your informant is an optimist...there are perhaps 100 officers of whom Army generals and officers ignored orders, fraternised with Fascists and the workers into conflicts. They ceaselessly prepared a bloody settlethe Popular Front was incapable of carrying out fundamental The Liberals were incapable of solving the problem of the Bourgeois- Castrillo Santos in his book "Four years of Republican experiment 1931-35" declared. '95% of the total agricultural undertakings in Spain •comprise only about 5 million hectares of land, whilst 0.35% of the total "Take action"

revolution possible.

resulted in the shipwreck of the revolution. Social Revolutionarism.

the pressures of class policies.

OFFICERS TREACHERY a mere parody of justice.

of charges of murder.

(my emphasis) reaction.

one can be fairly sure...

provoked ment with the workers.

Meanwhile, had bedevilled democratic revolution.

comprise 9m.

nectares.

26 They behaved as the Social Revolutionary and Menshevik leaders behaved after the February Revolution in 1917. ene rank and file, making the Wietory of ene Russian More correctly they were a helpless response to conflict and their failure to implement clear class This mildness and complicity where Fascists are conreforms in the interests of the workers and peasants. Spain for more than a century and a half. The policies of the leaders In innumerable cases Fascists have been acquitted The land question million owners possess 6m. hectacres, whilst

[page 28]

the last resort the social problems of Spanish agriculture... I.P.C. says in its issue of June 4th "30,000 landowners own two thirds of of the agrarian revolution when it has gained office with the assistance of the revolutionary forces, and then a repentant return to the camp of reaction in order to crush with its assistance the rebellious workers and poor In the 6 months of the Popular Front, 190,000 landless peasants gained In the articles "Secrets of Spain" continued in the issue of August 1936 page 27, it deals with the attitude of the capitalists and big landowners. "In words they declared their readiness to reconcile themselves to the demo: economic sabotage and underhand intrigues immediately after the overthrow of The financial oligarchy began to transfer its capital abroad. despicable stock exchange sharks began to undermine the standard of the Peseta ...the big manufacturers demanded the annulment of the government measures which were intended to alleviate the want of the broad masses of the people, The big landlords, supported by the big bankers, threatened a "strike" by declaring that unless the government desisted from its plans for agrarian reform... they would not proceed with the autumn sowing... the government displayed extreme tolerance towards the reactionary elements who had suffered workers organisations, the leaders of the monarchists and the Fascists were "The condition of the peasants and the landworkers was that of starvation of land reform: 190,000 out of 8 million....There are villages in Hurdes in eat roots and fruit... peasay ies from added ire reilagers exist on sey 100,000 owners possess 12 million hectacres. Spain" and commenting on the role of the Spanish peasants and re-establish order"

land.

cratic public which had been created in Spain. their government.

PEASANTS GAIN LAND a common defeat at the elections.

to remain in freedom, even allowed the navy and inside the state and semi-starvation.

and fruit...

made from bread, water, oil and vinegar.... This was two and a half percent of the peasants. machine...."

Less than one in forty received any land as a, result These statistics represent in capitalists says:- "Sabotage But actually they began with The most Despite the warnings and advice of the remaining in high positions in the army,. 27

[page 29]

"The Caciques still have some power....the usurers are still carrying on their rapacious business and not all the big landowners have been dispossessed" One has seen how in Almenoralejo, in the province of Badajoz, twenty millionrefusing even to discuss the question of the wages of the landworkers...Not to the starved peasants it seems....The peasant leaders calculate that the agrarian law plans 50,000 settlements a year, which means that it will take 20 years to settle a million peasants: more than a century to give Tand to In Russia, before the October revolution, the bourgeoisie reckoned that ship of the working class and of the Bolshevik Party achieved the agrarian In Spain too the peasants began to seize the land, but unlike the Bolsheviks, neither the Socialist or Communist Party leaders made it their The peasants provide the broad infantry of the revolution, class under modern conditions is the decisive class and the driving force in ised by the failures of the trade union and Socialist and Communist leaders to press home the attack. The reaction grew more and more alarmed. After the murder of Calve Sotelo, spokesman for monarchist reaction and Fascism, by civil guard policemen in reprisal for the murder of their Socialist police lieutenant by the Fascists, both the Fascists and Monarchists This incident merely precipitated the preparations being made by the army financially, politically, they could see no other way out than the crushing Daily clashes were taking place between the workers and the Fascists. On July a reprisal men armed with a sub-machine gun opened fire on Friday night on a group of men who were leaving their union headquarters, killing two ano On July 13th the Times reported that on the previous day "six armed men entered the union broadcasting station at Valencia...and after having overpowered the speaker and his assistant, one of them announced through the nicrophone that Fascist forces had seized all the strategic points of the 'In spite of the lateness of the hour, Republican (?) and other left groups organised a demonstration of protest, which paraded the streets. aires are systematically starving one of all the land is under cultivation.

alT:

it would take about a quarter century to measure out and therefore land reform was impractical. revolution in days by seizing the land. policy to carry out the agrarian revolution. the revolution.

In Spain the gains in wages made by militancy were cancelled out by inflation.

tween workers and employers.

bosses to try and terrorize the working class. The workers were tempered and fired in the struggle. DAILY CLASHES withdrew from parliament.

generals since the February elections.

alarmed by the mood and combativity of the working class. of the organisations of the working class. 5th 1936 the Times reported injuring five"

The men had disappeared before the police could arrive. 28 the richest corners of Spain by Things should be speeded up and divide the land The peasants under the leader- The working working class There were constant clashes be- The police and the fascists were used by the All these attempts failed.

They were not demoral- This was in preparation for the Fascist rising. The capitalists were thoroughly "Two Fascists were murdered on Thursday....As

[page 30]

The mob set fire to the headquarters of the Regional Party, which is the principal party of the right, and the building was destroyed. (there was an) ...The house of the right politician. Senor Lucia and the furniture of one of che largest cafes...several political clubs of the right wing were set on fire' The economic situation is indicated in the report of the Times of July The capitalists felt the need to crush the trade unions and workers organisations so that they could drive down the living standards of the found themselves, one conflict after the other had been taking place between general strikes and 228 partial strikes between February and July in the "order" must be restored, i.e. that terror must be used to subjugate the statement: Senor Calvo Sotelo's murder was a true 'state crime' without "It (murder) had become possible as a result of the incitement to violence the Monarchists cannot continue to collaborate in state plunged in anarchy." 'On the other hand Lieutenant Castillo's funeral was arranged for 6. a.m. The stage was being set for a struggle to the death between the workers leaders of the labour movement from February and throughout the civil war was indicated in the statement of Largo Caballero in an interview with the gone. year ephas syrength and Tr e withdraw our support thy are Significant words when one sonsiders the course of the civil war and the actions of Largo Caballero and other workers' leaders in the ensuing conflict. The army generals and officers had been preparing the rising from the first days of the Popular Front government.FromJulyl7th the rising began in Quiroga the prime minister, and the government tried to pretend that this did on July 18th that 'no-one, absolutely no-one on the Spanish mainland, has taken part in this absurd plot," (The Times 20th July 1936) The news of the revolt had been radioed to the workers by the sailors of the Spanish fleet who seized the ships in the Morroccan harbours. attempt to burn 14th 1936 almost has become chronic.

the rising cost of production and SHOWDOWN Because of the cities and towns of Spain.

working class.

The classes were preparing July 15th 1936 reported that precedent in Spain."

were immense crowds.

was draped in a red and forces of capitalism and landlordism. London News Chronicle on July 9th 1936, a ballot?.

Morocco and the Canary Islands.

the news from the Spanish people.

not affect the mainland.

which would be quickly suppressed.

the buildings of the newspaper on the eve of the insurrection.

The Peseta is sinking whilst trade languishes owing to failure to pay for imports.

economic and political impasse in which they the workers and the bosses in industry and on the land. Therefore the capitalists were demanding that their forces for the showdown.

against deputies of the right expressed in parliament. by the authorities to try and prevent demonstrations. he "body was saluted with clenched fists. flag....Socialist militias with banners paraded." The Madrid radio under the control of the govern- "The budgetary deficit There were 113 The Times of " the monarchists and traditionalists issued a The note adds that n soite of this ther . The coffin The entire false policy of the "Do you believe that the change from The Popular Front Government tried to hide When it could no longer be suppressed, 29

[page 31]

100,000 workers in Madrid demonstrated demanding arms. Quiroga, the prime Announcing that "anyone who gave arms to the workers with- 18th July the civil governors in the large towns followed the example of the government in Madrid, and refused to co-operate fully (!) with the working n seville, Granada and Cordoba the fascist otticers were successtul, ecause after demonstrating and demanding arms the workers were persuaded by armed with lists went to the workers quarters and summarily executed every T.U. secretary, C.P. secretary and S.P. secretary and prominent militants on t of Martinez. Barrios took entir place an even more rane-ting Quiroga's government tried to reach a compromise with the Fascist They wanted to make an agreement with the Fascist officers. They thought Had it depended on the liberals the position would have been lost to Without the treachery of the bourgeois liberals, the fascists would never The Government remained passive in the face of the onslaught of the army. The pathological class fear of the liberals of an armed working class is shown the Communist Party official journal IPC itself in its issue of 5th August 1936 "For fourteen days, since July 18th, a mutineer troop of the 18th cavalry The workers of Valencia, half of them members of the UGT, half of them CNT had been demanding for days that the population should be armed. to reinforce the militia and the regulars (how many? EG) making them strong Republican Union of Valencia (the moderate republican trend of Martinez Barrios) vacillated and finally refused to distribute arms. workers declared a General Strike, which had already gone on two days before the pressure of the masses finally made the Government and the military leaders decide on open action to take the cavalry barracks....within a few minutes the workers created barricades of motor lorries...the anti-fascist militia, the soldiers and the workers strengthened their positions and were ready to storm in spite of the irresolution of the leaders....the workers stormed into the barracks and took the rifles without asking anyone." This speaks volumes for the attitude of the bourgeois "Peoples Front" "Allies" of the Communist Party. It hardly requires comment. minister refused.

out his orders would be shot"

arrangements of the conspirators, risings began. Thomas, the academic "historian"

class organisations who were clamouring for arms." Civil War") the S.P: and C.P. leaders to go to their homes. whom they could lay their hands.

Generals.

government of Martinez Barrios took their Place. COMPROMISE fascism without a struggle.

than they feared the coming to power of Franco. have been able to seize any of the towns in Spain. have been stillborn.

roliticians feared an armed by the reports from all over Spain.

Valencia more than two weeks after page 987 under the heading.... "VALENCIA" regiment had kept the town in constant insecurity. enough to storm this fascist nest.

30 of the Civil war, that a right-wing government could make a compromise. But much as they feared a fascist Spain, the liberal working class a thousand times more.

the insurrection.

• Meanwhile throughout Andalusia according to the Even according to Hugh "Nearly everywhere on the (page 185 of "The Spanish The same night the officers They feared the movement of the masses far more This was a class question.

The insurrection would It is best indicated by the situation in Out of the report of In order The Government members of the national There upon the

[page 32]

to the insurrection and counter revolution of the fascists the workers of Barcelona the working class took the initiative. Responding to the call of the sailors, who, in many cases had thrown the fascist officers overboard, the Barcelona workers marched against the army. Quoting again the Stalinist correspondent of the IPC in the same article "Events have completely refuted the reformist theory according to which it is impossible for the working class in towns with modern broad streets to of Madrid, Barcelona and dozens of other towns in Spain, with a few pistols, daggers and their bare fists, have rendered an army hors de combat... they ran across the huge square with only a small force in the middle as cover, in the front ranks against a raging fire, the workers in the front the workers captured the machine gun...when the artillery batteries appeared in the street...the workers mounted light motor Torries and drove suddenly from side streets, at speeds of 120 km.p.h. into the flank of the "With the exception of the flying corps, the whole garrison mutinied and RepubTicans who mobilised with amazing rapidity and determination and captured According to the reports of the bourgeois correspondents the courage and The Times of July 24th 1936 reports from Barcelona...."San Marti...streets men...carrying army carbines and pistols...armed women...ir some lorries...we have taken all the arms from the San Andrea barracks!' Whole books could be written about the way in which an unarmed working class spontaneously, without guidance from their leaders marched into action against the threat of fascism and defeated the fascists in most of the towns and Socialist Party leadership in the south, it would have been all of spain. But now in so called Republican Spain the army was smashed. had disappeared and there was oøly one decisive armed force - the working In the analysis of society made by Marx and Lenin they explained that the power of the state can be reduced to armed bodies of men and their appendages: They held the power: the "Republican Government" was suspended in Most of the factory owners had fled and were supporting Franco. The workers seized the factories and began operating them without the workers were instinctively trying to change society and begin the and company represented nothing. The leaders of the proletariat refused to However, revolution of theworking class came in reply. under the heading of "BARCELONA"

stand up Barcelona....the workers told artillery."

"Madrid"

it was the masses of workers (my emphasis) the main positions of the fascist uprising." ingenuity of the workers was unsurpassed. with legs of chairs, table knives and a breaking into sporting shops.

swarming with and in two thirds of spain.

courts, prisons, etc.

capitalists.

Socialist revolution.

to an army equipped with modern weapons. us how the first machine gun was captured: fell dead or wounded, but no one wavered, In that sense the workers had smashed the capitalist The capitalist class supported Franco.

Beginning with the immortal The masses of the people the advance continued till the Young Socialists, Communists and They marched against the barracks few sporting guns snatched by Without the vacil!ation of the Communist Party The police 31

[page 33]

They made a coalition not with the accept this initiative of the masses.

capitalists but with the shadow of the capitalists: as Trotsky put it, the Tawyers, M.P.s etc. of the Tiberal parties who in this situation represented nobody but themselves.

WORKERS TAKE OVER THEIR FACTORIES 32

[page 34]

The capitalists understood the situation clearly. The before quoted correspondent in the same despatch continued his report to the Times by undoubtedly did instinctively the mass of the workers that the power was de blocked the path of the Socialist revolution and thus betrayed the revolution The spokesmen of the capitalist class understood clearly what was at issue. They posed the problem in serious terms, if from the opposing pole of the the uprising of military and armed forces merely paved the way for proletarthe government "war" headquarters it was evident that this question was of Again indicating the real situation, the Times of July 25th reported: revolutionary committees composed of anarchists and communists have intervened in factories to an extent that seems nothing short of their ....the office and technical staff are working under the watch of the "Catalan government issued decree declaring their intention to measure re it he eve oping act ge orole on cout not go for. Marx pointea out that the failure of the Paris Commune to seize the banks as a first step, was one of the main factors in its downfall. the first steps of the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution was ....Your correspondent has just obtained permission from the revolutiongovernment in Barcelona and Madrid had no armed forces on which they could toleration of the leadership of the workers parties who were not prepared to or lack of understanding, was the leadership of all the workers parties: the socialists, anarchists, poumists.and above all, as the main force of counter resisted all the strivings of the workers and aborted the growing revolution. In an article in the liberal News Chronicle of July 21st the correspondent "My night's journey by car from Madrid to Barcelona...we were stopped every few miles by either' gendarmes or pickets of workmen or peasants. ....They (men of the Popular Front) attribute the collapse of their people in the southern cities partly to the fact that in Seville and Granada, for instance, the local authorities failed to act on the instructions (?) of (As we have already quoted Casares Quiroga, 'there were no instructions by the stating what one of the armed workers said to him: officers got away and the others were arrested. they could go where they liked.

arms and power."

facto in their hands.

and led it on the road of a terrible defeat. class struggle as the Marxists did.

Times commented soberly:

(Barcelona).

ian rule in Catalonia ?

paramount concern."

"Barcelona:

seizure"

proletarians...

over of the banks.) DUAL POWER This shows the existence They were suspended by a thread.

brush them aside and thus betrayed the revolution. had to tolerate the workers incipient power. revolution relates:

the central Government and arm the workmen." central Government.

police or armed forces).

(my emphasis) This rank and file worker understood as Who was to disarm them ?

Such were the questions on every tongue, and at ary committee at Puigcerda to return to Barcelona....." workers camp, the leadership The liberal republicans found themselves without "A man told me ...many The soldiers were told Is it not nice that the workers should have On July 23rd 1336 an article in the "An armed proletariat was in possession of the city What would the sequel be ?

Had the taking of what Marxists have termed dual power. The They could only exist by the For the time being they Participating in this betrayal of the Communist party.

33

[page 35]

The Chronicle correspondent continued..."The part of Catalonia adjoining the French border is in the hands of a revolutionary committee composed partly of anarchists and partly of communists. The Soviet flag (Red Flag.EG.) is flying on the town hall of Puigcerda.....Popular Front composed partly of On July 23rd the News Chronicle wrote of "Crews of practically all the war ists in Britain, blood brothers of the Republican Bourgeois party in Spair wrote in fear and trepidation "Whatever might have been the menace of communism (i.e. the socialist revolution. EG) before the fascist generals chose it as a pretext to rise against the republic, it is a reality now. "Socialist and Communist militia and their elements in the army and navy have been the backbone of the defence against the fascist onslaught. are fighting for the republic and the Popular Front but under the red flag. The red flag flies from Malaga as well as banners marked "Union Hermanos Proletarios" - the sign made famous by the proletarian insurrection in the If the generals are beaten will the crews of the warships that have had a taste of blood and the troops that have worsted their officers be prepared to knuckle down even to republican officers and the workers of the cities be reconciled to a bourgeois republic which they practically alone defended ? The same issue contained the following item "In Northern Catalonia yesterday communists, socialists and anarchists, armed with weapons captured from dent reports...."Talking with these members of the workers militia...hardened labourers, skilled artisans, young apprentices....Algeciras....fire set on fascist homes by workers...though town occupied by fascist army...the Republicans see the regime already smashed. The Popular Front is ancient history It is hard to imagine the socialist, communist and syndicalist elements that have borne the brunt of the fighting for the defence of the republic in the South continuing under the tutelage of a handful of purely bourgeois This "handful of bourgeois republicans" was to retain decisive control because of the policy of the leadership of all the workers organisations betrayed the heroic spontaneous reaction to the fascist uprising. betrayed the elementary class movement of the workers, by collaborating with the rotten republican bourgeois leaders, who by this time represented nobody In this dirty work of "Democratic" counter revolution the leadership of the By this time the parties of the Communist International had become agents of the foreign policy of the Russian bureaucracy. was terrified that a successful socialist revolution in Spain, or in any other country of Western Europe would undermine their power and lead to their overthrow, and the restoration of workers democracy in Russia. in Spain stirred the Russian workers more than any event since the workmen, partly of peasants...."

ships seize control...

(my emphasis EG) Asturias.

REVOLUTION BETRAYED defeated rebel troops, are in control.

seized the town hall, took control of the city." republicans.

- anarchists, Poumist, socialist and communist. but themselves.

Communist Party played the principal part. ions of Stalin.

revolution usurpation of power by Stalin.

34 On the same date this journal of the Liberal capital- (my emphasis EG) They At Puigcerda the workers army On July 24th the correspon- In one way or another they They did this under the instruct- The latter In fact the In attempting to maintain their power,

[page 36]

through Stalin, the bureaucracy were compelled to launch the "Witchcraft , murder practically all the leaders of the revolution and the old This was due partly to the repercussions of the revolution Victory to Spanish socialism would have sounded the death knell In addition towhich the bureaucrats were not concerned with revolutionary diplomacy, as under Lenin, but purely nationalist considerations. at that time, to placate the capitalists of Britain and France, to revolutionary conflagration which would have spread to France and destroy In Spain the Communist Party set the pace for the betrayal of the revol- The anarchists betrayed every principle of anarchism let alone of Bourgeois Government at a time when the basis of serna overement, in the The Prieto right wing socialists stood for collaboration with the republican bourgeoisie, but at that moment would have carried little weight with stood firmly against such a course, as did Lenin and Trotsky in Russia in 1917, heralded the attempt at socialist revolution that they were instinctively Soviets, in the factories and districts and advocated the setting up of a workers Government, getting rid of the remnants of the capitalists and the the way of organising a workers Government and thus a victorious working class who could then have waged a socialist struggle against Franco. The POUMists in Catalonia dragged at the tail of the anarchists and entered the Bourgeois Government in Catalonia. Thus preparing their Caballero, surrendered to the pressure of the Stalinists and instead of ¡aunching the struggle for power - this is an exaggeration, been only a question of brushing aside the discredited republican representatives only of themselves - by calling on the workers to set up their revolutionary juntas and organising socialist power and the dictatorship of the done so they would have lost the overwhelming majority of their worker The anarchists would have been compelled to follow this lead. The POUM (centrists standing between reformism and marxism) would have supported and the Prieto wing of the socialist party would have been isolated revolutionary socialist war aqainst Franco and appealed to the international understand the opportunity and the dangers and thus inevitably prepared the way for the crushing of the revolution and then the victory of Franco. Bolsheviks, murdering hundreds of thousands of the rank Communist Party.

in Spain.

for the Soviet bureaucracy.

gain an alliance against Germany.

entirely the world political and social equilibrium. ution and thus the terrible defeat of the working class. Party was not the decisive element.

and the socialist party, the CNT and the UGT. real relationships of class forces had disappeared. the rank and file, the situation would have changed fundamentally. favourable objectively than in Russia after The workers were practically the only armed force. industry, as the peasants endeavoured to seize the land. trying to undertake.

Had Caballero and representatives of reflected, directly at least, their class: terrible fate at the hands of the Stalinists. proletariat.

followers.

and incapable of resistance.

working class for support.

and file of the They did not wish to upset this by a But the Communist Far more powerful were the anarchists had Caballero and the left wing of the socialist party The position was far more the revolution of February 1917.

They endeavoured to seize Thus the workers the left socialists organised committees of workers or the republicans - capitalist politicians who no longer There was nothing to stand in it would have The Stalinists would have been unable to resist. A workers Government could then have begun a Caballero and the left socialists failed to 35

[page 37]

The Daily Worker of July 27th 1936, reported a speech by the leader of the "In the light of present events it can now be seen that a great mistake was made in not removing all the army officers opposed to the people's front." ...the aim (of the counter-revolution) undoubtedly was to destroy the people's Spain and to safeguard the interests of the landlords, feudal families, big capitalists and monarchists, and to check any further possibility of the …....The workers of the World behind the Spanish people means victory...." ust hen the spontaneous narent he prorianist leak demonstrated its stupidity, its lulling of the Proletariat - leaving them as ask them ordismantle the appuratus or as was rule the state machine a The actions of the Fascists were determined by the interests of the landlords, feudal families, and big capitalists, says Pollitt, and was repeated ad nauseum by the leaders of the Communist Parties of the world. But to overthrow them was precisely the task of the Socialist Revolution. "defend property" and "order" was to defend the interests of the organisers On July 27th 1936 Frank Pitcairn, the correspondent of the 'Daily Worker' organisations, however, are the immediate nationalisation of the entire merchant marine, and the handing over of a number of vital factories to the ...The workers armed militias will remain a permanent detence corps, sent officially on leave to be beyond the influence of Fascist officers have progress as the workers develop their control of affairs in the defence against 'The Socialisation of all essential products has been an accomplished fact agricultural produce of the area are now the property of the workers, through It was first necessary to carry out the reorganisation of the landowner's co-operative which, until last week, consisted of both poor and rich peasants with the latter naturally dominating policy. owners...have been rejected...the co-operative, which is entirely in the hands "These co-operatives were under the supreme control of the defence commi- British Communist Party, Harry Pollitt: workers advancing."

defenceless before the reaction.

armed bodies of men and their various appendages. and financiers of the Fascist counter-revolution. leaders were hopelessly in contradiction. making anti-capitalist statements inconsistently. WORKERS' MILITIA in Barcelona, wrote:

trade unions...

taking over most of the functions of the army. already enrolled in the militia.

And again on July 29th:

Fascism."

here since last Wednesday.

their co-operatives.

peasants.

of the poor peasants, has taken over all the crops.' " 36 As well ask the capitalists to voluntarily as was done by the Utopian Socialists The words of the C.P.

• betrayed the workers while ....Among the demands already put torwara by various Large numbers of soldiers "...Everywhere I found calm confidence and swift at Targea the President of the local committee told me 'Corn, olives, wine, and all the other main This years crops will be entirely owned by the poor Now the big land-

[page 38]

ttee, on which the Labour Alliance, and the small bourgeois parties, are also •..We are now working not for the rich, but for ourselves and for the ...Barcelona...there is strict control of prices and heavy fines are im- ...The Anarchists have issued instructions for the formation of flying These quotations in the early days of the Revolution show the situation developing in Spain - the workers wanted to make the Revolution and the peasants of Catalonia and Aragon - following their lead seized the land going further than the Russian peasants in the early days of the Revolution Harry Pollitt, writing in the 'Daily Worker' of July 29th from Paris: the revolt was gists ad made thair preparat regiment in the whole sig "But the initiative and daring of the masses quickly made itself felt. Seizing what arms were available, the workers took the field and, in 36 hours, had crushed the Fascist rising in and around Barcelona. "The workers militia stormed the barracks, captured rifles and artillery, (my emphasis) improvised primitive tanks, captured the radio centres and "Soldiers in the rebel regiments began to desert to the side of the workers Those who were captured were interned in the barracks and workers workers, under Marxist leadership, to organise their own state, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and begin a revolutionary war against Franco. the C.P., in obedience to the dictates of their Stalinist masters in Moscow, The eight page MILITANT apart from giving reports of the International and British Labou Movement will provide an indispensable theoretical analysis of the developments facing the working class in the next period. We will be carrying regular feature articles; reports from the Labour and Trade Union movement and the Labour Party Young Socialists; international coverage; industrial working class and the need to link the struggle against the Industrial Relations Bill with that of the represented...

posed for profiteering."

squads to deal with looters."

- and collectivised the land.

Catalonia had refused to join."

militia.

were sent to fraternise with them officers had tried to use them..."

deliberately muddled the issues.

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[page 39]

"Everyone can now see that the Fascists in Spain were able to organise a military revolt not because the Government was too 'revolutionary' ....If the Spanish government had driven the Fascist officers out of the armed forces, if they had dismissed the Fascist officers in the police force, had learned their lesson even if the British Labour leaders are too blind to the need to abandon abstract rhetoric and to mercilessly expose the flaws in. Socialist and Communist leaders preferred to hand back power to the discredited representatives of the Republican Bourgeoisie, while the Bourgeoisie itself had gone over overwhelmingly to the side of Franco - in that lay the tragedy If there was not social revolution in Spain, what is a social revolution the Republic constituted a tiny minority ÷ the early victories over the Fascists were obtained by the workers fighting for workers objectives. The Communist Party in Spain was the fighting vanguard of the democratic supporting and the left wing round Caballero protestingly. Spain would have taken an entirely different course and a socialist victory MILITANT IRISH MONTHLY The MILITANT-IRISH MONTHLY is an invaluable source of facts, reports and analysis for the British Labour movement. The question of freland has loomed large in the history of the British Labour Movement and never more than today. The destinies of the Irish and British working classes are indissolubly linked. This is why every reader of the British MILITANT must have the opportunity We carry articles on the everyday life and struggles of the workers; we will analyse in detail the current situation in Ireland. We will carry important historical and theoretical articles which are indispensable to the understanding of the present problems and perspectives facing the Irish working We urge every seller and subscriber to take out a bulk order or subscription to MILITANT - IRISH precisely because it believed if they had its decisions, of lives would have been saved.

see the meaning of the heroic struggle in Spain. The blind leading the blind!

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80p 38 'Shape and adapt the state to its democratic purpose' Quirogas, of the Azanas and Companys' as "mistakes' rather than motivated by class interests and ideology. power was in the hands of the working class the of the Spanish Revolution and the Spanish Civil War. NAME ADDRESS like the Labour leaders) that it cons but Thus the Stalinists refused to pose the preterred to regard the Bourgeois Republican Thus they abandoned Marx, Lenin and Trotsky constantly emphasised The few lawyers, doctors and M.P.'s on the side of They drew the Anarchists and the The S.P. leadership not having a worked behind the C.P., the right wing wholeheartedly But the Had they done so events in

[page 40]

The P.O.U.M. was the most left organisation, parading itself as Marxist, the Anarchists in Catalonia into the Government and prepared were in the early days of the Russian revolution. Moreover, The workers militia remained organised as a workers' army. night after the attempted counter-revolution and the answering movement, it "The control committee of the Communist Party of Spain... the Spanish estabishment or she dile or nip the the proletariat not striving for them: The defence of the Republican order while respecting property. (my emphasis) ....This work...has the co-operation...of such conservative parties as the Basque Nationalist Party, whose members are Catholics. lie to the declaration made by General Franco on the 'Marxist Danger' in Spain, and demonstrates the duty imposed on all order loving people, without exception, to take sides with the defenders of order, in Spain. Reported in the Manchester Guardian of August 6th, the traditional Liberal an inspiring and morale building appeal to the Spanish masses: they should take no action against the property of the millionaire landowners and industrialists, who had prompted and financed the movement of the Fascists Madrid, manoeuvering under the pressure of the workers and fearful that they would seize the banks, is reported without comment in the Daily Worker of "Explaining the measures for the control of industry and the banks Senor Giral said 'It is necessary to undermine the economic basis of Fascism. Big banks and big industry have been the pay-masters of Fascism, supplying funds with which the Fascist Generals have been able to carry out a criminal What an annihilating argument for the expropriation of the landowners, preserved the basis of capitalism till better times came or the victory of It was not for this that the workers so self sacrificingly and Take a few random despatches from the liberal paper the Guardian dealing "A committee of syndicalist organisations today took over the control of officials or the or themaid a compand he dieted endir proved and Then a despatch from Barcelona on 27th August 1936: "A government decree issued this week-end makes effective a 40 hour week and a 15% increase of wages for industrial workers earning less than 600 pesetas a month. P.S.U.C: (United Socialist and Communist Party of Catalonia) and Anarchist A 25%. decrease in rents. Payment for strike days, indemnity for and it followed the way for their destruction.

1,500 to 30,000 in six weeks.

60,000 membars.

the Bolsheviks the situation in Spain was far more revolutionary. of Spain had had its orders.

issued the following declaration:

paper in Britain.

and the insurrection of the army Generals. the position of the left Republicans.

August 8th:

attack on our people.

necessary.

bankers and capitalists!

Franco.

heroically shed their blood.

with the measures taken by the Spanish workers. Guardian reports from Madrid:

Republicans."

proposals...a 36 hour week.

They had jumped from a party of 1,000- According to some reports this rose to In proportion to population they were thus stronger than That is why the most vigilant control is now What did the 'control' amount to ? It merely 10% increases in wages below 500 pesetas a But the C.P.

On August 5th 1936, a little more than a fort- This fact gives " (my emphasis) This was even to the right Jose Giral, the Prime Minister in On the 23rd July 1936 the 39

[page 41]

martial of the military chiefs of the present insurrection." This was - in words - accepted by the Catalan President Companys as he manoeuvered desperately and powerlessly for a time in the hope that the issue it is reported by foreigners fleeing from Barcelona: "The travellers said that the strike was the workers counter-stroke to the Fascists....Next day there were no servants in the hotel and little food." In the Guardian of 29th July 1936 there is an interview with a French ...No-one in Barcelona obeys the government any longer, or, rather what groups, who are often guided by their political and social passions. people obey the leaders of these various groupings, many of which are Anar- Bou is the only one left that still functions normally under the control of Everywhere else local committees have been set up in other Communist Party or the United Trotskyist Workers' Party (In reality the P.O.U.M. composed of ex-Trotskyists and Catalan Nationalist former Communist "All public services such as water, gas, electricity, tramways and railexperts are, however, retained and consulted where necessary. the salaries of the workers have been raised by 30%, those of the technical Sometimes the essence of an event can be discerned in trifling things, August 7th 1936 reports about the same tine as the Spanish central committee of the Communist Party is babbling about order and the defence of democracy "Towns held by Spanish government troops are having the street names Names which have any connection with Capitalism are being taken Proletariat 'liberty' and Karl Marx streets replace them." This report from the Stalinist press itself shows the real wishes and impose a revolutionary policy on the leadership which was too blind or cowardly - or in the case of the C.P. leadership and that of the right-wing socialists too sceptical, cynical and treacherous to understand the realities the unemployed. Control army sections.

situation would improve.

In the same is left of the government.

chist and Communist.

the civil guard.

buildings and peasants continue to and other provisions in bonds.

Party members -E.G.) but do not pay them....

railways and And again on the 4th August 1936:

ways, are now administered by that are symptomatic of deeper processes. and property.

changed.

down.

from Madrid reports:

....The aircraft 40 of production by workers.

The continuance of the popular militias. garage proprietor in Barcelona who had fled to Toulouse: Power has passed into the hands of It is rather curious to find that the Mairie of Port the Mairies have been abandoned.

work in the fields and they are paid for poultry, catti i...The banks are open and they receive signed cheques And then again on August 3rd and 4th from Barcelona: S control ing aft tently order the direct atafan certain important industries."

the workers.

services are strictly limited to 1,500 pesetas a month." aspirations of the armed working class at the time. In the same issue of the Daily Worker their correspondent factory at Cuatro Vientos is working directly under A clean-up of various A summary court- In the countryside the Most of these bonds are signed by the The former managers and technical But whereas Thus the Daily Worker of They were trying to

[page 42]

control of a workers committee, composed of representatives of workers of ....Similarly the majority of factories, railways, tramways and powerplants are working under the control of factory committees... ....All banking operations too are under the strict control of committees composed of representatives of the clerks union, thus ensuring the impossibility of wealthy Fascists putting across any operations harmful to the Republican These few quotations and the material in the former pages can give only a pale reflection of the magnificence of the revolution - of the workers revolution - let us call it by its right name - the socialist revolution organisations, and through them, the organisations themselves, blocked their There was no party, or faction in the parties, prepared to make a stand, as did the Bolsheviks in Russia, or Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht The Bolshevils, from a small minority, became the majority of the exceptionally favourable situation, more favourable than in Russia before the October 1917 Revolution, there was no party or leadership capable of making a correct estimate of the situation, drawing the necessary conclusions, situation was to explain to the workers the real relationship of torces, the necessary and vital steps and to show them how their leaders and organisations Power was in the hands of the workers, but it was not centralised or organ- Committees, Juntas or Soviets, the name does not matter, should have been organised in every factory and district, elected by the workers, housewives and all sections of the working population, including the peasants and delegates to form area, regional and an all National Committee. have formed the framework of a new Regime pushing aside the contemptible and powerless Government and establishing the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. The mood and actions of the working class would have gained an overwhel- Outside Spain, day by day, Leon Trotsky and the Trotskyists, made the correct analysis but at that time in Spain they had neither the anarchist militants untarts, tety had no access to the material issuee Spanish revolution, which doomed it to defeat and prepared the way for the The events of the civil war can only be given in a sketchy form and even a If necessary we will return to this theme with the necessary "Revolution and Counter Revolution in Spain" dealing with the first 18 months available in Spanish for the benefit of the Y.S. and Socialist Party comrades. Jose Giral, as Prime Minister of a cabinet composed exclusively of Left Republicans, became more and more incompatible with the real relationship of all branches...

(?) cause.

which was unfolding in Spain.

in Germany.

Russian Revolution and led the workers to victory. and leading the workers firmly to take power. stood in the way.

ised.

of course the workers militias.

REVOLUTIONARIES ISOLATED ming response.

authority nor the organisation to influence events. Trotskyists, and thus could not react to it. victory of franco in the Civil War.

synopsis here.

documentation.

(?) which is an invaluable record of the facts. alism, in small things and on the question pf power. tuation, drawing However, Felix Morrow has written a Marxist classic The workers were trying to break with capit- The leadership of their In Spain in All that was necessary in the These in turn should have been linked by The overwhelming majorno access to the material issued by the That was the tragedy of the We hope that it will become 41

[page 43]

Consequently Giral resigned on September 14th and handed over to Caballero, who formed a government consisting of Socialists - left and right - communists, Left Republicans and even right Republicans. dismantling the bourgeois state, Caballero and the Left Socialists collaboratec with the Stalinists in shoring it up with the 'correct' parliamentary forms. represented neither the decisive sections of the bourgeoisie nor even "normal" basis of a bourgeois state - control of the armed forces. workers militias were under the control of the workers organisations and Instead of encouraging the workers in their endeavours to take control, ..It is important to state at once that the structure of the country will be changed after our victory and that the first article of the constitution according to which Spain is a republic of the toiling masses can But the whole essence of a civil war is that the masses cannot wait! A change in the social structure has to be carried out inmediate they haves to have an effect on the workers, and especially the peasants. been deceived so many times, that they become sceptical and indifferent to vague, indefinite phrases can have no appeal, especially to peasants. They want deeds not words in a situation where words are punctuated by Lenin explained long ago that "An ounce of experience is worth to make great sacrifices of blood and suffering it must be for a worthwhile: aim - and not that of the discredited bourgeois "republic" which had prepared a sizeable section of the proletariat.

looked to them for guidance and leadership. Caballero promised a better world...After the war! announced.

at last be realised...."

19th September 1936).

DEFENDING BARCELONA Statements promises.

ten of theory", especially the way for the Fascist counter-revolution. 42 (Page 1260, International Press Correspondence, of social changes especially when couched in such where promises are concerned.

Thus instead of They hung in limbo, without even the In the Cortes he If the masses are

[page 44]

Gilding the "republic" as was done by Caballero can carry no conviction When propaganda by loudspeakers to the rebel army was conducted the trenches, the reply of the conscripted peasants in Franco's army to reprisals to their families and risk their own lives by coming over ? Consequently they fought for their own enslavement as well as that of the order to alarm international opinion (whose opinion, that of the capitalists, E.G.) its enemies have asserted that it is a socialist-communist government; In reality it is nothing more nor less than the continuation of the republican record of these ministries! "Where the peasants en masse have taken up the armed struggle against the rebels and are now organising a guerrilla struggle Hunting for examples of that mythical creature under modern conditions the "revolutionary bourgeoisie" the communist party writer continues...."The considerable success of the party of Martinez Barrie at the elections (of February 1936) cannot be explained otherwise than by the anti-fascist sentiments of part of the bourgeoisie... (after the July fascist insurrection)" Jose Hiral, Francisco Barnes, Casares Quiroga (his role is sufficiently dealt with in his threats to give instructions to shoot anyone arming the workers), Enrico Kames and Manuel Blasque Garon - Industrialists and landowners who form Apart from the fact that in the early days and hours of the fascist uprising, before they had lost control of events, the Liberal government tried They think in terms of the land.

to the peasants.

them.

appeals to come over to the republic was us?"

To them it was a struggle between generals. but they could workers and peasants of all Spain.

THE MURDERERS ARRIVE Just to make sure that there were to be no real secretary of the "Communist"

and democratic ministries."

at the rear of the reactionary bandits... part of the ministry of Jose Hiral..."

class but themselves as individuals manouvering against the socialist revolution. to compromise with the Franco gangsters. and unconscious humour:

That is the reality to "what has the republic ever done for They didn't want to fight Why risk see no fundamental difference between the two sides. social changes the general party Jose Diaz wrote in the same issue. • "In This is for once correct, and we have seen the ...In fact they represented not their within the republican camp desperately The article, continues with grisly ...Had the development of events been different it 43

[page 45]

The article continues..."...There can be no doubt that the overwhelming but there are groups of the bourgeoisie, especially among the national minor: ities..therefore these groups must not be left out of account in the antifascist camp....A wide social basis at a moment of such sharp struggle is one of the factors guaranteeing the success of the revolution... the Spanish antifascist people's front, as a specific form of the unification of various peculiarity of the Spanish people's front...the relatively slow pace at which the masses of the peasantry are being drawn into the armed struggle..." support of the remnant of the bourgeoisie was, as events were to demonstrate to weaken and undermine, not strengthen the struggle against franco. expropriating the landowners and capitalists would have strengthened instructions of Moscow, were desperately trying to restore the bourgeois "the defence of private property" they became the party of the middle class in the towns and the rich peasants in the countryside. At that time two thirds of the membership were composed of shopkeepers, foremen, small businessmen, rich peasants, top levels of the technicians, Only one third was composed of workers - mostly the most backward The Stalinists as defenders of the "revolutionary bourgeoisie" were trying to restore the situation in republican Spain as it existed before the revolu- This required counter revolution - bloody and vile - within the As early as October 1936 they prevailed on Caballero to begin the process in modern society is in whose interests it is organised, what class basis it possesses, what is its motivation, which class does the general staff and the officers come from, whose interests do they represent, what class basis Trotsky and the Bolsheviks built an army also from scratch. But it was of the Tsarist army, but they were under the strict control of workers commissars loyal to the workers state and to the ideals of the socialist revol- If a centralised army is to be built it can only be the tool of a workers or capitalist state - it cannot be a non-class army - a mythical class the socialist revolution, Caballero ana the other leaders assisted in carrying through the organisation of a capitalist army. This again was to have dis- As already shown the overwhelming majority of the officers and generals went over to the fascists, far more apparently than even in Russia. purely military struggle they would clearly have the advantage. and even to a magnified extent civil war is the continuation of politics by is possible that some of reaction....

majority of the bourgeoisie workers camp a million times more.

republican regime.

"law" "order"

section of the working class.

WORKERS' OR CAPITALIST ARMY ?

tion.

republican camp.

of transforming the militia into a "regular army" a civil war centralised coriand is necessary. does the army fulfil?

the class issues while class society remains. the army of the workers in power.

ution.

neutrality 1s impossible.

astrous consequences for the civil war. 44 these people would have sought for a compromise with classes in face of the fascist danger (my emphasis) .. To "add" fire to petrol hardly increases ones forces. In Catalonia, and Spain, as the party that stood for No mythical appeals to anti-fascist unity can avoid sympathise with the insurgents, and support them, ...At the same time the To have the Action But in reality the Stalinists, at the Now it is clear that in But the whole point of an army They used tens of thousands of the officers afraid or incapable of consummating In a But war,

[page 46]

an army not on the model of the Red Army of 1918-20 but of army, the whole basis of the workers struggle was undermined. Barcelona and Madrid the Stalinists toiled to recreate the of anarchist propaganda the land was collectivised by the peasants them- The militia stood at the gates of Huesca, Teruel and Saragossa.. But the central government starved this front of arms and supplies for fear of the social revolutionary consequences that victory on this front Caballero allowed himself to be blackmailed by the C.P. under threat that the Russians would cease to supply arms, the bulk of which were being sent to the Madrid front, where the C.P. played an important role. It was the growing conflict between the aspirations of the workers and the gradual return to bourgeois "normality" which precipitated the crisis Every revolution has seen similar movements of the workers when they 1848, the July days in Russia of 1917 and the January days in Germany in The immediate cause of the uprising of the working class in Barcelona and Catalonia was the attempt of the Stalinists to seize control of the control of the workers in the C.N.T. since the first days of the revol- The Stalinists in the Generalidad, the autonomous Catalonian government, assault guards from Valencia and to send the international brigade to put down the movement of the workers collapsed because of the refusal of the Once again, power was in the hands of the workers! There were no troops in Barcelona or elsewhere on which the government could rely to put down the Here the C.N.T. and the P.O.U.M. came to the rescue of the revived Some way of ending the conflict would be found by agreement between HAD THE P.O.U.M. ISSUED THE CALL TO TAKE POWER THERE WAS NO FORCE TO STOP THEM! The anarchists and the P.O.U.M., prevailed on the workers to forcible means.

is to 1.

By creating a capitalist Systematically in bourgeois state.

methods of social revolution.

the Russian revolution in selves.

would mean.

which came to be known as the "May days of 1937" felt the revolution being betrayed.

convulsively in protest elemental movement.

POWER IN WORKERS' HANDS telephone exchange for the Catalan government. replied with a general strike.

Catalonian towns.

movement.

Bourgeois state.

within a Civil war these the workers and the Government.

"Go back to work."

situation was lost.

In war, says Napoleon, the moral is to the physical as 4 The first great successes had all been achieved by the The land was seized in Catalonia and Aragon. The masses feel power slipping out of their hands. against the "sell out" to the bourgeoisie in an ution, and represented an element of workers control. some tanks and troops to seize control of the exchange. The government was powerless.

troops to be moved to take action against the workers. Arguing that it was impossible to start a Civil War "Marxists" appealed to the workers to return to The crisis was over!

The militias in the first rush conquered Advancing further its early days in response to generations The June days of France in Paris in They rise This had been under the Barricades appeared in Barcelona and other An attempt to send For four days the workers controlled the The opportunity to transform the 45

[page 47]

Had the P.O.U.M. taken power they could have offered a united front the fronts would have rallied to the banner of socialism in Barcelona. power of the Madrid Government would have crumbled and disappeared. against class collaboration, in deeds they collaborated with the shadow of Within six weeks they received the reward for their cowardice and lack of In a revolution the masses learn fast, but these "leaders" had The Stalinists seized the opportunity provided by the fact that the masses had been reduced to passivity and despair. that the P.O.U.M. were involved in a plot with Franco they were declared Nin and other leaders were murdered by G.P.U. agents in Spain. Caballero had refused to agree to the suppression of the P.O.U.M. the right wing socialists* and with the bourgeois Republicans in the cabinet. replaced by Negrin, who was more pliant in the hands of the into a purely military one the seeds for defeat had been sown. bourgeois officers who had the military training were not reliable. After the dissolution of the militias, Malaga and the Basque country were betrayed by a section of the staff into the hands of the Fascists. But in any event, as a purely military struggle the war could not be won ! defeat by the reformists and Stalinists, is foreign intervention and the Moors! Hitler and Mussolini supplied troops, 100,000 Italians and 20.000 to 60,000 which it could rely.

The P.O.U.M. failed to act.

Government with the capitalist class.

P.O.U.M VACILLATES perspective.

learned nothing.

illegal.

The Party disappeared from the scene.

Consequently he had to be removed.

Caballero was Stalinists.

were some military victories.

The general 46 against Franco to the Government in Madria. the Anarchists and hoped for miracles.

Very few!

excuses, if they Very rapidly the masses in Madrid, Valencia and at They had entered the Catalonian Bourgeois The C.P. hatched a plot with Prieto and Passionaria hailed this as the "Government of Victory!" deal with the subject at all, to explain the The Government had no troops on In words they were WOMEN TRAIN FOR THE FRONT Using the pretext But by transforming the struggle

[page 48]

Germans, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Moors were in Franco's Army. • But in the Russian Revolution, too, there was intervention from foreign In the early stages of the Civil War only one province with Petrograd and Leningrad remained in the hands of the Bolsheviks. of Russia was in the hands of the White Guard and the armies of intervention. The Bolsheviks won not because of superior military arms, or skills but for the oppressed nationalities, factories to the workers and Proletarian Internationalism was the method of the Bolsheviks. every Russian Army sent against the Bolsheviks and Russian Workers and Peasantist and Imperialist lines the peasants and workers sabotaged the struggle. They supplied the Red Army with invaluable information about their enemies. In China Mao Tse-Tung and the Chinese C.P., waging a semi-revolutionary with the most modern equipment in tanks, planes and guns, by American Impland to the peasants, reserving a piece of land to the soldiers of Chiangs Armies, in the villages from where they came, won over the troops. hundreds of thousands; and by whole divisions, they deserted to the Red Army. victories too, because of the high morale of the troops, from the peasant officers to the smallest corporal and private, that is the way - though lacking sophisticated material - which was brought over by the soldiers desagainst them in territory, numbers and material, they were victorious. When the Spanish Civil War is examined the opposite process is to be seen. The magnificant initiative of the workers, gains dazzling victories of an un- What are the consequences? The Moors were Franco's crack troops. Why did they fight for enslavement for themselves and their Spanish Spain and appeal to the Moors to come over to the side of the Republic. occo would offend the "democracies" of Britain and France by undermining their Moreover, was not the Popular Front Government pledged to later, fearful of the collapse of his regime were he to wage a Colonial War, at the first risk what the miserable Popular Front Government was not prepared troops.

was blockaded.

They organised Guerrilla war.

ity of the people, became demoralised.

deserted to the Reds.

war, gained victory.

of Chiang Kai-Shek erialism.

Waging a social war erting to their side - though armed working class in two-thirds of Spain. of the workers.

But the revolution is not consummated.

blasted back.

the struggle at the front.

possessed by the landlords.

capitalists.

Power is in brothers, the workers and peasants ?

for Moorish independence from Spain in the Meditteranean.

he asked in return was Empires in Africa.

maintain all the Spanish Land ?

the offer was rejected.

fiercest and best troops.

Franco conceded - not autonomy - but independence! to concede when it was fighting for its life! Twenty-one armies, of all the Great Powers, intervened. because they waged the civil war as a social struggle. ry, and their power, mutinied and had to be withdrawn. The Russian workers were victorious in the Civil. The Civil War started with an overwhelming majority forces, militarily and numerically.

The greater part of China was in their hands. - a semi-revolutionary war - resulted in military Part of the Air Force and Artillery.

The Democratic counter-revolution in the rear undermined The land in Catalonia and Aragon is re- The factories are gradually re-gained by the The Bourgeois state and Bourgeois army are restored. the hands of "Domocratic Capitalism."

He offered the Republican Government to come to autonomy for Morrocco.

Throughout the conflict the Moors remained the Russia The rest Land to the peasants, Consequently, Behind the capital- The White Guard Armies, feeling the hostil- Tens of thousands conscripted, they were supplied But giving the the military odds seemed to be overwhelmingly The fleet comes over to the side Inch by inch the workers are Abo El Krim, who led the struggle and France, was in exile in an island But to give autonomy to Morr- Not waging the war by revolutionary means The crowning irony of this particular fact is that Thus the Fascists gave

[page 49]

It is true that Mussolini and Hitler supplied enormous quantities of matonly be reached by an International Socialist appeal as with the Bolsheviks But in spite of all, foreign troops and Moors were auxilliaries. The main body of Franco's troops were Spaniards, mainly peasants conscripted she wor dife freed me for the paressed nation fittes in sain and tric the power back to the landlords and capitalists could have no effect on the level all the advantages were on the side of Franco. Waging the struggle as "Popular Front" France and "Democratic" Britain starved "Republican" Spain of arms with the hypocritical farce of "non-intervention." lost did they supply arms, and then only on condition of halting the social The policies of the workers parties in the revolution and civil war guaran - But let us assume for a moment that by some fantastic miracle old officer caste and middle class had taken over the officers jobs in the The repression of the initiative of the workers and their nascent control. of the factories had demoralised and thwarted the ideals of the working Towards the end of the struggle it was apparent that victory The uncontrolled army command, of the refurbished regular army, seized General Miaja - Miaja with a Communist Party membership card in his pocket vanguard of democratic counter-revolution, within the revolution, the two dictatorships in Spain - on both sides of the trenches! Even had "Republican" Spain won the civil war there would have been a Spain, after more than three decades of dictatorship is moving once again towards revolution. The C.P. leaders, having learned nothing, play the same It is the task of the Spanish Young Socialists to carry the lessons of the civil war to the working class, and of course to the rank and file fighters of The Socialist Party and the Communist Party are the two real torces Victory of the Socialist revolution in Spain can transform the internation- The only road for the Spanish Workers to ensure the success of the revolution is to learn the lessons of the Spanish revolution of 1931-1937 make similar mistakes and suffer the fate of their fathers and grandfathers. erial and also troops to Franco.

workers, German peasants and workers.

in Russia.

into Franco's army.

che workers, that was the only programme for victory: troops in Franco's army.

participated in this farce.

revolution.

teed defeat.

reconstructed bourgeois army.

in the terrible civil war.

waste everything.

was far away.

power to try and propose - established a military dictatorship!

"Communist" Party was military police state in Spain!

policies of all the workers organisations. perfidious role.

the Communist Party.

very weak.

within the working class.

from the S.P. and al situation.

of the civil war.

48 They could only be won over by showing the fundamental Militarily superior in officers, tanks, on this a "military war" - not a social war waged by arms military if not social victory could have been obtained. had been handed back to the capitalists and landlords. The generals, placed in full command a compromise with Franco!, made illegal and forced underground.

Internationally and nationally the perspective is fav- Anarchism is discredited in its former the Y.s. if it is based on the ideas of Marxism. without this understanding they would be doomed to But these troops were Italian peasants and They could be reached - they could The programme of transforming guaranteed defeat.

Stalinist Only after precious months had been What then ?

The remnants of the The country was ruined and had been laid of the renewed army, decided General Casado and As a reward for being the fighting There were now This was the final condemnation of the "Last Latin hide-out" and is The CP rank and file will respond to a bold lead

[page 50]

Socialist Literature THE RAGGED TROUSERED PHILANTHROPISTS, ROBERT TRESSELL CZECHOSLOVAKIA '68 (includes 2,000 Words statement). KARALASINGHAM LENIN & TROTSKY - WHAT THEY REALLY STOOD FOR. A WOODS & E GRANT ALEXANDER SOLYHENITSYN, SOLDIER, PRISONER WRITER, R WEERAKOON WORLD BOOKS 375 C'ambridge Heath Road London ER 9RA CHD WAGES, PRICE AND PROFIT. MARX WAGE LABOUR AND CAPITAL. MARX WHERE IS BRITAIN GOING?. TROTSKY THE HOUSING QUESTION, ENGELS SELECTED WORKS. MARX & ENGELS THE STATE AND REVOLUTION. LENIN ON LITERATURE AND ART. LENIN LESSONS OF SPAIN. TROTSKY REVOLUTION BETRAYED. TROTSKY IN DEFENCE OF MARXISM. TROTSKY GENERAL STRIKE 1926, TROTSKY LABOUR IN IRISH HISTORY, CONNOLLY THE IRON HEEL. JACK LONDON 1905, TROTSKY SOCIALIST SONG 300K ON RELIGION. MARX & ENGELS * LENIN by TROTSKY ORDER FROM MOOYO 'LEFT WING' COMMUNISM - AN INFANTILE DISORDER, LENIN FASCISM - WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO FIGHT IT. TROTSKY FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF MARXISM. PLEKHANOV LABOUR, NATIONALITY AND RELIGION: CONNOLLY BUREAUCRATISM OR WORKERS POWER?, SILVERMAN & GRANT THE CLASS, THE PARTY AND THE LEADERSHIP. TROTSKY CONDITIONS OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND. ENGELS SEND CASH WITH ORDER AND PLEASE ADD 10% FOR POSTAGE WRITE FOR COMPLETE BOOK LIST 10p 10p 37 p 15p £1.50 15p 10p 63p 20p £1.25p £1 20p 20p £1.25 25p 15p £1.25p 60p 75p 12p 15p 12p 75p 15p £1.00 5p 8p 50p 01-739 7176