Spanish Revolution (1936) On this day in 1936, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), together more than 3 million members, called a general strike,...

Spanish Revolution (1936)

Sun Jul 19, 1936

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Image: CNT-FAI militiamen in Barcelona in July 1936 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1936, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT), together more than 3 million members, called a general strike, beginning the workers’ revolution during the Spanish Civil War.

The strike, revolutionary and anti-capitalist in character, was called in response to a fascist military coup that had taken place on July 17th. During the general strike, civilians acquired weapons by raiding state weapons depots.

On July 24th, the first voluntary militia, known as the Durriti Column, named after libertarian communist Buenaventura Durriti, left Barcelona for the region of Aragon. Other regiments formed, such as the anarchist Iron Column and the CNT-affiliated Red and Black Column.

Over the next three years, revolutionary Republicans began reorganizing society and production on anarchist principles and battled with the Nationalist forces, led by the fascist Francisco Franco.

The Republicans were aided and joined by anti-fascists and socialists from all over the world - George Orwell, a British writer, joined the fight and later authored a memoir based on his experiences. 3,000 American volunteers also joined the fight as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

The Soviet Union provided the largest amount of foreign aid to the Republic, supplying artillery, aircraft, tanks, guns, troops, and military advisors. People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) agents also assassinated anti-Soviet leftists in the movement, figures like founder of the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) Andreu Nin. Many libertarian socialists who survived the war would later denounce the Soviet Union.

The Republicans were defeated in 1939 and General Francisco Franco came into power, ruling Spain until his death in 1975. Many Spanish revolutionaries sought political asylum in the United States, and they would produce the paper “Espana Libre” to connect the scattered community of Spanish exiles until Franco’s death. Other anti-fascists would work to undermine Franco’s government from outside the country.

“Don’t you see why I’ll continue fighting as long as these social injustices exist?”

- Buenaventura Durruti

• Date: 1936-07-19
• Learn More: www.writing.upenn.edu, libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #General Strikes, #Marxism, #Assassinations, #Anarchism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org