78 years ago the working class of Barcelona rose and defeated a military coup intended to overthrow the second Spanish Republic. Their sacrifice marked the start of the armed defeat of Fascism in Europe culminating in the victory of May 1945. The working class movement of Barcelona was defeated in a bloody Civil War, yet they held the gate so that we might survive to fight on other fronts.
It is not difficult for me to explain my affection for Barcelona and its people.
The debt of gratitude that all of us owe to the working class of Barcelona is immense and untold. Without their willingness to begin the fight against Fascism on the 19th July 1936 there is every reason to believe that Hitler and Mussolini would have triumphed unopposed.
The Spanish military coup of July 1936 was an open secret. Everyone knew that the Army intended to overthrow the government of the Second Republic. No-one exactly knew when.
The working class movement was not unready. Working class conscripts in the Army were a source of information. Observers outside every barracks kept watch for suspicious movements. A general alarm of the blowing of every factory siren in Barcelona was agreed.
In the early hours of the 19th of July, soldiers were awoken and ordered to prepare for duty. A ration of Rum was issued and they were ordered to march on Placa Catalunya in the centre of town.
The alarm system worked. Conscript soldiers were unwilling to obey orders and deserted with weapons to the side of the workers. The Catalan Gendarmerie (Assaltos) remained loyal to the Republic for the most part. Soldiers in the Montana Barracks surrendered the armoury to workers who drove lorryloads of weapons and ammunition around the working class areas arming a makeshift Militia.
Barricades were built, Fire was exchanged. The Army uprising was crushed and utterly defeated. An armed working class, with conscious democratic, anarchist and socialist ideas was in command. Such a state of affairs had not arisen in western Europe since the Paris Commune.
This situation was not one that had fallen from the sky. Years and years of Anarchist and Socialist propaganda, organisation and agitation enabled the working class to unite to defeat the military.
Fortuitously for the workers, the events of July 1936 coincided with the "People's Olympiad" in Barcelona. This was a working class answer to the "Nazi Olympics" taking place in Berlin. The city was already full of international athletes who were opposed to Fascism.
At the same time, the Popular Front Government of Leon Blum in France had decreed paid holidays for French workers for the first time ever. Many French workers were taking advantage of their first paid holidays to visit Barcelona.
From the start in Spain, the struggle against Fascism was an international one.
The defeat of the Spanish Republic was an international affair also. The policy of "non-intervention" and an arms embargo by the western democracies played into the hands of Fascist governments in Germany and Italy. That policy more than any other sealed the fate of Spain.
It is not unreasonable to consider that if the governments of Britain and France had come to the aid of the Spanish Republic, there might have been no Second World War.
Hitler and Mussolini tested their arms and tactics in Spain. They armed and reinforced Franco and his rebel forces to the hilt.
History tells us that the sacrifice of the workers of Barcelona and elsewhere inflicted the first bloody nose to Fascism in arms. The governments of Britain and France were more repelled by a risen working class than they were by the rise of Fascism in Spain.
Workers internationally ignored the threats of their governments and volunteered to fight for Spain in the International Brigades and other formations. On the defeat of the Republic in 1939, many Spanish Republicans distinguished themselves in the Allied forces in the ensuing Second World War.
Spanish volunteers were prominent in the Maquis Resistance guerilla campaigns and in the Free French Armoured Brigade which liberated Paris. Captured Republicans were also victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps. The notorious Mauthausen Camp had many Spanish inmates.
Fascism won the battle in Spain. Franco's dictatorship survived with the support of the west until 1975. Our debt to the workers of Spain remains unpaid.
It is not difficult for me to explain my affection for Barcelona and its people.
The debt of gratitude that all of us owe to the working class of Barcelona is immense and untold. Without their willingness to begin the fight against Fascism on the 19th July 1936 there is every reason to believe that Hitler and Mussolini would have triumphed unopposed.
The Spanish military coup of July 1936 was an open secret. Everyone knew that the Army intended to overthrow the government of the Second Republic. No-one exactly knew when.
The working class movement was not unready. Working class conscripts in the Army were a source of information. Observers outside every barracks kept watch for suspicious movements. A general alarm of the blowing of every factory siren in Barcelona was agreed.
In the early hours of the 19th of July, soldiers were awoken and ordered to prepare for duty. A ration of Rum was issued and they were ordered to march on Placa Catalunya in the centre of town.
The alarm system worked. Conscript soldiers were unwilling to obey orders and deserted with weapons to the side of the workers. The Catalan Gendarmerie (Assaltos) remained loyal to the Republic for the most part. Soldiers in the Montana Barracks surrendered the armoury to workers who drove lorryloads of weapons and ammunition around the working class areas arming a makeshift Militia.
Barricades were built, Fire was exchanged. The Army uprising was crushed and utterly defeated. An armed working class, with conscious democratic, anarchist and socialist ideas was in command. Such a state of affairs had not arisen in western Europe since the Paris Commune.
This situation was not one that had fallen from the sky. Years and years of Anarchist and Socialist propaganda, organisation and agitation enabled the working class to unite to defeat the military.
Fortuitously for the workers, the events of July 1936 coincided with the "People's Olympiad" in Barcelona. This was a working class answer to the "Nazi Olympics" taking place in Berlin. The city was already full of international athletes who were opposed to Fascism.
At the same time, the Popular Front Government of Leon Blum in France had decreed paid holidays for French workers for the first time ever. Many French workers were taking advantage of their first paid holidays to visit Barcelona.
From the start in Spain, the struggle against Fascism was an international one.
The defeat of the Spanish Republic was an international affair also. The policy of "non-intervention" and an arms embargo by the western democracies played into the hands of Fascist governments in Germany and Italy. That policy more than any other sealed the fate of Spain.
It is not unreasonable to consider that if the governments of Britain and France had come to the aid of the Spanish Republic, there might have been no Second World War.
Hitler and Mussolini tested their arms and tactics in Spain. They armed and reinforced Franco and his rebel forces to the hilt.
History tells us that the sacrifice of the workers of Barcelona and elsewhere inflicted the first bloody nose to Fascism in arms. The governments of Britain and France were more repelled by a risen working class than they were by the rise of Fascism in Spain.
Workers internationally ignored the threats of their governments and volunteered to fight for Spain in the International Brigades and other formations. On the defeat of the Republic in 1939, many Spanish Republicans distinguished themselves in the Allied forces in the ensuing Second World War.
Spanish volunteers were prominent in the Maquis Resistance guerilla campaigns and in the Free French Armoured Brigade which liberated Paris. Captured Republicans were also victims of the Nazi Concentration Camps. The notorious Mauthausen Camp had many Spanish inmates.
Fascism won the battle in Spain. Franco's dictatorship survived with the support of the west until 1975. Our debt to the workers of Spain remains unpaid.
Fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them.
ReplyDeleteJean-Paul Sartre