Why We Lost the War : A Contribution to the History of the Spanish Tragedy

Chapter 1 : The War in Spain, 1936–1939—Th...

The war in Spain, 1936–1939—The basic reasons for its outcome—Preaching in the desert—The judgment of Solomon This is the first time that we have been defeated in the long struggle for the economic and social progress of Spain as a modern revolutionary movement; in order to find another comparable defeat on this scale we have to go back to the battlefields of Villalar in the first third of the 16th century. Just like the Phenix who rises from his ashes, we have always rebounded from all our disasters, overcoming terribly dramatic moments of political and religious inquisition, leaving shreds of bleeding flesh in the claws of the enemy. Hunger and persecution, jail and prison, torture and assassination, nothing cou... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 2 : History of the Revolution in S...

History of the revolution in Spain—Political centralism—The working class organizations—The First Republic surrenders to the Monarchy—The Second Republic and its ineffectiveness Spain still lives, we have witnessed one of the epic sagas of its vitality, and for that reason alone we have faith in its future. For close to four centuries every imaginable method was tried to destroy the sources of its existence, and our history, starting with national unification under the Catholic Monarchs, is a martyrology of liberty rarely interrupted by brief periods of resurrection, popular action, and reconstruction of the old tolerant and generous Iberian home. No other nation, no other people, would have been able to endure, w... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 3 : The King Abdicated, but the Ge...

The king abdicated, but the generals remained—The frustrated dictatorship of Gil Robles—The military conspiracy One of the many organized centers of resistance of the civil war in the mid-19th century, the 1854 Zaragoza Junta, declared, in an interesting manifesto to the nation that advocated extensive reforms in the domains of ideas, institutions and customs: “The military empire is not an element of liberty, nor is ignorance the seed of prosperity.” The republicans of the Second Republic—like those of the First Republic—forgot these postulates, and carried on the work that brought a temporary interruption, in order to prevent greater evils, of the discredited and putrescent monarchy. So the king abd... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 4 : The Inexorable Military Conspi...

The inexorable military conspiracy—Our liaison with the Generalitat—The events of July 19 in Barcelona July 19 has a place of honor in the modern political history of Spain. On the night of July 6–7 of 1822 Ferdinand VII attempted to carry out a bloody coup against the Constitution that he had accepted and against the popular militia to which he owed his restoration to the throne of Spain. He failed due to the heroic action of the militiamen who fought against the Royal Guard; the following year, however, he succeeded in executing his program, plunging Spain into a maelstrom of martyrdom and grief until his death. It was in July 1854 when the people of Madrid experienced the indelible events of their struggle against ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 5 : The Central Committee of Milit...

The Central Committee of Militias of Catalonia—Expeditions to Aragon—The false accusation that we withheld our forces from the front—Political and revolutionary collaboration We defeated the military revolt. We never knew the exact price in dead and wounded. During those days no one measured the magnitude of sacrifice; only victory mattered. Victory was ours, and those of us who were lucky enough to be left standing did not have any time to shed tears for the dead, among whom were friends, beloved brothers and the most effective collaborators in our old battles. The result of that victory was an almost unprecedented outpouring of popular euphoria. All power was in the streets, the moral power by virtue of the indispensa... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 6 : Industry, Transport and Agricu...

Industry, transport and agriculture in the hands of the workers—The revolution in the economy—The agrarian collectives—The revolution in culture—War and revolution Concerning certain matters about which we cannot remain silent, it will be the victors in the Spanish conflict that will inflict harm on the people of July 19–20, but history and living memory will cause the great constructive ability of eternal Spain, an ability that is unique in the world and especially in countries that have suffered as we have, to survive as a definitive acquisition. Even for those who were the most fervent believers in the virtues of our people, it was an unforgettable revelation. From what mysterious sources of inspiration ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 7 : Catalonia and the Rest of Spai...

Catalonia and the rest of Spain—The central government vs. Catalonia—Politics vs. geography Without the victory of July in the streets of Barcelona, the military revolt would have been victorious without having to use much ammunition in almost all of Spain, because the victory in Madrid would have been too isolated, and Madrid could not rely on the defensive advantages of Catalonia. Although their job was made more difficult by the July movement, the commanders of the garrisons whose soldiers remained in their barracks were waiting, in a hostile environment, to see which way the wind would blow in the rest of the country. That was when we took advantage of this hiatus in the fighting to force the surrender of the garrison of... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 8 : International Diplomacy—Britis...

International diplomacy—British miscalculations—The events of May 1937—The war effort in danger—The political situation and military disasters Foreign intervention in Spain’s domestic affairs is not a recent phenomenon, and it has usually come from Rome, Paris and London. Nor was 1936 the first time Germany was involved in Spain. Secret agents posing as diplomats and armed interventions have haunted us for centuries, ever since the hegemony of Spanish laws and traditions came to an end and we have been at the mercy of greed, careerism and various combinations of European powers. The French-English policy of nonintervention of 1936–1939 was a very obvious way of intervening. Rome, with the Papacy, afte... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 9

The nefarious activities of the Communist Party—The Russian “Chekas” in Spain—Our side Whenever we have deplored the suicide towards which we were led by the bureaucracy of our own organizations in the Spanish revolution and civil war—the bureaucracy of our own organizations, because if any other bureaucracy had done the same thing in any other organization, in absolutely the same way, it would be of less importance to us—the constant refrain we hear in response is that by acting in this way we avoided being accused before the court of History of having lost the war due to our rebelliousness or our yearning for justice. It is quite possible that, if we were to have waged a vigorous counteroffensive ag... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 10 : The Political Decomposition of...

The political decomposition of the Republic—Financial irresponsibility—The figure of Negrín Once the Prieto-Negrín Government was formed, in accordance with the plans of the Russian “trade” delegate, Stachevsky, after the famous crisis of May 1937, when Moscow’s policy brought about the fall of Largo Caballero by preventing him from waging his planned offensive to cut the rebel zone in two parts, and after provoking the bloody events in Barcelona—whose real significance we were unable to perceive at that time, just as we were capable of taking advantage of the ensuing situation to put the war and the revolution back on their real popular foundations—at that time, we repeat, we were ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 11 : Our Report of August 1938 to t...

Our report of August 1938 to the Government of the Republic concerning the conduct of the war—A critical-military review Those who had not sworn to any secret commitment to do what they could to see to it that the war would have a disastrous end, that is, honest people, of a liberal and progressive spirit, capable of a modicum of reflection, those who had preserved a minimum of independent personality, understood that the situation was grave, that the inevitable could not be postponed forever by lying to the public, that there was an urgent need for an effective remedy for the general orientation of government policy and especially military policy. We could not resign ourselves to merely revealing to our militants a reality that so... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 12 : A Report Presented to the Libe...

A report presented to the libertarian movement in September 1938 calling attention to the course of the war and to the requisite reforms We had already addressed the anarchist militants (July 1938), we had told the government what we thought of the situation in general as it concerned the war without mincing any words (August 1938), and all that remained for us to do was to inform the entire libertarian movement, the National Confederation of Labor, the Iberian Anarchist Federation, and the Libertarian Youth; we did this in September of 1938, on the occasion of a National Plenum of the three libertarian organizations, held in Barcelona.[40] In our publications we had repeatedly insisted on the woeful contrast between the masses who were ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 13 : The Political and Military Con...

The political and military conditions preceding Franco’s final offensive in Catalonia—documents and reflections Assured of his increasingly more preponderant and clearly demonstrated military superiority, aware of our internal weakness due to war-weariness, an anti-Spanish and anti-popular policy, and an excess of sacrifices without any comprehensible purpose, Franco announced, months in advance, the offensive against Catalonia, which had been the improvised stronghold of the war effort and the constructive and exemplary focal point of the revolution. It was supposed to be the final offensive to bring an end to the conflagration, which had already lasted thirty months, during which all our initial advantages had been lost th... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 14 : Conclusion

Conclusion The Spanish war came to an end thanks to the impressive amount of Italo-German aid granted to our enemies, in men and in materiel, and also thanks to the criminal complacency of the so-called democratic Governments, authors of the farce of nonintervention. The Spanish war is over, but the world that prevented us, under futile pretexts and false presumptions, from having any chance to really put up a fight, now has to pay the piper in a new hecatomb. Bourgeoisie and proletarians alike, in every country, were united in sharing the comfortable interpretation that our war involved only us, the belligerents. When they were not committing the grave crime of helping our enemies—the proletarian paradise, Russia, sent the gasoli... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Notes

[1] Note to the reader: the author uses the first person plural throughout this entire book, with a few exceptions, to refer to himself, his texts and his actions. I have retained this usage in this translation. The reader must discern from the context, however, when Santillán is talking about himself, and when he is talking about his close circle of friends, or the FAI, or the “libertarian movement”, or even the Spanish people (Translator’s note). [2] Not to mention other works, we sincerely ask ourselves just what kind of opinion can be formed by the English readers of the Duchess of Atholl’s book, Searchlight on Spain (Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 364 p.), with a print ru... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

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Why We Lost the War : A Contribution to the History of the Spanish Tragedy

By Diego Abad De Santillán

Entry 5289

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Author : Diego Abad De Santillán

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