CHAPTER IX. “The clandestine revolution”

Reserves of rifle ammunition on the Aragón front were essentially exhausted only two weeks into the war. They also had to send many of the old model 94 rifles to gunsmiths for repair and often discard them as unserviceable. The artillery had to fire with great economy due to the lack of shells and the modest Republican air force made only brief appearances, which did little more than annoy the fascists, who had Italian and German planes at their disposal.

The Black and Red Column (led by Antonio Ortiz) tried unsuccessfully to take the fortified fascist positions in Belchite several times. The fascists received constant reinforcements and ammunition from Zaragoza and Calatayud, which greatly reduced the Column’s chances of success. Things were not much better for the militiamen in the Alcubierre sector, whose attempts to sever communication between Huesca and Zaragoza also failed. Franco’s troops were determined to defend the Alcubierre and Belchite areas at all costs, because they knew losing either would mean the loss of Zaragoza and thus leave the path open to the revolutionary militias.

With the military activity occurring on the periphery, the Durruti Column could do little except provoke skirmishes with its guerrilla groups. And it was impossible to consider withdrawing the Column from its position: a rebel charge would jeopardize the crucial Los Monegros zone and, worse still, break the lines of communication between the militiamen in Huesca and those in the vicinity of Teruel, thereby giving the rebels a clear route to Lérida. So, the Durruti Column focused on carrying out its vital function and used the calm to reinforce strategic parts of the front. But the inactivity was torture for the fighters as well as Durruti. To keep from being consumed by inactivity, he decided to go to Barcelona and speak directly with the CCAMC about breaking out of that impasse.

While he traveled from Bujaraloz to Barcelona, Durruti could witness the change that the revolution had made both in people and circumstances. The whirlwind of the first days of the battle had passed and the peasants and workers were now focused on changing their ways of life and creating new social relationships. The people were still armed and guarded the entrances of their villages. There was no trace of Assault or Civil Guards at these checkpoints: it was the proletarians who assured the revolutionary order. [576]

Durruti stopped his car at a checkpoint at a town in the Lérida province.

He portrayed himself as a militiaman leaving the front for the rearguard and requested gasoline for his vehicle. By doing this, he wanted to see how the peasant’s behavior had changed in that town of some three thousand residents. A militiaman told him that he should speak to the Revolutionary Committee in the old mayor’s office. They’d give him the “OK” that he needed to fill his car with gas.

Durruti crossed the town’s main square. It was around noon. The square was empty except for some women leaving the church with a basket of goods. Durruti asked them how to get to the Committee and also if mass was being officiated in the church.

“No, no,” they responded. “There’s no priest. The priest is working in the field with the other men. Kill him? Why kill him? He isn’t dangerous. He even talks about going to live with a town girl. Besides, he’s very happy with everything that’s happening.

“But the church is right there,” said Durruti, while pointing.

“Ah, yes, the church. Why destroy it? The statues were removed and burned in the square. God no longer exists. He’s been expelled from here. And, since God doesn’t exist, the assembly decided to replace the word “adios” [with God] with “Salud” [cheers]. The Cooperative now occupies the church and, because everything is collectivized, it supplies the town.” [577] Durruti came across an elderly man when he entered what was once the mayor’s office. It was the town’s former schoolteacher, who had been replaced by a young teacher from Lérida three months earlier. The old man had been inactive during those months but, when the revolution broke out, he volunteered to look after the town’s administrative needs and assure the continued operation of the Town Committee. The other members of the Committee were working in the fields. They gathered at nightfall to discuss pressing matters that had come up during the day or tasks that they needed to accomplish the next day. At the time, they had to focus on taking in the harvest. Since the town’s young people had volunteered to go fight on the front, the remaining residents had to do the work.

“But don’t think,” the retired teacher said, “that the work weighs on anyone. We work for ourselves now, for everyone.”

Durruti asked him how they had selected the members of the Committee. Durruti’s straightforward and simple air inspired the teacher’s trust, who took him as one of the many curious militiamen from the city who wanted to see what was happening in the towns.

“We held a town assembly,” he said, “and considered everyone’s abilities and also their conduct before the revolution. That’s how we appointed the Committee.”

“And what about the political parties?” Durruti said.

“Parties? There are some old Republicans like myself and some Socialists too; but no, the political parties haven’t played any role. During our assembly, we considered a person’s ability and conduct and appointed those who seemed best to us. It was no more complicated than that. The Committee represents the people and it’s to the people that it has to answer.”

Durruti asked about the parties again.

“The parties?” the teacher replied, intrigued by his insistence. “Why do we need political parties? You work to eat and eat if you work. Party politics don’t sow wheat, gather olives, or tan animal hides. No, our problems are collective and we have to solve them collectively. Politics divides and our town wants to be united, in total community.”

“By all appearances, everyone is happy here. But what about the old landowners?” Durruti inquired.

“They aren’t happy,” the teacher responded. “They don’t say so outright, because they’re afraid, but you can see it on their faces. Some have joined the community, others have chosen what we now call ‘individualism.’ They’ve kept their land but have to cultivate it themselves, because the exploitation of man by man no longer exists here, and so they won’t find any employes. “But what happens if they can’t cultivate their land themselves?”

“That simply shows that they have too much land and the town takes possession of what they can’t tend to. Leaving the land uncultivated would be an attack on all of us.” [578]

Durruti said goodbye to the teacher and, when he returned to the checkpoint, the workers on guard asked him if he’d received the gasoline that he needed. He told them yes with a smile and threw them a “Salud!” from the car as he took off for Barcelona.

There were similar circumstances in all the places that Durruti visited along the way, but life was more complicated in the larger towns. What was different was that the Revolutionary Committees had become an extension of the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias and representatives from political parties and workers organizations operated within them. The people still exercised direct control over the Committee members, which was not the case in Barcelona, where the political party or labor organization that appointed the CCAMC members controlled them. This contrast was evident in the documents issued. CCAMC documents simply needed the CCAMC stamp and, until August 10, the FAI Regional Committee’s stamp to be valid, whereas in the towns each organization or party had to stamp a document for it to be legitimate. To an extent, the Town Committees had replaced the city councils and exercised a (very limited) political-administrative power. Nevertheless, the collectivization of the workplaces meant that economic power lay in the hands of the Workers’ Committees, which answered primarily to the unions. The unions had also experienced a change, and it was now possible to speak of Local Workers’ Associations.

Workers’ control was pervasive in Barcelona and the armed men guarding the factory gates made it clear that the means of production were in proletarian hands. The rapid transformation of daily life in the Catalan capital impressed Durruti. Workers’ collectives ran urban transportation and the metros. Indeed, the people had completely expropriated the transportation industry. Workers’ Committees were appointed by streetcar, bus, truck, subway, and maritime transport workers in large assemblies. The railway companies had ceased to exist and it was the CNT and UGT rail workers who ran them. Collectivism had also spread to the textile, metalwork, food, electro-chemical, gas, electricity, petroleum, and wood industries. Cinemas, theaters, and other parts of the entertainment sector were run collectively as well.

The transformation in property relations had an effect on the people as well. It changed social relations and toppled, in many cases, the old separation between men and women, as well as the traditional foundations of the bourgeois family. The revolution was like a volcano that shaped the material that it was spewing forth into new forms. Durruti had been right to tell Van Paassen that a new world was being born.

The Socialists and Stalinists had no control over the revolutionary process, although they did their utmost to conceal and falsify it. To the international audience, they presented the revolutionary changes as limited and abnormal and claimed that the people enthusiastically supported the Republican government. Jesús Hernández, a member of the Spanish Communist Party’s Central Committee, made comments along those lines a correspondent from Toulouse’s La Dépeche in August, but one had to be blind not to see that an enormous change was taking place in society and men.

Before going to the CNT-FAI Committees, Durruti stopped at workers’ collectives to see how they were developing. Wherever he went, whether to hospitals or industrial or transportation centers, the workers exuded a profound revolutionary passion. This time the revolution was real.

Durruti finally went to the “CNT-FAI House.” At its door, like at the factory gates, he saw armed workers standing guard, with rifles and a machine-gun sticking its barrel through the sand bags. A sign attracted his attention when he entered the vestibule: “Comrade, be brief: we make the revolution by acting not talking.” [579]

The elevators rose and fell, loading and unloading the masses of people who were going to or coming from an office. Those who were impatient used the building’s wide marble stairs. Durruti was like a stranger there, but still at home. The “CNT-FAI House” seemed like the nerve center of Barcelona and Catalonia. Durruti was thrilled to pass through the tumult unnoticed, having had the good fortune not to run into anyone he knew. Not long ago all of Barcelona shouted his name; today his was anonymous. When he saw Mariano R. Vázquez, he asked: “Doesn’t this whole apparatus scare you? Are we going to drown ourselves in bureaucracy?” Mariano didn’t respond immediately. After reflecting for a moment, he said:

The CNT is suddenly indispensable to resolving all local and regional problems. Now that workers control the factories, the unions have to address all the complexities of the collective management of production. That’s why we’ve created this structure, which has continued growing on its own and imposing itself. But it actually has no center. The grassroots continue to make the decisions. The leading comrades are still workers in their factories and their assemblies oversee their activities. For the time being, rank and file control is still a reality.

Mariano’s comments led Durruti to conclude that the Secretary of the Catalan CNT was sensitive to the threats facing the revolution. He became even more convinced of that when Mariano concluded their discussion by saying:

The revolution has put anarchism to the test. For years we called for revolution and now that the moment of truth has arrived, we can’t skirt the responsibility of guiding it. We have to hope that our anarchist convictions will enable us to resist personal degeneration. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative that the base controls prominent militants like us, even if it doesn’t want to. The only way to stop the committees from taking over for the base is by making sure that those in leadership positions are subordinate to the people.[580]

Durruti left Mariano thinking that thus far victory had not caused the militant anarchists to lose their heads. Mariano’s statements seemed to indicate that. Was he right to be optimistic? Anarchists who hold power are not immune to the temptations of power. All men can fall into its traps. Yes, as Mariano said, the rank and file had to control the leadership, but neither Mariano nor Durruti realized that they had taken the first step over the precipice on July 20 when a group of militants stood in for the base and made decisions on its behalf. From that moment on, a separation began to emerge between the base and the leadership: the grassroots wanted to expand the revolution, but the leaders wanted to control it and thus restricted it. That conflict was barely perceptible then, but it was there. The difference between Durruti and Mariano was that the former was in direct contact with the base, while the latter was not. When someone visited the Column and tried to confuse a militiaman by telling him that Durruti was obeyed because he was the boss, the militiaman replied that “he isn’t obeyed because he’s the boss, but because he’s responsible for leading the Column. We’ll dismiss him when he stops interpreting its will.” [581] Durruti didn’t appreciate that conflicted situation at the time, although it would not be long before he did.

After leaving the “CNT-FAI House,” Durruti went to the Plaza Palacio to visit García Oliver, who was ensconced in the old Nautical School building that now housed the CCAMC. He was tremendously active and barely slept as he went from one meeting to the next. Santillán acknowledged his tenacity when he noted that the CNT and FAI delegates had asked García Oliver to defend the two organization’s positions during the CCAMC’s nightly meetings: due to his inexplicable mental agility, he was the only one able to stay alert despite the fatigue. [582] García Oliver also attended to the CNT and FAI men who came to the CCAMC for military reasons: they only trusted him, knowing that he would keep his word if he gave it to them. He organized a school for military training, recruiting former professional soldiers to give brief courses to centuria and agrupación leaders. The school had a section specializing in guerrilla struggle, in which he himself gave lectures to youth attending the courses. With the help of some pilots, he laid the foundations for an Air force school, making use of the dilapidated planes at the Prat de Llobregat airbase for instruction. He sent emissaries to France to make contact with arms dealers to buy war materiel (the Revolutionary Committees supported the initiative by putting expropriated jewels and valuables at his disposal). He got Eugenio Vallejo, a militant from the Metalworkers’ Union, to immediately begin organizing a war industry. The Metalworkers would collaborate with the Chemical Products Union and the Miners from Sallent to obtain gunpowder and explosives as quickly as possible. Military operations on the Aragón front also answered on him and, as the last item among his extremely varied responsibilities, he had to meet with prominent foreigners and consular representatives sent by nations with industrial properties in Catalonia that were now under worker control.

Durruti didn’t recognize García Oliver when he saw him. The revolution had made him a different man, who now lived for the cause alone. There was a small bed in a corner of his office on which he occasionally laid down for a few minutes of rest. He had neglected his clothing and person, and this from someone normally quite attentive to such things.

“You’ve changed,” Durruti said.

“So have you,” García replied. “Who hasn’t been changed by the revolution? It wouldn’t be worth making it just to continue being the same.”

Both men paused for a few seconds before beginning to discuss matters that they knew they had to address: the attack of Zaragoza, the shortage of weapons and ammunition, restructuring the Aragón War Committee, the problem of Colonel Villalba, etc.

García Oliver looked at Durruti and tried to guess how he would respond to the bad news that he had to give him. He wasn’t pleased with the news either, but Captain Bayo, disrupting everything, had created a situation that they had to confront. It was the landing on Majorca.[583] The situation demanded special attention, which could only come at the expense of the battle on the Aragón front. The news would be a terrible blow to Durruti:

“We have to postpone the attack on Zaragoza. First, because the Columns south of the Ebro River and around Alcubierre have not achieved their objectives and we needed that to occur before launching the frontal assault. Second, because of the expedition to Majorca, which could prompt the Italians to intervene in order protect their bases in the Balearic Islands. England would not remain impassive if Italy acted imprudently in Majorca. If England intervenes, the war will have a new dimension. The fate of the Spanish revolution,” García Oliver said, “is being decided outside of Spain. We have to set our sights on Majorca and Morocco.”

Durruti argued that the French and the British would be able to get along very well with the Italians in an effort to avoid an extension of the conflict. In addition, the operation in Majorca might end in a fiasco and they risk losing precious time in Aragón if they delay the attack. The enemy would doubtlessly use that time to reinforce its positions: it was well aware of Zaragoza’s importance for the future of the war. Durruti asserted that it was essential to take the city at all costs. It was the link with the north and the war will be won once contact is reestablished with it, since that will enable them to focus all their efforts on the troops that Franco is unloading in Andalusia. As masters of the Peninsula, Durruti said, they will be able to resist whatever obstacles the international capitalists might impose.

There were two positions here. One was a statist strategy that played with diplomacy and conflicting imperialist interests. It was not completely incorrect, from a strategic-military point of view, yet its central defect was that its success depended on revolutionary forces and the English, French, Italians, and Germans were all united against them. The other position, which Durruti defended, was more revolutionary and realistic. It assumed the need to fight international capitalists but that to do so effectively they had to finish off the military rebels on the Peninsula at once. Any prolongation of the war would undermine the revolutionary conquests and a war alone is not worth dying for. The tragedy of the revolution and militant anarchism would revolve around these two positions. From then on, the revolution was subordinate to the war.

García Oliver reminded Durruti that their dilemma was the inevitable consequence of the CNT and FAI’s fateful decision on July 20 to accept collaboration with the bourgeois anti-fascist forces.

“In fact,” he added, “we gave up the revolution when we failed to abolish the Generalitat and agreed to collaborate with the political parties. What would have happened if we had adopted the more radical position? The situation would have become clear immediately. Taking all the responsibility on ourselves, everything would have been framed differently. And we wouldn’t have committed the Paris Commune’s error of enclosing ourselves in a single city, because we were already projected over two regions: Aragón and Levante, with the way open toward Andalusia. But the CNT rejected that solution and adopted the collaborationist position. It will be the death of the revolution in the long run.”[584]

These two revolutionaries were trapped by a situation that they had not wanted but had accepted as a duty to their organization. Neither gave up on the revolution and each fought in his own way to extend it. However, the reality was that the revolution was on hold until the defeat of the fascists. How could they vanquish an enemy that had excellent military supplies and the support of Italy and Germany? Catalonia did not have the primary materials necessary for making arms or the money with which to buy them. Spain’s treasury—its gold—was in the coffers of the Bank of Spain in Madrid and the Socialist Party controlled the situation there. How could the CNT get its hands on the gold in the Bank of Spain? There was only one solution: Largo Caballero was unhappy with the Giral government and thought it wasn’t doing enough to support the people’s victory. He was leader of the UGT and his prestige had increased after his dispute with Indalecio Prieto, an avid Giral supporter. The only solution that would enable the Spanish revolution to move forward was an agreement between the UGT and CNT, in which both organizations formed a National Defense Council that would assume the full leadership of the struggle. Could Largo Caballero be made to understand that the revolution demanded an alliance between the CNT and UGT? That was the only hope, but García Oliver and Durruti were not optimistic that the social democrat Largo Caballero would lean definitively toward the proletarian revolution. And, if he had ever considered such an alliance, someone was already in Spain doing his best to stop it from being made: Mikhail Koltsov, following the instructions of his patron, Stalin, would work ardently to keep Largo Caballero in his purely social-democratic role.[585]

Given the circumstances, García Oliver concluded that there was no choice but to follow events and try to control them. He had to remain in the Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias, hold onto the CNT and FAI’s key positions, support the Revolutionary Committees, use the armed force of the people as a constant threat against any attempt to reconstruct the old order, collectivize the economy, and create an armed body in the rearguard that would answer to the unions. But all of this, García Oliver thought, needed legal sanction from the CCAMC. In other words, they would push the revolution forward, but clandestinely.

The ideas was amusing to Durruti: it would be like years ago, when the FAI was underground and yet its principle militants were famous! When everything was said and done, García Oliver was defending the position that Manuel Escorza had advanced at the July 20 meeting. Durruti argued that no one was deceiving anyone then. But now, when workers expropriate the bourgeoisie, when they seize foreign properties, when public security is in their hands, when the unions control the militias, when a true revolution is occurring, how is it possible to give all that legal sanction without compromising the revolutionary spirit?

“Any attempt that we make to legalize our efforts,” he said, “will reinforce the Generalitat, because it legitimizes the body that decrees and puts its stamp on things; and the stronger the Generalitat, the weaker the CCAMC. In other words, the CNT will strengthen the Generalitat and, with an integrated economy in its hands, we will be marching toward a species of state socialism.”

Durruti’s final point about the economy was related to the creation of the Economic Council, in which Santillán was playing a very important role in the CNT’s name. That body, with its legal force, would end up integrating the entire economy into the Catalan state and thus lead to a form of state socialism. García Oliver recognized that Durruti’s criticisms were just. They had to oppose the spread of a legalist concept of the economy to the utmost. Nevertheless, both knew that an armed conflict was inevitable and to be prepared for it the working masses’ revolutionary ardor had to be preserved and pitted against the effective power of the CCAMC as much as the passive power of the Generalitat. It would be a revolution within the revolution. But Durruti was not satisfied with this confusing and contradictory situation and thought they should raise the question at the next meeting of the Catalan CNT. They agreed that this would be a good way to make the militants face their responsibilities.

When that regional meeting took place in early August 1936, it was already possible to see the ambiguity of a Generalitat that did not govern and a CNT increasingly more engaged in determining the real direction of events. García Oliver and Durruti argued bluntly that they had to break out of that ambiguity and end the political collaboration that disorientated the revolution and undermined its progress.

The collaborationist faction held fast to its position—despite its negative track record thus far—under the pretext that a rupture in the anti-fascist front would cause a civil war between the anti-fascists. Dramatic speeches silenced more critical views; clearly there would be no revision of the July 20 decision. A revolutionary alliance with the UGT and the formation of a National Defense Council were suggested as solutions. The more radical faction, unaware of the intense pressures to prevent such an alliance, once again let themselves be bound by the organization’s decisions. There was a way to get out of that vicious circle: it was by placing the problem in the street, against the sentiment in the CNT itself. But no militant, not even Durruti or García Oliver, was capable of that: first, because doing so would require a period of lengthy preparation, to ensure that the revolution would not be crushed; and, second, because organizational practices demanding respect for the majority’s decisions weighed too heavily on them. Furthermore, while one could be confident in the outcome of a revolutionary action in Catalonia, where the CNT and the FAI were very strong, the rest of Spain, Madrid especially, was an unknown. Both the collaborationist and the radical faction were convinced that an armed confrontation within the anti-fascist camp was inevitable: all the former group did was delay it.

Durruti received an urgent call from Bujaraloz and had to leave Barcelona at once. His strategy was clear: maintain his positions against all odds, shape the Confederal militias into a strong, armed force, and carry the revolution forward.