military struggle with fascism.
dead; in this they were followed to some extent by the centrist POUM.
was led by the Stalinists, the right-wing Prieto Socialists and the bourgeois ministers of the Popular Front. But in September 1936 it was the left Socialist Largo Caballero who formed a government to end the dual power, and it was the POUM and the CNT who entered the Catalonian Generalidad which presided over the dissolution of dual power there.
The central government was able to attack the economic gains of the workers and peasants by its control of the banking and credit system. The banks had never been collectivised, but supposedly 'nationalised under workers control'. In reality they had been left to operate independently, so that control of credit had never been with the workers.
In Catalonia, government decrees began to restrict the activity of col lectivised industry and break up tne collectives. Distribution fell increasingly into the hands of the small traders of the GEPCI (a federation dominated by the Communist Party), and hoarding and speculation became rile. ASSAULT The most crucial attacks were against the organs of workers power the local committees and the mili• Tor witour mese me conccaves were reduced to mere producers co-operatives. Government censorship of the independent left press again reached the level of February-July 1936, and the Civil Guard, Assault Guard and Carabineros regained their poncing runchions rom me workers patrols.
Most importantly. the Government created a conscript "Popular Army" and set about dissolving une workers mult ias. This assault was led by the Stalinists.
miltas on te grounds or muntary etticiency. In order to estabasn a 'unified command' it was necessary to reassert the authority of the bourgeois Last week we discussed how the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War saw the formation by the working class and peasantry of their own organs of class power, to govern the country in antagonism to the bourgeois Republic and carry out the But this 'dual power" was fragmented, with no national structure, leaving it prey to the sabotage of the old bourgeois state apparatus and its supporters in the workers movement. And there was no revolutionary force in the country which understood this danger and was working to overcome it. The anarchists of the CNT seemed to believe that libertarian communism was already established and the bourgeois state officer caste. they argued.
The CNT and the POUM also, correctly, raised the slogan of the 'unified command', but understood that it did not mean smashing democracy in the militias: the anti-fascist army must be the people in arms. Where they were tragically mistaken, however, was in supposing that there could be an army under workers control within the capitalist state.
DEADLOCK To overcome this deadlock, a contron tation was engineered by the Stalinists and the Government in May 1937 in Barcelona. The PSUC (Catalan CP) sent the Civil Guard to occupy the main telenhone exchange. which had beer held by the anarchists since 19 July.
Immediately tens of thousands of armed workers, supporters of the CNT and POUM, came out on the streets and threw up barricades. The provocation, designed to provide an excuse to disband the militias and disarm the workers, had in fact placed the seizure of state power on the agenda.
In the first days after the seizure of the telephone exchange, the balance POUMand troops moved in.
TorCes Fifth Column.
would rear. of forces was overwhelmingly on the side of the workers. They would have encountered almost no resistance in smashing the Generalidad and forming a Workers Republic of Catalonia. But the crucial leaders - the CNT and the pulled back.
The CNT broadcast ioint appeals with the Generalidad president, Companys, calling on the workers to take down the barricades. The POUM followed meekly behind. With this final great opportunity lost. me governmell. ponce Hundreds of workers lost their lives at the hands of the government and the roum was quidated. Its leaders were murdered by the Stalinist secret police, and the entire organisation was dissolved - denounced as "Trotskyist-fascist' agents of Franco's The CNT and the POUM had op posed the seizure of state power on the grounds that the Catalan revolution be isolated and that it would weaken the anti-fascist struggle. Yet the victory of the revolution in Catalonia would have been just what was needed to galvanise the workers and peasants in the rest of Spain - both in Republican territory and in Franco's The victory of the counter-revolu tion in Catalonia was the signal for an offensive throughout Republican Spain When the equivocal Largo Caballero opposed the dissolution of the POUM the Stalinists engineered the removal of their 'Spanish Lenin' from office and formed a new government under the right-wing Socialist Negrin. The Negrin Government completed the attack on the gains of 19 July begun by Caballero If a single lesson is to be learnt from the sabotage of the Spanish revolution, it is the necessity of a revolutionary party which is capable of putting to gether the aspirations of the fragmented organs of dual power, and centralising the struggle to overthrow the bourgeor state. But the failure of the CNT, the roum, and tne lett sociansts 1 not of the same order as the betrayal of the Stalinists For the latter, there was to be no revolution in Spain. Moscow's foreign policy, its desire for detente with the imperialist democracies, meant that me bourseos sure mad to be reassertee at any cost: even if it meant pursuing ruthlessly counter-revol monary repres sion and opening the door to a fascist victory NUMBER 2 Order your copies now from 'Spain in Struggle', c/o 38 Hilldown Road, London S.W.16, or why not subscribe-only £1.50 for 10 issues
WEEKLY AMNISTI ALL POLITICE PRISONE More than 100 people outside the Spanish Embassy last Saturday demonstrated their solidarity with the current workers' struggles
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SPAIN IN STRUGGLE SPAIN 1936-1976... •struggle goes on