The Echo of the Crutches: An Essay on Manuel Escorza del Val – Víctor Malavez
Submitted by Alias Recluse on Apr 15 2018 20:17
The first installment of a planned series of articles on Manuel Escorza del Val and the espionage and counterespionage agency he directed during the Spanish Civil War (the Investigation and Intelligence Commission of the CNT-FAI), with discussions of the espionage agencies of the Nationalists, the Catalonian government, the Republican parties, the Communists, as well as other anarchist and anarchosyndicalist special operations groups, including the German anarchosyndicalist exiles (DAS), focused for the most part on their activities in Catalonia and on the French border.
Lessons of the Spanish Revolution - Vernon Richards
Submitted by Anonymous on Feb 1 2018 16:14
A critical account and assessment of the Spanish civil war and revolution, particularly focusing on the successes and failures of the anarchist organisations, written by Vernon Richards.
Masera, Pedro (1877- 1938)
Submitted by Battlescarred on Dec 4 2017 16:11
A short biography of the Spanish anarchist miner Pedro Masera, murdered by the Francoists in 1938
Female combatants in the Spanish civil war: milicianas on the front lines and in the rearguard
Submitted by Steven. on Nov 24 2017 16:37
An overview of women fighters in the anti-fascist militias during the Spanish civil war 1936-7, written by Lisa Lines in 2009.
Manuel Escorza del Val (1912-1968). A biographical note – Agustín Guillamón
Submitted by Alias Recluse on Oct 10 2017 22:39
A brief biographical sketch of the remarkable life of Manuel Escorza del Val (1912-1968), who, disabled by polio when he was a child, but possessing a formidable intellect and an indomitable will, was an active member of the Libertarian Youth and the Peninsular Committee of the FAI, and then the chief of domestic intelligence for the CNT-FAI during the Spanish Civil War—a ruthless persecutor of fascists, priests and “incontrolados”, and “the most powerful figure in the CNT” in April-May 1937 when he played a decisive role in the outbreak of the May Events—and, after the war, he emigrated to Chile, where he wrote literary and cultural review articles for local newspapers.
The Catalan CNT and the Asturias uprising
Submitted by Steven. on Sep 25 2017 10:38
Article responding to criticisms of the anarchist CNT union in Catalonia during the Asturias uprising of 1934. In particular it looks at how the CNT was being repressed by Catalan authorities at the time.
Political persecution in republican Spain
Submitted by Steven. on Sep 22 2017 11:28
Short article by Emma Goldman giving an overview of Stalinist persecution of revolutionary antifascists during the Spanish civil war.
Problems of syndicalism and anarchism – Juan Peiró
A pamphlet first published in 1930 composed of a series of articles by Juan Peiró—anarchist glass worker, twice National Secretary of the CNT, “Treintista”, Minister of Industry under Caballero, executed by the Franco regime in 1942—arguing for a dual strategy for anarchism and syndicalism, in which syndicalism pursues the “political” goals of anarchism (resistance, general strike, expropriation, meeting the needs of the population immediately after the revolution), while anarchism serves as a guide for syndicalism and works for the “social”, or truly constructive goals of the revolution that are not class-based but “human” (the “Commune”, generalized liberty and cultural progress).
A journey into libertarian historical memory; Casas Viejas, January 1933
Submitted by Steven. on May 15 2017 16:56
A short history of the tragically unsuccessful uprising of anarchist peasants in the small town of Casas Viejas which ended in a brutal massacre of the participants by the Republican government.
The brief summer of anarchy: the life and death of Durruti - Hans Magnus Enzensberger
Submitted by Alias Recluse on Mar 26 2017 21:58
Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s non-fiction “adventure novel” about Buenaventura Durruti and the Spanish anarchist movement (ca. 1917-1937), first published in Germany in 1972, consisting of a more or less chronological “collage” of “translated, abridged and rearranged” excerpts from “reports and speeches, interviews and proclamations … letters, travel narratives, anecdotes, pamphlets, polemics, newspaper articles, autobiographical texts, flyers and propaganda leaflets” (including extensive selections from the eyewitness accounts of Simone Weil, Ilya Ehrenburg, H. E. Kaminski, Mikhail Koltsov, Ricardo Sanz and Jesús Arnal Pena), punctuated by the author’s “Commentaries”.
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