AnarchismAndrés NinBolshevismBourgeoisieCivil WarCominternFascismFederica MontsenyIV InternationalLeninismSocialismSovietStalinismSyndicalismUnited FrontWorkers MovementWorking Class

August 28, 1937 SOCIALIST APPEAL Spain UnionsinPactagainstStalinists Syndicalist and Socialist Centers Join Hands to Halt Reactionary Drive (Continued from page 1) It does not protest the corrupt As always, now in Spain, the guard by the perennial faction eral staff, more and more acts Stalinists to force CNT members ing practice of separating the problem of the revolution is the alists, says CNT. It sardonic of sabotage and outright treachinto Stalinist locals and the officers from the ranks of the problem of the revolutionary ally contrasts the fact that fas ery occurred.
The rest implements these ends. soldiers by a system of unequal party. But a year of civil war, cist officers were tried by the Bilbao fell intact into Franco wages and rankings. Nor and in which every day has concen Popular Tribunals, while the hands, though it is an elementary Blow at Stalinists and this is a burning necessity trated the lessons of months and POUM prisoners are to be tried axiom of military science that as inflation increases does it even years, has crystallized the under the decree of June 28. The well ermed troops cannot be On the day this pact was pub demand trade union control of forces for the new party. The anarchists recall Nin three de driven from a city until its buildlished, the UGT National Execu prices and distribution of food. left wing of the POUM, which cades of service to the proleta ings are razed to the ground.
tive took a number or important In other words, the most press includes the majority in Barce riat, beginning as a CNT leader; The same thing has now happensteps to carry it out. Claridad of ing immediate needs of the work lona and Madrid, stands on the Gorkin and Andrade twenty and to the manufacturing town of Madrid (once Caballero organ, ers are not included in the CNT program of soviets and workers more years, founders of the Co Reinosa, key to Santander debut seized by the Statinists at UGT program of action. It be state power. The Friends of mintern; David Rey thirty years fenses. The promised offensives the end of April) and Las Noti comes a primary duty of the rev Durruti. left wing in the CNT in the movement, ten spent in on the Madrid, Teruel and Aracias of Barcelona were declared olutionists in both organizations FAI, persecuted the govern the prisons of the monarchy and gon fronts, to relieve Santander, no longer official organs of the to eman inclusion of these ment and disowned by the CNT, republic, the eleventh in the pris have not materialized. The govUGT. Even more significant was points in the program. stands on a similar program. It on of the present government, ernment of victory has failed the decision to superintend the is axiomatic that Caballero etc.
even more miserably than its incorporation into their respec Unity Machinery Weak new found boldness must reflect The defense campaign has had predecessor. In this lies the extive National Unions in each ina far deeper and more stable left one immediate consequence. On planation for the new found redustry, of the regional federa The apparatus established ward swing in his ranks. Found July 30, the Ministry of Justice surgence of CNT UGT opposition tions of Catalonia, and to call a to carry out the pact is hopeless ed only a few months ago, the announced that the anti fascist The CNT press abounds in Regional Congress in Catalonia ly narrow and weak. The na Bolshevile Leninist group of the prisoners would be brought to warnings against illusions about at which only unions affiliated tional contact committee is ridi Fourth International, despite out gether in one prison, segregated aid from England and France, to the UGT would be admitted. culously small and limited to lawry by the government, is find from the fascist prisoners. Until although the CNT leaders have If these decisions are carried purely advisory capacities. Like ing roots in the masses. In the then revolutionary leaders were not entirely freed themselves out, the fraudulent claim of the wise the local contract committee day by day struggle for the im put in the same cells with fascist from that illusion: the very maStalinists to represent great mas are so completely subordinated to mediate needs of the workers, officers! Does this change mean nifesto of July 17 addressed to Bes in the trade unions will be the national set up as to be de these revolutionary forces can be that the government is going to the world proletariat declaring, effectively exposed. The tiny or prived of all initiative. really welded together into the party retreat from its previously avow For us, the revolutionaries of ganization of the UGT existing serious attempt at united action of revolution.
ed intention to try Andrade, Gor Spain, there is only one salvain Catalonia at beginning of of the proletariat nust send roots An extremely encouraging de kin, and Rey together with a Fa tion: your aid. includes in its the civil war, had been captured into every factory, village and velopment is the growing volume langist? Certainly, the official slogans one perfectly acceptable by the Stalinists and, since then, regiment of UGT CNT members. of protest in the CNT press, and admission of the distinction be to the Stalinists: Put pressure run regionally as a completely Moreover, the organized workers also in the left socialist organs, tween anti fascist prisoners and on your governments to adopt independent entity. The influx must take the lead in drawing against the arrests of workers, the rest is an important conces decisions favorable to our strugthe masses into the unions had into the united movement the particularly against the ar sion.
gle. It is obvious that a single been brazenly channelized into many millions of workers and rests of the POUM leaders. The speed of political devel friendly gesture from France the regional set up controlled by peasants still unaffiliated; and The protest campaign, un opments in Spain is truly ex would cause the anarchists to rethe Stalinists. The big organiza this can only be done by provid fortunately, got under way very traordinary. Only three months vert to the illusions which have tion of the railroad workers of ing for their participation in slowly. Nin was arrested on June ago, on May 17, ousting the UGT so undermined the prosecution of Catalonia, for example, was con electing the contact committees. 15, his comrades in widespread and CNT, the bourgeois Prieto the war. Their present skepticism, trolled, not by the UGT National This means that the contact com raids during the following week; Stalinist bloc took the reins of however, drives them to demand Federation of Railroad Workers, mittees must be democratically and on June 23 the government government. The Negrin cabinet intensified mobilization of the inbut the Stalinist Regional Com elected by all the workers in decreed the semi fascist legal seemed to be the strong power ternal resources of Spain.
mittee! Stalinist control was each factory, village and regi procedure under which they were which would, once for all, liquidmaintained by two simple bureau ment. There is no other effective to be tried: all anti governmen ate the last vestige of the con Araquistain Disillucratic devices: the GEPCI, which method for uniting the deepest tal activity is defined as espion quests of July 19th, break the quickly included in its ranks all layers of masses with the age, to be prosecuted before Spe backbone of the labor movement, sioned the bourgeois and petty bourge advance guard. These democrati cial Tribunals of civil and mili re establish completely the bourThe same motives galvanize ois elements, was given propor cally elected contact committes, tary judges chosen by the Min geois order, and having thus re the Caballero forces. Luis Ara tional representation on the Re linked together in local, regional isters of Defense and Justice, in assured Anglo French imperial Iquistain, Caballero theoretician, gional Committee, as were the and a national council, would so secret sessions! Apart from as ism, secure from them sufficient writes in Adelante of Valencia, highly conservative unions of indubitably represent the masses, signing their attorney, Pabon, to material and diplomatic support July 18: We have counted too government functionaries creat that the Stamnists go the defense, the CNT did almost to force an armistice, out of much, in illusion and hope, on ed after the civil war began; and, against them only at the cost of nothing for nearly a month. Fin which would issue united bour the London for the rest, the Stalinists sim losing the allegiance of such ally the National Committee of geois republic. The Negrin gov Committee; that is (non intervention)
say, on ply refused to call a regional workers and peasants as the the CNT formally undertook their ernment seemed well on its way the aid of the European democcongress at which the unions Stalinista ranks include. The net defense, and Federica Montseny, to this end when it succeeded in racies. Now is the hour to realbould speak for themselves. In work contact committees ex cabinet minister, gave to the outlawing the POUM, kicking ize that we can expect nothing the name of the UGT, Las No would put an end to the repres masses the first inkling of Nin the CNT out of the Catalan gov decisive from them in our favor, ticias had called for the liquida sions and the counter revolution fate in a mass meeting speech in erment, arresting hundreds of and from one of them much tion of the POUM, the arrest of ary schemes of the bourgenisie, which she charged he had been key militants, establishing rigid against us, at the least. On this the workers who had defended as the present weak apparatus murdered by the Stalinists. police control of Catalonia, fois conception we must base our themselves May 7, intervention of the united front cannot.
of the Generalidad in the factorting its officers on the militias, foreign policy. To realize how The anarchist and socialist CNT Press Protests ies, etc. If Caballero really car prejudices against this really establishing a minute political new language is to Araquisries out the decisions of July 29, comprehensive form of united Frame Up censorship on the CNT and UGT tain, one must read again the Stalinism will suffer a tremend front of the proletariat must be press. The CNT and UGT put statements which he made, as The trials against the POUM up little opposition to their ex Ambassador to France, until the ous defeat in Catalonia. overcome by the determined and are the touchstone of the char pulsion from the government and middle of May. Then he expectStalinists Assail Pact persuasive propaganda of the re acter of the government, declares the ensuing reactionary steps; ed not only Anglo French aid, volutionary elements. Here is the the anarchist press. CNT of Ma apparently they were paralyzed but amicable collaboration with Mundo Obrero, chief Stalinist tionist! Beginning as instruments basic task of the genuine revolu drid (July 29) declares: by the hope that the Negrin cabi Italy.
organ, bitterly attacked the UGT for defending the immediate in We must begin by saying net would succeed in getting the Interviewed by Le Petit Jour CNT pact. Abroad, however, terests of the workers, the dè.
that we believe and will con help from the great democracies nal at the beginning of April, where the Stalinists have been mocratic organs of the united tinue to believe them to be which had been denied to the Ca Araquistain said: Mussolini, who claiming control of the UGT, front become the arena in which revolutionaries, men like Nin, ballero government, and that it is a thorough realist not trightthey hailed the move to unity. revolution and reform contend Andrade, Rovira, Arqper, etc. would, consequently, carry on the ened by words, should not be Hunde Obrere particularly de for the leadership of the masses; be for so many years have war more suecessfully than its frightened by fantasies such as munced the failure of the pact and, when the revolutionists predemonstrated before the Span predecessor.
that of Bolshevik utopie in to include a pledge of support of vail, become the organs of power ish proletariat that they know Spain. He has forgotten that the Negrin government.
how to theht worthily for the Negrin Cabinet Shows there is no reason to suppose The pact blows against the ers state.
and the foundations of the workinterests of the workingclass. Incompetence that republican Spain after the bourgeois Stalinist bloc, the atWe will continue believing in war would adopt toward Italy.
tacks on it In these possibilities, rather the Stalinists, must their rectitude and in their But three months of the Ne policy different from that prior not blind us to the two major than in its present program and political decency, in the same grin cabinet have demonstrated to the war. The arts of peace, defects of the agreement: structure, is the real significance way that we believe in the its incapacity to carry on the of diplomacy, are methods of in1. The program of action does of the UGT CNT pact. Bourgeoisspiritual grandeur of Francis war. The great democracies ternational attraction which not include provision for de Stalinist hostility, already exco Ferrer, in spite of an en continue to collaborate with the work to better advantage than fending the anti fascist political pressed, will intensify all the ormous pile of legal folios by Italo German bloc in depriving war.
prisoners, although both the more, if the united front tends which the Bourbon monarchy anti fascist Spain of arms. They Araquistain trusted that Mus NT and left socialist press call to develop the form of soviets.
presented him as an enemy of will aid the loyalist side only solini would quickly overcome for their defense. It includes But in unity the workers will find Spain and an evil monster.
when the loyalist side becomes the bitterness produced by the The In thres proposal to struggle against the the strength to repel repression from Guadalajara defeat.
censorship, of course, almost indistinguishable picious political censorship of the and gather the workers and pea prevented publication of the sto Franco its class character. months, however, events have single democratic labor press, although both or sants in ry of the lynching of Andres Nin. They fear the effect of victories driven Araquistian to a more reganizations suffer from it. It instructure.
The anarchist press has, as a upon the morale of the workers alistic position. That he and Cacludes no agreement for protectsubstitute, taken to pointedly and peasants. Even more im ballero will maintain it, one may ing the centers and collectives of Consistent Party Lacking asking the government: Where portant, the Negrin government be permitted to doubt, consider But revothe two organizations against is Andres Nin?
has proved unable to utilize the ing thier record.
bourgeois Stalinist tepressions. One thing is still lacking: the The fact that the POUM materials and man power at its lutionaries can utilize it as a point. It includes no protest against the organized revolutionary force could mobilize in Catalonia alone disposal. As it weeded out the of departure from which to win decrees prohibiting armed police which will, single mindedly, tire ten thousand fighters against proletarian officers and gave the masses for a consistently re forces from joining trade unions, lessly, fight to open this road fascism was no obstacle to their more and more power to the volutionary prosecution of the o those disarming the workers and clear it of all obstructions. being called fascist advance bourgeois bureaucracy and gen war against fascism.
could of