Boston Workmen’s Circle

Invites you to join us for an

Interfaith Silent Vigil

To call for an end to the violence in Israel / Palestine

Wednesday, July 23, 2014 5:30 – 7:00 pm

Park Street Station, downtown Boston

 

Please join Boston’s Workmen’s Circle http://www.workmenscircleboston.org/mideast-peace

for a vigil that recognizes the common humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians and the complexity of resolving the cycle of violence. If you are in agreement with the following general concepts, we urge you to join us.

 

·      End the violence on both sides. Negotiated ceasefire now!

·      All lives are equally precious and worthy of respect, Palestinian and Israeli

·      It’s not possible to understand the current violence in a vacuum and without considering the complex narratives of both Palestinians and Israelis

·      There is no military solution

·      More than ever we need a comprehensive diplomatic solution; ending the Occupation is part of that solution.

·      Palestinians and Israelis both have a right to security and a viable homeland

 

Signs consistant with the above concepts will be provided. Please do not bring your own signs or organizational banners. Thank you for respecting this request

 

For more information contact Boston Workman’s Circle at: info@circleboston.org or 616-566-6281

 

Mideast Peace

Join us for an INTERFAITH SILENT VIGIL to call for an end to the violence in Israel/Palestine: July 23, 5:30pm, Park Street Station.

Our work in support of a just peace between Israel and the Palestinian people is guided by principles developed by the Middle East Working Group and adopted by the Board of Boston Workmen’s Circle:

•    Ending the occupation

•    Establishing two viable states, a homeland for the Jewish people and a homeland for the Palestinian people

•    An end to the violence on all sides

•    Making room for a diversity of views

We are proud to stand up as a progressive voice on Israel/Palestine in the Greater Boston Jewish community. But that doesn’t mean we all agree on the path to security and peace. We strive to foster an open and respectful environment in which a range of views can be aired and discussed. Through educational programs, dialogue groups, and membership forums, we grapple with many of the tough issues Jews face today concerning the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

 

On The 75^th Anniversary Year Of The Defeat Of The Spanish Revolution- The Lessons Learned

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

In July 1936 General Franco led a military uprising against the legally elected Popular Front government in Spain which set off three years of war, set off the Spanish Civil War, which proved to be a prelude, a “dress rehearsal” for World War II. That uprising, the initial massively popular fight against it by the leftist workers and peasants, and the ultimate victory by Franco’s forces and a forty year “night of the long knives” reign of terror in 1939 is filled with lessons for leftists today. Therefore it seems fitting to me that while we are sadly commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the defeat I can pass on some lessons that others have drawn from that experience both while the events were unfolding and later.  

********

Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By” and "Films To While Away The Class Struggle By"-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs and films that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some books that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. Markin

Book Review

Leon Trotsky-The Spanish Revolution-1931-1939
I have been interested, as a pro-Republican partisan, in the Spanish Civil War since I was a teenager. My first term paper was on this subject. What initially perked my interest, and remains of interest, is the passionate struggle of the Spanish working class to create its own political organization of society, its leadership of the struggle against Spanish Fascism and the romance surrounding the entry of the International Brigades, particularly the American Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the 15th Brigade, into the struggle.

Underlying my interests has always been a nagging question of how that struggle could have been won by the working class. The Spanish proletariat certainly was capable of both heroic action and the ability to create organizations that reflected its own class interests i.e. the worker militias and factory committees. Of all modern working class uprisings Spain showed the most promise of success. Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky's writings on this period represent a provocative and thoughtful approach to an understanding of the causes of that failure. Moreover, with all proper historical proportions considered, his analysis has continuing value as the international working class confronts the one-sided class war being waged against it today.

The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 has been the subject of innumerable works from every possible political and military perspective possible. A fair number of such treatises, especially from those responsible for the military and political policies on the Republican side, are merely alibis for the disastrous policies that led to defeat. Trotsky's complication of articles, letters, pamphlets, etc. which make up the book reviewed here is an exception. Trotsky was actively trying to intervene in order implement a program of socialist revolution most of the active forces on the Republican side were fighting, or believed, they were fighting for. Thus, Trotsky's analysis brings a breath of fresh air to the historical debate. That in the end Trotsky could not organize the necessary cadres to carry out his program or meaningfully impact the unfolding events in Spain is one of the ultimate tragedies of that revolution. Nevertheless, Trotsky had a pretty good idea of what forces were acting as a roadblock to revolution and had a strategic conception of the road to victory.

The central question Trotsky addresses throughout the whole period under review here is the crisis of revolutionary leadership. That question entails, in short, a view that the objective conditions for the success of a socialist program for society had ripened. Nevertheless, until that time, despite several revolutionary upheavals, the international working class had not been successful anywhere except in backward Russia. Thus it is necessary to focus on what condition is missing that would assure success or at least put up a fight- witness the failure of the German Revolution in 1923). This is a continuation of an analysis that he developed in earnest in his struggle to fight the Stalinist degeneration of the Russian Revolution in the mid-1920's. It is a question that still remains to be resolved. The need to learn the lessons of the Russian Revolution and to extend the revolution internationally was thus not a merely a theoretical question. Spain, moreover, represented a struggle where the best of the various leftist forces were in confusion about how to move forward. Those forces could have profitable heeded Trotsky's advise.

Trotsky's polemics are highlighted by the article "The Lessons of Spain-Last Warning", his definitive assessment of the Spanish situation in the wake of the defeat of the Barcelona uprising in May 1937, They center on the failure of the Party of Marxist Unification (hereafter, POUM) to provide revolutionary leadership. That party, partially created by cadre formerly associated with Trotsky in the Spanish Left Opposition, failed on virtually every count. He had no illusions about the roadblock to revolution of the policies carried out by the old-time Anarchist, Socialist and Communist Parties. Unfortunately the POUM did. Moreover, despite being the most honest revolutionary party in Spain it failed to keep up an intransigent struggle to push the revolution forward. The Trotsky - Andreas Nin (key leader of the POUM and former Left Oppositionist) correspondence in the Appendix makes that problem painfully clear.

The most compelling example of this failure - As a result of the failure of the Communist Party of Germany to oppose the rise of Hitler in 1933 and the subsequent decapitation and the defeat of the Austrian working class in 1934 the European workers especially the younger workers of the traditional Socialist Parties started to move left. Trotsky observed this situation and told his supporters to intersect that situation by entry into those parties. Nin, and later the POUM failed to do that. As a result the Socialist Party youth were recruited to the Communist Party en masse. This accretion formed the basic for its expansion as a party and key cadre of its notorious security apparatus that would after the Barcelona uprising suppress the more left-wing organizations. For more such examples of the results of the crisis of leadership in the Spanish Revolution read this book.

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel

Reproductive Justice Defense Action

After the Buffer Zone law was struck down by the Supreme Court, anti-choice protestors have come out in full force. In response, BFL has organized a clinic defense to support reproductive rights and people in need of healthcare.

Saturday, July 26th 9:30AM

Super 88 1 Brighton Ave Allston, MA 02134

We will be staging at the Super 88 market before marching over together at 10AM

FB link: https://www.facebook.com/events/329736163845925/

Sign making event: https://www.facebook.com/events/730691773663376

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Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Chicago stands with Palestine!

The Palestinian death toll continues to rise, surpassing 500 as Israeli forces surrounded and attacked Gaza communities such as Shujaiyeh. Israel ignored pleas to halt its invasion from the Pope, the United Nations, and Civil Society  around the world and proclaimed instead that the invasion might last months. Please join us to protest the horrendous slaughter in Gaza, and demand an immediate Israeli withdrawal.. Outrage Against Israeli Massacre in Gaza: Boston Stands with Palestine As Israel's relentless bombardment of Gaza continues and Israel continues its murderous invasion, join with thousands across the world in demanding an end to Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians. Take to the streets on Tuesday at Copley Square: July 22 starting at 5:30pm560 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116 to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel, an end to the siege of Gaza, and an end to the occupation.  To RSVP, please go to https://www.facebook.com/events/256379791223750/ Standing with you for peace, Cole Harrison Executive Director Call Send SMS Add to Skype You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype

Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership today!   Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income.  Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions.  Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2014! Your financial support makes this work possible! Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter Click here to unsubscribe

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John Fraud Kerry caught on mic:  "it's a hell of a pin-point operation"  [more on this below,  in the interview with Max Blumenthal]

"It is absolutely devastating. It is much harder than I have seen before in 2006, 2009 and 2012, the attacks then.
It is targeting obviously residential areas and now also hospitals.This is not the first, unfortunately, attack on hospitals. The Israeli army is now directly shelling hospitals and killing patients and civilians. This, of course, is in violation of all international rules, and it is completely incomprehensible for me why the Israeli army is not stopped when they attack hospitals, ambulances and civilian populations. " ~Dr Mads Gilbert
"atrocious action"   ~ U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemning the attack on Shejaiya

Sweden refuses Israeli president’s plane entry into its airspace Swedish authorities refused on Sunday (7/14)  to allow the plane of Israeli President Shimon Peres to cross into its airspace en route to Norway, causing him to arrive late to his official reception. When Stockholm refused the plane permission to cross, the pilots were forced into a holding pattern over the Baltic Sea for 20 minutes until they were rerouted via Denmark's airspace. Peres's office blamed Stockholm, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry pointed the finger at the President's Office and the private airline company responsible for arranging the trip. Israel's Haartez newspaper reported the ministry saying that Peres's office had failed to follow the correct protocols, resulting in its intervention. The ministry said that it should have been arranging the flight all along, but Peres's office claimed that Sweden had approved it. The Swedish authorities said they had no knowledge of the flight. However, Israel's Shin Bet intelligence services verified that all permissions had been granted, but permission was later revoked for unknown reasons. VETERANS TO DELIVER LETTER TO ISRAELI AMBASSADOR: Stop the Slaughter of Palestinian Civilians in Gaza! Members of Veterans For Peace will deliver a letter to Israel's Embassy, 3514 International Dr. NW, Washington, D.C. 20008, at 1:30 pm Monday afternoon, July 21. The letter calls on the government of Israel to immediately halt the bombing of Palestinian civilians and to withdraw all its troops and military assets from Gaza. Colonel Ann Wright, who has visited Palestine and Israel several times, will head up the delegation. letter at above link video interview:  F-16 Kills 24 Relatives After 72 Die in Shejaiya The Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip has seen its bloodiest day so far, bringing the Palestinian death toll to more than 500. More than 100 Palestinians were killed in a 24-hour period between Saturday and Sunday nights. The dead include 72 residents of one of Gaza’s poorest and most densely populated neighborhoods. In the single worst attack to date, Israeli forces shelled homes and fought militants in Shejaiya, leaving behind a scene of carnage that survivors called a massacre. Frightened civilians fled along streets strewn with dead bodies. Wounded residents bled to death in their homes. An unconfirmed report said more than 20 children and 14 women were killed. Scores of homes were destroyed. Hundreds of people were wounded and taken to the overrun Shifa Hospital, which struggled to find room for the bodies. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the attack on Shejaiya as an "atrocious action." SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Amy, I’ve come from the site of yet another massacre. Twenty-four members—at least 24 members of the same [Abu Jamaa] family were killed in their own home in an F-16 strike in Khan Younis. This happened last night at around Iftar, during the sunset call to prayer, the time that Muslims sit to break their fast. And an F-16 missile strike hit this family in their home as they were sitting down to eat. A grandmother, her three sons, their wives and all their children were killed. I went to the site where the house was. The house is completely gone. There’s only a crater left. The family says—the surviving family members said that they used two cranes and a bulldozer, working for 12 hours throughout the night, to retrieve all the bodies out. full interview at above link video interview: IDF Shells al-Aqsa Hospital; 5 Dead, Dozens Hurt excerpt: DR. MADS GILBERT: Yes, I have unfortunate and breaking news to you in the United States. About 10 minutes ago, Israeli tanks shelled the hospital, al-Aqsa Hospital, in Deir al-Balah, which is in the middle zone of Gaza. Four were killed, mainly patients treated in the surgical department, and 15 are injured. This is not the first, unfortunately, attack on hospitals. The Israeli army is now directly shelling hospitals and killing patients and civilians. This, of course, is in violation of all international rules, and it is completely incomprehensible for me why the Israeli army is not stopped when they attack hospitals, ambulances and civilian populations. ...The types of injuries that we’re seeing now—and the hospital is again being crowded in the emergency with new attacks—are shrapnels, blast injuries, burns and what you can see from artillery shell bombing. Lots of children still. ... there is one overwhelming need in Gaza now, and that is to stop the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. It is absolutely devastating. It is much harder than I have seen before in 2006, 2009 and 2012, the attacks then. It is targeting obviously residential areas and now also hospitals. full interview at above link video interview: U.S. Created Political Space for Israeli Assault on Gaza excerpt: MAX BLUMENTHAL: "I don’t know if this was an accident (i.e., Kerry caught on mic) . This may have been staged by Kerry to save face for his bungled act of hollow diplomacy, which was actually a ruse to legitimize Netanyahu’s ground operation and create political space for the kind of massacres that we’ve been witnessing on this very broadcast. It was Kerry who helped draw up the sham ceasefire proposal, which was introduced by the coup regime of Egypt and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has jailed thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members who are political counterparts of Hamas, who hates Hamas, and who never presented this proposal to Hamas. Tony Blair served as the emissary between Sisi and Netanyahu. And the ceasefire was introduced to paint Hamas as rejectionists. Netanyahu openly declared that this ceasefire and Hamas’s rejection of it gave him all the political legitimacy he needed for the ground invasion. And now Kerry is criticizing the outcome of the ceasefire proposal that he introduced—the inevitable outcome—and now claiming that he wants to be flown back to the Middle East to negotiate a new ceasefire on the taxpayers’ dime. I call on John Kerry to refund the American taxpayers for all the jet fuel he’s wasted. He can dip into the Heinz family fortune if he needs to do that. This is an absolute failure of U.S. diplomacy and an abdication of leadership by Barack Obama, who says that he’s heartbroken by these images that he’s witnessing from the Gaza Strip as he oversees and authorizes the shipment of the very weapons that are used to bombard hospitals. In Deir al-Balah, the al-Aqsa Hospital was just attacked, and five are dead. Four were in surgery when they were killed. full interview at above link PHOTO: Brussels protests Israhell      PHOTO right: NYC, London

 

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Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Action Alert

On Friday, the US Senate voted 100-0 to support Israel's invasion of Gaza. So far, over 500 Palestinians have been killed. Your elected officials need to hear from you: stop funding this massacre. Unconditional US support makes Israel's attack on Gaza possible. Tell Obama and Congress: no US aid for human rights violations    Dear Pf, I’ve been waking up every morning to the latest news reports feeling outraged, heartbroken and speechless. I'm sure you have too. This weekend was the bloodiest yet of Israel's assault on Gaza. On Sunday alone, some 100 Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, and many of them children.  As of this morning, the death count in Gaza has passed 500. But we can't stop this war on an imprisoned and occupied civilian population by simply asking the Israeli government nicely. We must apply real pressure— specifically the boycotts and divestment campaigns that we know are changing the political landscape. And we must demand that the United States, Israel’s greatest ally and patron, stops the billions in unconditional funding, and diplomatic cover that make this all possible. Click here to help us flood President Obama and US Congress with emails and calls: jvp.org/Obama  Last Friday the US Senate passed a resolution supporting Israel’s attack on Gaza by a vote of 100-0. A week earlier, the House of Representatives passed a similar resolution. Worse, elected officials have been attending pro-war rallies all over the United States. The U.S. has essentially given Israel carte blanche for this assault. And this extreme agenda doesn't only hurt Palestinians. It also undermines Israelis who are working for peace and justice. But we’ve heard it countless times from DC insiders including members of Congress: they need to hear from us a lot more often, and more loudly, to feel safe going against the Israel Lobby. You and I can hold corporations accountable through divestment and boycotts, but governments need to hold governments accountable. Please, tell your elected officials we demand that they end the use of US aid to violate human rights and US law. Click here to act: jvp.org/Obama Just 3 days ago, together we mobilized more than 13,000 people to challenge NBC's decision to remove their most experienced Gaza correspondent – and helped get him reinstated. When we use our voices together, change happens. We must do everything we can to end this. Now. Rebecca Vilkomerson Executive Director Contact Info: Jewish Voice for Peace 1611 Telegraph Ave, Suite 550 Oakland, CA 94612 510.465.1777 info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org Connect with Us: Become a 2014 JVP Member | Facebook | Twitter | Forward Subscribe to our blog Muzzlewatch

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Outrage Against Israeli Massacre in Gaza: Boston Stands with Palestine Tuesday, July 22 5:30pm Copley Sq, Boston Details at Facebook Stand up and be counted Ireland: Outrage Against Israeli Massacre in Gaza: Boston Stands with Palestine Tuesday, July 22 5:30pm Copley Sq, Boston Details at Facebook Stand up and be counted Ireland:

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Tuesday: Outrage Against Israeli Massacre in Gaza: Boston Stands with Palestine Tuesday, July 22, 2014, 5:30 pm Copley Square, Boston As Israel continues its bloody ground invasion of Gaza, join with thousands across the world in demanding an end to Israel's collective punishment of Palestinians. Take to the streets to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel, an end to the siege of Gaza, and an end to the occupation. #Boston4Gaza Sponsors Include: -Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine -Jewish Voice for Peace Boston -Boston College Students for Justice in Palestine -Boston BDS -Grassroots International -United for Justice with Peace -International Socialist Organization - Boston -Boston Feminists For Liberation -Northeastern University Students for Justice in Palestine -Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights -First Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain Please feel free to message one of the event hosts to have your organization added to the list of co-sponsors. https://www.facebook.com/events/256379791223750/  United for Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic justice. Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP today. info@justicewithpeace.org 617-383-4857 www.justicewithpeace.org

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Defend The Palestinian People! No U.S. Aid To Israel 

Outrage Against Israeli Massacre in Gaza: Boston Stands with Palestine Tuesday, July 22 5:30pm Copley Sq, Boston Details at Facebook Stand up and be counted Ireland:

On The 75^th Anniversary Year Of The Defeat Of The Spanish Revolution- The Lessons Learned -Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory- Hannah Sell, Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales) 

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

In July 1936 General Franco led a military uprising against the legally elected Popular Front government in Spain which set off three years of war, set off the Spanish Civil War, which proved to be a prelude, a “dress rehearsal” for World War II. That uprising, the initial massively popular fight against it by the leftist workers and peasants, and the ultimate victory by Franco’s forces and a forty year “night of the long knives” reign of terror in 1939 is filled with lessons for leftists today. Therefore it seems fitting to me that while we are sadly commemorating the 75^th anniversary of the defeat I can pass on some lessons that others have drawn from that experience both while the events were unfolding and later.  

********

History Spanish civil war 27/04/2009


Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory- Hannah Sell, Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales)
The Spanish civil war (1936-39) was the bloodiest stage in the ten year-long Spanish revolution that began in 1931. Spain was a further confirmation of Leon Trotsky’s theory of ’permanent revolution’, which was earlier borne out in the Russian workers’ socialist revolution of 1917.

But unlike Russia in 1917, where the revolutionary leadership under Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks was decisive, in Spain the workers’ leaders vacillated between reform and revolution, thereby allowing the capitalists to reassert control and the triumph of Franco. In this, the Spanish capitalists were aided by the Stalinist Communist Party.

On 1 April 1939, General Franco declared victory after three years of civil war, which followed an attempted coup by army officers against Spain’s democratically elected Republican government.

Franco’s victory, backed to the hilt by the fascist regimes in Italy and Germany, marked the opening bars of the bloodiest war in human history - the second world war - which began exactly five months later. In Spain Franco’s dictatorship continued until his death in 1975.

During the civil war the ’white terror’ of Franco’s nationalist armies cost 200,000 lives, according to historian Anthony Beevor. Franco’s regime went on to consolidate its power with the blood of Spanish workers - with up to 200,000 killed in the aftermath of the war. It was only last year that the Spanish government officially recognised the suffering that took place under the dictatorship, when it accepted that those who had suffered repression or had lost family were ’victims’.

The net result of this bloody war was an appalling defeat for the working class. Yet there is another side to it: the incredible heroism and self-sacrifice of the Spanish working class in its struggle against fascism and for social and economic liberation. Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary, said, "One can neither expect nor ask for a movement of greater scope, greater endurance, greater heroism on the part of the workers than we were able to observe in Spain."

Even those capitalist historians who have studied Spain seriously, have felt compelled to reflect the courage and determination of the Spanish working class. Beevor, for example, describes how the working class in Barcelona responded to the fascist uprising with "a desperate selfless bravery". He vividly pictures how the unarmed working class of Barcelona prepared to prevent the nationalist army seizing control of their city:

"Isolated armouries were seized and weapons were taken from four ships in the harbour. Even the rusting hulk of the prison ship Uruguay was stormed, so as to take the warders’ weapons. The UGT dockers’ union knew of a shipment of dynamite in the port, and once that was seized, home-made grenades were manufactured all through the night. Every gun shop in the city was stripped bare. Cars and lorries were requisitioned and metal workers fixed crude armour plating while sandbags were piled behind truck cabs."

Beevor goes on to describe the key moment the next day when the battle turned in favour of the workers:

"At one moment during the fighting, a small group of workers and an assault guard rushed across to an insurgent artillery detachment with two 75mm guns. They held their rifles above their head to show that they were not attacking as they rushed up to the astonished soldiers. Out of breath, they poured forth passionate arguments why the soldiers should not fire on their brothers, telling them that they had been tricked by their officers. The guns were turned around and brought to bear on the rebel forces. From then on more and more soldiers joined the workers and assault guards."

Fear of revolution

In addition to boundless heroism and sound class instincts on how best to conduct the war, the Spanish working class and poor peasantry had enormous international support. This did not come from the capitalist democracies, which under the guise of ’neutrality’ refused to aid the Spanish Republic. The reason for this - mortal fear of the revolution - was explained clearly by George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia, based on his own experiences in Spain:

"Foreign capital was heavily invested in Spain. The Barcelona Traction Company, for instance, represented ten millions of British Capital; and meanwhile the trade unions had seized all the transport in Catalonia. If the revolution went forward there would be no compensation, or very little."

However, the international working class, along with many young intellectuals, were enthralled by the Spanish revolution. Worldwide, workers followed the conflict with baited breath.

Around 40,000 people from 53 different countries went to Spain to join the war against Franco. They included writers such as Orwell, Upton Sinclair, Ernest Hemingway, and, more decisively, thousands of young workers - more than 2,300 of whom came from the factories and mines of Britain and Ireland. And yet, despite this tremendous international class solidarity, the workers in Spain were defeated.

Stages theory

Seventy years on, the reasons for the defeat in Spain are not just of historical interest. Some factors, particularly the role of Stalinism, are not present in the same way today. As Orwell commented, "in reality it was the Communists above all others who prevented revolution in Spain."

Stalinist policy was not motivated by the interests of the working class, but rather by fear of upsetting the USSR’s diplomatic relations with the major capitalist powers, and terror that the revolutionary upsurge of the working class in Spain would infect the working class of the Soviet Union, by now crushed under Stalin’s monstrous bureaucratic machine. Even the Stalinist secret police agents, sent to Spain to crush the revolution in blood, were themselves mostly killed once they returned to Russia for fear that they had been infected with the heady aroma of a genuine revolutionary upsurge by the masses.

The Stalinist regimes are no more. However, the Stalinist justification for their policy in Spain - the stages theory - that is that it was necessary to first win the war against fascism and to have a period of capitalist democracy, only worrying about the question of socialism at some future date - has already come up in a different form today. It will do so on a broader scale in the future, particularly in the neo-colonial world, where many of the conditions that existed in Spain in the 1930s still apply today.

Even now the left government in Bolivia, to give one example, which has been elected on a wave of popular support, and has introduced some reforms to assist the working class and the poor. At the same time, socialism is something for the future, and, today, the government emphasises the need to compromise and negotiate with the brutal, capitalist right-wing opposition which has kept the Bolivian masses in dire poverty for generations. Giving this need for compromise as the reason, government troops have forcibly evicted land occupations of the poor peasants.

Today we do not yet live in a global era of revolution and counter-revolution such as existed in the 1930s. Nonetheless, the profound economic crisis that is developing worldwide will, over the coming years, lead to revolutionary struggles, which, if they are to be successful, will need to learn the lessons of Spain.

Weakness of capitalism

Just as it is the weakest economies of Europe - largely in Eastern Europe, but also Spain where unemployment has leapt to 14% - that are suffering worst in the current economic crisis, Spain was devastated by the 1930s depression. As in Russia in 1917, capitalism broke at its weakest link in Spain. Spain, once the most powerful country in Europe, had suffered what Karl Marx called a ’slow, inglorious decay’ over centuries. In this respect a certain comparison can be drawn with Britain today. The Spanish elite - the monarchy, church, the army and hangers on - had amassed enormous wealth as a result of the plunder of South America. This, however, became their downfall, as the backward feudal regime crushed the nascent capitalist class under piles of gold and silver. Capitalism, as it belatedly developed, was weak and intertwined with both the old feudal regime and the world imperialist powers. In the 1930s what very limited industry had developed was largely foreign owned. Spain was responsible for only 1.1% of world trade.

In 1931 of the eleven million that made up Spain’s economically active population eight million were poor, their work provided no more than subsistence, and often less. The monarchy and the Catholic Church, which were closely intertwined, were hated by the majority of the working class and poor. In April 1931, the revolution began when, under phenomenal mass pressure including a series of general strikes, the king abdicated and a republic was declared led by the capitalist republican, Manuel Azaña. The popular hopes that this would mean a better life for the majority were, however, soon deflated as the republic acted in the interests of the same ruling elite. Not for nothing did one moderate describe Azaña’s government as one of ’mud, blood and tears’.

The republican government was incapable of carrying out the basic tasks of the capitalist democratic revolution. For example, around 70% of the population still worked on the land. The division of land was the worst in Europe, with the poor peasantry owning only one third of the most infertile land. The only solution to this would have been the nationalisation of the two thirds of the land held by the big landowners. But Spain’s financial and industrial capitalism had completely merged with the big landowners. No capitalist government was therefore prepared to challenge their power. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, landowner was the Catholic Church. While the population began to take measures into its own hands, including the widespread burning of churches, the government moved at a snail’s pace - proposing measures that did no more than trim the fingernails of the church.

At the same time peasants’ revolts and workers’ strikes, and particularly the anarchist trade union - the CNT, were met with increasingly brutal repression. In one particularly vicious example in early 1933, peasants in a village called Casas Viejas, who after two years of patiently waiting for land reform, had independently begun to till the local aristocrats’ land, were gunned down by the Civil Guard, with twenty of them being killed.

No wonder that, in the elections that followed in 1933, the government parties lost. As a result the forces of outright reaction came to power. The new government, however, had a very limited social base. In 1934 it was replaced by a reactionary dictatorship. This was met with an enormous uprising of opposition by the working class and poor peasantry. This culminated in the Asturian Commune which the dictatorship called in Franco to crush - 5,000 were killed mostly after surrendering.

This was the background to the elections in February 1936 which brought the Popular Front government to power. Azaña was again prime minister. PSOE, the mass social democratic party, won the largest number of seats of the parties that made up the Popular Front. All the government ministers, however, came from the capitalist parties. Having been burnt by their experience of taking part in the 1931-33 Azaña government, the left wing of PSOE prevented the right wing from joining the government. The programme of the government was exceedingly limited, even when compared to 1931-33.

Both the working class and poor and the representatives of capital had learnt lessons from the last five years. The workers and poor peasants did not wait for the new government to act. Around 30,000 political prisoners were liberated. Between February and July there were 113 general strikes and 228 other major strikes. Peasants started to occupy the land.

At the same time the capitalists drew the conclusion that they could not defend their system by democratic means - and began to prepare the ground for Franco’s coup.

When the coup came the working class responded, as has already been described, with enormous heroism. They were horribly hampered by a government which, as Beevor quotes one Seville carpenter as explaining, "were not prepared to give us [the workers] arms because they were more afraid of the working class than they were of the army." Nonetheless, as Upton Sinclair witnessed, "these educated workers and their wives ...charged machine guns with carving knives and pieces of board with nails sticking out."

Where they successfully pushed back the fascists the workers held power in their hands. Felix Morrow, in his book, Revolution and Counter Revolution in Spain 1931-1937, explained how the anti-fascist militia in Catalonia, based on workers’ organisations, conquered the Aragon region in five days from 19 July. "They conquered Aragon as a social liberation army. They formed anti-fascist village committees, expropriated land, harvests, cattle, tools etc, from the landlords and the reactionaries. Then the village committee organised production on its new foundation, usually in the shape of a collective and created a village militia to implement the socialisation and to fight reaction."

In republican Spain the capitalist class did not exist, having fled with the fascists. Beevor describes how in Barcelona the anarchists installed their headquarters in the former premises of the Employers’ Federation. The Ritz was used as ’Gastronomic Unit No 1’, a public canteen for all those in need. He goes on to explain how: "In Barcelona worker committees took over all the services, the oil monopoly, the shipping companies, heavy engineering firms such as Vulcano, Ford motor company, chemical companies, the textile industry and a host of smaller enterprises."

Class collaboration

However, the myth that was perpetuated, in essence, by the leadership of all the major workers parties, and above all by the Communist Party, was that in order to preserve ’unity’ with capitalist forces in the fight against fascism it was necessary to postpone the struggle for socialism to some later date. Beevor accurately states that "the most outspoken champions of private property were not the liberal republicans, as might have been expected, but the Communist Party."

At the same time the power of the working class was never organised via democratic workers’ committees, linked up locally, regionally and nationally in the way that took place twenty years earlier in the soviets of the Russian revolution.

The Communist Party did not bear sole responsibility. In Barcelona, for example, Garcia Oliver, the anarchist leader (the anarchists were the strongest force in Barcelona), explained how the anarchists could easily have taken power in July 1936 ’because all the forces were on our side’ but did not do so because, they did not ’believe in doing so’. This did not prevent the anarchist leaders, including Oliver, later joining the Popular Front government together with capitalist parties. In this way the role of the leaders of the workers’ parties allowed the capitalist class, initially no more than a shadow, gradually to regain substance before physically repressing the socialist revolution in May 1937.

Far from strengthening the fight against fascism, the policy of the workers’ leaders resulted in the defeat of that fight. Desperate to re-establish the rule of big capital, and to avoid upsetting the world imperialist powers, the heads of the workers’ organisations refused to adopt the policies that were necessary to win over ordinary soldiers fighting on the side of Franco.

Programme, party and leadership

The fascist coup was launched from Morocco, and many North African soldiers fought on the side of Franco. Yet the Republican government did not inscribe independence for Morocco on its banner. To do so would have quickly and dramatically fermented revolt in Franco’s army. Nor was the republican government prepared to call for expropriation of the big landowners, which would have been invaluable in winning those poor peasants who did not support the republic over.

There are obviously only very limited comparisons that can be drawn between the struggle to defeat Franco’s armies, backed to the hilt by the Spanish ruling class, and the campaigns socialists are involved in today against the far-right, racist British National Party. Nonetheless, there are lessons to be learnt. The approach of the majority of Unite Against Fascism, which has widespread trade union support, is to limit its demand to the plea ’don’t vote BNP’. UAF’s organisers argue that to put forward anything else would alienate the Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat politicians who support the campaign. However, it is the anti-working class policies of the big three parties that have played the main role in driving a layer of workers to vote for the BNP. A genuine workers’ party, putting forward a clear class programme, is the only means by which the BNP can be undermined. It is for this reason that the decision of the railway and transport workers’ union, the RMT, to initiate a challenge in the European elections is so important.

The working class of Spain instinctively had the right approach to how they could win victory. Unfortunately, no party existed which was capable of, and willing to, put forward and campaign for a programme that expressed and codified the approach taken by the working class. Today, the POUM (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) is known internationally to a younger generation chiefly as a result of Ken Loach’s excellent film, ’Land and Freedom’. The POUM was an anti-Stalinist party that, once the revolution had been crushed, suffered horrific repression at the hands of the Stalinists, including the murder of its leader Andre Nin.

Despite being decried as ’Trotskyist’ by the Stalinists, the POUM was no such thing. If it had followed the programme put forward by Trotsky from afar, the outcome of the Spanish struggle would have been completely different. Under the impact of the revolution the POUM grew in membership very quickly - from 8,000 on the eve of the civil war it quadrupled its membership in a few months - and potentially could have grown far more. Tragically, however, rather than putting an independent class programme forward, it trailed behind the anarchist and social democratic parties - standing a little to the left - but not putting forward any clear alternative.

Trotsky, in his tremendous article, ’The Class, the Party, and the Leadership’, takes up those who argued that the working class in Spain did not take power because they were ’immature’.

"What does the ’immaturity’ of the proletariat signify in this case? Self-evidently only this, that despite the correct political line chosen by the masses they were unable to smash the coalition of Socialists, Stalinists, Anarchists, and the POUMists with the bourgeoisie."

"The workers’ line of march at all times cut at a certain angle to the line of the leadership. And at the most critical moments this angle became 180 degrees. The leadership then helped directly or indirectly to subdue the workers by armed force."

The twentieth century was littered with attempts by working-class people to overthrow capitalism and to carry out the socialist transformation of society. In a litany of tragic failures, none is more heart rending than the events in Spain, nor so rich in lessons of what might have been, had the working class had a leadership worthy of it. Today we are just beginning to witness the full brutality and bankruptcy of twenty-first century capitalism. There is no doubt that in the future we will see struggles to transform society which will dwarf even the greatest events of the twentieth century. If, this time, we are to succeed in building a new society that meets the needs of all, it is essential that the new generation of young people now looking to socialist ideas study the lessons of the great battles of the century, including the lessons of Spain, only a few of which are touched on here.


Spanish revolution timeline
• April 1931 revolution establishes the second republic. King Alfonso goes into exile. Pro-worker reforms introduced.
• July-August 1933. Strike wave. General strike in Seville crushed by Republican government artillery.
• November 1933. Elections to Cortes (national parliament). Rightists and monarchists form government with Lerroux as prime minister (PM); begins to repeal reforms.
• October-November 1934. General strike of socialists and anarchists defeated. Lerroux calls in Franco to crush uprising of Asturian miners.
• August-September 1935. Communist International (Comintern) proclaims Popular Front policy. Founding of POUM.
• February 1936. New elections brings Popular Front to power; Azana is PM; anarchists and POUM support Popular Front in the election.
• July 1936. Spanish Communist Party declares full support to government. Fascists rising begins in Morocco and spreads to Spain. Companys (leader of the Catalan regional government - the Generalitat) refuses to distribute arms. Workers seize arms.
• September 1936. Largo Caballero (left wing leader of Socialist Party) becomes PM on condition that CP join government. CNT and POUM join Generalitat.
• October 1936. Central government ends independence of militias. Siege of Madrid begins.
• November 1936. Central government reorganised to include Anarchists. International Brigades arrive in Madrid.
• December 1936. POUM expelled from government. Letter from Stalin to Caballero insists on protection of private property.
• May 1937. Government attempt to seize Barcelona telephone exchange from Anarchists leads to new workers’ upsurge; Negrin (right wing leader of Socialist Party) replaces Caballero as PM.
• June 1937. POUM outlawed by central government; leaders arrested.
• April-June 1938. Franco’s forces reach coast, cutting Republican Spain in half.
• November 1938. International Brigades withdraw from Spain.
• January 1939. Barcelona surrenders to Franco.
• February 1939. France and Britain recognise Franco while Republicans still hold a third of Spain.
• March 1939. Madrid and Valencia surrender.
• April 1939. US recognises Franco.
• August 1939. Stalin-Hitler pact.