The Anarchist insurrection of Alt Llobregat, Spain was a revolutionary
general strike which took place in January 1932, principally organized by
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionar ...
(CNT) unions in the mining and textile sectors.
[''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya'', p. 35, ed. 62, Barcelona, 1998, ] It was the first of the three insurrections carried out by the CNT during the time of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
, followed by the
anarchist insurrections of January and December 1933.
History
The outbreak of the revolutionary strike was due to the economic situation in the area and the country, and the expectations of radical social change since the early days of the republican era in many sectors of workers. In Catalonia, the most radical sectors of the anarchists controlled the CNT, which coincided with an increase in social conflict between workers and the republican state.
Preceded by the
Castilblanco events and the
Arnedo events, the revolt began on 19 January 1932, when the miners of the San Cornelio
industrial colony in
Fígols
Fígols is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Berguedà in
Catalonia, Spain. It is situated to the north of Cercs, in the mountains above the Llobregat valley.
Deposits of lignite are extracted commercially.
Nearby is the Cercs Min ...
started a strike, seized weapons from the (Catalan parapolice), and began patrolling the streets. Some workers even proclaimed "
libertarian communism
Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains r ...
." The revolt was a response to the harsh working conditions in the mines, with long hours and lack of security at the bottom of the shafts, and also the expectations raised by the new rights of assembly and association that the newly approved
Spanish Constitution of 1931
The Spanish Constitution of 1931 was approved by the Constituent Assembly on 9 December 1931. It was the constitution of the Second Spanish Republic (founded 14 April 1931) and was in force until 1 April 1939. This was the second period of Spanis ...
recognized.
The following day the conflict had spread to other towns in
Alt Llobregat
Alt or ALT may refer to:
Abbreviations for words
* Alt account, an alternative online identity also known as a sock puppet account
* Alternate character, in online gaming
* Alternate route, type of highway designation
* Alternating group, mathema ...
including
Berga
Berga () is the capital of the ''comarca'' (county) of Berguedà, in the province of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It is bordered by the municipalities of Cercs, Olvan, Avià, Capolat and Castellar del Riu.
History
Berga derives its name f ...
,
Sallent
Sallent () is a municipality in the comarca of Bages, Province of Barcelona, in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, Spain. The river Llobregat
The Llobregat () is the second longest river in Catalonia, Spain, after the Ter. It flows in ...
,
Cardona,
Balsareny,
Navarclés and
Súria
Súria () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Bages in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the valley of the Cardener river between Manresa and Cardona. The area is best known for its deposits of potassium salts
In chemistry, a sal ...
, where the strikers stopped the mines and closed the shops. In
Manresa workers' pickets prevented access to factories and workshops. Telephone lines were cut. In many places republican flags were replaced by the red and black flags of the CNT. That same day a delegate from the CNT Regional Committee proclaimed in Fígols, in front of the revolutionary committee created by the miners, that "libertarian communism had arrived", news that spread throughout the area.
The following day, 21 January,
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the last President of the Repu ...
declared before the Cortes: "I am not scared that there are strikes ... because it is a right recognized by law", but no one could take "an attitude of rebellion against the Republic" and that the military had the obligation to intervene against these "excesses". The government of the Republic ordered an armed intervention and thus, on 22 January, the first military units arrived in Manresa, and by the next day had occupied all the towns in the area except Fígols. The miners had blown up a powder magazine and fled through the mountains. Republican rule was restored and the miners were fired.
On 23 January, when only Fígols remained under insurgent control, the National Committee of the CNT agreed to "give the order to stop all of Spain, accepting all consequences." However, only a few isolated towns in
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
and
Aragon followed in the footsteps of Alt Llobregat. In
Alcorisa the insurgents planted two bombs in the
Civil Guard barracks, and in
Castel de Cabra
Castel de Cabra is a municipality in Cuencas Mineras, province of Teruel, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2010 census the municipality has a population of 140 inhabitants.Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain) Its postal code is 44706.
The to ...
the rioters seized "the City Hall, destroyed the tax register and all the documents that were in the archives of the municipal secretary." Infantry troops were sent from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
under the command of
Domingo Batet
Domingo may refer to:
People
*Domingo (name), a Spanish name and list of people with that name
*Domingo (producer) (born 1970), American hip-hop producer
*Saint Dominic (1170–1221), Castilian Catholic priest, founder of the Friars popularly cal ...
to put an end to the riots. On 24 January Fígols was recaptured by the state, and by 27 January the first anarchist insurrection against the Republic came to an end.
There were many detainees, and all CNT centers in the affected regions were closed, but the repressive measure that had the greatest impact was the government's decision to apply the to a hundred detainees, who were deported to the African colonies (
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
,
Western Sahara
Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...
and
Guinea). On 22 January, when the troops occupied Manresa, in Barcelona several anarchist militants were arrested, among whom were the brothers
Francisco Ascaso
Francisco Ascaso Abadía (Almudévar April 1, 1901 – Barcelona July 20, 1936) was the cousin of Joaquín Ascaso, the President of the Regional Defence Council of Aragon,Jesús Mestre i Campi, ''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya'', Edicions ...
and
Domingo Ascaso,
Buenaventura Durruti
José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...
and .
They were transferred to the steamship "Buenos Aires", anchored in the port, for deporttation. Four days later there were already more than 200 detainees on the ship. On 28 January a hundred of the deportees started a hunger strike in protest, and wrote a manifesto denouncing their defenselessness. Some managed to leave, but on 10 February the "Buenos Aires" set sail from the port of Barcelona with 104 detainees on board. After picking up other detainees in
Cádiz
Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia.
Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...
, the ship passed through the
Canary Islands and finally docked at
Villa Cisneros
Dakhla ( ar, الداخلة, Berber: Eddaxla / ⴷⴷⴰⵅⵍⴰ, es, Dajla, Villa Cisneros) is a city in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, currently occupied by Morocco. It is the capital of the claimed Moroccan administrative re ...
on April 3. On the way some of the prisoners, one of whom died, had fallen ill, and others were released. The last deportees returned to the peninsula in September.
With this mass deportation, the confrontations between the CNT and the republican-socialist government became even more intense.
[ The uprising was also a trigger for a further split within the CNT between the libertarian possibilist tendency and the anarchist, as the strategic differences of each sector began to clash.] After publishing a manifesto, Ángel Pestaña
Ángel Pestaña Nuñez (1886–1937) was a Spanish Anarcho-syndicalist and later the founder of the Syndicalist Party.
Life
In April 1919, after Catalonia was shaken by the '' Canadenca'' protests, Pestaña was arrested and detained, and the ...
and other possibilists were expelled from the CNT and formed the Syndicalist Party, with the intention of participating in state politics.[Tomás Álvarez]
Ángel Pestaña: El anarquista de la triste figura.
Diario de León, April 25, 2004.
See also
* Revolutionary Catalunya
References
{{reflist
General strikes in Spain
Anarchism in Spain
History of Catalonia
History of Spain
1932 labor disputes and strikes
1932 in Spain