Manuel Buenacasa (1886–1964) was a Spanish militant anarchist, secretary general and chronicler of the

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working wi ...

(CNT) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) labor unions.

Career

Buenacasa was born on July 7, 1886, in the Spanish town of

Caspe Caspe is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain), seat of the comarca Bajo Aragón-Caspe. As of 2018 it had a population of 9,525 inhabitants (INE 2018) and its municipality, of 503.33&n ...

, where he started school. He trained for priesthood in a

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

in Villanueva del Aceral, but left as a late teen to become a carpenter in his home province. He kept this trade for the remainder of his life. Buenacasa joined the province's carpenter union in 1906 and quickly became its president. He came to edit a regional anarchist newspaper, ''Cultura y Acción'', in 1910. Following a violent strike, he went into exile. In England, Buenacasa met

Errico Malatesta Errico Malatesta (4 December 1853 – 22 July 1932) was an Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist. He edited several radical newspapers and spent much of his life exiled and imprisoned, having been jailed and expelled from ...

. Upon receiving government clemency, Buenacasa returned to Spain in 1913. During his time in Barcelona, between 1914 and 1921, he was jailed and exiled multiple times. He became a member of the

(CNT) labor union in 1914, and joined its national committee four years later. Buenacasa organized the CNT's December 1919 congress in Madrid. He advocated for a Third International, though he would later regret this. In 1921, he returned to

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

to edit ''Cultura y Acción''. The next year, he became secretary of the region's CNT. From 1923 to 1930, the years of the Miguel Primo de Rivera dictatorship, Buenacasa went into exile multiple times. He came to edit the Catalonian anarchist newspaper ''El Productor'' in 1925. Buenacasa joined in the founding of the militant Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) in July 2017 and moderated between the CNT and FAI in the coming years, having been a major contributor to the growth of both. He chronicled this time in the 1933 book, ''La CNT, los Treinta y la FAI''. He had earlier written the 1928 history, ''El Movimiento Obrero Español (1886-1926). Historia y Crítica'', or ''The Spanish Workers Movement (1886–1926): History and Criticism'', which was later reissued in Paris in 1966. Buenacasa's writings are among the foremost sources on internal CNT and FAI operations. He led a school during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

and afterwards, he was held in a French concentration camp. Buenacasa worked to reorganize the CNT in exile. He died in

Bourg-lès-Valence Bourg-lès-Valence (; oc, Lo Borg de Valença) is a commune in the Drôme department in southeastern France. It is a suburb of Valence. The archaeologist and Hellenist Fernand Courby (1878–1932) was born in Bourg-lès-Valence. In 2014–2019 ...

, France, on November 6, 1964. Though he remained a lifelong militant anarchist, Buenacasa opposed the terrorist actions in the name of anarchism.

Personal life

Buenacasa was married in 1910 and had one son.

References

Bibliography

* * * * Kern, R. W. ''Red Years, Black Years''. 1978. {{DEFAULTSORT:Buenacasa, Manuel 1886 births 1964 deaths Carpenters Confederación Nacional del Trabajo members Historians of anarchism Historians of Spain Labor historians People from Bajo Aragón-Caspe Spanish anarchists Spanish expatriates in France