Mural in Dartford, UK commemorating the Spanish Revolution which broke out 90 years ago, on 19 July 1936, in response to a military coup, the workers and peasants of Spain rose up, launching a general strike. By acting quickly, they defeated the military in most major cities.
But they didn’t stop at putting down the coup. Roughly two million workers kicked out their bosses and took control of the economy.
It was a social revolution. Decisions were made by assemblies of workers in their workplaces and executed by committees elected from the shopfloor.
Mansions were turned into communal dining halls, schools, warehouses, and free medical centres. Thousands of useless capitalist jobs were abolished. Unemployed workers helped share the workload in necessary industries. In some cases, this meant the work day could be shortened.
In 1939, Franco’s army won and established a dictatorship. When he died, Spain transitioned back to an ordinary parliamentary system.
But the Spanish Revolution wasn’t defeated because ‘communism doesn’t work’. It was destroyed by international isolation and counter-revolutionary politics. The moderate socialists opposed revolution and capitalists around the world preferred fascism to anarchism. This scared CNT leaders into convincing workers to stop the revolution half way, leaving some power in the hands of the old capitalists and government.
Meanwhile, the Liberals and the Stalinists sabotaged the revolution. They centralised control, arrested and murdered anarchists, and then lost the war after taking power.
The anarchists had been well organised industrially. But they needed better political organisation to keep the movement on a revolutionary path. They also needed to support anti-colonial struggles in Morocco, where Franco was getting troops.
Still, 90 years on, the Spanish Revolution stands as one of the most inspiring moments in history. It’s proof that workers can run society, without bosses or government control. The real lesson is that, next time, we can’t stop half way.
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