A-Infos (en) Greece, Protaanka: Announcement for the 89th anniversary of the Black and Red July in Spain (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

89 years ago, on July 19, 1936, the beginning was made for the largest 
and longest-lasting implementation of anarchist proposals in practice 
with the establishment of Libertarian Communism and the 
socialization-collectivization of production on a large scale in many 
cities and villages of Spain, with typical examples being Barcelona, 
Aragon, the Levante, etc. The Social Revolution in Spain constitutes one 
of the most important turning points in the history of international 
anarchism and the labor movement. Even if we do not share the 
historiographical view of the "Spanish exception", which claims that 
only in the example of Spain did the anarchist movement manage to have a 
strong influence and catalytic role in the history of revolutions and 
class and social struggles, we could not help but recognize and 
highlight the great legacy with which the Social Revolution in Spain has 
provided us today.

A great legacy that concerns both the preparation of the revolution, the 
decades of struggles, uprisings, strikes, workers' and anarchist 
organization that preceded it, as well as the forms of social 
self-management that emerged and were implemented, the solidarity and 
self-denial of millions of fighters from the community, in the factory, 
the field, the service centers, to the barricades and the military 
fronts. And it was, primarily, the workers and peasants organized 
through the lines of the CNT-FAI who wrote this brilliant page in the 
history of the anarchist and workers' movement.

July 19, 1936 is a landmark date, which also marks the beginning of the 
Social Revolution in Spain, centered in Barcelona. On that day, 89 years 
ago, the military coup d'état under the fascist general Franco was 
prevented in Barcelona by the defense committees and the factory 
committees acting in coordination, that is, by the armed people 
themselves who erected barricades in Barcelona and defeated the fascist 
military rebellion within two days of fighting. The historical 
achievement, however, of the workers and peasants of Barcelona does not 
lie only in the military victory against fascism, but primarily in the 
fact that they did not "gift" this victory, as is unfortunately usual in 
the history of bloody popular uprisings and revolutions, to any would-be 
usurper who would establish his power over them and at their expense. On 
the contrary, the workers themselves placed the most important part of 
production and services under their control, collectivized the land and 
created community councils and committees within the framework of social 
self-management.

All these achievements, as is logical, did not come from one day to the 
next or by magic. July 19, 1936 marks a historical turning point, but 
before that there were decades when anarchist revolutionary ideas took 
root and developed in Spain, there were decades of bloody strikes, 
uprisings and struggles by workers and peasants (with the most typical 
example being the great strike of 1934 that ended in rebellion), there 
were so many fighters who gave their lives and were imprisoned for the 
development of this powerful libertarian movement. From 1868, when 
Giuseppe Fanelli arrived in Spain as an envoy of the Bakuninist 
"alliance" to lay the foundations for Spanish anarchism, to the founding 
of the CNT in 1910, its great massification and the prevalence of 
anarcho-syndicalist ideas within it, to the founding of the FAI in 1927, 
which reflected on the one hand the necessity for unification and 
federalization of the multitude of anarchist groups in the Iberian 
Peninsula and on the other hand the "vehicle" for an anarchist 
revolutionary intervention in the CNT under the risk of its reformist 
deviation, there was a long path that led in terms of realism to the 
application of the principles of anarchist or libertarian communism.

The main core of this movement and its even temporary success was none 
other than the workers and peasants themselves. If the mass unions of 
the CNT had not existed, the day after July 19th there would not have 
been factory committees and agricultural collectives that would have put 
production under workers' control. At the same time, in 
pre-revolutionary Spain, the collective libertarian culture was 
cultivated for decades through the libertarian centers of the CNT 
(Athenian), the libertarian schools, the multitude of anarchist and 
libertarian newspapers and magazines that circulated, through the 
multitude of anarchist and libertarian groups in every social field 
(from Mujeres Libres to Juventud Libertatia -Libertarian Youth-). We 
could indeed say that in pre-revolutionary Spain "the new society was 
born within the shell of the old".

Thus, after July 19, 1936, a multitude of different sectors were 
collectivized, mainly centered in Barcelona. Sectors such as the food 
industry, agriculture, transportation and railways, telecommunications, 
construction, water and electricity companies, cinema, etc. came under 
the control of the workers themselves and operated for the benefit of 
real social needs, covering them adequately and creating great 
achievements, especially if we take into account that they developed in 
the midst of a war period. At the same time, a major reorganization of 
health and education took place on the basis of freedom and equality. 
New schools and hospitals were created in place of churches and 
mansions, access to health became equal for all, new night schools were 
created so that workers could attend them.

It is of course impossible to describe even partially in a few lines the 
magnitude of the radical revolutionary social and economic 
transformation that took place in the territories of Barcelona, Aragon 
and other cities and towns of Spain 89 years ago. It is also impossible 
to assess in a single statement the omissions and errors, the compromise 
of the CNT-FAI leadership, the selling out of the revolution on the 
altar of the priority of the "common anti-fascist struggle" or the 
counter-revolutionary atrocities of the Stalinists.

What we can say for sure is that the creative abilities of the workers 
and peasants and the principles of social self-management have justified 
and will continue to justify both the necessity and the feasibility of 
the struggle for Anarchy and Libertarian Communism, against every 
propagandist-supporter of the "end of history and ideologies", against 
every "pragmatist" who denies the possibility of revolutionary change 
and against the followers of the "socialist state" who do not believe 
that "the cause of the liberation of the working class is the cause of 
the working class itself".

89 years later, everything continues.

Long live Black and Red July, Long live Social Revolution, Anarchy and 
Libertarian Communism

INITIATIVE OF ANARCHIST SAINTS OF ANARGYROS - KAMATEROS

https://protaanka.espivblogs.net/2025/07/19/anakoinosi-gia-ta-89-chronia-apo-ton-mayrokokkino-ioyli-stin-ispania/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en