Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

OBJECTIVITY AND LIBERAL SCHOLARSHIP
at the expense of those persons who were unable to rent even the smallest parcel
of land, because they were revolutionaries. "6 8
To complete the stage of legalization and restriction of what had already
been achieved, a decree of Ocrober 24, 1936, promulgated by a CNT member
who had become Councilor for Economy in the Catalonian Generalitat,
gave legal sancrion CO the collectivization of industry in Catalonia. In this case
toO, the step was regressive, from the revolutionary point of view.
Collecrivizacion was limited to enterprises employing more than a hundred
workers, and a variety of conditions were established that removed control
from the workers' comminees ro the state bureaucracy.69
4.
The second stage of the cOllnterrevolution, from October 1936 through
May 1937, involved the destruction of the local committees, the replacement
of the militia by a conventional army, and the re-establishment of the prerevolutionary
social and economic system, wherever this was possible. Finally, in
May 1937, came a direct attack on the working class in Barcelona (the May
Days))O Following the success of this attack, the process ofliquidation of the
revolution was completed. The collectivization decree of October 24 was
rescinded and industries were "freed" from workers' control. Communist-led
armies swept through Aragon, destroying many collectives and dismantling
their organizations and, generally, bringing {he area under the control of the
central government. Throughout the Republican-held territories, the government,
now under Communist domination, acted in accordance with the plan
announced in Pravda on December 17, 1936: "So fa r as Catalonia is concerned,
the cleaning up of Trotzkyist and Anarcho-Syndicalist elements there
has already be g un, and it will be carried out there with the same energy as in
the U.S.S.R." 7 1-and, we may add, in much the same manner.
In brief, the period from the summer of 1936 to 1937 was one of revolution
and counterrevolution: the revolution was largely spontaneous with mass
participation of anarchist and socialist industrial and agricultural workers; the
counterrevolution was under Communist direction. the Communist parry
increasingly coming to represent the right wing of the Republic. During this
period and after the success of the counterrevolution. the Republic was waging
a war against the Franco insurrection; this has been described in great detail in
numerous publications. and I will say little about it here. The Communist-led
counterrevolutionary struggle must, of course, be understood against the background
of the ongoing antifascist war and the more general attempt of the
Soviet Union to construct a broad anti-fascist alliance with the Western
democracies. One reason for the vigorous counterrevolutionary policy of the
Communists was their belief that England would never tolerate a revolutionary
triumph in Spain. where England had subs(antial commercial interests, as
did France and to a lesser extent the United States.72 I will rerurn to this matter
below. However, I think it is important to bear in mind that there were