Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM
shows that the anarchist charges were not baseless, as Jackson implies. Bolloten
cites a good deal of evidence in support of his conclusion that
In the counrryside the Communists undertook a spirited
defence of the small and medium proprietor and tenant fa rmer
against the collectivizing drive of the rural wage-workers, against
the policy of the labour unions prohibiting the fa rmer from
holding more land than he could cultivate with his own hands,
and against the practices of revolutionary committees, which
requisitioned harvests, imerfered with private trade, and collect ­
ed rents from tenant farmers .7 8
The policy of the government was clearly enunciated by the Communist
Minister of Agriculture: "We say that the property of the small farmer is sacred
and that those who attack or attempt to attack this property must be regarded
as enemies of the regime."79 Gerald Brenan, no sympathizer with collectivization,
explains the failure of collectivization as follows (p. 321):
The Central Government, and especially the Communist and
Socialist members of it, desired to bring [the collectives] under
the direct control of the State: they therefore failed to provide
them with the credit required for buying raw materials: as soon
as the supply of raw conan was exhausted the mills stopped
working ... even [the munitions industry in Catalonia] were
harassed by the new bureaucratic organs of the Ministry of
Supply .' o
51
He quotes the bourgeois President of Catalonia, Companys, as saying that
"workers in the arms factories in Barcelona had been working 56 hours and
more each week and (hat no cases of sabocage or indiscipline had taken place,"
until the workers were demoralized by the bureaucratization-later, militarization-imposed
by the central governmem and the Communist party.S I His
own conclusion is that "the Valencia Government was now using the P.S.U.C.
against the CN.T.-bur nOL..because (he Catalan workers were giving trouble,
but because the Communists wished to weaken them before destroying
them."
The cited correspondence from Companys to Prieto, according [Q Vernon
Richards (p. 47), presents evidence showing (he success of Catalonian war
industry under collectivization and demonstrating how "much more could
have been achieved had the means for expanding the industry not been denied
them by the Cemral Government." Richards also cites testimony by a
spokesman for the subsecretariat of munitions and armament of the Valencia
government admitting that "the war industry of Catalonia had produced ten
times more than the rest of Spanish industry put together and [agreeing] ... that
rhis Output could have been quadrupled as from beginning of September'" if
'The quoted testimony is from September I, 1937 ; presumably, the reference is to September
1936.