Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

OBJECTIVITY AND LIBERAL SCHOLARSHIP
Catalonia had had access to the necessary means fo r purchasing raw materials
that were unobtainable in Spanish territory." It is imporrant to recall that the
central government had enormous gold reserves (soon to be transmitted to the
Soviet Union), so that raw materials fo r Catalan industry could probably have
been purchased, despite the hostility of the Western democracies to the
Republic during the revolutionary period (see below). Furthermore, raw materials
had repeatedly been requested. On September 24, 1936, Juan Fabregas,
the CNT delegate to the Economic Council of Catalonia who was in part
responsible for the collectivization decree cited earlier, reported that the financial
difficulties of Catalonia were created by the refusal of the central government
to "give any assistance in economic and financial questions, presumably
because it has little sympathy with the work of a practical order which is being
carried out in Catalonia"82-that is, collectivization. He "went on to recoum
that a Commission which went to Madrid to ask for credits to purchase war
materials and raw materials, offering 1,000 million pesetas in securities lodged
in the Bank of Spain, met with a blank refusal. It was sufficiem that the new
war industry in Catalonia was controlled by the workers of the C.N.T. for the
Madrid Government to refuse any unconditional aid. Only in exchange for
governmem control would they give financial assistance. "83
Sroue and Temime take a rather similar position. Commenting on the
charge of "incompetence" leveled against the collectivized industries, they
52 poim out that "one must not neglect the terrible burden of the war." Despite
this burden, they observe, "new techniques of management and elimination of
dividends had permitted a lowering of prices" and "mechanisation and rationalization,
introduced in numerous enterprises ... had considerably augmented
production. The workers accepted the enormous sacrifices with enthusiasm
because, in most cases, they had the conviction that the factory belonged to
them and that at last they were working for themselves and their class brothers.
A truly new spirit had come over the economy of Spain with the concentration
of scanered enterprises, the simplification of commercial patterns, a
significant structure of social projects for aged workers, children, disabled, sick
and the personnel in general" (pp. 150-51). The great weakness of the revolution,
they argue, was the fact that it was not carried through to completion. In
part this was because of the war; in part, a consequence of the policies of the
central governmem. They too emphasize the refusal of the Madrid government,
in the early stages of colleC(ivization, to grant credits or supply funds to
collectivized industry or agriculture-in the case of Catalonia, even when substantial
guarantees were offered by the Catalonian government. Thus the collectivized
enterprises were forced to exist on what assets had been seized at the
time of the revolution. The comrol of gold and credit "permitted the government
to resrrict and prevent the function of collective enterprises at will" (p.
144).