Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

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CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM carabineros." Apart from this difficulty, adminedly serious, there seems little reason to suppose that the problem of manning frontier posts contributed to the ebbing of the revolutionary tide. The available records do not indicate that the problems of administering villages or public utilities were either "unsuspected" or too complex for the Catalonian workers-a remarkable and unsuspected development, but one which nevertheless appears to be borne out by the evidence available to us. I want to emphasize again that Jackson presents no evidence to support his conclusions about the ebbing of the revolutionary tide and the reasons fo r the disaffection of the Catalonian workers. Once again, I think it fair to attribute his conclusions to the elitist bias of the liberal intellectual rather than ro the historical record. Consider next Jackson's comment that the anarchists "explained the loss of Malaga as due in large measute to the low morale and the disorientation of the Andalusian prole(ariat, which saw the Valencia government evolving steadily toward the right." Again, it seems that Jackson regards this as just another indication of the naivete and unreasonableness of the Spanish anarchists. However, here again there is more to the story. One of the primary sources that Jackson cites is Borkenau, quite naturally, since Borkenau spent several days in the area just prior to the fall of Milaga on February 8, 1937. But Borkenau's detailed observations tend to bear out the anarchist "explanation," at least in part. He believed that Malaga might have been saved, but only by a "fight of despair" with mass involvement, of a sort that "the anarchists might have led." But twO 57 factors prevented such a defense: first, the officer assigned to lead the defense, Lieutenant Colonel Villalba, "interpreted this task as a purely military one, whereas in reality he had no military means at his disposal but only the fo rces of a popular movement"; he was a professional officer, "who in the secrecy of his heart hated the spirit of the militia" and was incapable of comprehending the "political factor."92 A second facror was the significant decline, by February, of political consciousness and mass involvement. The anarchist committees were no longer functioning and the authority of the police and Civil Guards had been restored. "The nuisance of hundreds of independent village police bodies had disappeared, bur with it the passionate interest of the village in the civil war .... The short interlude of the Spanish Soviet system was at an end" (p. 212). After reviewing the local siwation in Milaga and the conflicts in the Valencia government (which failed to provide suppOrt or arms for the militia defending Malaga), Borkenau concludes (p. 228): "The Spanish republic paid with the fall of Malaga for the decision of the Right wing of its camp to make an end of social revolution and of its Left wing not to allow thaL" Jackson's discussion of the fa ll of M a.laga refers to the terror and political rivalries within the town but makes no reference to the fact that Borkenau's description, and the accompanying interpretation, do support the belief that the defeat was due in large measure to low morale and to the incapacity, or unwillingness, of the Valencia government to fight a popular war. On the contrary, he concludes that Colonel Villalba's lack of means fo r "controlling the bitter
OBJECTIVITY AND LIBERAL SCHOLARSHIP political rivalries" was one factor that prevented him from carrying out the essential military tasks. Thus he seems to adopt the view that Borkenau condemns, that the task was a "purely military one." Borkenau's eyewitness account appears to me much more convincing. In this case too Jackson has described the situation in a somewhat misleading fashion, perhaps again because of the elitist bias that dominates the liberal-Communist interpretation of the Civil War. Like Liemenanr Colonel Villalba, liberal historians often reveal a strong distaste fo r "the fo rces of a popular movement" and "the spirit of the militia." And an argument can be given that they correspondingly fail to comprehend [he "political facror." 58 In the May Days of 1937, the revolution in Catalonia received the final blow. On May 3, the councilor fo r public order, PSUC member Rodriguez. Salas, appeared at the central telephone building with a detachment of police, without prior warning or consultation with the anarchist ministers in the government, to take over the telephone exchange. The exchange, fo rmerly the property of IT&T, had been captured by Barcelona workers in July and had since functioned under the control of a UGr·CNT comminee, with a governmental delegate, quite in accord with the collectivization decree of October 24, 1936. According to the London Daily Wo rker (May 11, 1937), "Salas sent the armed republican police to disarm the employees {here, most of them members of the CNT unions." The motive, according to Juan Comorera, was "to put a stop to an abnormal situation," namely, that no onc could spcak ovcr the telephone "without the indiscreet ear of the controller knowing it."93 Armed resistance in the telephone building prevented its occupation. Local defense comminees erected barricades throughout Barcelona. Companys and the anarchist leaders pleaded with the workers to disarm. An uneasy truce continued umit May 6, when the first detachments of Assault Guards arrived, violating the promises of the government that the truce would be observed and military forces withdrawn. The troOps were under the command of General Pozas, fo rmerly commander of the hated Civil Guard and now a member of the Communist party. In the fighting that followed, there were some five hundred killed and over a thousand wounded. "The May Days in reality sounded the death-knell of the revolution, announcing political defeat for all and death for certain of the revolutionary leaders."94 These events-of enormous significance in the history of the Spanish revolution-Jackson sketches in bare outline as a marginal incident. Obviously the historian's account must be selective; from the left-liberal point of view that Jackson shares with Hugh Thomas and many others, the liquidation of the revolution in Catalonia was a minor event, as the revolution itself was merely a kind of irrelevam nuisance, a minor irritant diverting energy from the struggle to save the bourgeois government. The decision to crush the revolution by force is described as follows:
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CHOMSKY ON ANRRCHISM SELECTED AND E
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CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM PREFACE 5 INTR
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LRNGUAGE AND FREEDOM
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LRNGUAGE AND FREEDOM other facultie
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LRNGUAGE AND FREEDOM
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LRNGURGE FIND FREEDOM 1. 1. 4 deriv
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LRNGUAGE AND FREEDOM ty, or even in
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THREE NOTES ON ANARCHISM (1970) U8
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NOTES ON RNRRCHISM through (he taki
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NOTES ON RNRRCHISM 1. 22 shabby, an
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NOTES ON RNRRCHISM bourgeoisie. It
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NOTES ON RNRRCHISM 1. 28 remarks by
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NOTES ON RNRRCHISM NOTES This essay
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NOTES ON RNRRCHISM 27 For discussio
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THE RElEVANCE OF ANARCHO-SYNDICALIS
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PREFACE TO ANTOLOGIJA ANARHIlMA
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PREFACE TO ANTOLOGIJA ANARHIlMA of
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CONTRINING THE THREAT OF DEMOCRACY
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CONTRINING THE THRERT OF DEMOCRACY
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SEVEN ANARCHISM , MARXISM AND HOPE
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RNRRCHISM, MRRXISM RND HOPE FOR THE
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EIGHT GOALS AND VISIONS (1996) In r
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GOALS AND VISIONS It should be adde
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GOALS AND VISIONS 1928 that "Labour
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GOALS AND VISIONS understand what l
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GOALS AND VISIONS 1. 98 assisted ma
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GOALS AND VISIONS Medicine cites th
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GOALS AND VISIONS Minnesota Press,
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NINE ANARCHISM, INTELLECTUALS AND T
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ANARCHISM, INTEllECTUALS FIND THE S
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ANARCHISM, INTEllECTUALS AND THE ST
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INTERVIEW WITH BRRRY PRTEMRN I was
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INTERVIEW WITH BRRRY PRTEMRN every
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INTERVIEW WITH BRRRY PRTEMRN My son
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INTERVIEW WITH BRRRY PRTE MRN it-th
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ELEVEN INTERVIEW WITH ZIGA VOD OVN
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INTERVIEW WITH ZIGA VODOVNIK J thin
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INTERVIEW WITH ZIGA VODOVNIK onize
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INTERVIEW WITH ZIGA VODOVNIK What i
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