Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM
exaggeration, it is a fact that the popular organs of administration were wiped
out by Lister's legions, and the revolution was now over, so far as Aragon was
concerned.
About these events, Jackson has the fo llowing comments:
On August II the government announced the dissolution of the
Consejo de Aragon, the anarchist-dominated administration
which had been recognized by Largo Caballero in December,
1936. The peasants were known ro hate the Consejo, the anarchists
had deserted the from during the Barcelona fighting, and
the very existence of the Consejo was a standing challenge ro the
authority of the central government. For all these reasons Negrin
did not hesitate ro send in troops, and to arrest the anarchist
officials. Once their authority had been broken, however, they
were released. 10 I
These remarks are most interesting. Consider first the charge that the anarchists
had desened the front during the May Days. It is true that elements of
certain anarchist and POUM divisions were prepared ro march on Barcelona,
but after the "fragile truce" was established on May 5, they did nor do so; no
anarchist forces even approached Barcelona ro defend the Barcelona proletariat
and its institutions from attack. However, a motorized column of 5,000
Assault Guards was sent from the front by the government ro break the "frag- 61
ile truce." I 0 2 Hence the only forces to "desert the front" during the Barcelona
fighting were those dispatched by the government to complete the job of dismantling
the revolution, by fo rce. Recall Orwell's observations quoted above,
page 59.
What about Jackson's statement that "the peasants were known to hate the
Consejo?" fu in the other cases I have cited, Jackson gives no indication of any
evidence on which such a judgment might be based. The most detailed investigation
of (he collectives is from anarchist sources, and they indicate that
Aragon was one of the areas where collectivization was most widespread and
successful. 103 Both the CNT and the UGT Land Workers' Federation were
vigorous in their suppon for collectivization, and there is no doubt that both
were mass organizations. A number of nonanarchists, observing collectivization
in Aragon firsthand, gave very favorable repons and stressed the voluntary
character of collectivization. 104 According ro Gaston Leval, an anarchist
observer who carried out detailed investigation of rural collectivization, "in
Aragon 75 percent of small proprietors have voluntarily adhered to the new
order of things," and others were not forced to involve themselves in collectives.105
Other anarchist observers-Augustin Souchy in particular-gave
detailed observations of the functioning of the Aragon collectives. Unless one
is willing to assume a fantastic degree of falsification, it is impossible to reconcile
their descriptions with the claim that "the peasants were known to hate the
Consejo"-unless, of course, one restricts the term "peasant" to "individual