Chomsky on Anarchism.pdf - Zine Library

CHOMSKY ON ANARCHISM
collection of his works would be a very useful contribution to our understanding of
the Spanish Civil War and to the problems of revolutionary war in generaL
110 Cattell, op. cit. , p. 208. See also the remarks by Borkenau, Brenan, and Bollotcn
cited earlier. Neither Cattell nor Borkenau regards this decline of fighting spirit as a
major factor, however.
III op. cit. , p. 195, n. 7.
112 To this extent, Trotsky took a similar position. See his Lesson o/Spain (london,
Workers' International Press, 1937).
113 Cited in Richards, op. cit. , p. 23.
114 H.E. Kaminsk, Ceuxde Barcelone (Paris, Les Editions Denoel, 1937), p. 181. This
book contains very interesting observations on anarchist Spain by a skeptical though
sympathetic eyewitness.
115 May 15, 1937. Cited by Richards, op. cit. , p. 106.
IIG Cited by Broue and Temime , op. cit., p. 258, n. 34. The conquest of Saragossa
was the goal, never realized, of the anarchist militia in Aragon.
117 IbM. , p. 175.
118 IbM., p. 193.
119 The fact was not lost of foreign journalists. Morrow (op. cit. , p. 68) quotes James
Minifie in the New York Herald Tribune, April 28, 1937: "A reliable police force is
being built up quietly but surely. The Va lencia government discovered an ideal
instrument for this purpose in the Carabineros. These were formerly customs officers
and guards, and always had a good reputation for loyalty. It is reported on good
authority that 40,000 have been recruited for this force, and that 20,000 have already
been armed and equipped .... The anarchists have already noticed and complained
about the increased strength of this force at a time when we all know there's little
enough traffic coming over the frontiers, land or sea. They realize that it will be used
against them." Consider what these soldiers, as well as Lister's division or the asaltos
described by Orwell, might have accomplished on the Aragon front, for example.
Consider also the effect on the militiamen, deprived of arms by the central government,
of the knowledge that these well-armed, highly trained troops were liquidating
the accomplishments of their revolution.
120 Cited in Rocker, The Tragedy a/Spain, p. 37.
97
121 For references, see Bolloten, op. cit. , p. 192, no. 12.
122 Cited in Rocker, The Tragedy o/Spain, p. 37.
123 Liston M. Oak, "Balance Sheet of the Spanish Revolution," Socialist Review, Vol.
6 (September 1937), pp. 7-9, 26. This reference was brought to my attention by
William B. Watson. A striking example of the distortion introduced by propaganda
efforts of the 1930s is the strange story of the influential film The Span ish Earth,
filmed in 1937 by Joris Ivens with a text (Written afterwards) by Hemingway-a
project that was apparently initiated by Dos Passos. A very revealing account of this