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impoverished peasants and, on the other side all the reactionary forces of the aristocracy, the clergy and the
bourgeoisie.” 1045
In its first political reactions, at the end of July 1936, the GIC was in no doubt that the first signs of a proletarian
revolution were present in Spain. The strength of the revolutionary proletariat had been directly proportional to
the impotence of the Popular Front faced with the Pronunciamiento: in a few hours the insurrection swept away
the officer corps and the Guardia Civil. There was no doubt that faced with the insurgent workers the fractions of
the bourgeoisie (monarchists, republicans, and fascists), openly demonstrated the solidarity of their class. The
more the struggle of the workers took on a revolutionary sense, the more the unity of the bourgeoisie came to
light:
“The more the power of the workers threatens the position of capital the greater, in the same proportion, is the
current among the bourgeoisie to push the Popular Front government to reach a compromise with the fascists in
order together to cut down their common enemy: the revolutionary proletariat.” 1046
In light of the facts, this ‘declaration’ was quite justified. 1047
At the beginning of events in Spain, the GIC had the tendency to apply the lessons of the Russian and German
revolutions mechanically, while nevertheless remaining cautious in its analysis of the evolution of events.
‘Lessons of July 1936’ in Spain
For the GIC, the events of July 36 in Spain were in continuity with the proletarian revolution in Russia. The
insurrection of the Spanish workers had some similarities with this “period of the Russian revolution from July
to October 1917, where the workers, sailors and peasants struggled against the white guards of Kornilov”. 1048
(idem). This meant that the proletarian revolution in Spain was moving towards the seizure of power, as it did
after July 1917. The assimilation of Franco to Kornilov was common. 1049 The GIC, like many other
revolutionary groups, had a tendency, for some weeks at least, to define the struggle on the military front as a
defence of the revolution faced with the ‘Whites’ of Franco. 1050 That meant that the subjective conditions of the
proletarian revolution in Spain were present, as they had been in Russia in 1917: the end of a short counterrevolution,
after 1907, was revealed by the arming of the workers and the formation of workers’ councils.
For the GIC, it was the militias and the committees that appeared in the July days which demonstrated the reality
of the revolution. The militias were considered as the ferment of the armed dictatorship of the proletariat: “...as
long these militias still dominate the streets, the government cannot do what fit when the workers defend their
own interests. They rule the whole of production and distribution and take the necessary measures to pursue their
struggle, with stopping in front of bourgeois property rights” (idem). Fascinated by the economic tasks of the
militias and the committees, the GIC did not yet see their role of recruiting workers for the military front.
1045 Räte-Korrespondenz, No. 18/19, August 1936, ‚Klassenkampf in Spanien’, in: PIC No. 13, August 1936.
1046 Räte-Korrespondenz, No. 18/19, idem.
1047 The attempts at compromise between the Republican leaders and the nationalist Generals are amply documented. See B.
Bolloten, La révolution espagnole (Paris: Ruedo Iberico, 1977), pp. 50-53. [English: The Spanish Civil War. Revolution and
Counterrevolution (New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991).]
1048 Räte-Korrespondenz, No. 18/19.
1049 That comparison of Franco to Kornilov was very often taken up in 1936/7 by the trotskyists, but rejected by somme
radical dissents: “The Kerensky ministry – at the time of Kornilov – when compared to that of Caballero today, presents this
fundamental difference: the first is a last attempt by capitalism to fend off the attack of the proletariat against its state,
against its regime the Caballero government represents the perfected form of capitalism’s plan to avoid the evolution of the
struggle against the capitalist state”. [Bilan, No. 39, Jan.-Feb. 1937.]
1050 This was the case of groups like Union Communiste in France and Ligue des Communistes Internationalistes in
Belgium.
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