A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneration - The Spanish Revolution, Its Errors and Possible Corrections By LIZA (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Néstor Makhno, exiled in Paris, was in contact with Spanish anarchists 
and "hoped they would learn from the Makhnovist experience[...]'Makhno 
has never shied away from a struggle; if I am still alive when you begin 
yours, I will be with you'"1. Two texts on Spain appear in The Struggle 
Against the State and Other Essays. ---- Part One ---- Our friend Néstor 
Makhno, whose insurgent activities in Ukraine are too well known in 
these circles to need repeating, scribbled some notes on the Spanish 
revolution a few months ago from his impoverished exile in France and 
sent them to us for the consideration of Spanish anarchists. A follow-up 
text will appear in the next edition.

In recent months, the character and form of the Spanish revolution have 
been determined partly by the pressures of the revolutionary masses of 
the proletariat and partly by the desires of the liberal bourgeoisie as 
such, who decided once and for all to break with the constitutional 
monarchy and secure (support) a Republic, which better suited their 
interests.

It should be noted that the Spanish Revolution began with a novel 
compromise (hidden from the masses, of course) reached between the king 
and the liberal bourgeoisie. We all know that this bourgeoisie, after 
defeating the monarchists in the municipal elections, perceived that it 
had political control over the country's political forces. It exerted 
pressure on the troops, which, from its perspective, was already in 
place, and King Alfonso XIII became frightened. It is also common 
knowledge that the monarchists, after some kind of negotiation with the 
liberal bourgeoisie, ensured that the executioner King Alfonso XIII was 
allowed to leave the country unhindered and without facing any 
punishment. Moreover, he left with his entire entourage, taking with him 
the means for a life of luxury. The king reserved the right to return to 
the throne and appoint a successor to take his place. All of this shows 
us that the liberal bourgeoisie, by rescuing the king from the justice 
of the people and transferring him to the territory of another State, 
was aware that the king could be useful to them in frightening the 
people, just when the latter were about to wrest more freedom from them 
than the bourgeoisie was prepared to grant.

The bourgeoisie made their calculations well. It is evident that the 
leading figures of Spanish liberalism took careful note of the mistakes 
made by their counterparts in the Russian Revolution regarding the 
awakening working people, and the liberals behaved as faithful guardians 
of the principle of servitude forged in Spain over the centuries. This 
servitude served the purposes of the king, his entourage, and his 
admirers, but the people barely figured in history the great people at 
whose expense the king and his courtiers lived. And, shamefully, today's 
liberals are once again appealing to these people, now that they have 
sealed their deal with the monarchists regarding the unhindered 
departure of the criminal king. A question arises, of necessity: where 
were the true friends of the people at that time, those revolutionaries 
of all stripes? Where were those people who had so often orchestrated 
attempts on the life of the criminal king? Had the ideals that drove the 
best sons of Spain to acts of heroism grown cold? It cannot be argued 
that such elements did not exist in Spain at that time. Nor can it be 
asserted that they reached any agreement with the liberals to allow the 
king to leave. The only acceptable explanation is that the Spanish 
revolutionaries, having secured freedom of expression and the right to 
organize, were busy regrouping their forces and developing practical 
action plans so that the working people could better understand them and 
be in a position to support them in the struggle for liberation. And if 
this last point is correct, what results have their meetings produced? 
Well, there is no trace of them in the revolutionary camp: the 
socialists are at the service of the liberals, and as for the trade 
unionists and anarchists, it seems that the time has not yet come to 
implement and embed their ideals in the lives of the people: in all 
likelihood, they are waiting for better times. The Bolsheviks (State 
Communists) are, as always, confined to street demonstrations, without 
assuming any responsibility in the eyes of the working people. 
Meanwhile, the liberal leaders, emboldened, boldly dictate to their 
party and the government the means by which they must advance toward 
"strong power" and "restored order." This is what the liberals want from 
the Spanish revolution. With such appetites at work, and without further 
delay, they introduce into the life of the country everything that does 
not conflict with their class interests.

This is how the liberal bourgeoisie has reached the heights of power and 
is rushing to place new chains on the country. Moreover, they do all 
this with the certainty that the socialists will support them in this 
battle and will crush the extremists as soon as they attempt to incite 
the people against them.

All of this makes it understandable that neither the liberal bourgeoisie 
nor the government fears the Bolshevik street demonstrations, nor the 
general strikes of the workers that are so frequently called throughout 
Spain under the supervision of revolutionary and anarchist syndicalists 
and which, despite being so painfully felt, almost always end in bloody 
failure. The liberal bourgeoisie can rest easy, for its leaders look 
after its well-being: thanks to the political agility and astute tactics 
of its leaders, the bourgeoisie can accurately gauge its strength, 
measure it against that of its enemies, and orient itself in relation to 
its most dangerous left-wing adversaries. Thanks to this, the 
bourgeoisie knows when and to what extent its armed forces should be 
employed against its enemies. Meanwhile, the leaders of the left either 
fail to notice, or refuse to notice, what the bourgeoisie is 
establishing in the country. In any case, the behavior of the leaders 
tells us with certainty that there is a certain confusion throughout the 
left-wing front, seemingly stemming from the fact that these leaders 
occupy working-class positions for which they are ill-suited, either by 
character or determination, or from their belief that the masses are 
incapable of putting their ideas into practice without state oversight. 
From a distance, it is difficult to label this. But one thing is clear, 
and in my view, undisputed: there is a deeply rooted confusion within 
the ranks of the left. Otherwise, the Manifesto of " The Thirty " would 
not have appeared, a manifesto that is highly detrimental to the Spanish 
revolution and the anarchist movement. This manifesto, even coming from 
veteran, high-ranking, and well-intentioned militants, could prove fatal 
to the revolutionary project. Its consequences could be even greater 
considering the many shortcomings of the Spanish revolution, given that, 
even today, it lacks a defined course of practical action and sufficient 
resources for social action, in whose absence revolutions are always 
rendered powerless. The Spanish revolution will remain powerless unless 
it proves capable of continuing its progress without the bourgeoisie and 
the Bolsheviks, in collusion with them, being on the verge of bringing 
it to a screeching halt.

Part two

I would venture to argue once again that, thanks to the absence of 
defined lines of direct action, as well as the lack of adequate 
resources for social action, a manifesto has now been published by 
thirty comrades; something similar could happen tomorrow, and because of 
this, the revolutionary front is narrowing and the revolution is 
suffering more. In light of this, the possibility that the bourgeoisie 
will end up seizing control of the revolution and that open reaction 
will worsen cannot be ruled out. But then it will be too late to work on 
forming a genuinely revolutionary front and guiding the revolution 
toward victorious expansion. As long as the working masses in Spain are 
not weary and still harbor hopes of achieving something in terms of 
winning freedom and well-being, and as long as the liberal bourgeoisie 
wants to be a left-wing bourgeoisie one day proclaiming a bourgeois 
republic and the next a workers' republic much can be done to strengthen 
the revolution and put it on the path to fruitful development. But such 
things come at a cost. They demand the utmost effort, not so much from 
isolated individuals or groups, but from the workers as a whole, in 
close ideological and tactical coordination, free from complacency 
workers who know what they want and who invest all their intellectual 
initiative in making it a reality. The truth is that our anarchist 
community is still not accustomed to collective action. Historically, 
its practice has been haphazard and, almost never in any revolution, has 
it produced the impact to which anarchists aspired, nor has it managed 
to win over the masses. But the imperative message of the times is that 
we must abandon that approach and organize our forces, organizing the 
working masses and arming them with the resources for social action that 
will allow them to defend themselves against bourgeois capitalist 
society. Moreover, that they may emerge victorious from their struggles 
against it.

The fact is that, to date, such notions have been out of place in 
anarchist thought, but their absence was notable in the Russian 
Revolution and caused enormous harm to anarchists. A damaging absence is 
also perceived in the Spanish Revolution.

When one observes the Spanish Revolution and sees that, within the left, 
the predominant force belongs to the anarchists, one cannot help but be 
moved. One cannot dismiss with indifference the errors whose most likely 
cause is the confusion that has gripped its leading figures: instead of 
capitalizing on historical developments that occur only very rarely, the 
movement witnessed the appearance of fissures within its own ranks. And 
all this happened at a time when the revolutionary calendar demanded the 
utmost effort from the movement and the initiative of its groups to help 
the country organize its labor resources in order to create its means of 
production. There was also a need to begin establishing committees for 
the defense of the revolution, through which the country could be 
quickly liberated politically, from the oppression of the bureaucracy; 
economically, from the exploitative employer; and intellectually, from 
all past forms of enslavement. Then it could dedicate its efforts to 
building the new order of a free society and a completely new way of 
life. All of this would be achieved without any oversight from the 
State, the Church, or financial capital.

It is not that I think all is lost yet: the Spanish people still harbor 
the hope of not succumbing to the bourgeoisie and believe themselves 
perfectly capable of charting the course of the revolution through which 
they can realize their age-old ambitions: to be free and independent 
from the bourgeoisie and any order it imposes. Consequently, 
revolutionary anarchists must make their own independent assessment of 
the vanguard forces of the revolution and not be distracted by "united 
fronts" and other abstractions about the future, but live in the here 
and now and work with their eyes on the present. There must be a 
outlined program of practical action, brief but clear for all its 
supporters, who may be scattered throughout the country, and easily 
understandable for the broad masses of workers.

In that program, anarchists must affirm that all means of production 
belong to the nascent labor-based society and must be under the 
management of workers' unions. It must be declared that all land belongs 
to the new society and must be under the management of peasant 
societies, communes, and their unions. Finance, education, and other 
spheres of social life must belong to workers' associations free from 
sanctions by state authorities.

In propagating these issues, anarchists must act with the new republican 
system of exploitation in mind. The bourgeoisie must be forcibly 
dispossessed of the land, factories, mines, and means of transport. Once 
the bourgeoisie resists these gains, they must be placed in a situation 
where they have no time to defend the wealth accumulated through the 
labor of others, but enough time to save their own lives.

Organized and uncompromising struggle will draw the majority of 
revolutionary workers into the orbit of the anarchists. In that case, no 
one will be left to remain on the sidelines, neither signatories of the 
"Manifesto of the Thirty," much less their followers. All the vital 
forces of the revolution, attracted by anarchist ideology and guided by 
its organizations and strategy, will set about attacking the strongholds 
of the bourgeoisie, the government, and its mercenaries. The working 
people will triumph, and their age-old dream of freedom and equality 
based on free labor will be a reality.

Nestor Makhno

From  Tierra y Libertad  (Barcelona) Friday, April 27, 1934 and Friday, 
May 4, 1934.

The death of Makhno and the Spanish comrades

Where did the Makhno article reproduced above come from, and through 
whom did it arrive?

Focusing solely on Land and Liberty:

On June 30, 1934, an appeal appeared for "Solidarity with Nestor Makhno, 
gravely ill," stating that he had been in that condition for five 
months. "His recovery will be long." Donations were to be sent to Madame 
A. Faucier in Paris.
On August 9, 1934, a front-page article about Makhno was published, 
reporting his death on July 27. A shorter text noted that, after his 
death, the United Press agency in Paris had circulated a telegram, 
published by a Barcelona newspaper on July 29, which Tierra y Libertad 
considered defamatory and slanderous against Makhno.
On August 16, 1934, Tierra y Libertad included on page 4 an article by 
Ángel Calvo entitled "Comrade Makhno Has Died." It read: "At six o'clock 
in the morning of July 25, the valiant Russian revolutionary and 
principal driving force of the Ukrainian revolution, Nestor Makhno, 
passed away. ÁNGEL CALVO."
Calvo has an entry in the Dictionnaire international des militants 
anarchistes:

"Angel CALVO

Born on October 16, 1899 in Remolins (Tortosa) - alligator - 
FAI-CNT-Drancy (Seine-Saint Denis)

After fleeing to France, Ángel Calvo, a tiler working in Drancy, served 
as secretary of the Voluntad group in 1934. This group was active in the 
Paris area and affiliated with the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). 
He participated very actively in the 1935 campaign for the right of 
asylum, along with other members of the Drancy group, including 
Heriberto Ramos, alias Juan Robles y Robles, Fabriciano Carrasco, Manuel 
Estrada, and Pelayo López. The FAI then had numerous groups in 
France[...]Calvo was living at that time at number 17 Rue Jules Verne in 
Drancy with Fabriciano Carrasco, and his name appeared on a list of 
anarchist addresses to be checked in the Paris area.

Translation by Liza.

1. Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack , p. 277.
2. The Manifesto of the Thirty, so named for its 30 original 
signatories, was drafted in August 1931 by prominent members of the CNT 
committees and the editorial board of Solidaridad Obrera . It was 
designed to halt the process by which the CNT was having to bear the 
consequences of the revolts and insurrections inspired by the FAI. In 
the repressions following these events, the CNT faced the closure of its 
premises and unions, mass arrests, and the cost of financing legal 
defenses and supporting the families of those arrested, killed, or 
deported. The government encouraged the Thirty (the so-called " 
treintistas ") as a more moderate opposition. It should be noted that in 
previous years some of these supposed "reformists" had belonged to the 
more radical wing of the anarcho-syndicalist movement .

https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2026/03/31/la-revolucion-espanola-sus-errores-y-posibles-correcciones/
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