The Spanish Civil War 1936-39

The Spanish revolution and subsequent civil war, saw the rise of the oppressed masses, the end of feudal landlordism, the failures of a popular front movement, the slavery and brutality of reaction and the betrayal of the working class led by Stalinist forces. It was the Spanish Civil War that saw the fascist powers of Europe use Spain as a training ground, preparing for a European War with France and Britain, while Spain also saw the arrival of thousands of working class people dedicated to the fight against fascism.

Spain in the 1930s was an industrially backward country. Feudal landlordism still existed in some parts of the country and bourgeois democracy had not yet been fully established. There had never been a long period of political stability, with corrupt regime being replaced by another in a series of ever-lasting coup d'etats. Throughout this period it was the working class who were constantly oppressed by the small ruling minority who over-threw each other year upon year.

The Spanish Civil War was preluded with a revolutionary period led by the workers and peasants. After the world-wide economic slump of 1929 the Spanish working class were expected to pick up the pieces, while facing terrible wages and awful conditions. Rigged elections in 1931 led to massive demonstrations of working class people in favour of a socialist government. Reactionary ideas, however, started to gain popularity in the countryside after the first Popular Front, a coalition of socialists, republicans and liberals, was elected. This bourgeois-led coalition was unable to keep the promises they had made to the workers and peasants and therefore put down any factory or land occupation with harsh brutality.

The next elections saw the ascension of a coalition of reactionary forces, including fascists, monarchists and right republicans. Obviously, any workers movement was met with extreme repression.

At the next elections the second Popular Front was elected, a coalition of republicans, socialists, communists and later, anarchists. Much of the working class had illusions in this group, partly because the PCE (Spanish Communist Party), were advocating working within a bourgeois coalition and partly because the programme behind the Popular Front was radical, while many of the individuals involved were well known to unionised workers. While armed elements of the trade unions fought the rising reactionary threat, the Popular Front government was hesitant. Some material changes were made, but these reforms only succeeded in antagonising the right wing, while falling well short of what the workers and peasants needed.

In July 1936 three prominent army generals, including General Franco, revolted in Morocco. The next day the insurrection had spread to most of the cities in Spain. The army was supported by the Falange, the Carlists, monarchists and the remnants of the CEDA. The insurrection in mainland Spain was badly planned and ill-supported. Moreover, Franco's main force, the Army of Africa, was still stuck in Morocco. If the radicalised workers had been armed at this point, then the government and workers could have easily put down the insurgency. As it was, the government were too hesitant. Most of the Government feared what the now class-conscious workers would do if armed. It took two days for the final order to be sent out to arm the workers. By this time, the feared Army of Africa had been transported to Southern Spain by Nazi plains and ships, while the Nationalist paramilitaries had gained a foot hold in many of Spain's cities.

Because of the Government's hesitation the Civil War had become an inevitability. While most of the army had rebelled alongside the Generals, a number of junior officers and soldiers had refused to fire on the workers. The infamous Civil Guards also experienced the same thing. While these forces were in existence to reinforce the ruling classes and the capitalist regime, ordinary soldiers and Civil Guards realised that they too were part of an exploited class, and in solidarity with the workers, refused to fight for the Nationalists. Moreover, many of these units joined the Popular Front forces to fight Franco.

The Civil War lasted three years, which saw the whole of Spain experience devastation and killings on a massive scale. The Nationalists were able to sweep through Western Spain easily helped by Italian and German troops. The Republicans however, received no support from any of the European powers. Britain, France and the US followed a pact of ‘non-intervention’, showing that the capitalist ruling class would rather support a fascist regime than a workers movement. The Soviet Union did send aid to the struggling Republic, however the Stalinists from the USSR and Spain, were to play devastating role in the Civil War and Spanish workers movement.

The Nationalists eventually won the war in 1939, after killing thousands on the battlefield and tens of thousands behind the lines. The Nationalists were to continue their killings of Republican sympathisers until the mid-1940s, reportedly killing 250 people a day in Madrid, 150 in Barcelona and 80 in Seville. The Republic lost the war, not out of a lack of courage or idealism, but because the tactics and programme followed by the leadership of the Socialists and PCE were inherently flawed.

The socialist parties and the CNT made some huge tactical errors that led to the destruction of any hopes of revolution. Firstly by entering into the Popular Front government, they forced the right to rebel. The mild reforms the Popular Front followed, just angered the right even more, while at the same time, not giving the support to the workers that they needed. Just like Allende in Chile, the Popular Front proved that reformism only leads to reactionary uprisings in the future. The change of capitalism can only be accomplished by the working class in revolution.

Secondly, by allying themselves to the liberals and republicans, who were representatives of the capitalist regime, the socialist parties ended the chance of any socialist movement. The liberals and republicans had financial interest in the market of Spain and would never have given power to the workers. As one writer on these events said: "To ask liberals to do this is like asking a tiger to turn vegetarian." Instead, the PSOE, the POUM and the PCE should have established workers councils, like those in revolutionary Russia. However these groups had not learnt from the lessons of the Bolsheviks in 1917. These councils would have pre-empted any coup from the right and by having working class control, any reactionary counter-revolution could have been put down by the armed working class.

Unfortunately this never happened, and Spain was ushered into a new period of violence and death. In 1936, Spain had a distinct lack of a workers party that was based on Trotskyist lines, ready to take the step from radicalism to revolution. The PCE did have mass working class support, however they were under direct control from Moscow. The Stalinists followed a line of ‘victory first, revolution later’. Throughout the Civil War, the PCE started to take control in the Government, while on the ground, holding absolute control of the International Brigades and the new Popular Army that was being drafted. Using this influence the PCE purged the Republican forces of all opponents. The militias, who were fighting well on the fronts, were banned. At the same time the Stalinist-run government sent the army into Barcelona to seize control of the city from the CNT and the POUM. The PCE killed and imprisoned anyone who had slight Trotskyist or Anarchist credentials. By destroying the militias and attacking opposition groups, the Stalinists secured the fate of the Civil War, and therefore the working class.

The war led by reactionary elements could have also been stopped by appealing to the working class and foreign conscripts that fought for the Nationalists. Franco had control of most of the army from the onset of the civil war. This included the Army of Africa, most of which was made up of foreign colonial conscripts taken from Spain’s empire. A party which called for the end of imperialism which raped, pillaged and exploited countries of Northern Africa, and called for the unification of oppressed people, no matter what side they were drafted into, would have had a profound effect. Instead, the socialists and communists whole-heartedly bought into the Civil War, without putting forward a programme which would cut across the divisions that war brought. By entering into the war with the short sighted vision of ‘us and them’, they alienated many of the working class and oppressed elements that were forced to fight for Franco. Just as today Socialist Students puts forward a socialist programme which cuts across nationalist and religious struggles, like in Northern Ireland or the Middle East, by directly appealing for a united working class struggle, a Trotskyist workers party would have done the same in 1936.

It would not be an over-exaggeration to call the Spanish Civil War a tragedy. Not only did Spain have to face 50 years of a Nationalist dictatorship, but an opportunity of a workers revolution was betrayed and paid for with the lives of the heroic men and women that fought against Fascism. The Socialist Parties and the CNT followed a failed programme and should have taken the initiative in 1936 to set up Soviet style workers councils. However, the war and revolution could still have been won if it was not for two factors. Firstly the betrayal of the Republic by the Capitalist Countries let the Axis powers take such a decisive role in the War, including the experimental bombing of the Basque town of Guernica. Secondly the divisive and conservative actions of the PCE split the Republican force, leading to the defeat, but more importantly held back any workers movement that may have over-thrown capitalism.

July 19, 1936. Street fighting in Barcelona