In 1936, after the liberation of Aragon from Franco's forces, leading Spanish anarchist Buenaventura Durruti was interviewed by Pierre van Paasen of the Toronto Star. In this interview he gives his views on Fascism, government and social revolution despite the fact that his remarks have only been reported in English - and were never actually written down by him in his native Spanish - they are worth repeating here.
This was the first book in English that is devoted to the experiments in workers’ self-management, both urban and rural, which constituted one of the most remarkable social revolutions in modern history. Libertarian communism was truly the creation of workers and peasants a “spontaneous” creation, for which the groundwork had been laid by decades of struggle and education, experiment and thought.
Dutch-Canadian journalist Pierre van Paassen recounts his visit of liberated Barcelona, his meeting with libertarian fighter Buenaventura Durruti, and the taking of the town of Sietamo by anarchist forces. This is an extract from van Paassen’s book Days of our Years, which documents his experiences in Europe, Africa and the Middle East before the outbreak of World War II.
A short biography of anarchist and guerrilla leader Nestor Makhno, who led the anarchist Insurrectionary Army of the Ukraine, known as the Makhnovist movement.