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.
An account of the fighting in Barcelona in May 1937 when the Communists consolidated their hold on power and turned decisively against the anarchists and revolutionary workers.
Liz Willis writes on the conditions and role of women in and around the Spanish Civil War and revolution of 1936-1939. Originally published by Solidarity, London, October 15th 1975.
In many respects there were very close parallels between the proletarian revolutions of [Russia] 1917 and [Spain] 1936. Spain and Russia were both gripped by profound economic crises rooted in their semi-feudal land systems. Both were agricultural economies based on a poverty-stricken peasantry. Capitalism had made little headway in Spain because of its inability to compete with the great industrial nations which had got into the field ahead of it; and because of the restricted internal market open to it Spanish industry struggled along by supplementing the economies of the major powers.
Tom Wetzel's historical article and analysis of the Spanish Civil War and Revolution, and in particular the activities of the Spanish anarchists within it. In text and PDF format.