A Las Barricadas!

Entry #4: Armies and Militia

Like OTL, the Anarchist militias manage to take over the Island of Iziba and establish a beach head on Majorca. IOTL, the militias, in spite of having artillery and air support failed to press their advantage and were kicked off. ITTL, lead by Makhnovist veteran Peter Arshinov, the anarchists press their advantage and secure Majorca before the end of August. They also manage to secure Formentera. Anarchy is introduced to the islands in the same manner the Makhnovists introduced it in the Ukraine. In short order the three islands join the Federation, which by now includes Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and most of what parts of Andalusia that hasn't fallen to the Nationalists. Although de facto the Anarchists control a much larger area and are a powerful force everywhere that hasn't fallen to the Nationalists.


In the West of Spain things also follow OTL to up to a point. The experienced Army of Africa steamrolls up western Spain, crushing the still inexperienced militias and loyalist troops that stand against them. Although the militias fight bravely and with more aptitude than expected, they are largely left high and dry by the Loyalist Army which is being called back to Madrid.

IOTL, General Franco and Colonel Yagure argued bitterly after seizing Talavera de la Reina about where to go next. Franco wanted to advance to Toledo and lift the siege of Alcazar, while Yagure wanted to attack Madrid. OTL Franco got his way. ITTL Jose Antonio, leader of the Falange, is present to side with Yagure. Unlike OTL where Germany and Italy only provided aid to Franco, ITTL they provide their aid to Antonio who they see as a good fascist.

Franco backs down, and Alcazar falls to CNT and UGT militia on September 29, seriously hurting Nationalist morale. Yagure marches toward Madrid. The Caballero government flees to Cuenca, leaving a junta in charge of the defense of the capital, although besides the communist dominated 5th Regiment the militias are the only troops who could be called upon.

Colonel Yagure reaches the suburbs of Madrid on October 1 and so begins the first battle for Madrid.


International Situation

Tensions between Germany and France have been increasing rapidly thanks to the proxy war in Spain. It would only take a minor incident for war to erupt. Nothing sets off the tinder, but portions of the French Army including Petain start discussing secretly if the Nationalists might have had the right idea on how to react to “Popular Fronts”.

News of the Fall of Alcazar set off a series of minor strikes and widespread slowdown strikes in Italy and Germany. The strikes are put down by strikebreakers, but the class war is back in those countries. There is also a series of more major strikes in the Soviet Union.

With the example of the Federation, Anarchism and Syndicalism experience a resurgence in the Labor movements of many countries. Mainly this is at the expense of Marxism, although libertarian Marxists like the Council Communists also gain.



Map as of October 1st:

A Las Barricadas October 1st 1936.png
 
Last edited:

Eurofed

Banned
Interesting update. It seems like the Federation might be end up absorbing Republican Spain even sooner than I think, while the divided leadership does not bod too well for the Nationalists.

I only have severe reservations about this:

News of the Fall of Alcazar set off strikes which spiral into general strikes in Italy and Germany. Mussolini and Hitler respond identically, by sending in the army to brutally repress the strikers.

Wholly unrealistic leftwank. The totalitarian grip of fascism on Germany and Italy was much stronger than what is implied here, widespread strikes aren't going to happen unless it's a prerevolutionary situation, because the country is on the verge of economic collapse or military defeat. Hitler and Mussolini are actually quite popular at home in this period, because of the good economic situation and the foreign policy so it is terribly unlikely that the leftist underground could muster enough support among the workers to organize widespread strikes, much less a general strike that requires the intervention of the army to quell. Only a politicized minority is going to hear or care about these news, and the secret police can take care of them without too much trouble. By the way, the same standard applies to the USSR. The Anarchists have to reap much, much more success before it can begin to destabilize the rule of the dictators.

A resurgence of anarchism in non-totalitarian countries is at the moment much more realistic.
 
=Wholly unrealistic leftwank. The totalitarian grip of fascism on Germany and Italy was much stronger than what is implied here, widespread strikes aren't going to happen unless it's a prerevolutionary situation, because the country is on the verge of economic collapse or military defeat. Hitler and Mussolini are actually quite popular at home in this period, because of the good economic situation and the foreign policy so it is terribly unlikely that the leftist underground could muster enough support among the workers to organize widespread strikes, much less a general strike that requires the intervention of the army to quell. Only a politicized minority is going to hear or care about these news, and the secret police can take care of them without too much trouble. By the way, the same standard applies to the USSR. The Anarchists have to reap much, much more success before it can begin to destabilize the rule of the dictators.

A resurgence of anarchism in non-totalitarian countries is at the moment much more realistic.
It's far from inconceivable, actually. Far more strikes have occurred in totalitarian countries than you would think possible. While I'm not certain of the history of labor in Nazi Germany, I do know that there were plenty of resistance efforts by labor unions which were unfortunately all crushed.

And as for general strikes, East Germany had on in 1951-2 that nearly toppled the government. Had it not been for Soviet military intervention, of course. Of course, there's also the Hungarian general strike in 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968.
 
I will chime in that the 1968 Strike in France happened seemingly apropos of nothing. It started over a problem with music club funding in school and turned into a two week general strike that utterly paralyzed France's economy.
 

Eurofed

Banned
It's far from inconceivable, actually. Far more strikes have occurred in totalitarian countries than you would think possible. While I'm not certain of the history of labor in Nazi Germany, I do know that there were plenty of resistance efforts by labor unions which were unfortunately all crushed.

Resistence efforts are one thing, but a *general strike* is the hallmark of a prerevolutionary situation in a totalitarian country. It indicates that the normal means of suppressing the opposition have totally broken down.

And as for general strikes, East Germany had on in 1951-2 that nearly toppled the government. Had it not been for Soviet military intervention, of course. Of course, there's also the Hungarian general strike in 1956 and the Prague Spring in 1968.

All typical cases of a revolutionary situation. In 1952 and 1956, the Soviets and their local Stalinist puppets had ruthlessly squezzed the country dry and bled it with purges, in 1968 the local government was driving a reformist experiment. Moreover, there was also the issue of national resistance to Soviet imperialistic control. Make no mistake, a rather sizable row of spontaneous strikes (not a general strike, though) did happen in March 1943 Italy, but by then the fascist regime was already teetering out of military defeat. All these examples supports my point. To my knowledge, I am not aware of any strikes of comparable intensity that occurred in Nazi Germany.
 

Eurofed

Banned
I will chime in that the 1968 Strike in France happened seemingly apropos of nothing. It started over a problem with music club funding in school and turned into a two week general strike that utterly paralyzed France's economy.

Well, 1968 was another case where there was a worldwide radical polarization of the emerging youth counterculture, which unleashed a pretty sizable amount of riots in France, Italy, America, Mexico. It is understandable that the political shock may unleash a general strike in a democratic country.

My point is that in a totalitarian state, the country must typically be quite fucked up, and in a potential prerevolutonary situation, typically by serious economic trouble, military defeat, or the like, before the opposition can gather enough widespread support to openly challenge the regime with a general strike. In 1936, the fascist regimes in Germany and Italy were actually rather popular among the unpoliticized masses, Mussolini had brought home the much-popular conquest of Ethiopia and the economic situation was good, Hitler an economic upswing with reduction of unemployment, the end of the reparations, and the reassertion of full national sovreignty over Rhineland.
 
Two thirds of French workers were on strike Eurofed, does that sound like the youth counterculture is the only reason it happened? General strikes can happen out of seemly nowhere. Also, a nation isn't fucked up simply by being totalitarian?

Would a widespread work-to-rule slowdown strike be plausible in your mind? I think it's called a "white strike" in Italian?
 
Last edited:

Eurofed

Banned
Two thirds of French workers were on strike Eurofed, does that sound like the youth counterculture is the only reason it happened? General strikes can happen out of seemly nowhere.

Of course not, there also were the issue of the worker class (especially the younger, relatively unskilled portion that had been hired in the last deacde or so to fuel post-war industrialization) being interested in grabbing a rather greater slice of the post-war affluence.

Also, a nation isn't fucked up simply by being totalitarian?

It is, but it has to be seen if it is FU enough to being willing and challenge repression en masse. In Romania 1989 it was. I would just not push the envelope too much by making Nazifascism and Stalinism take a serious hit b/c the good guys won a battle in a foreign country. At the least, make the Federation win the SCW and become an haven and source of support for anarchist revolutionaries in the totalitarian countries, and then we have something that can shake the masses to the point that the dictators begin to tremble.

Would a widespread work-to-rule slowdown strike be plausible in your mind? I think it's called a "white strike" in Italian?

Just have a sizable but ultimately limited amount of strikes happen here and there in a patchwork pattern, the form of protest is relatively unimportant, given the nature of the regime. What it matters is that it is too early for making the resistance movement too cohesive and widespread. Again, make the Federation win more in order to justify it. Even in 1848 and 1989, revolutions in other countries were triggered by (seemingly) successful ones in the forerunner countries.

Oh, if German and Italian workers are able to notice and make some reaction, so should Soviet ones. In 1936, they are getting a worse deal than their Western counterparts.
 
You bring up good points Eurofed. I shall settle for simply reigniting the class war.

Edit: Fuck! I forgot about Malaga! There's supposed to be an anarchist dot there, I'll fix that in the next map.
 
Entry #5:

Madrid

The battle of Madrid lasted the entire month of October and into November. The junta left in charge of Madrid found itself nearly powerless as the militias ignored the orders of the inexperienced and young generals in favor of Black Army veteran Voline. The Junta's refusal to work with Voline exacerbated the ammunition shortage and occasionally caused confusion.

In the Madrid Suburbs, Yagure's Army of Africa had to contend with innovative tactics, unexpectedly well developed defenses, and opponents who where intimately familiar with the terrain. Nonetheless, technological superiority and greater experience meant that it was hand to hand in the city proper by 16 October. Which was when a CNT column from Toledo attacked Yagure's supply line, turning the tide. Yagure was then gradually pushed back until the arrival from the north of the Durruti Column on November 2.

By November 4 Yagure had been repulsed from the city, Madrid's southern flank was secured by the CNT militia, and both sides had dug in. The first of the International Brigades arrive at the newly declared Madrid Commune on November 6.


Action, Reaction, and Counter-Reaction

From the moment Companys and his offer had been brought before the Barcelona General Assembly the CNT-FAI had divided into two factions. The “Purist” faction, lead by Makhno and Durruti, argued that collaboration with the Republic against the Nationalists would lead to the strangulation of the Revolution. The “Anti-Fascist” faction, lead by Juan Garcia Oliver and P felt that the Nationalists were a greater evil and favored alliance with the Republic against the Nationalists. Until the 1st Battle of Madrid the Anti-Fascists were a slight majority, but that began to change when the Caballero Government abandoned Madrid to the Junta.


A Note on the Economics of the Federation

Workplace self-management is the normal mode of operation in the Federation, although a number of family businesses and most self-employed artisans decided not to collectivize. Barcelona had already shifted to wartime production by 22 July, three days after the coup attempt. The textile industry voluntarily collectivized and while production dropped in the wake of the coup, by October it had already returned to pre civil war output. Technologies have been widely introduced that would previously have lead to bitter strikes, the workers gain leisure time from the new technologies instead of getting sacked as before.

Agriculturally the vast majority of the Federation's farms collectivized to a degree. Only a very few farms are fully collectivized, most have at least a few farmers who refused to add their land to the commons. These farmers are not allowed to hire outside their family and any land they are unable to cultivate themselves are expropriated by the community, but are otherwise left to their own devices. Agricultural production is up 20% in most places, reaching 25% in some places, even considering that many young men have left the farms to join the militias. There are food shortages, but this is due to militias getting priority by the transportation collectives, and the food situation is much better in the Federation than in the Republic or in Nationalist territory.

Financially the peseta has been abolished in most of the Federation, either replaced with labor-time notes in the vein of Josiah Warren or a gift economy along the lines of Kropotkin. In many places the peseta is only used for trading with the Republic or foreign nations. Mutual Banks as advocated by Proudhon are a common fixture, often their initial capital was ransacked from the local church.


International Reaction to the Battle of Madrid

News of the repulsion of the Nationalists from Madrid and the declaration of the Madrid Commune lead to open celebration on the street in most of Europe and the Americas. In many countries a general strike is only prevented by declaring a holiday. Germany and Italy resort to police repression and the local Pinkertons. General strikes do break out in Leningrad and Moscow, which are met by the NKVD and the Red Army.

A Las Barricadas November 6th 1936.png
 
Entry #6: The Marxist Schism

The establishment of the Federation of Spanish Communes sparked an immense debate within Marxist circles. The debate centered on the exact meaning of “dictatorship of the proletariat” but encompassed most of Marxist theory.

The “Autonomists”, the most prominent of which were the Council Communists, argued that “dictatorship of the proletariat” could only mean the workers directly expropriating capital and establishing workplace democracy. To them, Marx's fundamental insight regarding the Revolution was that it had to be the work of the working class itself.

The “Orthodoxy”, which included Social Democrats and the various strains of Leninism, argued that the dictatorship of the party was identical to the dictatorship of the proletariat. That the Party could and did in fact represent the workers.

The Orthodoxy attacked the Autonomists as anarchists, while the Autonomists attacked the Orthodoxy as bureaucratic. The Autonomists pointed out that the Anarchistic Federation was achieving socialism and inviting the world to see, while the USSR was closed to the world.

In the rank and file, the Autonomists benefited from a lack of internal factionalism. Most of them agreed that different systems would be decided by the workers after capital had been appropriated, and agreed to disagree on those points. The Orthodoxy was riven with factionalism, often the most bitter antagonisms were between the ones with the least differences. As the Spanish Civil War went on, the Autonomists gained continually at the expense of the Orthodoxy.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Hmm, the Anarchists can only win if both the Nationalists and the Republic go down in serious internal strife, and that's what's happening. Utterly convenient and lucky. What do the Trotskyists think? What do the Basques think for that matter?
 
Hmm, the Anarchists can only win if both the Nationalists and the Republic go down in serious internal strife, and that's what's happening. Utterly convenient and lucky. What do the Trotskyists think? What do the Basques think for that matter?

The Trotskyists are part of the Orthodoxy, and think that the Federation is doing it wrong. POUM and it's fellows such as the Independent Labor Party are in the Autonomist camp as of right now.

The Basques are worried by the increasing dominance of the CNT, and many of the people in charge are thinking of going over to the Nationalists. Top members of the Republic are also starting to doubt they can win, and are seriously considering selling out to the Nationalists. The loss of Alcazar and failure to take Madrid have let Franco take control of the Nationalist side. The tide is about to turn and the Anarchists are going to lose and hard very soon.

If the war stays confined to Spain.
 
Entry #7: The Internationalization of the Revolution Part 1

Unknown to the Anarchists, the situation in early November was quite grim for them. The declaration of the Madrid Commune had shaken the Republican Government in Cuenca, and convinced the French Generals that the Nationalists had the right idea. Britain was becoming increasingly hostile to the Federation, and Basque leadership saw the Nationalists as an ever more attractive option.

However, things were not all bad for the CNT-FAI. Their evident success had caused a resurgence in Anarchism and Syndicalism. Every major Marxist Party was splintering between Autonomist and Orthodoxy factions, and the arrival of the International Brigades at Madrid too late to make a difference was raising concerns that the USSR was unable to respond to quickly changing conditions.

Behind Nationalist lines, the situation was not as against the Anarchists as may have been expected. The CNT-FAI had barely managed to survive the Nationalist purges and was setting up a guerrilla campaign. This was based in the mountainous Spanish countryside as well as in Portugal.
 
Entry #8: The Internationalization of the Revolution part 2

United States of America

In the United States the Wobblies were rebuilding. Norman Thomas and James P. Cannon had led a successful entryist takeover of the CIO and were busy turning it into a bottom up syndicalist union. After the Battle of Madrid, the Autonomist faction of the CPUSA under William Z. Foster gained ascendancy and broke conclusively with the USSR.

However, while the organizations were changing, the rank and file was moving even more quickly. It began in Pennsylvania. Bootleg mining had a long history and was respected among the lower class, producing as much as 10% of Pennsylvania's anthracite. During the Great Depression the practice expanded to company mines that had been closed down, but no jury would convict the miners for feeding their families. The trouble began when the steel workers in Pittsburgh decided to do the same thing with their factories in August '36. Although Pennsylvania was quick to repress this show of initiative with mass arrests, the workers were acquitted of all charges in a widely publicized case of jury nullification.

This, of course, encouraged factory occupations across the United States. By early November, occupied workplaces accounted for nearly a third of American employment. After Madrid, and the perceived failure of FDR to deal with the Labor problem, Macarthur decided to act.
 
Last edited:
Top