How so? In what way was the clerics of the Catholic Church oppressing the common man? I feel that this is leftist and Protestant propaganda in order to defame the church to the common man whilst lying to them about their problems and making then shift blame toward the church. This fit the political and ideological dreams of both sides removing a potentially powerful opponent, one who has brought Europe to war in the past in a faraway land. This is not my particular expertise and I am usually in the before 1900 discussion, I just felt like asking.
On particular, specific example was the well-known and documented links between the
Guardia Civil and local parish authorities. For those unfamiliar the Guardia Civil was essentially a well-organized goon squad used by the landowning elite to keep the landless peasants in line, under the lash, and in a position where they couldn't organize, go on strike, or spread revolutionary rhetoric. In a lot of ways they were the secret police of the Spanish monarchy. It was because of the Guardia Civil that rural organizing was set back for so long and anarchism became popular among the peasantry in the first place. The Church was one of the most active supporters of the Guardia Civil and worked very enthusiastically to provide information, networks of spies, and whatever other assistance they could in hunting down subversive peasants. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if a fair number of the Guardia's victims were targeted specifically because they were troublesome to local ecclesiastical authorities.
Politically speaking they were categorically opposed to the Second Republic's existence and regularly denounced it from the pulpit. During the Civil War itself most of the Spanish church hierarchy sided with Franco, disseminated fascist propaganda, worked directly for the Falange, and operated as behind the lines agents for the Fascists. The Church was hardly a neutral institution in Spanish politics especially in the years leading up to and during the Civil War where they very enthusiastically sided with bloody-handed butchers who wanted to maintain the power of a handful and keep the rest of Spain living as landless, impoverished sharecroppers.
Back to the OP the best shot the anarchists could have had in the Spanish Civil War was at the immediate outset. CNT-FAI agents had uncovered evidence of a coup and passed it on to the Republic's leadership. They presented a plan to pass out weapons to the masses and prepare for war. The Popular Front, wary of sparking off a confrontation with the military and distrustful of the CNT's intentions, filed this information in a wastebasket and were caught totally flat-footed by Franco's Army of Africa airlifting across the Straits of Gibraltar. Shortly after the Army of Africa entered Andalusia, slaughtered many of the anarchist-supportive peasantry, and marched on Madrid. Two potential PoDs there that don't require ASB intervention are either a) the CNT manages to make their case better to the Popular Front and somehow convinces them to take action (maybe they get more conclusive evidence) or b) the CNT figures there's no way the Popular Front will be persuaded and takes action without them. Of the two options a would work better because it would see the arrest of many disloyal military officers, the mobilization of loyal assets, and the limited arming of the militias. It might not be enough to stop the airlift completely but it could be enough to put the frontlines in Andalusia and southern Spain instead of at the gates of Madrid. Option b would be tricky and could, if done wrong, provoke a three-sided civil war but prior to Franco's crossing the CNT-FAI had a great deal of strength and sympathy among the peasants of Andalusia. A general strike meant to kick off social revolution, like was done in Catalonia and Aragon, could carry through enough support to intimidate the Popular Front into working with them and would see the anarchist movement having the upper hand.
Another option for changing the course of the war would be a slightly different, very difficult PoD that assumes the CNT is able to capitalize on international labor solidarity. All of the aircraft necessary for the lift from Africa were manufactured and shipped from Britain in a fashion that the British government was quite aware of due to the sheer size of the order. It is also very likely someone within the British labor movement somewhere probably knew something was up even if they didn't have the specifics. If, and I have no idea how to make this part happen in terms of specific contacts, relationships, and the like, someone from Spain can get word of an impending coup out to the broader world before or as it is happening and this gets to sympathetic workers in Britain all it would take to slow down the movement of these aircraft would be a well-timed longshore, rail, or even production-oriented strike. If Franco's troops are assembled but have nothing to move across the straits with for even a week that buys time for the Popular Front to mobilize their forces and in that situation the CNT-FAI would be the strongest on the ground faction of any of them.
