The Anarchism Page 4

  Return to the legality and reorganization

  In 1881 the government led by Mateo Sagasta Práxedes Association passed a law by which the activity of labor organizations were legalized. In September 1881 held the First Congress for the reconstitution of a new labor federation. Again being held at the Circus Theatre of Barcelona, the same scenario that had founded the FRE in 1870. At the congress a new organization based on the principles of the FRE, would be founded theFederation of the Spanish Region (FTRE).

  The FTRE in its new phase grew rapidly and in 1882 held its Second Congress (Seville) in which they had the accession of 663 sections and a total of 57,934 members. The memory of the FRE was between the workers and the implementation of the Federation was it compared to the majority of Marxist organizations (PSOE).

  But throughout history FTRE problems arose that showed a lack of responsiveness, which they caused serious internal discontent. The agricultural situation in Andalusia, where poverty was rampant (and where between 1882 and 1884 broke several peasant revolts) affected the organization. Within the Federation continued legacy FRE tensions between those who defended underground face a public and legal action. With the excitement came a peasant government persecution. The events of the Black Hand seriously would hit the fragile structure of the organization, triggering a media lynching process, judicial and police repression against FTRE. Although anarchist groups of the area claimed to have nothing to do with the organization and that the evidence was nonexistent (several false witnesses were pressured to declare against the accused and even accepted as evidence a paper found under a stone in the middle of the bush with the list of members of the Black Hand), the state conducted a harsh repression based on four crimes committed in late 1882 and early 1883. The result was 15 peasants condemned to death, of which 7 were executed in Jerez de la Frontera, the June 14, 1884.

  Out of Andalucia organization suffered no persecution, but fear did receive to mark distances on the various supporters groups of armed action and to respond to state violence. In the III Congress of October 1883, in Valencia, declared that "we reject all solidarity with those who have organized or organized for the commission of common crimes ", stating that" the criminal will ever have a place in their ranks " . The III Congress in Valencia marked the final decline of the Federation. Before, during that year, he had convened a secret meeting of dissidents FTRE in January 1883 in Seville, where a secret organization would be: The Disinherited . It is believed that this anarchist revolutionary organization existed until 1886, in Andalusia. This group vindicate armed struggle with all means at its disposal anarchists against the state and its institutions.

  The Extraordinary Congress held in Barcelona in late September 1884. The most important agreement (proposed by the FCC) would be the withdrawal from public life FTRE because of the persecution he was subjected by the authorities. From this time emerged strong disagreements between those who were in favor of this measure and those who were against. In 1887 the two sides will meet again in the IV Congress of Madrid , but the differences remained. In 1888 supporters of the Federation, providing total excision of the anarchist movement called for a new congress. Be held in Barcelona, where workers' societies dominated anarchist character. This V Congress would form the Federation of Strength Capital , also known as the Pact of Union and Solidarity . With this "pact" was separating economic or labor organization of the political-social. The other aspect of the movement formed during the same year, the Anarchist Organization of the Spanish Region (OARE).

  That is, in this V Congress of October 1888 was finally dissolved the FTRE - agony after 5 years - and is based Anarchist Organization of the Spanish Region , heir (in the political and social field) of FTRE. This new organization would agree to support in their struggle against capitalism to another organization, the Federation Capital resistance , provided they had a revolutionary character.

  Meanwhile, dissidents of New Madrid Federation of FRE, followers of Paul Lafargue (Marx and Engels and), founded in 1878 the PSOE, and created in 1888 the General Union of Workers (UGT). The labor movement was definitely divided and weakened, a situation that lasted until the twentieth century, except for a brief revival after May 1, 1890.

  Anarcho-collectivism, anarcho-communism

  In the ideological field in this 1880s appeared in Spain called anarcho-communism or libertarian communism. He had begun to be theorized by Peter Kropotkin in the previous decade, and late his ideas had been virtually taken over by all the international anarchist movement. Not so in Spain where anarchism prevailed follower Bakunin, who was known as anarcho-collectivism.

  This anarcho-communist movement began to be introduced in Spain due to political emigration. Numerous libertarian militants who had to seek refuge abroad to escape repression. The first anarchist communist newspaper called The Human Justice , published in April 1886 in Barcelona and would last 8 years. In its first issue it wanted to explain what was the anarchist communism:

  We are anarchist communists and therefore enemies of individual property collectivists determine full work product of each (...). The collectivist school separates us who sanctifies individual property resulting from work each.

  Two years later another paper in the same trend, which reach a much longer duration would be created. This was Land and Freedom . Later became the official organ of the FAI.

  The discussions were about the type of organization had to be created to carry out the libertarian ideas. Collectivists had the idea that the worker was the product of his own labor, land to the tiller and that does not work does not eat . Meanwhile the Communists favored a regulated by the needs of each individual distribution. But collectivists believed in distribution by a commission to assess the full product of labor (working hours) that each performed before distributing the product. The Communists argued that this system would create a bureaucracy that would differ little from an authoritarian social structure, and that the commission would become a government or something like that, which would deny the anarchist principle of their proposals.

  Anarchist communists developed their theories starting precisely from the need to create a completely anti-authoritarian structure ie a social organization without superstructures and the only organizations that were absolutely essential to meet the needs of the population. Setting out, then, the anarcho-collectivism concluded that the only way to solve the problem was the socialization of distribution. Using the formula of each according to their ability to each according to their needs is creating organisms that were above those created for the production prevented. The collectivist saw in these ideas a tremendously spontaneist society and lack of incentives for the individual to be devoted to work.

  These two positions are firmly enrocaron and the only way to resolve the dispute was the agreement to participate together in the anarchist action regardless of economic ends that everyone would support (communist or collectivist). In this formula would be known as anarchism without adjectives .

  The propaganda of the deed

  The so-called propaganda of the deed (or propaganda by the act) is a strategy of anarchist propaganda based on the assumption that the impact of an action creates more impact, they get more relevant and, therefore, is much more effective than the mere word to awaken the rebellious energies of the people.So the propaganda of the deed involves leading by example of the action. Its implementation sought to raise the level of latent conflict explicit conflict, generating a high degree of social tension binding the most out of their indifference and adopt different positions (and, if possible, revolutionary) to resolve the conflict.

  In Spain the workers' societies were dismantled in 1874, and not until the coming to power of Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, in 1881, when return to legality. But for that time in international anarchism and the movement predominant rejected any type of organization to be authoritative. In 1881, takes place in a London International Anarchist Congress would try to revive the International Workers Association . However, this new Inte
rnational failed to take off. It was known as the Black International and developed mainly in the United States, thanks to the German Johann Most. The political line of the organization was completely anarchist, but soon even debated on whether to keep organized, while "action for action" was considered more effective than the organization. An expression of this anarchist assassinations were committed by anarchists (mostly) Italian and French between the decades of 1880s and 1890s. Thus anarchism received strong smear campaign from all areas of public life, which ended in the automatic matching between anarchism and terrorism. Since then often "propaganda by the deed" confused as "anarchist terrorism."

  In Spain this trend took a few years to come, since the working class anarchists still had big influences, but of a different, a trend in favor collectivist anarchism. The labor movement would be directed into FTRE unions, libertarian character. However, conflicts often generated workers insurrectional riots with dyes. The propaganda of the deed in Spain has a precedent. In 1878, in the repressive regime, an anarchist named Juan Oliva attacked the King Alfonso XII during a military parade. Conducted two revolver shots and missed both. Oliva would be executed in 1879. In the following decade, as anarchist militants were entering this dynamic of propaganda by deed , were leaving the labor organizations. In the mid-1880s, small anarchist attacks began to occur in Barcelona. Initially had a link with the labor movement, while always were directed against the bosses, the gates of the factories against vigilantes or police. Were mere firecrackers, gunpowder filled tubes, and did not produce victims.

  But in Andalusia, the misery caused constant conflict between laborers and landowners, which often turned violent. We have appointed and the events of the Black Hand, which took place in the early years of the decade of the 1880s. We have also seen that the harsh repression received finished giving rise to the creation of an anarchist organization called The Disinherited , who committed violent acts. However, at that time the Andalusian conflict was generally confined to the territory. On the one hand the insurrectionary organizations were not able to organize outside of Andalusia, and on the other, the anarchist labor movement did not want to be suppressed, which led him to disassociate themselves from the violence.

  In the early 1890s a series of tragic events that greatly impressed the Barcelona anarchists were held. It all started with one of the usual waves peasant strikers in Andalusia. This wave coincided with the visit of Errico Malatesta along with Fernando Marble Tarrida were propaganda tour of Spain. They are often accused of being the instigators of strikes. But came to Andalusia when strikes were underway or had taken place. After strikes came repression. In Jerez de la Frontera, in August 1891 were arrested 157 people accused of belonging to the Black Hand. It was clear from the outset that it was a retaliation for strikes by local landowners. And the response of the local population was to summon the people to rise and free their imprisoned comrades. On the night of January 8, 1892, 500 laborers and artisans entered Jerez shouting " Long live the social revolution! long live anarchy! ". But at dawn, the revolutionaries had to withdraw after a bloody struggle with the forces of order. As Revenge of the landowners, the February 18, 1892 Lamela, Valenzuela, and Bisiqui Lebrijano anarchists were executed. They died shouting " Long live anarchy! ". Besides these executions 17 other anarchist peasants were sentenced to heavy prison terms. Among the accused was also known anarchist Salvochea Fermín.

  There was a date that marked a before and after. It was the first of May 1891. From this time there was an increase in the ambitions of the insurgents. In mid-May 1892 a bomb explodes in the Plaza Real. There is one dead and two wounded. Soon other bombs explode producing more wounded. Also found abandoned in the street, more firecrackers and bombs, so that an atmosphere of panic occurs in the city that lasts until the following year. In a related incident dies an Anarchist (Italian Francesco Momo) in an accident making bombs.

  Still more bombs were being placed in Barcelona. In 1894, the civil governor is shot in the street unarmed. But on June 7, 1894 a bomb explodes in full procession of Corpus producing 12 dead, 35 injured. Of those arrested, 100 will be sentenced and another 5 shot. There are serious doubts about the relationship of the anarchists with this attack.

  The impression created by the news of the torture of imprisoned in the castle of Montjuic spreads throughout Europe. Apart from anarchists and "anarchists called" (there are dozens of detainees at random) locked in the castle Filipino and Cuban fighters waging war at the time of its independence. In 1897 the poet Ramón Sempau (which was not an anarchist) shoots against Portas. Portas does not die and Sempau is sentenced to death but eventually escapes. The bloody cycle will end in 1897 with the assassination of Canovas del Castillo in the resort of St. Agatha, Guipúzcoa. Will be killed by the Italian anarchist Michele Angiolillo who had come to Spain to avenge the deaths and torture of Montjuic. The truth is that all this spiral of violence left anarchism severely beaten for years.

  Revolutionary unionism, 1900-1910

  The propaganda of the deed (the revolutionary terrorism) became less common around the turn of the century. In the early years of the century directly disappeared. Reappeared in 1904 until 1908, with some 40 explosions that caused 11 deaths in Barcelona. However, these deaths should make a difference. In 1904 Juan Rull appears anarchist who had been such in the previous century and now was not. Rull he begins his criminal campaign was sold to the police. It is dedicated to indicate places where there would be "anarchist" attack, himself responsible for carrying them out. The biggest attack in this decade was to Mateo Morral. In 1906, during the marriage of King Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia, Morral (who had traveled from Barcelona to Madrid), was attacked. They were saved miraculously. Following the explosion three officers and five soldiers of the royal entourage, three people on balconies and injuring more than 14 people who watched the passage of the procession died. But anarchism was denying terrorist tactics. They were convinced that the general strike was only able to overthrow the state and capitalism. One of the biggest distributors of this idea was Francisco Ferrer Guardia, who opened a newspaper dedicated to disseminate this idea among the workers, precisely to be called The General Strike . In 1900 the labor movement in Barcelona formed a new organization, the Federation of the Spanish Region Resistance . The organization adopted the "corporate" unionism on federal bases. Its success was immediate: there were strikes in Spain in the same year (La Coruña, Bilbao, Seville ...). Many of these strikes had no specific requests but were spontaneously convened by the working class, some even came to demand the end of capitalism which showed that despite having 15 years without a labor organization explicitly libertarian anarchism still permeating even the movement worker. Remember that during that time the conditions endured by workers were very hard, the typical workday was between 12 and 15 hours. 13,500 boys working in Barcelona and 8,800 girls.

  December 6, 1901, following the wave of strikes, metallurgists in Barcelona went on strike. For the 15th days they had 9,000 strikers, and two days later it was already 15,000. February 16, 1902 in Barcelona 44 rallies in which the best known anarchists spoke, and they called a general strike for the entire city for the next day were held. The 17 dawns totally paralyzed city. The demonstrations were peaceful enough then. But on 19 (the general strike is indefinite by definition) no heavy fighting and arrests across the city and some businesses begin to reopen. The strike fails. The balance is terrible: about 100 killed, 300 wounded and 500 prisoners and destroyed anarchist movement (the Federation of Workers was outlawed). But this defeat was not the end of the movement, but the opening of an era in which many discussions on how to be more effective, that end of maturing revolutionary syndicalism were given.

  It took several years to rebuild the Barcelona unionism. In 1907 the workers of Barcelona held several meetings that would lead to the Obreres Societats Local Unio de Barcelona . In 1906 the Barcelona bourgeoisie had founded an organization called Catalan Solidarity, and the workers felt the need to respond to the emp
loyer's organization. Gradually the workers of the Local Union were transforming their organization in Solidaridad Obrera. At the end of its official organ would create a journal with the same name (which today is the official organ of the Catalan CNT). The first manifests this organization were not usually anarchist ideology. In this organization the socialist workers converged, republicans and anarchists in the city. Advocated a non-political organization (as a plural had a base) and was based on the "societarism". Their main weapon was the general strike. But as anarchist militants were increasingly involved in the trade unions and revolutionary syndicalism was coming to Spain, the color of the labor union was varying. The change took place from 1908 to 1909.However, the Tragic Week changed the process. Not to be achieved until 1910 to organize a labor union for the entire Spanish territory.

  The revolutionary education

  In the early twentieth century in Catalonia, a number of thinkers, including Francisco Ferrer Guardia in 1901 founded a Modern School. The essential aim of the school was " educate the working class in a rational, secular and non-coercive manner . " In practice, the quota prices tutoring restricted public school student to elements of the middle classes, especially in the early years, so it was expected by the organizers (privately) that students in due course be motivated to join and support the cause of the labor movement.

  Being the first mixed and secular school of Barcelona, in a Catholic country, was widely disliked among the clergy and devotees. The school will be closed in 1906 because the librarian activist Mateo Ferrer was just attacking the King Alfonso XIII. Then reopen it to be closed during the Tragic Week that Ferrer will be shot.

  The neo-Malthusianism

  Neo-Malthusianism

  The neo-Malthusianism was hederedero of Malthusianism and the postulates of the theory of Thomas Malthus population. Arises in the context of the industrial revolution, where the population is becoming more urban, and where working and living conditions of the lower classes and the poor (proletariat) are deeply miserable. In this context the demand for decent conditions for those poor classes and the necessary empowerment of women appears in the ranks of anarchism. The self of the population is seen as the solution to reducing the misery of the poor large families and a mechanism to allow the emancipation of women. During the century anarchists advocate strongly for birth control as a form of personal emancipation.