Anarchist insurrection of December 1933

Preparations

During the election, the national plenary of the CNT voted to transfer the headquarters of the National Committee to Zaragoza; 230 delegates voted for the transfer, while 153 voted for it to be transferred to Madrid and 100 voted for it to remain in Barcelona. On 14 November, the National Committee established its new headquarters on Calle Argensola, 17, in Zaragoza, where it would continue its work under the General Secretaries Miguel Yoldi and Horacio Prieto.

On 26 November, another national plenary of the CNT was held in Zaragoza, where the organisation resolved to establish a National Revolutionary Committee (NRC) to organise the insurrection. The NRC was led by the Leonese mechanic Buenaventura Durruti, the Aragonese metalworker Antonio Ejarque, the Castilian bricklayer Cipriano Mera, the Basque doctor Isaac Puente, and the Andalusian bricklayers Rafael Casado Ojeda and Rafael García Chacón. The NRC established its headquarters on Calle de los Convertidos in Zaragoza. There they were joined by local Aragonese CNT delegates Joaquín Ascaso, Miguel José, Augusto Moisés Alcrudo, Ramón Andrés, Santiago Baranda and Felipe Orquín (all of whom, except the day labourer Andrés, were bricklayers).

The NRC divided the country into three zones: the red zone, consisting of Aragon, Navarre and La Rioja, where the insurrection would begin in full force; the blue zone, mainly Catalonia, where they would proclaim a general strike and later escalate it into insurrection; and the green zone, in the socialist regions of Asturias, Castile, Euskadi and Galicia, where a general strike would be carried out in an attempt to draw in socialist workers; Andalusia and Valencia were also marked as red-blue. The NRC printed pamphlets calling on industrial workers to occupy their workplaces and seize the means of production, establishing workers' councils to organise a new post-capitalist economy; and calling for agrarian workers to establish communes and take control of food distribution through consumer cooperatives. They also proposed the creation of workers' militias, based on small, mobile guerrilla units, to defend the revolution. The pamphlets were sent to CNT Defense Committees and FAI groups, which copied and distributed them throughout the country.

At a preparatory meeting in Zaragoza, militants disagreed over the plan for Zaragoza to rise up first and then be followed by Teruel and Uesca, with some debating over whether to even initiate the insurrection in Aragon. Durruti warned them that if they backed down, then the insurrection would collapse throughout Spain. He believed that, following sustained repression in Andalusia and Catalonia in the wake of the January insurrection, only Aragon was capable of leading the revolution. He then said that if they still did not want to participate, then they were not obliged to do so, and asked them to decide quickly. He impressed the assembly enough that the Aragonese agreed to lead the insurrection. Despite receiving requests from other regional branches of the CNT to delay the insurrection, as they were not yet prepared, the Aragonese NRC pushed forward with its plans.

Insurrection

In Aragon

By December 1933, the provincial governor of Zaragoza Elviro Ordiales had noticed that anarchists from outside Aragon were gathering in the regional capital. When he heard rumours that they were planning to carry out an insurrection, on 8 December 1933, he ordered that the CNT offices be shut down and arrested 45 anarchist activists. This led to clashes in the streets, with fighting between anarchists and the police taking place throughout the city centre. By the following night, the street fighting had resulted in the deaths of 12 people and the wounding of several more. A general strike was declared, shutting down shops and public transit. Train lines were also blocked and some convents were subjected to arson attacks. The governor declared a state of emergency and decreed the prohibition of strikes, union meetings and radical publications. The NRC responded with a manifesto declaring the start of a revolution and proclaiming libertarian communism. According to the Heraldo de Aragón, the Zaragoza revolutionaries consisted largely of young, single men, between the ages of 15 and 20.

The uprising quickly spread throughout Aragon. Revolutionaries proclaimed libertarian communism in villages throughout the region, including in: Alcalá de Gurrea, Alcampell, Almudévar, Albalate and Belver de Cinca in the province of Uesca; and Alcorisa, Castellote, Beceite, Mas de las Matas and Valderrobres in the province of Teruel. In these towns, anarchist groups stormed Civil Guard barracks, took over the town halls and arrested civil authorities. As they burned property registers and other official documents, they explained their new system of libertarian communism to gathered citizens and reorganised the supply of goods according to this system. Revolutionaries in these towns did not attempt to take over other areas and instead waited for the arrival of state forces. The insurrection in these areas was quickly defeated, with political repression following soon after. Two insurgents were killed in Alcorisa, one in Alcañiz and another in Barbastro; two Civil Guards were also killed, one in Alcañiz and the other in Barbastro.

The insurrection was the most tightly organised in Albalate de Cinca, where on 9 December, insurgents stormed the Civil Guard barracks and proclaimed libertarian communism. They abolished money, which they replaced with a system of labour vouchers. The following day, Civil Guards were brought in from Fraga and the insurrection was suppressed. 200 people fled the town, including the mayor and local judge, who had helped organise the insurrection. Police arrested 23 men and 3 women, including the local doctor, a schoolteacher, the mayor's wife and daughter and the town council's secretary Félix Carrasquer. In Mas de las Matas, where smallholding was the predominant form of land ownership, the insurrection took place without any violence. On the day the insurrection broke out in Zaragoza, local members of the CNT received an order from the NRC to join the uprising at 01:00 on 9 December. At this time, 50 anarchist workers and smallholders, led by Macario Royo, besieged the Civil Guard barracks and disarmed them. They then arrested town councillors, the local priest and a number of landowners, before burning the municipal archives and proclaiming libertarian communism. Later in the day, the locals held a popular assembly and appointed a revolutionary committee, which was to abolish money and reorganise the economy. But before long, 100 Civil Guards occupied the town, arrested more than 100 of the town's citizens and beat many of the detainees. Royo himself escaped to France, via Barcelona. The town council reconvened on 14 December, but found that all their documents had been destroyed. A few days later, the mayor met with other local officials in Alcañiz, where they discussed how to preempt another revolutionary outbreak in lower Aragon. They resolved to fortify Civil Guard barracks and re-create the regional census, which had been destroyed in the insurrection.

Fighting in Zaragoza continued until 14 December, when Assault Guards were brought in from Burgos, Navarre and Toledo to help suppress the uprising. The employers' association supplied the city with food and armed police were stationed on public transit. The city's mayor Federico Martínez Andrés was requested to supply 8 drivers and 8 guards to restore the bus system, but when he refused, stating that they were needed by the fire service, he was suspended by Governor Ordiales. Municipal employees then refused to follow orders from the provincial authorities, declaring that they answered only to the town hall. But by this time, about 400 people were already detained in the city's prisons and military barracks. The following day, the National Committee of the CNT ordered its members to return to work, bringing the insurrection to an end on 15 December. The NRC decided to stay in the city and accept arrest, hoping they would be able to defend anti-capitalism and the right of revolution in a public trial. They were arrested on 16 December, while having dinner at their headquarters. Mayor Martínez Andrés was returned to his post on 22 December, but he immediately tendered his resignation.

In La Rioja

On 9 December, the revolution spread from Aragon to La Rioja, where numerous municipalities saw armed clashes between revolutionaries and the police; two revolutionaries and an Assault Guard were killed in the regional capital of Logroño. In the town of Arnedo, 20-30 revolutionaries seized the town hall, hoisted the anarchist flag and proclaimed libertarian communism. They then occupied the council chambers for four hours, before leaving at the request of the mayor. Later that day, Civil Guards occupied the town, replaced the anarchist flag with the Spanish flag and raided the CNT branch office, arresting 27 CNT members and shutting down the local union. The arrested were all young, male day labourers, most were single, and only one was older than 30. Libertarian communism was also proclaimed in the towns of Briones, Calahorra, Cenicero and Fuenmayor, while the insurrection spread from La Rioja into the province of Burgos.

Elsewhere

Following the uprisings in Aragon and La Rioja, the insurrection spread to rural areas of Andalusia, Catalonia, Extremadura and León. A wave of general strikes broke out throughout Spain, including in the cities of A Coruña, Badajoz, Barcelona, Córdoba, Granada, Huesca, Seville, València and Xixón. Anarchists and CNT activists agitated for the general strikes to take on revolutionary characteristics, leading to confrontations with the police. The government swiftly declared a state of emergency, mobilising the entire police force and dispatching the armed forces to some cities. As Alejandro Lerroux attempted to secure the investiture of his government, soldiers guarded government buildings in Madrid, while the Civil Guard set up machine guns in Plaza de Cibeles. In cities where revolutionaries took control, militants followed the NRC's instructions and formed workers' militias to patrol the streets. By the following day, the insurrection was already weakening, as the socialist unions stayed out of the conflict, leaving the CNT and FAI alone in confronting the state forces. Nevertheless, over the subsequent week, revolutionary committees throughout Spain occupied centres of civil infrastructure, including town halls, courts and telephone exchanges.

In Valencia, libertarian communism was proclaimed in Tormos and a union hall in Alfafar was bombed by the Spanish Army; railway tracks were also ripped up throughout the region. In Puçol, a rail bridge was blown up, killing 13 people who were riding the Barcelona-Seville train. In the Extremaduran city of Villanueva de la Serena, a workers' militia barricaded itself inside a military recruitment centre, where for two days, they resisted attacks by infantry armed with mortars and machine guns. Miners also seized control of the Leonese town of Fabero.

Suppression

By the time the insurrection ended on 15 December, 75 revolutionaries had been killed and 101 wounded; while on the side of the government, 11 Civil Guards and 3 Assault Guards had been killed and 45 Civil Guards and 18 Assault Guards were wounded. During the crackdown that followed, the CNT was outlawed in Aragon, its unions were shut down, and its publications were banned. Although the chamber of commerce recommended that employers remain calm and civil, they quickly began dismissing and sanctioning workers involved in the insurrection. Newspapers covered the insurrection extensively, publishing photographs of detainees and stories of bomb caches being discovered. Governor Elivro Ordiales' conduct during the insurrection received widespread praise from the middle and upper classes, including from the chamber of commerce itself. Despite opposing votes from socialist and radical socialist councillors, the Zaragoza town hall gave Ordiales the keys to the city.

Hundreds of people were arrested, with about 700 people ultimately being sentenced for the insurrection. In the province of Uesca alone, as many as 202 young male workers were sentenced for their participation in the insurrection. Sentences ranged from less than a year for non-violent participants, to as high as 14 years for those who possessed explosives or assaulted and killed people. Police tortured many prisoners, eliciting a number of forced confessions. The arrested members of the NRC were also tortured, and Elviro Ordiales even intended to apply the ley de fugas to them, but he was dissuaded.

In prison, the NRC considered how they could secure the release of as many detainees as possible. They agreed to a plan concocted by Durruti, who suggested they make the case dossier disappear, allowing for prisoners who gave forced confessions to give new statements. A group of young anarchists then broke into the Zaragoza Commerce Court and stole the dossier from the judges at gunpoint. With the dossier secured, the NRC confessed to sole responsibility for the insurrection, while many prisoners that had given forced confessions were released. Trade unions in Zaragoza then declared a general strike, demanding the release of all prisoners detained after the December insurrection. Fearing that a prison break was being organised, in late February 1934, the government transferred the imprisoned members of the NRC to a prison in the province of Burgos. The Catholic Church was the predominant force in Burgos and the local population was shocked to find out that the NRC were being imprisoned in their city. The NRC members were the only political prisoners held in the prison; they were kept in solitary confinement and under constant surveillance, making it difficult to communicate with other prisoners.

Aftermath

In his analysis of the insurrection, the moderate syndicalist Joan Peiró shared his view that it had failed because it consisted of a small guerrilla movement, rather than an organised mass movement. He declared that revolutions "are made by joining forces not dividing them", and that the FAI, which he blamed for the insurrection, needed to learn this lesson.

Bienio Negro

By the time the insurrection was suppressed, Alejandro Lerroux finally formed a new right-wing government. The Lerroux government abolished many of the reforms passed by the previous left-wing government, while maintaining its public order laws in order to repress the labour movement. On 11 February 1934, the government annulled the land reform law and evicted 28,000 peasants who had occupied the land of large estates. Caciques responded by cutting wages, reverting the situation of the Spanish peasantry to how it had been before the proclamation of the Republic. Workers responded with strike actions and sabotage, causing confrontations with the police and the Falange Española. In Madrid, strikes by construction workers and metallurgists secured a 44-hour work week.

When the issue of political prisoners was raised in the Congress of Deputies, the government proposed a general amnesty, both for the far-right figures involved in the 1932 coup attempt and for labour movement activists involved in the December 1933 insurrection. In late April 1934, the amnesty was decreed and President Niceto Alcalá-Zamora pardoned General José Sanjurjo and his collaborators. However, the President refused to allow them back to their posts, causing a political crisis that ended with Lerroux being replaced as prime minister by Alcalá-Zamora's ally Ricardo Samper. In response, a monarchist delegation led by Emilio Barrera, Antonio Goicoechea, Antonio Lizarza and Juan Olazábal travelled to Fascist Italy and met with Benito Mussolini and Italo Balbo. They made a plan to carry out a military coup, which would overthrow the Republic and restore the Spanish monarchy; for this, the Italian government gave them 1.5 million pesetas, hoping to gain control of the Balearic Islands in return.

Zaragoza general strike

When the imprisoned members of the NRC were released under the amnesty, their return to Zaragoza was financed by the Asturian CNT leader Ramón Álvarez, who had also been imprisoned for his part in the insurrection. Álvarez himself then waited in Burgos, while members of the Asturian CNT sent him money so he could return to Xixón. When the members of the NRC arrived back in Zaragoza, the city was still in the midst of a general strike. The strike had been declared demanding the release of everyone detained after the December insurrection, and as there were still CNT activists in prison, it had continued into the spring of 1934. Only vital services in the city, such as hospitals and bakeries, still functioned. All other public services, including electricity and rubbish collection, were suspended. The CNT offered to supply the Aragonese workers with food, but they rejected it. Francisco Ascaso eventually managed to convince them to allow the CNT to care for their children for the duration of the strike; activists from Madrid and Barcelona provided safe passage and care for the children.

In Catalonia, the government of Francesc Macià had overseen a crackdown against the anarchist movement: Catalan prisons were overcrowded, trade unions and their publications were banned, and anarchists were regularly arrested and beaten by police. On one occasion, Catalan police arrested the Italian anti-fascist Bruno Alpini for allegedly carrying out a robbery and executed him under the ley de fugas. A member of the CNT Textile Workers' Union sought to avenge his death by attempting to assassinate police chief Miquel Badia. He ambushed Badia outside a cabaret on Avinguda del Paral·lel and tried to shoot him, but Badia's guard shot him dead. Despite the political repression, over 25,000 people in Barcelona answered the CNT's call to care for the children from Zaragoza. The Catalan government had approached the Aragonese community in Barcelona, offering its help in taking care of the children, but the community rejected the offer, as it had already accepted the help of the CNT and intended to aid their striking compatriots in Zaragoza. This intervention led Francisco Ascaso, the general secretary of the Catalan Regional Committee of the CNT, to believe that the Catalan authorities might attempt to shut down the CNT's child care initiative.

In the afternoon of 6 May, thousands of people arrived outside the offices of Solidaridad Obrera on Carrer del Consell de Cent, where they were scheduled to collect the children at 18:00. When the time came, they were informed that the expedition had been delayed because villages along the way had insisted on greeting the children and expressing solidarity with their striking parents. The expected time of arrival was changed to 21:00, and the crowd stayed put. When the amended time came and went, CNT taxi drivers set off to find the expedition. At 22:00, while the crowd wondered what had happened, the Urban Guard appeared and charged at the crowd, ordering them to disperse. As the Guards advanced, attacking the assembled people, the Aragonese community leaders attempted to call for calm. When they attempted to talk to the Guards, firecrackers were set off, exacerbating the violence. In an attempt to protect the women and children, men formed a human wall around them and took the blows of police batons against their backs. When Assault Guards arrived, they fired their pistols at the crowd, killing one person and wounding several more. Ascaso watched the violence unfold from the balcony of the Solidaridad Obrera offices. After the women and children were escorted to safety, the men who had protected them began fighting back against the police, forcing them to withdraw. Demonstrators then flocked to the city centre, where traffic came to a standstill. A riot ensued, as people set fire to streetcars and attacked a police station. Later that night, Barcelona workers declared a general strike, which lasted almost a week, until 12 May.

Meanwhile, one of the taxi drivers had managed to find out what happened to the children's expedition and reported back to Solidaridad Obrera. He told them that, in Molins de Rei, multiple companies of Assault Guards had blocked the buses carrying the children. Despite protests from the locals, the police diverted the convoy to Terrassa and held the children there. Ascaso led a group of anarchists from Barcelona to Terrassa, but by the time they got there, they found that the city's local anarchist movement had already mobilised. He moved through the crowd to the buses, which were protected by armed workers, and told them to drive to Barcelona. With Ascaso in a taxi at the head of the convoy, the children were finally brought to the Catalan capital and received by their host families.

The campaign to release the imprisoned insurgents was unsuccessful, although many of those involved in the insurrection were ultimately released following the victory of the Popular Front in the 1936 Spanish general election.