Émilienne Léontine Morin (28 October 1901 – 14 February 1991) was a French

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...

shorthand typist Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

and partner of

Buenaventura Durruti José Buenaventura Durruti Dumange (14 July 1896 – 20 November 1936) was a Spanish insurrectionary, anarcho-syndicalist militant involved with the CNT and FAI in the periods before and during the Spanish Civil War. Durruti played an in ...

. In 1936, she was part of the

Durruti column The Durruti Column (Spanish: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column (or military unit) formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recognized and popular mil ...

, an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

military unit, during the

Spanish Civil war The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

. She was nicknamed "Mimi-FAI" after the

Federación Anarquista Ibérica The Iberian Anarchist Federation ( es, Federación Anarquista Ibérica, FAI) is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) anarcho-syndicalist union. It is often ...

(FAI).

Early life

Émilienne Clemence Léontine Morin was born on 28 October 1901 in

Angers Angers (, , ) is a city in western France, about southwest of Paris. It is the prefecture of the Maine-et-Loire department and was the capital of the province of Anjou until the French Revolution. The inhabitants of both the city and the pr ...

Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indr ...

, France, the daughter of Léontine Ernestine Giroux a factory worker, and Étienne Morin, an anarcho-syndicalist activist in the Building Workers' Union. Her parents married 19 December 1904. Morin was involved in revolutionary circles from a very young age and was active in 15th arrondissement group of the Jeunesses syndicalistes and in 1923 was a member of their Bureau. In 1916, she was the secretary of the

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaig ...

and anti-militarist newspaper ''Ce qu'il faut dire'' founded by

Sébastien Faure Sébastien Faure (6 January 1858 – 14 July 1942) was a French anarchist, freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism. Biography Before becoming a free-thinker, Faure was a seminarist. He engage ...

and Mauricius to oppose the

Manifesto of the Sixteen The ''Manifesto of the Sixteen'' (french: Manifeste des seize), or ''Proclamation of the Sixteen'', was a document drafted in 1916 by eminent anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave which advocated an Allied victory over Germany and the Ce ...

. In 1924, she married the Italian libertarian activist Mario Cascari, (also known as Cesario Tafani and Oscar Barodi) in

Yerres Yerres () is a commune in the Essonne department, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Population Inhabitants are called ''Yerrois'' in French. Geography Yerres lies in the North-Eastern pa ...

, although they soon divorced. On 14 July 1927, Morin met Spanish anarchist

at the ''Librairie internationale anarchiste (''International Anarchist Library) in Paris. They became life partners until his death. On the same day her friend Berthe Fabert met her future life partner

Francisco Ascaso Francisco Ascaso Abadía ( Almudévar April 1, 1901 – Barcelona July 20, 1936) was the cousin of Joaquín Ascaso, the President of the Regional Defence Council of Aragon,Jesús Mestre i Campi, ''Diccionari d'Història de Catalunya'', Edicions ...

at the bookshop.

Brussels

In July 1927, Durruti was expelled from France into Belgium and Morin gave up her job as a shorthand typist to join him in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

where many Spanish anarchists were living below the radar. She met Juan Manuel Molina Mateo and Lola Iturbe, co-founder of the libertarian women's organisation

Mujeres Libres Mujeres Libres ( en, Free Women, italic=yes) was an anarchist women's organisation that existed in Spain from 1936 to 1939. Founded by Lucía Sánchez Saornil, Mercedes Comaposada, and Amparo Poch y Gascón as a small women's group in Madrid, i ...

there at the beginning of 1928.

José Peirats José Peirats Valls (1908–1989) was a Spanish anarchist, activist, journalist and historian. Biography Peirats was born on March 15, 1908, in La Vall d'Uixo, Province of Castellón. He was the second child of Jose Peirats Dupla and Teresa Va ...

, ''The CNT in the Spanish Revolution'', volume 2,

PM Press PM Press is an independent publisher, founded in 2007, that specializes in radical, Marxist and anarchist literature, as well as crime fiction, graphic novels, music CDs, and political documentaries. It has offices in the San Francisco Bay Area ...

, 2011
page 221
Iturbe described her as " ''a very pleasant young woman, with a fair complexion and blue eyes, with her hair cut in a boyish style. Her energetic character, ideological convictions and oratory skills were evident in the public controversies - especially with the communists - that took place in the Maison du Peuple in Brussels''." Morin and Durutti led a difficult life in Belgium. She sometimes worked while he was unemployed and took care of the household chores.

Spain

In 1931, the couple travelled to Spain where the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...

had just been proclaimed. Morin took part in the activities of the

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working ...

, and worked on their publications. On 4 December 1931, their daughter Colette Durruti was born in Barcelona. Given Durutti's many absences and imprisonments, Morin brought her up virtually single-handedly, with the help of an anarchist friend, Teresa Margaleff, who sometimes acted as a

nanny A nanny is a person who provides child care. Typically, this care is given within the children's family setting. Throughout history, nannies were usually servants in large households and reported directly to the lady of the house. Today, modern ...

whilst Morin worked as an usherette at the Goya Theatre. From her arrival in Spain, Morin sent regular articles on "''Choses d’Espagne''" to the French anarchist newspaper '' Le Libertaire''. Émilienne_Morin_-_Buenaventura_Durruti_(1936)

Émilienne_Morin_-_Buenaventura_Durruti_(1936)

During the

Spanish Revolution of 1936 The Spanish Revolution was a workers' social revolution that began at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and for two to three years resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and, more broadly, libertarian socialist o ...

, Morin joined the

Durruti Column The Durruti Column (Spanish: ''Columna Durruti''), with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column (or military unit) formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recognized and popular mil ...

on the

Aragon front The Aragon Offensive was an important military campaign during the Spanish Civil War, which began after the Battle of Teruel. The offensive, which ran from March 7, 1938, to April 19, 1938, smashed the Republican forces, overran Aragon, and conqu ...

. As early as August, she was among the administrators of the Column's headquarters, where she was in charge of the press office. On 20 November 1936 Buenaventura Durruti was killed on the

Madrid front The siege of Madrid was a two-and-a-half-year siege of the Republican-controlled Spanish capital city of Madrid by the Nationalist armies, under General Francisco Franco, during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The city, besieged from Oct ...

. Morin attended his huge funeral on 23 November.

Return to France

Morin and her daughter returned to France in 1937, setting up home at 5 Villa Stendhal in Paris, and she campaigned, by word and deed, for the Spanish revolutionaries. On 27 May 1937, she was one of the speakers - along with Haussard,

, Fidel Miro, Bernardo Pou and Cortes - at the large support meeting held by the Union Anarchiste at the Salle de la Mutualité in Paris, attended by about 4,000 people. Four large rooms at 28 Boulevard Saint Denis were rented in her name in September 1937 as an office for the publication ''La Nouvelle Espagne antifasciste/La Nueva España antifascista'', whose editor was Nemesio Galve, who defended the official line of the

and

. On 22 November 1938 she chaired a meeting to commemorate Durutti held at the Salle de la Mutualité by the Union Anarchiste, where E. Frémont, Suzanne Levy, P. Herrera and Chazoff. Morin collaborated with the Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA) organisation run by Louis Lecoin and Nicolas Faucier, particularly to collect funds and aid for Spanish refugees interned in camps in the south of France. In July 1938 she published her memories of the Front in the newspaper '' Le Libertaire'', the publication of the Union Anarchiste.

Dictionnaire des anarchistes ''Dictionnaire des anarchistes'' is a biographical dictionary of French anarchists published in 2014 within the '' Le Maitron'' series. Publication '' Le Maitron'' is a series of reference works: a 44-volume biographical dictionary of th ...

, « ''

Le Maitron ''Le Maitron'' is a set of labor movement biographical dictionaries compiled by historian Jean Maitron and his successor . Volumes * '' Dictionnaire biographique du mouvement ouvrier français'' (''DBMOF'', "Biographical Dictionary of the F ...

'' »
Aurèle Patorni

Later life

After the war, she kept close links with many Spanish libertarian refugees. Émilienne Morin later retired to

Quimper Quimper (, ; br, Kemper ; la, Civitas Aquilonia or ) is a commune and prefecture of the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. Administration Quimper is the prefecture (capital) of the Finistère department. Geography T ...

and died there in l'Hospital de Cornouaille on 14 February 1991.

Bibliography

Hans Magnus Enzensberger Hans Magnus Enzensberger (11 November 1929 – 24 November 2022) was a German author, poet, translator, and editor. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Andreas Thalmayr, Elisabeth Ambras, Linda Quilt and Giorgio Pellizzi. Enzensberger was regarde ...

, ''Le Bref été de l'Anarchie - la vie et la mort de Buenaventura Durruti'', biographie traduite de l'allemand par Lily Jumel, éditions Gallimard, 1975, réédition 2010, (it
lire en ligne
* (en)

Abel Paz Abel Paz (1921–2009) was a Spanish anarchist and historian who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He is considered one of the noted Spanish anarchist historians, writing multiple volumes on anarchist history, including a biography of Buenaventur ...

, ''Durruti in the Spanish Revolution'',

AK Press AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specialises in radical left and anarchist literature. Operated out of Chico, California, the company is collectively owned. History AK was founded in Stirling, S ...

, 2007
lire en ligne