The confederal militias were a movement of
people's militia organized 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 ...
by the dominant organizations of
anarchism in Spain
Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of cl ...
: the
National Confederation of Labor
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland ...
(CNT) and the
Iberian Anarchist Federation
Iberian refers to Iberia. Most commonly Iberian refers to:
*Someone or something originating in the Iberian Peninsula, namely from Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra.
The term ''Iberian'' is also used to refer to anything pertaining to t ...
(FAI).
These militias played an important role in the
Revolution of 1934
The Revolution of 1934, also known as the Revolution of October 1934 or the Revolutionary General Strike of 1934, was a revolutionary strike movement that took place between 5 and 19 October 1934, during the black biennium of the Second Spanish ...
. They were not the only ones, since other militias belonging to other
organization
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived fro ...
s,
parties
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
and
trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...
s also played a role in the revolution, such as those of
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
("Workers' Party of Marxist Unification"), those of the
Syndicalist Party
The Syndicalist Party (; ) was a left-wing political party in Spain, formed by Ángel Pestaña in 1932. Pestaña, a leading member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) trade union, formed the party in response to the growing influence ...
(PS) and those of the
General Union of Workers
A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...
(UGT). After the
coup d'état of July 1936, armed groups of civilian volunteers organized by the parties and trade unions formed in the areas where the uprising failed, joined the remains of the regular army units and state security forces that had remained loyal to the
Republic.
In these militias, the volunteers refused the uniform, salute and other marks of respect to military hierarchy. The officers, elected, could quickly succeed one another at the head of a group and the men felt they had the right to discuss the orders and only apply them if they were in agreement.
As the war progressed, the militias were progressively dissolved and assimilated into the
Spanish Republican Army
The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939.
It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Rep ...
, in spite of many militiamen refusing the
militarization
Militarization, or militarisation, is the process by which a society organizes itself for military conflict and violence. It is related to militarism, which is an ideology that reflects the level of militarization of a state. The process of milit ...
.
The CNT Defense Committees
The origin of the CNT militias in 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 ...
is in the Defense Committees, clandestine military organizations of the
CNT that were financed by and subordinate to the unions. The essential functions of the defense committees were twofold: arms and administration. These committees were a reorganization and expansion of different
affinity groups
An affinity group is a group formed around a shared interest or common goal, to which individuals formally or informally belong. Affinity groups are generally precluded from being under the aegis of any governmental agency, and their purposes m ...
, such as
Los Solidarios
Los Solidarios (“Solidarity”), also known as Crisol (“Crucible”), was a Spanish anarchist armed-struggle group founded in 1922 in Barcelona, as a reply to the dirty war strategy used by the employers and government against trade unions.
...
, who fought against the bosses'
pistolerismo
''Pistolerismo'' refers to the practice used by Spanish employers during the late Restoration of hiring thugs to face and often kill trade unionists and notable workers – and vice versa, most notably present in Barcelona.
Background
Pistol ...
between 1917 and 1923.
In 1934, other factions began to organize their own clandestine militias. The
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
formed the
Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias
{{anti-fascism sidebar, Interwar anti-fascism
The Antifascist Worker and Peasant Militias ( es, Milicias Antifascistas Obreras y Campesinas, MAOC) were a militia group founded in the Second Spanish Republic in 1934. Their purpose was to protect l ...
. The
Carlists
Carlism ( eu, Karlismo; ca, Carlisme; ; ) is a Traditionalist and Legitimist political movement in Spain aimed at establishing an alternative branch of the Bourbon dynasty – one descended from Don Carlos, Count of Molina (1788–1855) – o ...
formed the ''Frente Nacional de Boinas Rojas'', in an attempt to create a hierarchical national
Requeté
The Requeté () was a Carlist organization, at times with paramilitary units, that operated between the mid-1900s and the early 1970s, though exact dates are not clear.
The Requeté formula differed over the decades, and according to its cha ...
structure, detached from local Carlist juntas. The newly founded
Falange Española de las JONS
The Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FE de las JONS; ), was a fascist political party founded in Spain in 1934 as merger of the Falange Española and the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista. FE de las JON ...
also formed their own militia, the ''Primera Línea''.
In October 1934, the CNT Defense Committees abandoned the old affinity group tactic in favor of serious and methodical revolutionary preparation:
The basic defense group had to be small in order to facilitate its secrecy. It had to be made up of six militants, with very specific functions:
* Secretary, in charge of contacting other cadres, creating new groups and preparing reports.
* Personal Investigator, in charge of assessing the danger posed by enemies, such as priests, the military, and pistoleros.
* Building Investigator, in charge of drafting up blueprints and the preparation of statistical reports.
* Researcher, in charge of determining strategic points and tactics for street fighting.
* Researcher, in charge of studying public services: electricity, water, gas, sewerage.
* Investigator, in charge of determining where to obtain arms, money and supplies.
To that ideal figure of six, one more member could be added to cover “high-profile” tasks. The clandestinity of the group had to be absolute. They were the basic nucleus of a revolutionary armed force, capable of mobilizing larger secondary groups, and these, in turn, the entire people.
The scope of action of each defense group was a very precise demarcation within each neighborhood, indicated on a map. The neighborhood defense committee coordinated all these defense cadres, and received a monthly report from each of the group secretaries. The defense committees were also organized at the regional and national level, due to the importance of communications and coordination in a revolutionary insurrection.
The Defense Committees were replaced, in August 1936, by the
Control Patrols
The Control Patrols ( es, Patrullas de Control) of the Central Committee of Anti-fascist Militias of Catalonia was a public order force, mainly composed by CNT- FAI militias, replacing the official police forces which had been discredited after ...
acting under the command of the
Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia
The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia ( ca, Comitè Central de Milícies Antifeixistes de Catalunya, CCMA) was an administrative body created on July 21, 1936 by the president of the Government of Catalonia, Lluís Companys, ...
. However, the defense committees were reactivated during the
Barcelona May Days
The May Days, sometimes also called May Events, refer to a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 during which factions on the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War engaged one another in street battles in various parts of Catalonia ...
, when the
Spanish Republic clashed with the
CNT-FAI and
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
, in a dispute over the control of
Revolutionary Catalonia
Revolutionary Catalonia (21 July 1936 – 10 February 1939) was the part of Catalonia (autonomous region in northeast Spain) controlled by various anarchism, anarchist, Communism, communist, and socialism, socialist trade unions, Political pa ...
.
Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia

On July 19, 1936 in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
, the
military garrison had about six thousand men, compared to almost two thousand
assault guards
The Cuerpo de Seguridad y Asalto ( en, Security and Assault Corps) was the heavy reserve force of the blue-uniformed urban police force of Spain during the Spanish Second Republic. The Assault Guards were special police and paramilitary units c ...
and two hundred
Mossos d'Esquadra
The ''Mossos d'Esquadra'' (; en, Squad), also known as the ''Policia de la Generalitat de Catalunya'' and informally as ''Mossos'', is the autonomous police force responsible for law enforcement in Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia.
...
. The
Civil Guard
Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations:
Current
* Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie
* Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve
* Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil
Histori ...
, who were split between both sides were about three thousand. The CNT-FAI had about twenty thousand militants (among some 200,000 affiliates), organized in neighborhood defense committees. In the CNT's liaison commission with the
Government of Catalonia
The Executive Council of Catalonia ( ca, Consell Executiu) or the Executive Government of Catalonia (Catalan: ) is the executive branch of the Generalitat of Catalonia. It is responsible for the political action, regulation, and administratio ...
and the
loyalist military, they promised to stop the coup plotters with only a thousand armed militants.
There was a double transformation of those defense cadres. That of the ''popular militias'', who defined 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 ...
in the first days, establishing the
collectivization
Collective farming and communal farming are various types of, "agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms: agricultural cooperatives, in which member- ...
of land in the liberated
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to so ...
ese towns; and that of the ''revolutionary committees'' that brought about a "new revolutionary order", in every neighborhood of
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
and in every town in
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...
. Their common origin in the defense cadres meant that confederal militias and revolutionary committees were always very united and interrelated. Those local committees, in some towns, were the result of the relationship of forces existing in each locality, and sometimes they were merely front-populist organs, without any revolutionary aspiration.
The revolutionary committees carried out important administrative tasks ranging from the issuance of
food vouchers,
safe conduct passes,
wedding celebrations, supply and maintenance of
hospitals
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergenc ...
, to the
expropriation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to priv ...
of food, furniture and buildings, financing of secular education and schools managed by the
Libertarian Youth
The Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth ( es, Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL)), sometimes abbreviated as Libertarian Youth (''Juventudes Libertarias''), is a libertarian socialist organisation created in 1932 in Madrid.E ...
, payments to militiamen, or to their families, etc.
On July 21, a Plenum of Local and Regional unions of the CNT renounced the very coordination and extension of power that the revolutionary committees already exercised in the streets. It was decided to accept the creation of the ''Central Committee of Anti-fascist Militias of Catalonia'' (CCMA), an organism in which all anti-fascist organizations participated.
As of this moment, it was the CCMA and not the CNT-FAI who directed the military operations in Catalonia and, from there, 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 ...
. On July 24, the first two anarchist columns departed, under the command 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 ...
and
Antonio Ortiz Ramírez
Antonio Ortiz Ramírez (Barcelona, April 13, 1907 – April 2, 1996) was a prominent member of the National Confederation of Labor and the Iberian Anarchist Federation. He dedicated himself to woodworking throughout his life, held various posit ...
. In those same days, columns of the
PSUC
The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party n ...
and the
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
were also formed. In two months, the committee managed to organize 20,000 militiamen who were spread out across a 300-kilometer front. The aforementioned defense committees ceased to operate in Barcelona since either their members were in the neighborhood committees organizing the revolution, or they were on the war fronts. They remained inactive until May 1937.
Between July 21 and mid-August 1936 the Control Patrols were established by the CCMA. Approximately half of the 700 patrollers had a CNT card, or were from the FAI; the other half was affiliated with the rest of the component organizations of the CCMA:
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
,
Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya
The Republican Left of Catalonia ( ca, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC; ; generically branded as ) is a pro-Catalan independence, social-democratic political party in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, with a presence also in ...
(ERC) and PSUC. Only four section delegates, out of the eleven existing, were from the CNT: those from
Poblenou
El Poblenou (; ) is an extensive neighborhood of Barcelona ( Sant Martí district) that borders the Mediterranean Sea to the south, Sant Adrià del Besòs to the east, Parc de la Ciutadella in Ciutat Vella to the west, and Sant Andreu to the nor ...
,
Sants
Sants is a neighbourhood in the southern part of Barcelona. It belongs to the district of Sants-Montjuïc and is bordered by the districts of l'Eixample, Eixample to the northeast, Les Corts (district), Les Corts to the northwest, and by the muni ...
,
Harmonia
In Greek mythology, Harmonia (; grc, Ἁρμονία / harmoˈnia/, "harmony", "agreement") is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia. Her Greek opposite is Eris, whose Roman counterpart is Discor ...
and
Clot
A thrombus (plural thrombi), colloquially called a blood clot, is the final product of the blood coagulation step in hemostasis. There are two components to a thrombus: aggregated platelets and red blood cells that form a plug, and a mesh of c ...
; four others were from ERC, three from PSUC and none from POUM.
What was happening in Barcelona was of transcendental importance for the CNT in all of Spain since it was in this city where it had the most affiliates, its best militant cadres, and its most powerful and veteran organization. It was then in Barcelona where the decisions made by the CNT were going to affect the future course of the entire CNT in the country.
The columns
Origin of the column as a popular combat formation
The
Castilian
Castilian or Castillian may refer to:
* Castile (historical region), Castile, a historic region of Spain
** Castilian people, an ethnic group from Castile
** Castilian languages, a branch of the West Iberian languages consisting of all linguistic ...
guerrillas of the
War of Spanish Succession
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...
(1701 - 1715) and the guerrilla war on the Portuguese-Extremadura border between 1641 and 1668 were able be early examples of the use of columns in armed conflict. During the
Spanish War of Independence
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...
columns were formed as conglomerates grouping together various regular military or civilian forces and services on a modest scale. The columns, due to their mobility and autonomy, constituted a basic form of organization for the
guerrilla war
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactic ...
. The
national militia used them extensively throughout the 19th century.
In 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 ...
, irregular military formations formed by armed volunteers mixed in with soldiers and other members of the state security forces. This situation occurred on both sides. For example, in the
Nationalist faction
The Nationalist faction ( es, Bando nacional) or Rebel faction ( es, Bando sublevado) was a major faction in the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939. It was composed of a variety of right-leaning political groups that supported the Spanish Coup ...
the
Requetes,
Falangists and the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distin ...
all formed into columns until mid-September when they were reorganized into
battalions
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
and
brigades
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Br ...
.
In the
Republican faction militias are also formed from the first days of the civil war. For example, in
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensi ...
, militant
socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
formed the
Asturian Miners Column
The Asturian Miners Column was a popular militia that fought for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War in the Province of León. On the night of 18 July 1936, a special train full of miners left Asturias for Madrid, in order to defen ...
on July 18, in order to counter the coup in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
. However, when he reached
Benavente, Zamora
Benavente is a town and municipality in the north of the province of Zamora , in the autonomous community Castile and León of Spain. It has about 20,000 inhabitants.
Located north of the capital on an important communications hub, it was repo ...
, he turned around when news was received that the military, under the command of
Antonio Aranda Mata
Antonio Aranda Mata (13 November 1888 – 8 February 1979) was a military officer who fought on side of the Rebel faction in the Spanish Civil War.
Biography
Antonio Aranda Mata was born in Leganés on 13 November 1888.
During the Morocco w ...
, had revolted in
Oviedo
Oviedo (; ast, Uviéu ) is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain and the administrative and commercial centre of the region. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city. Oviedo is located ap ...
. In
Huelva
Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The ria ...
, the
Riotinto Mining Column
The Riotinto Mining Column was a grouping of volunteer fighters formed on 18 July 1936 from the Riotinto mining basins of Huelva to transport dynamite to Seville. The plan was for the miners to join a group of republican civil guards and assau ...
tried to quell the uprising in
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsul ...
, but it was betrayed by the
Civil Guard
Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations:
Current
* Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie
* Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve
* Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil
Histori ...
which ambushed them in
Camas Camas may refer to:
*Camas Bookstore and Infoshop in British Columbia, Canada.
* Camas, Seville, Spain
*Camas, Idaho, United States
*Camas, Montana, United States
*Camas, Washington, United States
* Camas County, Idaho, United States
* Camas prairie ...
.
Another column with similar luck would be the one organized in
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
at the behest of the republic's ''Delegated Government Board'', at that moment in a power dispute with the UGT-CNT's
Popular Executive Committee, which had governed Valencia in the days after the uprising. The board ignored the warnings of the UGT and CNT and sent a column of about 500 civil guards and about 200 volunteer militiamen to
Teruel
Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...
. When they neared the city, the civil guard executed the militiamen and defected to the Nationalists, establishing a military base in Teruel during the first days of the war.
For the liberation of
Albacete
Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete.
Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...
from control by the nationalist civil guard, two columns of soldiers, assault guards and militiamen from
Alicante
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...
,
Cartagena and
Murcia
Murcia (, , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the List of municipalities of Spain, seventh largest city in the country. It has a ...
quickly took
Almansa
Almansa () is a Spanish town and municipality in the province of Albacete, part of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. The name "Almansa" stems from the Arabic language, Arabic (al-manṣaf), "half w ...
and
Hellín
Hellín is a city and municipality of Spain located in the province of Albacete, Castilla–La Mancha. The municipality spans across a total area of 781.66 km2. As of 1 January 2020, it has a population of 30,200, which makes it the second largest ...
. Throughout their journey, they were joined by militiamen that had fled from the towns controlled by the nationalists. On the morning of July 25 they converged near Albacete and faced the rebels, liberating the city at dusk.
In the chaos of the first days of war, on 21 July a column was sent to
Vitoria by the nationalist military authorities at
Donostia. But, the column received news of the uprising of the Donostia garrison in
Mondragón
Mondragón ( eu, Arrasate or ''Mondragoe''), officially known as Arrasate/Mondragón, is a town and municipality in Gipuzkoa Province, Basque Country, Spain. Its population in 2015 was 21,933.
Economic and historical significance
The town is be ...
. Given the situation, the column's commander Pérez Garmendia decided to suspend the advance on the
Alava capital and returned to
Eibar
Eibar ( eu, Eibar, es, Éibar) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Basque Country of Spain. It is the head town of Debabarrena, one of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Gipuzkoa.
Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants (Eustat ...
with 30 civil guards and an ensign. The provincial authorities were concentrated in the town with the civil governor in charge.
The march to liberate Donostia was organized in Eibar. For this, a reinforcement column arrived from Bilbao, under the command of the ensign of the assault guard Justo Rodríguez Ribas, it was composed of: ''"three armored cars with 23 riflemen; two buses with 44 riflemen; an assault mortar car with four guards, another assault car with 30 guards and several vehicles with 57 dynamite riflemen; a health ambulance with four nurses, a doctor, a driver, and two Assault practitioners. They also had a shuttle car, manned by four militiamen. In total the column of 166 men with munitions, grenades, mortars, projectile boxes and abundant dynamite was made up" ''
Until October 1936 the militias on both sides were columns commanded by the military or by well-known party and union militants. In the
Republican faction the military appointed a left-wing militant as a
political commissar due to the great distrust generated by the Spanish military during the first months of the war. The role of the political commissariat was twofold, on the one hand trying to keep the morale of the troops high, and on the other, monitoring the actions of the military elements.
Organization
Many of the anarchist leaders in the war had been committed
antimilitarists
Antimilitarism (also spelt anti-militarism) is a doctrine that opposes war, relying heavily on a critical theory of imperialism and was an explicit goal of the First and Second International. Whereas pacifism is the doctrine that disputes (especia ...
, even having to flee the country so as not to do
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job ( volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft ( conscription).
Some nations (e.g., Mexico) requ ...
. This antimilitarism permeated the discourse of many anarchist groups, and contrasted with the revolutionary spirit that also emerged from Iberian anarchism. Therefore, anarchist columns were organized under assembly principles and decisions were made through
direct democracy, thus avoiding command hierarchies. The militias of the
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
— a revolutionary
Marxist party that throughout the war became a tactical ally of anarchists - organized in a similar way.
The system favored the rapid formation of units.
* The "
group
A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together.
Groups of people
* Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity
* Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
" of twenty-five people was the simplest combat unit. The soldiers themselves chose a delegate, dismissable at any time, responsible for representing them.
* The “
century
A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c.
A centennial ...
” was composed of four groups, that is to say one hundred people, with a century delegate;
* The "
grouping
Grouping may refer to:
* Muenchian grouping
* Principles of grouping
* Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system
* Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm
See also
...
" was composed of five centuries, that is to say five hundred people, and had its own elected delegate;
* The "
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...
" was the sum of the existing groupings. A general delegate of each column was elected.
Columns also consisted of
internationalist
Internationalist may refer to:
* Internationalism (politics), a movement to increase cooperation across national borders
* Liberal internationalism, a doctrine in international relations
* Internationalist/Defencist Schism, socialists opposed to ...
Autonomous Groups, as well as Guerrilla Groups that were on missions behind enemy lines. These combat units were flexible, being able to vary the number of militiamen framed within them and the number of smaller units that make them up.
A war committee advised by a military-technical council coordinated the column's operations. At the head of the war committee was the general delegate of the column. All the delegates of all ranks lacked privileges and hierarchical command.
Famous columns
The most famous of the CNT columns were those that left from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
to liberate
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tribut ...
and
Huesca
Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, al ...
. They were the large columns led by known anarchist militants, which included the first groups of foreign fighters, and when they were dissolved into the
republican army, they came to be led by anarchists until the end of the war.
In their attempt to take these two cities they established 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 ...
. In general, four main columns of the CNT were established: 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 ...
, the
South Ebro Column, the
Ascaso Column
The Ascaso Column was the third column organized in Barcelona at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Ca ...
and the
Harriers Column
The Harriers Column of the FAI, or Los Aguiluchos, was the last of the great Catalan anarcho-syndicalist columns. Later, more militias left Catalonia for the front, but they would no longer do so in the form of a column but rather as reinforce ...
. Apart from these, there were quite a few groups of
Aragonese confederal militias, which ended up converging on these four columns. At the beginning of September 1936, the front had around 20,000 combatants, with 13,000 belonging to the CNT. The columns from
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
and
Lérida
Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida.
Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...
mainly went towards Huesca and Zaragoza, the
Valencian
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...
ones went towards
Teruel
Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...
, repeatedly besieging the three provincial capitals. Around 8,500 fighters surrounded Teruel, almost 5,000 from the CNT.
Durruti Column
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 ...
left
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
on July 24, made up of some 2,500 militiamen, and headed directly for
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tribut ...
, aiming at the recovery of the city. They reached barely 22 kilometers from the city. From that moment on, the column was left with scarce supplies and could not launch a new attack, so it devoted itself to the consolidation of the defensive front, as well as to tasks of propagating and building the revolution through the lands of Aragon. He installed his headquarters in the town of
Bujaraloz
Bujaraloz is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2004 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 1,002 inhabitants.
See also
* Monegros
*List of municipalities in Zaragoza
This is a list ...
,
Zaragoza
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tribut ...
.
In November Durruti was called to collaborate in the defense of
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
, but he was not allowed to take more than a part of the column (about 1,400 out of more than 6,000 militiamen that the column had at the time). This section of the column was decimated in Madrid, in the
Battle of Ciudad Universitaria
The Battle of Ciudad Universitaria was a belligerent confrontation at the start of the defense of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War. This battle happened in the new campus area of the Ciudad Universitaria from 15 to 23 November 1936 (approximatel ...
, and Durruti died there from a point-blank shot of unknown origin on November 20. He was replaced at the head of the '' Durruti Column '' in Madrid by
Ricardo Sanz. In
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to so ...
, the column was commanded by José Manzana who ended up accepting its militarization, thus becoming the
26th Division. Ricardo Sanz took command of the entire column in April 1937. Together they fought in the
Battle of Belchite and in the
defense of Catalonia in January 1939.
South Ebro Column
The South Ebro Column was directed by the cabinetmaker
Antonio Ortiz Ramírez
Antonio Ortiz Ramírez (Barcelona, April 13, 1907 – April 2, 1996) was a prominent member of the National Confederation of Labor and the Iberian Anarchist Federation. He dedicated himself to woodworking throughout his life, held various posit ...
, with
Fernando Salavera
Fernando is a Spanish and Portuguese given name and a surname common in Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Switzerland, former Spanish or Portuguese colonies in Latin America, Africa, the Philippines, India, and Sri Lanka. It is equivalent to the G ...
as military adviser. They left Barcelona on July 24, 1936 by train and highway, growing from 800 men at the beginning to over 2,000, quite a few of whom were soldiers. The column participated in the taking of
Caspe
Caspe is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, part of the autonomous community of Aragon (Spain), seat of the comarca Bajo Aragón-Caspe. As of 2018 it had a population of 9,525 inhabitants (INE 2018) and its municipality, of 503.33&nbs ...
, dominated by a company of the
Civil Guard
Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations:
Current
* Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie
* Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve
* Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil
Histori ...
and some 200
Aragonese Falangists, under the command of Captain Negrete.
Various units were incorporated into the column. Among them, at the beginning of September, the small Carod-Ferrer column, which had just occupied
Fuendetodos
Fuendetodos is a town in the Campo de Belchite comarca (county), in Aragon, Spain, located about 44 kilometers south-east of Zaragoza. As of 2011, it had a population of approximately 178.
The town is associated with painter Francisco de Goya, ...
, was added and parapetized before
Villanueva de Boil
Villanueva may refer to:
Places
Colombia
* Villanueva, Bolívar, a town and municipality in Bolívar Department
*Villanueva, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department
*Villanueva, La Guajira, a town and municipality in La Guajira ...
. Along with this group was another party, the Hilario-Zamora column, which was led by the anarchist Hilario Esteban, together with Santiago López Oliver. This column came from
Lérida
Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida.
Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...
. These two groups ended up unifying with the "Ortiz" Column. Shortly after, 650 soldiers arrived from Tarragona, under the command of Martínez Peñalver, who also joined the column. They also received reinforcements from some
Valencian
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...
militias.
After militarization, the South Ebro column was dissolved into the republican
25th Division. After the
Battle of Belchite, the head of the
Eastern Army Sebastián Pozas Perea
Sebastián Pozas Perea (Zaragoza, 1876 – 1946) was a Spanish military officer and civil servant.
Early life
Trained in the cavalry, Pozas undertook extended service in Spanish Morocco, fighting in the Rif Wars and attaining the rank of g ...
decided to withdraw command of the 25th division from Ortiz, replacing him with
Miguel García Vivancos
Miguel García Vivancos (April 19, 1895 in Mazarrón, Region of Murcia – January 23, 1972 in Córdoba) was a Spanish Naïve painter and anarchist. He was a member of the National Confederation of Labor ( es, Confederación Nacional del ...
.
Ascaso Column
The third
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 ...
column organized in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ...
left for Aragon on July 25, with 2,000 militiamen. Somewhat better armed than the previous two, it had 4 or 6 machine guns and 3 or 4
armored trucks (''
Tiznaos'') transformed by a
Gavà
Gavà () is a municipality in the Baix Llobregat comarca, in the province of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. It borders the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between Viladecans and Castelldefels.
Gavà has a beach and two population centers: the ci ...
metalworker. The Ascaso column included the Italian internationalist groups "Justice and Freedom" and the "Battalion of Death" ( ''Centuria Malatesta''). It was based in the
province of Huesca
Huesca ( an, Uesca, ca, Osca), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca.
Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Haute- ...
, and was run by Cristóbal Alvaldetrecu,
Gregorio Jover
Gregorio is a masculine given name and a surname. It may refer to:
Given name
* Gregorio Conrado Álvarez (1925–2016), Uruguayan army general and de facto President of Uruguay from 1981 until 1985
* Gregorio Álvarez (historian) (1889–1986), ...
and
Domingo Ascaso
Domingo may refer to:
People
*Domingo (name), a Spanish name and list of people with that name
*Domingo (producer) (born 1970), American hip-hop producer
*Saint Dominic (1170–1221), Castilian Catholic priest, founder of the Friars popularly cal ...
.
After militarization, the column became the republican
28th Division and was led by
Gregorio Jover
Gregorio is a masculine given name and a surname. It may refer to:
Given name
* Gregorio Conrado Álvarez (1925–2016), Uruguayan army general and de facto President of Uruguay from 1981 until 1985
* Gregorio Álvarez (historian) (1889–1986), ...
.
Harriers Column
The
Harriers Column
The Harriers Column of the FAI, or Los Aguiluchos, was the last of the great Catalan anarcho-syndicalist columns. Later, more militias left Catalonia for the front, but they would no longer do so in the form of a column but rather as reinforce ...
was the last of the great
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...
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 ...
columns. Later more militias would come out of Catalonia, but they would no longer do so in the form of a column but rather as reinforcement units of the existing columns. In reality, this column had been foreseen to be a large unit - of around 10,000 combatants - but it ended up being a reinforcement of the Ascaso Column - as an autonomous column of about 1,700 militiamen. Organized in the Bakunin barracks in Barcelona, on August 28 it was sent to
Grañén
Grañén is a small town in the Monegros region of the Province of Huesca, Aragón, Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ...
, on the
Huesca
Huesca (; an, Uesca) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and of the comarca of Hoya de Huesca. In 2009 it had a population of 52,059, al ...
front.
García Oliver
García or Garcia may refer to:
People
* García (surname)
* Kings of Pamplona/Navarre
** García Íñiguez of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 851/2–882
** García Sánchez I of Pamplona, king of Pamplona 931–970
** García Sánchez II of Pampl ...
and
Miguel García Vivancos
Miguel García Vivancos (April 19, 1895 in Mazarrón, Region of Murcia – January 23, 1972 in Córdoba) was a Spanish Naïve painter and anarchist. He was a member of the National Confederation of Labor ( es, Confederación Nacional del ...
came out in front of the column with
José Guarner
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernac ...
as military adviser. In September, García Vivancos agreed to the militarization of the column. Later a group had to be sent home due to their opposition to militarization. The column was incorporated into the
125th Mixed Brigade
The 125th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army
The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939.
It became k ...
and participated in the battles of
Belchite
Belchite is a municipality and town in the province of Zaragoza, Spain, about 40 km southeast of Zaragoza. It is the capital of Campo de Belchite ''comarca'' (administrative region) and is located in a plain surrounded by low hills, the high ...
and
Fuentes de Ebro
Fuentes de Ebro ( an, Fuents d’Ebro) is a municipality in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2005 census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of ...
, as well as in the defense of
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...
, retreating to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...
after their defeat.
Iron Column
The Iron Column left
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
with the intention of liberating
Teruel
Teruel () is a city in Aragon, located in eastern Spain, and is also the capital of Teruel Province. It has a population of 35,675 in 2014 making it the least populated provincial capital in the country. It is noted for its harsh climate, with ...
from the nationalists. They left on 7–8 August 1936 with about 800 militiamen in two groups. By the end of August they had grown to about 1,600, and in September about 3,000. In the rear there was even a strong group of supporters, of up to 20,000 men and women, who were on the waiting list to join. After being militarized, it became the
83rd Mixed Brigade
The 83rd Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army created during the Spanish Civil War from the militarization of the Iron Column. It came to operate on the Teruel, Levante and Central fronts.
History Front of Teruel
The unit w ...
.
Other Columns
*
Red and Black Column
The Red and Black Column was the fifth militia column organized by the CNT-FAI in Barcelona to send to the Aragon front. Its incorporation took place in mid-September, in the Province of Huesca as a reinforcement to the anarchist ''Ascaso Column ...
. A
Catalan
Catalan may refer to:
Catalonia
From, or related to Catalonia:
* Catalan language, a Romance language
* Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia
Places
* 13178 Catalan, asteroid ...
column formed by militiamen who had taken part in the
Battle of Majorca
The Battle of Majorca, also known as the Majorca Landings, was an amphibious landing of Republican forces early in the Spanish Civil War aimed at driving the Nationalists from Majorca and reclaiming the island for the Republic. After some ini ...
. They were assigned to the
province of Huesca
Huesca ( an, Uesca, ca, Osca), officially Huesca/Uesca, is a province of northeastern Spain, in northern Aragon. The capital is Huesca.
Positioned just south of the central Pyrenees, Huesca borders France and the French Departments of Haute- ...
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 ...
where they arrived in September. It was commanded by the syndicalists García Prada and Giménez Pajarero. This column soon became subordinate to the Harriers Column. It gave rise to the formation of the
127th Mixed Brigade
The 127th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army, belonging to the 28th Division, created during the Spanish Civil War. It operated on the Aragón and Extremadura fronts.
History
The unit was created on April 28, 1937, on the ...
.
*
Land and Freedom Column
The Land and Freedom Column was a militia column organized by the CNT-FAI from the regions of Berguedà and Bages as well as from Barcelona. The column was sent to the Central front in mid-September 1936 to reinforce the republican line again ...
. This column, of 1500 militiamen, was organized at the initiative of
Federica Montseny
Frederica Montseny i Mañé (; 1905–1994) was a Catalan anarchist and intellectual who served as Minister of Health and Social Assistance in the Government of the Spanish Republic during the Civil War. She is known as a novelist and essayist ...
and
Diego Abad de Santillán
Diego Abad de Santillán (20 May 1897 – 18 October 1983), also known as his born name Sinesio Baudilio García Fernández, was an anarcho-syndicalist activist and economist.
Selected works
* ''After the Revolution: Economic Reconstructi ...
. Its delegate was the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Port ...
Germinal de Souza
Germinal de Souza (born 22 May 1906 in Porto) was a Portuguese anarchist and secretary of the Iberian Anarchist Federation's Peninsular Committee. During the Spanish Civil War he was elected delegate of the 1,500-strong Land and Freedom Column, a ...
. The libertarian column was formed with volunteers from the ill-fated
Battle of Majorca
The Battle of Majorca, also known as the Majorca Landings, was an amphibious landing of Republican forces early in the Spanish Civil War aimed at driving the Nationalists from Majorca and reclaiming the island for the Republic. After some ini ...
. The column was formed behind the back of the Central Committee of Militias. According to the testimony of García Oliver, the formation of this column was the cause of friction and confrontations between the CNT leaders in the Central Committee of Militias. The Land and Freedom Column voted against militarization, along with the Iron Column. After becoming militarized, the column gave rise to the
153rd Mixed Brigade
The 153rd Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Civil War that took part in the Spanish Civil War. Formed around the old Land and Freedom Column, the unit took part in the battles of Belchite, Aragon and Segre.
History
The unit was created i ...
.
*
Torres-Benedito Column
The Torres-Benedito Column was a militia Column (formation), column that operated at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
History
The column was created in Community of Valencia, Valencia shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. ...
. A
Valencian
Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...
column commanded by
Jesús Velasco Echave
Jesus ( AD 30 or 33) was a Jewish preacher and religious leader who most Christians believe to be the incarnation of God and Muslims believe was a prophet.
Jesus may also refer to:
People
Religious figures
* Elymas Bar-Jesus, a Jew in the ''Act ...
, deployed from Muletón to Valdecebro. It was made up of about 800 men from the armed forces and about 1,800 militiamen; totaling 2,600 troops. In the winter of 1936-1937 it became a part of the
81st Mixed Brigade
The 81st Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army created during the Spanish Civil War. It operated on the Teruel, Levante and Estremadura fronts.
History
The unit was created in March 1937 from the militarization of the Torres ...
.
*
Iberia Column
The Iberia Column was a militia column that operated at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
History
The column was created in September 1936, made up of members of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) of the Levante. It was organized in ...
. Another column from
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
created in September at the request of the Levante FAI. It joined the rest of the columns in the Teruel front. It was considered a shock column. During the militarization it remained at the disposal of the Teruel front command. The
81st Mixed Brigade
The 81st Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army created during the Spanish Civil War. It operated on the Teruel, Levante and Estremadura fronts.
History
The unit was created in March 1937 from the militarization of the Torres ...
emerged from its militarization, and some of its troops were also used to form the
94th Mixed Brigade
The 94th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army created during the Spanish Civil War. It came to operate on the Teruel, Aragon and Segre fronts.
History
In March 1937, in Cuenca, the 94th Mixed Brigade was created, made up of r ...
.
* CNT 13 Column. Another column from Valencia also created in September. It was directed by the cenetista Santiago Tronchoni and had 900 militiamen. At the end of November, it had about 1,200 militiamen. It was transformed into the "Elite" battalion.
* Spirit and Rebellion Column. Another column from Valencia that would be used to cover gaps in the Teruel front line. It was the first Levantine confederal column to be militarized without ever having entered into combat. It was divided into 2 battalions, one was absorbed into the
XIII International Brigade
The 13th International Brigade – often known as the XIII Dąbrowski Brigade – fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, in the International Brigades. The brigade was dissolved and then reformed on four occasions.
...
and the other became part of the
84th Mixed Brigade
The 84th Mixed Brigade ( es, 84.ª Brigada Mixta), was a mixed brigade of the Spanish Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. It was formed in March 1937 with battalions of the Iron Column ( es, Columna de Hierro) and was disbanded after the tr ...
.
* First Confederal Column. Valencian column of about 1500 militiamen that in March 1937 replaced the Iron Column, after it was removed from the front to rest and reorganize. On April 1, it became the
82nd Mixed Brigade
The 82nd Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army created during the Spanish Civil War. It came to operate on the Battle of Teruel, Teruel and Levante Offensive, Levante fronts.
History
The unit was created in March 1937 in the ...
.
*
Maroto Column
The Maroto column was a militia column that operated at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
History
The column was founded in Alicante, in the summer of 1936, by the Granadin anarchist leader Francisco Maroto del Ojo. At first it was made ...
. Confederal column that left
Alicante
Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...
for
Granada
Granada (,, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the c ...
. It had about 600 militiamen at the beginning, growing to 1,200 in October. Their delegate was
Francisco Maroto del Ojo
Francisco Maroto del Ojo (15 March 1906, in Granada – 12 July 1940, in Alicante) was an Andalusian anarchist who was a prominent member of the National Confederation of Labor ( es, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, CNT).
Biography Youth ...
. The column became the
147th Mixed Brigade
The 147th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army that participated in the Spanish Civil War, deployed on the Andalusia front.
History
The unit was created on May 1, 1937 from troops from the old Maroto Column and recruits from ...
.
*
Andalusia-Extremadura Column
The Andalusia-Extremadura Column was a confederal militia composed of anarchist militants and workers that participated in the Spanish Civil War, on the fronts of Córdoba and Jáen.
Its organization began in Bujalance at the end of Septem ...
. This column came from
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
. It was composed of
Andalusian
Andalusia is a region in Spain.
Andalusian may also refer to:
Animals
*Andalusian chicken, a type of chicken
*Andalusian donkey, breed of donkey
*Andalusian hemipode, a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds
*Andalusian horse, a breed of ho ...
and
Extremaduran militiamen from different units who fought in July and August and who were disorganized until September 1936. They fought, as the name suggests, on the
Extremadura
Extremadura (; ext, Estremaúra; pt, Estremadura; Fala: ''Extremaúra'') is an autonomous community of Spain. Its capital city is Mérida, and its largest city is Badajoz. Located in the central-western part of the Iberian Peninsula, ...
and Córdoba-Jaén fronts. It had more than 4,000 militiamen by November 1936. In early 1937 the column became the
88th Mixed Brigade.
* CEFA Column. CEFA comes from "Spanish Confederation of Anarchist Federations". Organized by anarchist groups from
Málaga, it was directed by the Granada-born propagandist
Morales Guzmán
Morales is a Spanish surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alfredo Morales (born 1990), American footballer
* Alvaro Morales (disambiguation), several people
* Amado Morales (born 1947), Puerto Rican javelin thrower
* Bartolomé Mor ...
.
* Free Spain Column. The Free Spain Column was initially the ''Free Spain Battalion'' of the CNT's ''Cipriano Mera Column'' in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
. It later quadrupled into 4 CNT Battalions of Alicante and Murcia (No. 1 to 4), in the Columns of
Arturo Mena Arturo is a Spanish and Italian variant of the name Arthur.
People
*Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1985), American-born Salvadoran footballer
*Arturo Álvarez (footballer, born 1959), Mexican footballer
*Arthuro Henrique Bernhardt (b. 1982), Br ...
in the Central and Guadalajara area, and was named the "Free Spain Column". It was led by Gabriel Venegas and
José Sánchez Rodríguez
José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ).
In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...
. In October 1936 it had about 1,236 men and in December there were 2,215. It was awarded to the ''Prada Column'' of the
Spanish Republican Army
The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939.
It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Rep ...
in the defense of Madrid. In November 1936, they detained republican ministers in who were leaving in
Tarancón
Tarancón is a municipality of Spain located in the province of Cuenca, Castilla–La Mancha. As of 2018, it has a population of 14,834, which makes it the second most populated municipality in the province.
History
The place's repopulation pre ...
for
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
, but they continued on their way thanks to the intervention of
Cipriano Mera
Cipriano Mera Sanz (November 4, 1897 – October 24, 1975) was a Spanish military and political figure during the Second Spanish Republic.
Early life
He had two sons (Floreal and Sergio) with his partner Teresa Gómez. A bricklayer, he joi ...
. It was absorbed into the
70th Mixed Brigade
The 70th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army created during the Spanish Civil War. The unit intervened in the battles of Jarama, Guadalajara and Brunete. At the end of the war it played a role in the Casado coup.
History
T ...
.
*
Rosal Column
The Rosal Column was a republican militia column created 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, Cu ...
. This column was made up of the ''Mora Battalion'', the ''Ferrer Battalion'', the ''Orobón Fernández Battalion'', the ''Libertarian Youth Battalion'', and 8 centuries of the ''Land and Freedom Column''. Some battalions were integrated into the
39th Mixed Brigade
The 39th Mixed Brigade was a unit of the Spanish Republican Army that took part in the Spanish Civil War. Throughout the war the brigade was present on the Madrid, Guadalajara and Levante fronts.
History
The unit was created on November 26, ...
. It was led by the cenetistas
Cipriano Mera
Cipriano Mera Sanz (November 4, 1897 – October 24, 1975) was a Spanish military and political figure during the Second Spanish Republic.
Early life
He had two sons (Floreal and Sergio) with his partner Teresa Gómez. A bricklayer, he joi ...
and
Eusebio Sanz
Eusebio Sanz Asensio was a Spanish anarchist and military commander.
Biography
Already a member of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT), at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he joined the confederal militias and became a member of ...
, and the republican officer
Francisco del Rosal Rico
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...
. This brigade was integrated into the
14th Division. The
59th
The 59th Quartermaster Company is a bulk petroleum company designed to provide semi-portable storage for of fuel and to provide distribution of fuel to military units within a specified geographic area while deployed overseas. Its secondary missi ...
,
60th and
61st Mixed Brigades, which together formed the
42nd Division, also emerged from the column.
The CNT battalions

The CNT militias functioned in the form of columns, especially in
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...
and
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
. In order to operate better, they were subdivided into Groups or Divisions, which were equivalent to the battalions in
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to so ...
and Valencia respectively. When the militarization of the columns came, they first became
Mixed Brigades
Mixed brigade ( es, brigada mixta) was a basic tactical military unit of the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. It was initially designed as “pocket division”, an innovative maneuverable combined-arms formation. Because of high sa ...
, and the Catalan ones, which were more numerous, directly became
divisions.
Central Fronts
In other areas the form of organization of the militias took that of the
battalions
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
. Among the Madrid columns there were several battalions such as the "Free Spain", "Águilas de la Libertad", "Spartacus", "Mora", "Ferrer", "Orobón Fernández", "Juvenil Libertario", "Sigüenza" and "Toledo" battalions, which were fighting in both locations. In addition individual cenetistas would often integrate other republican columns, such as the
Mangada Column which had numerous cenetistas. The CNT of the
Center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...
even organized up to 23,000 militiamen in December 1936, rivaling the numbers of the
Fifth Regiment
The Fifth Regiment ( es, Quinto Regimiento, the full name ''Quinto Regimiento de Milicias Populares)'', was an elite corps loyal to the Second Spanish Republic, Spanish Republic at the onset of the Spanish Civil War. Made up of volunteers, the Fi ...
.
Michael Alpert
Michael Alpert (born 1954, Los Angeles, California) is a klezmer musician and Yiddish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, scholar and educator who has been called a key figure in the klezmer revitalization, beginning in the 1970s.
He has ...
, '' The People's Army of the Republic, 1936-1939 '', Critical Ed.
Southern Fronts
In Extremadura the "''Pío Sopena Battalion''" was formed, under the command of Olegario Pachón. In
Bujalance
Bujalance is a town located in the heart of Andalucia, southern Spain, in the province of Córdoba. , it had 7910 inhabitants.
Its name is derived from the Arabic term ''Burj al-Hansh''. Among its monuments and places of interest are the Moorish ...
, Córdoba, the
Andalusia-Extremadura Column
The Andalusia-Extremadura Column was a confederal militia composed of anarchist militants and workers that participated in the Spanish Civil War, on the fronts of Córdoba and Jáen.
Its organization began in Bujalance at the end of Septem ...
was organized at the end of September from the remains of the different centuries and militia columns of the Andalusian CNT such as the "Centuria de los Gavilanes" from Bujalance, the "Arcas" Battalion and the "Zimmerman" Battalion from
Seville
Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsul ...
, the "Pancho Villa" Battalion from
Jaén,
Castro del Río
Castro del Río is a city located in the province of Córdoba, Spain. According to the 2006 census ( INE), the city has a population of 8074 inhabitants.
References
External linksCastro del Río- Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de An ...
and
Baena
Baena is a town and municipality of Spain located in the province of Córdoba, Andalusia. It is situated near the on the slope of a hill southeast of Córdoba by road. The population of the town is 20,266 (2012).
History
The site of the Roma ...
, the "''Alcoy Battalion''" created by Levantine militiamen who had already operated in the
Córdoba offensive
The Córdoba offensive was a failed Republican offensive against the Nationalist held city of Cordoba. It took place from 19 to 22 August 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.
Background.
On 18 July, the military governor of Cordoba, Ciriaco Cas ...
; the "Fermín Salvochea" Battalion, from
Almodóvar del Río
Almodóvar del Río is a city located in the province of Córdoba, Spain.
References
External linksAlmodóvar del Río- Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía
Municipalities in the Province of Córdoba (Spain)
{{A ...
and Villaviciosa, was formed on August 20. It was led by the brothers Juan, Francisco and Sebastián Rodríguez Muñoz known as "Los Jubiles", anarchists from Bujalance.
In
Málaga there were also libertarian battalion: the "Juan Arcas", "Pedro López", "Ascaso No. 1", "Ascaso No. 2", "Raya", "Makhno", "Andrés Naranjo", "Sebastian Fauré", "Libertad" and "Fermín Salvochea" battalions. Libertarians always predominated on this front.
Northern Fronts
On the northern fronts the battalion system was implemented from September–October 1936. After operating during the first months in mixed columns, they created battalions separated by ideology. This was the case in ''
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensi ...
'' where the following battalions were created in October:
* '' 'CNT nº1' ''. Commanded by Miguélez.
* '' 'CNT nº2' ''. Commanded by Onofre García Tirador. Based in Villaviciosa.
* '' 'CNT nº3' ''. Commanded by
Víctor Álvarez González
Víctor Álvarez González (Gijón, born 1901) was an Asturians, Asturian anarcho-syndicalist.
Biography
A native of the Asturian city Gijón, he joined the local arm of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT).
After the outbreak of the Spa ...
.
* '' 'CNT nº4' ''. Commanded by Celestino Fernández.
* '' 'CNT nº5' ''. Commanded by
Higinio Carrocera
Higinio Carrocera Mortera (January 1908 – 8 May 1938) was an Asturian anarcho-syndicalist who participated in the Revolution of 1934 and fought during the Spanish Civil War in Asturias.
Biography Youth
The son of a working-class coup ...
.
* '' 'CNT nº6' ''. Commanded by Faustino Rodríguez.
* '' 'CNT nº7' ''. Commanded by Mario Cuesta.
* '' 'CNT nº8' ''. Commanded by Marcelino Álvarez. Composed of the
Libertarian Youth
The Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth ( es, Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias (FIJL)), sometimes abbreviated as Libertarian Youth (''Juventudes Libertarias''), is a libertarian socialist organisation created in 1932 in Madrid.E ...
.
* '' 'CNT nº9' ''. Commanded by José García.
* '' 'Galicia Battalion' ''. Commanded by
José Penido Iglesias
José Penido Iglesias (born 1894 or 1895) was a Galician anarcho-syndicalist and military commander during the Spanish Civil War.
Biography
Born in Santiago de Compostela, in 1894 or 1895, in his youth he studied medicine. He emigrated to A ...
. Composed of
Galician escapees. With bases in Avilés and Colloto.
The
Asturian militias had around 10,000 militiamen in September. About a third, anarchists. However, when the fifths were recruited and the
battalions
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...
were created, the CNT was assigned much fewer commanders than was proportional to their numbers. Many times out of rejection of militarism, libertarians renounced taking control of battalions, giving way to the imposition of
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...
or
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
commanders on them.
[César M. Lorenzo, Spanish anarchists and power, 1868 -1969, Iberian Ring. Paris, 1969.] Of the 52 Asturian battalions (31,000 combatants), the CNT had 9, and the
Syndicalist Party
The Syndicalist Party (; ) was a left-wing political party in Spain, formed by Ángel Pestaña in 1932. Pestaña, a leading member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) trade union, formed the party in response to the growing influence ...
had 1. In February 1937, 22 more battalions were added to the Asturian forces, totalling 75.
In
Euskadi
The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an autonomous community of Spain. It ...
the CNT was a minority force. But just as had happened in Madrid they saw a spectacular growth as a result of the war. Despite having less than 3,000 members in May 1936, in a few months it has 35,000 members and at the end of 1936 it mobilized around 6,000 militiamen. It had the following battalions:
* '' '
Isaac Puente Battalion' ''. Nº11 of the Basque militias. Commanded by Enrique Araujo.
* '' '
Sacco-Vanzetti Battalion
The Sacco-Vanzetti Battalion ( eu, Sacco-Vanzetti Batailoia) was a military unit of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) from Euskadi that acted on the War in the North, Northern Front during the Spanish Civil War. It was No. 4 of the CNT M ...
' ''. Nº12 of the Basque militias. Commanded by Juan Rivera.
* '' 'Bakunin Battalion' ''. Nº65 of the Basque militias. Commanded by Luciano Mateos.
* '' 'Celtic Battalion' ''. Nº30 of Basque militias. Commanded by Manuel Mata.
* '' 'Durruti Battalion' ''. Nº51 of Basque militias. Commanded by Roberto Lago.
* '' 'Malatesta Battalion' ''. Nº36 of Basque militias. Commanded by Jesús Eskauriaza.
* '' 'International Battalion' ''. Reserve battalion made up of half anarchists and half militiamen of other ideologies.
* '' 'Manuel Andrés 1st Engineer Battalion' ''. Engineer battalion.
In
Santander
Santander may refer to:
Places
* Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain
* Santander Department, a department of Colombia
* Santander State, former state of Colombia
* Santander de Quilichao, a ...
the CNT forces were initially a part of the mixed battalions. However, some CNT battalions were also formed, such as the "Liberty Battalion" and the "CNT-FAI Battalion." Most of the anarchists in the city, curiously, were affiliated to the UGT unions.
Milicianas

The appearance of the militias was the result of the revolutionary situation in the republican zone during the beginning of the civil war. During the first days the
libertarian
Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...
,
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
and
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
organizations called to arms anyone who could, and wanted to, take them up. Among the volunteers were many women. From the first days of the Civil War, the newspaper "Libertarian Front" launched a campaign for the enlistment of women in the workers' militias.
The first fighters who wore the blue jumpsuit, the uniform of the workers' militias, the barracks cap with a red tassel, and a carabiner on the shoulder, or a pistol at the belt, were the libertarian women, soon followed by the Socialists and the Communists, although the latter were not supporters of the incorporation of women into the armed struggle. In a climate of indescribable exaltation, women organized themselves into popular militias and left for the different war fronts. Among them in the ''
Harriers Column
The Harriers Column of the FAI, or Los Aguiluchos, was the last of the great Catalan anarcho-syndicalist columns. Later, more militias left Catalonia for the front, but they would no longer do so in the form of a column but rather as reinforce ...
'', organized by the FAI and by the Libertarian Youth, up to 200 women participated, making it by far the republican column with the most women. The
Free Women, an
anarcha-feminist
Anarcha-feminism, also referred to as anarchist feminism, is a system of analysis which combines the principles and power analysis of anarchist theory with feminism. Anarcha-feminism closely resembles intersectional feminism. Anarcha-feminism ...
organization did not organize any women's unit, although it was clear that it supported the effort of the militias.
Generally it was young workers from factories, workshops, shops and offices, as well as domestic workers and students, who left their jobs to enlist. Most were teenagers, such as Victoria López Práxedes, sixteen years old, who died fighting in the Talavera sector. And Lolita Maiquez, of the same age, immortalized in the "General Chronicle of the Civil War". But old militants also joined, such as Libertad Ródenas, fifty-four years old, incorporated into 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 ...
that left for the Aragon front. They generally came from a militant revolutionary environment, with other direct family in the militias (parents, brothers, husbands). There were also internationalists like
Mary Low,
Simone Weil
Simone Adolphine Weil ( , ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic, and political activist. Over 2,500 scholarly works have been published about her, including close analyses and readings of her work, since 1995.
...
, Clara Thalmann, and other women, who participated in the war as ''milicianas''.
From the popular astonishment caused by women defending their freedom and that of the community, battalions began to name themselves after revolutionary women: Mariana de Pineda, Aida Lafuente, Lina Ódena, Rosa Luxemburg, La Pasionaria, Margarita Nelken ...
But not everyone approved of the mobilization of women on the fronts. Indalecio Prieto even said that women's mission was in "hospitals, kitchens and factories". The role of women in warfare was called into question, with the old recurring and discriminatory old defamatory slogans. Largo Caballero, in the late autumn of 1936, sustained the discrediting campaign by signing military decrees ordering the ''milicianas'' to leave the trenches and go to rear-guard work. Women took over the management of factories, hospitals, schools, shelters, children's camps, evacuation abroad, they also drove trams and ambulances and worked in the agricultural collectives of the countryside.
The "tiznaos"
Due to the shortage of combat means and materials, heavy vehicles such as trucks, buses or agricultural machinery were reinforced with steel plates of different thicknesses. They began to be informally known as "''tiznaos''" for their disparate colored camouflage. The armor of these makeshift armored vehicles was not usually very effective because the steel plates were unevenly attached, or not thick enough, to the extent that on some occasions the "tiznaos" included mattresses as a protection measure. It also happened that sometimes, when wanting to install vehicles with thicker plates to increase protection, the maneuverability and speed of the vehicle were impaired. Due to deficiencies in armor or handling, the more improvised "tiznaos" were quickly put out of action. Those that had been built with more care and with better technical means lasted longer, some of them surviving the three years of the war.
It was common that the "tiznaos" were covered in graffiti, with the name of the column to which they belonged and the initials of some party, union, or labor organization to which the militiamen who used them adhered.
Their role in the war
Michael Alpert
Michael Alpert (born 1954, Los Angeles, California) is a klezmer musician and Yiddish singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, scholar and educator who has been called a key figure in the klezmer revitalization, beginning in the 1970s.
He has ...
in his book '' The People's Army of the Republic, 1936-1939 '' states that the confederal militia organization in Madrid had nothing to envy in the
Fifth Regiment
The Fifth Regiment ( es, Quinto Regimiento, the full name ''Quinto Regimiento de Milicias Populares)'', was an elite corps loyal to the Second Spanish Republic, Spanish Republic at the onset of the Spanish Civil War. Made up of volunteers, the Fi ...
,
and much less in warfare. The differences were mostly ideological. Ideology determined politics, and this made the communist forces have a much wider known role - diffused by propaganda - than the anarchist forces. Soon the politics of the Communist Party caused criticism from the republican press against the role that the militias were playing on the war fronts.
And yet, the popular militias (not only those of the CNT) saved the Republic between July and September 1936. They managed to defeat the uprising in numerous peninsular capitals such as Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Bilbao, Gijón. .. and the militias that would liberate Guadalajara, Cuenca, Albacete or Toledo were organized from these cities. They tried unsuccessfully to liberate Córdoba, Granada, Oviedo or Zaragoza, creating, despite their failure, stable fronts. The army, to contrast, had almost completely revolted against the Republic. And that if there were a few troops left on the republican side, on many occasions they did so without conviction, purely by chance or for fear of rebelling. The troops were at the mercy of the will of officers sympathetic to the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists.
The militiamen were workers and peasants who often took up arms for the first time. They lacked military experience of any kind, which they balanced with a high morale, based on their revolutionary convictions. The troops recruited by the Falange in Castile or some troops of Requetés, as well as the militias organized by the Socialists or the Communists, faced similar difficulties. The only thing that made the difference was the quality of their weapons and command. And in these matters the anarchist militias always suffered a chronic hardship and an almost total boycott by those who controlled the arms supplies. On the nationalist side, the inexperience of the volunteers was solved by framing the Falange troops and the civil guard in secondary units, the weight being carried by the legionary or regular troops who were experienced soldiers, commanded by professional, military personnel, experienced in wartime situations. However, the Republic could not count on an experienced army, since it could not even trust its officers. The war experience had to be practically done from scratch.
It took several months for the militiamen to gain enough experience to face the other side. There was an evolution from the beginning of the war, in which several battalions fell back due to aerial bombardments in August 1936 (for example the Alcoy battalion in Córdoba or the internationalist Malatesta battalion on the Huesca front), until the time of the battles around Madrid in the winter of '36, in which the militiamen no longer retreated in the face of enemy attacks.
The militiamen (and the first soldiers, many of whom had been militiamen before) managed to counter and arrest the best-prepared army in the war, the Army of Africa (Spain), Army of Africa. The Regular army, Regulars and the Spanish Legion, Legionnaires had no rival in Spain until they reached Madrid, where they were stopped at the cost of numerous casualties. There are reports that by November 1 the militiamen had suffered no less than 35,000 casualties. In January 1937, he libertarian militiamen
Cipriano Mera
Cipriano Mera Sanz (November 4, 1897 – October 24, 1975) was a Spanish military and political figure during the Second Spanish Republic.
Early life
He had two sons (Floreal and Sergio) with his partner Teresa Gómez. A bricklayer, he joi ...
, converted from bricklayer to commander of the 14th Division, halted the advance of experienced Italian troops in the battle of Guadalajara.
The weakest fronts garrisoned by the militias were those of Andalusia, in which militiamen were frequently frightened by aerial bombardments. Málaga fell without having been able to organize any resistance. Given the anarchist predominance in the city, the central government of Largo Caballero chose to ignore it and marginalize it from the distribution of weapons, which would lead to its fall in February 1937. On the Extremadura front, in the Guadiana and Tajo valleys, militiamen ran away when the nationalists surrounded them, abandoning their rifles, machine guns and even cannons.
War and revolution
Behind the frontlines, a Spanish Revolution of 1936, revolution swept through the republican sector. The country's economy was taken control of by the unions, agrarian communities were created and industry was socialized. There was educational reform. Rental prices were regulated or abolished. In many places the currency was even abolished. The appearance of the
Free Women, an organization of anarchist women that in practice led to the emergence of women in the political-social sphere of war, also represented what they called "a revolution within the revolution".
Unlike the Communist Party of Spain, PCE,
PSUC
The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party n ...
, Spanish Socialist Workers Party, PSOE and other
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or again ...
forces, the Spanish Civil War, war and the Spanish Revolution of 1936, revolution were seen as inseparable by the National Confederation of Labor, CNT, Iberian Anarchist Federation, FAI and
POUM
The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil ...
, as can be found in these words 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 ...
:
To this end, the militias helped and promoted the formation of communes in the towns through which they passed. In Aragón 450 agricultural communes made up of 423,000 people, were formed and integrated into the Regional Defence Council of Aragon, Council of Aragon. These communes were a source of support in the rear for the militias, in addition to probably representing the closest approach to the ideal of anarchist life that had been fought for in Spain since the First Spanish Republic.
When the Aragonese communes were dissolved in August 1937, production collapsed. The morale of resistance that had prevailed in Aragon collapsed in such a way that the republican government itself authorized the reconstruction of the communes some time later. When the Francoists launched their offensive in the Ebro Valley (after the battle of Teruel) in the spring of 1938 the front fell apart and the nationalists reached as far as
Lérida
Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida.
Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...
and even the Mediterranean.
Militarization of militias
The militarization of militias was a controversial issue that has been hotly debated, even within the CNT ranks themselves. Among the most authoritative voices raised against '' militarization '' and the formation of a traditional army, that of Durruti stood out, who in the summer of 1936 stated the following :
Cipriano Mera
Cipriano Mera Sanz (November 4, 1897 – October 24, 1975) was a Spanish military and political figure during the Second Spanish Republic.
Early life
He had two sons (Floreal and Sergio) with his partner Teresa Gómez. A bricklayer, he joi ...
, on the other hand, ended up assuming an opinion fully favorable to "militarization":
The assembly organization of the militias had numerous problems, since lack of discipline was frequent, as well as riots and desertions. In the toughest battles, where the nationalist armies proved to possess more and better means, routing was not uncommon. Situations like this forced military leaders to be vigilant of their soldiers, having in many cases to take the lead in the attacks if they wanted to be followed, so many of the most capable characters fell in the front.
From the autumn of 1936, the militarization of the confederal militias was carried out against the will of many of its members -with the government of Largo Caballero and its "Decree of militarization of the Popular Militias", and the approval of the National Confederation of Labor, CNT members in the government -, until 1937, a period in which there was no lack of numerous conflicts regarding the matter. Within the anarchist militias, people such as the founder of the Iron Column, José Pellicer Gandía, opposed militarization, but people such as
Cipriano Mera
Cipriano Mera Sanz (November 4, 1897 – October 24, 1975) was a Spanish military and political figure during the Second Spanish Republic.
Early life
He had two sons (Floreal and Sergio) with his partner Teresa Gómez. A bricklayer, he joi ...
, Miguel García Vivancos and the Basque CNT militias, supported a militarization controlled by the CNT-FAI, rather than by the government. But they were in favor of a militarization controlled by the CNT-FAI and not by the government. Successive decrees of the Government obligatorily restored the military discipline characteristic of the old Army, at the same time that they established logistics and supply organizations under militarized and centralist criteria. Finally, after the Battle of Madrid in November 1936, the Government denied the services of administration and ammunition to militias that resisted militarization. Thus, the militias became regiments or divisions of a regular Army - the so-called Spanish Republican Army, Republican People's Army -, and the militiamen became soldiers subject to traditional military discipline.
The Friends of Durruti (4th Grouping of the Durruti Column) decided to withdraw from the Aragon front, taking their weapons with them. In addition there were conflicts in the
Ascaso Column
The Ascaso Column was the third column organized in Barcelona at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Ca ...
. However, the tone was that of accepting militarization due to the circumstances in which the war was entering. On the northern fronts, militarization was never questioned, with confederal militias practically militarized from the beginning. On the Central front and those of Andalusia and Extremadura, militarization was imposed without great problems, except in the
Maroto Column
The Maroto column was a militia column that operated at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
History
The column was founded in Alicante, in the summer of 1936, by the Granadin anarchist leader Francisco Maroto del Ojo. At first it was made ...
, which was dissolved by Juan Negrin, Negrinists.
According to a report of the "Peninsular Committee of the FAI" of September 30, 1938 - quoted by José Peirats - the percentage of anarchists and confederalists in the Republican Army was 33% (about 150,000 soldiers of about 450,000 soldiers republicans). The 5th Division (Spain), 5th, 16th Division (Spain), 16th, 20th Division (Spain), 20th, 24th Division (Spain), 24th, 25th Division (Spain), 25th, 26th Division (Spain), 26th, 28th Division (Spain), 28th, 54th Division (Spain), 54th, 63rd Division (Spain), 63rd, 70th Division (Spain), 70th, 71st Division (Spain), 71st and 77th Division (Spain), 77th divisions had anarchist commanders. Anarchists also had command of 2 army corps. Despite appearing to be important figures, in reality there was a clear under-representation of anarchists in the republican army.
Militias in the arts
Cinema
* '' Espoir: Sierra de Teruel '' ('' La Esperanza '' or '' L'Espoir '', by André Malraux, who also wrote a novel with the same title) .
* '' :es:Frente de Madrid, Madrid Front '' (Edgar Neville, 1939), adaptation of the same name novel by the same author
* '' Bicycles Are for the Summer '' from Jaime Chávarri, 1984 adaptation of the work of Fernando Fernán Gómez.
* '' The Heifer '' (Luis García Berlanga, 1985)
* '' Land and Freedom (film), Land and Freedom'' (Ken Loach, 1995)
* '' Libertarias '' (Vicente Aranda, 1996)
* '' The Anarchist's Wife '' (Marie Noelle, Peter Sehr, 2009)
Photography
* Robert Capa, author, among many others, of the controversial snapshot '' The Falling Soldier '' (identified as Federico Borrell García, killed in Cerro Muriano on September 5, 1936), turned into an icon of the 20th century.
Bibliography
* The "Uncontrollable" Iron Column, March 1937, bilingual Spanish / French edition, editions Champ Libre, Paris, 1979
La Columna de Hierro y la Revolución* Miquel Amorós, '' José Pellicer Gandía, the upright anarchist. Life and work of the founder of the Heroic Iron Column '', Editorial virus, Barcelona, 2009.
* Miquel Amorós, '' The revolution betrayed. The true story of Balius and Los Amigos de Durruti '', Editorial virus, Barcelona, 2003.
* Burnett Bolloten, "The Great Deception: The Left and its struggle for power in the Republican zone."
* Abel Paz, '' Durruti in the Spanish Revolution '', AK Press, 2006. . Translated by Chuck W. Morse.
* Abel Paz, ''The Story of the Iron Column: Militant Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War''. AK Press and Kate Sharpley Library, 2011. . Translated by Paul Sharkey.
*
* Hans Magnus Enzensberger, '' The short summer of anarchy. Durruti's life and death '', Barcelona, Anagrama, 1998.
* Antoine Giménez and the Gymnologists, "Of love, war and revolution" followed by "In search of the children of the night", Logroño, Pumpkin seeds, 2009.
* Agustín Guillamón, '' The CNT Defense Committees (1933-1938) '', Barcelona, Aldarull Edicions, 2011.
* José Peirats, '' The CNT in the Spanish Revolution '', Toulouse, 1952.
References
{{reflist
External links
Militias and military unit confederations in the Virtual Athenaeum of To the barricades (website), To the barricades.
Interpretive Commentary of the Plenary of Confederate Militia and Columns by Frank Mintz
The Spanish Revolution, 1936-39at Anarchy Now!
Confederal militias,
Defunct anarchist militant groups
Military units and formations of the Spanish Civil War
Anti-fascist organisations in Spain