John-Erik Hansson 260334002 POLI 431 Anarchists and Catalanism, 1868-1936.

Anarchists and Catalanism, 1868-1936

This paper sets out to look at the problematic relationship between anarchism and Catalan nationalism. Early anarchists in Catalonia were fervently opposed to Catalan nationalist and regionalist political projects. Yet, in the early 20th century, anarchism has appeared gentler to some Catalanist projects. Thus, the fundamental purpose of this paper will be to try and account for this apparent ideological turnaround. I will therefore argue that class divisions on the one hand, and strategic choices, on the other, are the causes for this phenomenon. I will further argue that the development of a left-wing, more working-class based Catalanist movement, and the more realist approaches of the anarchist leadership are the key factors of change. To achieve this, we will proceed in three steps. The first will consist of a theoretical discussion of anarchism, specifically Mikhail Bakunin's version, which had a profound influence on the development of Spanish anarchism. It will argue that on a theoretical level, anarchism and some forms of nationalism are not only compatible, but also justifiable within working-class internationalism. The second step will begin a chronological analysis that starts in 1868 and has as a turning point the creation of the Confederacin Nacional del Trabajo (CNT the anarchist confederation) in 1910. It will there be argued that, while there are key elements in the early history of Catalan anarchism that would have facilitated the development of a Catalanist-anarchist political project, they were trumped by the fact that Catalanism was viewed by the anarchists as a bourgeois ideology, which it was, in many ways. The last step in the argument, which covers the years from 1910 to the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 will emphasize the new ties between political Catalanism and anarchism. It will be argued that the appearance of a relatively strong

Catalanist movement on the left new, more realist strategies taken on by the CNT supported and gave a stronger voice to the genuine expression of Catalanist feelings from part of the leadership as well as the rank and file of the CNT.

Anarchism, as Carl Levy points out, is assumed to be antithetical to nationalism and national movements.1 And indeed, anarchism is intrinsically an internationalist, working-class based ideology, especially in the 19th century context of its development. However, as this quote points out, this is only an assumption. In effect, there is more to the relationship between anarchism and nationalism than meets the eye. Bakunin's version of anarchism is indeed quite at odds with a view that would strictly oppose nationalism and anarchism.2 It was also that very version of anarchism which deeply influenced the Catalan anarchist movement.3 At first glance, the Bakuninian version of anarchism does not derogate from the basic anarchist claims: the rejection of the state and of the established bourgeois order. Anarchism rejects the state for a variety of reasons, the most important of which being that the state appears as an oppressive force, denying the liberty of the individual moral self-determination.4 The rejection of the essential structure of bourgeois society then stems from the idea that it is characterized by a relationship of domination of the bourgeois class over the mass of the people.5 The federal mode of organization that Bakunin advocates is also, in many ways, in the continuity of the development of anarchist thought. Indeed, he argues for a universal people's federation,6 which would have as a political unit the commune, whose legitimacy would be based on explicit and mutual consent of individuals.7 This idea of a universal people's federation shows the essential internationalist side to
1 Levy, Carl. 2004. Anarchism, Internationalism and Nationalism in Europe, 1860-1939. Australian Journal of Politics and History. 50:3. p. 331. 2 Forman, Michael. 1998. Nationalism and the International Labour Movement: the idea of the nation in socialist and anarchist theory. University Park: The Pennsylvania University Press. pp. 22-41. 3 Smith, Angel. 2007. Anarchism, Revolution and Reaction: Catalan labour and the crisis of the Spanish state. New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 104-105. 4 Crowder, George. 1991. Classical Anarchism. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 130. 5 Ibid. 6 Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit. p. 33. 7 Ibid.

Bakunin's anarchist thought. Further and beyond his political thought, as one of the spearheads of the International Workingmen's Association (or First International) he vehemently advocated crossnational working-class solidarity. Within this internationalism, however, he introduces the idea of nationality, and entrenches it in his vision of history. Indeed, he argues that nationality, as a natural fact [had] an incontestable right to free existence and development.1 Bakunin therefore holds nationality and by extension nations, as historical facts that have a legitimacy that states do not enjoy. This implies a fundamental difference between states and nations. One objection to this form of legitimization resides in the fact that that states can also be viewed as historical facts as they are the result of the development of human society. However, the legitimacy of the nation stems not only from its historicity, but also from its naturality. In effect, there is a sense in Bakunin's theory that nationality exists before the state, which seems to point to the idea that nations are a pre-political kind of community.2 Furthermore, nations and states are different in essence in that the former is natural and the latter is artificial. The argument goes that nations are natural in the sense that they are historical, pre-political and in and of themselves not oppressive, whereas states are fundamentally artificial tools built for exploitation, repression and oppression.3 This allows Bakunin to claim that there is no greater enemy for a nation than its own State,4 that is to say that not only are nations and states different in kind, they are also opposed to one another. There are two other consequences to entrenching nationality in history. The first is that it allows Bakunin to refute the idea that the nationality is a universal human principle5. The second consequence is that as a historical fact, nationality has a form of legitimacy that Bakunin articulates a principle that almost sounds like the liberal principle of self-determination: all individuals, associations, communes, provinces, regions and nations have the absolute right to dispose of their own fate. 6 Let us explore them in further
1 2 3 4 5 6 Bakunin, Makhail, cited in Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit. p. 36. Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit. p. 40. Ibid, p. 38. Bakunin, Mikhail, cited in Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit, p. 37 Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit. p. 39. Bakunin, Mikhail, cited in Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit, p. 36.

detail. The first claim, that nationality is not a universal principle, strengthens the internationalist position of the Bakunin's anarchism. Indeed, because it is not a universal principle, the expression of nationality through a nation cannot be an end in and of itself, and cannot be the base for an international political order. The ultimate historical contingency of nationality gives the nation, as Michael Forman argues, three great historical choices. Either the nation would reconstruct itself on an individualistic communal basis by relying on its own energies and character, or it would await the destruction of its own state as a consequence of developments elsewhere, or, finally, history would bypass it.1 However, this goes to show that there seems to be room for the existence and persistence of a nation in an anarchist world society. This conclusion is itself strengthened by the second claim: the principle of anarchistic self-determination. Bakunin argues that a nation, because it is a historical fact has a fundamental right persist and an unquestionable right to be itself.2 In fact, in so far as nations are constituted of individuals, who, through a process of bottom-up federation, agree to the persistence of the historical fact of the nation, there is no ethical ground to deny this right. To put it another way, nations can be legitimate only if they are a bottom up construct, a construct that stems from the autonomous choice of the individual. In this way, a nation may choose to reconstruct itself on an individualistic communal basis by relying on its own energies and character.3 The two claims, together, result in the fact that Bakunin refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of nationalisms that are centralizing and state-oriented: they impose nationality from the top down and use it as a tool to assert their coercive power. As a consequence, such nationality is purely artificial and actually impede on the natural, historical nationality's right to self-determination and self-actualization. As Michael Forman concisely puts it: national unity could not begin with the nation-state.4 Nationality, as a historical fact that binds individuals

1 2 3 4

Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit. p. 41. Bakunin, Mikhail, cited in Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit. p. 39. Forman, Michael. 1998. op cit, p. 41. Ibid, p. 37.

together, cannot find its legitimate root in the nation-state, only in the individual. However, it has a right to a form of individual-centered self-determination. To sum up, Bakunin argues that there is states and nations are both different in kind, and in competition with one another. There can therefore be nationalism without a state and not only is this possible, but such a nationalism is also the only legitimate form of nationalism, because it is rooted in the essential legitimacy of the individual's right to self-determination, to self-mastery. The most important conclusion for our purposes, however, is that in Bakunin's anarchism, there is no incompatibility between nationalism, the political expression of nationality, and commitment to anarchism or internationalism. Moreover, it is possible to imagine such a nationalist anarchism. Following Jos Alvarez Junco's analysis, which emphasizes the fact that nationality in Bakunin's thought is a cultural historical fact and that, therefore, the principle of the self-determination of nations is cultural-defensive,1 one can relate it to what Chaim Gans would perhaps describe as a 'non-liberal, non-state-seeking cultural nationalism' which would emphasize the individual's selfdetermination rights as the basis for the defense of the nation's self-determination's rights.2

Now that we have seen that nationalism and anarchism are to some extent compatible in the political thought that strongly influenced the Catalan anarchists we can tackle the next question: why has nationalism not taken root politically in the early anarchist movement in Catalonia? This is a puzzle, especially if we consider the identity of the Catalan working-class, and their political affinities, as the bedrock in which anarchism developed. Indeed, the working-class was in many ways Catalan rather than Spanish. It has been argued that the idea of seny, the Catalan worker's work ethic, served as ground for the development of a sense of regionalism. As Angel Smith puts it: it was based on a sense that Catalan workers were more highly skilled and, more generally, that economically, culturally and politically, Catalonia was the most 'advanced' part of
1 Alvarez Junco, Jos (translated by Carlos Serrano). 1984. Les anarchistes face au nationalisme catalan (18681910). Le Mouvement Social 128: July-September, 1984. p. 43. 2 Gans, Chaim. 2003. The Limits of Nationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 29

Spain.1 While this specific argument can be rather strongly challenged by the fact that immigration was strong in the late 19th century, there was an appeal of the Catalan identity in the immigrant working-class, especially in the second generation.2 The nascent regionalist sentiments would then have been fueled and strengthened by linguistic differences: the Catalan anarchists would organize meetings where they often chose to hold discussions in their native language. 3 This quote also ties back to one of the organizational dilemmas of internationalist movements: they are nationally (and in this case in many ways, regionally) organized4 and, as a consequence, can be prone to expressing the regionalist feelings of the members, and therefore having regionalism play an important role in political decisions or platforms. This dilemma was especially at play when, during the restoration, the International was outlawed and the anarchists therefore had reduced organizational capabilities (1874-1881).5 Moreover, there was also a deep suspicion of more centralist political ideologies that were seen as too Castilian. This points to one of the reasons why socialism had, at that point, not enjoyed much popular support: the centralizing, unitary state that the socialists promoted went against the Catalan working-class regionalist feelings and organizational practices.6 As one Catalan worker put, when interviewed by El Socialista, socialism failed in Catalonia because it comes to us [the Catalans] from Madrid.7 As a result, a form of regionalism, and Catalan identity was present in the collective imaginary of the working-class. There was also a form of political particularism that developed in the Catalan working-class that is to some extent linked to the timing of industrialization in 19 th century Catalonia. Compared to the rest of Spain, Catalonia industrialized rather early. This allowed for the penetration of
1 Smith, Angel. 2007. op cit. p. 47. 2 Smith, Angel. 2007. op cit. p. 47. Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. Trade Unionism in Catalonia. Pasture Patrick & Verberckmoes Johan (Eds.). Working-class Internationalism and the Appeal of National Identity. Oxford: Barg. p. 84. 3 Esenwein, George Richard. 1989. Anarchist ideology and the working-class movement in Spain, 1868-1898. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 221 (note 13). 4 Levy, Carl. 2004. op cit. p. 331. 5 Alvarez Junco. Jos. 1984. op cit. p. 47. 6 Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. Italian and Spanish Anarchism Compared: Nation, Region and Patriotism, 1860-1945. p. 23. (cited with the permission of the author) 7 Cited in Balcells, Albert (translated by Geoffrey J. Walker). 1996. Catalan Nationalism Past and Present. London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. p. 49.

republican ideas in the emerging Catalan working-class as early as the 1840s, ideas that had not had a strong outreach in the rest of Spain, even by the time of the First Republic.1 This geographic concentration, as Juan Diez Medrano notes, explains why republicanism had a strong federalist component.2 This affinity between the working-class and republicans and republican federalists also explains, to some extent, why there is a rather complex pattern of relationships between the anarchists and the republican movement, the former often allying with the latter.3 A second aspect of the political particularism of late 19th and early 20th century Catalonia is the weakness of any socialist movement, as we have already briefly discussed. The socialist project was thwarted by the suspicion that Catalan workers bore for centralization and their sympathy to anarchism which had entered Catalonia and the rest of Spain in 1868.4 Moreover, the productive organization of Catalonia from which the Spanish central state was mostly absent, and which was dominated by smaller enterprises gave the socialists too weak a grip on the working-class.5 Finally, the first aspect of Catalan political particularism, the penchant toward republicanism and federalism can also be seen as one of the reasons why some of the working-class would rather endorse anarchism than socialism. Two main claims come out of the previous discussion. The first is that there was, in the late 19th century and early 20th century a working-class sense of Catalan identity that was flourishing. Even in the immigrant worker community. The second is related to the particular development of Catalan working-class politics, going from republicanism to anarchism, and rejecting rather strongly socialism. Considering the affinities of anarchist theory and national struggles for identity, Catalonia would appear to be a strong candidate for a politically cultural-nationalist anarchist movement. The fact that it did not, I argue, stems from both its ties to republicanism and the
1 Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. Divided Nations: class, politics, and nationalism in the Basque country and Catalonia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 97. 2 Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. op cit. p. 97. 3 Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. op cit. p. 25. Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. op cit. p. 98. 4 Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. op cit. p. 23. 5 Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 85.

location of the Catalanist political space. The Catalanist movement, in the beginning, was meant to cross ideological and class boundaries in order to promote the preservation of Catalan culture and economic interests. 1 In this spirit, the Centre Catal, the 1880s anti-centralist Catalan civil organization, centered around the daily publication La Renaixensa, published in 1885 what can perhaps be called the first Catalanist manifesto, the Memorial de Greuges (Memorial of Grievances).2 The organization was however unable to gather much elite or popular support, and was finally torn by internal divisions in 1887, when the Lliga de Catalunya was created, with the support of much of the Catalanist elite and future leaders.3 The remaining Centre Catal was closer to a form of left wing nationalist republicanism which nevertheless failed to adequately organize and therefore died out in the mid-1890s. 4 What remained, therefore, was the Lliga de Catalunya, dominated by intellectual elites who began their campaign around the issue of the preservation of the Catalan civil law (which had been under attack for the previous decade by the Spanish government and its own civil code).5 However, the Catalanists still did not enjoy the popular or bourgeois support that was necessary for them to compete politically at the national level. The loss of the Spanish colonies in 1898 and the subsequent political crisis brought about the possibility of change in the Catalan industrial bourgeoisie.6 They became more sympathetic to the Catalanist movement, and eventually became supportive of the newly formed Catalanist political party: the Lliga Regionalista de Catalunya, which competed at the national level, and campaigned relatively successfully in the 1901 general election.7 This was the first step toward the soon to come completion of the move of mere Catalanism toward what Albert Balcells calls conservative Catalanism.8 By the turn of the century, Catalanism had therefore grown from a relatively weak, interclass movement, to a strong,
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 87. Balcells, Albert. 1996. op cit. pp. 35-36 Ibid, p. 37. Ibid. Ibid, p. 38. Ibid, p. 43. Ibid, p. 44. Ibid, p. 48.

full fledged conservative, regionalist (if not openly nationalist) political party. This alienated the working-class to a large extent, as they did not necessarily see their interest in the Lliga's platform, but it especially alienated the republicans who failed to build a Catalanist republican party when the Centre Catal broke up and the anarchists. The former because they came to compete for the same electorate (the petite bourgeoisie), 1 the latter because of they saw the members of the Lliga Regionalista essentially as class enemies. The aforementioned ties between republicans and anarchists were then further exploited by the republican opposition to the Lliga. The leader of the Uni Republicana in Catalonia, the Andalusian-born Alejandro Lerroux, was actually able to gather the support of the working-class in general, and of some of the anarchists in particular. The working-class oriented rhetoric and action that dominated the Uni Republicana under Lerroux in the early first decade of the 20th century,2 as well as Lerroux's own somewhat insurrectionist political beliefs and rhetoric wooed anarchist voters into supporting the anti-Catalanist republicans at times of election.3 In fact, one can go as far as to argue that Lerroux actively campaigned in anarchist circles in order to reduce the distance between them and the republicans, or, as Angel Smith puts it, Lerroux aimed to rework the republican movement by moving onto anarchist terrain, blurring the distance between their aims and objectives.4 Therefore not only were the anarchists alienated by the Catalanist movement as embodied by the Lliga Regionalista, but the anarchist electorate was also actively sought by the anti-catalan, anti-clerical Lerrouxist radical republicanism, which eventually appealed to them.5 Summing up, it seems that even though the Catalan working-class and the early Catalan anarchists had the potential for forming a Catalanist anarchist political trend, they did not because Catalanism was associated with the industrial bourgeoisie and conservatism. As Albert Balcells notes, the Castilian-born anarchist living in Barcelona Anselmo Lorenzo, rationalize[d] [his anti1 2 3 4 5 Balcells, Albert. 1996. op cit. p. 48. Ibid. Smith, Angel. 2007. op cit. pp. 149-150. Ibid, p. 150. Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. op cit. pp. 23-24

catalanist feelings] in anarchist terms by identifying the term 'Catalanist' with that of 'bourgeois'.1 Moreover, the republican bedrock for the anarchist movement was used by Lerroux's anti-clerical unitarian republican platform, which attracted most of the working-class and anarchist vote. Our first period of study ends with what Albert Balcells describes as the last nineteenth-century-style democratic revolt on the history of Barcelona2 The Tragic Week of 1909 began with a massive popular uproar against the military campaign in Morocco, where three Catalan contingents would be sent. The events culminated with a peaceful general strike that was called for 2 August by the socialists and the anarchists of Solidaridad Obrera.3 What was a peaceful general strike became a full fledged riot with the church as target. This was followed by an episode of violent governmental repression, supported by the Lliga Regionalista.4

After the Tragic Week, the CNT was created and the anarchist movement in Catalonia followed a new trend. There was much more sympathy and open support for Catalanist politics in the period between 1910 and 1936 than there was in the previous period. The source of the antagonisms between the anarchists and Catalan in the 1868-1910 period were based on class cleavages, and the republican penchant of the anarchists. How do these factors affect the politics of Catalanism in the anarchist CNT, and why did it change directions, accepting rather than rejecting Catalanism? The anarcho-syndicalist CNT (though it began as a confederation that was supposed to cross ideological boundaries) offered a new output, a new voice for the more Catalanist anarchists. The soon to be prominent member of the CNT Salvador Segu for example wrote in the short lived 1913 magazine Tramontana which advocated a form of democratic and anarchistic Catalanism.5 Moreover, Jordana and Nagel note that the CNT has been presented as the standard-bearer of anti1 2 3 4 5 Balcells, Albert. 1996. op cit. p. 49. Ibid, p. 63. Smith, Angel. 2007. op cit. p. 176. Balcells, Albert. 1996. op cit. p. 62. Balcells, Albert (translated by Michel Ralle). 1984. Mouvement ouvrier et question nationale catalane de 1907 1936 Le Mouvement Social 128: July-September, 1984. pp. 62-63.

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Catalanism but also as a defender of popular Catalanism.1 And indeed, following on some of the points that we have already made: even though the CNT was a Spanish national organization, it was strongly dominated by the Catalan regional confederation, and as a consequence, its internal structure was dominated by Catalans who, though they maintained their internationalist trend and ideology also produced declarations favoring the rights of national minorities.2 The renewal of the anarchist worker movement in Catalonia therefore seems to be associated with renewed Catalanist claims that are still consistent with the Bakuninian framework. On the political party side of the Catalanist picture, there are two important aspects to the period that directly followed the Tragic Week. The first is the continuing strength of the still conservative and bourgeois Lliga Regionalista, which not only increasingly became identified with political Catalanism as a whole, but also with Catalan identity as a whole.3 This alienated the Catalanist anarchists further: as Jordana and Nagel put it, the anarchists could not enter alliances with their class enemy and for a time tended to identify political Catalanism with it.4 The second important aspect of that period is the beginning of the rightward shift of Lerroux's Partit Radical,5 and of new openings for Catalan and Catalanist republicanism. Indeed, following the Tragic Week, Lerroux left Barcelona and Spain before coming back and attempting to compete outside of Catalonia. His traditional electorate, the working-class, was however already organized in the rest of Spain by the Partido Socialista Obrero Espaol (PSOE). As consequence, he sought the votes of parts of the middle class, which led him to moderate the positions of his party, effectively making him depart from his former radical republicanism and lose part of his working-class support in Catalonia, which he would lose almost entirely by the end of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship in 1931.6 This rightward evolution nevertheless left a growing open political space to new workingclass oriented political parties, though they were not necessarily very successful at the beginning.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 86. Ibid, p. 87. Ibid, p. 88. Ibid. Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. op cit. p. 102. Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. op cit. p. 102.

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The Uni Federal Nacionalista Republicana (UNFR), a moderately left-wing Catalanist, federalist republican party created in Barcelona 1910, did not manage to gather much working-class support or strike significant alliances with the CNT. Divisions in the UNFR led to the secession in 1915 of the Bloc Republic Autonomista, and both parties then rejoined in 1917 to form the Partit Republic Catal (PRC). The PRC is more significant than the UNFR not necessarily in terms of mass success, but in the way it interacted with the CNT: they tried to cooperate. Indeed, as we have seen, part of the anarcho-syndicalists of the CNT were more openly Catalanist, and especially one of the personalities who wrote in the Tramontana: Salvador Segu. Segu who by that time had become one of the leading figures of the CNT attempted to strike an alliance with the left-wing Catalanist PRC and its leader: Francesc Layret. This alliance was however cut short by the growing unrest in Barcelona: on the one hand employers were murdered by insurrectionist anarchists, and on the other, politicians and activists such as Layret and Segu were assassinated by hired gunmen (respectively in 1920 and 1923).1 The fact that Segu sought alliances with the Catalanist republicans should nevertheless be taken with some caution. In 1918 and 1919, for instance, the CNT refused to support what Balcells describes as the largest autonomist campaign of the first third of the century, 2 which was backed by the Lliga, the republicans and the Catalan socialists. This refusal is perhaps one of the most, if not the most prominent instances where class divisions superseded the expression of the CNT's version of Catalanism.3 The CNT did not fundamentally oppose the statute of autonomy: Jordana and Nagel note that the CNT made favorable declarations [regarding the statute of autonomy];4 nor were they adverse the expression of their Catalan identity: Segu went as far as to declare that we [the anarchists] are more Catalan than they are, even though they are so proud of their

1 Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 69. Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 88. 2 Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 67 3 Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 67 (note 15). Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 87. 4 Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 87.

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Catalanism1; but they simply could not become allies of the regionalist bourgeoisie that the Lliga represented.2 The class dynamics that we have already seen in the anarchist movement before 1910 are therefore still present within the CNT. They are however to be contrasted with the beginning of a reconciliation between political Catalanism in the form of republicanism and anarchism. A reconciliation that is grounded not only in the fluidity between anarchism and republicanism which was already present before the turn of the century, but also in the new viable Catalanist political choices open to the working-class in general in a situation where Lerrouxismo has stopped becoming attractive. In the year 1923 the status quo in Catalonia was challenged in a rather significant manner. The escalation of violence and pistolerismo in Barcelona led to the repression of 1920-22, and to the assassination of both Layret and Segu.3 Eventually, the unrest would lead to the military coup of Primo de Rivera in September 1923. The dictatorship greatly reduced the organizational power of Catalanist political parties and the CNT: many Catalanist organizations were dissolved within the first days of the dictatorship, and the CNT was outlawed in 1924. 4 This had nonetheless an interesting consequence for the interactions between anarchists and left-wing Catalanists. It made their interests converge strongly and, as Jordana and Nagel observe, acted as a catalyst that changed the nationalist as well as the working-class movements. 5 First, it increased the gap between the Lliga Regionalista who welcomed the dictatorship and the subsequent military order it imposed on an increasingly violent region, and the republican Catalanists. Second, it created a situation where all the left-wing Catalanist organizations and the CNT shared the desire to overthrow the centralist military regime.6 Essentially, the dictatorship allowed for an increased number of points agreement among this ideologically heterogeneous group. There were two important consequences to this. The first is that the Catalanists organization crystallized around
1 2 3 4 5 6 Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 67 Ibid. p. 67 (note 15) Ibid. pp. 68-69. Balcells, Albert. 1996. op cit. p. 83. Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 89. Ibid.

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Francesc Maci and produced, at the end of the dictatorship, the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). The second is that this republican Catalanist political party was fully backed by the CNT.1 The dictatorship therefore allowed for a full fledged alliance between the Catalanist republicans and the anarchists, which the assassinations of Segu and Layret had prevented in the past. The dictatorship fell in 1931 and the Second Republic was put in place. The municipal elections of 1931 resulted in a landslide victory for the CNT-backed ERC, which gathered 55.87% of the votes.2 It was then followed by a referendum on Catalan autonomy that mustered an even more impressive support: 99% of the votes cast were in favor of an autonomous Catalonia.3 It would nevertheless be overly simplifying not to mention the divisions that arose in the anarchist movement over the years of the dictatorship, and that were resolved in the few years of the Republic. Indeed, even if rather large sections of the CNT were supportive of the Catalanist left, some increasingly important fringes were not as keen on Catalanism. The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera brought along with it massive infrastructure works in Barcelona, which created the need for more relatively unskilled workers. As a consequence, the 1920s were a time of very important migratory movements from the southern regions of Spain into Barcelona.4 There was therefore a growing gap between the skilled Catalan workers, and the largely unskilled immigrant workforce: the former were organized in the Sindicats d'Oposici while the latter joined unions affiliated to the Federacin Anarquista Ibrica (FAI) that was founded in 1927. With this divide apparently based on origin and skill came a tactical divide. Indeed, the FAI-affiliates were more radical, closer to what can perhaps be called a purist or maximalist form of anarchism, which much of the Catalan anarcho-syndicalists had departed from.5 To complicate the picture, the divisions within the CNT were further exacerbated when thirty leaders of the CNT published a manifesto that condemned

1 2 3 4 5

Ibid. Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. op cit. p. 102. Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 90. Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 90. Jordana, Jacint & Nagel, Klaus-Jrgen. 1998. op cit, p. 90. Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 73.

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the maximalism that was imposed by the confederation.1 They became known as the Treintistes, and split from the CNT with their followers in 1933. They were in many ways followers of Segu who also sought to support the republican Catalanists of the ERC, which allows Carl Levy to actually go as far as arguing that they seemed on the way to becoming the labour wing of the Esquerra.2 The divisions between the FAI-affiliates and the remaining syndicalists continued within the CNT, the former feeding strong anti-Catalanist feelings in the name of the organic unity of the working-class of Spain3 while the latter expressed more and more openly their Catalanism.4 The Popular Front government, between 1934 and 1936, eventually offered one final moment of convergence of positions between the divided anarchists and the Catalanists before the civil war, as they all supported it to some extent, and wanted to secure the release of thousands of militants arrested after the rising in Asturias.5 To sum up, it can be said that after 1910, the Tragic Week, and the creation of the CNT, the interactions between the Catalan nationalists and the anarchists became increasingly complex. On the one hand, the creation of the CNT and its organizational structure facilitated the expression of genuine Catalanist feelings from both the leadership and the rank and file of the confederation. On the other, the rightward shift of Lerroux's political party allowed for the development of a slightly more powerful left-wing Catalanism, which found some support in the moderate wing of the CNT, impersonated by characters like Slavador Segu. The Primo de Rivera dictatorship then indirectly accelerated the convergence of the heterogenous left-wing Catalanist parties, and secured the CNT's support of the newly formed ERC in the elections that followed the fall of the military regime. Eventually, divisions appeared in the Catalan anarchist movement between the purists of the FAI who rejected Catalanism, the syndicalists who embraced it more or less strongly and the secessionist group, the Treintistes. Only the end of the Republic and the necessary support for the
1 2 3 4 5 Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 73. Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. op cit. p. 26. Ibid. Balcells, Albert. 1984. op cit. p. 74. Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. op cit. p. 26.

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Popular Front government between 1934 and the beginning of the Civil War brought these political organizations closer together.

Along the course of this paper, I have shown, first, that nationalism and anarchism are not necessarily opposed, and further, that there may be room for a form of nationalist anarchism that would express the energy and vitality of a nation's desire for self-determination. In the second and third parts of the essay, I have argued that the major determinants of the expression of political Catalanism in the anarchist movement are based on class cleavages and political opportunities. The early anarchists supported the anti-clerical, anti-catalanist, revolutionary republicanism of Lerroux, seeing in it their class interests and the opposition to the Lliga Regionalista that embodied political Catalanism. After the creation of the CNT and the rightward shift of Lerrouxism, the increasing political space for Catalanist left-wing republicanism as well as a sympathetic leadership led the CNT to try cooperating with political Catalanism while still rejecting the conservatism of the Lliga. The military dictatorship of Primo de Rivera then served as a catalyst which brought the CNT and the left-wing Catalanists even closer, though divisions in the CNT started appearing, that would condition its positions on the Catalan question. I end this essay with the beginning of the Civil War, in July of 1936. The war and the long era of Franquismo have had a tremendous impact on the development and the history of both the Catalanist and the anarchist movements. Even though it is well beyond the scope of the current paper, a natural question to ask is the one about the effects of Franquismo and the transition to democracy on the relationship between Catalanists and the anarchist movement in Catalonia. In effect, was the pattern of relationships that we have identified fundamentally challenged and changed by the Civil War, the dictatorship and the transition to democracy, or is there, on the contrary, a form of continuity to this pattern that remains today?

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Bibliography Alvarez Junco, Jos (translated by Carlos Serrano). 1984. Les anarchistes face au nationalisme catalan (1868-1910). Le Mouvement Social 128: July-September, 1984. Balcells, Albert (translated by Michel Ralle). 1984. Mouvement ouvrier et question nationale catalane de 1907 1936 Le Mouvement Social 128: July-September, 1984. Balcells, Albert (translated by Geoffrey J. Walker). 1996. Catalan Nationalism Past and Present. London: MACMILLAN PRESS LTD. Crowder, George. 1991. Classical Anarchism. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Diez Medrano, Juan. 1995. Divided Nations: class, politics, and nationalism in the Basque country and Catalonia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Esenwein, George Richard. 1989. Anarchist ideology and the working-class movement in Spain, 1868-1898. Berkeley: University of California Press. Forman, Michael. 1998. Nationalism and the International Labour Movement: the idea of the nation in socialist and anarchist theory. University Park: The Pennsylvania University Press. Gans, Chaim. 2003. The Limits of Nationalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Levy, Carl. 2004. Anarchism, Internationalism and Nationalism in Europe, 1860-1939. Australian Journal of Politics and History. 50:3. Levy, Carl. Forthcoming. Italian and Spanish Anarchism Compared: Nation, Region and Patriotism, 1860-1945. Work in progress presented at the European Social Science History Conference 2010 in Ghent, Belgium. (cited with the permission of the author). Pasture Patrick & Verberckmoes Johan (Eds.). Working-class Internationalism and the Appeal of National Identity. Oxford: Barg. Smith, Angel. 2007. Anarchism, Revolution and Reaction: Catalan labour and the crisis of the Spanish state. New York: Berghahn Books.

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