Barcelona, Spain's Rebel City
Barcelona is a town with a history that like a good Catalan red
wine is both rich and dark. Its foundations stretch back to at
least the 15th century BC, if not earlier. Like so much of
ancient Europe the Romans founded the first semblance of the
town we know today as Barcelona. In the centuries that followed
Barcelona was invaded by many powerful groups of people
including the Visigoths, the Moors and the Muslim ruler Al
Mansur. Plundered, conquered, nearly destroyed and under siege
for much of its life, it comes as no surprise that Barcelona is
also a city with a particular penchant for civil rights and
freedom. Where the fight for liberty, and some evidence of both
local and national political justice and peace, would eventually
lead to Barcelona becoming one of Spain's largest strongholds
for those who believed in the idea of anarchism.
In the most basic of essences anarchism is a system of political
beliefs which dictates that a society (or group of people) will
be free from laws, police, governments and other forms of
imposing authority. Instead of this type of governed society
anarchists feel that a libertarian culture should be founded
around mutual cooperation and help amongst the members of the
anarchist society.
When and what exactly planted the first seeds of anarchism in
the people of Spain and the city of Barcelona is hard to say.
Perhaps it was a result of the industrial revolution or a way of
revolting against the stark rules and ideologies of Victorian
Europe, not to mention the highly uneven distribution of wealth
amongst the rich and the poor of Spain at the time. By the
middle of the nineteenth century a visible anarchist movement
had sprung up in Spain. At the turn of the twentieth century
Spain had the largest anarchist community of any European
nation, with the biggest following coming from Barcelona's
industrial workers, who in 1911 formed an anarcho-syndicalist
trade union called the National Confederation of Trabajo, or the
"CNT". This union was the only one that was willing to take on
members who were not qualified or able to join other unions.
On the whole, the ideals of the CNT focused largely on
overthrowing the ruling Capitalists of Spain. Yet almost as soon
as it was founded divisions sprung up amongst members of the
CNT, some of whom took to radical acts and crimes that today
would be classified as acts of terrorism. A large part of what
the CNT and Spanish anarchism were about was demonstrating their
opposition to the way that Spanish workers - primarily those in
the lower classes of society - were being treated. Strikes and
demonstrations, meetings and rallies were exceedingly common
ways for the anarchists to show their stances and beliefs.
Towards the end of the First World War, and in the years that
immediately followed, Barcelona was home to many strikes and
protests against the ever-increasing rate of joblessness and the
continual slashes in many workers' wages by factory owners.
During this time the memory of a tragic uprising in 1909 which
saw 6 people killed, 1, 700 charged with crimes and five
executed for their alleged involvement with the uprising -
including Francisco Ferrer, a well known Spanish free-thinker -
was still fresh in the minds of the people of Barcelona as this
is where the event had occurred.
In 1934 the CNT had some 1.5 million members and by the time the
Spanish revolution began in 1936 this number had grown even
larger. While it is nearly impossible to sum up the events of
the Spanish Civil War that followed in a few lines, it can be
defined as a conflict between the left wing parties of Spain
(including anarchists, socialists, communists, and some
republicans) and the right wing Nationalist party which was
headed by the infamous Francisco Franco. By the end of 1939
Franco was successful in overthrowing the current Spanish
Republican government and creating his own dictatorship. Thus
the right-wing side had succeeded in winning the three year long
civil war.
The Spanish Civil war may have officially ended, but the Second
World War was just beggining and Franco's power in Spain was to
remain strong for decades to come. The reign of Franco's
government would not be shaken until the 1970's, however by this
time a great deal of the country's left wing groups and
anarchist parties had either been destroyed during the second
world war, transformed into other groups or disbanded on the
whole.
In the past thirty years Spain has seen continual freedom and
rebirth, albeit with some setbacks, which may be a large part of
why membership in groups such as the CNT has greatly declined.
However, at the same time the CNT continues to exist today, and
Barcelona is still considered to be Spain's "anarchist hotspot".
While many thing both tragic and positive have come from Spain's
long history of fighting, civil unrest and anarchism, one thing
is for sure - the beautiful city of Barcelona will forever be a
city with an unshakeable will of its own.