Anarchists and the Spanish Civil War essays

Anarchists and the Spanish Civil War essays The Spanish Civil War laid the groundwork for the mass destruction and turmoil that was to come with World War II. The Civil war was a battle among the left, pitting communism versus fascism. There were many different groups fighting for each side, the most important, anarchists. Anarchists believe in a classless society. It is their ideas that oppose capitalism as a system that profits the small minority and not the majority. Government, army, and police, are seen through their eyes as an institution whose purpose is to enforce the ways of these minority groups. Instaed of letting these small minority groups lead, they feel that the workers have the power and strength, in numbers, to change society. It is through their ability to organize and fight that the anarchists made the biggest impact on the war. Collectivization and industrialization were ideas shared by the CNT (Condeferacion Nacional de Trabajo), and were extensive. The peasants had come together in order to gain control of the land that they had worked on. Ronald Fraser states, that the anarchists would go to a large village and clean it up in the name of the CNT(60). The clean-up would take place by any means necessary, and force and terror were tactics that were used. It was through the terror that many villagers joined the side of the anarchists in their views for collectivization. It is through the collectives that production greatly increased the yield of the lands, in some cases as much as a 50% increase. Workplaces were taken over to increase the production of materials needed to aid the revolution. Often these factories were abandoned by the owners in order to sabotage the revolution. The biggest contribution that the anarchists made was in the form of their militia. The militia was guerilla-like there were no uniforms, or officers just a group of revolutionaries. It was this revolutionary army that took the country by s...