Durruti in the Spanish Revolution

by Abel Paz, Chuck Morse (Translator)

Overview

"Durruti was the ultimate working-class hero: carrying the future in his heart and a gun in each pocket. Abel Paz's magnificent biography resurrects the very soul of Spanish anarchism.”—Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

AK Press has commissioned an elegant, new and unabridged translation of the definitive biography of Spanish revolutionary and military strategist, Buenaventura Durruti. But Abel Paz, who fought alongside Durruti in the Spanish Civil War, has given us much more than an account of a single man’s life. Durruti in the Spanish Revolution is as much a biography of a nation and of a tumultuous historical era. Paz seamlessly weaves intimate biographical details of Durruti’s life—his progression from factory worker and father to bank robber, political exile and, eventually, revolutionary leader—with extensive historical background, behind-the-scenes governmental intrigue, and blow-by-blow accounts of major battles and urban guerrilla warfare. An amazing and exhaustive study of an incredible man and his life-long fight against fascism in both its capitalist and Stalinist forms.

Includes Jose Luis Gutierres Molina’s introduction about Abel Paz’s life and the historiography of the Spanish Civil War.

Abel Paz was born in 1921. At 15, he joined the Durruti Column and fought in the Spanish Revolution. After the revolution's defeat, he was active as a guerilla fighter against the Franco regime and spent eleven years in prison. He lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Chuck Morse founded the Institute for Anarchist Studies, co-edited Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, and founded and edited The New Formulation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781904859505
Publisher:	AK PR INC
Publication date:	07/01/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	800
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Abel Paz was born in 1921. At the age of fifteen, he joined the Durruti Column and fought in the Spanish Revolution. After the revolution's defeat, he was active as a guerilla fighter against the Franco regime and spent eleven years in prison. Chuck Morse founded the Institute for Anarchist Studies, co-edited Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, and founded and edited The New Formulation: An Anti-Authoritarian Review of Books. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Table of Contents

Dedication     iii
Translator's acknowledgments     iv
Preface to the Spanish edition     ix
Note to the second Spanish edition     xii
The rebel (1896-1931)
Between the Cross and the Hammer     3
August 1917     10
From Exile to Anarchism     14
Los Justicieros     19
Confronting Government Terror     23
Zaragoza, 1922     28
Los Solidarios     34
Jose Regueral and Cardinal Soldevila     38
Toward the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship     47
The Revolutionary Center of Paris     57
Guerrillas in Latin America     69
From Simon Radowitzky to Boris Wladimirovich     77
Los Errantes in Buenos Aires in 1925     86
Toward Paris: 1926     93
The Plot Against Alfonso XIII     99
The International Anarchist Defense Committee     107
The Anarcho-Communist Union and the Poincare Government     111
The Anti-parliamentarianism of Louis Lecoin     118
Emilienne, Berthe, and Nestor Makhno     124
Lyon, and in Prison Again     130
Clandestine in Europe     137
The Fall of Primo de Rivera     145
The Murder of Fermin Galan     149
"Viva Macia! Death to Cambo!"     159
The New Government and Its Political Program     163
The militant (1931-1936)
April 14, 1931     193
Before May 1: The Forces in Play     200
May 1, 1931     207
The Nosotros Group Faces the CNT and the Republic     215
The FAI and the CNT Meet     223
The Republic's Social Policy and the CNT     230
In the Middle of a Storm Without a Compass     237
Durruti and Garcia Oliver Respond to "The Thirty"     245
Two Paradoxical Processes: Alfonso XIII and the Gijon Bank     252
The Insurrection in Alto Llobregat     261
The Steamship Buenos Aires     266
Guinea - Fernando Poo - The Canaries     271
Split in the CNT     281
The Insurrectional Cycle     289
Prisoner in El Puerto de Santa Maria     298
From Electoral Strike to Insurrection     308
Socialism, Absent in December 1933     321
The General Strike in Zaragoza     330
A Historic Meeting Between the CNT and Companys     336
From the Damm Boycott to the Lockup     341
October 6 in Barcelona: Against Whom?      349
The Asturian Commune     355
"Peace and Order Reign in Asturias"     362
"Banditry, No; Collective Expropriation, yes!"     366
Toward the "Popular Front"     372
The CNT Judges Durruti     377
February 16, 1936     385
The Fourth Congress of the CNT     393
The Long Wait for July 19, 1936     398
The revolutionary (July 19 to November 20, 1936)
Barcelona in Flames     431
General Goded Surrenders     438
The Death of Ascaso     445
July 20     450
Lluis Companys Confronts the CNT and the CNT Confronts Itself     457
The Central Committee of Anti-Fascist Militias of Catalonia     463
The Durruti-Garcia Oliver Offensive     473
The Durruti Column     482
"The Clandestine Revolution"     493
Koltsov Visits the Durruti Column     503
Largo Caballero, Reconstructing the Republican State     511
Garcia Oliver, Largo Caballero, and the Problem of Morocco     517
Antonov Ovssenko and Garcia Oliver     525
The Spanish Gold's Road to Russia     531
The Libertarian Confederation of Aragon     540
Stalin's Shadow Over Spain     549
"Viva Madrid Without Government!"     562
The Crossing of the Manzanares River     570
The Durruti Column in Madrid     577
November 19, 1936     589
Durruti Kills Durruti     597
Durruti's Funeral     603
The deaths of Durruti
Introduction     637
The First Versions     639
Fact or Fiction?     650
Contradictions and Fabrications in the Presented Versions     661
Durruti's Second Death, or his Political Assassination     671
Conclusion     675
The Jigsaw Puzzle of the Search for Durruti's Body     678
Afterword     707
Notes     733
Indices
Index of persons and authors     775
Index of places     788
Index of organizations     793
Index of graphics     795