Anarchism greatest hits No 5
Buenventura Durruti
To reduce to a few hundred words the life story of an almost
mythic figure is not an easy task. It can be said, without fear of
exaggeration, that Buenaventura Durruti symbolised in his person the
courageous struggle of workers and peasants in that country, and more
specifically symbolises the spirit of Spanish anarchism.
He was born the son of a railway worker on July 14th 1896 in Leon,
a city in central Spain. Aged 14 he leaves school to become a trainee
mechanic in the railway yard. Like his father, he joins the socialist
UGT union. He takes an active part in the strike of August 1917 when
the government overturned an agreement between the union and the
employers. This soon became a general strike throughout the area. The
government brought in the army and within three days the strikers had
been crushed. The troops behaved with extreme brutality, killing 70
and wounding 500 workers. 2,000 strikers were jailed.
Durruti managed to escape to France, where he came into contact
with exiled anarchists, whose influence led to him joining the
anarchist CNT union upon his return in January 1919. He joins the
fight against dictatorial employers in the Asturian mines and is
arrested for the first time in March 1919; he escapes and over the
next decade and a half he throws himslf into activity for the CNT and
for the anarchist movement.
These years see him involved in several strikes and being forced
into exile. Unwittingly the Spanish government 'exported' rebellion,
as Durruti and his close friend Francisco Ascaso happily joined the
struggle for freedom wherever they ended up, in both Europe and Latin
America.
The Spanish monarchy fell in 1931 and Durruti moved to Barcelona;
accompanied by his French companion Emilienne, pregnant with their
daughter Colette. He joined the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), a
specifically anarchist organization, and together with other
militants they form the 'Nosotros' group. These were members within
the CNT of a radical tendency that harboured no illusions with
respect to the recently proclaimed Republic, maintaining that the
moment was ripe for continued progress towards a social revolution.
With the electoral victory by the liberal/reformist Popular Front
in February 1936, Left and Right were on a collision course,
initiated very rapidly by Franco's military rebellion on July 19th
1936. The CNT and the FAI confronted the army with courage,
organization and mass mobilizations.
They triumphed in much of Spain despite the fascist superiority in
weapons and resources. The anarchist contribution was decisive in
resisting the fascists throughout the country and in Catalonia
defeated the rebels singlehandedly, Durruti being one of the boldest
fighters in this battle. It was here that Francisco Ascaso lost his
life.
On July 24th, from Barcelona where the anarchist goal of workers'
control, direct democracy and liberty was starting to be a reality,
Durruti left with an armed column towards Zaragossa, occupied by the
fascists. Through hard battles this workers' militia, without
officers or other military trappings, advanced and saved the Aragon
front against much better equipped regular troops.
Parallel to this, the anarchist forces supported a social
transformation which meant the establishment of agricultural
collectives in Aragon, upsetting the authoritarians of the Communist
and Socialist parties, according to whom the war could not be won
with the revolution going on. War or no war these would-be rulers
would never have liked a real workers' democracy.
After the liberation of Aragon, Durruti was interviewed by Pierre
van Passen of the Toronto 'Star'. "For us" said Durruti "it is a
matter of crushing fascism once and for all. Yes, and in spite of the
government. No government in the world fights fascism to the death.
When the bourgeoisie see power slipping from its grasp, it has
recourse to fascism to maintain itself. The Liberal government of
Spain could have rendered the fascist elements powerless long ago.
Instead it compromised and dallied. Even now at the moment there are
men in this government who want to go easy on the rebels.
And here Durruti laughed. "You can never tell, you know, the
present government might yet need these rebellious forces to crush
the workers' movement....
"We know what we want. To us it means nothing that there is a
Soviet Union somewhere in the world, for the sake of whose peace and
tranquillity the workers of Germany and China were sacrificed to
fascist barbarians by Stalin. We want revolution here in Spain, right
now, not maybe after the next European war.
"We are giving Hitler and Mussolini far more worry with our
revolution than the whole Red Army of Russia. We are setting an
example to the German and Italian working class how to deal with
fascism.
But, interjected van Passen, even if you win "You will be sitting
on a pile of ruins". Durruti answered "We have always lived in slums
and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for
a while. For, you must not forget, we also know how to build. It is
we the workers who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and
in America,and everywhere.
"We, the workers, can build others to take their place, and better
ones! We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to
inherit the earth, there is not the slightest doubt about that. The
bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the
stage of history. We carry a new world, here, in our hearts. That
world is growing this minute".
Durruti embodied the feelings and goals of the workers in arms,
being a peculiar "chief" whose main privilege was to fight in the
first line and whose only rank was the esteem his equals had for him.
His courageous life came to an end in November of that same year. On
the 15th Durruti arrived with a force of 1,800 men to reinforce the
defence of Madrid, where they went immediately to the toughest
section and on the 19th he was struck by a bullet. He died at dawn on
the 20th, being buried two days later at Montjuich's cemetery in
Barcelona, accompanied by 500,000 people carrying the red & black
flags of anarchism. It was the largest funeral cortege ever seen in
that city.
Here was a man who fought for his union and anarchist ideals; who
never sought any special privileges for himself, who acted as much as
he read or thought, who loved, dreamed and was determined to leave
this world a better place than when he entered it.
Joe King
