A-Infos (en) Australia, AnComFed: Picket Line - The Spanish Revolution: 90 years on (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

To some, our vision of anarchist communism sounds crazy. Even if they 
agree with our criticisms of capitalism, or think that communism sounds 
nice in theory, they just can't imagine it working in practice.
Workers running society? No bosses or politicians? No poverty? No need 
to force people to do the difficult jobs? It just doesn't sound 
plausible. Look at Russia and China. That's how communism always turns out.
Well, yes - if you think we'll get there by giving power to a 
government. But as anarchists, we don't look to the state to create 
socialism: we look to our fellow workers.

And here's the truth: anarchy works.

How do we know? Because 90 years ago the workers and peasants of Spain 
rose up against a fascist, military coup, and they built it.

The Spanish anarchists
The Spanish Revolution didn't come from nowhere. It was the result of 
decades of working class organisation.

Anarchism was a major force in Spain because it was at the heart of the 
labour movement. It was the anarchists who, in 1910, formed the most 
important union federation in the country: the CNT. By 1936, it had 
almost 800,000 members and enormous power.

The CNT was controlled from below by its members. Decisions were made by 
mass meetings of workers in their workplaces and through democratic 
delegate structures. The movement had its own newspapers, clubs, armed 
groups, and even its own schools.

The workers rejected arbitration and backroom negotiations. Their weapon 
was industrial action, even if walking off the job meant breaking the 
law. And members didn't just strike over workplace issues. They knew 
that strikes were more powerful than elections or protests. Class power 
meant political power, and could be used to fight things like military 
conscription and rising rents.

July 17-18
All of this terrified the ruling class. In response, the Spanish 
military, led by General Francisco Franco, launched an uprising to crush 
the workers' movement. The coup was backed by the bosses, the 
landowners, the Catholic Church, and various far-right political groups.

The next day, workers launched a general strike and the CNT took the 
lead in distributing arms. By acting quickly, they defeated the military 
in most major cities.

But they didn't stop at putting down the coup. Roughly two million 
workers kicked out their bosses and took control of the economy.

It was a social revolution. Decisions were made by assemblies of workers 
in their workplaces and executed by committees elected from the shopfloor.

Mansions were turned into communal dining halls, schools, warehouses, 
and free medical centres. Thousands of useless capitalist jobs were 
abolished. Unemployed workers helped share the workload in necessary 
industries. In some cases, this meant the work day could be shortened.

Anarchy in industry
So, what did anarchist communism look like in practice?

Inefficient or unsafe workshops were closed. Workers came together in 
large, comfortable facilities to pool resources and make decisions together.

Tram workers modernised the network with new safety and signalling 
systems. They installed showers and sanitation areas in their sheds for 
the first time. Entire routes were rebuilt in the interests of drivers 
and passengers. 100 new tram cars were put in use, leading to an 
increase of 50 million trips in one year.

Gas, water, and energy workers started eliminating costs for consumers. 
They produced 10,000 extra cubic metres of clean drinking water. The 
electrical grid was rationalised and a new power station constructed, 
boosting output by over 50,000 kw-enough to power tens of thousands of 
homes.

Healthcare workers united in a single industrial council, extending 
coverage to the most remote areas. In Barcelona alone, workers built six 
new hospitals and dozens of other clinics, offering free surgery and 
dental treatment. Women's health care was greatly expanded too. 
Gynaecological treatment, birth control, and abortion became widely 
available for the first time.

Anarchy in agriculture
The revolution extended to the countryside as well. Rural workers took 
over 5 and œ million hectares of land. 1,800 collectives were 
established, involving 800,000 farm workers and their families: around 3 
million people in total. In some collectives output increased by between 
30-50%.

Some villages paid a guaranteed family salary, regardless of employment. 
Others abolished money entirely, using ration booklets to fairly 
distribute goods.

Work no longer dictated a person's ability to live. Where there was 
abundance, goods were free. Where there wasn't, they were divided based 
on need.

If it works so well, where is it?!
In 1939, Franco's army won and established a dictatorship. When he died, 
Spain transitioned back to an ordinary parliamentary system.

But the Spanish Revolution wasn't defeated because 'communism doesn't 
work'. It was destroyed by international isolation and 
counter-revolutionary politics. The moderate socialists opposed 
revolution and capitalists around the world preferred fascism to 
anarchism. This scared CNT leaders into convincing workers to stop the 
revolution half way, leaving some power in the hands of the old 
capitalists and government.

Meanwhile, the Liberals and the Stalinists sabotaged the revolution. 
They centralised control, arrested and murdered anarchists, and then 
lost the war after taking power.

The anarchists had been well organised industrially. But they needed 
better political organisation to keep the movement on a revolutionary 
path. They also needed to support anti-colonial struggles in Morocco, 
where Franco was getting troops.

Still, 90 years on, the Spanish Revolution stands as one of the most 
inspiring moments in history. It's proof that workers can run society, 
without bosses or government control. The real lesson is that, next 
time, we can't stop half way.

https://ancomfed.org/2026/06/the-spanish-revolution-90-years-on/
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