It’s not the first time I say it: there are people who only need one book, the Bible to explain the world (…) To me, it happens to me, I must confess it, with ”The Echo of the Steps” the memoirs of Juan García Oliver. An anarchist waiter who arrived at the Minister of Justice in the middle of the war.
from an article by Andreu Barnils on vilaweb
”Durruti and I went to the request of President Lluís Companys. It was surrounded by army officers. When he saw us, opening his arms, he exclaimed: “My children, people of the CNT, today you are the only hope of Catalonia! Forget everything and save the freedoms of our people! “
– Is that all, Companys? I said. I thought you wanted us here to give us weapons.
-I do not have any weapons to give you. I just wanted to wish you lots of luck! ” he replied
(note: The Catalan president Luis Companys later ran out of luck himself and was executed by a fascist terrorist firing squad)
This is one of the hundred of priceless scenes in The Echo of the Steps, one of the books that have influenced my brain more powerfully. They are the memories of a Catalan anarchist.
(note: 100 yrs later García’s great book isn’t translated yet into English, but you can read… My Revolutionary Life (Anarchist Library): )
«When the military were beginning their coup d’etat, the CNT Confederal Defense Committee of Barcelona had an advantage of almost a year and a half studying and planning how to counteract a military revolt. The Confederal Defense Committee existed since the first days of the Republic. The Confederal Defense Panels also (…)
It was not necessary to decide a flexible and plan likely to give us victory, . The military barracks of Barcelona were mainly fortresses of recent construction. We did not have to attack them in any case, because we would spend the few ammunition available to us.
It was necessary to let the troops come out onto the streets and, once away from the barracks, attack them from behind, without rushing, intermittently, so that they were the ones who exhausted their ammunition and so that it became difficult to return to their bases to rearm ( …)
(We planned to) prepare the factories to bring their sirens into operation uninterruptedly, creating optimal psychological conditions for the fight; sowing panic among the soldiers and enthusiasm amongst the workers. To completely isolate the insurrectionist troops, cutting off their communications on foot and giving them from our Central Telephone Base false news about the state of the fight in the city. »
Launching false news from the Telefónica Base against the rival team in the middle of 1936. False News on the WhatsApp of eighty years ago. This is also from the book ‘The Echo of the Steps’.
Read and download ‘The Echo of The Steps’ in Spanish HERE
It’s not the first time I say it: there are people who only need the Bible to explain the world ….. Some find that same thing in Divine Comedy or in Capital. They are total, absolute books that encapsulate a whole universe. To me, it happens to me, I must confess it, with ‘The Echo of the Steps?. The memoirs of Joan García Oliver. An anarchist waiter who ended up as the Minister of Justice in the middle of the War. Brilliant also for times like the present, with so much confusion, and in which we need to find Life Lessons.
from an article by Andreu Barnils on vilaweb
Juan García Oliver was born in 1901. He apprenticed as a cook and in 1919, assisted in the formation of the waiters’ union, affiliated with the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). García Oliver later organized workers in Reus, led the CNT’s provincial committee, was jailed during a strike action, and joined the armed-struggle group Los Solidarios.
During the Spanish Restoration, García Oliver worked as a polisher in France, where he unsuccessfully plotted to kill King Alfonso XIII and Benito Mussolini. He was jailed upon his reentry to Spain in 1926 but was released with the coming of the Second Spanish Republic.
As a leading insurrectionist in the period, he joined the Federación Anarquista Ibérica, advocated for full revolution with the CNT, and fought in the streets of Barcelona.
García Oliver came to lead the Comité Central de Milicias Antifascistas de Cataluña militias and in 1936, subsequently became the defense minister of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the justice minister in the Francisco Largo Caballero administration.
García Oliver destroyed the archives of convicts and worked to curtail terrorism. During the May Days, he encouraged the CNT fighters to disarm. García Oliver reluctantly subordinated the goal of revolution to win the civil war, but after Catalonia fell in 1939, he would remain in exile for the rest of his life, first in France, then Sweden, and finally Mexico.
He continued to argue for unity for the rest of his life. In 1978, two years before his death, García Oliver published his autobiography, El eco de los pasos.[1]
“Anarcho-syndicalism is an attempt to arrive at some possible blending of the class fighting methods and anarchism”- interview with Juan Garcia Oliver. via LibCom
He led a group in battle against the military uprising of July 1936 in Barcelona, occupying the women’s prison and releasing all its prisoners.
During the Spanish Civil War, García Oliver served as secretary of the Catalan Defense Council. When it became apparent that the Republican troops needed a central system of organization, he was one of the C.N.T.’s delegates to the Madrid Government. He later became Minister of Justice to the Republican Government. As such, he acted on the philosophy that crime was the product of social deficencies and that criminals should be treated, not punished.
The Spanish Revolution (1936)
http://struggle.ws/spaindx.html
Introductions
- Anarchism and the Spanish Civil War
an brief overview of the role the anarchists played and their acheivements- Glossary of terms
- Chronology of the major events
- The PDF file of this pamphlet
- A summary of the achievements of the Spanish revolution
- The People Armed and the People’s Army : A film review of Land and Freedom
- An overview of the military history of the civil war
- The anti-fascist camp in the Spanish revolution
- A New World In Their Hearts
Prelude to Revolution
- Francisco Ferrer and the Modern School [1901]
- The formation of the anarchist unions and the Tragic Week [1909]
- Birth of the FAI – Edgar Rodrigues On The Origins Of The Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) [1926]
- An unexpected dash through Spain, Emma Goldman on conditions under Rivera [1929] *
- The Barcelona rent strike of [1931]
- Prison letter from Durruti the year before the revolution about CNT tactics [1935]
- Daniel Guerin on the anarchist tradition in Spain *
- How were the anarchists able to obtain mass popular support in Spain?*
- Miners strikes in Asturies – 1890 to 1998
- A history of the Spanish libertarian youth paper ‘Ruta’
- IWW coverage of the Spanish revolution
- The CNT as I Saw It
by Fenner Brockway - The Collectives in Aragon
by Gaston Leval - George Orwell
on the Spanish revolution. - First Spanish impressions
by Jack White - Camillo Berneri’s writings from Spain
- The May Days in Barcelona, 1937
by Augustin Souchy - Durruti Is Dead, Yet Living
By Emma Goldman - Towards a fresh revolution
by the Friends of Durruti - Anarchist rural Collectives
by Deidre Hogan (also in Spanish as El triunfo de la libertad) - Industrial Collectivisation during the Spanish Revolution by Deirdre Hogan
Within hours of the start of the Spanish revolution workers had seized control of 3000 enterprises. - The Tragedy of Spain
Rudolf Rocker’s - The Collectives in Revolutionary Spain
by Lucien - Stalin’s Foreign Policy in the Spanish Civil War and the Barcelona Uprising of May, 1937
by Jason Wehling - About the Iron Column
from Jose Peirats- A day Mournful and Overcast…
by an “uncontrollable” from the Iron Column.
- A day Mournful and Overcast…
- A soldier returns
letter from a US member of the Durruti Column - Durruti Is Dead, Yet Living
by Emma Goldman - Living Utopia – Televisión Española documentary
- CNT Newsreel stills
framegrabs from CNT newsreel shot during the Spanish Civil War - A Study of the Revolution in Spain
by Stuart Christie - Los Quijotes: Anarchist Youth Group, Spain, 1937
- Why We Lost the War: A Contribution to the History of the Spanish
- Pura Arcos 1919-1995
- The Libertarian Revolution (1936)
- http://struggle.ws/spaindx.html
Read and Download in English My Revolutionary Life (Anarchist Library): Interview with Juan García Oliver
3 thoughts on “Durruti and Garcia Oliver Live: in The Echo of Their Footsteps’”