Afterword from page 439 of The Free, free pdf Download HERE
from thefreeonline on 18 July 2024 (on Telegram: https://t.me/thefreeonline)
Some years ago I met a man called Diego Camacho (pen name Abel Paz) who wrote the classic biography ‘Durruti: The People Armed’, and a dozen more great books and films in castilian Spanish.
An agile grinning old fellow, with a Ducados in his mouth, he complained jokingly that he never got a cent back from the English version of the Durruti book (now in 14 languages!).
I foolishly said I would try and translate something for him, but I was never able and he died in 2009..
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Diego outlived his exile, his torturers and his jailors (he spent more than 10 years in fascist death prisons) and came back again a lifetime later to live in Barcelona, where he had attended the ‘Ferrer’ anarchist Free School, Natura, as a child
He spent his time explaining what he’d seen during the Social Revolution, tirelessly inspiring new generations of youth, even touring to promote the film ‘Land and Liberty’.
But what the hell happened here in Barcelona, that hot sunny day, the 19th July 1936?
What could be so shocking, that all sides collaborated, to murder tens of thousands and gag people till today, intent on wiping all memory of those events from the face of this earth?.
I place here some paragraphs from one of Diego’s books ‘Trip to the Past’
(Viaje al Pasado, my bad translation). He was just 16 at the time, on the streets on 19th July 1936.. Revolution Day.
……….. ‘I wandered from group to group. All talk was of the rapid victory over the army (takeover attempt) in less than 12 hours of street fighting with the troops… one incident… In the blink of an eye the multitude had raised a colossal barricade across the Paralelo.’ (a main street).
‘The troops took up positions, commanded by a lieutenant, who showed little patience, and ordered his subordinates to attack the barricade without protection. Just when he began yelling the orders to attack a captain turned his weapon… and shot him dead.
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The soldiers stopped firing and began to approach us, shouting enthusiastically ‘Viva La República’… We all started fraternizing like crazy; they were stripping off uniforms and all explaining how they’d been misled by their superiors…’
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‘Barcelona had been converted into a labyrinth of barricades, many strategically useless, yet meaningful, built by all the neighbours, who placed with every piled up paving stone, their longing for social and political change.’…
( My note: This was a big modern city and a beehive of social and political activity. Another takeover by the army, this time fascist controlled, was the last straw. When the CNT activists set off the factory sirens in warning, everyone finally said
‘They Shall Not Pass’, and built barricades.)
…… ‘For me the time spent at our local barricade in the Clot neighborhood was vital. Nearby the Bar Fornos had its billiard hall converted in a twinkling into a free Popular Restaurant. The Damm beer workers had left 100’s of bottles, store workers piled up hams and sausage, hotbread…’-
.. ‘Barcelona was being transformed, and so were social relations. For example… at the barricade I met Lola, a family friend who’s partner Antonio caused constant problems due to his obsessive jealousy. She was running about, being useful, surrounded by men.
Later Antonio arrived with a lorry-load of activists. I saw no hint of his usual jealousy he was delighted to see her there, only worried about their 5 year old daughter.
The lorry went through amid wild cheering for the CNT and FAI. How many more people experienced similar changes?’…
‘On the 27th July the local federation of the CNT union published a manifesto calling for the end of the General Strike, and asking people to go back to work. The generalized expropriations (workplace takeovers) were a response to the abandonment, which we found when we got there.
Most of the owners had gone, both big and small, for fear of reprisals by the (mistreated) workers. They called open Assemblies and collectivized industry… In less than36 hours the economic base passed (surprisingly ) from private to collective property. ‘-…
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That’s what happened. Instead of installing the National Catholic dictatorship the military fascists accidentally provoked a leap into future, allowing a unique, short-lived Social Revolution, light years ahead of State Communism or predator Capitalism.
Diego was there, he lived that revolution that terrified all oppressors. He’s dead now, but he inspired us too, and he’d have enjoyed being quoted in these new editions of The Free. The book is a novel first, but the settings and background explore creative updates of ‘The Idea’, in the context of resource and climate collapse.
The trick is to play it live, to peep around our daily blinkers.
Other worlds and social systems are not only possible, but are coming, pronto, like it or not….
Abel Paz (1921-2009): Memories of intensity, reflections on anarchy
Remembering Diego Camacho AKA Abel Paz.
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The Free 