– Abel Paz
From Child to Activist
vía thefreeonline.- https://t.me/thefreeonline/4198
Buenaventura Durruti Domínguez, son of Santiago, a railroad worker, and Anastasia, was born on July 14, 1896, in León.
At the age of five, he attended primary school, and at nine, he attended secondary school on Misericordia Street, run by Professor Ricardo Fanjul.
The professor’s assessment of Durruti upon completing his studies was: “A gifted student, absent-minded, but with noble sentiments.”
At the age of fourteen, he was apprenticed in a mechanical workshop, which he left at eighteen, having received a good education, which he demonstrated in his first job in Matallana de Torio, building mine wash houses.
He later joined the Northern Railway as an assembly mechanic.
This was in 1914, when the First World War broke out.
Manuel Buenacasa
Although León was a center of clerical and aristocratic domination, there was already a working-class core of the Spanish Socialist Party and the General Union of Workers.
Durruti belonged to the latter from the day he became a wage earner.
His rebellious nature, always willing to confront injustice, earned him a reputation among his colleagues and made him popular in the mining centers.
He participated in union meetings and spoke out in the workplace, where his militant and combative mentality was formed.
During this time, the revolutionary strike of August 1917 took place, which ended in León with the dismissal of workers and the repression of the leaders.
The León branch of the new trade union, the National Confederation of Labor the CNT, also participated in this strike.
Durruti was attracted by the fighting spirit of these men and joined this union, to which he would remain for the rest of his life.
Fired from the railway workshops and boycotted by the León employers, he had to go into exile and settle in Gijón, a center of revolutionary attraction in northern Spain and a hub of anarcho-syndicalist influence in the Asturian region.
There, he befriended Manuel Buenacasa, who introduced him to anarchist theories.
After spending two months in Gijón, he was forced to go into exile in France, unable to find work and having failed to register for military service, despite being 21 years old.
Exile and Revolutionary Action
In Paris, three men influenced him: Sébastien Faure, Louis Lecoin, and Émile Cottin. These men would forever remain linked to his life.
In Spain, his friends sent him news. The revolutionary spirit sweeping Europe prompted him to return to Spain in early 1920.
In San Sebastián, he met Manuel Buenacasa, general secretary of the city’s CNT construction union. A few days after his arrival, he began working as a mechanic, which allowed him to make friends with other militant workers in Barcelona, Madrid, and Zaragoza.
The foundations of an anarchist group had been laid in San Sebastián, and it was the group called “Los Justicieros” that Durruti first joined.
But the people of San Sebastián were people to whom “nothing ever happened,” and Durruti decided to move.
Buenacasa gave him a letter of recommendation for Ángel Pestaña, then general secretary of the CNT National Committee, who was in Barcelona.
Francisco Ascaso
He stopped off in Zaragoza, where the atmosphere was charged with workers’ struggles.
Cardinal Soldevila and the governor of Zaragoza had brought a group of professional assassins from Barcelona to murder Confederate militants and destroy the CNT in Zaragoza.
The reaction was violent, and a group of CNT militants, including Francisco Ascaso, were imprisoned in the Predicadores prison awaiting harsh sentences.
The workers of Zaragoza declared a general strike to demand the release of the prisoners.
Barcelona / Madrid: the “Los Solidarios” group
The event coincided with the arrival of Durruti and his friends in Zaragoza. The prisoners were released, while the struggle took on new proportions.
In this climate, Durruti, a close friend of Ascaso and Torres Escartin, decided to move to Barcelona in January 1922.
Barcelona, like Zaragoza at that time, was at the extreme end of the struggle.
Gangsters attacked labor leaders and murdered them in the streets. Faced with this attack supported by employers and the police, the unionists could only respond using the same methods.
The struggle elected the best, and thus Durruti’s new group was formed, this time called “Los Solidarios.”Men like Garcia Oliver, Gregorio Sobreviela, and others joined this group, which soon became the backbone of the struggle against gangsterism and the bosses, thanks to the audacity of its members.
On March 10, 1923, Salvador Segui, a well-known militant, great orator, and excellent organizer, was assassinated.
At the same time, militant anarchism desired a more homogeneous organization, and the Zaragoza anarchist group Libre Acuerdo called an anarchist conference for April in Madrid.
Durruti traveled to Madrid with the dual mission of attending the conference and meeting with those imprisoned after the attack on Eduardo Dato [1].
With a price on his head, he went under a false name to visit journalist Mauro Bajatierra, who was in prison because he had been indicted in the Dato case.
He attended the conference and was later arrested on suspicion of illegal activities, but released a few days later. The commissioner who arrested him (without knowing his real name) received a reprimand from the Ministry of the Interior.
Following this act, the Barcelona police chief pointed out that the Madrid commissioner’s inexperience had allowed the terrible individual Durruti to deceive justice.
A National Revolutionary Committee was created in Barcelona to coordinate the insurrectionary action.
Gregorio Sobreviela, who belonged to the “Los Solidarios” group, was one of the members of this committee. This was a time when the CNT faced countless problems: it had no money, its best militants were in prison or wanted.
Gangsterism wreaked havoc after Segui’s death, both in the Catalan capital and in other cities.
It was then that the “Los Solidarios” group sent emissaries to various points on the peninsula: Zaragoza, Bilbao, Seville, and Madrid.
Major national unrest erupted between May and June 1923. Cardinal Soldevila was executed in Zaragoza. Following this execution, Francisco Ascaso and Torres Escartín were tried. The former managed to escape, but Torres Escartín went mad as a result of the mistreatment he received from the Oviedo police.
Fernando González Reguerel, former governor of Bilbao and a leading figure in corporate gangsterism, was executed in León on a festive night. The insurrection was being prepared; the men were ready, but weapons were lacking. The National Revolutionary Committee had purchased some in Brussels and sent them to Marseille, but they proved insufficient, so in June 1923, Durruti and Ascaso set sail for Bilbao to purchase a large quantity. They obtained some from a factory in Eibar through an engineer. The shipment was destined for Mexico, but once at sea, the ship’s captain received orders to detour to the Strait of Gibraltar and unload the weapons in Barcelona, without actually docking. Time passed very quickly. The factory was slow to deliver the order, and unfortunately, the weapons did not arrive in Barcelona until after Primo de Riveira’s proclamation (September 1923). Unable to unload its cargo, the ship had to return to Bilbao and return the weapons to the factory [2].
Ricardo Sanz
Gregorio Sobreviela had been murdered, and Ricardo Sanz was in prison with García Oliver. The “Los Solidarios” group was dismantled. Gregorio Jover, Segundo García, Durruti, and Ascaso were free, but it was very dangerous for them to remain in Spain, so they decided to go into exile.
Second Exile
Their stay in France was not long, just long enough to launch a propaganda plan with Italian, French, and Russian exile activists, which led to the creation of the “Librería Internacional,” whose main task was to distribute ideological and militant works, as well as a magazine in three languages (Italian, French, and Spanish) [3]. At the end of 1924, Durruti and Ascaso traveled to Cuba, where in January 1925 they were joined by Segundo García and Gregorio Jover. The four began an agitation campaign in support of the Spanish revolutionary movement. It was the first time Durruti and Ascaso had spoken in public. Durruti seemed to be a popular tribune. The four men soon had to leave the country, pursued by the police as dangerous agitators, and began to lead turbulent lives. They traveled constantly, staying more or less briefly in Mexico, Peru, and Santiago de Chile, before stopping a little longer in Buenos Aires, where, despite everything, they found themselves in danger. They set off for Montevideo (Uruguay), from where they were able to board a ship for Cherbourg. But once at sea, the ship was forced to change course several times. It was later dubbed “the ghost ship.” They finally reached the Canary Islands, where they disembarked to board another vessel bound for England. They arrived clandestinely in Cherbourg in April 1926. From there they traveled to Paris, where they stayed at a hotel on the rue Legendre. One morning, as they were leaving the hotel, they were arrested by the French police. Official reason for the arrest: three Spaniards accused
Two of them, accused of plotting against King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who was due to visit the French capital on July 14, were arrested on June 2.
Ascaso, Durruti, and Gregorio Jover
The Paris Trial
In October of the same year, they appeared before the Correctional Chamber accused of carrying an illegal weapon, rebellion, and violating the immigration law. During the trial, they declared that they had given themselves the right to work with all their might to fight against the dictatorial regime reigning in Spain and that, to this end, they intended to seize King Alfonso XIII, with the aim of bringing about the fall of the monarchy in their country.
Séverin Férandel
Argentina requested the extradition of Durruti, Ascaso, and Gregorio Jover. Spain, for its part, did the same, accusing them of being the assassins of Cardinal Soldevila. The French government was willing to satisfy Argentina and Spain. At that time, the Union Anarchiste Française was campaigning for the release of Sacco and Vanzetti, who were facing the electric chair in the United States. Another campaign was launched, led by Louis Lecoin, Férandel, and Sébastien Faure, to secure the release of the three Spanish anarchists, ardently defended by Louis Lecoin during their trial. This mobilized the French political and intellectual world, as well as the working class. Great unrest erupted in Paris. Several newspapers supported the campaign, and in July 1927, the three Spanish anarchists were released.
Lecoin described this success in the following terms: Poincaré, President of the Council of Ministers, sent me an emissary. And what emissary? Malvy, his confidant, his Newfoundland, his president of the Finance Commission.
To a question: What are you waiting for, the fall of Poincaré? Lecoin replied: Not at all, we want the freedom of Ascaso, Durruti, and Jover.
Nestor Makhno
Barthou [4] and Poincaré capitulated, and the day after the capitulation, Férandel and Lecoin, accompanied by numerous journalists and photographers, headed to the Quai des Orfèvres to await the release of the three comrades. Expelled from France, banned from Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Germany, the borders of Italy and Spain remained open to them. These countries meant certain death for them. The USSR offered them asylum, but under conditions that made it impossible for an anarchist to accept. There was only one solution: deceive the police and stay in France. They returned clandestinely to the outskirts of Paris. While underground, Durruti befriended the Russian revolutionary Nestor Makhno. They had to stay in France, specifically in Lyon, where they worked under a false name. Discovered by the police, they were imprisoned again for six months. When a journalist asked them on the day of their release what they were going to do, Durruti replied, not without humor: “We’ll do it again!” [5].
The Calm Before the Storm
Erich Mühsam
In the fall of 1928, they managed to enter Germany clandestinely, where they contacted Rudolph Rocker and Erich Mühsam, who tried to legalize their status as political refugees. Although they appealed to very influential people in political circles, they were unsuccessful. It was clear that if Durruti, Ascaso, and Jover fell into the hands of the police, they would be immediately returned to Spain. Consequently, the first two decided to go to Belgium, where they thought they could obtain a false passport and embark for Mexico. But they were experiencing financial difficulties, which they confessed to the famous German actor Alexander Granach, a close friend of the poet Mühsam. He gave them all the money he had at the time. Thanks to this help, they crossed the border but did not embark for Mexico, as an emissary from the Spanish National Committee of the CNT informed them of the fall of the regime. The two friends decided to stay in Belgium after obtaining forged documents and returning the money to Rudolph Rocker, who would then return it to Alexander. They remained in Brussels until April 13, 1931. It was the calmest period of their militant life. They used this time to improve their intellectual and revolutionary training and to collaborate with the “Pro-Liberty Committee,” which included international activists such as Hugo Treni, Camillo Berneri, and Hem Day.
1931: Return to Spain
With the advent of the republic, Durruti returned to Spain. The republic quickly disappointed his hopes. On May 1, 1931, a rally affirming the revolution was held in the Fine Arts halls of Barcelona [6]. A demonstration of one hundred thousand people followed, and the demonstrators marched through the streets of Barcelona to the Palace of the Generalitat, where they presented their demands: “freedom for the prisoners and urgent social reforms.” The army and the Civil Guard broke up the demonstration. There were casualties, but Durruti persuaded the soldiers to turn their weapons against the Civil Guard.
Durruti was very popular in the peninsula, and his support
His name alone guaranteed a CNT meeting. He was a poor orator, but he knew how to captivate the masses and show them social injustice by example.
Cipriano Mera
From April 1931 to July 19, 1936, he participated in all of Spain’s major social conflicts. He stood out during the Figols events and was deported to the Canary Islands, to Puerto Cabra, on the island of Fuerteventura, where he remained from February to September 1932. He also actively participated in the revolutionary movements of January 1933 and was imprisoned again from January to August of that year. In December 1933, Durruti joined the National Revolutionary Committee, along with Dr. Isaac Puente and bricklayer Cipriano Mera. However, from December 1933 to July 1934, he was again sentenced to prison, in Burgos and Zaragoza, where he remained from October 5, 1934, until mid-1935. He was imprisoned again in September of that same year, only to be released a few days before the February 1936 elections.
In Zaragoza, the Third Congress of the CNT—attended by some seven hundred delegates—began on May 1, 1936. Durruti, along with García Oliver and Francisco Ascaso, belonged to the delegation of the “Single Manufacturing and Textile Union.” This last congress was constructive: the revolution was approaching. The CNT National Committee denounced the fascist conspiracy, but the government elected by the Popular Front failed to put an end to the military plot.
The CNT, mainly in Catalonia, followed the events day by day, informed by the men in its barracks.
Durruti caused such a stir among revolutionary militants and the working class that the president of the Generalitat requested a meeting with the CNT, where it was decided to create a liaison committee between the CNT and the Generalitat government. Durruti and Ascaso were part of this committee, which insisted on arming the people, but only received positive feedback from the government. Faced with the leaders’ attitude, it was decided to attack the cargo ships anchored in the port of Barcelona, with the aim of seizing a few dozen rifles, in addition to the few weapons the CNT already had and those recovered from the gunsmiths. This was the only way to confront the military garrison of Barcelona. Barcelona, July 19, 1936.
July 1936
The factional forces took to the streets at 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 19, and again at 5:00 p.m. on Monday. García Oliver announced on Radio Barcelona that the people had defeated fascism in an unequal struggle. Never before had the power of the State disappeared so quickly. In less than 72 hours, the State existed only in name. The few remaining representative forces quickly merged with the people. The CNT and the FAI had absolute control of the situation, both in Barcelona and in the provinces [7].
Companys, president of a nonexistent Generalitat, had to acknowledge the fact and called for a meeting with the CNT and the FAI for the transfer of power (it is the word “transfer” that should be used). García Oliver has written about this historic meeting, explaining the exact situation and showing how the new power body known as the “Central Committee of the Militias” emerged, which incorporated both organizations and left room for open collaboration with the other political sectors, which only represented a quarter of the forces present [8].
Milicianas of the Durruti Column – 1936
The Durruti Column
One of the first measures taken by this committee was to organize a column that was to head immediately to the region of Aragon. This column was called Durruti-Farras, because Commander Pérez-Farras was the military delegate and Durruti the political delegate. On July 23, the column left for Lérida with fewer men than expected, as it was expected to carry 10,000. Once the situation in Lérida was restored, the column headed to Caspe before moving on to Bujalaroz, a strategic location about 30 km from Zaragoza, where it established its position, with outposts in Pina, Gelsa, and the Sierra de Alcubierre.
It captured several towns, including Siétamo, Farlete, and Monte Aragón, and arguably pushed the enemy back from the Cinca River to the Ebro.
Throughout the liberated Aragonese territory, agricultural collectivizations were formed under the leadership of the peasants themselves, who later federated into a council called the “Council of Aragon.” Although he was not directly behind these groups, Durruti helped them in every way he could in their development, as he was, in a way, the linchpin of the struggle and also of the new world that was emerging.
The Bujalaroz “shanty” where Durruti set up his headquarters became a magnet for journalists and prominent figures; journalists such as Van Passen and Koltrov, as well as labor activists, intellectuals, and politicians such as Sébastien Faure and Emma Goldman, visited the city.
Carl Ein
stein
The international group of the “Durruti Column” included figures such as Emile Cottin, killed in combat; Fausto Falaschi, killed in Huesca; Simone Weil; Louis Mercier; Karman; and Karl Einstein. [9]
As the war progressed, the Aragon front was increasingly boycotted by the central government due to its libertarian spirit. Durruti spoke with the Militia Committee, which, after informing him of the situation, advised him to go to Madrid to request weapons or foreign currency. Several people committed to the triumph of the revolution provided him with the means to acquire weapons and aircraft on the international market. Around mid-September, Durruti traveled to Madrid to meet with the Socialist Largo Caballero, who was both Prime Minister and Minister of War. The latter guaranteed him a loan of 1.8 billion pesetas to purchase weapons and launch the Catalan war industry. But the central government did not keep its word, and the Aragon front had to fight the enemy with improvised means, unable to take Zaragoza, which was very important for the comrades in the struggle.
The Defense of Madrid
During the offensive on Madrid—October-November 1936—fear gripped the highest echelons of the government and the high command; it was thought the capital would fall. The government summoned Durruti, believing his prestige would boost the morale of the combatants. His column was called to defend Madrid. To the delight of the capital’s inhabitants, Durruti arrived on November 14th at the head of his men and, without even giving him time to rest, was assigned to the most dangerous sector, the Casa de Campo. From November 14th [10] until the 19th, the day of his death, he had not a moment’s rest. With the help of the Rosal column and the 2nd International Brigade, recently assigned to the defense of Madrid, his column attacked the Hospital Clínico, the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, and the Casa de Velázquez.
Around two in the afternoon, Durruti was shot in the lung while standing in front of the Hospital Clínico. It was November 19th. He had to be rushed to the Catalan Militia Hospital at the Ritz Hotel. He underwent several operations before dying at dawn on November 20th.
Burial of Buenaventura Durruti on November 23, 1936, in Barcelona.
His funeral, which took place in Barcelona on November 23, was the largest popular demonstration in history. More than half a million people attended.
Abel Paz
Notes
[1] Prime Minister. The assassination attempt took place in 1921.
[2] After the Republic was proclaimed on April 14, 1931, Francisco Ascaso went to the Eibar arms factory to receive the 1,000 Winchesters he owned. The company director requested authorization from the Minister of the Interior. Miguel Maura, as expected, refused. However, the President of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Francisco Macla, demanded the weapons and eventually obtained them. With these Winchesters, the autonomous Catalan government armed the groups of the “Catalan State” during the revolutionary movement of October 6, 1934; When this Catalanist revolutionary movement failed, the Catalanists got rid of their weapons by throwing them into the sewers of Barcelona. It was there that the CNT-FAI militants recovered them, putting them in safekeeping to be used, in fact, only on July 19, 1936, against the rebel soldiers. Aurelio Fernández, one of the members of the group “Los Solidarios,” gave us this information and concluded by saying: In the end, the Winchesters were used for the purpose for which they had been acquired.
[3] It was then that Ascaso and Durruti gave Sébastien Faure a significant sum of money to begin his great work. “The Anarchist Encyclopedia
[4] Minister of Justice in the Poincaré government.
[5] For this process, see Louis Lecoin’s book, De prison en prison, as well as the press of the time, particularly Le Libertaire.
[6] The meeting was organized by the local federation of CNT unions in Barcelona in collaboration with the Commission for Economic and Social Struggle, the organization that organized the famous rent and utility rates (water and electricity) strike that consumers and tenants supported for several months in Barcelona (1932).
[7] In Le Libertaire of August 18, 1938, García Oliver wrote an interesting article in which he provided valuable information on the revolutionary strategy used to defeat the military: “Ce que fut le 19 juillet” (“What was July 19”).
[8] García Oliver’s article (note 7) describes the interview with Companys.
[9] According to some unverified reports, it was in Brussels that Durruti met Karl Einstein, author of the novel Bebuquin oder die Dilettanten des Wunders (1912) and a contributor to the magazine
Der
Blutige Ernst, founded by Georges Grozz in 1919 in Berlin. Einstein was the leader of the German section of the International Group of the Durruti Column, which operated from July to December 1936. According to some sources, K. Einstein committed suicide in 1940, in France, during the invasion of that country by the Nazi armies (June 1940).
[10] The date of his entry into combat in Madrid has been corrected. It is not May 12 but November 14. This correction is fundamental, as it demonstrates the fallacious propaganda launched by the Communist Party (CP) against the Durruti Column. The CP accused the column of occupying an area of the Madrid front through which fascist troops had penetrated, when in fact it was through the position defended by the Stalinist-leaning “López Tienda” Column (PSUC). For more details, I refer the reader to my definitive book, Durruti, the Proletariat in Arms. Bruguera Editions, 1978, available at the “Monde Libertaire” bookstore, 145 rue Amelot, 75011 Paris.
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https://www.partage-noir.fr/durruti-de-la-revolte-a-la-revolution
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