Groucho Marxism

The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the left-wing Republicans and the right-wing Nationalists. The Republicans, loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. General Francisco Franco gradually emerged as the primary leader of the Nationalist side, becoming the dictator of the Spanish State by 1937. The war became notable for the passion and political division it inspired worldwide, and for the many atrocities that occurred.

In 1868, popular uprisings led to the overthrow of Queen Isabella II and the First Spanish Republic was proclaimed. The First Republic was marred by political instability and was overthrown in 1874, after which the monarchy was restored under Alfonso XIII, Isabella’s son. However resentment and resistance to the monarchy and government continued into the 20th century. Following WWI, wide swathes of Spanish society united in hopes of removing the corrupt central government in Madrid. King Alfonso, relenting to popular pressure, called municipal elections in 1931. This backfired somewhat as left-wing parties won in almost all the provincial capitals and Alfonso was forced to flee the country. The Second Spanish Republic was formed and remained in place until the Spanish Civil War commenced.

The Republic initially had broad support from all segments of society. However the first plans of a counter-revolution against the Republic were discussed on the day it was proclaimed. A brutal crackdown by the Spanish Army against striking workers in Seville led many to believe the Republic was just as oppressive as the monarchy. On the other hand, the Republican government instituted an eight-hour day and redistributed farmland to workers. The government also enforced secularisation on the staunchly Catholic country, which included the abolition of Catholic schools and charities, a move which was met with opposition. The first military coup against the Republic took place in 1932 and ended in failure. However the extreme right did not abandon plans for overthrowing the Republic.

In 1933, right-wing parties won the general election. Among the members of the victorious coalition was a new party, the Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-Wing Groups (CEDA). The CEDA proclaimed their goals to dissolve workers’ movements and parliamentary democracy, purge Marxists, freemasons, separatists, and Jews, and to establish an authoritarian corporate state. Some socialists declared they would launch a revolution if the CEDA entered government, and the following year made good on their word. But the resulting uprisings were crushed in a matter of weeks. Reversals of land reform resulted in expulsions, firings, and arbitrary changes to working conditions in the countryside. This emboldened landowners who often resorted to violence against farm workers and socialists.

The left-wing Popular Front narrowly won the 1936 general election. At this point the right began enacting plans to overthrow the Republic. Shortly after the Popular Front’s victory, groups of officers, both active and retired, got together to discuss a coup. Prime Minister Santiago Casares Quiroga ignored warnings of a military conspiracy involving several generals who had decided that the government had to be replaced to prevent the dissolution of Spain. Their plan for the new regime was a ‘republican dictatorship’, modelled after Salazar’s Portugal and semi-pluralist authoritarian rather than fascist totalitarian. Franco was a key player because of his prestige as a former director of the military academy.

In July that year Socialist Party member José Castillo was killed by Nationalists in Madrid. The following day Republicans went to the house of  prominent Nationalist José Calvo Sotelo and executed him. The lack of action against the attackers led to public disapproval of the government and was used as justification for a coup. The rising was intended to be a swift coup d’état, but the government retained control of most of the country. Prime minister Quiroga was replaced by José Giral who ordered the distribution of weapons among the civilian population, facilitating the defeat of the insurrection in the main industrial centres. However, the coup was not crushed completely, and Nationalists gained control of an area of Spain containing almost half the population. The civil war had begun.

Arming the workers’ movements and formation of militias, especially in the anarchist strongholds of Aragon and Catalonia, led to a vast social revolution in which the workers and peasants implemented socialist organizational principles such as collective farming and collective democratic management of the industry, and seized political power at local levels. The revolution was pluralist in its nature, and the political factions participating in it were competitive with and even hostile to each other. Collectivization of resources was pursued mainly by the anarcho-syndicalists (that is, anarchist trade unionists) of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT) and the revolutionary Marxist socialists of the General Union of Workers (UGT).

The war was cast by Republicans as a struggle between tyranny and freedom, and by Nationalists a struggle between as communist and anarchist red hordes and Christian civilisation. The coup had divided regular forces fairly evenly, with around 52% in the Republican zone, which covered most of the eastern part of Spain plus the northern coast and a central area around Madrid, and 48% in the Nationalist zone, which covered the rest of the country. During the first few months, both armies were joined in high numbers by volunteers and kept growing in size. As the war dragged on, however, the principal if not exclusive source of new men on both sides was forced conscription. Slowly but surely the Nationalists gained control of the war, and by 1939 they had gained control of all of Spain.