Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Anarchism and Political Change in Spain, PDF eBook

Anarchism and Political Change in Spain PDF

PDF

Please note: eBooks can only be purchased with a UK issued credit card and all our eBooks (ePub and PDF) are DRM protected.

Description

This history of the anarcho-syndicalist trade union, the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo, highlights a period much neglected in historical research: from the end of the Spanish civil war in 1939 to the period of democratic change from 1976 to 1979, when the organisation was reconstructed after Franco's death. The Franco years were characterised by extraordinary division within the CNT and by the bureaucratisation and ossification of the organisation. The decimation of the Spanish CNT in 1947 by draconian repression enhanced the role of the exiled CNT, which was now the sole representative of the historic Anarchist movement in Spain. The moribund notion of Anarchism held by the exiled organisation could not attract recruits, and thus new forces drawn to Anarchism in 1960s Spain came through different routes, related, in large part, to the crisis within Marxism.

Some of these local activists became convinced of the possibility for a reconstructed CNT, but only if the organisation were 'renewed'. However, the exiled CNT opposed such ideas and used all possible means to undermine the movement for a 'new CNT'. Although the reconstruction of the CNT from 1976 was characterised by the struggle between these two principal forces, the Spanish CNT captured the feelings and enthusiasm of Spanish youth, after the long dark night of Francoism. The 'libertarian boom' was short-lived however, and by 1978 the CNT was in deep crisis. The latter, and its allies in Spain, 'organised' the Congress of 1979 to prevent the CNT's dissolution. The subsequent division of the CNT sheds lights on the political, social and economic fractures that Spain still experiences today.

Information

Information