Anarchism, Political Participation, and Illiteracy in Barcelona Between 1934 and 1936
1992; Oxford University Press; Volume: 97; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2164540
ISSN1937-5239
Autores Tópico(s)Spanish History and Politics
ResumoSPAIN IN THE YEARS 1934 to 1936 was the most important center of anarchist thought in the Spain had no tradition of compromise within a framework of democratic institutions. At the same time, action in left-wing trade unions and in political parties at the extremes of both right and left had an exalting moral dimension. In 1869, Mikhail Bakunin's representative Giuseppe Fanelli had visited Spain; two years later, Spanish anarchists could claim almost 100,000 members, something not achieved in the same way in any other country. The influence of the Anarcho-Syndicalist trade union CNT (National Confederation of Labor), founded in Barcelona in 191 1, was very strong, especially during the 1930s, when its membership grew by the hundreds of thousands. Spanish anarchists were known for their stress on the importance of education. Stories passed down by writers from other nations who came to observe and to participate in the making of history show that literacy for anarchists was a key to autonomy and empowerment. In FrankJellinek's description, Workers who could just read [and not write] made the most fantastic sacrifices to buy Elisee Reclus's ... History of Mankind and a pistol. With both they could conquer the world. Recently, comparisons have been made to Spain in 1930 to England in the 1840s or France in the 1860s. Of course, the working class of Barcelona in the 1930s cannot be easily compared to the English working class of the nineteenth century, but their respective levels of literacy and illiteracy were without doubt decisive factors in union organizing.' It is well known that anarchists counseled their adherents to abstain from the municipal elections and usually from all elections. Abstention was an act not of withdrawal from politics but of calculated participation in it, designed to delegitimate a political system and show its moral bankruptcy. In this sense, for the anarchists, abstention was a political act of the highest order. Of all the elections
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