An Interview with Durruti about the Militarisation of the Militia (1936)

An uncredited interview with Buenaventura Durruti from ‘Fighting Call’, December 1936, published jointly by the Freedom Group, London, and the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation, Glasgow

The view of Durruti on this important problem is very interesting. Much is talked about it in the International Press, and as a consequence of great ignorance it is usually mixed with criticism of the Anarchist attitude. The Anarchist Durruti is one of the most well known and most capable troup-leaders of the anti-Fascist war. He has just left for the endangered front in central Spain with his perfectly organised columns.

Question: “Is it true that the regulations of the old military hierarchy have been re-established?”

Answer: “No. This is not the case. The men of a certain age have been mobilised and a unified command has been achieved. The sort of discipline good enough for street battles is of course not sufficient in a long and grave war against a perfectly equipped modern army. There things had to be improved.”

Question: “What does the stronger discipline consist of?”

Answer: “Up to date we used to have a great number of different troup units of which each one had their own leader and own effectives, that changed from one day to the other. Ammunitions, supplies, relief, different attitudes towards the inhabitants of the country, very often even a different conception of war altogether, all this was not sufficiently unified and could not continue. We have already improved many things, and many more will still have to be improved.”

Question: “And the charges, ranks, forms of saluting, punishments and rewards?”

Answer: “All this we do not need. We are Anarchists.”

Question: “But has not the old military code been put into effect again by the Madrid decree?”

Answer: “This decree has had bad consequences. It absolutely lacked any sense of reality. For many anti-Fascists of bourgeois-liberal ideas, the Revolution of July 19th is not yet a social fact, but a phase of transformation between two periods of ‘normality.’ Between this conception and the spirit of the fighting militias there is a wide gap. We are inclined to be generous. But we know that one of these conceptions will have to give way to the other.”

Question: “Don’t you think the militarisation might endanger the Revolution, should the war go on very much longer?”

Answer: “Yes, certainly. That is why we must win the war soon!”