The Tragic Week in Catalonia

_{Barcelona burns in 1909 over the colonization of Morocco}

International Notes: Spain

From ‘Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism’, London, UK, September 1909

The dissatisfaction with the Clerical and reactionary Government in Spain, which in return for the heavy State burdens does not give the people even the most elementary Constitutional rights, had reached already a very high pitch and needed only a rallying cause for the Republicans, Liberals, Radicals, Socialists, and Anarchists to break out openly, when the Spanish Government decided to punish the Moors of the Riff country who had dared to oppose two mining companies which had obtained concessions from one of the Pretenders. With the exception of a very few who are financially interested in that enterprise, the Spanish people were unanimous in their detestation of the war. And this unpopularity grew in intensity when the Government found it necessary to call out the reserves.

An article of the veteran Anarchist fighter, Anselmo Lorenzo, in the Daily News graphically describes what followed: —

“See the simplicity of it all. There had been already two or three departures of reservists for Melilla.

“At the last of them heart-breaking scenes took place on the quays of the port, when parents parted from their sons, wives from their husbands. On board the ships there was some insubordination. The crowds who witnessed these things remained sad at heart, and, to a certain extent, ashamed of not having sufficient energy to try and put a stop to them.

“The movement of protest against the war took shape. The ‘Solidaridad Obrera,’ or Federation of Trade Unions, called an assembly of delegates to discuss the situation with a view to organise a mass meeting of protest. The Governor forbade their coming together. This was the 23rd of July.

“The delegates accordingly did not discuss; no proposal was put forward. But in departing, in wishing one another good night, hands gripped with more energy than usual, eyes shone, and, one having added to the traditional ‘salut, noy’ (good health), ‘dilluns, la general’ (Monday the general strike), the word went round, and, sotto voce, was repeated by all.

“Saturday, the 24th, passed quietly. Sunday was equally calm, and on the Monday, 26th, at the usual time, the hooters of the factories went off as on every other day and all the workers answered their call. But half an hour later, in a factory at San Martin de Provensals, a voice shouted: ‘Stop, everybody in the street!‘

“Instantaneously work came to a standstill. The workers crowded through the exits and went to the other factories in the neighbourhood, where on their appearance work also stopped.

“Like a train of powder the news spread from one factory to another, and at nine o’clock every machine, every wheel in every factory was still. As the works were deserted, a wonderful activity began to be noticed outside. Very soon it was announced that the railway service was dislocated, that the postal service was interrupted, work in the port stopped. Men in the streets pulled up the tramway rails. The general strike was as complete as it could be. The small workshops had been invaded by groups of women who compelled the men to leave work. It was in a great measure due to these women that the strike was so successful.”

Most of our readers are familiar with the subsequent events of the revolt — the street fighting, the barricades, the burning of the convents and churches, and how the Government, by the use of artillery and mounted troops, gained the upper hand, and for the time being “peace reigns at Barcelona.”

At present the press brings news of numerous prisoners in the ill-famed Montjuich fortress; the military tribunals have ordered many to be shot. The Anarchists, who are of course considered the instigators of the movement, though even the most casual observer must recognise that this time it was a popular revolt, are specially hunted down, and our comrade Ferrer, who created the splendid rational schools in Barcelona, is eagerly looked for; but according to the Labour Leader, he is now safe in England.

In Barcelona all popular clubs and rational schools are closed by the authorities. A Spanish comrade in the Temps Nouveaux says that this revolt has cost the Government, besides thousands of francs for the transport of troops, 55 policemen and 70 civil guards killed, double the number wounded, 70 convents and churches completely destroyed.

The people count also hundreds killed, wounded and imprisoned. But it has once again been shown that the revolutionary spirit in Catalonia is far from dead, and that the working classes are ready to make any sacrifice in their fight against Clericalism and Militarism.

Shall Ferrer be Shot?

From ‘Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism’, London, UK, October 1909

The world is, as yet, parcelled out into many nations ruled over by oppressive Governments. But even now a universal public conscience is coming into being, and it can be noticed that beside the Europe of the Army and the Priesthood, there already exists the Europe of Labour and Liberty; the latter is still lacking in clearness and precision, but it does exist; and in critical moments it makes its voice heard. This voice rings in all International Socialist Congresses, in all Trade Union Conferences, and the thought to which it gives utterance has made itself manifest in the last Paris “Conference of the Syndicates” (Trade Unions ), where the proletariat of all countries has proclaimed in a straightforward manner that should Capitalism attempt to force people into war, the various States would have to face their own insurgent subjects.

We are even past the stage of declaration and threats. We have entered the era of actions. The glorious uprising of Catalonia marks an epoch. It has proved to the least credulous people that the world of Labour is powerful enough to check Capitalism and prevent it from silencing the outcry of the workers by the old tricks of the war mongers. Therefore the Spanish Government, which could be said to be the most cowardly and hypocritical in the world if Russia did not exist, endeavours to drown in blood all the elements of revolt still at work in the Peninsula.

At the same time it takes advantage of the present juncture to again arrest Francisco Ferrer — the victim which Europe wrested from it once — and to kill, with him, that admirable work of Educational Reform founded by him, which has spread like wildfire throughout Spain.

Ferrer is now at the Carcel Modelo (Model Prison) at Barcelona. Madame Soledad Villafranca, his devoted wife, and his brother Jose Ferrer, have been exiled to Alcaniz; as if the Spanish Government intended to show, with its customary impudence, that it is not prosecuting Ferrer as an insurgent (he had nothing to do with the late events), but as the founder of the “Modern Schools.”

Mariano, Batllori, Christoval Litrán (aged 60 years), Anselmo Lorenzo (aged 70 years) with his wife and daughters, have been arrested, together with a host of teachers whose sole crime is to have aided Ferrer in his work of school regeneration.

There is at Alcaniz an old fortress crammed with prisoners about to be transported nobody knows where, amongst whom are many members of the ”International League for the Rational Education of Children,” even girls of 14 years of age. At the same time that they are striving to suppress freedom of thought, they are doing their utmost to check the revolt, mainly by terror. A wealthy merchant, Dias, was arrested at two a.m., and imprisoned with his wife and two daughters, aged respectively nine and seven years.

At Barcelona 5,000 prisoners of both sexes, old and young, are herded together at the Montjuich fortress (of such infamous reputation), at the Atarasana barracks, and at the Carcel Modelo. There have been 1,700 arrests at Mataró, 1,000 at Manresa, 1,200 at Sabadell, 300 at Gerone, 400 at Anglés.

They want to crush down all those who struggle or think, and to repeat at Barcelona the horrors of the Paris Commune. But the world has been making headway since 1871, and all the military oppressors together with the priestly serpentry will be baffled in their work of savagery.

The martyrs who fall are the fruitful seed from which new heroes spring. The Barcelona insurrection is but the first lightning flash of the great thunderstorm which is brewing, and which will blast the Spanish monarchy as it wallows in the mire, foolishly believing itself all-powerful. It will soon become but an accursed recollection.

However, whilst awaiting the moment of its inevitable downfall, we must not suffer it to gratify its senile wrath with the blood of the heroes of the Catalonian insurrection, and of those whom it is ferociously persecuting, though they kept aloof from the struggle, as is the case with Ferrer.

Recently the Governments of Europe remonstrated with Moulay Hafid, the Sultan of Morocco, in order to prevent him from torturing El Roghi and his few supporters, and the Spanish Government joined in that protest!

It must be admitted that for the people who perpetrated the horrible, unprintable tortures of Montjuich (in 1896-7) to set up an example of humanity to the torturers of Fez shows an uncommon degree of audacity.

In [the] face of such impudence let the Europe of workers and thinkers signify to the Spanish monks, and their valet Alphonse XIII., their sovereign verdict. Let the conscience of the civilised world interpose between the oppressors and their victims; let that conscience make it impossible for them to perpetrate to the end the crimes for which they are preparing, and which would be a thousand times more odious than those alleged against the Sultan of Morocco.

The Madrid executioners have the cunning which belongs to degenerates; they wish to retain the public esteem whilst indulging in wholesale murder. But enlightened Europe is watching. It is her duty to rescue the guiltless and the martyrs. She can and must do it: it is to her that the Paris Committee, which has just been established for the defence of the victims of the Spanish repression, sends an urgent appeal.

Let every body send his adherence; let sub–committees be formed; let public subscriptions be made. Let an appeal be made, not only to the international proletariat, which is already on our side, but to all kind–hearted men, whatever class they may belong to, who hate cruelty and murder! Let the Press continue its agitation!

Let meetings and lectures take place without a moment’s delay, and in the face of the universal contempt the Spanish Government would be compelled to stop its oppression. It is not with appeals to its mercy, which the Barcelona Revolutionists are too proud to implore and which guiltless Ferrer would still less implore, that the assassins of Madrid will be disarmed. This can only be done through the universal contempt, which like a hot iron will brand their degraded faces.

For the Committee —

ALFRED NAQUET, C. A. LAISANT, CHARLES ALBERT.

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The Secretary of the Committee is Charles Albert, General Secretary of the “League for the Rational Education of Children,” of which Ferrer is the founder and president. The Committee numbers amongst its members: –– Anatole France, Maurice Maeterlinck, Ernst Haeckel, Severine, P. Quillard, P. Fribourg, A. Cipriani, Sebastien Faure, and Guiseppe Sergi.