In defense of the National Defense Council

Really existing anarchist Cipriano Mera 

This is an interesting article on the Spanish Civil War, published by British anarchist Stuart Christie's publishing venture ChristieBooks. Stuart Christie is mostly known for his failed attempt to assassinate Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in 1964. At the time, Christie was only 18 years old! Later, he worked with Albert Meltzer, another well known British anarchist. But enough about Christie. What about the article itself?

“The Final Weeks of the Spanish Republic” is written by Ignacio Iglesias (Andres Suarez), who was a member of the POUM during the Spanish Civil War. The POUM was a Marxist and anti-Stalinist party. The Communist Party of Spain (the Stalinists) regarded POUM as adversaries, accused the party of being “Nazis” and murdered many of its militants. Exiled in France, Iglesias broke with the POUM in 1953 and apparently became a pro-American “Cold War liberal”. However, he seems to have kept a nostalgic attachment to his old party.

Iglesias' article deals with the “civil war within the civil war” in 1939, when the Republican side split as Franco's troops were advancing on Madrid. The non-Communist components of the Popular Front, including General Miaja and Colonel Casado, overthrew pro-Communist Prime Minister Juan Negrín and his cabinet. The non-Communists set up the National Defense Council and initiated peace negotiations with Franco. In response, Communist troops left the front line and descended on Madrid, trying to overthrow the Council by force. The Communists were defeated after heavy fighting by troops under the command of Cipriano Mera, a well known militant of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT and the anarchist FAI. Since the National Defense Council eventually surrendered to Franco, the Communists have depicted Miaja, Casado and Mera as traitors, while claiming that the Communist Party and its ally Negrín wanted to continue the anti-fascist resistance.

Iglesias argues at length that Negrín and the Stalinists (including the Soviet advisors) had already decided to leave Spain, and that all talk about “resistance” from their side was a sham. Less persuasively, he also claims that the non-Communist coup was deliberately provoked by Negrín and the Communist Party, so that the non-Communists would be forced to surrender to Franco and thereby discredit themselves, while the Communists and their allies would mutter a few words in protest and then abscond unscathed. Iglesias can't explain why, if this was the case, the Communist troops around Madrid attacked the National Defense Council in a serious attempt to restore Negrín's authority.

Iglesias argues that further resistance to Franco was futile in any case, and that a massive evacuation of Republican civilians to France was the only option left in 1939. He claims that the Stalinist and pro-Stalinist leaders saved their own necks, and those of their most important cadres, while leaving the civilian population and many soldiers to fend for themselves. The author also claims that the National Defense Council was more serious about organizing an evacuation, but that the Communist attack on Madrid made this impossible. Finally, Ignacio Iglesias points a finger at Stalin, arguing that Soviet arms shipments to the embattled Republic had come to a halt already in late 1938. Communist claims that large quantities of Soviet military aid had reached France and awaited shipment to Spain is sheer propaganda. Besides, what would have happened to the rump Spanish Republic if it had survived, only to be confronted with the Hitler-Stalin pact? Iglesias believes that the Soviets would have sacrificed Spain to Hitler's ally Franco…

Thus, the author's thesis is that the Communist Party of Spain and its allies share a large portion of responsibility for the defeat of the Republic and its Popular Front government. The point of “The Final Weeks of the Spanish Republic” is to counter the Stalinist narrative, in which the Communist Party of Spain and its fellow travelers are the only consistent anti-fascists, whereas other leftist forces are traitors or worse. This presumably also explains why ChristiePress has translated and published this little work. I suppose they want to defend the reputation of fellow anarchist Cipriano Mera.

“The Final Weeks of the Spanish Republic” isn't suited for the general reader. You probably won't understand the pamphlet, unless you know a lot about the Spanish Civil War and the political mythology and counter-mythology that has grown up around it, especially on the left. How much did you understand of my review? Let that guide you when you decide whether or not Ignacio Iglesias is worth your time!