The Spanish
Revolution was a workers' social
revolution that began during the outbreak of the Spanish Civil
War in 1936 and resulted in the widespread implementation of anarchist and more broadly libertarian socialist organizational principles throughout various portions of the country. Anarchists played a central role in the
fight against
Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil
War. At the same time, a far-reaching social
revolution spread throughout Spain, where land and factories were collectivized and controlled by the workers. Their legacy remains important to this day, particularly to anarchists who look at their achievements as a historical precedent of
anarchism's validity.
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Anarcho-
syndicalist organizations were involved in the Spanish
Revolution, such as the
CNT (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo / National Confederation of Labor), which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working with the latter group it was also known as
CNT-AIT. Historically, the
CNT has also been affiliated with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica.
The most notable aspect of the social
revolution was the establishment of a libertarian socialist
economy based on coordination through decentralized and horizontal federations of participatory industrial collectives and agrarian communes. In anarchist strongholds like Catalonia, the figure was as high as 75%. Factories were run through worker committees, and agrarian areas became collectivized and run as libertarian socialist communes. Many small businesses like hotels, barber shops, and restaurants were also collectivized and managed by their workers.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East
Syria (AANES), also known as
Rojava, is a de facto autonomous region in northeastern
Syria. It consists of self-governing sub-regions in the areas of Afrin, Jazira, Euphrates, Raqqa, Tabqa, Manbij and Deir Ez-Zor. The region gained its de facto
autonomy in 2012 in the context of the ongoing
Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian Civil
War, in which its official military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), has taken part. The region has implemented a new social
justice approach which emphasizes rehabilitation,
empowerment and social care over retribution. The death penalty was abolished.
Prisons house mostly people charged with terrorist
… Read more activity related to ISIL and other extremist groups, and are a large strain on the region's
economy. The autonomous region is ruled by a coalition which bases its policy ambitions to a large extent on democratic libertarian socialist
ideology of democratic confederalism and have been described as pursuing a model of
economy that blends co-operative and market enterprise, through a system of local councils in minority, cultural and
religious representation. The main military force of the region is the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Syrian
rebel groups formed in 2015. The SDF is led by the Kurdish majority People's Protection Units (
YPG).
Syndicalism is a current in the labor movement to establish local, worker-based organizations and advance the demands and rights of workers through strikes. Major
syndicalist organizations include the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the General Confederation of Labor in
France, the National Confederation of Labour in Spain, the Italian
Syndicalist Union, the Free Workers' Union of
Germany, and the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation. A number of
syndicalist organizations were and still are to this day linked in the International Workers' Association.
Syndicalists advocate
direct action, including working to rule, passive
resistance,
sabotage, and strikes, particularly
… Read more the general
strike, as tactics in the class struggle, as opposed to indirect action such as
electoral politics. The final step towards
revolution, according to
syndicalists, would be a general
strike. Labor unions were seen as being the embryo of a new
society in addition to being the means of struggle within the old.
Syndicalists generally agreed that in a free
society production would be managed by workers. The state apparatus would be replaced by the rule of workers' organizations. In such a
society individuals would be liberated, both in the economic sphere but also in their private and social lives.
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