How did Durruti become famous?

[The Man]

I know he wasn't a commander, because he said "I too am a simple soldier", and their column didn't salute to anyone. But how did he become so famous and adored?

[syndicat]

Durruti was a leading rank and file activist in the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist movement. When the unionists were being hunted down and killed by the death squads in the early '20s, he was part of a group who engaged in armed struggle by assassinating employers and church officials who were financing the death squads. He fled the country to France during that period. After he was on a revolutionary committee in abortive uprising in the mid '30s, he spent time in a prison on a ship.

His views tended to evolve along with the rank and file base of the radical majority in the CNT movement. When he spoke, many people identified with what he said because they felt he was articulating their own aspirations and outlook.

He was part of the radical anarchist group "Nosotros" who advocated for the development of an armed organization, controlled by the union members, in the months leading up to the army coup. The attempted army coup was expected...the Spanish army had done this before. The CNT in Catalonia formed a Workers Defense Committee to coordinate its neighborhood defense groups, and Durruti was chair of this committee. He was the main person on the Defense Committee playing a coordinating role during the bloody 2-day struggle to defeat the army in Barcelona in July 19-20 1936.

Because of his popularity he was elected to be the chief officer of the first large militia column the CNT of Barcelona built and sent into Aragon in August 1936. He was a major supporter of overthrowing the Republican government and replacing it with a workers defense council, which he helped to bring about in the region of Aragon in Sept 1936, by providing military support for the initiative of the CNT village unions to create a local workers government.

During the battle of Madrid in Nov 1936 he was killed in a gun accident. At least a half million people marched in his funeral procession in Barcelona.

[PhoenixAsh]

his funeral:

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[x359594]

Durruti received coverage in the English language press at the time, particularly in a syndicated article by Pierre Van Passen (originally published in the Toronto Daily Star.) This article is the source of the famous quote, "We carry a new world in our hearts." He receives grudging admiration from Hemingway in For Whom the Bell Tolls, an otherwise anti-anarchist book.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Nosotros (Durruti's group), among other Affinity Groups, helped fund the CNT from bank robberies, among other sources. They helped the CNT grow and expand during times of repression. Because the barris were so overcrowded and was essential to working-class culture, Durruti was well-known among the people for all of what he had done to help.

A funny story of him was when he was drinking in a bar with comrades. A beggar came up to him, asking for money, and Durruti simply handed a large pistol to the man and told him to make a withdrawal from the bank with it :lol: