Information on Anarchist Catalonia's societal structure?

[Weezer]

Are there any comprehensive texts, articles or documentaries on how Anarchist Catalonia functioned as a society? Like how their gift economy worked and similar information?

Any resources are welcomed.

[Caj]

I haven't read it in its entirety yet, but George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia is on anarchist Catalonia. Also, you might want to check out Murray Bookchin's The Spanish Anarchists. It's not specifically on Catalonia, but it would probably still be a good resource. Here's a free online version of Homage: libcom.org/library/homage-to-catalonia-george-orwell -- Hope that helped. :)

[socialistjustin]

I am reading Sam Dolgoff's "The Anarchist Collectives" and its pretty good. It also has an essay by Bookchin as well in it.

[Le Socialiste]

I haven't read it in its entirety yet, but George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia is on anarchist Catalonia. Also, you might want to check out Murray Bookchin's The Spanish Anarchists. It's not specifically on Catalonia, but it would probably still be a good resource. Here's a free online version of Homage: libcom.org/library/homage-to-catalonia-george-orwell -- Hope that helped. :)

Orwell's account basically delves into his experiences within the greater realm of hostilities between the POUM, Anarchists, and the Republican government. It's interesting, but overall it doesn't shed much on Catalonia's social structures. The only notable passage that touches on this would be near the beginning where Orwell notes:






This was in late December 1936, less than seven months ago as I write, and yet it is a period that has already receded into enormous distance. Later events have obliterated it much more completely than they have obliterated 1935, or 1905, for that matter. I had come to Spain with some notion of writing newspaper articles, but I had joined the militia almost immediately, because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do. The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing. To anyone who had been there since the beginning it probably seemed even in December or January that the revolutionary period was ending; but when one came straight from England the aspect of Barcelona was something startling and overwhelming. It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags and with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workmen. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivized; even the bootblacks had been collectivized and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Senor' or 'Don' or even 'Ústed'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos días'. Tipping had been forbidden by law since the time of Primo de Rivera; almost my first experience was receiving a lecture from a hotel manager for trying to tip a lift-boy. There were no private motor-cars, they had all been commandeered, and the trams and taxis and much of the other transport were painted red and black. The revolutionary posters were everywhere, flaming from the walls in clean reds and blues that made the few remaining advertisements look like daubs of mud. Down the Ramblas, the wide central artery of the town where crowds of people streamed constantly to and fro, the loud-speakers were bellowing revolutionary songs all day and far into the night. And it was the aspect of the crowds that was the queerest thing of all. In outward appearance it was a town in which the wealthy classes had practically ceased to exist. Except for a small number of women and foreigners there were no 'well-dressed' people at all. Practically everyone wore rough working-class clothes, or blue overalls or some variant of militia uniform. All this was queer and moving. There was much in this that I did not understand, in some ways I did not even like it, but I recognized it immediately as a state of affairs worth fighting for...so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low; you saw very few conspicuously destitute people, and no beggars except the gypsies. Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine."


I would say, however, that Homage to Catalonia is a good read. Here are some other titles I would suggest looking into:

The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management​ in the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939

Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution

Granted, neither of these focus solely on the social makeup of Anarchist Catalonia, but I think they're useful in addressing some of your questions.

[x359594]

By far the best book on how anarchist Catalonia (specifically anarchist Barcelona) functioned as a society is Chris Ealham's Anarchism and the City (2010.) Ealham had access to primary source material that his predecessors lacked, particularly formerly restricted archives in Barcelona and Madrid, as well as oral histories taken over a number of years and warehoused in scattered European venues. The book is also valuable for its "lessons learned" sub-text.

[syndicat]

Are there any comprehensive texts, articles or documentaries on how Anarchist Catalonia functioned as a society? Like how their gift economy worked and similar information?

they didn't have a "gift economy" (whatever that is) in Catalonia. the worker unions seized control of the means of production -- factories, transportation systems, utility networks, large landed estates, apartment buildings and hotels and other large buildings. but because the state was not eliminated and a new system of economic coordination was not created, the worker managed industries tended still to operate in the context of a market economy, tho there were various forms of mutual aid, and a new system of free health care was created thru the health workers union, created by doctors, nurses, pharmacists, paid for by the worker production organizations and government subsidies.

"Collectives in the Spanish revolution" by Gaston Leval is probably the best on the collecitivization, tho some of this is also in Sam Dolgoff's anthology on the Spanish collectives, and there is some good info from the oral history interviews conducted in "Blood of Spain."