Autonomist Critique of Spanish Revolution

[human strike]

In all my foraging I have been unable to find an autonomist critique of the Spanish Revolution. Does anybody know of any? If so, cool, I'd be interested to read it. If not, great! 'Cuz I'm gonna write one. It doesn't have to be strictly autonomist actually, but if you know of any analysis of that vague kind of persuasion please let me know. Cheers comrades. :)

[Raúl Duke]

I'm not familiar of any formally written/published critiques on the issue, although certain history books on the subject may refer to certain things matter of factly and these certain things have been used to form critiques on here in revleft (i.e. that the CNT/FAI didn't completly reject and/or overthrow the state, and other random things).

[Sasha]

define autonomist, are you talking about italian workerism/autonomia, dutch/danish anarchist autonomism (who think higly of at least duruti and often also of the CNT/FAI) or german frankfurther/marxist autonomism (who have often big ideaological conflicts with the FAU so probably also stand sceptical towards the CNT)?
not that i would really know a critique coming from any of those strains but it probably does make a difference.
if i where you i would PM ravachol, he is a walking enclopedia when it comes to both autonomism and anarcho-syndicalism and probably the personification of what you are looking for.

[human strike]

The latter, autonomous marxism, though anything more general than that tbh, like autonomen, post-autonomist. Thanks, I'll give Ravachol a bell.

Oh, another thing was does anyone know if there's anywhere I can find archives (especially online) of the CNT's paper Solidaridad Obrera from the civil war period? I'm after issues from January 1938, specifically containing an article called (in English, at least) "We Impose Strict Discipline in the Workplace".

[ed miliband]

there's a book called 'wildcat spain encounters democracy' which is a selection of texts written by spanish groups influenced by situationism and italian autonomia concerning (broadly) the fall of francoism and the factory occupation movement. not quite what you are looking for, though a number of the texts do touch on/make reference to the scw. i imagine it'd make for a good reference point though.

[Sasha]

The latter, autonomous marxism, though anything more general than that tbh, like autonomen, post-autonomist. Thanks, I'll give Ravachol a bell.

Oh, another thing was does anyone know if there's anywhere I can find archives (especially online) of the CNT's paper Solidaridad Obrera from the civil war period? I'm after issues from January 1938, specifically containing an article called (in English, at least) "We Impose Strict Discipline in the Workplace".

If you can't find a copy online give the database of the IISH a whirl (http://socialhistory.org), they have the "complete" cnt archives, if they have it they can scan it and send it to you for a small fee I believe. (and if you ask really nice I can even, if I have time, have a look for it myself as I live nearby).

[Ravachol]

There are several critiques of the Spanish revolution from varying currents and of varying quality.

There's the left-communist critique such as from the ICC (which is basically the same as the study undertaken by the Bordigists around the Bilan magazine): http://en.internationalism.org/ir/015_myth_collectives.html

There's the (interesting) ultra-left critique by Dauve in 'when insurrections die': http://libcom.org/library/when-insurrections-die

There's the 'individualist' studies by Michael Seidman such as Workers against Work: http://libcom.org/library/workers-against-work-undercurrent-8 and Republic of Egos: http://libcom.org/history/repulic-egos-social-history-spanish-civil-war-michael-seidman

Though it must be said the latter is disputable in it's accuracy, often cherrypicking single examples and extrapolating them to all of the short-lived revolutionary experiment or plain making stuff up, as discussed here: http://libcom.org/forums/history/workers-against-work-seidman-on-the-civil-war-barcelona-cnt and here: http://muckracker.wordpress.com/hammer/gegen-die-arbeit/ (search for Seidman, Michael, Republic of Egos. A Social History of the Spanish Civil War.) (though I disagree with the stuff about Seidman's work being 'neoliberal', that's bullshit).

The solidaridad obrera (January 1938) article you mention by the name of "We Impose Strict Discipline in the Workplace" ("Se impone una disciplina estricta en el lugar de trabajo") seems impossible to find though it's mentioned first by Seidman and later (most likely referencing the Seidman study) by Dauve & Nesic: http://endnotes.org.uk/articles/12.

In 'Workers resistance to Work' Seidman (http://www.prole.info/texts/resistancetowork.html) pulls an excerpt from the article:



There are those who, lamentably, have confused the meaning of the heroic struggle which the Spanish proletariat is waging.

They are not bourgeois, nor military officers, nor priests, but are workers, authentic workers, proletarians accustomed to suffering brutal capitalist repression

Their indisciplined behaviour in the workplace has interrupted 'the normal functioning of production. Before, when the bourgeois paid, it was logical to damage his interests, sabotaging production and working as little as possible. But today it is very different. The working class begins the construction of an industry which is capable of serving as the base of the new society.


I don't know if this is a real article since there's no reference and I can't find it but it doesn't seem all that unlikely (though opinion within the CNT on these matters varied GREATLY). Some prominent factions within the CNT were decidedly 'workerist' and Bolshevik proclamations such as these don't seem that out of line. After all, if you subscribe to the idea that communism is something that is built from a transition phase that is neither capitalist nor communist (whether it's the socialist 'workers state' or self-management is irrelevant) then you end up having to manage capitalism and 'develop the productive forces'.

The core problem is ignored by Seidman (and the left-com critiques) though and that's the fact that capitalism cannot be abolished for communism but only by communism. Any attempt to manage capitalism, develop the productive forces or continue the wage- and commodity-relations ends up reproducing capitalism within a framework of self-management. The spanish experiment was cut short by the civil war but the russian revolution's degeneration showed that an experiment like that explodes due to it's internal contradictions and ends up developing a new, specific mode of production where workers are still reproduced as workers (a category which cannot be anything other than exploited due to its very nature as workers), complete with a new ruling class.

The base membership of the CNT, many conscious elements within the FAI and dissidents like the Friends of Durruti realised this to varying degrees but to no avail, what the CNT lacked (though I'm hesitant to judge them for it and say 'if only they had the right theory', that wouldn't be a very materialist conception of history) was a clear understanding of the revolutionary process.



To take over the factories, emancipate productive labour, to make labour-time the measure of exchange, is value, is capital. As long as the revolution will have no other object than to liberate that which necessarily makes the proletariat a class of the capitalist mode of production [rather than capitalist relations itself], workers’ organisations which are the expression of this necessity will employ themselves to make it respected [ie be in the contradictory position of forcing workers to produce, as in Spain 1936]

[human strike]

Thanks, that's all very helpful. I've looked briefly at Siedman and I have to admit that though I kinda liked what he was saying, it did smell a bit fishy.

[human strike]

To take over the factories, emancipate productive labour, to make labour-time the measure of exchange, is value, is capital. As long as the revolution will have no other object than to liberate that which necessarily makes the proletariat a class of the capitalist mode of production [rather than capitalist relations itself], workers’ organisations which are the expression of this necessity will employ themselves to make it respected [ie be in the contradictory position of forcing workers to produce, as in Spain 1936]

Where exactly does this Theorie Communiste quote come from?

Sorry for necro.

[The Douche]

Where exactly does this Theorie Communiste quote come from?

Sorry for necro.

Here, maybe?

http://endnotes.org.uk/texts/endnotes_1/much-ado-about-nothing.xhtml

[DaringMehring]

Leon Trotsky's "The Lessons of Spain" lays out the deviations from the tried and true Bolshevik methods by both the Stalinists and the anarchists.

I'm interested to hear, if any anarchist has a practical program they think CNT-FAI should have followed that would have led to victory. I would like to hear about it so I understand their thinking, and to hear how it differs from the classic Bolshevik program.

As it happened in history, the CNT-FAI covered itself in shame and also defeat and massacre...

[Os Cangaceiros]

Leon Trotsky was not an autonomist, though, so that doesn't really help the OP...:(