The Organization of Anarchist Armies/Militias

[Raúl Duke]

Can someone (like Love Underground) explain to me the organizational structures (in simple terms) of the Mahknovist Army and the CNT-FAI Militias and their similarities and differences?

Thanks.

P.S.Also, if you would like to, give your own suggestions-ideas on how a anarchist army/militia should be organized.

P.S.S. If you know of other anarchists armies/militias, go ahead and mention them.

[syndicat]

Makhno's army was called the Revolutionary Army of the Ukraine. It was derived from a union militia set up by the Peasant union in Golyai-Polye, to defend seizures of the land. That union became part of the local soviet, which Makhno was elected president of. That soviet invoked a regional people's congress for the surrounding region, and these periodic congresses elected an Administrative Council, which was sort of the revolutionary government for the region. Various political tendencies were represented on it, anarchists, syndicalists, maximalists, Left SRs, even the Bolsheviks at one point. The congresses also elected Makhno as commander of the revolutionary army. The other officers of the army were elected by the combatants.

The CNT union militia in Catalonia was set up by the regional workers defense committee, elected by the regional plenary (meeting of labor council delegates) of the CNT. They had initially seized all the army bases and arms but then allowed the parties of the left to have some of these bases to set up their own militias, which ended up being a mistake, as it proved ineffective to coordinate.

The CNT militia was composed of columns. A column was composed of centuries, which were the equivalent of a military "company." Each century elected a delegate to the War Committee of the column, which also included a Chief delegate, elected by an assembly of the whole column. The periodic assemblies of the column were the ultimate decision-making authority, except that the columns were directed by the union militia committee of the CNT union federation. Usually a non-com or officer from the Spanish army served as a "technical advisor".

By late August, 1936, due to the problems of coordination caused by the separate party and union militias, the CNT proposed setting up a unified People's Militia, with a unified command. This was to counter the proposal of the Communists for the rebuilding of the Republican state, with a conventional top-down military. The Communists were ultimately able to gain control of the army by gaining control of the officer positions and the new school set up to train officers. This was part of the Communist Party's strategy for gaining state power.

But before that, the CNT tried to head off that direction with the proposal to the UGT union federation, especially the Left Socialist leaders of the UGT, the replacement of the Republican government with a National Defense Council of the two union federations, accountable to a National Workers Congress, to replace the Cortes, Spain's parliament. CNT-UGT "joint commissions" would run the unified people's militia, with some representatives elected by the members of the militia. In essence, the CNT was proposing a union-controlled revolutionary people's army.

In Sept. 1936 Durruti and the CNT regional federation in Aragon tried to put pressure on the UGT to accept their proposal by setting up a regional Defense Council and Regional Congress in the liberated zone of Aragon. They did set up the Defense Council and Regional Congress, but the leaders of the Communist column in that area refused to go along with the proposal for a unified command, since the CNT was the majority in that region.