The Friends of Durruti Group: 1937-1939

by Agustín Guillamón, Paul Sharkey (Editor)

"Revolutions without theory fail to make progress. We of the 'Friends Of Durruti' have outlined our thinking, which may be amended as appropriate in great social upheavals but which hinges upon two essential points which cannot be avoided. A program, and rifles."— El Amigo del Pueblo , No. 5, July 20, 1937. Spain 1936–1939: This is the story of a group of anarchists engaged in the most thoroughgoing social and economic revolution of all time. Essentially street fighters with a long pedigree of militant action, they used their own experiences to arrive at the finest contemporary analysis of the Spanish Revolution. In doing so, they laid down essential markers for all future revolutionaries. This study—drawing on interviews with participants and synthesizing archival information—is THE definitive text on these unsung activists.
This volume is translated, edited, and introduced by Paul Sharkey, acknowledged internationally as the foremost expert on the Friends Of Durruti Group.

Genres: History, Politics, Spain, Nonfiction

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 8, 1997

Reviews

[Brian Bean · Rating 5 out of 5]

An anarchist theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Guillamon provides a brief and fascinating history of the Friends of Durruti group, an organization of anarchist revolutionaries who provided some of the clearest anarchist analysis of the reason for the tragic capitulation of the CNT/FAI to the bourgeois state.

The reason for them is that the anarchists of Spain lacked a revolutionary program and the revolutionary theory that would allow them to take power and 'go for broke' by carrying out a revolution for communism. The FoD attempted to provide a correction for this and from May 1937 to 1939 attempted to outline such a theory that consisted of an argument for a 'revolutionary junta' and the call for 'all power to the workers.' This placed them in close collaboration with POUM and the Fourth International group in Spain (Bolshevik-Leninist Section.)

The FoD was never able to change the disastrous policy of the CNT/FAI and part of that falls into them still adhering to an idealistic over reliance of spontaneity and a wrong understanding of the trade union's limits as a revolutionary organ. That being said the Marxist approach to learning the lessons of struggle are apparent in the work of the FoD. This leaves Guillamon's book as a very clear undogmatic and sober look at very important moment of history and how some of the most advanced revolutionaries who took part in that struggle saw their fight.

The theoretical contribution of the FoD "introduced to anarchist theory may well have been old Marxist postulates, themselves merely elementary lessons from the class struggle. But anyone who bandies about labels and regards that as having settled the matter is ill-advised. If the first hand experience of the proletariat is not enough to remedy errors and if history has nothing to teach us from past struggles, we are left with an affirmation of the primacy of dogma and belief and a denial that there is anything of validity to be learned from history."

This book brilliantly criticizes many of the idealistic problems of anarchism from within the tradition and its conclusions are--thought unintentional by the author--rather close to Trotsky's analysis.

[Micah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting account and analysis of the most organized radical internal opposition to the CNT's collaborationism, somewhat marred by the author's (Guillamón is apparently a Bordigist) need to constantly reiterate the thesis that the Spanish Revolution's fate proves the ideological superiority of Marxism to anarchism - exaggerating the importance of tiny Marxist groups and glossing over the fact that all the major Spanish Marxist parties were openly counterrevolutionary at the time. Perhaps even more strange is Guillamón's refusal to even mention the Russian Revolution (or the Chinese) and its outcome.

What the Friends of Durruti proposed was a "slight variation" on anarchism: the Revolutionary Junta which would insure the physical elimination of counterrevolutionaries. For Guillamón things are simple: revolutions simply are violent, totalitarian dictatorships and a "proletarian" junta is worlds away from a bourgeois government. We don't have the luxury of such simplicity, however. Having a "correct" theory is no guarantee that disaster will be avoided. Guillamón's criticisms to the effect that the Friends should have either commandeered the CNT, killing its leaders, or somehow destroyed the organization completely, are certainly interesting as counterfactuals to speculate on, but not really historically concrete. While collaborationism was unnecessary, taking into account all of Spain would have meant leaving room for the UGT rank and file at a minimum, I imagine.

The Friends tried to inhabit a paradoxical space, where anarchist ideals are paired with the need for authoritarian brutality to defend those ideals. Guillamón tries to erase the paradox much too quickly.

[Darren]

Reviewed in the February 1998 issue of the Socialist Standard:

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blog...

[Mirza Sultan-Galiev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the attempt to organize a social revolutionary vanguard in the Spainish civil war.