Foreign News: Anarchism Without Beards

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"The street outside the Capitania and the courtyard was a flurry of motor cars decked in variegated flags and the inscriptions of different political groups. There were the red and black flags of the Anarchists, the red and yellow stripes of Independent Catalonia, the red, violet and yellow of the Spanish Republic, and many others.

"At the entrances to the building were patrols of militia with rifles and pistols and in the anteroom of García Oliver's office there was a group of youngsters armed to the teeth.

"In fluent French García Oliver said: 'Our position is exactly opposite to that of the Bolsheviki in November 1917. They seized power with a program of social revolution which knew no limits. Power was thrust on us, but we have no such program.

" 'Our only struggle is against excessive action by the ultra-privileged classes, the great landlords, the capitalist and the clergy, which finds armed expression in Fascism. [In Catalonia] we have beaten Fascism and its privileges are a thing of the past which will not return. That, however, does not mean we shall imitate the Bolsheviki in racing toward an impossible Utopia.

" 'Our future political form is still undecided, but Spaniards, especially Catalonians, are intensely individualistic and will never accept the bureaucratic control of the masses the Bolsheviki have developed. We respect property and business except in cases where these are used against us by our enemies. Unless compelled by the hostility of sabotage, we prefer control to expropriation.' "

Getting down from Anarchist theory to Anarchist practice, the larger factories and industrial plants of Barcelona had in fact last week resumed production. They were running under councils of workmen and it remained to be seen whether these could continue to obtain raw materials, pay wages and effect profitable sales after the Spanish civil war is over. For the time being, every Barcelona factory capable of being converted to make war materials was running full blast, the Madrid Cabinet buying hand-over-fist everything it could get to arm its militia, paying with gold from the vaults of the Bank of Spain and with crisp new pesetas from its printing presses. Barcelona landlords found their tenants enthusiastically agreed that all rents had been reduced 50%. Small factories and little shops remained under direction of their owners as their workers talked Anarchism.