The following is an extract from Werner Droescher's Towards an Alternative Society

It was not surprising that the outbreak of the Civil War was quite unexpected as far as I was concerned. The first hint that something serious was afoot was our inability to ring Barcelona. At that time G. was having longwinded and complicated negotiations concerning the farmhouse which she had leased in the Tossa Valley and we had to ring our lawyer in Barcelona frequently.

Then everyone in the village realized that something serious had occurred. The police, the "Guardia Civil" disappeared overnight, where to one didn't know, leaving the warrant officer of the Carabineros as the only representative of the government. This was reassuring as he was a Catalan and well liked in the village. Then we had news from the provincial capital, Gerona; we heard that the military had tried to take over the town. They had not succeeded because the troops who had been sent out to occupy strategic positions had been told by the populace that they were dupes of a fascist putsch, and were not there to prevent a Communist uprising as the soldiers had been told by their officers. Most soldiers left their posts and disappeared unobtrusively in the crowd. Their officers had to surrender and were arrested.

It was getting obvious that a fierce civil war was raging in Barcelona, however it was not clear whether it was a purely Catalan separatist affair. Catalan uprisings against the central government had occurred several times in past centuries, when Catalans had attempted to gain autonomy from the Spanish governments. After a few days of great anxiety we heard on the radio a speech by the Catalan chief of government who, with a voice trembling with emotion, informed the people that the military rebellion had been crushed in Catalonia, with the aid of the trade unions, particularly with that of the CNT (Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo), the anarcho-syndicalsts, and the FAI (anarchists).

The first indication that showed us in Tossa that other factors played a role, that the struggle had not been only a military rebellion and counter-rebellion, was the arrival of two trucks from the neighbouring Blanes, where there were several small factories and therefore workers organized in syndicates. It was the first time that I saw the red and black flag of the Anarchists, with the inscriptions of "CNT" and "FAI" - the "Federacion Anarquista Iberica". The men on the trucks were all armed. They drove to the church and began to smash the altar and church decorations. The pieces were loaded on the trucks, dumped on the beach, and burned. The men did not harm the priests, but forced them to be present at the destruction, to prove to them and the whole village that "God was dead", as they expressed it. They urged the priest to leave the village, the priest's house was to be converted into a hospital. Only one priest, the much-loved old father Jose, who was also a painter and collector of folklore, was left in peace. He remained in his house in the village, and used to say with a chuckle, "I'm no longer San Jose, but plain Jose!" The landowner Aromir had fled.

If a waiter at the Steyer Hotel had not become mentally unbalanced by the events, arrested the owner of a tobacco shop (who was known as a supporter of the right) and shot him wantonly in the woods - Tossa would have been spared any atrocity. This waiter, Isidro by name, was arrested soon after that event and put into an asylum. Only a few days after the end of the fighting in Catalonia, some authorities were functioning again more or less effectively. The "Guardia Civil", now renamed "Guardia Republicana" was again patrolling some of the rural districts. However, the actual control of the authorities and the whole civil administration lay in the hands of the syndicates, who also controlled all the traffic on the main highways and in the settlements.

Bewilderment among the foreigners was great. We heard the noise of many planes, that came from the direction of Italy, flying high towards the south, we heard radio news that talked of atrocities and heavy fighting in many parts of Spain. The name of the instigator of the putsch, General Franco, became known to everyone. One evening a British destroyer appeared in the bay - French ones came a few days later - and evacuated all British nationals who were willing to leave. It was true that the communications to France by road were very awkward, due to many controls - and there were rumours that the roads were unsafe. The British authorities, who had instigated the evacuation, could not know that no harm threatened their nationals in Tossa, and I believe today that the British, afraid of Red revolution, did their utmost to foster the mood of panic. The social revolution which had taken place in the wake of the suppression of the military uprising had caused consternation and fear in the conservative minds of the European bourgeoisie, even in the left-wing Popular Front government of France, who refused to come to the aid of the Spanish Republic.

The whole situation became clear to me when I eventually got to Barcelona. I had read reports that the Catalan militia had penetrated Aragon, that there was heavy fighting in Andalusia, along the Mediterranean coast, around Madrid. I thought it was wrong to remain in Tossa, to do nothing. I decided to join in the fight against fascism. The mayor of Tossa gave me safe-conduct and I travelled by ordinary bus and train to Barcelona. On the journey my papers were examined many times, but there were no difficulties as the letter of the mayor proved to be effective.

In Barcelona I knew a German, a political refugee, whom I had met in Tossa, who could vouch for my political bona-fide. This comrade had friends among the foreign Trotskyists who had linked up with the Spanish POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista). Through his vouching, I was accepted in the militia of the POUM. I was politically so naïve that I did not realise the existence of the tension between the official CP and the POUM. I believed we all fought for social revolution and against fascism and that it did not really matter to which party or political group one belonged. The sad story of the POUM and the vile treatment of its members by the CP has been well documented by Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.

The extent of the struggle and fierce street fighting, and the social revolution, could be observed clearly in Barcelona. There were burnt-out churches and public buildings everywhere, others showed signs of machine gun bullets and shellfire. All factories and enterprises had been taken over by the workers; people addressed each other with "thou". No tips were given in the cafes, as it was considered to be against the dignity of man to give and accept tips. The presence of the anarcho-syndicalists was obvious to all. All trains and buses had been painted over with the red and black colours of the CNT.

While I was waiting in the Hotel Falcon - which was at that time situated at the lower end of the Ramblas at the "Plaza del Teatro" - to be sent to the Front, I met some of the British anti-fascists who had come to Barcelona of their own accord, or had been sent by the CP. Through G. I had met some of them earlier: Ralph Bates, Hugh Slater. I also met the young poet John Cornford, who was killed in action soon after - and Tom Wintringham, whom I admired greatly. We experienced the extent of the schism between the official communists and the dissident Trotskyists, in an almost comical manner. Although we knew these people quite well, we had to sit at separate tables when we met in the café, so as not to compromise them.
to go to part two click here