To mark the anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, Calderdale Solidarity Federation will be hosting an afternoon of film, discussion and archive material from our Spanish sister section CNT-AIT.
In July 1936, during the period of the tumultuous Second Republic, military conspirators including General Franco rose up against the government and attempted, through their military coup, to install an army-led regime that would "restore order". Workers and loyal troops repelled the coup d'état in many towns and cities and by the end of July it was clear that the rising had failed: half of Spain had not fallen to the military. In this half of Spain, workers' organisations, especially the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, set about not only defending themselves against the military and the machinations of the Catholic Church, but also put the long desired libertarian communist or anarchist revolution into practice. Factories were taken over by the workers, fields were farmed collectively, rationalist schools taught girls and boys side by side, unhealthy workshops were closed and abortion was introduced. The fight against fascism became the revolutionary struggle to create a new economy, a new mode of distribution and a new way of relating to one another.
How did Spanish anarchism achieve this? Why did this revolution last less than three years? What is its legacy today?
17.00 Introduction
17.15 Talk: The CNT in the 1930s
17.45 Debate and quick break
18.15 Talk by CNT members and debate
19.15 Film: De toda la vida (All our lives)
20.30 Debate and close.
5-9pm 20th July Terrace Room, Town Hall Hebden Bridge
Free admission (donations towards room hire welcome)
Flyer below