Wednesday 14 April 2021

Valeriano Orobon Fernandez- A Las Barricades /Towards the Barricades

 

Valeriano Orobón Fernánez  Spanish anarcho-syndicalist theoretician, trade-union activist, translator and poet, who wrote the Spanish lyrics of the CNT anthem 'A Las Barricadas'was born in Cistérniga, Valladolid Province, on April 14th, 1901. The son of a railway worker and Partido Socialista Obrero Español militant, he attended the Centro de Estudios Sociales de Valladolid secular school and frequented the city's libertarian bookstores. 
Orobón Fernandez was active in the Spanish labour movement from an early age and fell under the influence of one of Valladolid's most prominent anarcho-syndicalist activists, Evelio Boal. In 1919 he represented the section of Valladolid in the congress of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo at the Teatre de la Comedia in Madrid.
In 1922 he moved to Oviedo to avoid military service and once the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera was established, he went into exile in France, living in Lyon at first and then, from the autumn of 1924, in Paris. An intellectual with a flair for languages, he quickly picked up French and took on the responsibility of running the Librairie internationale de Paris, which at the time was being financed by the Los Solidarios group. He also became director of the magazine 'Iberión', which he later transformed into the journal 'Tiempos Nuevos' in 1925, and established links with Max Nettlau and Sébastien Faure. In this period one of his greatest concerns, to which he dedicated a significant amount of time and thought, was the theoretical renewal of anarchism, but it was his opposition to the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the Spanish monarchy, who he had castigated during a meeting opposing the war in Morocco, that in July 1926 eventually saw his expulsion from France.
He then took refuge in Berlin with Rudolf Rocker and began studying German, which would later become his main language of choice, used especially at his frequent attendance at conferences on Spanish literature. There he found not only his life partner, Hilda Teage (1895-1977), but also the friendship of prominent German anarchists such as Max Nettlau and Agustín Souchy. He also began a career as a language teacher at the Berlitz Academy, first in Leipzig and later in Hamburg, Vienna and London. He also worked as a translator for various Spanish publishers including La Revista Blanca, for whom he translated Max Nettlau's 'Elisée Reclus : Anarchist und Gelehrter' (Elisée Reclus : Anarchist and Scholar; 1928) as 'Eliseo Reclus, la vida de un sabio justo y rebelde' (Elisée Reclus, the life of a just and rebellious sage; 1928) and Theodor Plivier's 'Des Kaisers Kulis' (The Kaiser's Coolies; 1930) as 'Los coolies del Kaiser : novela de la Marina de Guerra alemana' (Novel of a German Sailor; 1930. In addition, he belonged to the secretariat of the IWA / AIT, rebuilt in Berlin in 1922, and translated numerous articles and writings that, published in the 'La Revista Blanca' journal in Barcelona, providing Spanish anarchists with first-hand information on what was happening in the rest of Europe. 
In 1931 he published 'Sturm Über Spanien' (Storm over Spain) and, with the proclamation of the Second Republic in April 1931, he returned to Spain. There he came to the conclusion that, based on his travels in the rest of Europe, that the CNT,at the time the largest labour union and anarchst orgnisation in Spain, due to its organic strength and militancy, was the only European working force capable of making revolution. He settled in Madrid and began an active union militancy in the CNT's sindicato de la construcción, helping to overturn the dominance of the Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT) in the sector.
In 1932 he began to collaborate with the film production, distribution and exhibition company Filmófono, translating and writing posters for foreign films. That same year he published 'La C.N.T. y la revolución' (1932) in which he reiterated that anarcho-syndicalism had to strive to organise society in a decentralised form as much politically as economically, whilst affirm that anarcho-syndicalism was the most important revolutionary force in Spain and rejecting any and all influence that the communist government of the Second republic may have on the operation of the CNT. 
In 1933 he published in 'Tierra y Libertad' his translation of Vaclaw Swiecicki's Polish socialist revolutionary song 'Warszawianka' (Whirlwinds of Danger) in Spanish as 'A las Barricadas', which became the anthem of the CNT and one of the most popular songs of the Spanish anarchists during the Spanish Civil War. It is such a rousing moving anthem, inspiring the working class to answer the call to arms and fight the fascisit threat to our essential freedoms.
Fernandez also took part in the great meeting in Barcelona alongside Buenaventura Durruti that called for a boycott of the electoral. Additionally, as a member of the secretariat of the AIT he tried to mediate between the supporters of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Iberian Anarchist Federation) and the CNT's moderate 'possibilist' Trentistas faction supporters.
Following the CNT insurrectionary failures of 1933, he deduced the need for a tactical rectification of his position: the CNT alone could not carry out the revolution, it needed the support of the socialist UGT. On January 29, 1934, his article 'Consideraciones sobre la unidad ¡Alianza revolucionaria, sí! ¡Oportunismo de bandería, no!' (Considerations on unity. Revolutionary Alliance, Yes! Opportunist Banditry, No!) appeared in the Madrid newspaper 'La Tierra'.
It provoked something of a storm. In the article he put forward his reasoning on the need for libertarians to collaborate with socialism and aroused the concern of the authorities who ordered his imprisonment in March 1934, just at the time when an agreement between the Asturian CNT and UGT was being negotiated and a general strike of the construction called for by both unions that would paralyse Madrid. Thus, the Republican authorities tried to stop a process that could have ended in some form of revolutionary action.
Having suffered from tuberculosis since the early 1920s, in prison the deterioration of his health accelerated, and a second prison term in March 1936 was to provide the final nail in his coffin. Valeriano Orobón barely survived a few months after his release and died in Madrid on June 28, 1936, a few weeks short of being able to witness the fact that his proposals for the unity of the workers' organisations had played an essential role in the defeat of the coup in July 1936 and resulted in the loosing of a torrent of revolutionary action across Spain. 

 A las Barricadas

Negras tormentas agitan los aires
nubes oscuras nos impiden ver.
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber.

El bien más preciado es la libertad
hay que defenderla con fe y valor.

Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.

Negras tormentas agitan los aires
nubes oscuras nos impiden ver.
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber.

El bien más preciado es la libertad
hay que defenderla con fe y valor.

Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.

En pie el pueblo obrero, a la batalla
hay que derrocar a la reacción.

¡A las barricadas! ¡A las barricadas!
por el triunfo de la Confederación.
¡A las barricadas! ¡A las barricadas!
por el triunfo de la Confederación.

nubes oscuras nos impiden ver.
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber.
El bien más preciado es la libertad
hay que defenderla con fe y valor.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Negras tormentas agitan los aires
nubes oscuras nos impiden ver.
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber.
El bien más preciado es la libertad
hay que defenderla con fe y valor.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
En pie el pueblo obrero, a la batalla
hay que derrocar a la reacción.
¡A las barricadas! ¡A las barricadas!
por el triunfo de la Confederación.
¡A las barricadas! ¡A las barricadas!
por el triunfo de la Confederación.
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/las-barricadas-barricades.html

Negras tormentas agitan los aires
nubes oscuras nos impiden ver.
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber.
El bien más preciado es la libertad
hay que defenderla con fe y valor.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Negras tormentas agitan los aires
nubes oscuras nos impiden ver.
Aunque nos espere el dolor y la muerte
contra el enemigo nos llama el deber.
El bien más preciado es la libertad
hay que defenderla con fe y valor.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
Alza la bandera revolucionaria
que del triunfo sin cesar nos lleva en pos.
En pie el pueblo obrero, a la batalla
hay que derrocar a la reacción.
¡A las barricadas! ¡A las barricadas!
por el triunfo de la Confederación.
¡A las barricadas! ¡A las barricadas!
por el triunfo de la Confederación.

Towards the Barricades
  
Black storms shake the air
Dark clouds blind us
Although pain and death [may] await us
Duty calls us against the enemy

The most precious good is freedom
It must be defended with faith and courage

Raise the revolutionary flag
Which carries us ceaselessly towards triumph
Raise the revolutionary flag
Which carries us ceaselessly towards triumph

Black storms shake the air
Dark clouds blind us
Although pain and death [may] await us
Duty calls us against the enemy

The most precious good is freedom
It must be defended with faith and courage

Raise the revolutionary flag
Which carries us ceaselessly towards triumph
Raise the revolutionary flag
Which carries us ceaselessly towards triumph

Get up, working people, to the battle
[We] have to topple the reaction
To the Barricades! To the Barricades!

For the triumph of the Confederation
To the Barricades! To the Barricades!
For the triumph of the Confederation 


 

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