With forty years of fighting, of exile, of jailings, of living
underground, of strikes, and of insurrection, Beunaventura Durutti, the
legendary Spanish revolutionary and Anarchist lived many lives. Uncompromising, intransigent revolutionary, he travelled a long road
from rebellious young worker to the man who refused all bureacratic
positions, honours, awards, and who at death was mourned by millions of
women and men. Durutti believed and lived his belief that revolution and
freedom were inseperable.
He was born the son of a railway worker on July 14th 1896 in
Leon, a city in central Spain. Aged 14 he leaves school to become a
trainee mechanic in the railway yard. Like his father, he joins the
socialist UGT union. He takes an active part in the strike of August
1917 when the government overturned an agreement between the union and
the employers. This soon became a general strike throughout the area.
The government brought in the army and within three days the strikers
had been crushed. The troops behaved with extreme brutality, killing 70
and wounding 500 workers. 2,000 strikers were jailed.
Durruti managed to escape to France, where he came into contact with
exiled anarchists, whose influence led to him joining the anarchist CNT
union upon his return in January 1919. He joins the fight against
dictatorial employers in the Asturian mines and is arrested for the
first time in March 1919; he escapes and over the next decade and a half
he throws himself into activity for the CNT and for the anarchist
movement.
These years see him involved in several strikes and being forced into
exile. Unwittingly the Spanish government ‘exported’ rebellion, as
Durruti and his close friend Francisco Ascaso happily joined the
struggle for freedom wherever they ended up, in both Europe and Latin
America.
The Spanish monarchy fell in 1931 and Durruti moved to Barcelona;
accompanied by his French companion Emilienne, pregnant with their
daughter Colette. He joined the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), a
specifically anarchist organization, and together with other militants
they form the ‘Nosotros’ group. These were members within the CNT of a
radical tendency that harboured no illusions with respect to the
recently proclaimed Republic, maintaining that the moment was ripe for
continued progress towards a social revolution.
With the electoral victory by the liberal/reformist Popular Front in
February 1936, Left and Right were on a collision course, initiated very
rapidly by Franco’s military rebellion on July 19th 1936. The CNT and the FAI confronted the army with courage, organization and mass mobilizations.
They triumphed in much of Spain despite the fascist superiority in
weapons and resources. The anarchist contribution was decisive in
resisting the fascists throughout the country and in Catalonia defeated
the rebels singlehandedly, Durruti being one of the boldest fighters in
this battle.
Jose Buenaventura Durruti, always fought for the poor and downtrodden, and
against the State, whether of the social democratic, fascist or marxist
varieties When Spanish fascists attempted to overthrow the Republican
government on July 19th 1936, Durruti and other comrades helped put down
the uprising in Barclenoa. He became a member of the Anti fascist
Militia Committee and led the "Durruti" Column an almost mythical
group of CNT militants to the Zaragoza front. The Durruti column was
able to liberate much of Aragon. He was an inspiration to many as a
partisan of the Spanish people with an internationalist vision, who for
him personally revolutionary thought and action went hand in hand.
In 1936, after the liberation of Aragon from Franco's forces, Durruti was interviewed by Pierre van
Paasen of the Toronto Star. In this interview he gives his views on
Fascism, government and social revolution despite the fact that his
remarks have only been reported in English - and were never actually
written down by him in his native Spanish, well worth reading and can be found here https://libcom.org/history/buenaventura-durruti-interview-pierre-van-paasen
On 14th November Durutti arrived in Madrid at the height of the civil
war from Aragon,by air with 5,000 men( numbers vary according to
different accounts). The column had to go by train as all the railway
tracks had been bombed. He went to the frontline on the 16th.
Tragically Durruti on the
19th November 1936, he was shot dead by a sniper, receiving a
bullet to his chest, as he rallied his militia to continue their
resistance after days of fighting without respite. he died the
following day, at the age of 40. His death was a
tragedy for all free thinkers, in the fight against fascist tyranny. His
death was also a turning point in the Spanish Revolution and one of the
events that lead to the defeat of the revolution.
When his body was returned to Barcelona over 500,000 people took to
the streets on this day November 22 1936 to follow his funeral procession, the biggest funeral in Spanish history, a tribute to the place he
played in peoples hearts, his coffin draped with the familiar diagonal
red and black flag. A hero to the
Spanish working class ,and today Durruti remains a lasting icon of anarchism, both in Spain and around the world, a man who.was determined to leave this world a better place than when he entered it. With the rise again of the far right, no better time than to remember
this inspirational man who died fighting against fascism in the Spanish
Civil War.
Rare footage of Beunaventura Durutti's funeral.
This book is his definite biography :
https://libcom.org/library/durruti-spanish-revolution
Further reading:-
Daniel Guerin - No Gods, no masters; 2006
Durruti - The people Armed - Abel Paz
" We have always loved in slums and holes in the wall. We will
know how to accommodate ourselves for time. For you must not forget we
can also build. It is we who built the palaces and cities here in Spain
and America and everywhere. We the workers, can build others to take
their place. And better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins.
We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt
about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it
leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world, here in our hearts.
That world is growing every minute."- Beunaventarra Durruti
Spain, Aragon , 1936
