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
