17. Only Two Roads¶
Core Argument¶
Chapter 17: Only Two Roads¶
The Spanish Civil War confronted the working class with a stark binary: revolutionary war against fascism, or subordination to Anglo-French imperialism. The latter, despite its democratic pretensions, never intended a Loyalist victory, fearing that any such triumph would ignite social revolution. Instead, it sought a compromise between the Loyalist and fascist camps, preparing for a Franco victory while maintaining the democratic myth to mobilise the proletariat for the coming imperialist war. The Negrín government placed itself entirely in Anglo-French hands, accepting plans for a truce, withdrawal of foreign troops, and a plebiscite supervised by the great powers—effectively a joint bourgeois-fascist regime. Stalin, rather than break with the objective of an Anglo-French alliance, endorsed this settlement, using the same arguments that justified joining the Non-Intervention Committee. The Communist International and Labour and Socialist International likewise directed the Spanish people to rely on ‘their’ governments.
Existing Spanish workers’ organisations failed to provide revolutionary leadership. The CNT leadership clung to illusions about Anglo-French aid; the UGT leaders remained passive; the POUM was riven and unprepared for illegality. Yet new revolutionary cadres were emerging among the masses—notably the Friends of Durruti, who broke with anti-statism and called for democratic organs of power. The Bolshevik-Leninists of the Fourth International faced the task of fusing these elements into a revolutionary party.
Meanwhile, the London Bureau was disintegrating. The SAP had initially criticised the Moscow trials but later abandoned anti-Stalinism, signing a People’s Front pact with Stalinists. The POUM’s other supposed allies, the Brandler-Lovestone groups, had for a decade defended Stalinist crimes, including the executions of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and the Red Generals. Only after the Generals’ execution did the Lovestone group reverse course, without explanation, having helped Stalin label Trotskyists counter-revolutionary. As the SAP and its Swedish affiliate moved towards Stalinism, the Brandler-Lovestone groups replaced them in the Bureau—no improvement. The Bureau’s June 6, 1937 meeting adopted two contradictory resolutions: one recognising the POUM was attacked for transforming the anti-fascist struggle into a fight against capitalism; the other appealing to the Second and Third Internationals for unified action against bourgeois manoeuvres—one resolution for the left, one for the semi-Stalinist right.
The author argues revolutionaries are the only practical people, articulating what masses already want. Durruti’s words are recalled: no government fights fascism to the death; the bourgeoisie will use fascism to crush workers; workers built the palaces and can build better ones; they carry a new world in their hearts.