Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain¶

Felix Morrow¶

Core Argument¶

Felix Morrow's Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain argues that the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 was not primarily a military conflict between democracy and fascism, but a class war in which the Spanish proletariat was betrayed by its own leadership. The central thesis is that the Spanish working class, having spontaneously seized factories, land, and political power in July 1936, possessed the material force to defeat Franco and establish a workers' state. This victory was prevented not by fascist military superiority, but by the systematic counter-revolutionary policies of the Stalinist Communist Party, the reformist socialists, and the anarchist leadership, all of whom subordinated the revolution to the preservation of bourgeois property relations and the pursuit of alliances with Anglo-French imperialism.

The book sets out to prove that the Popular Front strategy—an alliance of workers' parties with liberal bourgeois parties—was a catastrophic betrayal of Marxism that repeated the errors of German and Austrian social democracy. Morrow contends that the Spanish bourgeoisie, like its Russian counterpart, was too weak and fearful of the working class to confront fascism, and that the only road to victory was the revolutionary seizure of power by the proletariat, organised through democratically elected workers' councils. The defeat of the Spanish Revolution, he insists, was not an accident of history but the direct consequence of political choices made by working-class leaders who refused to break with the bourgeois state.

Overview¶

The book develops its argument through a meticulous chronological and analytical dissection of the Spanish Revolution from 1931 to 1938. Morrow grounds his analysis in the Marxist theory of permanent revolution, arguing that Spain's belated capitalist development, the integration of landed and banking capital, and the contraction of world markets made a stable bourgeois republic impossible. The proletariat was therefore compelled to carry out the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution—land reform, separation of church and state, democratisation of the army—as a prelude to socialist transformation. This theoretical framework is established in the opening chapters, which contrast the Spanish experience with the Russian revolutions of 1917 and the failed German and Austrian revolutions of 1918-1919.

The narrative proceeds through three distinct phases. The first phase, covering 1931 to July 1936, traces the failure of the republican-socialist coalition to accomplish even basic democratic reforms, the return of reaction under the bienio negro, and the mass radicalisation that culminated in the Popular Front electoral victory. Morrow demonstrates that the workers and peasants, having learned from the betrayals of 1931-1933, conducted an independent revolutionary offensive against both fascism and the bourgeois state in the months before the military uprising. The second phase, from July to September 1936, examines the spontaneous creation of dual power—the armed proletariat existing alongside the hollowed-out bourgeois state—and the failure of the workers' organisations to consolidate this power through the establishment of a nationwide system of soviets.

The third and most extensive phase, from September 1936 to May 1938, documents the systematic counter-revolution. Morrow shows how the Stalinist-led Communist Party, acting on Moscow's instructions, rebuilt the bourgeois state apparatus, liquidated workers' militias into a regular army, dismantled agricultural and industrial collectives, and physically suppressed revolutionary organisations. The May Days of 1937 in Barcelona are presented as the decisive turning point: when the workers spontaneously erected barricades and held power in their hands, the CNT and POUM leaders ordered them back to work, sealing the revolution's fate. The book concludes with a devastating analysis of the Negrín government as "the government of defeat," which intensified political repression while pursuing a military strategy that guaranteed Franco's victory.

The book occupies a distinctive place in the Marxist tradition as a Trotskyist analysis written contemporaneously with the events it describes. Morrow draws heavily on Trotsky's writings on Spain, particularly his theory of permanent revolution and his analysis of the Popular Front as a "Menshevik, not Leninist" conception. The polemic is directed simultaneously against four targets: the Stalinist Communist Party, which sacrificed the Spanish revolution to Soviet foreign policy; the reformist socialists under Prieto and Caballero, who subordinated the proletariat to bourgeois leadership; the anarchist leadership, whose anti-statism collapsed into opportunist collaboration with the bourgeoisie; and the POUM, which Morrow argues abandoned Leninist principles by entering bourgeois coalition governments and failing to fight for the creation of soviets.

Chapter Guide¶

Introduction — Alan Woods argues that the Spanish Revolution was defeated by the betrayals of the workers' own leaderships, not by Franco's military strength.
Foreword — The Spanish bourgeoisie could not complete the bourgeois-democratic revolution, requiring the proletariat to carry out these tasks and advance towards socialism.
Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain — Franco's rebellion was a pre-emptive assault by the entire Spanish ruling class against organised labour, structurally identical to Italian and German fascism.
The Bourgeois 'Allies' in the Peoples Front — The liberal bourgeoisie had no vital interest in defeating fascism and actively sabotaged workers' resistance in the first days of the revolt.
The Revolution of July 19 — The Spanish Revolution began with the spontaneous armed intervention of the proletariat, creating dual power alongside the bourgeois republican state.
Towards a Coalition with the Bourgeoisie — The failure to establish a nationwide system of soviets allowed the bourgeoisie to methodically recover its power and make coalition government inevitable.
The Politics of the Spanish Working Class — Every major working-class organisation—socialists, Stalinists, anarchists, and the POUM—capitulated to the bourgeoisie in its own way.
The Programme of the Caballero Coalition Government — Caballero's government was a bourgeois coalition of class collaboration that subordinated everything to military victory and renounced revolutionary land reform.
The Programme of the Catalan Government — The POUM abandoned fundamental Marxist principles by entering coalition government and collaborating in the dismantling of revolutionary committees.
Revival of the Bourgeois State: September 1936-April 1931 — The bourgeois-Stalinist bloc systematically dismantled workers' economic and political conquests through financial decrees, censorship, and police repression.
The Counter-Revolution and the Masses — Discontented but leaderless CNT masses faced a counter-revolutionary advance while the POUM failed to provide revolutionary leadership.
The May Days: Barricades in Barcelona — The May 1937 barricades offered a revolutionary seizure of power, but CNT and POUM leaders ordered workers off the barricades, sealing the revolution's fate.
The Dismissal of Largo Caballero — The bourgeois-Stalinist bloc used the defeat of the Catalonian proletariat to replace Caballero with a government willing to suppress workers' organisations.
'El Gobierno de la Victoria' — The Negrín government enacted ruthless repression of workers and peasants while dismantling popular tribunals and releasing fascists.
The Conquest of Catalonia — The bourgeois-Stalinist bloc executed a political counter-revolution in Catalonia, crushing the POUM and suppressing anarchist organisations.
The Conquest of Aragon — The revolutionary collectives of Aragon, which had increased agricultural production by thirty to fifty per cent, were violently dismantled by Stalinist military forces.
The Military Struggle under Giral, and Caballero — The Giral and Caballero governments systematically withheld arms from revolutionary fronts to prevent CNT militias from gaining prestige.
The Military Struggle under Negrin-Prieto — The Negrín-Prieto government intensified political discrimination and strategic betrayal, culminating in the surrender of Bilbao and Santander.
Only Two Roads — The working class faced a stark choice between revolutionary war against fascism and subordination to Anglo-French imperialism, which never intended a Loyalist victory.
Postscript — The Popular Front strategy directly enabled Franco's military breakthrough to the Mediterranean, splitting the remaining anti-fascist forces.
The Civil War in Spain — No civil war as profound as Spain's has ever been won without a revolutionary social programme that wins the peasantry to the proletariat's side.
The Birth of The Republic – 1931 — Spain's modern bourgeoisie never prepared for a bourgeois revolution, and the republic was only supported by the socialist and trade union proletariat.
The Tasks of the Bourgeois-democratic Revolution — The Spanish Republic was structurally incapable of accomplishing the essential tasks of a bourgeois-democratic revolution, condemning it to be a brief transitional regime.
The Coalition Government and the Return of Reaction, 1931-1933 — The republican-socialist coalition crushed working-class militancy, preserved the old state apparatus, and paved the way for reaction.
The Fight Against Fascism: November 1933 to February 1936 — The Spanish proletariat prevented fascist consolidation through militant resistance, paving the way for the Popular Front electoral victory.
The People's Front Government and its Supporters: February 20 to July 17, 1936 — The People's Front was a class collaborationist trap that left the economic and institutional foundations of reaction entirely intact.
The Masses Struggle Against Fascism Despite the People's Front: Feb. 16 to July 16, 1936 — The Spanish masses conducted an independent revolutionary offensive against both fascism and the bourgeois state, in defiance of the Popular Front government.
Counter-revolution and Dual Power — The initial counter-revolution was not merely Franco's military rising but the treacherous response of the bourgeois Popular Front government itself.

Key Concepts¶

Dual Power — The situation in which the armed proletariat existed alongside the hollowed-out bourgeois state, with real power in workers' hands but no revolutionary party prepared to centralise it through soviets.

Permanent Revolution — Trotsky's theory that in belatedly developing capitalist countries, the proletariat must carry out the bourgeois-democratic tasks and advance immediately towards socialism.

Popular Front — A class collaborationist alliance of workers' parties with liberal bourgeois parties, denounced as a Menshevik conception that subordinates the proletariat to bourgeois leadership.

Counter-Revolution — The systematic dismantling of workers' economic and political conquests by the Stalinist-led Communist Party, acting on Moscow's instructions to preserve bourgeois property relations.

Collectivisation — The revolutionary expropriation of large estates and factories by workers and peasants, which increased production but was violently suppressed by the bourgeois-Stalinist bloc.

May Days — The barricades of May 1937 in Barcelona, when workers held power in their hands but were ordered off the barricades by CNT and POUM leaders, sealing the revolution's fate.

Bourgeois State — The apparatus of capitalist rule—army, police, judiciary, bureaucracy—which the Stalinists rebuilt after July 1936, transforming militias into a regular army and crushing workers' committees.

Workers' Councils (Soviets) — Democratically elected organs of working-class power that Morrow argues should have been established in place of the committee system based on mutual agreement between organisations.

Anglo-French Imperialism — The British and French ruling classes, who never intended a Loyalist victory and sought a compromise between the Loyalist and fascist camps.

Chapters¶

28 chapters