Excerpts from ANARCHISTS IN THE SPANISH REVOLUTION by José Pierats #10

In the fall of 1911 the CNT celebrated its First Congress in Barcelona. Soon afterwards two serious incidents took place: the metalworkers' strike organized by the Socialist Party in Bilbao, spread across Spain; and the bloody incidents in Cullera (Valencia), where a judge from Sueca, invested with full powers, provoked popular violence and was lynched. Seven suspects were condemned to death on January 10, 1912. All seven were reprieved, the last, Juan Jover, by the king.

The various CNT headquarters were shut down because of their solidarity with the strikers organized by the Socialist Party in the Bilbao mining region. In October, 1911, a Barcelona judge outlawed the CNT. Not until the eve of the First World War, in 1914, would the CNT return to public life.

Because of the reprieves after Cullera, the President of the Council of Ministers, José Canalejas, submitted the resignation of his government. The king reiterated his confidence in Canalejas, and the government toughened its anti-popular stance. In September, 1912, there was a railway strike. Canalejas, following the example of the socialist Aristide Briand, drafted the strikers into the army. The decree was known as the "Law of Handcuffs". On November 12, 1912, Canalejas was assassinated in Madrid's Puerta del Sol. His killer, Manuel Pardifias, immediately committed suicide. Perhaps the act was motivated by Canalejas' refusal to reverse the conviction of Ferrer. But there are other hypotheses. Among the proposed reforms of Canalejas was the so-called "padlock" law, which forbade the establishment of new religious orders. This law caused much unrest among the clergy, and throughout the country there were processions presided over by bishops and aristocratic ladies.

Even underground the CNT continued to have an effect, in particular in a strike of 100,000 textile workers. Again legal in 1914, the CNT waged a campaign against the European war. In 1915 it held an international anti-militarist conference in Galicia in spite of government prohibition. Some of the participants were jailed, and foreign delegates like Sebastian Fauré and Malatesta were not allowed to enter the country. Some foreign anarchists, notably Kropotkin, Malato, and Grave, openly favoured the allies as did some of the anarchists and syndicalists in Spain. The most notable of the Spaniards was Ricardo Mella, who argued in Acción Libertaria against the position taken by José Prat in Tierra y Libertad. This dispute darkened the last days of Anselmo Lorenzo, who died on November 30, 1914.