Print Culture and the Formation of the Anarchist Movement in Spain, 1890-1915

James Michael Yeoman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781000712155
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This book analyzes the formation of a mass anarchist movement in Spain over the turn of the twentieth century. In this period, the movement was transformed from a dislocated collection of groups and individuals into the largest organized body of anarchists in world history: the anarcho-syndicalist National Confederation of Labour ( Confederación Nacional del Trabajo: CNT). At the same time, anarchist cultural practices became ingrained in localities across the whole of Spain, laying foundations which maintained the movement's popular support until the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

The book shows that grassroots print culture was central to these developments: driving the development of ideology and strategy – broadly defined as terrorism, education and workplace organization – and providing an informal structure to a movement which shunned recognized leadership and bureaucracy.

This study offers a rich analysis of the cultural foundations of Spanish anarchism. This emphasis also challenges claims that the movement was "exceptional" or "peculiar" in its formation, by situating it alongside other decentralized, bottom-up mobilizations across historical and contemporary contexts, from the radical pamphleteering culture of the English Civil War to the use of social media in the Arab Spring.

1
With Words, With Writings and With Deeds

Anarchist Print Culture, 1890–1915

Over the turn of the twentieth century, the experience of anarchism in Spain was expressed and shaped by the producers, distributors and consumers of the movement’s print. Printed sources were not a simply a repository of information, but the symbolic and material site where numerous, dynamic elements of anarchism converged.¹ They were crucial in the formation of anarchist discourse, which ‘configured experiences’ and gave meaning to abstract ideas.² Print was particularly important for an ideology that loathed ‘inertia’.³ Rather than a series of static ideas—or, in the words of anarchist commentators, ‘dogma’—anarchism required constant, active engagement from its followers in order to have meaning.⁴ At times, a minority within the movement demanded ‘action’ in contrast to the ‘theoretical’ work of propaganda.⁵ Much more common, however, were those who regarded ‘intellectual labour’ as a vital component of anarchist practice, which shaped revolutionary action and made it possible.⁶ The value of print was ‘immense,’ as it rid workers of ‘political lethargy,’ turning the active working class into ‘proselytisers for the cause of liberty’.⁷ Propaganda was a means of struggle, a way to introduce new comrades to the ideas of anarchism, to ‘educate and direct opinion, exposing the most just ideas’ and ‘to conquer the sympathies of all people’.⁸ Thus the argument of Marcel van der Linden that ‘what counts is what [a] movement does in practice, and not how it justifies what it does’ is based on a false distinction between words and deeds. To construct ideology and culture through print inspired practice, and was practice in itself.⁹ To engage in print—to write, edit, print, receive, distribute, read, hear and respond to periodicals—was to engage in the movement. This did not come at the expense of activity, but rather fostered and reinforced other forms of participation. ‘We the anarchists’—wrote the most respected theorist in the movement, Ricardo Mella, in 1902—‘work for the coming revolution with words, with writings and with deeds… the press, the book, the private and public meeting are today, as ever, abundant terrain for all initiatives’.¹⁰

Anarchist publications were generally one of five types: books, pamphlets, journals, periodicals and hojas (broadsides). In the words of the most respected figure in the movement, Anselmo Lorenzo (1841–1914), longer forms of writing, such as books and pamphlets, were a means to ‘store in perfect classification all the knowledge’ needed to produce the revolution.¹¹ Over 700 anarchist books and pamphlets were published between 1890 and 1915, covering an enormous range of subjects, such as geography, history, political theory, biology and birth control, sociology, current affairs, the law, art and literature.¹² Some books were extremely popular, particularly those of Pyotr Kropotkin, whose Mutual Aid sold 20,000 in three years, while The Conquest of Bread—which went through eleven editions over the turn of the century—had sold approximately 28,000 copies by 1909. Marx’s Capital sold around 9,000 copies in the same period.¹³ Although they were popular, most groups could not afford to publish books. Their production was thus limited to handful of larger publishers, such as the ‘Escuela Moderna’ and ‘Salud y Fuerza’ groups of Barcelona. In contrast, pamphlet publishing flourished across the movement from 1890 to 1915. As well as prose, pamphlets were used to publish plays, poetry, songs and transcripts from conferences. These shorter publications provided an inexpensive, one-off contribution to print culture. Despite their cheap paper and flimsy binding, these items were treasured by their readers. Popular pamphlets would be reprinted numerous times by groups across the country. Errico Malatesta’s dialogue Entre campesinos, for example, was published in 15 different editions from 1889–1915.¹⁴ At the other extreme to longer forms of print were hojas, or broadsides: one-sheet publications designed for specific, immediate calls to action such as notices for upcoming demonstrations and strikes. They were also used to reach out to individuals outside the movement, handed out in a local area or affixed as posters in public spaces. Hojas were particularly popular during elections, as in 1896 and 1913, when they carried calls to abstain from voting.¹⁵ While few hojas from the period have survived, books and pamphlets are abundant in the archives, to the point that a systematic analysis of their role within print culture merits study in itself. Therefore, despite their importance to anarchist print culture, books, pamphlets and hojas have been used sparingly in this study, which instead focuses on the other ‘blade’ in the ‘double-edged sword’ of anarchist print: the weekly and monthly press.¹⁶

Of the 298 anarchist periodicals and journals launched between 1890 and 1915, roughly two-thirds were based outside Cataluña (191, 64 per cent; to 107, 36 per cent from Cataluña), accounting for just over half the total number of issues (c.4,029 issues, 55 per cent; to c.3,299 issues, 45 per cent from Cataluña). Of these, 2,482 issues from non-Catalan papers have survived in various archives in Spain, the Netherlands and Britain. These publications form the main source base for this study.¹⁷

Periodicals were a middle ground between the theoretical depth provided by books and pamphlets and the immediacy of hojas. In periodicals, anarchist theory was presented in short, easily-digestible articles, deployed as a means to articulate the ‘daily struggle for truth’.¹⁸ Rather than the singular voice of a pamphlet or book, periodicals were the product of numerous editors, authors, correspondents and readers, engaged in dialogue with one another. Periodicals were sites of discussion and dispute, and their content was constantly modified and updated, giving them a sense of development lacking in other forms of print. They were thus more representative of how the movement constructed and interpreted—rather than simply transmitted—theory in relation to practice, and vice versa. The press was also used to distribute other aspects of print culture. Extracts from a pamphlet were often printed on the third and fourth pages of a paper, designed to be torn out, folded and assembled with serialised extracts from subsequent issues. After several weeks or months, the subscriber to the paper would be able to bind a complete pamphlet together with string, which is how many remain in the archives. A similar, although less common, practice was to print a hoja on the last page, which again would be ripped out of the paper and used as independent material.¹⁹

The vast majority of anarchist periodicals consisted of one sheet of paper, which would be folded to create four pages. This was a common size for many papers in Spain, including the PSOE’s weekly El Socialista (Madrid) and much larger national newspapers, such as the Republican daily El País (Madrid).²⁰ The only exception to this format in anarchist publishing were journal-style publications, such as La Revista Blanca (Madrid), which consisted of longer pieces over eight, sixteen or thirty-two pages. Journals of this type have been included in this study, although since they were much less common than four-page periodicals they form only a minor part of the analysis.

Four-page papers would usually open with theoretical pieces and commentaries on current affairs, followed by sections devoted to letters from correspondents and smaller news sections. On the final page most papers would publish administrative information, including summaries of collections and solidarity campaigns. Other regular sections included poetry, short stories and plays; digests and refutations the of ‘bourgeois,’ Catholic, Republican and socialist press; columns containing brief sardonic remarks on local and national news; international news; and ‘bibliographies,’ which contained information on other publications of the movement. In contrast to most other publications in Spain (although not El Socialista), only a handful of anarchist papers contained adverts.²¹ Pictures were also rare, and usually only appeared in special or commemorative issues, such as those published on the anniversaries of executions of martyrs.²² These were drawn from a relatively small pool of images, often repeating pictures used in previous years and/or other publications.²³ Drawings and photographs were clearly popular with readers, and many publishing groups made larger orders to their printers for issues containing images to cope with the expected increased demand.²⁴

Although several attempts to establish an anarchist daily were made between 1890 and 1915, all proved too costly to maintain. Most anarchist periodicals aspired to a regular weekly, fortnightly or monthly output.²⁵ In practice, most were much more erratic, which meant that they were often published days, weeks or months after the events they reported on took place. ‘Breaking news’ was occasio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Charts
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 With Words, With Writings and With Deeds: Anarchist Print Culture, 1890–1915
• 2 More Workers’ Blood!: Anarchism and Violence, 1890–1898
• 3 The Cult of Reason: Anarchism and Education, 1899–1906
• 4 Our Love of Organisation: Anarchism and Syndicalism, 1907–1915
• Conclusion
• Index