Federica
Montseny
was
born in Madrid, Spain,
on 12th February, 1905. Her parents were the co-editors of the anarchists
journal, La Revista Blanca (1898-1905).
In 1912 the family returned to Catalonia and farmed land just outside
Barcelona. Later they established a
company that specialized in publishing libertarian literature.
Montseny joined the anarchist
labour union, National Confederation of Trabajo
(CNT). As well as working in the family publishing business she contributed
articles to anarchist journals such as Solidaridad
Obrera, Tierra y Libertad
and Nueva Senda. In her writings
Montseny called for women's emancipation in Spain.
In 1921 Miguel
Primo de Rivera banned the CNT. It now became an underground organization
and in 1927 Montseny joined the Federación
Anarquista Ibérica (FAI).
The
Antifascist Militias Committee
was set up in Barcelona on 24th July
1936. The
committee immediately sent Buenaventura
Durruti and 3,000 Anarchists
to Aragón in an attempt to take
the Nationalist held Saragossa. At the same time Montseny
established another anarchist militia, the Tierra
y Libertad (Land and Liberty).
In
the first few weeks of the Spanish Civil War
an estimated 100,000 men joined Anarcho-Syndicalists
militias. Anarchists also established the Iron
Column, many of whose 3,000 members were former prisoners. In
Guadalajara, Cipriano
Mera, leader
of the CNT construction workers in Madrid,
formed the Rosal Column.
In November 1936 Francisco
Largo Caballero appointed
Montseny as Minister of Health. In doing so, she became the first
woman in Spanish history to be a cabinet minister. Over the next few
months Montseny accomplished a series of reforms that included the
introduction of sex education, family planning and the legalization
of abortion.
During
the Spanish Civil War the National
Confederation of Trabajo (CNT), the Federación
Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) and the Worker's
Party (POUM) played an important role in running Barcelona.
This brought them into conflict with other left-wing groups in the
city including the Union General de Trabajadores
(UGT), the Catalan Socialist Party (PSUC)
and the Communist Party (PCE).
On the 3rd May 1937, Rodriguez
Salas, the Chief of Police, ordered the Civil
Guard and the Assault Guard to take
over the Telephone Exchange, which had been operated by the CNT since
the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
Members of the CNT in the Telephone Exchange were armed and refused
to give up the building. Members of the CNT,
FAI and POUM became
convinced that this was the start of an attack on them by the UGT,
PSUC and the PCE
and that night barricades were built all over the city.
Fighting broke out on the
4th May. Later that day the anarchist
ministers, Federica Montseny and Juan
Garcia Oliver, arrived in Barcelona and attempted to negotiate
a ceasefire. When this proved to be unsuccessful, Juan
Negrin, Vicente
Uribe and Jesus Hernández
called on Francisco
Largo Caballero to
use government troops to takeover the city. Largo Caballero also came
under pressure from Luis Companys, the
leader of the PSUC, not to take this action, fearing that this would
breach Catalan autonomy.
On 6th May death squads
assassinated a number of prominent anarchists in their homes. The
following day over 6,000 Assault Guards
arrived from Valencia and gradually took
control of Barcelona. It is estimated
that about 400 people were killed during what became known as the
May Riots.
These events in Barcelona
severely damaged the Popular Front government.
Communist members of the Cabinet were highly critical of the way Francisco
Largo Caballero handled
the May Riots. President Manuel
Azaña agreed
and on 17th May he asked Juan Negrin to
form a new government. Montseny,
along with other anarchist ministers, Juan
Garcia Oliver, Juan López and
Juan Peiró now resigned from the
government.
Negrin's government
now attempted to bring the Anarchist
Brigades under
the control of the Republican Army. At first
the Anarcho-Syndicalists
resisted and attempted
to retain hegemony over their units. This proved impossible when the
government made the decision to only pay and supply militias that
subjected themselves to unified command and structure.
Negrin also
began appointing members of the Communist
Party (PCE) to important military and civilian
posts. This included Marcelino Fernandez, a communist, to head the
Carabineros. Communists were also given control of propaganda, finance
and foreign affairs. The socialist, Luis
Araquistain, described Negrin's government as the "most cynical
and despotic in Spanish history."
At the end of the Spanish
Civil War Montseny fled to France. She
now led the National Confederation of Trabajo
(CNT) in exile until her arrest in 1942. She was imprisoned in Perigueux
and Limoges during the Second World War and
was not released until the liberation of France in 1944.
Montseny moved to Toulouse
where she published the anarchist newspaper, L'Espoir.
Unlike most other exiles, she decided not to return home after the
death of General Francisco
Franco
and the re-introduction
of democracy in Spain. Federica
Montseny died
in 1994.
(1)
Frederica
Montseny, speech while Minister of Health (1937)
Prostitution
presents a moral, economic and social problem that cannot be resolved
juridically. Prostitution will come to an end when sexual relations
are liberalized; when Christian and bourgeois morality is transformed;
when women have professions and social opportunities to secure their
livelihood and that of their children; when society is set up in such
a way that no one remains excluded; when society can be organized
to secure life and rights for all human beings.
(2)
Frederica
Montseny, article in La Revista Blanca about the use of violence
during the Spanish
Civil War
(30th July 1937)
We
have confirmed something we only knew in theory, namely that revolution,
in which uncontrolled and uncontrollable forces operate imperiously,
is blind and destructive, grandiose and cruel. How much is wrecked
in the heat of the struggle and in the blind fury of the storm. Men
are as we have always known them, neither better nor worse from the
hearts of rogues there springs a latent honesty, from the depths of
honest men there emerges a brutish appetite - a thirst for extermination,
a desire for blood.
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