Ethel
MacDonald
was
born in Scotland. She became
Secretary of the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Movement in Glasgow.
In 1936 MacDonald went to Spain and during
the Spanish
Civil War became a radio announcer at the headquarters of the
National
Confederation of Trabajo (CNT).
MacDonald took
part in the May
Riots and
was imprisoned by the Republican authorities in Barcelona.
She was released after representations from the British Consul. She
returned to Glasgow
where she worked
on the Anarchist newspaper, The
Word. She later remarked: "I went to Spain full of
hopes and dreams. It promised the Utopia realised. I return full of
sadness, dulled by the tragedy I have seen."
(1)
Ethel MacDonald, News From Spain (1937)
There
is no doubt that the magnificent struggle of the Spanish workers challenges
the entire theory and historical interpretation of parliamentary socialism.
The civil war is a living proof of the futility and worthlessness
of parliamentary democracy as a medium of social
change. It clearly demonstrates that there is but one way, the way
of direct action. And that but one class can make the change - the
working class. Social democracy has lived too long. It is said Spain
has
killed it. And now it is merely necessary that the corrupted body
be burned.
The struggle in Spain
is maintained by the Anarchists and without the Anarchists the war
would have been lost for the workers before this. And it is because
of this fact that the Socialists, and those who call themselves Socialists,
refuse to have anything to do with the Spanish Revolution. It is true
that those persons organise collections for the poor children of Madrid
who have lost their parents as the result of barbarous bombardments,
and it is true that those persons are collecting clothes and food
and dispatching them to Madrid. But that is all. The Spanish conflict
is regarded as a case for charity, something on the same footing as
the poor of the Salvation Army. This is typical of the social democrats.
It exposes them clearly as petty bourgeoisie with hearts that beat
warmly for the poor starving children of Madrid. But speak to them
about the revolution and they gooseflesh all over. To them revolution
is illegal and unlawful, and as good law abiding citizens and subjects,
they refuse to have any association with it. That is the treachery
that is perpetrated on the working-class by those individuals
and parties. They claim to be socialists and with that label attached
to them they seduce the working-class.
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