May Days (Barcelona, 1937)
1937년 바르셀로나 5월 사건
Street fighting between forces of the Republican camp in Catalonia, centred on Barcelona, from 3 to 8 May 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. When the Catalan government's police tried to take over the Telefónica exchange held by the CNT, the CNT, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) and the POUM fought on one side, and the Catalan and Republican governments, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and the Communist Party on the other. Hundreds were killed; afterwards Largo Caballero's government fell and the POUM was outlawed.
In depth
Background
After the military rising of July 1936 failed in Barcelona, Catalonia was controlled by workers' militias of the CNT-FAI and the UGT, and industry was collectivised. The Central Committee of Antifascist Militias served as the de facto government until it dissolved itself in October, but the "Control Patrols", in which the CNT-FAI held a relative majority, carried on independently. The Communist Party of Spain and the PSUC, following the official Soviet line, wanted to separate war and revolution and defend the Republic; the anti-Stalinist POUM and the anarchists held that the revolution must be pressed forward during the war. In spring 1937 tension rose with the communist campaign against the POUM, the Catalan government's attempt to unify the security forces, and armed clashes at Puigcerdà in April.
The fighting
On 3 May the Catalan public-order chief Eusebio Rodríguez Salas led 200 police to take over the Telefónica building on the Plaça de Catalunya, which was legally occupied by an anarcho-syndicalist committee under the Generalitat's own collectivisation decree. The workers saw this as a provocation and opened fire, and barricades went up across the city. Radical anarchists such as the Friends of Durruti and the POUM backed the resistance, while the CNT ministers called for a ceasefire. By 8 May the streets had returned to normal. The contemporary press estimated 500 dead and 1,000 injured, but the death toll is still disputed.
Consequences
The events showed that the anarchist movement no longer spoke with one voice. The Republican government took over public order in Catalonia and the Generalitat lost its powers. Largo Caballero's government fell, its four anarchist ministers left, and Juan Negrín became prime minister. On 16 June the POUM was outlawed and its leaders, including Andreu Nin, were arrested (Nin was later murdered). It was a clear victory for Marxist-Leninist, that is communist, influence in the Republican camp. George Orwell, who lived through the events as a POUM militiaman, described them at length in Homage to Catalonia.