Republican soldiers in the Battle of Irún in Gipuzkoa (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
Ninety years ago a far right coup led by the military attempted to overthrow Spain’s republican government.
In response, workers took up arms, fought and began to see the possibility of a new society.
General Francisco Franco expected a swift victory, but the heroic resistance of workers and peasants prevented this.
The coup became a catalyst for a three-year long civil war that ignited the hopes and fears of millions of people.
The war ended in April 1939, but not before Franco waged a war of extermination against the left, the poor and the working class.
The civil war was not simply a struggle between the forces of democracy and fascism, as it’s sometimes portrayed—and the victory of Franco was not inevitable.
Resistance raised the possibility of a radical, revolutionary transformation of society.
The coup came about after years of conflict, inequality and instability in Spain.
Following the collapse of the monarchy, the Second Republic was proclaimed in 1931.
Initially run by a coalition of middle-class republicans and socialists, the state promised a programme of reforms.
These included land redistribution, some improvements to workers’ rights and limitations on the influence of the army and the Catholic Church.
These raised the hopes of peasants and workers. But they also sparked ferocious opposition from the right.
Spain’s ruling class—industrialists, landowners, army officials and Church authorities—feared that any reforms threatened their privileges.
So, the few reforms that were implemented were only partly put into place, leaving peasants and workers frustrated.
By 1933, the contradictions in the republican-socialist coalition had consumed it.
The right came to power and attempted to roll back the reforms won for working people.
But workers’ militancy rose in response. This culminated in an insurrectionary movement in October 1934. Armed workers seize power for two weeks in Asturias and Catalonia declared itself an independent Republic. The uprising in Asturias was crushed with force. And the Spanish state remained deeply divided.
The elections of February 1936 heightened tensions. The Popular Front—a coalition of republican, communist and socialist parties—won narrowly.
Although the coalition was reformist rather than revolutionary, conservative forces feared the possibility of radical change.
And workers didn’t wait, they celebrated the election by striking, occupying land and demanding the immediate implementation of promised reforms.
Sections of the ruling class concluded that military intervention was needed to preserve their power.
Senior generals, including Franco, prepared plans to overthrow the Republican government by force.
The objective was not simply to replace the government, but to eliminate organised labour, suppress the left and restore traditional authority.
The conspirators expected the Republican government to collapse quickly.
They believed that the army’s organisation, with support from conservative elites, would secure rapid control over the country.
Fascist organisations also contributed to the atmosphere of violence, carrying out attacks on trade unionists and political opponents.
When the coup began in July 1936, Franco was commanding Spain’s elite Army of Africa in Spanish controlled Morocco.
With assistance from Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, aircraft transported his troops to the Spanish mainland. This foreign support proved essential.
But the military leaders had underestimated the determination of the working class. Workers responded to the coup with mass resistance.
A militia made up of an anarchist women in Barcelona (Photo: WikipediaCommons)
In many cities, particularly Barcelona and Madrid, trade unions organised general strikes while workers stormed military barracks to seize weapons.
The National Confederation of Labour (CNT), Spain’s largest anarchist trade union, played a leading role in organising resistance.
Workers built barricades, formed militias and fought against the rebels.
Their efforts defeated the coup in most major cities creating an extraordinary political situation.
Where the Republican state had collapsed, workers effectively assumed responsibility for running society.
Committees of workers organised the distribution of food, healthcare and transport.
Factories were taken over by workers, while agricultural labourers collectivised the land.
The revolutionary changes were perhaps most clearly on display in Catalonia.
George Orwell, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, rushed to Spain in December 1936 to take up arms arms against the fascists. He was radicalised to the revolutionary left by his experiences.
He later wrote, “Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flags of the anarchists.
“Every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties.”
This wasn’t simply romanticism on Orwell’s part.
Rail worker and trade unionist, Narciso Julian, said of the transformation of Barcelona, “It was incredible, the proof in practice of what one knows in history. The power and the strength of the masses when they take to the streets.”
Women came to the fore, winning significant rights.
Rosa Vega, who was in Barcelona, described life in the city at the time. “Never once was I molested or made aware that I was a woman.
“Before the war there would have been remarks of one kind or another—now that was entirely gone.
“Women were no longer objects, they were human beings on the same level as men.”
This demonstrated that resistance to the coup involved more than defending parliamentary democracy. The struggle was an opportunity to transform society from the bottom up.
The coup unintentionally sparked one of the largest social revolutions in 20th century Europe.
Though the coup failed to achieve its immediate aims, the Spanish state was split between territory controlled by Franco’s forces and areas remaining loyal to the Republic.
This transformed the coup into a prolonged civil war. And despite their shared opposition to Franco, deep disagreements existed between anti-fascists.
The Popular Front government aimed to defend the Republic and maintain support from middle-class republicans and foreign democracies.
The Stalinist leaders of the Communist Party argued that revolutionary measures should be postponed until after victory in the civil war.
On the other hand, revolutionary socialists and anarchists believed that defeating fascism required deepening the social revolution.
They argued that workers, collectivised industries and militias provided the strongest basis for defeating Franco.
The Stalinist position divided and weakened the Republican side.
Despite being against states of any kind, the anarchist CNT eventually joined both the Catalan and Republican governments.
Even the revolutionary socialist POUM took part in government, believing cooperation was necessary to maintain anti-fascist unity.
Conflicts between communists, anarchists and revolutionary socialists culminated in the May Days of 1937 in Barcelona, when Republican forces suppressed revolutionary organisations instead of concentrating on defeating Franco.
These struggles reduced morale and undermined workers’ organisations. And as revolutionary institutions were dismantled, many social gains achieved were reversed.
International involvement also significantly influenced the outcome of the conflict.
Britain and France officially promoted a policy of non‑intervention. Germany and Italy supplied Franco with aircraft, weapons and troops.
Their assistance enabled Franco’s forces to maintain military superiority.
The Soviet Union became the Republics’ principal supplier of military aid. But this support came with political conditions.
Soviet influence strengthened the Communist Party, which increasingly promoted centralisation and opposed many revolutionary measures.
Control over arms gave Communist leaders considerable influence within the Republican government.
Disagreements over military strategy became closely connected to wider political debates about the future of the revolution.
So, while the coup failed in the short term, Franco eventually achieved victory in 1939.
And the consequences were disastrous.
He would rule the Spanish state as an authoritarian dictator until 1975. Political parties and trade unions were banned, thousands of political opponents were executed or imprisoned and hundreds of thousands fled.
The Catholic Church regained much of its former influence, while many of the advances made by women during the revolution disappeared under Franco’s authoritarian rule.
Yet, in the aftermath of the coup, and the revolutionary reaction to it, there had been a glimpse of an alternative.
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