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The May Days of 1937, sometimes also called May Events, refer to a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 were a period of civil violence in Catalonia, when factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged each other in street battles in various parts of Catalonia, and centered on the city of Barcelona, in the context of the Spanish Civil War. In these events the supporters of the Spanish Revolution were outmanoeuvred by the recently expropriated bourgeoisie, represented by the Comintern-affiliated P.S.U.C. (United Socialist Party of Catalonia) and Catalan nationalists. It would, however lead to the latter surrendering Catalan autonomy to the central government, a major factor in the collapse of the front before the Nationalist invasion the following year. It was a major turning point in the confrontation between the interests of foreign capital, especially Britain and France, supported by the Soviet Union, and the Spanish Revolution, which had been the fatal faultline in the Spanish Republic. All these powers were essentially hedging their bets with regard to fascism, as none wanted to take on Germany and Italy directly. For Stalin especially, the Spanish conflict was a holding pattern to be prolonged until the fascists threatened the British Empire directly. His popular front policy, of courting 'progressive bourgeois parties' in stark contrast to the 'class against class' position of the nineteen twenties, was threatened by events in Spain, which had been sliding inexorably into all out class war for thirty years, with regular spontaneous insurrections. Most Spaniards lived on the brink of starvation and were tired of waiting for reform, the coup had been preceded by a wave of land expropriations and general strikes. The impotence of the popular front government, and the revolt of the military, had removed any basis for legitimate authority and a profound social revolution was in full swing, with workers and peasants spontaneously organising themselves according to the principles of libertarian communism. The Soviets were determined to prevent this at all costs, so they began by engineering a coup against the working class in Catalonia. Their immediate objective was to de-stabilise the Socialist government of Largo Caballero, who was regarded by his followers as the 'Spanish Lenin', using the right wing of his own party against him. They had chosen as his successor the right-wing social democrat finance minister Juan Negrin, who was much more in tune with Russian foreign policy. This would allow them to eliminate dissident (i.e. non-Comintern) Marxists from positions of responsibility, and as a bonus end Catalan autonomy, the better to attack the anarchosyndicalists. “Long before the first shot was discharged in Barcelona, English and French cruisers were hurrying toward the port as if they had a prophetic presentiment of the things to come. If one takes all this into consideration, one asks oneself how much faith in the triumph of the anti-Fascist cause still exists among those people who invoke foreign protection against the workers of their own country?" - Diego Abad De Santillan, Solidaridad Obrera, May 13, 1937. == Background == Having defeated the military rebellion in Barcelona in July 1936, the workers' militias controlled the city, and with it all of Catalonia. Most belonged to the National Confederation of Labour, and/or the Iberian Anarchist Federation CNT-FAI. Just after taking the last rebelling barracks, the C.N.T. liaison committee met with the President of the Generalitat Lluis Companys, and as result of this meeting the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia was established, the de facto government of Barcelona and Catalonia consisting of representatives of the unions, and parties from the Front d'Esquerres (the name of the Popular Front in Catalonia). The Generalitat existed in name only, propped up by the workers' committees. At that time the Confederation had approximately two million members, the socialist union UGT about half as many and the Communist party a few thousand, nevertheless these groups were given equal representation, in the interests of 'democratic collaboration' (Diego Abad de Santillan) in recognition of the part they had played in the battle, and their influence in the rest of Spain - also in France, which was viewed as an important potential ally against fascism. The central government was powerless to oppose the revolution that was taking place in Catalonia. Within the first two weeks the militia columns had conquered half of Aragon where they established libertarian (anarchist) communism, working closely with the Aragonese peasantry, as they lacked the ammunition and other supplies to proceed any further. The Barcelona arms industries were collectivized, but bank loans to these industries were denied by the Madrid Government, under the influence of the Communists, who feared the libertarian movement above all. In October the Committee dissolved itself and its members became councilors of the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. But the Patrullas de Control (Control Patrols, drawn from the unions, maintained order. ( The C.N.T. made up half the personnel, but had only four of the eleven section delegates, the remainder being Communist and Esquerra (Catalan left) given the anarchists disdain for supervisory roles. The climate of distrust and confrontation was present not only among republican institutions and workers organizations, but even between these organizations, especially among anarchists, on the one hand, and Socialists, Communists and Catalan nationalists on the other. On the one hand the communist PCE and PSUC, following the official doctrine of the Soviet Union, as well as being supporters of the bourgeois order of the Second Spanish Republic. The PCE PCE was the major communist party in the country while the PSUC was the main communist organization in Catalonia. At the other extreme, in radical opposition to Stalin, the dissident Marxist POUM; who believed, like the anarchists, that war and social revolution were inseparable. This being the chief motivation for those actually doing the fighting, the overwhelming majority of whom were trade unionists and/or had been members of libertarian organisations before the war. 〔Hugh Thomas, p.700〕 The tension was rising due a chain of events taking place during the winter that heated the political climate and paved the way for what would take place later. The PCE had taken a decision to liquidate the POUM during a conference with Comintern officials and Soviet agents in Valencia. During that conference the POUM leaders were accused of being Nazi agents, part of a plot devised by Leon Trotsky, who was alleged to be conspiring with the fascists to overthrow Stalin - supported by the 'evidence' of the show trials of the leaders of the Russian Revolution that had taken place in Moscow the previous year. The POUM had come to propose an invitation to Trotsky to reside in Catalonia, despite their differences with him. The POUM leaders were becoming increasingly wary as they moved to the spring of 1937. Tension in the streets of Barcelona was becoming evident of the arrival of a hot spring: uncontrollable Civil Guards and Soviet agents continued to arbitrarily arrest and murder Confederals. Josep Tarradellas, on the other hand, wished to recover his own party's monopoly on violence and finish with the Patrullas de Control.〔Hugh Thomas, p.703〕 When on March 26, Tarradellas banned members of the police from having political affiliation and, at the same time, demanded to all the political organizations to hand over their weapons, anarchists withdrew from the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The open crisis forced Companys to give in to these demands and anarchists retained their weapons and the Control Patrols remained in place.〔Hugh Thomas, p.704〕 On April 25 a force of Carabineros under the Pro-Stalin Finance Minister, Juan Negrín, took over the customs house at Puigcerdà on the French border 〔Hugh Thomas, p.705〕 killing the anarchist mayor, Antonio Martin, and three of his comrades. After this, the violence flared up along the entire border, the CNT, determined to maintain antifascist unity, reacted to these provocations with disciplined restraint, confining themselves to self-defence. In Barcelona began the fear of an outbreak of open warfare between anarchists and the POUM on one side, and the government and the communists on the other. Each side formed weapon caches and fortified their buildings in secret, fearing rivals attacking first.〔Hugh Thomas, p.706〕 The tense calm continued for one week. May Day, which was traditionally a day of celebration, was spent in silence, as the UGT and CNT agreed to suspend the parades, which inevitably would have caused riots.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「May Days」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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