Goals and Means: Anarchism, Syndicalism, and Internationalism in the Origins of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica

“Essential reading for anyone interested in the wider roots and antecedents of international syndicalism and anarchism.” —David Welch, author of Propaganda, Power and Persuasion: From the First World War to WikiLeaks

Goals and Means investigates the relationship between revolutionary syndicalism and anarchism in Spain from the founding of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in 1910 to the Second Republic in 1931. Garner explores Spanish anarcho-syndicalism’s unique characteristics while placing its development within global events and the wider international syndicalist movement. Anarcho-syndicalism is a hybrid of revolutionary syndicalism in which the anarchist goal—the triumph of the social revolution and the implantation of libertarian socialism—would be achieved by syndicalism’s tactical means. Working outside statist and collaborationist political structures did not, however, mean abandoning political strategy. The Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) was formed in 1927 and quickly sought to ensure a role for anarchism within the syndicalist union. The development of anarcho-syndicalism—and the tensions it spawned within the larger socialist movement—has much to teach us today as we chart our own future.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1. Revolutionary Syndicalism before 1917
The First International and the Birth of the Anarchist Movement
The First International in Spain
Division, Wilderness and Violence – Propaganda of the Deed

2. The Early Years of the CNT: Germination
The Formation of the CNT
The London International Syndicalist Congress, September 1913
Anarchist Internationalism before the First World War
The El Ferrol International Congress of Peace, 1915
Working-Class Unity: Revolutionary Syndicalism and ReformistSocialism

3. Revolutionary Politics and Revolutionary Syndicalism
Initial Reaction to the Bolshevik Revolution
The Delegation to the Second Comintern Congress
The Delegation to the Inaugural Profintern Congress
Separated by an Ideological and Tactical Chasm

4. An Independent Revolutionary Syndicalist International
Revolutionary Syndicalist Internationalism following the LondonCongress, 1913
The Formation of the New IWMA
Reaction to the IWMA within the CNT

5. Early Conflicts between Anarchism and Syndicalism
Anarchist Reaction to the Rise and Demise of the CNT, 1918–1922
The International Anarchist Congresses of 1921 and 1923
The Madrid National Anarchist Congress, 1923
The Growth in Anarchist Activity in the Unions in 1923

6. Ideological Conflict in the First Years of the Dictatorship
The International Dispute between the Catalan CRT and the Argentine FORA
Ideological Conflicts in Catalonia
Anarchists against the MOA
Syndicalist Shortcomings Exposed

7. Exile in France: International Solidarity and National Disunity
Libertarian Exiles in France before November 1924
Organising in Exile: The FGALEF and the Cuadros Sindicales
International Contacts

8. Anarchist Organisation and Syndicalist Overreaction
The Proposed Iberian Syndicalist Confederation
The Creation of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica
FAI Collaboration in the Reorganisation of the CNT
The FAI’s International Policy
Angel Pestaña and the Professionalisation of the CNT
Return to Legality – The 1930 Relaunch of the CNT

Conclusion

Endnotes

Index