An Eyewitness Account of an Egalitarian Local Assembly meeting in 1937 Revolutionary Spain
This is what genuine democracy looks like
Below is an eyewitness account, by Gaston Leval, of a local assembly meeting in the rural village of Tamarite de Litera, in the province of Huesca, in the Aragon region of Spain during the Spanish Revolution (1936-9). Egalitarian ideas (known as anarchist ideas in Spain at this time) essentially the same as what I advocate were implemented as people saw fit throughout about half of Spain. This description of a local assembly meeting is excerpted from Leval's 365 page book, Collectives in the Spanish Revolution, published by Freedom Press, London, 1975.
"Collective" and "individualist" are two words used frequently in this local assembly. "Collective" is the word that the Spanish people used for what I now calls a "sharing economy." "Individualist" is the word that the Spanish people used to refer to people who did not wish to belong to the collective. Of note, "individualists" were not hostile to the egalitarian revolution; they were not fascists who hoped General Franco would succeed in crushing the revolution and restoring the large land owners and big capitalists back to power, and they were not large land owners or big capitalists, all of whom had fled from the village of Tamarite de Litera and would, no doubt, not have been welcomed at the local assembly meeting. Read more about this revolution here and here.
Excerpt (pg. 207-213]:
The pregonero (public crier) presents himself at the cross roads, in the square and at the busiest corners of the village. He blows three times on his small horn with which he always announces his presence, then in a slow, light tenor voice which, for some reason I do not know, is used by all pregoneros in Aragon, he reads, clipping the words and sentences somewhat at random, from a paper on which is written that the members of the Collective are invited by the administrative Commission to attend the general assembly which will take place that same evening at 9 o'clock.
At 9:30 p.m. the local cinema is half full. At 10 p.m. it is packed. there are about 600 people including some 100 women and girls and a few children.
While waiting for the opening of the meeting, everybody is talking without shouting in spite of the expansive temperament of the inhabitants of that region. In the end the secretary of the Collective mounts the platform alone. silence falls and the secretary immediately proposes the adoption of necessary arrangements:
"We must," he says, "nominate a secretariat for the meeting."​
Immediately one of those present asks to speak "on a point of order."
"There are some individualists in the hall. they are enemies of the Collective. They have no business being here, we must turn them out. What's more, it is imperative that women should remain silent during the discussion, otherwise they will have to be removed as well."​
Some of those present seem to be in agreement with the double proposal; others clearly have doubts. The secretary replies that in his opinion the individualists should be allowed to remain and even take part in the discussions. "We have nothing to hide and it is by seeing how we act that they will end by being convinced." As to the talkative women--they are peasant women who had never attended such discussions before and who also have a right to speak--they will surely keep quiet and there will be no need to have recourse to such extreme measures. The assembly approves and the individualists remain.​
Then the secretariat is nominated, consisting of comrades who are elected in turn. then the chairman speaks. He is, naturally, one of the most active militants, and one of the best informed on the problems included in the agenda. He starts by dealing exhaustively with the reason for the Commission calling this extraordinary assembly. Though intelligent, he is no speaker, but makes a great effort to express himself with the utmost clarity, and succeeds.
First question: Four comrades on the Commission must be replaced because they are not carrying out their tasks satisfactorily, not through any bad will on their part, but because they lack the necessary background. Furthermore, there is a certain amount of discontent with the delegate dealing with food supplies. He is very able but has a difficult personality and his manner is too brusque, which results in unpleasant confrontations, particularly in inter-regional relations; it would perhaps be better if in future he dealt with the barter arrangements with more distant regions where individual contacts are not so important. The delegate for industry and commerce could look after distribution at the local level, and the relations which this involves with members of the Collective.
The assembly accepts, without unnecessary discussion, the changes recommended and nominates successors. Then the delegate for food supplies has his duties limited in one direction and extended in another.
Another question which is on the agenda: A fairly large group of members of the Collective have just recently withdrawn from it to return to individualist activities. But the Collective which has taken over non-agricultural local production possesses all the bakehouses for breadmaking and the individualists' group claims one.​
Faces are serious, concentrated, tense. Women make their comments without raising their voices. AÂ collectivist has the floor:
"We must lend them a bakehouse for a fortnight or a month to give them time to build one for themselves."
"No," replies another, "they should have remained with us. since they have left us, let them get on with it!"
A third declares that there are already too many bakehouses in the village and one must not build any more. many other members expressed themselves with that economy of words which is a characteristic of the Aragonese peasants. When nobody else wishes to speak then the chairman expresses his opinion.
In the first place there is the problem of the smooth running of the economy. To construct another bakehouse is to waste material needed for other uses; it will in due course involve an expense for wood and electricity, which must be avoided, for the repercussions of bad management do not rebound only on the individualists but also on the whole national economy. Now, we must show that we can do better than the capitalists. This is why, instead of increasing the number of bakehouses being used we must even reduce them. Let us therefore make the bread for ourselves and for the individualists. But they will supply us with the amount of flour required to make the amount of bread they need and there will be the same quality of bread for all of us. Besides, we must not refuse bread to the individualists for, in spite of their error they must be in a position to eat, and in a situation in which the present roles were to be reversed, we would be happy if our adversaries did not prevent the collectivists from feeding themselves.​
The chairman has convinced the assembly, which, following the comments of some collectivists, approves without dissentients.
The next question concerns the pros and cons of rationing bread. The high family wages [these are wages determined by the size and needs of the worker's family, not by the number of hours worked or the type of work--editor] paid by by the Collective allows them to buy large quantities, which encourages some abuse, and even sometimes inequalities which the Revolution cannot permit. Consequently it is necessary to establish a top limit for consumption to ensure that every family can obtain the quantities it needs but without there being waste.
The assembly accepts rationing, but then a juridical problem is posed: who will apply the measures decided upon, the municipal Council or the Collective? The former covers the whole population; the individualists who represent an eighth, and the Collectivists. If the municipal Council takes charge, rationing will have to be established for everybody. If it's the Collective, the individualists will not consider themselves obliged to respect it. many views are put forward which allow for an assessment of the powers of the two organisations. And it is decided to ask that the municipal Council undertake the task. If it does not accept, the Collective will--at least within the limits of its possibilities.
But the withdrawal of the individualists has posed another problem. many of them have left their old parents on the hands of the Collective, while at the same time setting themselves up on the land which formerly belonged to the old folk they have now abandoned. Those dispossessed have been taken care of by the Collective because they are old and unable to work, but the behaviour of those individualists is unacceptable. What action can be taken?​
The chairman, who has outlined the dispute, makes it quite clear from the start that there is no question of expelling the old folk. In any event they will be assisted, but their children must take back their parents or forfeit their land. such is his opinion.
A number of members of the assembly take part in an orderly manner throughout. One suggests that the irresponsible sons should be deprived of half their harvest. Another repeats that it would be a shame to oblige these old folk to leave the Collective: anything must be considered but that. They return to the suggestion made by the chairman: either the individualists take their parents to live with them or they will have no land and solidarity of any kind will be withheld from them. The moral issue is uppermost. The proposal is approved.
Every time a solution is approved and before another is taken up, the assembly comments, giving free expression to its thoughts. Nevertheless the general conversation is not noisy, and barely lasts a minutes.
Now the question to be discussed concerns the potteries which in normal times were a source of revenue as they supplied many villages in the region and even some small towns with jugs, porous water coolers and contaros (earthenware pitchers). They also manufactured tiles and bricks there. But as there was a shortage of manpower in the fields because of the mobilisation for the front, the potters were sent there and abandoned the potteries; others too were at the front. Thus production had fallen off sharply. What should be done?
One man suggests that the potters should work a ten hour day instead of eight; another that one should increase the manpower in the potteries; a solution supported by a third speaker who adds that they should try to bring in skilled men from other regions. He also suggests that the tile factory which had been closed as a result of the current situation, should be reopened.
He is given the reply that we are in a war situation and that one can do very well without tiles. Laughter from the assembly, which approves, and as someone asks why cannot the skilled workers produce this year as much as in the previous year, the secretary of the Collective, a former mayor and who is well informed on these matters, explains that before many cantons obtained their supplies from Huesca and since this town is now in Francoist hands, they get their supplies from Tamarite. One must get the potters to return to their craft and in addition we must put an appeal in our Press for skilled workers from other regions to come and live here. Proposal accepted.
They have come to the end of the agenda, and move on to "any other business". One of the members points out that in Tamarite there is an alpagatero (a canvas shoe maker) who is good at his job. One could organise a workshop where the women could go and work instead of wasting their time gossiping in the street. The women laugh, but the proposal is accepted. A man of between 50 and 60 points out that the little girls of the village are not serious, since they prefer to go out instead of going to work in the workshop specially set up the them to learn dressmaking. As a solution to the problem he suggests that a good dressmaker be selected with the task of training them, but that classes should be held in a church without windows.
The door would be bolted, and the little girls not allowed out during the working hours. Everybody laughs, the parties concerned more than the others.​
Many collectivists express their view in turn, and it is decided that in every workshop a woman delegate shall supervise the apprentices. Those who do not attend on two consecutive occasions without good cause will be dismissed. But the man who would have them kept under lock and key was implacable; he suggests quite seriously, or so it seemed, that to punish them when their work was unsatisfactory the young girls should be made to fast for two or three days. To that there is a general roar of laughter.
New problem: The nomination of a new hospital director (and we learn that the director is a woman, which is fairly unusual). This hospital has been converted into an Old People's Home, but they are now being treated at home by a doctor who joined the Collective and the cantonal hospital is at their disposal for allurgent cases or serious illnesses. This again poses a problem of jurisdiction. It is a general hospital. It is a question of ascertaining whether or not it comes under the municipal Council reconstituted following the publication of the decree emanating from the Valencia government. [Note: the government of the Republic of Spain, located now in Valencia, was composed on anti-fascists, including pro-capitalists and pro-Stalinists who opposed the Collectives; failure to break completely free from the control of these anti-egalitarian forces was a major, arguably fatal, weakness of the egalitarian revolution.--editor] If it does, the hospital is everybody's responsibility, collectivists and individualists, and the latter must also share in the expenses. So far the Collective have paid everything, and its enemies have take [sic] advantage of its bounty. A matter for further study.​
Following the examination of questions of less importance the chairman closes the session. The assembly has lasted 2 1/2 hours. Most of those who took part were peasants from the village or its environs, accustomed to rise early, and who at that time of the year had worked twelve or fourteen hours.​
Yet no one left before the end of the discussions, not even those who had remained standing as there were not enough seats to go round. No woman or child had gone to sleep. Eyes had remained wide open, and faces as wide awake. One read on them, at the end, as much, often amused, interest as one had observed at the beginning. And the chairman, at the same time paternal, fraternal, and the teacher, had to insist to prevent a much longer agenda.
The final resolution adopted concerned the frequency of assemblies which from being held monthly were to take place weekly.
And the collectivists made their different ways home to bed commenting on the discussions and resolutions adopted as they went. Some lived a fair distance away and travelled either on foot or on bicycles.
End of excerpt
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