Hello and welcome to the history page. Our examination of Spain’s Second
Republic has brought us to the dark moment when, in November of 1933,
the country’s extreme right gained a majority of seats in parliament. In
view of the fact that numerous factions of the Spanish right were
monarchical fascists who publicly debunked the concept of republican
government, their presence in parliament was little more than a charade,
albeit effective enough in it’s dismantling of the recent liberal
reforms. Indeed, as we shall see, the participation of certain
reactionary parties (e.g. CEDA and FE de la JONS) in the
republican law-making process was undertaken purely as means to ‘undo
the damage’ wrought during the Reformist Biennium.
One
instance of fascist thought, scathingly expressed by José Antonio Primo
de Rivera (son of the former dictator), and defined parliamentary
procedure with these words: “that farce of ballots introduced in a glass
urn (…) when the noblest fate of any urn is to be broken.” Likewise,
José Antonio (habitually referred to by his first name to distinguish
him from his father) considered the entire democratic system to be
“bureaucratic, hypocritical and inoperative”, and ridiculed politicians
for wasting their time “wading through paperwork, spreading electoral
propaganda, dozing off in the seats of Congress, adulating voters,
tolerating their impertinence only for the sake of their votes; bearing
humiliation and vexation from those who, owing precisely to the nearly
divine function of governing, should instead obey [the ruler].”
Here, at least, was one politician who did not mince his words. José
Antonio’s paramilitary activities eventually led to his execution in the
early months of the Civil War, after which time he was referred to by
his followers as “The Absent One”.
But
we are getting ahead of ourselves. Our first task this week is to
determine why, after two years of steady progress in the direction of
social justice, the liberal factions of the Republic lost the backing of
the electorate. For, at this juncture, the government changeover
involved no treachery or foul play. The conservatives were voted into
office as fairly and squarely as the liberals had been before them.
Azaña’s Downfall
The
primary factor in the withdrawal of voter support for Azaña’s liberal
coalition (comprised of republicans, socialists and a few communists)
was a rash of anarchist insurgence that erupted in the beginning of
1933. As we have observed in pervious instalments, despite the many
agrarian reforms instituted at the legislative level, in actual
practice, conditions remained as dismal as ever for the great majority
of field labourers. Impatient for real change, small groups of
anarchists in Catalonia, Levant and Andalusia rose up in protest. One
insurrection in particular, ‘The Tragedy of Casas Viejas’ turned large
portions of public opinion against Azaña. Obviously, the right wing was
already opposed to the Reformist Biennium; it was the increasing
opposition from within the ranks of the left wing that delivered the
death blow to all that Azaña and his ministers had worked to build up.
Casas Viejas
Casas Viejas was a village in Cadiz, located within a large latifundium.
Because the owner of the estate allowed only one third of the arable
land to be cultivated, some 500 peasants were reduced to joblessness and
hunger season after season. On 11th January 1933, the country
folk took matters into their own hands and proclaimed a state of
libertarian communism. The takeover was utterly pacifistic and none of
the local oligarchy was hurt, outraged, no doubt, but unharmed. Although
the mayor surrendered peacefully, the guardia civil refused to
accept the situation and telegraphed to the nearest village for
reinforcements. It was not until these arrived that the situation became
violent. Some of the insurgents fled and others holed up while the
guardia civil registered the village, house by house, for arms. In
one of the houses lived an aging anarchist who refused to open the door,
whereupon an all-night crossfire broke out between the refugees and the
law. At dawn, the guardia burnt down the house, killing those who
remained inside. The captain of the reinforcement brigade then ordered
the execution of fourteen prisoners who had been taken from other
houses.
The
political implications of Casas Viejas were enormous. Faith in the new
regime plummeted as people began to fear that the repressive forces of
State were as ruthless as in the days of the monarchy. It was widely
felt that, given the small, isolated, almost naïve nature of the
uprising, the situation could have been dealt with much less brutality,
possibly even without the loss of life. Despite the government’s
punitive measures against the officials responsible for the massacre,
confidence in the Azaña administration fell steadily over the following
months. In September 1933, Azaña was ousted from office and general
elections were called for 19th November.
New Parties Coalesce
In
the months after the Casas Viejas incident, the Spanish right moved
quickly into high gear. During the course of 1933, three new
conservative parties were formed, all of which would significantly alter
the course of the times, either through direct participation in
parliament or, like the Falangist party, through paramilitary
activities. It is not my intention to delve too deeply into the
political manoeuvrings of the Republic, although a brief rundown of the
three new parties is crucial to understanding how the right suddenly
gained ascendancy over the left.
Monarchists
Renovación Española was founded in
February 1933 by monarchists who advocated the reinstatement of Alfonso
XIII. The party’s platform rested on the defence of large landowners
(the grandees) as well as the upper spheres of the bourgeoisie that were
linked to the Crown. One of its stellar members, José Calvo Sotelo,
former Minister of Internal Revenue during the monarchy, had fled the
country when the Republic was proclaimed, but returned in 1934 when the
new conservative government granted amnesty to all political enemies of
the Republic. Although he was a staunch monarchist, Calvo Sotelo also
sympathized with the fascist movement, both within Spain and abroad. His
assassination in July 1936 marked the start of the Civil War.
Catholics
Far
and away, the most influential party in the Black Biennium was CEDA
(Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rightists). Founded in March
1933, its leader, José María Gil Robles, was the lawyer of the Jesuit
order, a job he eventually combined with his post as Minister of War
(1935-36). CEDA operated in conjunction with the Catholic
newspaper, El Debate, for which reason its propaganda base
reached broad sectors of the population. Gil Robles was basically
unconcerned with whether the Spanish government assumed the form of a
monarchy or a republic. What mattered to him was that the interests of
the Church, and the traditional morals which it upheld, should be
safeguarded against the progressive secularization of State. This
‘political non-definition’ enabled CEDA to capture votes from numerous
quarters, including monarchists, landowners and the common man.
Fascists
The
fascists of Spain organized under the banner of the Falangist party,
founded by José Antonio in October 1933. We have already divulged a few
titbits of his ideological doctrine, to which we can add that he did
not, in fact, believe in political parties at all as he felt them to be
“just a lot of liberal talk”. Instead, he upheld “natural
units, the family, the, the municipality, and the [labour]
corporation”. Opposed as equally to capitalism as he was to socialism
and Marxism (which he dismissed as too international), his great ideal
was national-syndicalism, a system whereby all antagonistic interests
within society would be mediated by a paternalist government. Like
Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany, José Antonio advocated a highly
centralized State, governed by a single leader, and based on the
principles of authority, discipline and strict social hierarchy, in a
word: totalitarianism.
The
Falangist party was made up primarily of students from the most
conservative ranks of the urban middle-class. Like the brown-shirts in
Germany and the black-shirts in Italy, Spanish Falangists banded into
paramilitary assault groups, and wore blue shirts when patrolling the
streets. Another common ground shared with German Nazism and Italian
Fascism was a reductionist view of history in which the authority of
State rested on past splendour. José Antonio held Castile to be the
crown of Spanish civilization, culture and language, and, like his
father before him, rejected any type of autonomy (cultural, political,
linguistic or otherwise) on the part of the peripheral regions despite
his own - Andalusian origin.
Closing
Although we could go on forever analyzing the fascist movements of the
1930s, we will bring our instalment to a close for today. Join us next
week as we go on to explore the popular backlash against the new
government’s policies, manifested most clearly in the Revolution of
October (1934). Until then, have a good week. |