1. Introduction

In his essay, Caplan decides to expose the secret statist nature of the Spanish Anarchist movement. He states that "many discussions of the Spanish Civil War overlook, minimize, or apologize for the atrocious behavior and tyrannical aspirations of perhaps the most powerful faction of Spanish Republicans: the Anarchist movement."

It is, of course, true that some anarchists in Spain did act in atrocious ways and in non- (even anti-) anarchist ways. However, things are quite different from what Caplan claims in many cases. This rebuttal will indicate where Caplan's biases lie and show how they undermine the objectivity of the evidence he selects and presents. In so doing, I shall indicate that Caplan's "analysis" is lacking and that his thesis is wrong in all its major conclusions.

I shall make points in line with his headings and will concentrate on the parts with which I disagree and present evidence that disproves his claims. This means that many of his statements are apparently "ignored," but only in the sense we do not wish to quote extensively just to state "we agree with this." Like all myths, Caplan's "analysis" does contain elements of truth. However, as will be proved, in the end his case falls apart in light of all the facts.

In producing this critique of Caplan's work, I was reminded of the following words by Albert Meltzer:

"The fact is that Liberal-Democracy seldom voices any arguments against Anarchism as such -- other than relying on prejudice -- because its objections are purely authoritarian and unmask the innate Statism and authoritarianism of liberalism. Nowadays conservatives like to appropriate the name "libertarianism" to describe themselves as if they were more receptive to freedom than socialists. But their libertarianism is confined to keeping the State out of interfering in their business affairs. Once anarchism makes it plain that it is possible to have both social justice and to dispense with the State they are shown in their true colours. Their arguments against State socialism and Communism may sound 'libertarian', but their arguments against Anarchism reveal that they are essentially authoritarian. That is why they prefer to rely upon innuendo, slanders, and false reporting, which is part of the establishment anti-anarchism, faithfully supported by the media." [_Anarchism: Arguments for and against_]

Unfortunately, Caplan's work proves his point. I hope to prove that Caplan's wrote is mostly false reporting, based upon selective presentation of evidence in order to paint a radically false picture of the Spanish Anarchist movement. In this I think that Caplan is more motivated by ideology than by objectivity. For example, when discussing the activities of Spanish Anarchists he constantly takes those anarchists who act in non-libertarian ways as "typical" and so ignores the vast majority who did stick to their principles - for example, he seems to consider that the few anarchists who committed assassinations after July 19th, 1936, as more typical of Spanish Anarchism than the many others who did not commit murders. This in itself suggests that his "case" is somewhat lacking, but I suppose its easier to concentrate on the few who "make the headlines" than the majority who spent their time creating collectives, at the front or spent their time educating others about the need for freedom and cooperation and what anarchism is.

Also, before going on, I will state here that I oppose the CNTs decision to collaborate with the government against the greater evil of fascism. I agree with the vast majority of anarchist writers on this subject that the first and greatest mistake of the spanish anarchist movement was the mistaken belief that they could work with one side of capitalism (the democratic state) against another (fascism). As the history of the compromise proves, the struggle against fascism is best achieved by also fighting the system that created it (capitalism). The real alternative facing the CNT-FAI was not "the war or the revolution" but "revolutionary war or defeat".

Finally, I dedicate this to all individuals who desire a free society and who do not blind themselves with ideology when looking at the past or at the present. Liberty requires a mind free from ideology and so with the ability to think for itself.

2. History and the Spanish Anarchists

A. The Militants and Terror

Caplan starts with the following: "In July of 1936, officers throughout Spain tried to orchestrate a coup detat against the Republican government. In Catalonia, Aragon, and other areas, Anarchist militants defeated the military uprisings. Finding themselves more powerful than the regional governments and possibly the central government, the Spanish Anarchists seized the moment to implement some radical changes in those regions of Spain where they had a large following.

"One of these radical changes was to beginning large-scale murders of people believed to be supporters of the Nationalists. In most cases, these supporters had taken no specific action to assist the Nationalist rebellion; they were singled out for their beliefs, or what people guessed their beliefs were."

Firstly, the statement that the anarchist militants "implemented" the radical change of "large-scale murders" of Nationalists is somewhat loaded (to say the least). This suggests that the CNT-FAI policy was "implemented" at this time and nothing could be further from the truth. It is commonly agreed by historians that the wave of assassinations that occured in the three months after the uprising was "at bottom a spontaneous movement, corresponding to the necessities of a revolutionary war, where the enemy within may be as dangerous as the enemy outside." [Gerald Brenan, _The Spanish Labyrinth_, p. 318] As we note later, all the libertarian organisations officially opposed assassinations and acted to stop them. Therefore to say that one of the "radical changes" that "Anarchist militants" introduced was "large-scale murder" is simply false. Yes, *some* anarchist militants took part in assassinations, the vast majority did not. Notice how Caplan takes the few as "typical", not the majority.

It should also be pointed out here that the use of the words "large-scale murders" does not present a fair picture of the level of the killings. In Burnett Bolloten's book, _The Grand Camouflage_, page 41, Diego Abad de Santillan is quoted as saying:

"It is possible our victory resulted in the death by violence of four or five thousand inhabitants of Catalonia who were listed as rightists and were linked to political or ecclesiastical reaction."

Given that the population of Catalonia was nearly 3 million in 1936, a figure of 5 000 deaths hardly amounts to "large-scale" murder by any means. Perhaps he meant that it was 5 000 too many, in which case I would agree - the assassination of unarmed individuals is not a libertarian act, even in the face of a fascist coup. However, Caplan's use of the expression does present a certain mental image to the reader, as intended. However, to see whether this picture is true or not, it is important understanding in what context and *why* these murders took place otherwise a distinctly *false* image will be created. As we will prove, these murders occured mostly as acts of revenge by individuals and small groups and as a result of the total breakdown of 'law and order'.

Perhaps, to get a better picture of the context of the wave of assassinations in Catalonia, we should contrast what occured there with the events in Zaragoza. Zaragoza, in Aragon, was a CNT stronghold. The town had 20 000 CNT members. Unlike the CNT in Barcelona, the CNT believed the words of the Popular Front government and did not arm themselves by direct action. The solid general strike by the CNT failed and the fascists used the city's Bull rings to organise the murder of 3 000 anti-fascists, mostly CNT members. Franco's regime was backed by capitalists inside and outside Spain.

In other words, the forces supported by capitalists murdered almost as many people *in one town* as the armed population did in the whole of Catalonia. After Franco won the civil war, he murdered tens of thousands more (probably hundreds of thousands) and produced a nation into which capitalists happily invested. As capitalists have discovered across the world, terror is an effective means of ensuring high profits and employer power.

Caplan then quotes Oliver and De Santillan about these murders in which they indicate that they were the result of arming an oppressed population. He then states that "De Santillan's comment typifies the Spanish Anarchists' attitude toward his movement's act of murder of several thousand people for their political views: it is a mere 'natural phenomenon,' nothing to feel guilty over." However, as noted, De Santillan is pointing out the facts of what happened. Is he to "feel guility" for actions which members of his organisation commited and which he had no power to stop? As one historian points out "Barcelona was convulsed by a wave of random killings" by "execution gangs" some of whom had links to political and union organisations. [Benjamin Martin, _The Agony of Modernization_, p. 385] According to one eye-witness "The libertarians controlled all the most important 'secretariats' -- but in reality power lay still in the streets." [_Blood of Spain_, p. 143] Another states that "There was a deep, very deep wave of popular fury as a result of the military uprising which followed on so many years of oppression and provocation." [Op. Cit.,p . 151]

In other words, after years of violent repression by the state and capitalists, in the face of a military uprising, backed by these same elements, which aimed to create a fascist state, many people, *some* of whom were members of libertarian organisations, took the "law" into their own hands. This accurately sums up the nature of the murders - essentially revenge killings by small groups and individuals, some of whom were members of the anarchist movement. Caplan, however, ignores this fact and instead suggests that the CNT-FAI organised these deaths ("his movement's act of murder") while in fact they occured outside of anyones control.

To quote a Basque Nationalist, a Republican and a Catholic on the nature of the terror in Republican Spain:

"Blood, a great deal of innocent blood was shed on both sides. . . But the most radical difference as far as the Republican zone was concerned -- which does not justify, but at least explains, the excesses -- lies in the very fact of the [military] insurrection. The army, almost the entire secret police, the administration of justice, whatever police forces there were, whose duty it was to maintain order, revolted, leaving the legal government defendless. The latter was compelled to arm the people, the jails were opened to release friendly political prisoners, and the common-law criminals who came out with them acted on their own account. Furthermore, with the stirring up of the lower depths of society, the malefactors that exist in every city, in every nation, came to the surface, and found an easy field for their work. . .Is it surprising that during the first days of the revolt these uncontrolled elements dispensed justice in a rude and elementary fashion, the justice of men who had suffered and had been molded in an atmosphere of hatred? All this does not justify the crimes committed in the Republican zone, but it readily explains them." [_The Spanish Civil War_, p. 53]

In other words, the anarchists can hardly be blamed for the fascist coup and the social breakdown which occured after it, nor for the actions during that time of individual CNT and FAI members acting on their own initiative.

Caplan goes on to claim that "Political belief was not the only kind of heterodoxy which the Spanish Anarchists refused to tolerate." This is a strange statement, since members of the UGT, republicans, socialists and communists were not singled out for repression. The shootings were often motivated by revenge or were murders of supporters of the fascist coup i.e. those who desired to create a totalitarian regime in Spain like those in Italy and Germany. The Spanish Anarchists were well aware what their fate would have been if the coup had succeeded. Given this obvious fact, we can state that Caplan's claim of lack of tolerance for political opinions on the part of the Spanish Anarchist movement is simply false.In other words, Caplan's statement is hardly an accurate account of the situation.

The main reason for the many revenge killings can be traced to the many years of capitalist repression of the working class that had preceded the revolution, a period during which bosses and factory owners had routinely hired gunmen, _pistoleros_, to assassinate labour leaders and break strikes by the most brutal methods (see below). It's hardly surprising that those who had family members or close friends killed by the ruling class seized the opportunity to settle old scores. Reading Caplan, one would have no inkling of this reason for the killings. This leads us to suspect that Caplan's purpose in this essay is to make the anarchists look as bad as possible, hiding the facts where necessary.

And we must note that the CNT-FAI as organisations opposed the wave of revenge killings and acted to stop them. According to _Blood of Spain_ [page 149] "leading CNT militants, like Joan Peiro, fulminated openly against such actions" and "both the CNT and FAI issued statements categorically condemning assassinations" The FAI stated: "we must put an end to these excesses." "Anyone proven to have infringed people's rights would be shot -- a threat which was carried out when some anarcho-syndicalist militants were executed."

Another example is the following statement issued by the FAI on July 30th:

"We declare coldly, with terrible calm and with full intention to act, that if the irresponsible people who are spreading terror throughout Barcelona do not stop, we will shoot every individual who is proven to have acted against the rights of the people. Every individual so charged by the CNT or FAI will be tried before a commission composed of elements of the anti-fascist front. And Barcelona knows, and Spain and the entire world know, that the men of the FAI never fail to carry out their promises." [Quoted in Gomez Casas' _Anarchist Organisation : The history of the FAI_, p. 190]

And let's not forget that Fraser states that "it should be noted that in Barcelona and elsewhere the FAI was automatically blamed for assassinations and crimes" [p. 148] Seems like Caplan is following in this tradition.

Caplan then goes on to blame the CNT and FAI for *every* act of repression against the Church, ignoring the fact that attacks on the Church had occurred during every previous popular revolt in Spain. In other words, the Church was not a well-liked institution, because it took the side of the ruling class, and people took advantage of every opportunity to destroy it. This can be seen from the fact that "Protestant churches were not attacked" [Hugh Thomas, _The Spanish Civil War_, p. 269f] and suggest, rather than a result of anarchist anti-religious feeling, the repression against the church was a popular wave of protest against the reactionary nature of the Catholic church and its support for state and capitalist oppression, exploitation and repression against the working class (as Frazer notes, "From the preceding period of absolutism, the church provided the ideological categories to justify the repression+ and intolerance necessary to maintain the system" p. 525). Of course, *some* anarchists did take part in church burning but to claim that anarchists were responsible for the majority of such acts cannot be proved either way (and, of course, many anarchists opposed the firing of churchs and the assassinations of priests).

After stating, without evidence, that "it is clear that Anarchist militants were at the vanguard of the murder squads on the Republican side" he continues and asks:

"In any case, whether the murders were centrally ordered, completely decentralized, or (as is most likely) somewhere in between, what difference does it make?"

In other words, are the CNT-FAI to be blamed for all the actions its members did (even the ones which they had no power to stop)? Caplan obviously thinks the answer is yes. Thus he states: "Does it matter if the widespread Nazi attacks on Jews known as the Kristallnacht were centrally organized or 'spontaneous'? No; if an ideology categorizes many people as sub-human, urging ever greater brutality, and recommending restraint only when it is tactically convenient, it is perfectly reasonable to castigate the entire movement centering around that ideology, whether that movement be Nazism or Spanish anarchism."

Did Spanish Anarchism categorise members of the ruling class as "sub-human"? No, they were described as exploiters and oppressors, a description that even a cursory examination of the history of Spanish capitalism would reveal to be quite accurate. Caplan then states that "[i]t is quite clear that the rhetoric of the Spanish anarchists focused on crushing the enemies of the workers by any means necessary; making sure that the rights of innocent people who happened to despise everything Anarchism stood for was simply not on their agenda." And he quotes Fraser's interview of Juan Moreno, a CNT day-laborer:

"We hated the bourgeoisie, they treated us like animals. They were our worst enemies. When we looked at them we thought we were looking at the devil himself. And they thought the same of us."

Does the fact that the bourgeoisie treated workers "like animals" merit comment by Caplan? No, it does not. Does he mention that part of treating the workers "like animals" involved a twenty-year reign of terror in which labour leaders were routinely beaten up and brutally murdered? No, not a word. Does he criticize the capitalists for hating the workers just as much as the workers hated them? No. Obviously, capitalists categorising and treating workers as animals is okay, while workers' having the same attitude toward capitalists is evil and wrong. In Caplan's view, the workers' hatred toward their masters was created solely by "Anarchist ideology." Could it be, however, that in reality it was the capitalist *system,* defended by Caplan, which created a class of people whose authority resulted in other people being "treated like animals," and that these others, strangely enough, resented their treatment and hated their oppressors? Reading Caplan one gets the impression that such a result is perfectly natural and so unworthy of comment.

And did the *capitalists* in Spain "make sure of the rights of innocent people" who happened to be anarchists? Not at all. Anarchists were rounded up by the fascists, undoubtably identified with the help of bosses. Again, one searches in vain for any mention of the years of repression directed against the anarchist movement as an explanation for the revenge killings. One wonders, for example, why Caplan does not quote Ronald Fraser's _Blood of Spain_, a work with which he is familiar:

"After the economic boom of the First World War and increasing proletarian militancy, Catalan employers confronted lean times by attempting to crush the anarcho-syndicalist movement in Barcelona. The crushing took the form of creating 'yellow' unions and. . .the hiring of gunmen to assassinate CNT leaders." [p. 547]

Where was the concern for "individual rights" then? Perhaps the assassinations after July 19th were a case of reaping what had been sown? If you treat people like animals, oppress them, hate them, it can hardly be unsurprising that they settle the score when they get the chance? Needless to say, Caplan ignores the extensive evidence of anarchists protecting "class enemies," particularly ones that treated their workers fairly and as human beings.

Also, we must note, Caplan ignores the bloody and violent repression directed against the miners revolt in north-west Spain in 1934, headed by General Franco. This resultes in 1500-2000 dead, many of the deaths occuring after the end of the fighting. And, indeed, the violent repression directed against CNT organised insurrections and strikes all through the 1930s and before.

So, quite possibly, being treated like an animal and seeing one's fellow CNT members assassinated by capitalists would have had a serious impact on how one viewed the bourgeoisie. However, class hatred only seems to matter when it's members of the working class who do the hating.

Caplan sums up by stating that "In short, it is perfectly just to impugn the Anarchist movement as a whole for the numerous atrocities of its members, because these actions flowed logically from the central ideas of the movement rather than their misinterpretation by extreme fringe groups." In other words, capitalist murder and repression does not matter, it is the reaction to it by anarchists and workers that that counts. Their violence shows that the blame really lies with "Anarchist ideology," which Caplan apparently believes should have conditioned workers to accept their oppression with patient resignation. How very "objective!"

Therefore, given the picture of the social context of the murders that occured in the Republican zone after July 19th, Caplan's "conclusion" can be seen to be totally wrong. It is *not* "perfectly just" to impugn the anarchist movement for the reactions of some of its members to years of oppression, beatings and assassinations by the supporters of capitalism. In addition, as indicated, the CNT-FAI acted to stop assassinations and murders. Caplan, in order to make his "case" must distort history. Few, except die-hard anti-anarchists, could take his case seriously.

B. The Leaders and Collaboration

Caplan next states that "public records concerning the Anarchist leadership's record of collaboration with the central and regional governments throughout Spain provides ample documentation of a long series of abuses and betrayals of what good principles the Anarchist movement held dear."

This is very true. However the reason for these abuses and betrayals is not mentioned. This handily creates an impression that the CNT-FAI were just "secret statists" all along. Unfortunately for Caplan, this is not the case, as the overwhelming reason for the long series of abuses and betrayals is the fact that a fascist coup had occurred and there was a need to stop it. It is hardly surprising that many in the CNT and FAI considered fascism to be a serious threat. Caplan's failure to mention this little fact suggests that the threat posed by fascism does not weight very heavily in his mind. In this he follows those many capitalists, both in and outside of Spain, who supported fascism.

He then presents the discredited claim that the FAI acted like a dictatorship and controlled the CNT. This claim was started by the dissident treintista CNT members when they were replaced by the more radical anarchists in union elections (see _Anarchist Organisation: The History of the FAI_). If the FAI members *did* "impose their decisions. . ." against the wishes of the CNT membership, then why was the CNT a mass organisation? And why did only 35,000 workers join the treintista union split? The simple fact is that the more radical anarchists and syndicalists convinced their fellow workers of their ideas and they elected them to union positions.

He goes to to say that "[w]hile the CNT and especially the FAI repeatedly condemned political participation before the Civil War, it was extraordinarily easy to induce CNT leaders to accept ministerial positions in the central government." Could the war against fascism and the need for weapons and support for industry not have something to do with it? It's very true that power corrupts, even anarchists, and this can be seen from the desire of many "anarchists" to join any government after the initial compromises had been made.

Caplan correctly quotes Bolloten when the later notes that "Not only did this decision [to join the government] represent a complete negation of the basic tenets of Anarchism, shaking the whole structure of libertarian theory to the core, but, in violation of democratic principle, it had been taken without consulting the rank and file." Again, all the anarchists who have written on this subject have argued the same point. The rank and file should have been fully consulted. However, and this point is important, the fact that the rank and file did not oppose the decision says that the decision was not at odds with desires of the CNT membership. This is confirmed by the fact the rank and file agreed to return to work and leave the streets during the May Days when asked to by the CNT leadership and by the fact that a sizable minority of anarchists opposed collaboration and activity put its ideas across to the rest of the CNT membership. For example, "Ruta, the mouthpiece of the Libertarian Youth of Catalonia, had been opposed to the CNT's collaborationism since November 1936" [Agustin Guillamon, _The Friends of Durruti Group: 1937-1937_, p. 43] and the Friends of Durruti themselves held well attended public meetings during the Spring of 1937 in Barcelona. Neither, after the May Days, could the CNT leadership expell the Friends of Durruti because they "never could get that measure ratified by any assembly of unions" [op. cit., p. 61]. And, again, I must add these other examples of the CNT decision making process during the Civil War:

"At a conference of local unions in Barcelona, the leadership sought and obtained the support of the unions to continue to collaborate with the government of Catalonia after the May Days. However, the unions refused to withhold financial support for the Libertarian Youth, who opposed the policy of collaboration vigorously in their publications. And the unions also refused to call upon the transit workers not to distribute these opposition publications in the public transit system, or the milk drivers to stop distributing the Libertarian Youth papers together with the daily milk.

And then I saw a Libertarian Youth conference which was prepared to vote almost unanimously to condemn without debate the policy of government collaboration. However, the chairman insisted that supporters of collaboration be given a chance to speak and be heard. I saw six young men go to the platform and argue earnestly and eloquently for their viewpoint. There were no interruptions, no booing. The vote remained almost unanimous in favour of opposing collaboration."

[Abe Bluestein, introduction to _Anarchist Organisation : The History of the F.A.I._]

Therefore, Caplan is correct to state that the decision to join the government was made within consulting the rank and file (particularly at the front, where the majority of militant anarchists actually where) but the decisions were reached at various local and national plenums, plenums (as I noted above) which could not have forced unions to go along with decisions they opposed. Therefore, to state that the rank and file were not consulted is correct (they should have been) but the fact is that if the majority of union members had not supported that decision then the decision would not have been allowed to happen. Obviously the majority of the CNT supported the policy of collaboration against the greater evil of fascism, as can be seen from the support the CNT leadership continued to have and the failure of the union assemblies to expell the Friends of Durruti or withhold financial support to the Libertarian Youth.

So, yes, Caplan is correct to state that the rank and file was not consulted, but he is wrong to leave it at that. The various union, collective, militia, etc. assemblies and plenums (distorted as they were due to the circumstances of the war) provided a voice for the rank and file, a rank and file who were subject to arguments against collaboration by a significant minority of anarchists. Strangely enough, the rank and file seemed to have viewed collaboration in the government as a necessary evil in order to win the war and were not convinced by the anarchist minority within their ranks who disagreed with that policy. Perhaps Periats sums up the process best when he writes that "[c]ertainly, circumstances required quick decisions from the organisation, and it was necessary to take precautions to prevent damaging leaks. These necessities tempted the committees to abandon the federalist procedures of the organisation." [Jose Periats, _Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution_, p. 188] Periats criticism's of the CNT (like most anarchist writters) are far more critical than Caplan's, and also (unlike his) place these criticism's in the context of the civil war.

Caplan continues: "Anarchists were even more eager to assume governmental powers in Catalonia, where they were strong enough to overshadow the regional Catalonia government, the Generalitat. Rather than officially enter the Catalonian government, the Anarchists chose to retain the Generalitat as a legal cover; but real power shifted into the hands of the Anarchist-controlled Central Anti-Fascist Militia Committee. . .It should be further noted that these Anarchist-run councils and committees were not mild-mannered minimal states, maintaining order while allowing the workers to organize themselves as they pleased. They were modern states, concerning themselves with the economy, education, propaganda, transportation, and virtually everything else."

Unfortunately, this hypothesis fails to explain how the creation of the collectives occurred outside the control of the Militia Committee. Thus, the Committee *did* leave workers to organise themselves -- that is, education, transportation and so on were organised by the workers involved. As for propaganda, the CNT and FAI had its own presses and radio stations. In other words, while the Militia Committee did "intervene" in the economy, the reorganisation of that economy was going on beyond its control. It also seems strange to think that this body, set up to organise resistance to the fascist coup, should *not* have taken a "pro-active" stance. Perhaps Caplan thinks that market forces would have organised, armed, and fed the militias after the total social breakdown from July 19th?

He then writes:

"The Anarchists' position in both the central government and in Catalonia slowly but surely declined after their entered into coalition governments with the other anti-Franco factions."

In other words, the CNT was powerless in the face of political parties who considered defeating the revolution to be more important than defeating fascism. And if the CNT was secretly totalitarian and as powerful as Caplan implies, why did it join these coalitions as a minority? It's pretty clear that for a "totalitarian" organization, the CNT acted in a strange ways, joining with other political parties, unions, and so on as a minority, and as a result, to see whatever position it had decline.

Next, Caplan states the obvious: "While the members of the CNT who held positions in the Catalonian government kept trying to reach an understanding with their fellow ministers, the rank and file Anarchists seem to have become increasingly alienated from their leaders." He then maintains that "A raid on the Anarchist-controlled telephone company brought these feelings to the surface. (The non-Anarchists' objected to the Anarchists' use of wiretaps to listen in on important conversations.) The CNT ministers merely demanded the removal of the main people responsible for the raid; but hundreds of the rank-and-file Anarchists responded with rage, setting up barricades."

Where to start? Firstly, the telephone company was run under workers' control by a joint CNT-UGT committee. The non-Anarchists objected to workers listening in on important conversations within the government. Personally, I prefer the "open government" this implies. Or should the governed not listen in on such conversations?

Caplan then notes, correctly, that "The Anarchist leadership was. . . out of step with the rank-and-file; they urged the militants to stop the fighting. Their requests were not heeded." But he does not mention that before "reinforcements from the central government arrived and firmly placed power into the hands of the Generalitat," the workers of the CNT did leave the barricades and go back to work. The reinforcements arrived after "the city was almost back to normal" [Fraser, p. 382]. Which raises the question: *why* did the CNT workers follow their leaders? The fact that they did seems to indicate some support for them, in spite of the numerous compromises. Given the pressing need for unity against the Fascists, we can understand why the rank and file of the CNT returned to work - we may not agree with it, but we can understand it. Therefore, it can be stated that support for the CNT and FAI was still strong within the Catalan working class, inspite of the actions of the union's leadership.

After discussing the communist repression against the anarchists, Caplan states that "Even though many Anarchists eventually realized that the defeat of Franco would lead to the establishment of a Soviet satellite state, they kept fighting. Clearly the Anarchists' opposition to the Nationalists dwarfed their distaste for Leninist totalitarianism."

The "Nationalists," it should be noted, were the fascists. Simply put, if the fascists did win, what was left of the CNT militia would have been disarmed (not to mention murdered, Franco's regime killed hundreds of thousands of anti-nationalists during and after the war). At least by fighting on the Republican side, they would still have had arms at the end. Obviously this consideration meant that their opposition to fascist totalitarianism (which was what "the Nationalists" represented) dwarfed their "distaste" for the Leninist form.

Caplan then discusses the negotiations between the "new clandestine secretary general of the CNT, Jose Leiva, in Madrid, with the Falange, stating that "This was the Anarchism of the CNT: an Anarchism which not only allied with the Communist totalitarians, but attempted to strike a deal with the Fascist totalitarians six years after the end of the civil war." As if the great majority of CNT militants who came back to Spain to re-organise the CNT and try to assassinate Franco would have agreed with this activity! Simply put, Caplan's suggestion that this negotiation reflects the anarchism of the CNT is utter nonsense, unworthy of an objective historian (and typical, I may add, to his continual tendency to take the actions of a minority of anarchists are "typical" while remaining silence about the majority). However, as indicated, Caplan is anything *but* objective. (Nor, may I add, does Caplan denounce the many capitalists who supported Franco and invested in Spain once his regime had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of trade unionists, anarchists, socialists, etc. Obviously capitalists making deals with fascism is perfectly acceptable, which indicates that *real* capitalists are more than happy to support fascism if the returns are high enough -- "convinced of where its real interests lay, international capital subscribed to the nationalist war effort in no uncertain manner" Frazer, p. 279).

Of course, there are many examples of right-libertarians supporting the Fascist totalitarians in Pinochet's Chile, with which we could make similar criticisms about the "anarchism" of "anarcho" capitalism. However, there are plenty of other areas in "anarcho"-capitalist theory and practice that show up its claim to be anarchistic to be utterly false.

C. The Urban Collectives

Here Caplan discusses the CNT urban collectives, starting with the CNT policy of closing down many small plants. "What is odd," he writes, "is that in the midst of massive unemployment the Anarchists closed down a large percentage of the remaining firms." Could the reason be, perhaps, that much of the plant which was closed down was unhygenic or unsafe and so on? Obviously, as a supporter of capitalism, Caplan does not regard workers' safety as an issue.

Moving on, Caplan states that "initially, the workers (rather than an Anarchist nomenklatura) usually assumed control over their places of employment. . . . Yet government control quickly followed. In October, the government of Anarchist-dominated Catalonia passed the Collectivization and Workers' Control Decree, which legally recognized many of the de facto collectivizations." We should point out that this government was not anarchist-dominated, and the collectivisation decree was a compromise between the forces represented in that government. However, as both Fraser and Bolloten point out, the decree was often ignored in practice.

Caplan goes on to note anarchist opposition to this decree and to discuss a "loophole" in it. The loophole was that "firms had to pay a percentage of their _profits_. To eliminate the exaction, one merely need eliminate the profits. With worker control, there is a simple way to do this: keep raising wages until the "profits" disappear. Taxes on profits - which is what the Decree amounted to - will raise revenue if the workers and the owners are different people; but with worker control such taxes are simple to evade. Witness after witness reports the abolition of piece-work, better working conditions, lavish non-wage compensation, and so on. This is initially surprising; if the workers run the factory, don't they pay the price of hampering production?"

Of course Caplan obviously puts all these improvements down to the desire of workers not to pay taxes. The idea that better working conditions, the abolition of piece work, etc. came about because the workers did not desire to work in the bad, demeaning conditions imposed by capitalists does not enter his head. Nor, of course, the massive disruption of the Catalan economy by the war does not even factor into Caplan's "thesis" - all the evidence suggests that difficulties in getting raw materials, access to markets, etc. played a key role in the Catalan economy. However, to back his thesis with some evidence Caplan must indicate that profits existed between July and September 1936 (i.e. before the "profits tax" was introduced). However, there is no evidence that states "we had profits until September then there wasn't any." In other words, Caplan's thesis has no basis in fact and the most obvious thesis (namely workers' desired to have decent working conditions and the disruption of the economy caused by the war reducing profits) looks far stronger.

Looking over the results of collectivisation, Caplan states that "[i]n short, after being told that the workers now owned the means of production, the workers often took the statement literally. What is the point of owning the means of production if you can't get rich using them? But of course if some workers get rich, they are unlikely to voluntarily donate their profits to the other members of their class."

The unstated assumption, of course, is that getting rich is the only motivation people have. Perhaps to a capitalist, this premise is "self-evidently" true, but according to the accounts of Augustine Souchy, Gaston Leval, Jose Peirats, and other eyewitnesses, there was a remarkable spirit of cooperation in most of the collectives. It should also be pointed out that if people are "unlikely to voluntarily donate their profits," then the standard "anarcho" capitalist claim that charities will boom in their system does not hold water. But as "anarcho" capitalism is based on telling people what they want to hear, that's hardly surprising.

Caplan goes on to state the following:

"Bolloten repeats a remark of CNT militia leader Ricardo Sanz: "'[T]hings are not going as well as they did in the early days of the [revolutionary] movement... The workers no longer think of workings long hours to help the front. They only think of working as little as possible and getting the highest possible wages.'" Bolloten attributes this decline in enthusiasm to Communist repression, but it is at least as consistent with the simple observation that people often prefer improving their own lot in life to nourishing revolution. "

Or could it be that they had seen the revolution destroyed and so did not care how the war would end? Improving their own lot and nourishing revolution need not be incompatible. As this quote is from after May 1937, it is likely that the communist repression did have an effect on the spirit of the workers in Spain. And, as Caplan documents below, the economy of Catalonia was under great strain because of the war. Hardly surprising if people facing great economic difficulties start to concentrate on their own survival regardless of wider issues.

Editorializing further, Caplan states that "[i]n short, practical experience gradually revealed a basic truth of economics for which theoretical reflection would have sufficed: if the workers take over a factory, they will run it to benefit themselves. A worker-run firm is essentially identical to a capitalist firm in which the workers also happen to be the stockholders. Once they came to this realization, however dimly, the Spanish Anarchists had to either embrace capitalism as the corollary of worker control, or else denounce worker control as the corollary of capitalism. For the most part, they chose the latter course."

This is false. There is no denying that workers will run a workplace for their own benefit. This is obvious. However, this is not the whole story. Could not workers also see the need for cooperation beyond the workplace and support the end of capitalism in their own self-interest? Of course, this was the CNT policy of "socialisation" (as opposed to nationalisation) which Caplan refers to as "call[ing] absolute dictatorship by a different name." But if interworkplace organisation is "absolute dictatorship," then many capitalist firms can also be classed as such. Hence, if democratic union control is "absolute dictatorship," what does that make the anti-democratic capitalist company? Caplan does not ask the question, strangely enough.

And, as should be obvious, a worker-run firm is *not* "essentially identical" to a capitalist firm because in a worker-run firm workers control their own activity themselves. In other words, there is no hierarchical forms of authority within the workplace and so, unlike a capitalist firm, is far more anarchistic. This explains the long standing anarchist support for cooperatives. Of course, as Caplan himself points out, capitalism is *not* the "corollary" of workers control as he argues that wage labour and investors would appear - in other words, capitalism will destroy workers control in favour of control of workers by capitalists. A strange "corollary"!

And I think these words by Proudhon (from _The General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century_) indicate well that a worker-run firm is *not* "essentially identical" to a capitalist one:

Proudhon argues that employees are "subordinated, exploited" and their "permanent condition is one of obedience," a "slave" within a capitalist firm [p. 216] Indeed, capitalist companies "plunder the bodies and souls of wage workers" and they are "an outrage upon human dignity and personality." [p. 218] However, in a co-operative the situation changes and the worker is an "associate" and "forms a part of the producing organisation . . . [and] forms a part of the sovereign power, of which he was before but the subject." [p. 216] Without co-operation and association, "the workers . . . would remain related as subordinates and superiors, and there would ensue two industrial castes of masters and wage-workers, which is repugnant to a free and democratic society." [p. 216]

Therefore, Caplan's claim that the issue of "dividends" is the key to understanding the nature of cooperatives totally misses the point. It seems strange that an self-proclaimed "anarchist" is more concerned about who gets the dividend than about the authority relations within an association. This indicates well that "anarcho"-capitalism is *not* anarchist, its opposition to *archy* is so limited as to be non-existant. As Proudhon, and those anarchists who followed him realised, is that the issue of who runs the workplace is a key one in determining whether a system is socialist or not (along with, I must note, whether there is separate class of owners who get a slice of the workers profits - in other words, whether capitalist exploitation exists). As the collectives had workers control and provided no profits for a capitalist class, then they were most definitely socialistic and not capitalistic.

He quotes Bolloten as follows: "In the opinion of the Anarchosyndicalists, socialization would eliminate the dangers of government control by placing production in the hands of the unions. This was the libertarian conception of socialization, without state intervention, that was to eliminate the wastes of competition and duplication, render possible industrywide planning for both civilian and military needs, and halt the growth of selfish actions among the workers of the more prosperous collectives by using their profits to raise the standard of living in the less favored enterprises."

It should be noted that this policy of socialisation existed *before* the revolution and was based on workers control. Therefore, as "evidence" that the anarchists "denounced" workers control as the problems of collectivisation became clear is hardly convincing. The socialised industries were still organised by workplace assemblies and elected management committees. In other words, socialisation was built and based upon workers control and so Caplan's statement is *false.*

Bolloten's quote indicates that the long standing CNT policy of socialisation called for cooperation between workplaces based on democratic workers control. Caplan then states that "Of course, one could refuse to call a union with such fearsome powers a 'state,' but it would need all of the enforcement apparatus and authority of a state to execute its objectives. The 'more prosperous collectives,' for example, would be unlikely to submit voluntarily to industrywide planning funded by their profits."

If this was the case, then the same problem afflicts the capitalist company (particularly one with multiple workplaces). Why should a workplace submit to the funding of stockholders? Hence capitalism needs an enforcement apparatus and authority of a state, particularly as the workplace is not democratic. So, if socialisation is "absolute dictatorship," so is capitalism (and capitalist firms, unlike collectives, are not democratic internally). We doubt that Caplan would accept such a statement, however.

Caplan then states that the "Nationalists conquered Catalonia before the government made any concerted, official effort to nationalize the workers' factories." However, this is somewhat false as after the May Days, the position of the collectives changed. According to Frazer in _Blood of Spain_, "the PSUC, faced still with a militant CNT working class, attempted rather to centralise the collectives under Generalitat (or PSUC) control from June 1937. . . [they] modified many essential aspects of the collectivisation decree [which the CNT ignored anyway - IM] . . . Such modifications could have paved the way for a later move from centralisation to nationalisation." [p. 578]

Frazer is clear, the Stalinists centralised power away from the collectives into the states hands. Within the workplace, mass assemblies and elected management committees no longer run the workplace nor had a say in any industrial bodies that existed. In other words, Caplan gets the facts wrong and implies a situation within the Catalan economy radically different from the facts. In other wors, the government *had* made official efforts to start the process of nationalisation before the fascists took Catalonia. A process, I may add, which had started well before June 1937 but which the May Days ensured the outcome of.

After highlighting how the state used the lack of cooperation between many collectives to undermine and control the collectives, Caplan states that "The simplest way that the collectives could have avoided dependence on the government would have been to issue debt; in short, to borrow from the general public rather than the government. But undoubtedly the fear of revealing surplus wealth to lend would make such a scheme impossible. Even if their physical safety were not their concern, investors could hardly expect to ever get their money back. The insecurity of property rights thus made it very difficult to borrow from the public, so the collectives mortgaged themselves piece by piece to the government until finally the government rather than the workers owned the means of production."

It should be noted that Caplan acknowledges, implicitly anyway, that capitalism needs a state to propert "property rights." In other words, for capitalism to exist, a state must have have enough power to ensure that workers do not take over and ignore the "rightful owners." Caplan, against his intentions, indicates that capitalism can never be anarchistic. And I should note that in capitalist economies, industry finds about 90% plus of its funds from its own resources (e.g. in the USA, since 1952, internal funds covered 91% of capital expenditures, 96% from 1990) - an option which the collectives, struggling to survive in the difficult situation of the war time economy, had little chance to pursue. The issuing of stock play a minor, almost non-existant, role in generating income for companies. But what stock *does* do is allow a rich minority to control a countries economy and to enrich themselves at the expense of the many (in the words of Doug Henwood, author of _Wall Street_ and editor of _Left Business Observer_, "Stock markets. . . . [are] a way for the very rich as a class to own an economy's productive capital stock as a whole, rather than being tied to the fate of a single firm. . . Stock market's, in Joan Robinson's phrase, are a convenience for rentiers"). So, far from protecting the collectives share issues would have seen the workers (and society) become subject to the wishes of capitalists and workers control would have disappeared.

Caplan also acknowledges the basic anarchist point that cooperation between collectives would have ensured workers' control -- in other words, that the "capitalistic" tendencies Caplan documents ended up in destroying freedom in the economy. In fact, the "simplest way" for the collectives to have survived would have been to socialise and work together. In this way they would have been in a position to determine their own fates instead of being slowly taken over by the state or a new capitalist class.

He notes that "almost all sources indicate that profits were almost non-existence; possibly, as I have indicated, because workers were smart enough to realize that raising their wages and improving working conditions was an easy route to avoid any profits tax." Of course, workers improving their working conditions and raising their wages may have been due to the fact that the capitalists had paid them little for working in bad conditions before the revolution. And it should be noted that all the sources indicate that profits were almost non-existance *before* the decree as well. In other words, Caplan's thesis is based purely on ideology and not on fact.

I should also point out here that Caplan ignores one of the most common complaints within the collectivised economy during this time, namely lack of raw materials and funding. It is hard to produce profits when your workplace does not have enough raw materials to produce goods! However, this fact is ignored by Caplan in favour of his own theory.

Caplan then does discuss the possibilities of socialisation between collectives:

"Even if this could have prevented the collectives from becoming dependent on the central government, the end result would have been to make them dependent on a union so powerful that it would be a state in everything but name."

But investors having property rights do need a state powerful enough to enforce their claims. In other words, even if we take Caplan's claims at face value, he has no option but to support the recreation of the state in order to protect property rights. As for the "powerful" union, that depends on what the workers decided to form. We doubt that cooperation between collectives would have created a "powerful" body above the collectives unless the collectives desired to create such a body (which is unlikely).

Caplan finishes by quoting Albert Perez-Baro, a civil servant and a former CNT member:

"This truly revolutionary measure [the 50 per cent profits tax] - though rarely, if ever, applied - wasn't well received by large numbers of workers, proving, unfortunately, that their understanding of the scope of collectivization was very limited. Only a minority understood that collectivization meant the return to society of what, historically, had been appropriated by the capitalists..."

Notice that Perez-Baro states that the profits tax was rarely, if ever applied. This suggests that the collectivisation policy was not enforced, meaning that workers saw that their "profits" would have been save. However, such profits did not seem to exist even in the face of non-collection! So, I would suggest, that Caplan's "thesis" on the lack of profits is false.

Caplan then states: "In other words, most workers assumed that worker control meant that the workers would actually become the true owners of their workplaces, with all the rights and privileges thereof. Only the elite realized that worker control was merely a euphemism for "social control" which in turn can only mean control by the state (or an Anarchist 'council,' 'committee,' or 'union,' satisfying the standard Weberian definition of the state)."

Funny how a minority of workers becomes "an elite" for Caplan. Could it be that he expects *all* workers to agree with him? Could it not be that many of the CNT membership who agreed to the policy of socialisation at their previous congresses had their own ideas of what workers' control meant and tried to convince their fellow workers of it? Does having a different viewpoint mean you are part of an elite? No, it does not, but Caplan provides the right sort of "atmosphere" for twisting the quote.

So, how did this minority in favour of socialisation act? Did they impose their wishes on the majority by state action? No. Socialisation was not collectivisation and came about through discussion with the unions and workplaces. For example, Fraser notes that the stores were not socialised because the workers did not agree, whereas the woodworkers union did agree to socialisaton because the minority originally in favour of it convinced the rest. Hardly examples of "an elite" running the economy.

Of course few anarchists expect an anarchist society to appear overnight. There will be a period in which left-overs from capitalism co-exist with aspects of anarchism. This is to be expected. However, Caplan by pointing out the obvious (namely that the collectives in Spain were *not* instantly anarchist) just shows the standard "anarcho" capitalist assumption that anarchists expect perfection instantly. Strangely enough this is another aspect of their ideas they share with Marxist-Leninists.

D. Militarization

Caplan starts by noting that "the Anarchist militias resisted it [militarization] vigorously because they took their ideals seriously." However, he then claims that "[i]t did not take long for the Anarchist leadership to decide that military success was more important than the voluntaristic notions of the rank-and-file" and quotes Solidaridad Obrera as being in "favor of the strictest discipline": "'To accept discipline means that the decisions made by comrades assigned to any particular task, whether administrative or military, should be executed without any obstruction in the name of liberty, a liberty that in many cases degenerates into wantonness.'"

Just to place this into context, I would wonder what Caplan would say if the workforce in a capitalist workplace decided to ignore the need for discipline, the need to coordinate join activity, because it was created on a "voluntaristic" notion? Of course, in any joint activity discipline is required and in the context of a militia force at the front line, this is doubly true. Such support for discipline cannot be identified with the hierarchical control of a capitalist workplace or capitalist army, but instead is an attempt to ensure that when a militia attacks that it gets the required support from its neighbours, that weapons arrive on time and so on. George Orwell indicates in Homage to Catalonia the democratic nature of the "discipline" Solidaridad Obrera was recommending:

"At this time [late 1936] and until much later, the Catalan militias were still on the same basis they had been at the beginning of the war. . . until [June 1937]. . . the militia-system remained unchanged. The essential point of the system was social equality. . . In theory at any rate each militia was a democracy and not a hierarchy. It was understood that orders had to obeyed, but it was also to be understood that when you gave an order you gave it as comrade to comrade and not as superior to inferior. There were officers and N.C.O.s, but there was no military rank in the ordinary sense; no titles, no badges, no heel-clicking and saluting. They had attempted to produce within the militias a sort of temporary working model of the classless soceity. Of course there was not perfect equality, but there was a nearer approach to it than I had ever seen or than I would have thought conceiviable in time of war.

"In practice the democratic 'revolutionary' type of discipline is more reliable than might be expected. In a workers' army discipline is theoretically voluntary. It is based on class-loyalty, wheras the discipline of a bourgeois conscript army is based ultimately on fear. . . In the militias the bullying and abuse that go in an ordinary army would never have been tolerated for a moment. The normal military punishments existed, but they were only invoked for very serious offences. When a man refused to obey an order you did not immediately get him punished; you first appealed to him in the name of comradeship. Cynical people with no experience of handling men will say instantly that this would never `work,' but as a matter of fact it does `work' in the long run. The discipline of even the worst drafts of militia visibly improved as time went on. . . `Revolutionary' discipline depends on political conciousness -- on an understanding of *why* orders must be obeyed; it takes time to diffuse this, but it also takes time to drill a man into an automaton on the barrack-sqaure. . . And it is a tribute to the strength of `revolutionary' discipline that the militias stayed in the field at all. For until about June 1937 there was nothing to keep them there, except class loyalty. . . At the beginning the apparent chaos, the general lack of training, the fact that you often had to argue for five minutes before you could get an order obeyed, appaled and infuriated me. I had British Army ideas, and certainly the Spanish militias were very unlike the British Army. But considering the circumstances they were better troops than one had any right to expect." [_Homage to Catalonia_, p. 26]

This indicates that Caplan's attempt to raise the bogey-man of "discipline" is somewhat flawed. Strangely enough, in war, discipline is required. Its a question of whether it is imposed by hierarchy and fear (as in capitalist companies) or by cooperation, argument and equality (as in the anarchist militias and collectives).

Caplan then states that "[w]hile many of the rank-and-file resisted, military discipline swiftly became common in the Anarchist militias." Which, given the context, implies that it was decision to militarise was forced upon the anarchist militia by the anarchist leadership. However, the simple fact is that the militias were agreed to militarise, after intensive debate by the militias themselves, in order to get arms and supplies. The capitalist state used its control of supplies to force the militias to accept army organisation. As Agustin Guillamon puts it in regards to the Iron Column " Repudiation of militarization was debated inside the Iron Column as it was in every other confederal column. In the end, the Column's assembly gave its approval to militarization, since it would otherwise be denied weapons and provisions." [ _The Friends of Durruti Group_, p. 31] These facts are well known and that Caplan ignores them says a lot about his objectivity (later he does note that "[m]ost of the militia columns swiftly fell into line, although it is unclear to what extent this was because they were following the orders of the Anarchist leadership, or enticed by the central government's money and weapons.." while in fact it *is* clear that the decision to militarize was the produce of central government blackmail, *not* "enticement" (which, I must add, is a somewhat unusual way of describing what is obviously blackmail - "you don't militarise, you don't get arms" is not an "enticing" offer and again highlights Caplan's lack of objectivity).

After noting that the anarchist militias resisted the militarization desired by the government, he notes that it "took scarcely two months for the Anarchists to openly advocate conscription - enslaving young men to kill or be killed - so long as the conscripts were forced to risk their lives for the cause of the CNT."

Or to translate into English, to risk their lives fighting fascism. In this connection it's interesting to note that David Friedman (a noted "anarcho" capitalist guru) has presented arguments in favour of conscription in the light of greater dangers to freedom. Thus the CNT cannot be claimed to hold a monopoly of "anarchist" support on conscription. Given the very likely possibility of a fascist victory, many anarchists supported the "lesser" evil of conscription. Caplan, being safe behind a desk, can bemoan "enslaving young men" to fight fascism. Obviously if fascism won, then the greater evil offers less problems -- after all, fascism and capitalism can and do exist happily together.

Now, as far as "the Anarchists" advocating conscription it is worthwhile noting that "[d]uring those first months of the war enlistment was voluntary only. The government made continual mobilizations by decree, but there were on the whole ineffective." [Periats, _Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution_, p. 265] and indeed, even by early 1937 the Catalan government was not enforcing the draft (those who were subject to call-up were asked to go to join union based units and there is little indication that this was based upon force - see Bolloton for details). So, when the CNT was largely control of Catalonia, there was no conscription and the militias were voluntary for over 6 months. Only when the balance of power had started to move towards the newly strengthening state was conscription enforced. And, to place some important context to this issue, let us not forget that in those areas under Franco thousands, probably tens of thousands, of people were being murdered (according to the historian Gabriel Jackson, the fascists murdered 200 000 people *during* the civil war, 200 000 afterwards - _The Spanish Republic and the Civil War: 1931-1939, p. 539). It is only in this context, the desire to end a civil war and stop fascist totalitarians murdering tens of thousands more, can "the Anarchists" support for conscription be understood. It is significant that Caplan does not provide this context - obviously the systematic murder of hundreds of thousands of people is a lesser evil than conscription.

In discussing the Iron Column, Caplan states that "[l]est one praise their idealism too highly, it should be noted that the Iron Column apparently saw no contradiction between Anarchism and terrorism and robbery." Obviously he thinks that the militia should have quietly starved to death at the front and not acted to confiscate food, money and so forth. So, while the charge of "robbery" holds, "terrorism" (given its usual meaning) can hardly be applicable in this case.

When the militias were militarized, the CNT tried to ensure that the CNT workers stayed together in their own units. This would be very useful to ensure that the communists did not totally control the army. However, Caplan states that "most of the Iron Column joined units which, while nominally part of the army of the central government, were actually part of the private fiefdom of the CNT." In other words, damned if you do, damned if you don't. Above Caplan bemoans the fact the CNT collaborated with the communists. However, now, when the CNT tries to undermine communist power in the army, they are creating their own "private fiefdom." (as the Catalan regional committee correctly pointed out, "it would be very childish to hand over our forces to the absolute control of the government" - but apparently thats want Caplan prefers. And I may note that under CNT "control" the militias would have remained far more democratic/libertarian than under state control. A point not lost on the government).

The CNT just cannot win. As for the decree on conscription, the CNT was a minority in the government, and even if it did oppose conscription could not have stopped it.

Capan then goes on to say that "the CNT made no attempt to subsist merely on voluntary donations of time and resources. It readily accepted government hand-outs."

Actually, according to Fraser, "thousands of workers contributed their wage increases to the support of the militias at the front" [p. 232] But as Fraser points out, many workers saw their wages being eaten by inflation and rising prices. Many were not in the position to donate. In addition, rural collectives did provide troops with voluntary donations of time and resources, as did industrial ones. And as far as government "hand-outs" go, obviously the anarchists at the front should have *not* accepted funds or weapons from the state in the name of theoretical purity. But hungry and weaponless men would find it hard to fight fascism.

Caplan finishes by stating "as the next section reveals, when the Anarchists realized that food and valuable agricultural commodities could be extorted out of forced collectives of terrorized peasants, they saw an opportunity that was simply too good to refuse." The truth of this is discussed below.

E. The Rural Collectives

In this section Caplan "review[s] the history of the Anarchists and rural collectivization" using Burnett Bolloten's _The Spanish Civil War_ as the base.

He states that "After the attempted military coup in July 1936, there was a revolution in many rural areas somewhat similar to that in urban areas. It should be noted, however, that the power of the CNT was centered in the cities rather than the countryside, so it would be extremely surprising if the rural revolution were as 'spontaneous' as the urban revolution." He quotes Fraser as follows:

"Very rapidly collectives, in which not only the means of production but also of consumption were socialized, began to spring up. It did not happen on instructions from the CNT leadership - no more than had the collectives in Barcelona. Here, as there, the initiative came from CNT militants; here, as there, the 'climate' for social revolution in the rearguard was created by CNT armed strength: the anarcho-syndicalists' domination of the streets of Barcelona was re-enacted in Aragon as the CNT militia columns, manned mainly by Catalan anarcho-syndicalist workers, poured in. Where a nucleus of anarcho-syndicalists existed in a village, it seized the moment to carry out the long-awaited revolution and collectivized spontaneously. Where there was none, villagers could find themselves under considerable pressure from the militias to collectivize. . . "

Caplan then states "Note well Fraser's point that the anarchists in rural Aragon relied heavily on urban Catalonian anarchists to get off the ground. However over-stated the Anarchists' claim to represent 'the people,' was in Barcelona, in rural Aragon such a claim was absurd."

But Fraser does mention the "nucleus of anarchosyndicalists" that existing in many villages, meaning that the CNT did have a presence in Aragon. Fraser states that in "some [of the Aragonese villages] there was a flourishing CNT, in others the UGT was strongest, and in only too many there was no unionisation at all." [_Blood of Spain_, p. 348] Elsewhere, Fraser points out that the Aragon rural collectivisation was "carried out under the general cover, if not necessarily the direct agency, of CNT militia columns." [p. 370] So, what does this mean in practice?

Before the revolution, the Spanish countryside was marked by high concentrations of land owned by a handful of people (67% of the land was owned by 2% of the population). Life in this capitalist rural economy was dominated by powerful caciques [local bosses]. Hence, when the balance of class forces changed in Aragon (i.e. when the caciques would not get state aid to protect their property,) many landless workers took over the land. In other words, the presence of the militia ensured that land could be taken over by destroying the capitalist "monopoly of force" that existed before the revolution.

Therefore, by removing the capitalist "monopoly of force," the CNT militia allowed the possibility of experimentation by the Aragonese population. Caplan suggests that to claim that the CNT had strong support in Aragon is "absurd." However, the evidence suggests that it is Caplan's claims that are absurd. Murray Bookchin summarises the situation well:

"The authentic peasant base of the CNT [by the 1930s] now lay in Aragon . . .[CNT growth in Zaragoza] provided a springboard for a highly effective libertarian agitation in lower Aragon, particularly among the impoverished laborers and debt-ridden peasantry of the dry steppes region." [_The Spanish Anarchists_, p. 220]

Graham Kelsey, in his social history of the C.N.T. in Aragon between 1930 and 1937, provides the necessary evidence to more than back Bookchin's claim of C.N.T. growth. Kesley points out that as well as the "spread of libertarian groups and the increasing consciousness among C.N.T. members of libertarian theories . . .contribu[ting] to the growth of the anarchosyndicalist movement in Aragon" the existence of "agrarian unrest" also played an important role in that growth [_Anarchosyndicalism, Libertarian Communism and the State_, pp.80-81]. This all lead to the "revitalisation of the C.N.T. network in Aragon" [p. 82] and so by 1936, the C.N.T. had built upon the "foundations laid in 1933. . . [and] had finally succeeded in translating the very great strength of the urban trade-union organisation in Zaragoza into a regional network of considerable extent." [Op. Cit., p. 134]

Kelsey and other historians note the long history of anarchism in Aragon, dating back to the late 1860s. However, before the 1910s there had been little gains in rural Aragon by the C.N.T. due to the power of local bosses (called *caciques*):

"Local landowners and small industrialists, the *caciques* of provincial Aragon, made every effort to enforce the closure of these first rural anarchosyndicalist cells [created after 1915]. By the time of the first rural congress of the Aragonese CNT confederation in the summer of 1923, much of the progress achieved through the organization's considerable propaganda efforts had been countered by repression elsewhere." [Graham Kelsey, "Anarchism in Aragon," p. 62]

A C.N.T. activist indicates the power of these bosses and how difficult it was to be a union member in Aragon:

"Repression is not the same in the large cities as it is in the villages where everyone knows everybody else and where the Civil Guards are immediately notified of a comrade's slightest movement. Neither friends nor relatives are spared. All those who do not serve the state's repressive forces unconditionally are pursued, persecuted and on occassions beaten up." [cited by Kelsey, Op. Cit., p. 74]

However, while there were some successes in organising rural unions, even in 1931 "propaganda campaigns which led to the establishment of scores of village trade-union cells, were followed by a counter-offensive from village *caciques* which forced them to close." [Ibib. p. 67] But even in the face of this repression the C.N.T. grew and "from the end of 1932. . . [there was] a successful expansion of the anarchosyndicalist movement into several parts of the region where previously it had never penetrated." [Kesley, _Anarchosyndicalism, Libertarian Communism and the State_, p. 185]

This growth was built upon in 1936, with increased rural activism which had slowly eroded the power of the *caciques* (which in part explains their support for the fascist coup). After the election of the Popular Front, years of anarchist propaganda and organisation paid off with a massive increase in rural membership in the C.N.T.:

"The dramatic growth in rural anarch-syndicalist support in the six weeks since the general election was emphasized in the [Aragon CNT's April] congress's agenda. . . the congress directed its attention to rural problems . . . [and agreed a programme which was] exactly what was to happen four months later in liberated Aragon." [Kesley, "Anarchism in Aragon", p. 76]

In the aftermath of a regional congress, held in Zaragoza at the start of April, a series of of intensive propaganda campaigns was organized through each of the provinces of the regional confederation. Many meetings were held in villages which had never before heard anarcho- syndicalist propaganda. This was very successful and by the beginning of June, 1936, the number of Aragon unions had topped 400, compared to only 278 one month earlier (an increase of over 40% in 4 weeks). [Ibib., pp. 75-76]

This increase in union membership reflects increased social struggle by the Aragonese working population and their attempts to improve their standard of living, which was very low for most of the population. A journalist from the conservative-Catholic _Heraldo de Aragon_ visited lower Aragon in the summer of 1935 and noted "[t]he hunger in many homes, where the men are not working, is beginning to encourage the youth to subscribe to misleading teachings." [cited by Kesley, Ibib., p. 74]

Little wonder, then, the growth in CNT membership and social struggle Kesley indicates:

"Evidence of a different kind was also available that militant trade unionism in Aragon was on the increase. In the five months between mid-February and mid-July 1936 the province of Zaragoza experienced over seventy strikes, more than had previously been recorded in any entire year, and things were clearly no different in the other two provinces . . . the great majority of these strikes were occuring in provincial towns and villages. Strikes racked the provinces and in at least three instances were actually transformed into general strikes." [Ibib., p. 76]

Therefore, in the spring and summer of 1936, we see a massive growth in C.N.T. membership which reflects growing militant struggle by the urban and rural population of Aragon. Years of C.N.T. propaganda and organising had ensured this growth in C.N.T. influence, a growth which is also reflected in the creation of collectives in liberated Aragon during the revolution. Therefore, the construction of a collectivized society was founded directly upon the emergence, during the five years of the Second Republic, of a mass trade-union movement infused by libertarian, anarchist principles. These collectives were constructed in accordance with the programme agreed at the Aragon C.N.T. conference of April 1936 which reflected the wishes of the rural membership of the unions within Aragon (and due to the rapid growth of the C.N.T. afterwards obviously reflected popular feelings in the area).

In the words of Graham Kesley, "libertarian dominance in post-insurrection Aragon itself reflected the predominance that anarchists had secured before the war; by the summer of 1936 the CNT had succeeded in establishing throughout Aragon a mass trade-union movement of strictly libertarian orientation, upon which widespread and well-supported network the extensive collective experiment was to be founded." [Ibib., p. 61]

Additional evidence that supports a high level of C.N.T. support in rural Aragon can be provided by the fact that it was Aragon that was the center of the December 1933 insurrection organised by the C.N.T. As Bookchin notes, "only Aragon rose on any significant scale, particularly Saragossa . . .many of the villages declared libertarian communism and perhaps the heaviest fighting took place between the vineyard workers in Rioja and the authorities" [M. Bookchin, Op. Cit., p. 256]

It is unlikely for the C.N.T. to organise an insurrection in an area within which it had little support or influence. According to Kesley's in-depth social history of Aragon, "it was precisely those areas which had most important in December 1933 . . . which were now [in 1936], in seeking to create a new pattern of economic and social organisation, to form the basis of libertarian Aragon" [G. Kesley, _Anarchosyndicalism, Libertarian Communism and the State_, p. 161] After the revolt, thousands of workers were jailed, with the authorities having to re-open closed prisons and turn at least one disused monastrey into a jail due to the numbers arrested.

Therefore, it can be seen that the majority of collectives in Aragon were the product of C.N.T. (and UGT) influenced workers taking the opportunity to create a new form of social life, a form marked by its voluntary and directly democratic nature. For from being unknown in rural Aragon, the C.N.T. was well established and growing at a fast rate - "Spreading out from its urban base... the CNT, first in 1933 and then more extensively in 1936, succeeded in converting an essentially urban organisation into a truly regional confederation." [Ibib., p. 184]

Additional evidence that refutes Caplan's claim of little CNT support in rural Aragon can be provided by the fact that it was Aragon that was the center of the December 1933 insurrection organised by the CNT. As Bookchin notes, "only Aragon rose on any significant scale, partcularly Saragossa . . .many of the villages declared libertarian communism and perhaps the heaviest fighting took place between the vineyard workers in Rioja and the authorities" [M Bookchin, Op. Cit., p. 256]

It is unlikely for the CNT to organise an insurrection in an area within which it had little support or influence. According to Kesley's indepth social history of Aragon, "it was precisely those areas which had most important in December 1933 . . . which were now, in seeking to create a new pattern of economic and social organisation, to form the basis of libertarian Aragon" [G. Kesley, Op. Cit., p. 161]

Therefore, Caplan's claim (a claim, I should note, unsupported by any direct evidence that the CNT militia imposed collectivisation in Aragon by force is false. The historian he quotes does not state this and the pre-war history of Aragon suggests that CNT support was far stronger than Caplan cares to admit. This suggests that Kesley's summary is truer that Caplan's:

"Libertarian communism and agrarian collectivisation were not economic terms or social principles enforced upon a hostile population by special teams of urban anarchosyndicalists . . ." [G. Kesley, Op. Cit., p. 161]

And I should add that Gabriel Jackson notes that "[i]n large portions of. . . Aragon practically no revolutionary violence occured." [_The Spanish Republic and the Civil War: 1931-1939_, p. 532] This, combined with Kesley's important work in demonstrating the massive and rapid growth of the Aragon CNT before the war, places Caplan's claims in a new light.

Caplan then quotes Bolloten on how the collectives were formed and then states that "It barely took a month for Anarchists to set themselves up as the government of those parts of Aragon until their control, euphemistically dubbing themselves the 'Regional Defense Council of Aragon.'"

This council was set up in a conference which contained delegates from those collectives which had been created as well as the militia columns. It should be noted that most the militia columns opposed the setting up of the defense council. Caplan considers that this council showed "the actions of the government of Aragon reveal the proclivities of undivided Anarchist rule."

And what were the actions of this council? To encourage the formation of collectives and ensure that the front line was supplied with food. The council also kept records of surplus' delivered to it and used them to buy the collectives machinery (for example, "The collective procured a Czech machine powered by an electric motor. . .[i]t was 'paid for' by the collective's produce. . . with which it had run up a credit with the Council of Aragon" [Frazer, p. 356]). In other words, the collectives and the council allowed the pooling of resources which enabled new investments that otherwise the Aragon population would *never* have seen.

Next he notes that "Many people fled for fear of their lives. Their land was seized almost immediately. After all, who but a 'fascist' would flee? The expropriation of land from anyone too terrified of the new regime to even wait to see what their new life would be like provided the nucleus for the collectives."

In other words, those who could afford to flee did so. And as they had fled, their land should have been left untouched? No, strangely enough, landless farm workers and tenent farmers took it over. Given the role of cacique's in rural life, it's hardly surprising that many left. Treating day-workers as "animals" becomes dangerous when these people are no longer held down by the state. And, I must add, it seems strange that Caplan does not acknowledge the nature of oppression within the Aragon countryside when making the above statement. Yes, many people did flee for their lives, because they had either supported the uprising (and so favoured totalitarianism) or knew that their lives would be in danger for their pre-war oppression of the rural population.

Caplan goes on to say:

"Farmers who fled for their lives were obviously not voluntary participants in the Anarchists' collectivization experiment. What about the remainder? One of the persistent claims of defenders of the Anarchists' collectives was that the farmers were usually `free to choose': they could either join the collective, or continue to farm individually so long as they hired no wage labor."

Obviously those who fled for their lives were not participants (voluntary or forced) of the collectivisations - *they were not there to take part*! Perhaps Caplan is applying the usual neo-classical technique of confusing the owners of capital with the capital itself? As for those who were left, this was a population of day-workers, poor peasants with barely enough land to feed themselves, and various small and medium peasants. Unsurprisingly, the day-workers and the poor (who had flocked to join the CNT before the war) also flocked to join the collectives.

Therefore, Caplan fails to discuss the differences in the rural population and so paints a picture of rural Aragon which is misleading to say the least. Perhaps he thinks that only those who own land are worthy of mention when evaluating the Aragon collectives? If so, his argument fails to base itself on the reality of Aragon life and so is flawed.

He concludes that "The overwhelming majority of the evidence reveals that the collectives' defenders are simply wrong" on the issue of peasants being "free to choose", quoting Bolloten as saying:

"Although CNT-FAI publications cited numerous cases of peasant proprietors and tenant farmers who had adhered voluntarily to the collective system, there can be no doubt that an incomparable larger number doggedly opposed it or accepted it only under extreme duress."

However, Caplan ignores an important point about rural Spain. Not everyone was a peasant or tenant farmer. As Bolloten points out:

"If the individual farmer viewed with dismay the swift and widespread collectivisation of agriculture, the farm workers of the Anarchosyndicalist CNT and the Socialist UGT saw it as the commencement of a new era." [_The Spanish Civil War_, p. 63]

In other words, Caplan only considers one side of the picture and does not mention the other. How objective -- obviously day labourers (the ones "treated like animals") and other farm workers and poor peasants do not matter here. This means that there is no such "overwhelming" body of evidence and what evidence that does exist suggests a conclusion radically different from Caplan's.

He then argues that "Bolloten goes on to explain that it was the presence of the Anarchist militia which made collectivization possible. The Anarchist militants, convinced of their superior wisdom, arrived carrying a plan for a new way of life for the farmers:

"'We militiamen must awaken in these persons the spirit that has been numbed by political tyranny,' said an article in a CNT newspaper, referring to the villagers of Farlete. 'We must direct them along the path of the true life, and for that it is not sufficient to make an appearance in the village; we must proceed with the ideological conversion of these simple folk.'"

The arrogance and paternalism of these remarks is clear; is there no possibility that the farmers might be right and the Anarchists might be wrong?"

How dare the anarchists try to convince people of their ideas! Of course, many people (not just anarchists) are convinced of the truth of their ideas and express them in such arrogant ways. We have come across many "anarcho" capitalists who do so as well. However, the question arises how did this "conversion" take place. Here is an example of such "arrogance and paternalism" in action:

"There were, of course, those who didn't want to share and who said that each collective should take care of itself. But they were usually convinced in the assemblies. We would try to speak to them in terms they understood. We'd ask, "Did you think it was fair when the cacique [local boss] let people starve if there wasn't enough work?" and they said, "Of course not". They would eventually come around. Don't forget, there were three hundred thousand collectivists [in Aragon], but only ten thousand of us had been members of the C.N.T.. We had a lot of educating to do". [Felix Carrasquer, quoted in _Free Women of Spain_, p. 79]

In other words, by discussion and debate within democratic assemblies. Hardly "arrogance" or "paternalism" and far more in fitting with true libertarian ideas - that people are convinced of new ideas by debate and by positive examples.

Caplan then quotes Bolloten as follows:

"The fact is that many small holders and tenant farmers were forced to join the collective farms before they had an opportunity to decide freely. Although the libertarian movement tended to minimize the factor of coercion in the development of collectivized agriculture or even to deny it altogether, it was, on occasions, frankly admitted. 'During the first few weeks of the Revolution,' wrote Higinio Noja Ruiz, a prominent member of the CNT, 'the partisans of collectivization acted according to their own revolutionary opinions. They respected neither property nor persons. In some villages collectivization was only possible by imposing it on the minority.'"

In *some* villages, collectivisation may have only been possible by taking the land of a minority of big land owners. That is true, as is the claim that many people were forced to join (against CNT policy, it should be noted) by local CNT members. But, it should be noted, according to testimony in _Blood of Spain_, only around 20 collectives in Aragon were "total" ones (out of 450). Hence the "some" villages were not as widespread as Caplan suggests.

Caplan contineus:

"Fraser amply confirms Bolloten's allegations. 'There was no need to dragoon them at pistol point: the coercive climate, in which 'fascists' were being shot, was sufficient. 'Spontaneous' and 'forced' collectives existed, as did willing and unwilling collectivists within them.'"

Of course a civil war would produce a "coercive climate," particularly at the front line and so the CNT can hardly be blamed for that (although Caplan does try). As far as "forced" collectives go, the figures given by Fraser states that only around 20 were "total" (ie forced) collectives (out of 450) and 30% of the population felt safe enough *not* to join. In other words, in the vast majority of collectives those joining could see that those who did not were safe. These figures should not be discounted, as they give an indication of the movement and why it found people to support it in the face of both communist and capitalist attacks.

Caplan again:

"Fraser goes on to explain that rural collectivization was very different from urban collectivization; while the latter was indeed typically carried out by the workers, the former was not:

'The collectivization, carried out under the general cover, if not necessarily the direct agency, of CNT militia columns, represented a revolutionary minority's attempt to control not only production but consumption for egalitarian purposes and the needs of the war. In this, agrarian collectives differed radically from the industrial collectives which regulated production only.'"

So who *did* carry out the rural collectivisation? Fraser states that it was *not* the CNT militia columns. So the original initiative must have come from the CNT membership in Aragon. How did they do it? Its clear that they took the opportunity that the destruction of the state by the CNT militia created to suggest the creation of collectives. In many villages, the CNT militants who lived and worked there took the opportunity to set up what they had "always talked about," namely voluntary collectives [Fraser, p. 352]. Even in villages without a pre-war CNT presence, the voluntary nature of the experiment was stressed - "no one was to be mistreated" by villagers (in the words of CNT representatives who visited one village [Fraser, p. 360]) and the decision to join the collective or not was left entirely in the names of the villagers.

Therefore, to state as Caplan goes that rural collectives were "typically" carried out by the CNT militia is simply false. The evidence suggests otherwise. It is of course clear that given the number of anarchist troops, many people joined the collectives "just to be safe," but 30% of the Aragon population felt safe enough to *not* to join. In addition, we have indicated that the rural labourers supported the collectives, as did many poor farmers, as well as the growth of influence in the CNT before the war, so indicating that collectivisation may not have been as unpopular as Caplan is arguing.

In addition, it should be noted that in the examples Frazer gives the CNT made no attempt to determine *how* the collectives would work. The decisions on how the collectives were to be organised and who would join was left in the hands of the villagers themselves. This indicates that the villagers themselves *was* carried out by those involved.

Of course, given Caplan's claim that the rural collectives were created by the CNT militia we would expect the militia column leaders to have initiated the process. However, nothing could be further from the truth. As Faser notes, the advice by one militia leader not to collectivise "was not heeded" [p. 349] and "the CNT column leaders . . . opposed" the creation of the Council of Aragon [p. 350]. Hardly suggesting a militia organised collectivisation process, now is it?

Caplan then claims that "Bolloten makes a few statements about the voluntary character of the Anarchist collectives which can be taken out of context to make it appear that Bolloten accepts the apologists' view that rural collectivization was 'voluntary.'":

"While rural collectivization in Aragon embraced more than 70 percent of the population in the area under left-wing control, and many of the 450 collectives of the region were largely voluntary, it must be emphasized that this singular development was in some measure due to the presence of militiamen from the neighboring region of Catalonia, the immense majority of whom were members of the CNT and FAI."

In other words, Caplan is suggesting that if we point out these figures then we are "apologists" of "anarcho-statism." However, these figures are interesting, for if the collectives *were* created by anarchist terror, why did only 70% join and not 100%? Caplan does not even raise the question.

Little wonder, for if the collectives had been created by anarchist terror or force, we would expect a figure of 100% membership in the collectives. This was not the case, indicating the basically voluntary nature of the experiment. In addition, if the C.N.T. militia *had* forced peasants into collectives we would expect the membership of the collectives to peak almost overnight, not grow slowly over time. However, this is what happened:

"At the regional congress of collectives, held at Caspe in mid-February 1937, nearly 80 000 collectivists were represented from 'almost all the villages of the region.' This, however, was but a beginning. By the end of April the number of collectivists had risen to 140 000; by the end of the first week of May to 180 000; and by the end of June to 300 000." [Graham Kelsey, "Anarchism in Aragon," pp. 60-82, _Spain in Conflict 1931-1939_, Martin Blinkhorn (ed), p. 61]

If the collectives has been created by force, then their membership would have been 300 000 in February, 1937, not increasing steadily to reach that number four months later. Neither can it be claimed that the increase was due to new villages being collectivised, as almost all villages had sent delegates in February. This indicates that many peasants joined the collectives because of the advantages associated with common labour, the increased resources it placed at their hands and the fact that the surplus wealth which had in the previous system been monopolised by the few was used instead to raise the standard of living of the entire community.

So, around 30% of the Aragon population felt safe enough *not* to join and membership within collectives increased slowly over time. In other words, in the vast majority of collectives those joining could see that those who did not were safe. In addition, the steady growth in the membership of the collectives indicates that they were not imposed by the C.N.T. militia, for if they had been imposed then we would expect a 100% membership overnight. Instead we see a steady growth over a period of months, hardly evidence which can support Caplan's claims. These figures should not be discounted, as they give an indication of the basically popular, spontaneous and voluntary nature of the movement.

Another of Bolloten's statements is as follows:

"But in spite of the cleavages between doctrine and practice that plagued the Spanish Anarchists whenever they collided with the realities of power, it cannot be overemphasized that notwithstanding the many instances of coercion and violence, the revolution of July 1936 distinguished itself from all others by the generally spontaneous and far-reaching character of its collectivist movement and by its promise of moral and spiritual renewal. Nothing like this spontaneous movement had ever occurred before" [Op. Cit., p. 78]

Bolloten also quotes a report on the district of Valderrobes:

"Collectivisation was nevertheless opposed by opponents on the right and adversaries on the left. If the eternally idle who have been expropriated had been asked what they thought of collectivisation, some would have replied that it was robbery and others a dictatorship. But, for the eldery, the day workers, the tenent farmers and small proprietors who had always been under the thumb of the big landowners and heartless usurers, it appeared as salvation" [Op. Cit., p. 71]

Notice the "generally spontaneous" character. Imposed collectives are *not* spontaneous. This indicates that Bolloten's "few statements" are in fact more significant than Caplan likes to suggest. As for the report Bolloten quotes, this reflects the diverse nature of the rural population and indicates that Caplan's picture of it is distinctly false. As these groups who supported the collectives were the ones treated "like animals" before the revolution, it is hardly surprising that Caplan ignores them. They obviously do not count in his eyes (as indicated by his statements above).

Caplan argues that "it is important to realize that Bolloten rightly regards the 'voluntary' collectives as nearly as coercive as the 'forced' collectives:"

"However, although neither the UGT nor the CNT permitted the small Republican farmer to hold more land than he could cultivate without the aid of hired labor, and in many instances he was unable to dispose freely of his surplus crops because he was compelled to deliver them to the local committee on the latter's terms, he was often driven under various forms of pressure, as will be shown latter in this chapter, to attach himself to the collective system. This was true particularly in villages where the Anarchosyndicalists were in the ascendant."

Caplan states that "while the illegality of hiring wage labor seemed perfectly fair to the Anarchist militants, this fact plainly demonstrates that the mere existence of collectives hardly ensures that no one will voluntarily contract to work for a capitalist."

However, as Bolloten notes, "the collective system of agriculture threaten to drain the rural labour market of wage workers" [p. 62], which it did seem to do (as Bolloten notes, the wage labourers viewed the collectives in a vastly different light than the wealthier farmers). And as the evidence Caplan presents of is of "brothers and neighbours" helping individualists this hardly counts as wage labour (i.e. *non* economic reasons would have been the determining reason for aiding them).

Caplan states that "Fraser provides evidence that the prohibition against hiring wage labor was often even stricter than it seems. . . Plainly it is possible to preserve a nominal right to be an 'individualist,' while in practice imposing so many unreasonable restrictions on them that the independent farmers break down and join the collective."

Is this any more unreasonable than denying free access to land by wealthy land owners before the revolution? Is it the case that the wealthy should determine the rules and not the majority? And is "free riding" during a bitter civil war a "reasonable" activity? Could not the "restrictions" Caplan bemoans can be the result of the war? As for *some* of the restrictions Bolloten and others note is that "individualists" could not get the benefits of the collectives. The is hardly "unreasonable." Of course Caplan ignores the example of collectives helping individualists with machinery and so on which Level and others have documented. Therefore, the "restrictions" placed upon independent farmers was the result of the fact they would not be expected to have a "free-ride" while others paid for the public good of resisting fascism. I'm suprised to hear a neo-classical economist support "free-riding" to such a degree that Caplan does in this essay.

Caplan then lists the "various forms of pressure" to which Bolloten alludes and concludes as follows:

"It is especially strange that anarcho-socialists, who frequently claim that superficially voluntary interaction (such as the capitalist-worker relationship) is really coercive, so credulously accept the voluntarist credentials of the Anarchist-run rural collectives. At least the worker can try to find another employer; but how 'voluntary' was the decision of a farmer to join the collective when he had to sell his crops to a legally protected Anarchist monopsony anyway? If the middlemen and speculators had not been banned by the Anarchists, an independent farmer could always have sold to them if the Anarchists' price was too low."

However, as has been mentioned in passing, there was a war on. Many collectivists obviously considered it a lesser evil to control prices than allow increased prices which would have resulted in food being unavailable to those fighting fascism (for example). Many avowed capitalist countries have introduced rationing and price controls in war time so such activity is hardly unexpected in a war. That Caplan ignores the existance of the war when attacking the collectives is hardly surprising given his motive for this essay. And I should add, his expression "the Anarchists' price" is misleading as the evidence indicates that the collectives were democratically run and so prices would have been agreed at collective meetings, and *not* by "the Anarchists."

As the war effort could be considered a "public good," it is hardly surprising that the collectives tried to ensure that prices were controlled to stop inflation and ensure it got to the troops fighting the war. But, of course, as "anarcho" capitalism has *never* existed nor faced fascism in a civil war, its easy for Caplan to point out that the collectives were not perfect.

Moving on, Caplan quotes Graham Kelsey ("an historian with unbridled sympathy for the Anarchist movement") as "reluctantly" revealing "an important prod used to push the hapless peasantry into the collectives."

"The military insurrection had come at a critical moment in the agricultural calendar. Throughout lower Aragon there were fields of grain ready for harvesting... At the assembly in Albalate de Cinca the opening clause of the agreed programme had required everyone in the district, independent farmers and collectivists alike, to contribute equally to the war effort, thereby emphasizing one of the most important considerations in the period immediately following the rebellion."

Caplan concludes: "The independent farmer, in short, had no option to remain aloof from the Anarchists' cause and do his own thing; even if he could keep his land, a large part of his product belonged to the CNT"

Or to the war effort, as Kelsey puts it. Again, we are faced with the fact that the CNT were fighting a war against fascism and many considered that this war situation meant that everyone should be involved. If the fascists won, then everyone would be subjected to their rule. Could winning the war be considered a "public good"? Many anarchists (and non-anarchists) thought so. It is even admitted by certain "anarcho" capitalists that national defense would be a problem in their vision of a new "society" (see David Friedman, _The Machinery of Freedom_, for example). Therefore, given the problem facing them, the Aragon collectives solved it by the only means in their power - by making all contribute equally to the war effort.

Caplan then notes that "[t]he fact that only a small percentage of the Anarchist collectives were called 'total,' cannot alter the fact that aside from the intense monopolistic pressure wielded by the CNT through its stranglehold over the economy and agricultural markets, an independent farmer still had to 'contribute equally to the war effort.'"

This is because those independent farmers would benefit if fascism was defeated. In other words, we face the "free rider" problem, and a war situation may not the best time to come up with new solutions to the problem. But, of course, the war is irrelevent for Caplan. This can be seen when he calls the war effort against fascism "the CNT" or "the CNT's cause."

Caplan then quotes the testimony of Fernando Aragon and his wife Francisca on the totalitarian nature of their collective. However, he fails to mention either of the following:

Firstly, Fraser himself points out, that, for "extraneous reasons," he could not "talk to supporters and detractors of the collectives... in the Angues collective... The testimony of Fernando ARAGON and his wife -- a view of the inherent undemocratic dangers contained within the collectivisation experiment -- must stand on its own" [p. 369]

Secondly, the democratic nature of the other three collectives Frazer discusses:

According to one member of the Beceite collectives, "it was marvellous... to live in a collective, a free society where one could say what one thought, where if the village committee seemed unsatisfactory one could say. The committee took no big decisions without calling the whole village together in a general assembly. All this was wonderful" [p. 288]

Or how about another Aragon collective, in which "Once the work groups were established on a friendly basis and worked their own lands, everyone got on well enough, he recalled. There was no need for coercion, no need for discipline and punishment.... A collective wasn't a bad idea at all" [p. 360]. This collective, like 95% of the 450 collectives, was voluntary, "I couldn't oblige him to join; we weren't living under a dictatorship" [p. 362]

Fraser states that "For detractors of Aragon collectives, Fernando's experience was more or less typical: For supporters exceptional, but undeniable." And as can be seen from both Fraser and Bolloten, it was "exceptional" and *not* "typical." It is funny how Caplan concentrates on Aragon's account and not on the other collectives described by Fraser. The question of why Caplan feels happy to quote the uncollaborated testimony of 2 people out of 300 000 in perference to overwhelming other evidence available is easily answered - it helps create the picture of "anarcho-statism" that Caplan is trying to create. That he builds his case on such evidence indicates its (lack of) strength.

Caplan then states "[i]n a footnote, Fraser insightfully explains that once the CNT engineered the abolition of money (no one even tries to explain how the abolition of money could be voluntary), the peasants were helpless. A poor person with a little money has options; the Aragonese peasantry did not."

"The problem of the collectivists' freedom to leave villages - permanently or on trips - exercised the imagination of observers from the start. With the abolition of money, the collective held the upper hand since anyone wishing to travel had to get 'republican' money from the committee. This meant justifying the trip."

However, the collectives decided on the abolition of money (as can be seen different collectives tried different techniques at different times). In addition, the committees were elected from and accountable to mass assemblies. In other words, an individual in a collective did had options - to convince his fellow members to provide him or her resources to make a trip he or she needed to make. Under capitalism, many peasants did not have the resources to make long trips, within a collective they did so. And, I should note, the options of the poor Aragonese *before* the war seemed to consist of work for one of the local bosses on the poverty level (as indicated pre-war Aragon saw mounting poverty, and social unrest), subject to their rule in the village (the power of the local bosses ensured that workers had a hard time if they joined a union) or leave for another region of Spain (like Catalonia, with its strong union movement). So, as far as options in pre-war Aragon goes, its clear that the collectives went beyond them.

It should also be noted that Caplan "insightfully" ignores the testimony in Fraser and Bolloten of people easily getting "permission" to travel and that Frazer concludes by saying "Conditions obviously varied from collective to collective and, as in many other aspects, generalisation is impossible" [p. 368]

Nevertheless, Caplan feels able to generalise and ignore the evidence of people travelling from collectives.

Caplan then discusses the "despotism of the Anarchists" and ends by saying "[t]hus, the freedom of the Aragonese peasantry was the Orwellian freedom to live precisely as the Anarchist militia deemed right." However, the quotes he presented makes it clear that the decisions were made by the collectives in question and not by the militia. This can be seen from the references to "the inhabitants," "one peasant" and "the collectivists" and no mention of the militia. This suggests that these examples of "anarchist despotism" were the democratic decision of the collectives involved. Of course, anarchists would not take democracy that far, but the collectives were *not* run by anarchists but by those in them.

Caplan then goes on to compare the anarchist collectives with the "forced agricultural collectivization, in both Communist and other Third World countries." He states that the "ugly secret of the Anarchists is that the underlying objective of forced collectivization was to fund their military and cement the power of their councils and committees."

However, as noted Caplan has not presented a case that forced collectivisation occured. Only 5% of collectives were "total" (i.e. forced) and the collectives themselves based on mass assemblies and elected committees. As for the pressures which individualists were subject to, these clearly resulted from the need to win the war. In addition, "the ugly secret of the Anarchists" was well known at the time. The newspapers reported that the collectives were feeding the front free of charge. In addition, (as Caplan himself notes later) the underlying objective for the collectives was *not* to feed the front but to create a new society based on cooperative labour and in this they were successful. The vast majority of the collectives were voluntary and based on mass assemblies and elected committees.

As many of the Aragonese had relatives at the front and most had a lot to lose by a victory for fascism (i.e. the land they had just taken over), it's little wonder that the collectives agreed to send their surplus to the front. Caplan claims that the surplus was used just for feeding the troops and for armaments, but this is false. The surplus was also used for investment in the collectives, new machinery, schools and so on. The question should arise, who actually controled where the surplus went. Caplan is strangely silent on this question, for good reason. The facts state that it was the collectivists themselves who controled their own surplus. This quote summarises the situation well:

"The policies to be followed by collectives were usually determined in general membership meetings that also decided upon the distribution of profits and agricultural surpluses." [_The Agony of Modernization_, p. 393]

And, I may note, its interesting to compare the Aragon collectives to those in Stalin's Russia. After 5 years of brutal "reform" the Russian collectives had 85% membership, but such a high membership was also associated with the deaths of 10-20 million people. In Aragon, 70% membership occured after 10 months and no mass murder. This indicates well that the Aragon collectives were not the product of "forced collectivisation" but instead an essentially local development, one that built upon and reflected the growth of the CNT just before the war (and years of anarchist propaganda work as well).

In other words, Caplan's claims of an anarchist "ugly secret" are simply false. Caplan, by ignoring all these established facts, exposes himself as less than objective.

He then quotes Graham Kelsey, who he claims "tries his best to portray this naked exploitation favorably," as follows:

"To organize the provisioning of the front-line volunteers as rapidly and as equitably as possibly was to be more than merely an aim in itself. One of the most common corollaries of war in a capitalist system is the development of such social and economic evils as black-marketeering, profiteering, and, as a consequence, arbitrarily imposed shortages and serious inflation. The villages from which large numbers of volunteers had joined the columns had immediately organized the despatch of supplies to the front. These villages, however, were but a handful, chiefly those with strong anarchosyndicalist traditions. Evidently the situation had to be regularized, particularly as the initial insurrection had begun to assume all the characteristics of a prolonged military confrontation. Agricultural collectivisation, therefore, became both a way of ensuring the equal contribution of all villages to the burden posed by the conflict and also a way of making it impossible for those who possessed the means or the inclination to profit from the exigencies placed upon the regional economy by the presence of civil war. It was not just a libertarian theory; it was also the only way to ensure the maximum agricultural production with the minimum economic corruption."

Of course, war as a "public good" does not spring into Caplan's neoclassical mind. Therefore the anarchists *must* have had a "hidden agenda" in their activities. However, the simple fact is that the war against fascism led to the decisions that the anarchists made. Kesley does not "portray" "naked exploitation" favourably, he indicates the social context of the decisions that were made - a context that Caplan seeks to deny in favour of a text-book free market system.

Caplan goes on to state that "Kelsey is virtually the only academic historian who attempts to affirm the voluntary character of the Anarchist collectives," but as noted above, Caplan states that Bolloten's comments should be ignored. This means that Kelsey is "virtually" the only historian *if* we agree with Caplan and ignore the comments of the others!

He then states that "among his many puzzling statements, one that stands out is his attempt to prove that the collectives had to be voluntary because everyone supporters them, regardless of party."

"Another sign of the acceptance of agricultural collectivisation was the adherence of the members of other trade-union and political groups all of which, nationally, maintained a hostile stance towards collectivisation."

Caplan maintains that "[n]ormal people see an unnatural degree of unanimity and infer that such agreement could only be the result of extreme coercion. Kelsey sees an unnatural degree of unanimity and infers that such agreement could only be the result of the extraordinary goodness of the collectives."

Of course, normal people see that some measures in violation of libertarian principles may occur during a civil war, but not Caplan. However, as noted by Bolloten (but ignored by Caplan), only 70% of the population joined the collectives. Fraser's evidence indicates that many of the members of other parties and groups did *not* join. In other words, the evidence that those who joined the collectives had to do so is false. In addition, that the collectives increased production, introduced machinery, allowed members to get medical treatment they could never have afforded alone, etc. would also have had an impact on decisions to join. But, of course, these positive aspects of the collectives would weaken his case so they are ignored. And I must add, it seems strange that Caplan claims that there was "an unnatural degree of unanimity" which could only be the "result of extreme coercion" - a coercion which did not produce 100% collectivisation over night but was enough to create "an unnatural degree of unanimity"? Hardly convincing - coercion to the degree Caplan implies here would have resulted in a very high collectivisation rate overnight, but that did not happen. And given that the historian Gabriel Jackson notes that "[i]n large portions of. . . Aragon practically no revolutionary violence occured" [_The Spanish Republic and the Civil War: 1931-1939_, p. 532] we can suggest that Caplan's claims of "extreme coercion" are false. Instead, the obvious success of the collectives in terms of democratic self-management, improved production and consumption, the building of hospitals, roads, and so on, as well as the introduction of labour saving machinery and so on, is the reason that people joined and supported the collectives.

Of course, in todays world, the vast majority of politicians and "experts" have an "unnatural degree of unanimity" about the free market. Perhaps that suggests "extreme coercion" as well? The idea that the collectives worked, that the majority saw their liberty and living standards increase due to them, and that *this* was the reason for their acceptance by members of other organisations is lost on Caplan.

It should also be mentioned that Kesley immediately after the quote cited by Caplan highlights the existance of collectives organised by groups other than the CNT. He notes the existance of a CNT-UGT collective, a UGT one and a few organised by the Communists. In other words, collectives not run by the CNT which is at odds with Caplan's suggestion of a CNT run statist regime.

Now, Caplan is trying to present a case of "extreme coercion," but does not present any evidence to back up his claims. If there had been the "extreme coercion" Caplan claims, we would have expected 100% collectivisation rate. This did not occur. As addition evidence against Caplan's claims, we can cite the make up of the new municipal councils created after July 19th. As Kesley notes, "[w]hat is immediately noticeable from the results is that although the region has often been branded as one controlled by anarchists to the total exclusion of all other forces, the CNT was far from enjoying the degree of absolute domination often implied and inferred." [p. 198]

These facts cannot be reconciled with Caplan's claims of "extreme coercion" and so Caplan's claims are not supported by the evidence.

Caplan then quotes Royo, an anarchist militant, and comments on his statement that "if there had been a free market, the farmers would be paid the value of their labor. There is much irony in Royo's tacit admission that the 'problem' with the free market is that it _prevents_ exploitation, ensuring that everyone gets paid for the product of their labor." Of course, as Caplan is a supporter of capitalism, he states that the market provides the worker with the "value of their labour." However, the worker does not in fact receive this, as capitalists control the product of that labour and keep a slice of the value created for themselves. However, this point is ignored by Caplan when evaluting capitalism. And, of course, a free market is not a policy usually suited to a war situation. But the war is irrelevent to Caplan's case, and so is ignored.

Caplan then states that "[p]resumably the poor workers of the villages did not realized that 'equality' would also guarantee an equal share for Anarchist soldiers who never set a foot in the village." Of course these troops were holding back the fascists, and so would have found it hard to "set foot in the village." It could be argued that they were supplying a "service" which many considered worth paying for. But Caplan does not seem to think that fighting fascism is a service of any kind. Many "normal" people would disagree. In addition, it should be pointed out that many at the front were Aragonese. In fact, many in the Catalonia CNT militia would have been originally from Aragon (21% of migrants to Catalonia before the war came from Aragon) and many Aragonese joined the militias when they passed through their towns and villages.

Caplan moves on to the end of the Aragon collectives and notes that "[i]n July of 1937, the Aragonese Anarchists were desperately trying to avoid the fate of their Catalonian comrades. The Communists had replaced the Anarchists as the dominant force in Catalonia. Was Aragon next?" He then quotes Jose Peirats, the Anarchist historian, to "provide" the "setting" - "In his commemorative speech on July 19, 1937, the President of the Council of Aragon was extremely pessimistic... 'it would be regrettable if anyone tried to make trouble for [the Council of Aragon], for that would force [the Council] to unsheathe its claws of iron and teeth of steel.'"

Of course, any socio-economic organisation is entitled to defend itself - Caplan does not deny this right to capitalist companies (indeed, he would prefer capitalist companies to hire "claws of iron" without having to worry that these claws are somehow accountable to those it represses). And as future events prove, these "claws of iron" were infact non-existant (and, indeed, the accounts of the collectives indicate a specific *lack* of repression within them - e.g. Frazer's eye-witnesses accounts of how the collectives operated). Caplan then goes on to note that "[i]n December of 1936, the Council agreed to share some of its power with members of other Republican parties, but the dominant position of the Anarchists remained." Again, sharing power is hardly the policy of totalitarians and we may note that the "power" of the council was pretty limited and involved supporting and coordinating the activities of the collectives

Caplan goes on to state that "[c]learly in a conciliatory mood, the President emphasized that the right to farm individually would be protected (thus implicitly admitting widespread violation of this right)." What logic! But first, to correct a mistake of Caplan, the President of the Aragon council *did not make remarks.* Actually, if you read Pierats its clear that this remark is not from the President, but from an "agreement signed by representatives of all political and union forces in Aragon". This is clear from the text.

But to return to the "logic" - the fact that individual farmers would be protected (along with the right to farm it collectively) is taken to "imply" that this right had seen widespread violation. The report actually states that "the council will protect the right of peasants to work the earth individually or collectively". I suppose that this means that the report is "implicitly" admitting widespread violation of the right to farm collectively as well! The idea that the council *did* support the rights of peasants to farm their own land (and, we may add, a fact which can be seen from membership figures in the collectives) does not cross Caplan's mind. Funny, but stating that individualist peasant's rights would be protected could mean exactly that - that they would, and did, oppose forced collectivisation and would "defend the smallholder." However, such statements (like the fact of 95% voluntary collectives, 70% of the population joining) are turned by Caplan into "proof" that collectivisation was "forced" - what logic.

Caplan then quotes the agreement signed by all of the Republican factions of Aragon as follows: "'The Council of Aragon, which will collaborate enthusiastically with the legitimate government of the Republic, will increase production in the rearguard, mobilize all the region's resources for the war effort, arouse the antifascist spirit of the masses... and undertake an intense purge in the liberated zones; it will impose unrelenting order and hunt down hidden fascists, defeatists and speculators.'"

And makes the statement "The totalitarian tone of these words is hard to overlook." Lets think about this - and place it in context. Most wars result in such statements, they are made by many different political opinions. A war, particularly a civil war, requires the defense of the rear-guard against enemies who would undermine the war effort. The idea that fascists should be allowed to undermine the war effort in the name of "liberty" is a strange one. Again, as far as speculators go, such activity can and does demoralise the rear-guard and ends up with a few enriching themselves at the expense of the majority, the majority who are making the scarifices necessary to win the war - the victory of which will also benefit the speculator. So, yes, in wars political groups often talk about "purging" the rearguard, of increasing production and so on. Does it have "totalitarian" tones? Only if the society in which these statements are made is also totalitarian. For example, the "tone" of the British war effort during world war 2 would seem "totalitarian" if quoted in the here and now, but obviously in context such statements would mean something totally different is uttered within Nazi Germany or Stalin's Russia. In the case of Aragon, we state that the "totalitarian tone" does not imply a totalitarian reality (it does imply a society in a civil war against fascism though). Periats notes that meetings of the Popular Front of Aragon occured during this time (which considted of the Communist Party, the UGT and the Republican Left). Hardly a "totalitarian" regime which allows non-regime parties to meet and organise - and so indicating well that the "tone" reflects a society in a life and death struggle against fascism (a fascism which was slaughtering tens of thousands of people at the time, I must add) and nothing more. Given the mass murder that was occuring under Franco, we can understand desires to make sure that the Republic wins the war and the rear-guard is safe from pro-fascists. But context is not Caplan's strong point.

Caplan then moves on to the end of the Aragon Collectives. He states that "[t]he Council's protestations of its loyalty and ecumenical spirit did not save it from an invasion of Communist-led forces under the orders of the central government. The Communists broke up many collectives