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TIL Tolkien supported fascist Spain (www.josemanuelferrandez.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/til@lemmy.world
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And the author of this article is tying himself into a pretzel trying to absolve Tolkien of this great shame.

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[+] -6 points 2 months ago (1 child)

And how much supplies did the CNT/FAI provide to the rest of the republic? Answer, nothing at all because they could barely handle their own disfunctional industry. The republic was not obliged to prop up their cosplaying indefinitely. Barcelona had a strong pre-war economy and should have been able to not only stand up on its own, but support other parts of the republic too.

I'm harsh on the CNT/FAI because their incompetence was a significant contributor to tens of millions of people being plunged into facsism for decades. I have possibly been too harsh on anarchists in general, mostly in my experience they are lovely people, but I don't think they're serious enough to run a revolution against militarised fascism.

I disagree with your assertion that all 3 million+ people in Catalunya suddenly fell in line with the CNT/FAI's ideology. There were possibly a few hundred thousand actual anarchists in the region, with huge numbers of people who weren't thinking about politics scared shitless of the disorganised vigilante militias going around establishing their vision of "anarchism" with zero oversight. Setting up tribunals and executing/imprisoning people with no due process. Whether they were "bottom-up" or not wasn't really relevant. It was a scary time to be in Spain and the lack of a proper system of government made things much worse for the millions of people for whom this "anarchism" stuff was weird and unknown.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    I can point to sources which show the Anarchists were using the profits of the Catalonia transit system to fund sending any excess vehicles to neighboring impoverished provinces which ran at a loss.

    Evidence of Transit help

    Indeed, alongside a railway line shown in black, 8, 10, 12 red lines represented that number of companies and road transport services which were competing with the railways and among themselves. It was a useless duplication which was to be found especially on the Mediterranean littoral, in the densely populated and prosperous province of Barcelona.

    By contrast, on the chart showing means of transport for the province of Lerida, in the interior of Catalonia, there were great expanses, whole cantons without regular communications. Huge areas which, because they were impoverished, were condemned to stagnate in isolation, ignorance and poverty though an improvement in the means of transport could, as often happens, favour some aspect of development of production. And my comrades, who always put social interest, viewed in its global aspect, above corporative self-interest, or of narrow syndicalist outlook, decided that some of the lorries and buses in overabundance in the province of Barcelona should be sent to the province of Lerida. At the beginning, at least, the services would be run at a loss, but profitable services in the Barcelona area would more than compensate for these losses. What was required was to ensure to all the inhabitants of Catalonia then, and later for all the people of Spain, the same chances of well being and happiness. Did not the Collectives in Aragon, the Levante and Castile act in this way?

    Source: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gaston-leval-collectives-in-the-spanish-revolution#toc34

    And how the Anarchists organized access to universal healthcare across much of the eastern part of Spain (not just Anarchists controlled Catalonia), including hundreds of impoverished villages who previously had little to no access.

    Evidence of Anarchists rendering aid

    in Valencia, then the third largest city in Spain, was the headquarters of a Mutua levantina or Mutual Aid Society of the Levante, founded by libertarians whom this writer got to know in his youth, and who brought together many doctors with different specialities, professional people with experience in the different fields of public health. More than a simple society for mutual aid, it was, basically, an association of practitioners of medicine which extended over the whole region of the Levante and in which the spirit of mutual aid dominated in its most human implications. [135]

    Much more details in source.

    You have made confident assertions that Anarchists in the civil war had no military, barely functioned, contributed nothing to Spain, and spread fear amongst the populace, and continue to assert this despite being provided evidence to the contrary, and in fact seemingly dismiss it without even looking at it.

    If you're not a Marxist-leninist, then I have no idea why you have such an extreme negative view of the Anarchists of Spain to the point where you're not even willing to look at any evidence that may contradict your vendetta against them.

    This will be my last response, as I'm not sure further responses will be productive, unfortunately.

    (And that gold the Anarchist were considering robbing to finally get the supplies they needed? The pro-stalinist government, who controlled the gold, ended up just sending it all to the USSR, so they really should've robbed it, honestly)

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