GLIMPSES OF AN ALTERNATIVE SOCIETY

an encounter with the spanish anarchists
(part two)

This is the second part of excerpt from Werner Droescher’s unpublished manuscript 'Toward an Alternative Society' (1978). Droescher was an anarchist who lived in New Zealand from 1940 till his death in 1978, apart from a brief spell in Australia. In the last episode, Droescher had joined the POUM militia to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War...

(Click here to go to part one)

The secretiveness, the intriguing, the nasty political manoeuvres of the communists began to give me an uneasy feeling. I began to get the idea that none of their actions meant what they pretended to be. I found the communist, as a person, a most unsympathetic figure - with a few exceptions who invariably found themselves in disgrace, such as Tom Wintringham.

The coms were know-alls who claimed the absolute truth of their political convictions. They were ambitious, powerlusting politicians. Once, when I had to visit their headquarters in Barcelona, I got a shock when I found there two Germans in prominent positions, whose criminal backgrounds were well known to me. I could not reconcile their presence with the cause they were serving.

Other foreigners had turned up in the Hotel Falcon, who had come to fight in the war. We were fitted out with mechanics' overalls, the "mono", each was issued with a rifle and cartridge belt. One day a platoon was complete.

to the front

G. [Greville Texidor] had meanwhile obtained a perfectly legal divorce from her Catalan husband; she was free to marry again. It was a form of war-marriage ceremony that we went through, whose international legality was rather dubious, so that we had no qualms about concealing it from authorities in other countries.

CONTENTS

on the waterfront:
war on the waterfront
from the picketline
50 years ago

SWO and anarchism

glimpses of an alternative society (part 2)

international news roundup

uncle sam's balls of doom

eminem and the prolephobes

The day after our wedding, the group climbed on a small truck and set off for Aragon. It was a little International Brigade in miniature - long before the famous International Brigade of the Communists had come into existence. We were four Frenchmen - one of them had been a professional soldier - two Swiss - a young man and a girl - two Hungarians, Antonion the Italian, and myself; a little band of upright anti-fascists, bravely going to war.

In the Catalan villages, we were cheered. There was still buoyant enthusiasm for the revolution and the war. As we reached the flat land beyond Lerida and were travelling through the Aragon countryside, the mood of the people was quite different.

These were districts of large estates and bonded peasants. The seriousness of the guards at the local checkpoints reflected the gravity of the social conflict in that area. There had been bitter fighting against the property owners and their allies, the police and the clergy. Again and again we were told of shootings and executions.

in the firing line

The headquarters of the Second Column was in Caspe - the First Column was advancing on the Northern bank of the Ebro, led by the Anarchist leader Durruti. We pleaded to be sent to a larger unit of the POUM which was stationed in the neighbourhood, but the Anarchist Ortiz, who was the spokesman of that sector, declined our request with a curt and pointed question: "Have you come to engage in politics, or to fight?"

The following day a new "centuria", a company, was made up of us and other small groups that had arrived in Caspe, and were sent by train to La Zaida, which was then the Front. Sure enough, at the exit of the village was a sign which simply said "Firing Line!" A battery of light artillery was in position and there were three other Centurias, two of them Anarchist.

We soon discovered that the word "Firing Line" only meant that from the village onwards there was No-man's Land; the enemy, the fascists, had dug themselves in at "Quinto" about ten to fifteen kilometres distant, after having been driven out of their positions on the hills overlooking La Zaida. This village remained the Front until the end of the Civil War, until the military collapse of the Republican forces in 1938.

the anarchists return

For the next few days we, the recent arrivals, were the sole defenders of the village, because the Anarchists had temporarily departed to attack the little town of Belchite, which lay to the South. They did not succeed in taking it; much later it was taken and completely destroyed by the Republican Army.

When the Anarchists returned after their unsuccessful action, I got to know them properly. It was more than an encounter, but became a real, vital experience.

In the lifestyle of the Anarchists I found everything that had been missing among the communists: a truly social behaviour of the individual, a form of organisation in which men were free but would agree voluntarily to restrictions limiting their freedom.

This became evident when we, as part of the "garrison", took part in the first meeting of the militia. There were fierce arguments, obstinate assertions - yet the general tone of the meeting was one of tolerance, even when the most outrageous and farfetched opinions were uttered. The decisions were not made by majority vote, but somebody - usually one of the elected delegates - interpreted the general consensus of opinion, which was accepted as binding.

This seemingly chaotic procedure did surprise me. I realised later that those Anarchists whose philosophical convictions had become an integral part of their personalities possessed certain spiritual mechanisms which inhibited the egotism of the individual and activated the will to find a solution beneficial for the whole group.

Our group consisted of Spaniards from the South of Spain, who had come to Barcelona to find work - even among these so volatile and usually emotionally uncontrolled people, this restrained behaviour had become second nature. This was confirmed to me many times after I had shared their life for a considerable time.
-Werner Droescher (Part 3 will appear in the next issue of Thrall)