Beevan's approach is fresh and different. He understands that much of what made the Spanish Civil War unique from a military viewpoint was the revolution that had taken place. Rather than ignoring the anarchists or treating them as a minor nuisance he puts them where they belong, at the heart of the story.

The first two weeks of the revolution were its high point. A massive wave of working class creativity was released, dealing with a thousand different problems. But these weeks were also the limit of the revolution, after taking most of Spain and controlling practically all of production the revolution stalled.

 In June 2002 I travelled with a group of Irish anarchists to the protests against the EU summit in Seville.  This article reports on the protests and end with a look at the post-Genoa summit protest and a look forward to the Mayday 2004 Summit protest that was to happen in Dublin.

Review of an very good mainstream book on the Spanish Civil War. It places the anarchist inspired social revolution and the libertarian movement at the core of its account of the conflict.

Objectivity and Right-Libertarian Scholarship:

A Reply to Bryan Caplan's Essay "The Anarcho-Statists of Spain: An Historical, Economic, and Philosophical Analysis"

For general information on Anarchist Theory, see An Anarchist FAQ. Please consult its bibliography for the books used in this essay.

Appendix: James Donald and Noam Chomsky

This article has been added as an appendix to James' nonsense on Spain in order to get a better grasp of his technique and to better judge the reliability of his attacks on Spanish anarchism. For, as well as wilfully distorting the history of Spain and the activities of Spanish Anarchists, it should be noted that James Donald has done the same to Noam Chomsky.

Labor Incentives in Catalonia

Here we see James Donald trying to prove that the self-managed collectives created in Catalonia were "really" like "actually existing socialism."

Of course, this may prove to be difficult for James. After all, there are plenty of examples of how democratic the collectives were, but we will say this for him, he tries.

Bait and Switch in Catalonia?

James Donald states that "Some of the 'anarchists' justified their exceedingly unanarchist conduct by convoluted rationalizations. Others spoke more plainly. Macario Royo regarded libertarianism as a mere ruse, to disguise the true nature of socialist revolution," i.e. "totalitarian," according to Donald.

Capitalism in Catalonia?

James Donald claims that the anarchists of Catalonia frequently and spectacularly failed to live up their ideals. In some cases, this is true. For example, the CNT did join the government in the name of anti-fascist unity. Moreover, some anarchists did commit acts of terror although James Donald's claims of "killing fields" are just figments of his imagination.

Serfdom in Catalonia?

Here James Donald attempts to show how the CNT "enserfed" the peasants in Catalonia. He correctly points out that a "serf is bound to the land. He is not free to leave if he objects to his masters mistreatment." and goes on to say that "Every socialist revolution has led to the reintroduction of serfdom". He then quotes Ronald Fraser, page 367 and the testimony of two eyewitnesses, which indicates that their collective was a horrific dictatorship. He then takes this testimony as typical of all the Aragon collectives.