Spanish Protest, Violence, and Left-Wing Unity, 1934 and 2014

The Asturian column on its way to join the Marches for Dignity in Madrid, 22 March 2014 ©Fernando Jiménez Briz via Flickr.

The most representative Civil War poster of the 1934 October ‘Revolution’ in Asturias. [Wikicommons] 

The 1934 ‘Revolution’ or Asturian ‘Commune’ was sparked by the entry of the right-wing CEDA party into government. The revolutionaries believed that the Second Republic, jubilantly proclaimed in 1931, and what it stood for were being dismantled before their eyes. During the insurrection revolutionary committees were established, money was abolished, food and money seized and militias fought with government forces in the provincial capital, Oviedo, and in the mountains on the border with Leon. 

Compared to 1934, the demands of the Marches for Dignity are hardly revolutionary. But by building on the indignados movement of 2010 and resentment of the political establishment (and its calls for ‘Real Democracy, Now!’), the Marches for Dignity movement is not just about unifying struggles, but also maintains that the current model has failed them, thereby questioning the functioning of the political system and the legitimacy of the government.[1] 

The repression of the October ‘Revolution’ was brutal – some 15,000 were prisoned, with the majority maltreated or tortured. Debates after the ‘Revolution’ centred on the destruction wrought and the violence of the repression (and calls for amnesty). Eighty years later, debates over 22 March have become bitter struggles over the use of violence by the police and a minority of protesters (including a false rumour spread by the police unions). Prior to the demonstration and in a clear attempt to lay claim to the centre ground, conservative politicians labelled the protestors as both left- and right-wing extremists. The demonstration on 22 March was peaceful for the most part, but its coverage in the media -and that of incidents since[2]– has been dominated by arguments and discussion over violence. Framing the debate in this way favours the authorities more than the social movements. 

For all of their emphasis on violence and radicalism, there is little prospect of any repeat of 1934 in 2014. The stones thrown in Madrid, captured on television, are a long way from the stock-piling of arms and the training of militias. And while there are worrying reports of police brutality and maltreatment of those arrested, this pales in comparison to the mass use of terror tactics after the 1934 Revolution, which included extrajudicial murder and 15,000 imprisoned, with the majority of those arrested maltreated or tortured. 

In 2014, while state violence is strongly criticised, retaliating or pre-empting the state’s use of violence is not countenanced at all. Rather than planning the capture of the state through the force of arms, violence is something from which to distance oneself. 

Eighty years since the Workers’ Alliance and 75 since the end of the Spanish Civil War, ‘UHP!’,[3] the password and battle-cry of the 1934 ‘Revolution’, echoes down from the past. It remains to be seen whether a united effort will manage to return dignity to those who feel like they’re losing everything in 2014.