How do the SWP re-write the history of the Spanish Revolution?
The SWP, after re-writing Russian history, move onto Spanish history: “It did not happen in Spain in 1936. The C.N.T., a trade union heavily influenced by anarchist ideas, led a workers’ uprising in the city of Barcelona that year. Workers’ councils effectively ran the city. “But the capitalist state machine did not simply disappear. The government and its army, which was fighting against Franco’s fascist forces, remained, although it had no authority in Barcelona. “The government even offered to hand power over to the leaders of the C.N.T. But the C.N.T. believed that any form of state was wrong. It turned down the possibility of forming a workers’ state, which could have broken the fascists’ coup and the capitalist state. “Worse, it accepted positions in a government that was dominated by pro-capitalist forces. “That government crushed workers’ power in Barcelona, and in doing so fatally undermined the fight against fascism.” It is hard to know where to start with this distortion of
