The role of social anarchism and geography in constructing a radical agenda

Abstract

David Harvey’s response to Simon Springer (2014) raises important questions about the places from which to draw ideas for a radical geography agenda. Nevertheless, Harvey ignores critical contributions that social anarchists (including social geographers) have made to understanding both the theory and practice of social transformation. We draw on studies of the anarchist movement in Spain before and during the Spanish Civil War to explore some of what social anarchism has to contribute to geography and contemporary struggles for a more equitable society.

Feeding the City and Making the Revolution: Women and Urban Agriculture in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)

“…In the Republican side of Spain, the collapse of the state ignited a social revolution particularly powerful during the first year of the war in anarchist‐controlled Catalonia (Ackelsberg and Breitbart 2017; Breitbart 1978b). Several authors have noted that this revolutionary period culminated with the so‐called May Events in 1937, when different factions of the Republican side (CNT‐FAI anarchists and POUM Marxists on one side, and the communist party PSUC and the socialist trade union UGT, backed by ERC and the Catalan government, on the other) 4 clashed violently, mainly in Barcelona but also in other parts of Catalonia.…”

“…Ealham (2010) has argued that the revolution was incomplete due to the lack of a revolutionary institution governing over the war effort and the collectivisations, allowing therefore the emergence and consolidation of a counter revolutionary process that reconstructed the old state and eroded collective work. Other authors have attributed the repression to the Catalan and Spanish governments dismantling most of social revolutionary advances (Ackelsberg and Breitbart 2017; Chomsky 1969).…”

Barcelona okupa! Una posible historia de la okupación en Barcelona

“…Se abrieron ateneos, centros contraculturales que funcionan como universidades populares (estos centros, que ya existían en el siglo xix, suelen constar de librería, programan actividades, charlas, excursiones, etc.). Estos centros, al igual que ya ocurriera en los años treinta ( Ackelsberg y Breitbart, 2017;Navarro, 2016), eran conformadores de identidad de grupo y desarrollaban una conciencia y actitudes críticas, mediante una cultura y educación que transformara individual y socialmente. Un ejemplo que perdura hasta hoy (y último remanente de esas recuperaciones u ocupaciones 7 vecinales de finales de los 70) es el Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris, un centro cultural de control directo y autogestionado -hoy en día cedido por el Ayuntamiento-para el vecindario de este barrio obrero.…”