The Friends of Durruti were an anarchist affinity group founded in March 1937. This edition of Balance examines the process whereby the Friends of Durruti emerged, their ideological characteristics and the evolution of their political thinking, their dealings with the Trotskyists, and the reasons behind the failure of their fight to recover anarcho-syndicalism's doctrinal purity and salvage the Spanish revolution of 1936. There follows a chronology which, though selective rather than exhaustive, contains heretofore unpublished information. This chronology is intended to afford familiarity with the essential historical events, so that the arguments spelled out in this study may be more readily and strictly comprehensible. Where the workers offer armed resistance, the rebels fail, securing victory only where there are attempts at conciliation or no armed confrontation.
Civil war erupts.
No workers' organization takes power. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Smirnov executed. Radek placed under arrest. These are shortly to be replaced by new, Popular Front-style town councils. A Generalidad decree orders militarization of the People's Militias.