The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-26

the administration of the Commune
and to arrange for the defense of
the workers and peasants republic.
The documents and deeds of the
Asturias Commune are now being
studied by the whole proletariat of
Spain as examples of what the
workers are capable of when they
fight for power. The Revolutionary
Committee Of Mieres (Asturias),
when it achieved power, ISSUED a
proclamation declaring that "acting
on the will of the people and watch
ing over the interests of the revolu-
ton, it is resolved to take all mea-
sures with the necessary energy in
order to direct the course of the
movement"
Strict Discipline
These measures provided for the
registration of all workers eligible
to bear arms. Registration bureaus
were set up. They provided that
anyone caught looting would be
shot. Everyone possessing arms was
called on to report at the Commit
tees headquarters, so that only
workers could retain arms, while
their enemies were disarmed. All
food and clothing were confiscated
for the use of the people and for
the Red Army. All members of
trade unions and workers political
parties and youth organizations
were called on to report with their
cards so that they could be assigned
responsible tasks in connection with
the workers government and the
Red Army. In order to organize the
fighting on the most effective basis,
it was decreed: 1T is strictly pro-
hibited to fire shots at airplanes
from Nfles, pistols or hunting guns,
without the express orders of this
Committee"
The Red Army, though hastily
assembled, was we'll organized and
disciplined, consisting chiefly of the
Asturias miners, soldiers, munitions.
factory workers, peasants. Leaders
sprang from the ranks. Special
corps of miners were organized to
dynamite the troops sent against
them. With the greatest daring
and skill they carried out their
work. AS one Spanish bourgeois
correspondent put it: They carried
out their tasks with amazing eff
cheney and without the slightest re-
gard for their own lives"
Another correspondent tells of the
Workers Red Army marching into
Oviedo:
Indescribable Spectacle
"I watched them march through.
1t was an indescribable spectacle.
The first of the men carried bask-
cts with self-manufactured hand
grenades. With the shout: For
ward, comradesp they charged into
the whitening fire of the Civil
Guards, who were barricaded in the
building of the telephone headquar-
ters."
One doctor in Oviedo, who was
impressed into the medical service
of the Red Army of Asturias, writ
ing in the reactionary Spanish
newspaper, 'Estampa," of his ex-
periences. tell of the undying hero
ism of the Asturias workers. The
wounded began to pour into the
hospitals. Workers badly injured
were impatient at the delay of the
doctors. They wanted to get back
to the firing lines. The doctor tells
of one fighter who was brought in.
"P a tch me up quickly" one
wounded man demanded. do me
first. 7 want to get back. We must
take Santa Clara Barracks. 1t is
full of Civil Guards
IT looked at the man. He had a
gaping wound on the side OF his
neck.
"'You must go to bed,' the doc
tor ordered.
1.-THE man refused to go to bed
and went off without attention. The
next day he was dead in the road
way.
"A wounded man arrived, sup
ported by a thin youngSter with the
face of woman. He carried rifle
slung over his shoulder and bando-
liers of cartridges. Turning to me,
probably because I was nearest, he
declared: It's terrible What's
terrible?' I asked. 'Comrade Bel
arme has been shot. When he saw
that we were not making as much
progress as he would have liked at
the Prefecture, he dashed forward
| without cover, to bomb the place
and they shot him down with a
volley.' DO you think I asked
that your ideals are worth all
that, all this slaughter?' We want
nothing more than Communism,
he answered. But don't forget my
friend I pointed out, your at
tempt to establish Communism has
collapsed everywhere else in Spain.
That was because the others didn't