The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-14
SOVietS in Spain
ViVidly RecredteS
Spanish Uprising
SOVIETS IN SPAIN, The October
Armed Uprising Against Fas-
cism, by Harry Cannes. Workers
Library Publishers. Ten cents.
Reviewed by ]. L.

reviewed by j. IL.
FOR fifteen days the Red Flag
flew over the Province of As
turias in Spain. In the ordinary
run of life fifteen days are hardly
noticeable. But in this short period
the foundation of a new society
was laid last October. In these two
weeks while bitter fighting ragged
throughout the land of Catholic
reaction, Soviet governing ap-
paratus was set up, Red Army
created, industries taken into the
hands of the workers, land divided
up among the peasantry, and the
people Of Spain and the rest Of the
world shown once more why Com
munism."
To a revolutionary worker any
publication dealing with a revolu-
ton that has been made is exciting,
but "Soviets in Spain" written in
an easy-going, flowing style, is
especially welcome. 1t shows the
miserable conditions of the Span
ish worker and peasant still in a
semi-feudal state in spite of the
land laws of the Republic, it pro-
ceeds to the general strike and
armed uprising, taking up the
causes for the defeat and ending
with the victory breathing procla-
nation of the Party that more than
ever shows the way-the Spanish
section of the Communist Interna-
tional.
In 1881 the Spanish monarchy
fell under the advancing revolu-
tionary tide. AS in Austria and
Germany in 1918 the Socialist
Party announced the arrival of the
new society. Without blooshed, the
Socialists declared, the land would
be given to the peasantry, the
power of the church broken, indus
try harnessed to the will of the
people. The Socialist Party took
over the major responsibility for
the government.
Although the workers gained a
bit through the laws introduced by
the bourgeois Republic after Alfonso
was forced to flee, Comrade Cannes
has marshalled few figures which
strikingly reveal the conditions that
forced the people of Spain onto
ever higher struggles up to the
armed uprising. The strike figures
issued by the government, although
greatly Understanding the actual
number, admit that 369 900 work
ers struck in 1881; the 1888 rec
ords state that 1,032,000 workers
went on strike, and in the first
quarter of 1884 more than 100000
workers resorted to strike action
mainly on political issues. Similar
figures are given to show the senti-
ments of the peasants.
There are 100000 landless agri-
cultural workers who earn from so
to rs cents a day. Two per cent
of the Spanish landowners own ST
per cent of the land. The land
laws, so widely heralded in the So
cialist and capitalist press as hav-
ing solved the agrarian problem,
were farcical; only 10000 peasants
profited even in the slightest de-
gree. The Province of Catalonia
still was denied self determination.
These were the conditions that
drove the Spanish workers and
peasants to storm the heavens. D"
That they did not succeed this time
is not due to their lack of bravery.
Comrade Cannes quotes from the
capitalist press to prove once again
that the rising proletariat fighting
as a class is made of the best.
THE struggle reached its peak in
Asturias. In other parts of
Spain sporadic fighting went on.
The evolutionary power of Asturias
appealed to the rest of Spain. The
appeals are reprinted in "Soviets
in Spain. But number of fac
tors prevented the whole country
going Red. Asturias fell after a
bitter struggle.
The causes of this defeat of the
Spanish revolution were; The revo-
luton was not organized. The So
cialist Party, the largest of the
workers organizations, took up the
fight only as defensive measure,
at the last moment. The DeasantS-