Evening star., 1936-09-18
BY WALTER DURANTY.

~ Radio to The Star.
TOULON, France, September 18.-
The key to an understanding of events
in Spain is the fact that, in the four
great cities of Madrid. Barcelona,
Valencia and Malaga where the re-
bellion was suppressed, the suppress
sion was accomplished not by govern
ment troops or by the civil guards
that we'll trained gendarmerie which,
on the whole, is more inclined toward
the Fascists than to the 'frente
popular"-but by armed workers,
militia" labor unions and workers
In the political parties.
To suppress the rebellion, they were
given arms or took arms without per-
mission. Not only in those four
cities, but elsewhere throughout
Spain workers organizations seized or
were given arms and fought the rebels
with success or failure.
That single fact. the possession Of
arms by the workers, Immediately
changed the whole state of affairs
There might be no Lenin and no
BolShevik party, but the possession of
arms gave power to the workers and
made the labor unions-they call them
syndicates in Spain-and the labor
political organizations the dominant
factor on the antiFascist side.
Workers Militia in Power.
This is most obviously true In
Catalonia, where the government, or
"generalitat" is little more than
rubber stamp to countersigL the
orders of the all-powerful workers
militia. I had proof of this the
moment crossed the French border
to Portbou. I had a personal letter
from the Spanish Ambassador to
Paris, recommending me to all and
sundry. 1t worked like magic with the
customs and government officials in
the Portbou station. But they added
gently, "if you want to go on to rar-
celona, you need the stamp Of the
Militia Committee. Their office Is
down on the seafront."
I went down to the Seafront and
found group of youngsters with rifles
and revolvers and the red and black
emblemS of anarchism. The Anar-
chists rule Catalonia, but they are not
what the word means to Americans
crazy bandits throwing bombs. In
Catalonia the Anarchists are the most
important political party, although
slightly exceeded in numbers by
the Catalan Nationalist party, and.
whatever may or may not be their
anarchic ideas of individual freedom,
they are beginning to develop fairly
efficient system of governmental con-
troll.
So these young Anarchists looked
over my papers and shrugged their
shoulders at the signature of the
Spanish Ambassador to Paris. The
fact that came from Moscow turned
the scales, although they were careful
to remark that they did not approve
the Bolsheyik bureaucracy.
Moscow Connections Helpful.
"That's not freedom" they said
"That's not the dictatorship of the
proletariat, but a dictatorship over the
proletariat, and We do not approve it,
I heard the same thing later in Bar
celona, but nevertheless my Moscow
connections were a guarantee.
The train ran smoothly to BARGE
Iona, although its guards, armed to
the teeth and wearing the red and
black insignia of anarchism, were
careful to tell me that the road was
now run by the workers. I'VE have
thrown out all the bosses and station
masters" they said. Our t. .ins are
now run by the workers-we have no
use for bosses"
Il was the same story in Barcelona.
There were no private cars or taxi
cabs. Everything had been taken over,
not by the government, but by the
Catalan Nationalists, the allied militia, |
the Anarchists and the Socialists,
which latter include everything from
mild Second Internationalists of
the Macdonald school to 100 per
cent Stalinist Bolsheviks, independent
Marxists and Trotskyite Bolsheviks.
After some delay, found horse
cab which had not been requisitioned,
and drove to one of the smaller hotels.
For some mysterious reason, horse
cabs can exist in days of revolution.