Barcelona May Days Barcelona May Days ( " Els Fets de Maig " in Catalan , " Los Hechos de Mayo " in Spanish . In both languages , the more literal translation is " May Events " or " May Incidents " ) were a period of civil violence in Catalonia , between May 3 and May 8 , 1937 , when factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged each other in street battles in the city of Barcelona . Clashes began when units of the Assault Guard ( Guardia de Asalto ) – under the control of police chief Eusebio Rodríguez Salas and under the influence of the USSR - backed Communist Party of Spain and its local wing , the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( PSUC ) – attempted to take over an anarchist - run telephone building in Barcelona . This was part of a series of similar appropriations by the Catalan government of worker - controlled industries at the behest of the USSR to crush anti - Stalinist labor forces In this case , the workers fought back : holding the telephone exchange was not only a matter of prestige for the anarchists , but also a strong - point in any struggle for power in the city . A call to arms was issued , and conflict spread throughout Barcelona . Five days of street fighting ensued with workers of various labor designations , many of whom were sympathetic to the anti - Stalinist POUM , built barricades against and exchanged fire with the " guardias de asalto " , stormtroopers and PSUC . Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( CNT ) workers were eventually persuaded into a compromise by Juan García Oliver , amongst others . The Republican government , heavily influenced by its main international benefactor , the USSR , sent 10 , 000 Assault Guard troops to Barcelona to take control of the city . British author George Orwell describes these events , in which he took part , in Chapter 10 of his book " Homage to Catalonia " . Other first hand accounts include German anarchist Augustin Souchy who wrote of the May Days in his book " The Tragic Week in May " and the Swedish socialists Ture Nerman and August Spångberg who were also present in Barcelona and wrote about their experiences in their autobiographies . The events were also illustrated in the award - winning film " Land and Freedom " . Communist Party of Spain perspective . The PCE was the most powerful faction in the crumbling Republican government and was a bitter enemy of the anarchists . Their perspective is expressed in the memoirs of leading Communist Party figure Dolores Ibárruri ( more commonly known as " La Pasionaria " ) . Ibárruri ascribed the events to an " anarchotrotskyist " attempt at shutting down the Republican government on orders from General Francisco Franco , acting in tandem with Adolf Hitler . According to her , the violence was the culmination of an anarchist plot which included plans to stop the movement of trains and cut all telegraph and telephone lines ; she cites an " order [ from the Catalan government ] to its forces to control the telephone building and disarm all people whom they encounter in the streets without proper authorization " as the aim of the anarchist plan . She did not provide any evidence to support these claims , which were widely held by fellow Party members at the time but have since been discredited . The Communist Party alleged the anarchist " putsch " to be motivated by their resentment of the centralized military command sought by the Communists and their allies the Catalan government under Lluis Companys , and desire to seize political power . Socialist perspective . George Orwell in his book " Homage to Catalonia " sees the May Days as a suppression of the revolution by parties backed by Stalin ' s USSR such as the PSUC . He argued that the USSR did not want genuine socialist revolution in Spain . He describes Barcelona in 1936 as a city under the control of the workers - police replaced by workers ' patrols , workplaces collectivised - and the egalitarian nature of the militias in Barcelona ( such as the POUM militia in which he served ) . He contrasts this with the oppressive police state that developed after May and the subsequent suppression of the POUM . Emma Goldman , a prominent American anarchist , adds to Orwell ' s account in her " Letter to the editor of the times on issues of current interest " . Orwell wrote : " It will never be possible to get a completely accurate and unbiased account of the Barcelona fighting , because the necessary records do not exist . Future historians will have nothing to go upon except a mass of accusations and party propaganda " . In the second appendix of his book , he explains that the spark of the friction among Republican forces was the government order to surrender all private weapons in order to build up a non - political police force , from which trade union members would be excluded . Result of the Conflict . The ultimate result of the battle was the further erosion of worker control of the city and the beginnings of widespread Counter - Revolution . The POUM was dispersed , its publications banned , and its leaders arrested . The Republic conducted mass arrests of the Catalan workers and dissolved the agricultural collectives in Aragon by force of arms . Mandatory conscription in the Republic ' s Popular Front army was enacted , in which the volunteer militias were absorbed or otherwise its members declared deserters . Ironically , though the Anti - Stalinists among the workers were silenced in the Counter - Revolution , the USSR ' s Fascist Enemies defeated the Republic in 1939 . As Stéphane Courtois writes , “ [ Stalin ] played his game boldly against the independence of the Spanish People , but feebly against Franco . He succeeded in murderous intrigue , but failed in waging war . ”