Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

A major figure in Spain's anarchosyndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Labor Confederation, CNT) and Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Iberian Anarchist Federation, FAI), García Oliver was one of four anarchists who entered the Republican government in November 1936, becoming minister of justice. He, Francisco Ascaso Abadía , and Buenaventura Durruti , known as “the three musketeers,” were fierce opponents of reformism in the CNT. As a leading anarcho-Bolshevik, García Oliver argued for a Leninist conception of revolution, a position not completely shared by the others. He supported the revolutionary tactics of the Republican period and the creation of a CNT–FAI militia, and was at the forefront of the successful resistance in Barcelona against the fascist coup, arguing for the CNT to seize power. Leaving the government in 1937, he remained active in politics, proposing the creation of a political party. He ended up in Mexico, supporting the exiled Republican government and defending his collaboration. SEE ALSO: Abad de Santillán, Diego (1897–1983) ; Anarchism, Spain ; Anarchosyndicalism ; Ascaso Abadía, Francisco (1901–1936) ; Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) ; Durruti, Buenaventura (1896–1936) ; Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) ; Mera Sanz, Cipriano (1897–1975) ; Montseny, Federica (1905–1994) ; Peirats Valls, José (1908–1989) ; Pestaña ... log in or subscribe to read full text