The Friends of Durruti and the Maydays in Barcelona (1937)

The “Barcelona Maydays” were an uprising in May 1937 in response to the Republican Government’s attempt to seize power in revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. Tensions had been building between the anarcho-syndicalist CNT membership and the Soviet-controlled Republican army around militarisation and “War or Revolution?”. When armed Communist Party units attacked Barcelona’s telephone exchange, thousands of workers responded with an initially successful armed insurrection. The Friends of Durruti group were central to this opposition and openly criticised CNT leadership collaboration with the Republican Government. This talk examines the events of May 1937, why and how the insurrection was defeated, and the Friends of Durruti’s actions and arguments. The fundamental question remains: should the anarchists have seized power to further the revolution?