Peace Protests Break Out Against the Moroccan War

In most countries the working classes, on the outbreak of a war, are apt, for a time at least, to yield to the contagion of patriotic fervor, and shout themselves hoarse with war-cries and war-songs. Why was the sentiment of the Spanish working class so utterly different?

Continuing Spanish Civil War Prelude,
with a selection from Barcelona Outbreak by William Archer. This selection is presented in 5 easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Spanish Civil War Prelude.

Time: 1909
Place: Barcelona

And dotted everywhere — facing us at every turn — throughout this city of modern industrialism are monasteries, con vents, religious houses of one sort or another, some humble and unpretending enough, but many of them vast and splendid. Some are devoted to education, others to works of charity; but none, it would seem, has succeeded in earning the respect, much less the love, of the working classes, who accuse the frailes of humiliating and exploiting the children they profess to teach and train. Exempt from taxation, some of the religious houses compete in the production of certain commodities; and this unfair competition is keenly resented by the people.

In July of 1909 all Spain was thrown into tumult by the sudden outbreak of an unexpected war with the Arabs of Morocco, in the region of Melilla. The war was bitterly unpopular among the common people of Spain. Yet large numbers of troops were hurried to Melilla, and by way of Barcelona. From the 14th onward, transports left the harbor every day; and on Sunday, the 18th, the departure of a local battalion was accompanied by scenes of wild lamentations and protest. Similar outbreaks occurred at many other points throughout Spain. On the 20th the populace of Madrid attempted to prevent the entrainment of a regiment, and the Southern Station was the scene of a serious riot. Meanwhile Republicans, Socialists, Anarchists, and workmen’s organizations of all sorts were everywhere trying to hold meetings of protest against the war, and the authorities were everywhere sitting on this safety-valve. The news from Melilla, as it filtered through the censorship, grew every day more ominous. Since it was evident that the truth was not being told, rumor set to work to correct official reticence with its usual fertility of lurid invention. The fact that the Cortes were not sitting left the Maura Cabinet the unchecked despots of Spain; and the fact that Senor Maura declined to summon the Cortes showed that this despotism was essential to the carrying through of his policy.

In most countries the working classes, on the outbreak of a war, are apt, for a time at least, to yield to the contagion of patriotic fervor, and shout themselves hoarse with war-cries and war-songs. Why was the sentiment of the Spanish working class so utterly different? The reasons are clear, and may be grouped under three heads. In the first place, the Anarchism which is dominant among the Spanish operatives is essentially an internationalist and pacifist doctrine. Its very name declares it antipatriotic. It regards the flag without emotion, and considers the “national honor” a myth invented by the soldiers and priests who conspire with the capitalists in that process of exploitation which they call government. In this respect, too, the views of the Socialists are practically identical with those of the Anarchists. Both parties accept the principle laid down at the Congress of Stuttgart: “Better insurrection than war.” In the second place, this particular campaign had all the appearance of a war of sheer aggression undertaken at the dictation of a group of millionaires, closely allied with the Government, whose interests were inexpressibly indifferent to the Spanish work man. It was believed, too, rightly or wrongly, that many of the mining shares were held by, or for, the Jesuits. In the third place, — and it was this that brought the women in their thousands into the ranks of the protesters, — the incidence of military service was exasperatingly unjust. On the one hand, the son of the bourgeois who could afford to pay three hundred dollars for exemption need not join the army at all; on the other hand, most of the reservists now being called out were men who, after two years with the colors, had been permitted to return to civil life and to marry. They were now torn from their wives and families, to throw away their lives — as seemed only too probable — in an ill-omened war, undertaken for the enrichment of a few financiers. That was how the campaign represented itself to the popular mind, especially in Catalonia. What wonder if the women who crowded the wharves of Barcelona on Sunday, the 18th, cried to their sweethearts and husbands as they marched through the throng: “Throw away your rifles! Don’t embark! Let the rich men go! All or no body!” Some kind Catholic ladies who boarded the transports, dressed in their Sunday finery, to distribute scapularies and other appropriate trifles to the soldiers, were shocked to see their benefactions thrown into the sea.

On Friday, the 23rd, there was to have been a general assembly of delegates of the Solidaridad Obrera, a federation of working men’s societies of all shades of opinion, the Catalan counterpart of the French Confederation Generale du Travail. The Civil Governor, Don Angel Ossorio, decided to prohibit the meeting; and it was probably this prohibition which determined the outbreak. A Strike Committee of three was instantly formed, representing Socialists, Syndicalists (trades- unionists), and Anarchists; but the Solidaridad Obrera, as such, was not represented. Who these three men were is perfectly well known. I have had long talks with one of them. They scout the idea that it would ever have occurred to them to take Ferrer into their confidence. Each of the three had a lieutenant; each lieutenant was to communicate with four delegates; each delegate with four others, and so on. By this simple but effective means the call to a general strike for Monday, the 26th, spread through the manufacturing towns of Catalonia. It was nominally to be a pacific contest, lasting twenty-four hours only, against the Moroccan adventure. There were doubtless many who hoped and believed that it would not end there; but of actual organization for anything further no one has discovered a trace. “In Barcelona,” says Don Angel Ossorio, the Civil Governor before mentioned, “no one prepares a revolution, for the simple reason that it is always prepared. … Of conspiracy, of plan, of concerted action, of casting of parts, of recruitment, of payment, of distribution of arms, of issuing of orders, in preparation for the events of the 26th, I have not heard a single word.”

William Archer begins here. Perceval Gibbon begins here.

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