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Barcelona May Days

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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

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the Spanish Civil War & the Spanish Revolution

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--05-08

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José Díaz Juan Negrín Manuel Azaña Eusebio Rodríguez Salas

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*Beginning of Counter-Revolution *POUM activities clamped down on *Consolidation of state power in Barcelona and Catalonia

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CNT/FAI Spanish Republic *Guardia de Asalto Generalitat of Catalonia POUM Friends of Durruti Group FIJL Communist Party of Spain *Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia

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Barcelona and wider Catalonia

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Barcelona May Days

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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.