Workers Solidarity Movement

The Spanish anarchist organization 'The Friends of Durruti' was formed by members of the CNT in 1937 in opposition to the collaboration of the CNT leadership in the government of Republican Spain. The first heavily censored issue of their paper 'Friend of the People' appeared just after the Mayday's in Barcelona, sections of it are reproduced for the first time in English in this pamphlet.  The Mayday defense of the revolution  in Barcelona was crushed at the cost of 500 lives, including the disappearance, torture and murder of key anarchist organisers by the stalinists.  The Friends of Durruti outlined an alternative path for Spanish anarchists, one intended to not only protect but to expand the revolution and bring it to victory.

This is the English translation of a study of 'The Friends of Durruti' published in 1983 by the French libertarian communist George Fontenis. It traces the path and political weaknesses that led the CNT into collaboration at the cost of standing aside as the revolution was suppressed and the emergence of the Friends of Durruti in reaction to this. It's primary importance is that in reproducing large tracts from their newspaper it allows the Friends of Durruti to speak for themselves. This stands in stark contract to the approach of those who have tried to speak for them in order to conscript them to various ideologies today, some of which they would certainly have rejected out of hand.

The translator, Chekov Feeney, provided the following note when the translation was first published online in 2000. This reproduction of that translation was prepared to mark the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Revolution in 2011.

Andrew Flood - 2011

Note from the translator (Chekov Feeney)
The introduction is not credited and the publishing details are a little bit difficult to discern since there are AL (Alternative Libertaire)  stickers on top of the original publishing information. What I can say is that it is the second edition, published editions "L" and/or AGORA 2000, po box 177, 75267 Paris Cedex 20 and/or Le Fil Du Temps

There is a note on the inside cover that says that the present edition is part of the collective work of Alternative Libertaire.

No date is given for this edition

The title in French is (as it appears on the cover) le message revolutionnaire des "Amis de Durruti" (Espagne 1937) Texte et traductions de Georges Fontenis Avant-Propos de Daniel Guerin.

THE REVOLUTIONARY MESSAGE OF THE "FRIENDS OF DURRUTI" -text and translations by George Fontenis, preface by Daniel GuerinTranslated 1999/2000 by Chekov Feeney