How can the city function?
In July 1936, busy people and trade unionists took delivery of essential services to ensure their daily life in Barcelona.
Historic buildings such as the Ritz Hotel were transformed into comedores, organized by the community to provide entertainment to the community. The important thing was not just to occupy spaces: it was to organize them, arrange them and make them function.
An exclusive luxury hotel for the elite has been converted into a popular comedor. The important thing was not the building. It was the organization.
«Let’s not expropriate for expropiar; expropiamos para reconstruir.»— Diego Abad de Santillán
How do you start a collective?
When the old owners disappear, I need to decide how to organize the production and daily life.
From improvisation, many collections followed a similar esquema: inventory the available resources, elect advice and create committees to coordinate the work, the construction and the services.
No more of anything. For years, the libertarian movement has debated how it could organize a society based on cooperation and direct management.
«An Alpargatas factory was created, which catered to the needs of all collectors. A Zapatería taller, a Calderines for the extraction of wine alcohol, a Almazara for the extraction of olive oil, a Depósito-Almacén, a taller for the construction and repair of wagons, a mechanical taller, a Harinas Factory and an Industrial Matadero”—Juan Caba Guijarro
Would you like to know more about the collection of members?
« A School of Arts and Crafts was inaugurated, where music, ceramics, mechanics, oenology, electricity and the secretariat of collectivism were taught »
Learning from an organized community, 90 years after: Membership (Ciudad Real)
How do we organize the work?
A collective was just the beginning.
You then have to continue extrayendo carbon, manufacture, transport, cultivate and stick to the population.
To do this, the workers were organized into groups according to the distinguished workers. Each group elects delegates to coordinate the tasks and respond before the meeting, from where the most important decisions take place.
The revolution did not eliminate labor organization.
«The revolution manifested itself above all through the creative capacity of the workers.»— Gaston Leval, Colectividades libertarias en España
How is the food department organized?
Producing is not enough.
Food must be connected to the population in a quick, organized and efficient way.
In many places, trade unions, cooperatives and collections have encouraged new forms of distribution to reduce costs and avoid speculation. In Bilbao, for example, old-timers could directly purchase the unloaded fish from fishing boats, regardless of intermediaries.
No, it is not just about producing more. It is also about producing better.
«No more hacer la revolution; I have to organize the new life.”— Lucía Sánchez Saornil
How does Sanitation work?
The revolution did not just transform work or production.
We also reorganized essential services such as free sanitation.
Hospitals, dispensaries and care centers began to coordinate to expand medical care and make it more accessible to the population. Personal doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and auxiliaries collaborated to maintain a health system operating under enormous pressure. In those years there were also important advances in public health and reproductive rights, such as the regulation of the voluntary cessation of embarrassment in Catalonia in 1936.
Taking care of a society was also a way of building it.
«Our duty was to take the medicine to where it had never been delivered.»— Federica Montseny
How has education transformed?
Social transformation is not limited to work or public services. I also encouraged education.
During the 1936 Revolution, schools, wardens, libraries and educational spaces were inspired by a rationalist, secular, scientific education oriented towards the integral development of childhood.
Education did not only mean transmitting knowledge, but also forming free, critical and capable people to actively participate in society.
Education also formed part of social transformation.
«The revolution demands creative capacity.»— Mujeres Libres
How do you make decisions?
When the collections began to expand, it was also necessary to create spaces where we could share experiences, discuss problems and coordinate decisions.
Assemblies, plenos and meetings allow delegations from distinguished places to exchange proposals and focus on issues that affect the group.
Coordination did not replace the autonomy of each community: it was strengthened through cooperation and mutual support.
Organizing also meant deciding together. «The assembly is the most perfect expression of the collective will.» —Isaac Puente
