‘Els Fets de Maig’ 1
by kvennarad
Will you come to Barcelona,
will you come, will you come.
Will you bring your ammunition
and your gun, and your gun.
Durruti will be there
flying buckets in the air.
Will you come to Barcelona,
will you come.
(adapted by MM from ‘Will you come to the Mission’, anon.)
__________
My ‘normal’ output of poetry will continue, but from now and during early May I hope to post some poetry to mark the 75th anniversary of the betrayal of the Spanish Revolution. The history is complex, controversial, and has been largely suppressed for many years. In 1936 the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) spearheaded the world’s first successful experiment in ‘anarcho-syndicalism’ in Catalonia, in tandem with other anarchist movements in the Spanish towns and countryside. For about a year the region thrived, run democratically from the ground upwards by its working people and peasants. However in 1937 there occurred the events which became known in Catalan by the ironical name of els Fets de Maig (the May Day celebrations)…
I bid you well in your Spanish Revolution project.
Thanks.
salut e forza al canut.
i probably messed that up, but it’s catalan calor amable abrazos abiertos.
turning misadventures into song or maybe that’s andalucia speak before the olympic torch snuffed gaudi’s last pogo stick and got spain into europe.
looking forward to your 75th anniversary tribute marie!!
I’ll see what I can magic out of the Catalan hat.
As an Orwell fan, I am probably more POUM than CNT, but I salute the sentiment.
Visiting Seville for the first time a few years back, I visited the cathedral – the sheer amount of gold and silver used to produce “shock and awe” made me a raving anti-clericalist. There were plenty of CNT stickers on walls outside, and I could see why…
CNT, of course, survives, I am glad to say. I have read ‘Homage to Catalonia’ and of course I have seen Ken Loach’s ‘Land and Freedom’ (did you know you can now download that film free of charge?). More lately I have seen Vicente Aranda’s ‘Libertarias’, which engages me very much because of its anarchist/feminist theme; it also deals with issues around religion – I wrote a review of it here http://mairibheag.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/vicente-arandas-libertarias-reviewed.html (my occasional blog for humour, politics, and folk-dancing!). There was, at early stages in the Revolution, much good will and cooperation between anarchists, socialists, decent grass-roots communists, and non-aligned anti-fascists. Thank you for your visit and your comment.
DENNIS: I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take
it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.
ARTHUR: Yes.
DENNIS: But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified
at a special biweekly meeting.
ARTHUR: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,–
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: –but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more–
ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh — who does he think he is?
ARTHUR: I am your king!
- Sorry, had to. feel free to delete as this project is near and dear to your heart. Just sparked a fun and random memory!
Cheers.
Who was that?
Dunno. Must have been a king or something.
How do you know?
Well he didn’t have sh*t all over him!
[Something like that anyway.]
Well played!