85 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
85 lines
4.5 KiB
Markdown
**Mas de las Matas** is a small town in Aragon,
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[Spain](Spain "wikilink") which was a part of [Revolutionary
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Spain](Revolutionary_Spain "wikilink") during the [Spanish Civil
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War](Spanish_Civil_War "wikilink").
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## Revolution
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Despite having a population of around 3,200 in 1936, 2,000 belong to the
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CNT and 300 to the UGT,
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Food is rationed. Only bread is distributed without limit. Of the 3,200
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residents of the village, 2,000 belong to the CNT and 300 to the UGT.
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Five hundred heads of families, a total of 2,000 people, belong to the
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collective. The remaining 300 residents are individualists. They must
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pay for things with money. Since there are no private stores and shops,
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they must buy from the collective where they have a line of credit. Food
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must be rationed for them also. The individualists bring the product of
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their labour to the collective and receive merchandise of equivalent
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value. They can, if they wish, take their goods to the city, but this
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gives them no line of credit. They prefer to work with the collective.
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Authority is in the hands of the CNT. There is a Committee of
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Investigation, but the prison is empty. The community has a flour mill
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which produces for its own consumption. A mill worker explains: "There
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are too many comrades at the front. We do not have enough hands. Our day
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begins at five in the morning and ends after dark. But we like to work
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because we know we are in the fight against fascism."
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Alcohol production for Aragon is located in Saragossa, which is cut off
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from free Spain. New distilleries have been built in the liberated zone.
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A small one is located in this village. It produces 200 litres of
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alcohol per day. The alcohol is shipped to Caspe, provincial capital of
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free Aragon. The former owner continues to work in the distillery and so
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does the technical director. A small dress shop employs ten girls who
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work eight hours a day. Like the mill workers, they are not paid a wage.
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Formerly they received two pesetas a day. Now, in a socialised economy,
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they are doing much better. They are clean and well dressed, and they
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all know how to read and write. There are no unemployed workers
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anywhere. The former owner of the shop is as concerned for the work
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today as in the past. When we visited the shop the workers had already
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left. However, he was still working. We question him:
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"I don't have the burdens and the worries now," he declares. "In the
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past the shop was idle several months a year. Now we work steady through
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the year. I don't have to worry about getting orders. I have enough to
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live. The collective takes care of everything. I worked before. I'm
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still working."
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This former owner took the revolution with equanimity, putting a good
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face on what could not be avoided. Collectivisation took place in the
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town in September, 1936. It was done under the law of confiscation of
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the property of fascists. The collectivity decided to collectivise all
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private property on the basis of the law. The former owners of shops and
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plants did not oppose the new order. The law permitted them to continue
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to own their property, but they joined the collective voluntarily and
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turned over their property.
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The doctor does not belong to the collective. He is known to have
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rightist ideas. But his convictions are respected; he continues to
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practice his profession as previously.
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The collective has not yet created new institutions. Their tolerance of
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the individualists impresses favourably. The individualists are a
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minority. The collectivists are the majority not only in the town, but
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in the entire province. They have the capacity to force the
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individualists to accept the new economic system. But they have not done
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so. Membership in the collective is voluntary. Those who wish to remain
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outside the collective are not condemned. However, the individualists do
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not have the privilege of hiring people to work for them. They can have
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as much land as they can cultivate together with the members of their
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families. They can work for themselves and they have nothing to fear
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from the collective.
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Compared with the collectives, the situation of the individualists is
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poor. Collective work, collective economy offers advantages to the
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members of the collective. The individualist must endure difficulties in
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silence. Many understand this and they join the collective. Only
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dyed-in-the-wool conservatives are unable to change their attitudes.
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The new idea has great suggestive force. The main idea behind
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collectivisation arises out of the philosophy of anarchism, as does
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libertarian communism.
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## References
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<https://libcom.org/history/peasants-aragon> |