The anarchist and revolutionary society that took hold in Catalonia after the defeat of the July 1936 military coup in Barcelona. The CNT-FAI anarcho-syndicalists — with the POUM and the UGT — collectivized factories, farms, transport and services across the region; the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia was the real governing body until its dissolution on 1 October 1936, after which the constitutional Generalitat under Lluis Companys formally governed while the unions remained de facto in command of the economy and the militias.
The revolution was broken in the Barcelona "May Days" of 3-8 May 1937 (CNT/POUM against the Communist-backed Generalitat and the police), after which the Republican state and the PSUC reasserted central authority, the POUM was outlawed, and collectivization was rolled back. Catalonia remained Republican until it fell to the Nationalists in January-February 1939.
The most exhaustive study of Republican-zone politics, the anarchist revolution and its counterrevolutionary reversal — the CNT collectives in Catalonia and Aragon and the suppression of the Council of Aragon. (ISBN verified.)
The standard single-volume narrative history; covers revolutionary Barcelona, the May 1937 days, and the Aragon collectives and their dissolution by Lister. (ISBN verified.)
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