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The May Days (, ), sometimes also called May Events (, ), were a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 during which factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged one another in street battles in various parts of Catalonia, centered on the city of Barcelona.
In those events, libertarian socialist supporters of the Spanish Revolution, such as the anarchist CNT and the anti-Stalinism POUM, which opposed a centralized government, faced others, such as the Republican government, Catalan government and the Communist Party of Spain, which believed in a strong central government.
The events were the culmination of the confrontation between prewar Republican legality and the Spanish Revolution, which had been in constant strife since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.
The climate of distrust and confrontation was present not only among republican institutions and workers' organizations but also between those organizations, especially of anarchists toward socialists, communists and Catalan nationalists. Even among the communists, there was much division. The Communist Party of Spain (PCE) and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) followed the official doctrine of the Soviet Union and supported the separate handling of war and revolution and defending the Second Spanish Republic. The PCE was the major communist party in the country, but the PSUC was the main communist organization in Catalonia. At the other extreme, the anti-authoritarian POUM (POUM) of former Right Opposition and Left Opposition radically opposed Joseph Stalin and supported carrying out the revolution while the war was raging; the anarchists agreed on that point with the POUM.Hugh Thomas, p. 700.
Tension was rising because a chain of events that took place during the winter that heated the political climate and paved the way for what would take place later. The PCE's campaign against the POUM had begun in March during a political conference in Valencia. The POUM leaders were vilified and accused of being covert Nazi agents under a false revolutionary propaganda of being enemy agents infiltrated in the country.Hugh Thomas, p. 701. The POUM had come to propose an invitation for Leon Trotsky to reside in Catalonia, despite its differences with him. The POUM leaders were becoming increasingly wary during the spring of 1937. Tension in the streets of Barcelona was becoming evident of the arrival of a hot spring: the Patrullas de Control were led by José Asens and continued arbitrarily arresting and murdering in their infamous paseos. Paseo (literally 'take a walk') was a euphemism used during the Spanish Civil War to refer to executions by a firing squad. The victim would be "released" and later shot in the back while he walked away from his captors. Other anarchist patrols practiced expropriations. Josep Tarradellas, as Companys' right hand, was determined to unify the security forces in Catalonia under one command and to finish with the Patrullas de Control.Hugh Thomas, p. 703. On 26 March, Tarradellas banned members of the police from having political affiliation and demanded for all political organizations to hand over their weapons. Thus, anarchists withdrew from the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The open crisis forced Companys to give in to their demands, anarchists retained their weapons, and the Control Patrols remained in place.Hugh Thomas, p. 704.
On 25 April, a force of Carabineros forced patrols of CNT in Puigcerdà to hand over control of the customs house. Juan Negrín, the Finance Minister, had resolved to end the anomaly under which the CNT controlled that important border.Hugh Thomas, p. 705. Puigcerdá had become a center of espionage, falsification of passports and clandestine leakage. Its mayor, Antonio Martin, insisted on general collectivization but raised his own livestock. After a violent confrontation occurred, he and several of his men were killed. Negrín then found it easier to gain control over the other customs posts.
The Guardia Nacional Republicana and the Guardia de Asalto ("Assault Guards") were sent to Figueras and other cities in northern Catalonia to replace CNT patrols. In Barcelona, fear began of an outbreak of open warfare between the anarchists and the POUM against the government and the communists. Each side formed weapon caches and secretly fortified its buildings in for fear that its rivals would attack it first.Hugh Thomas, p. 706.
The tense calm continued for one week. May Day, traditionally a day of celebration, was spent in silence, as the UGT and the CNT agreed to suspend their parades, which inevitably would have caused riots.
There were also groups with other political affiliations that were inclined to return to the Republican legality, the authorities of the Republican Government in Valencia and the Generalitat. They forged an alliance with the aforementioned PSUC and the Republican Left of Catalonia. A third sector was composed by the "possibilist" sector of the CNT, supporting an immediate termination of hostilities between both sides. Although the PSUC was not a Bourgeoisie party, from the point of view of the Republican authorities it presented itself as an alternative to the revolutionary chaos, and it advocated for the strengthening of central government that would replace the local committees. To get this done, they proposed a centrally organized and instructed army, led by a single command. George Orwell summarized the PSUC-party line as follows:
On the position of the POUM, shared by most of the more radical anarchists, like the Friends of Durruti,Friends of Durruti, Towards a fresh revolution (1937) Orwell states:
A crowd gathered in Plaça Catalunya, and at first it was believed that the anarchists had captured the head of the police. The POUM, the Friends of Durruti Group, the Bolshevik-Leninists and the Libertarian Youth took positions, and after a few hours all of the political parties had taken out the weapons that they had hidden and began building barricades. From that skirmish, battles began in various parts of the city. Several hundred barricades were built and police units occupied roofs and church towers.
The PSUC and the government controlled the urban sectors on the east side of the Ramblas. Anarchists dominated the western sectors and all the suburbs. In the city centre, where the headquarters of trade unions and political parties (installed in requisitioned buildings and hotels) were relatively close, shooting began, and cars circulating were machine-gunned.Hugh Thomas, p. 709. In the Telefónica building a truce was agreed and telephone communications, which were essential for war operations, were not interrupted. The police, installed on the first floor, even sent to the anarchists, who occupied the upper floors. However grenades thrown from the rooftops blew up several police cars. Early in the evening the leaders of the POUM proposed to the Barcelona anarchist leaders the formation of an alliance against the communists and the government.Julian Gorkin, Caníbales políticos, p. 69. The anarchists refused immediately.Peirats, La CNT, p. 274.
On the Aragon front, units of the 26th Anarchist Division (former Durruti Column) under the command of Gregorio Jover, gathered in Barbastro to march on Barcelona. However, upon hearing the García Oliver radio broadcast, they remained in their positions.Hugh Thomas, p. 711. Meanwhile, the 28th Division (former Ascaso Column) and the 29th Division of the POUM, commanded by Rovira, didn't cancel their proposed march on Barcelona until the head of the Republican Air Force in the Aragon front, Alfonso Reyes, threatened to bomb them if they pressed on with their plan.
By five o'clock in the afternoon, several anarchists were killed by the police near the Via Durruti (current Via Laietana). The POUM began to support resistance publicly.Julian Gorkin, Caníbales Políticos, p. 69.
A Revolutionary Junta has been constituted in Barcelona. All the culprits of the coup d'etat, that operate under the protection of the government, will be executed. The POUM will be a member of the Junta because they support workers.Hugh Thomas, p. 712.
Nevertheless, both the CNT-FAI and the FIJL refused to take part in the initiative of that group. At about five o'clock, the anarchist authors Camillo Berneri and Francesco Barbieri were arrested by a group of twelve guards, six of them members of the local police and the rest from the PSUC. Both were murdered during their arrest. The climate of alarm worsened when British destroyers arrived at the port. The POUM feared that a bombardment would begin.George Orwell, who occupied a POUM post at the front line, shared this fear. In fact, the British feared that anarchists would take control of the situation, and talks occurred on evacuating foreign subjects from the city. At night, Federica Montseny, Minister of Health and an important member of the CNT, arrived with the purpose of mediating between all of the parties. The Communist Antonio Sesé, General Secretary of the Catalan UGT and a member of the Generalitat's new provisional council, died in a gunfight on his way to receive his new appointment.
The same day, combat occurred in Tarragona and other coastal towns. There too, the Assault Guard proceeded to oust the CNT from the telephone exchanges they had occupied. Similar actions in Tortosa and Vic resulted in a final death toll of 30 anarchists in Tarragona and another 30 in Tortosa. At night, Lluis Companys and then Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero held a telephone conversation in which the Catalan President accepted the Spanish government's offer of assistance for restoring order.Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo, Vida y sacrificio de Companys, p. 210.
A force of about 5,000, most of them Assault Guards, departed from Madrid and Valencia towards Barcelona. Two Republican destroyers and the battleship Jaime I, coming from Valencia, reached the port of Barcelona that night.
The Generalitat of Catalonia, the communists and the central government seemed willing to act together against extremists by force, if necessary. The new Director of Public Order in Barcelona, José Echevarria Novoa, soon restored normality in much of the judicial system, but in that way, the communists could take more easily their crusade against the POUM.Hugh Thomas, p. 714. The republican authorities took no more measures against the CNT and the FAI because of their still-great power and their high level of popular support. The POUM situation was quite different, as the republican government soon outlawed the party, on 16 June, and arrested its main leaders, including Julián Gorkin and Andreu Nin. The POUM would disappear and the anarchists would never intervene in the war as before. Ultimately the internal disputes tore the republic apart and were a burden on its internal unity against the rebels.
Other consequences were the fall of the Government of the Victory, led by Largo Caballero, and the departure of the four anarchist ministers represented in it. It was also a clear victory of communist influence and power in the Spanish Republicans.Hugh Thomas, p. 717.
Films that portray the May Days events of Barcelona include Memorias del general Escobar ( Memories of General Escobar), directed by José Luis Madrid and released in 1984, which tells the story of General Antonio Escobar Huertas and his role during the Spanish Civil War and the Barcelona Events, and the English film director Ken Loach's 1995 film Land and Freedom. George Orwell documented the May Days extensively in his book Homage to Catalonia, which details the event as a member of POUM.
The Spanish Netflix drama Cable Girls (2017) also portrays a dramatization of events of the May Days but is set in Madrid instead of Barcelona.
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