Direct action Italian syndicalism from a transnational perspective: Militants networks and political and organizational connections between France and Spain

Abstract

Starting in the 1910s, revolutionary syndicalism spread and operated in both an inter and transnational direction. Starting with attempts to create an autonomous international coordination framework while overcoming the difficult period of the fascist repression and, finally, testing the soundness of the anarcho-syndicalist thesis in Spain, the militant networks were the true protagonists of the movement history. This essay focuses on the Italian movement in order to revise its activity –both in hiding and in exile– during the 1920s and 1930s. It analyses a political experience that was made possible thanks to the creation of militant networks in permanent contact with the syndicalist organizations of the host countries. The former tested those countries’ economic contradictions and, finally, were involved in the Spanish Civil War.

Keywords

• sindicalismo
• internacionalismo
• anarquismo
• guerra civil española