Anarcho-syndicalism, resistance and affinity groups: Comisión de Propaganda Confederal y Anarquista (1937-1939)

Abstract

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), almost all the members ofthe leader committees of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) were also members of some affinity group. This was a specifically anarchistic institution in which their members could forge their own spheres of influenceby the means of the group´s internal discipline and common political aspirations.Considering that, in spite of its importance, historiography has not integrated yet the analysis of group dynamics in the study of anarchosyndicalism, this work will emphasize the potential of this new interpretive approach and demonstrate the importance of the relations of anarchistic affinity to explain the fracture of the libertarian support to the policy of resistance stimulated by the Government of the Republic in war of doctor Negrín (1937-1939). The analysis will be focused on the dialectics of power untied around the Comisión de Propaganda Confederal y Anarquista del Centro.

Keywords

• Guerra Civil española
• anarcosindicalismo
• CNT
• FAI
• grupo de afinidad
• propaganda