Spanish Civil War &
International Brigades
In 1936 with the support of
Hitler, Mussolini and the Catholic Church the right wing in Spain led a revolution
against the Republican government using General Franco's forces. Civil War was
declared, between the republican government and the right wing. The Republic
needed help to maintain and the International Brigades; a volunteer army of
workers, artists and intellectuals who went Spain to fight on behalf of the
Republican cause was formed.
In northern Spain, Franco's forces were held off and here anarchist-syndicalists
(socialists) took over the factories and peasants formed anarchist communes
on the land recently liberated from the old families. Direct democracy was instituted,
and police forces were replaced with civilian self-defense forces to defend
them from Franco's forces.
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