Mes: diciembre 1936

  • El POUM rebautiza a calles, un mítin, Lérida después de la revolución

    Monday, 1 December 1936: Some of the streets with saints’ names were renamed after POUM people who have fallen. Arquer gave a little speech at each street. There was a procession with music, flags, etc. The widows of the fallen men were there dressed in mourning.

    Finally a public meeting in a large theatre. Nin, Arquer and [Wilebaldo Alonso Solano] spoke, as did McGovern from the ILP, and a man from the SAP. Nin replied to the attacks on La Batalla and the POUM by the Soviet consul Antonov-Ovseyenko to the sound of mighty applause from the auditorium. The meeting was very lively.

    In the afternoon a trip to Lérida in the POUM car with Walter Schwarz and Sarda. Drove past Montserrat. The countryside round Barcelona has been turned into gardens for market gardening and fruit orchards. Arrived at Lérida at about 8pm. We ate in a huge old nunnery which had been taken over by the town council as a canteen for milicianos and deserters from the Fascists. The catering had been well organised and there was plenty of food, potatoes, fresh meat, wine, etc.

    Later on we went to a POUM bar. It is in the former club building of the Rightist party, very nicely decorated and in the centre of town. Downstairs is a café where milicianos and party comrades have lively discussions. The POUM dominates the town and province of Lérida. It has predominantly textile industries. Several burnt out churches. There is a lot of bustle on the streets. Lots of movement to and from the front. The party secretary is a young man in his early 30s.

    There were two regiments in the town made up mainly of farmers’ sons from the surrounding area. The officers had been preparing an uprising in Lérida, but waited for the result of the battle for Barcelona before they came out. After the defeat in Barcelona they did not dare to crack down. Two hundred officers and leading lights of the right were shot, and the soldiers were demobbed. Initially only workers were sent to the front. Now, soldiers, too, are called up.

    We were quartered in the Palace Hotel. It is clean and in good condition. Breakfast — one peseta. The POUM is in control of the UGT, which is dominant in Lérida. The CNT is weak in Lérida.

  • Thalheimer: Visita a una granja colectiva en Lérida, vuelta a París

    Tuesday 2 December 1936: In the morning visited ‘Good Homeland’, about 20 kilometres from Lérida. This property consists of several thousand hectares. There are large vineyards which produced between 5000 and 6000 hectolitres of wine this year. There are timber plantations (poplars) for the paper industry, and corn fields. Even before the uprising there was a POUM rural workers’ group of around 30 members. About 150 people are employed on the farm. After the uprising the property was confiscated and collectivised. The POUM sent five people to help run the place. They have a former accountant here, a POUM member from Barcelona. The different branches of production have workers’ commissions in charge. Wine is produced using modern methods — hydraulic presses made in Germany, huge cement cisterns, distillation equipment which manufacture alcohol from hops, cooling equipment, chemical laboratories, etc. Every year between 5000 and 6000 litres of alcohol are produced.

    The wages of rural workers have been raised to between seven and 10 pesetas a day. There is a shop and a café, both run by workers. The owner had built a huge church for one and a half million pesetas on the farm. This is now used as a silo. Nuns used to teach at the school, but they have been kicked out and replaced by a secular teacher.

    The farm house is an old castle with a high tower, from which a view stretches far into the distance. It is very modern inside. The rural workers live in miserable little houses, each with a tiny back garden. They will be rebuilt next year. Most of the furniture stayed in the castle, excluding the material that was sent to the front — beds and so on. You get the impression that the farm is successful under the new regime too. Difficulties could arise because only a tiny amount of capital (80 000 pesetas) was confiscated along with the farm. The owner was one of the big bourgeoisie and owned some more property near Barcelona, where some of the wine from the ‘Good Homeland’ was made into sparkling wine.

    The farm continues to produce the usual sparkling wine, red wine (tinto) and, from special grapes (16 to 18 grad) the so-called vino rancio, a wine which is exposed to sunlight for long periods of time. According to the farm director, it is not from wine production that the greatest return is yielded but rather from the cereal harvest. Some of the cattle were handed over for the front. The management of the farm is based on a system of mutual agreement and is directed by the Economic Council of the government. The farm has not been split up. I was told that much of the surrounding land was made up of similar large businesses, and that it was unnecessary to divide up the farm.

    Tuesday evening: Left Barcelona. Reached Figueras at 12 o’clock. Left Figueras early on Wednesday morning, crossed at Port-Bou to reach Perpignan. The French customs offices are about a kilometre from Port-Bou towards Cerbère. The French Customs were obviously quite sympathetic to the cause, as there was no customs search and just a brief passport control. In the clear sunlight we could see the snow covered mountains of the Pyrenees outside Perpignan, and below them vineyards, huge timber plantations, etc. On the journey from Port-Bou to Cerbère and from Cerbère to Perpignan many of the labourers who were working on the roads and so on greeted the car with a clenched fist. Reached Perpignan at 2.43. Paris Thursday morning at seven o’clock.

  • Hambre, miedo, asesinatos

    Feia cinc mesos que els barcelonins no sabíem el que era pau ni tranquil·litat. Cinc mesos que vivíem en un vèrtig i sobresalt continuats. Havíem arribat en un moment en què semblava que no podríem aguantar més, tants i tants eren els aconteixements que havíem viscut i presenciat per dissort nostra. I va venir el dia de Nadal d’aquell any 1936, que gosaria afirmar fou el Nadal més trist i més amarg de tos els Nadals que Barcelona ha viscut. Fou decretat dia feiner, i aquell dia es trevallà com sempre…, com cada dia.

    Déu va permetre que fos precisament en aquells dies de Nadal que comencés a escasejar el pa; i es van veure les primeres cues davant dels forns, que per ésser les primeres, i durar hores i més hores, i coincidir ademés amb els primers dies que deixà d’encendres l’enllumenat públic, feien llòbregs i paorosos els nostres carrers. Que lluny estaven els Nadals d’abans, amb totes les botigues curulles de llaminadures, els aparadors lluents i atapeïts, i la gent amb cara alegre corrent adalerada fent els preparatius per a la gran diada familiar! Aquell Nadal, en altra temps festa de pau i germanor, transcorria enmig del pànic causat pel despotisme més ferotge que mai s’havia conegut.

    D’aquell Nadal tan trist encara en tinc personalment un record més amarg i inoblidable. A mitja tara i estant amb la botiga oberta,–però que no hi entrava ningú–s’aturà davant de casa un cotxe, del que en baixaren quatre o cinc homes amb caçadora de pell i pistoles penjades en bandolera. Entraren tots alhora, i demanaren pel meu pare. El meu pare no pogué sortir… per que feia un mes i mig que un grup armat, semblant al que allavors el demanava imperiosament, se l’havia emportat en un cotxe com aquell i l’havien sacrificiat davant els murs del cementiri de Moncada.

  • La Generalidad y la supuesta desnacionalización de Cataluña

    LA INVASIÓ AL·LÒGENA A CATALUNYA

    He rebut una lletra d’En Ribó parlant-me de la impressió que li ha fet rellegir ara el llibre de Vandellós Catalunya, poble decadent. Em copia els paràgrafs de Conrado Girú explicant com un poble pot ésser desnacionalitzat pel fet d’ésser la seva població submergida per gent al·lògena de major capacitat reproductiva.

    Justament avui mateix rebo notícies de la formidable immigració que sofreix ara Catalunya: de primer, els refugiats d’Irun; ara, els fugitius de Madrid; demà, seran els habitants de la Manxa i d’Aragó. I aquesta torrentada immigratòria no cau sols a Barcelona sinó que s’escampa per tot Catalunya: Vilafranca, Banyoles… Pobra Catalunya!

    Coincidint amb la riuada immigratòria, la millor gent de Catalunya emigra o és assassinada: supressió – sobretot en qualitat – dels indígenes; immigració en massa d’al·lògens que cau sobre el terrer adobat de les immigracions precedents. Això significa que arreu, sense protesta, com a cosa normal acceptada i fins estimulada per poders catalans – i d’una Catalunya autònoma!, independent de fet! – s’està realitzant avui a la nostra terra un fet desconegut en l’Europa occidental però que, a Orient i centúries enrera, fou l’expressió màxima de la brutalitat d’un conqueridor quan volia destruir una raça vençuda: extermini o deportació d’indígenes i immigració d’al·lògens. Així, sobre el mateix territori, fins aprofitant el fruit del treball secular de la raça vençuda, una nova raça s’instaura.

    El que mai s’atreviren a fer a Catalunya ni romans, ni visigots, ni alarbs, ni castellans, ni francesos, s’està fent sota el signe de l’autonomia catalana.

    Examinant la llista de l’actual govern autònom català s’hi troben ja els representants dels invasors. Ja en les sessions del govern autònom de Catalunya no es pot parlar en català, perquè hi ha ministres que no entenen la nostra llengua.