Internationalism and the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist movement: ideas, practices and debates, 1910-1939

This thesis explores the ideas, practices and debates arising from Spanish anarcho-syndicalist internationalism in the years 1910-1939. Despite considerable knowledge of the Spanish anarcho-syndicalist movement, which grew during this era to become the largest anarchist-oriented national organisation in world history, this aspect of its ideology and praxis has often been invoked or assumed rather than closely examined over an extended time period. This thesis provides that missing analysis. It adopts an emergent view of internationalism, arguing that while it was an indispensable value and practice through which anarcho-syndicalists expressed and reaffirmed their distinct political identities, it was also an evolving and contested one that could be at the sharp end of profound disagreements.

During the period of study, anarcho-syndicalists responded to revolutions in Mexico and Russia, the First World War, significant transformations in the global working-class movement, the rise of international fascism, and a Spanish Civil War that had enormous repercussions outside Spain. Throughout this, they consistently sought to maintain relations of international solidarity with allies outside the national borders, and this thesis explores a range of vibrant ideas and practices through which anarcho-syndicalist men and women, both well-known activists and broader grassroots, expressed this intent. However, the movement also lacked consensus regarding the form and content of these relations of solidarity, and the thesis analyses various vigorous debates over questions such as the strictures of doctrinal orthodoxy, decentring internationalism, and class or ideological identities. The thesis therefore establishes internationalism as a popular, passionate but also complex and sometimes thorny cause at the centre of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism.