Libertarian possibilism (sp: posibilismo libertario)
was a political current within the early 20th
century Spanish anarchist movement which advocated
achieving the anarchist ends of ending the
state and capitalism with participation inside
structures of contemporary parliamentary democracy.
The name of this political position appeared
for the first time between 1922-1923 within
the discourse of catalan anarcho-syndicalist
Salvador Segui when he said "We have to intervene
in politics in order to take over the positions
of the bourgeoisie".
== History ==
During the autumn of 1931 the "Manifesto of
the 30" was published by militants of the
anarchist trade union Confederación Nacional
del Trabajo. Among those who signed it there
was the CNT General Secretary (1922-1923)
Joan Peiro, Angel Pestaña CNT (General Secretary
in 1929), and Juan Lopez Sanchez. They were
called treintismo and they were calling for
a more moderate political line within the
Spanish anarchist movement. In 1932 they established
the Syndicalist Party which participates in
the 1936 Spanish general elections and proceed
to be a part of the leftist coalition of parties
known as the Popular Front obtaining 2 congressmen
(Pestaña and Benito Pabon).
In 1938 Horacio Prieto, general secretary
of the CNT, proposed that the Iberian Anarchist
Federation transforms itself into a "Libertarian
Socialist Party" and that it participates
in the national elections.
=== Precedents and later cases of anarchist
intervention in parliamentary and state politics
===
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ran for the french
constituent assembly in April 1848, but was
not elected, although his name appeared on
the ballots in Paris, Lyon, Besançon, and
Lille, France. He was successful in the complementary
elections of June 4. The catalan politician
Francesc Pi i Margall became the principal
translator of Proudhon's works into Spanish
and later briefly became president of Spain
in 1873 while being the leader of the Democratic
Republican Federal Party. For prominent anarcho-syndicalist
Rudolf Rocker: "The first movement of the
Spanish workers was strongly influenced by
the ideas of Pi y Margall, leader of the Spanish
Federalists and disciple of Proudhon. Pi y
Margall was one of the outstanding theorists
of his time and had a powerful influence on
the development of libertarian ideas in Spain.
His political ideas had much in common with
those of Richard Price, Joseph Priestly (sic),
Thomas Paine, Jefferson, and other representatives
of the Anglo-American liberalism of the first
period. He wanted to limit the power of the
state to a minimum and gradually replace it
by a Socialist economic order." Pi i Margall
was a dedicated theorist in his own right,
especially through book-length works such
as La reacción y la revolución (en:"Reaction
and revolution" from 1855), Las nacionalidades
(en:"Nationalities" from 1877), and La Federación
from 1880. On the other hand Fermín Salvochea
was a mayor of the city of Cádiz and a president
of the province of Cádiz. He was one of the
main propagators of anarchist thought in that
area in the late 19th century and is considered
to be "perhaps the most beloved figure in
the Spanish Anarchist movement of the 19th
century".In November 1936 the Popular Front
government appointed the prominent anarcha-feminist
Federica Montseny as Minister of Health. In
doing so, she became the first woman in Spanish
history to be a cabinet minister. When the
republican forces lost the Spanish Civil War,
the city of Madrid was turned over to the
francoist forces in 1939 by the last non-francoist
mayor of the city, the anarchist Melchor Rodríguez
García.In 1950 a clandestine group formed
within the francophone Anarchist Federation
called Organisation Pensée Bataille (OPB)
led by the platformist George Fontenis. The
OPB pushed for a move which saw the FA change
its name into the Fédération Communiste
Libertaire (FCL) after the 1953 Congress in
Paris, while an article in Le Libertaire indicated
the end of the cooperation with the French
Surrealist Group led by André Breton. The
new decision making process was founded on
unanimity: each person has a right of veto
on the orientations of the federation. The
FCL published the same year the Manifeste
du communisme libertaire. Several groups quit
the FCL in December 1955, disagreeing with
the decision to present "revolutionary candidates"
to the legislative elections. On 15–20 August
1954, the Ve intercontinental plenum of the
CNT took place. A group called Entente anarchiste
appeared which was formed of militants who
didn´t like the new ideological orientation
that the OPB was giving the FCL seeing it
was authoritarian and almost marxist. The
FCL lasted until 1956 just after it participated
in state legislative elections with 10 candidates.
This move alienated some members of the FCL
and thus produced the end of the organization.
== See also ==
Libertarian socialism within the labour movement
and parliamentary politics
Anarchism in Spain
Possibilism (politics)
Reformist socialism
Impossibilism
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Israël Renof, Possibilisme libertaire, Noir
et Rouge, n°41, mai 1968, pp. 16–23,
Freddy Gomez, César M. Lorenzo - Le mouvement
anarchiste en Espagne, Le Monde libertaire,
14-20 septembre 2006, lire en ligne.
Horacio Martínez Prieto, Posibilismo libertario,
Ivry-sur-Seine, 1966, OCLC 492300171in Burnett
Bolloten, Elisabeth Scheidel-Buchet, La Révolution
espagnole : la gauche et la lutte pour le
pouvoir, Ruedo Ibérico, 1977, page 535
Jesús Ruiz Pérez, Fundamentos ideológicos
del posibilismo libertario bajo la II República
: las razones de Félix Morga, Alcalde de
Nájera, "comunista y libertario", Brocar,
Cuadernos de investigación histórica, nº
25, Université de La Rioja, 2001, pp. 163–178,
janvier 2001, ISSN 0214-4670, lire en ligne.
Jesús Ruiz, Posibilismo libertario - Féliz
Morga, Alcalde de Nájera (1891-1936), Ayuntamiento
de Nájera, La Rioja, 2003, ISBN 84-688-2910-2.
Chema Berro Berriozar, « Posibilismo es tensión
» : reflexiones en torno al posibilismo y
el maximalismo, Polémica, mai 2006, lire
en ligne.
Benjamín Lajo Cosido, ¿Posibilismo libertario?,
Fundación Andreu Nin, avril 2007, lire en
ligne.
Jesús Díaz Herrera, El Liderazgo Político
de Ángel Pestaña - De la ortodoxia anarquista
al Posibilismo Libertario, Descontrol Editorial,
2015, ISBN 978-84-16553-47-1.
== External links ==
Manifestoes of the Sindicalist Party in spanish
