The anarchist movement in Barcelona was
among the most important in the world.
Maybe the greatest influence
anarchism had on art relates to freedom, 
standing up to conservatives, to the
establishment, to dictatorships.
Anarchism translated to freedom,
and maybe that's reflected in the arts.
There were posters that anarchists made
before and during the Civil War.
I couldn't tell you who made them, not now,
but there were many important ones.
Photographers like Català Roca
made anarchism a principle focus.
But it was mostly art at the street level,
nothing you'd see in dining rooms and museums.
It was more direct:
graffiti, posters, flyers.
I've followed anarchism in
Barcelona very closely. 
In my time, as a friend of the
anarchists, young and old.
I've a friend making a movie right now
about anarchism in Barcelona.
I've lent him a bunch of
footage we'd filmed.
We filmed the gas station strikes, the
Libertarian Days, the CNT meetings. 
We captured
a lot of history.
Anarchism was a very important
counterpoint to conservative rule.
But, and I don't want to
step out of line here,
the anarchists and communists
fought constantly before the war.
Fighting one another really
diminished things.
That handed the right wing victory,
which begot the coup.
If they'd only worked together...
The conservative groups always put aside
their differences, and the left always fights.
We're seeing that now.
The right wing, the PP, the former
Popular Alliance...
all the fascists work together.
Meanwhile, Podemos, the socialists, everyone
on this side, they all go in their own direction.
That certainly makes things more interesting,
but the right wing ends up winning.
The anarchist movement in the
1960s and '70s was very important.
There was the cinema syndicate,
led by movie director Bellmut.
Andrés Grima, who organized
Libertarian Days.
There was the transportation syndicate
operating out of a flat in Plaça Medinaceli
A place where I later lived,
on the same floor. 
The place had huge rooms where
the meetings were held. 
I filmed the meetings.
They were quite heavy.
They organized the gas station strikes,
occupying quite a few floors. It was quite powerful.
But like I said before, with the Libertarian
Days it kind of came to an end.
Younger anarchists came, who
were less about flags 
than they were about sex,
drugs and rock 'n roll.
The other ones were
horrified by it all.
The old anarchists, for example, and I say this
with love, they came with their wives.
 They’re very serious people.
Anarchists have always
been serious and deep, 
so they were a bit shocked by
the sex and drugs and rock 'n roll. 
I think that marked the end of the
CNT in its classic form, 
replaced by an anarchism
with no flags.
