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Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women
Cowards don’t make history; and the women of Mujeres Libres (Free Women) were no cowards. Courageous enough to create revolutionary change in their daily lives, Mujeres Libres mobilized over 20,000 women into an organized network to strive for community, education, and equality for women -during the Spanish Revolution. Martha Ackelsberg writes a comprehensive study of Mujeres Libres, intertwining interviews with the women themselves and analysis connecting them with modern feminist movements.
Martha Ackelsberg is a professor of government and a member of the Women’s Studies Program Committee at Smith College, where she teaches courses in political theory, urban politics, political activism and feminist theory. She has contributed to a variety of anthologies on women’s political activism in the United States.
Martha Ackelsberg is a professor of government and a member of the Women’s Studies Program Committee at Smith College, where she teaches courses in political theory, urban politics, political activism and feminist theory. She has contributed to a variety of anthologies on women’s political activism in the United States.
286 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1991
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July 22, 2015
An extremely insightful book, which I think should be read by anyone interested in both the Spanish civil war and feminism. Martha Ackelsberg does a wonderful job here. There is a preface which includes conversations that the author had with women who were a part of Mujeres Libres; all very interesting. She then touches on the history of revolutionary left-wing thought in Spain and how it all came about in the first place. All this is done thoroughly, giving a decent understanding of what was going on.
She then moves on to the founding of Mujeres Libres itself, and on to why it was necessary to have an organization like Mujeres Libres consisting only of women; and finally she touches on precisely what Mujeres Libres did. The final part of the book talks about how contemporary feminism can learn from not just Mujeres Libres but women in revolutionary Spain in general. All this with lots of notes at the back of the book.
There is a nice interview with the author at the back of the book also, where she answers some questions, so instead of writing all this stuff myself I feel like someone more qualified can do it, namely the author herself:
Who were the Free Women of Spain?
"Mujeres Libres was the name of an organization, founded officially in the summer of 1937, although it had its beginnings in various towns and cities around Spain as early as 1934. The women who founded it were, for the most part, members of one or another of the anarchist-affiliated organizations then active in Spain. While the women were committed to the ideals of these organizations -- including their expressed commitment to the goal of gender equality -- they believed that women were not taken sufficiently seriously by many of the male members of these organizations. They (the founders of Mujeres Libres) believed that if a social revolution were, in fact, to be successful, women would have to be involved in it along with men; which meant that women would need to be a part of of the organizations "preparing" people to participate in the revolution. [...] Thus the women decided to establish a new organization that would work alongside the others, but would be devoted explicitly to overcoming what they referred to as the "triple enslavement of women" -- as workers, as women, and to ignorance."
What kind of strategy did these revolutionary women have to accomplish their goals?
"They had what we might call a "two-pronged" strategy of achieving women's emancipation through "capacitación" (loosely translated as "empowerement" or "coming to a sense of ones capacities") and "captación" (mobilizing women to join/participate in movement organizations.) The programs of capacitación were the center of their program. These included literacy classes at all levels, since they believed that the inability to read prevents people from being actively engaged in their societies, and that learning to read is a profoundly empowering process. In addition, they they developed programs of support for women who were working in factories, meeting with them in groups to help them become accustomed to hearing their own voices in public, so that they would be able to participate more effectively in union meetings. They had programs on maternal and child health and on child-care, as well as programs and classes about women's biology and sexuality. Together with union organizations, they developed job-training and apprenticeship programs, to train women to move into the paid labor force. And they also developed a kind of "speaker's bureau," training women to become comfortable speaking in public about their ideas."
A comprehensive book, and a fascinating one. As I said in the beginning, I would recommend this to anyone interested in the Spanish civil war and feminism in general.
She then moves on to the founding of Mujeres Libres itself, and on to why it was necessary to have an organization like Mujeres Libres consisting only of women; and finally she touches on precisely what Mujeres Libres did. The final part of the book talks about how contemporary feminism can learn from not just Mujeres Libres but women in revolutionary Spain in general. All this with lots of notes at the back of the book.
There is a nice interview with the author at the back of the book also, where she answers some questions, so instead of writing all this stuff myself I feel like someone more qualified can do it, namely the author herself:
Who were the Free Women of Spain?
"Mujeres Libres was the name of an organization, founded officially in the summer of 1937, although it had its beginnings in various towns and cities around Spain as early as 1934. The women who founded it were, for the most part, members of one or another of the anarchist-affiliated organizations then active in Spain. While the women were committed to the ideals of these organizations -- including their expressed commitment to the goal of gender equality -- they believed that women were not taken sufficiently seriously by many of the male members of these organizations. They (the founders of Mujeres Libres) believed that if a social revolution were, in fact, to be successful, women would have to be involved in it along with men; which meant that women would need to be a part of of the organizations "preparing" people to participate in the revolution. [...] Thus the women decided to establish a new organization that would work alongside the others, but would be devoted explicitly to overcoming what they referred to as the "triple enslavement of women" -- as workers, as women, and to ignorance."
What kind of strategy did these revolutionary women have to accomplish their goals?
"They had what we might call a "two-pronged" strategy of achieving women's emancipation through "capacitación" (loosely translated as "empowerement" or "coming to a sense of ones capacities") and "captación" (mobilizing women to join/participate in movement organizations.) The programs of capacitación were the center of their program. These included literacy classes at all levels, since they believed that the inability to read prevents people from being actively engaged in their societies, and that learning to read is a profoundly empowering process. In addition, they they developed programs of support for women who were working in factories, meeting with them in groups to help them become accustomed to hearing their own voices in public, so that they would be able to participate more effectively in union meetings. They had programs on maternal and child health and on child-care, as well as programs and classes about women's biology and sexuality. Together with union organizations, they developed job-training and apprenticeship programs, to train women to move into the paid labor force. And they also developed a kind of "speaker's bureau," training women to become comfortable speaking in public about their ideas."
A comprehensive book, and a fascinating one. As I said in the beginning, I would recommend this to anyone interested in the Spanish civil war and feminism in general.
June 5, 2016
At the Movement/Society Interface. A review of Free Women of Spain: Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of Women, Martha Ackelsberg
Okay, shoot me now because this book had been sitting on my shelves for at least a handful of years before I got around to reading it. I am bone-deep ashamed at my delay – replicating in my own dumb way the reactionary “why are you dividing the movement?” response of Argentine anarchist men to the founding of La Voz de la Mujer (The Voice of the Woman) in Buenos Aires in 1896, one of the world’s first durable feminist j0urnals. I am ashamed because this book is about far more than an “anarcho-feminist” view of the crux of the 20th Century in the fight to the death between the left and the right, the Spanish Revolution of 1936-1939, a battle that anticipated but was ultimately obliterated by World War II: it is by far the best study in English of one of the world’s most important revolutionary organisations – one that was run and staffed by uncompromising libertarian women.
Because anarchism is at its heart prefigurative politics, the anticipation of the ways of tomorrow in the practices of today, Akelsberg has more than adequately guaranteed the deserved place of the often-ignored outrider, yet clearly aligned, Free Women (ML) at the libertarian table of the organisational triumvirate of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), its youth wing, the Iberian Libertarian Youth Federation (FIJL), and its political parallel organisation, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI).
From now on, historians of the period need to talk about a quad of the CNT-FIJL-FAI-ML, for in Mujeres Libres, the Spanish Revolution arguably found its fullest articulation, not only as Ackelsberg displays, within the (somewhat unreciprocated) alignment of ML with its anarchist, syndicalist and youth organisational fellows, but because it took an independent line within the broader anti-fascist front – yet was far more progressive than the “feminine” wings of the republican, Communist, Poumist, peasant and other organisations involved in the resistance to Franco. And she shows that ML outdid them all in greasing the wheels of the intersection between the revolutionary forces and the proletarian masses.
Ackelsberg, after introducing us to lively ML veterans, performs a coup de main that few leftist historians have managed so succinctly – a clear overview of the development of one of the most complex and ideologically disputed dirty wars of the 20th Century. For this alone, her book deserves kudos aplenty, and as a historian it took my breath away. Out of this background, however, flows one of the most erudite discussions of the intersection that has intrigued me for the past decade: the way in which the anarchist ethic managed to transmit from a militant minority to become the practice of mass organisations of the oppressed classes.
This articulation has been suggested and explored in new works by Chris Ealham on Barcelona, Geoffroy de Laforcade on Buenos Aires, and others, but this book makes it clear: that the linkages between both formal (movement) organisations such as the CNT and the FIJL’s Catalan-language corollary in Catalonia, the Libertarian Youth (JJLL), were hugely dependent on somewhat informal (class) organisations, from rationalist schools for children and after-hours ateneos for adults, to prisoner-support groups, street markets and other innovations of the class. Ackelsberg demonstrates that these social linkages between the syndicalists and society arose well before the Revolution, but matured during the conflict into what became the preserve largely of Mujeres Libres, which peaked at 30,000 members in 1937. It was, truly, a *social* revolution.
As Aklelsberg shows, ML’s achievements in the liberated zone, but in Catalonia and Castille in particular, were remarkable, and can be divided into the fields of: syndicalism (ML “work sections” in factories dealing in metallurgy, mechanics, textiles and other skills); education (ML primary and secondary schools on the rationalist model, ataneos and libraries for adults, vocational colleges for metalworkers, drivers and other skills, and fully-fledged universities such as the Autonomous University of Barcelona); social work (refugee assistance, nursing and the stillborn project to rehabilitate prostitutes); and the military struggle (shooting training in Barcelona; rearguard support such as tailoring uniforms; frontline support such as providing food, medicine and morale; and the provision of nurses within republican hospitals and the CNT-FAI guerrilla columns).
In just about all of these fields, the fighting corps of Mujeres Libres exercised in real life a revolutionary praxis for women (and men – because their foundational inspiration arose from the sexism *within* the ranks of anarchist men which they demanded to transform rather than abandon), that was far in the vanguard of the traditional subservient gender roles consigned to women in the Revolution by the Communists, Poumists, Catalan separatists and others.
If this seems all rather obscure to todays’ reader, Ackelsberg grounds the 1930s debates in the necessities of today’s feminism and so relocates “anarcho-feminism” – an innovation that her veteran ML interviewees see, somewhat rightly, as a post-modernist nonsense in that it divides working class compañeras from compañeros – within a truly revolutionary praxis. Her heroines – now assuredly ours – were the ones who, as with Juana Rouco Buela, Virginia Bolten and others in Argentina in the 1890s-1910s, successfully battled the sexism of their own comrades to envisage, and build, a new world in their hearts and on the streets.
Although ML co-founder Lucía Sánchez Saornil was a lesbian, and this aspect of sexuality was deliberately occluded by her and her compañeras even within the libertarian milieu (something that requires deeper study), this book is an invaluable resource not only for students of the Spanish Revolution, but also for contemporary feminists (including men), trying to devise a viable means for the sexes (in triplicate) to coexist and be mutually-supportive, with a revolutionary, game-changing end, being the liberation of all humanity.
Okay, shoot me now because this book had been sitting on my shelves for at least a handful of years before I got around to reading it. I am bone-deep ashamed at my delay – replicating in my own dumb way the reactionary “why are you dividing the movement?” response of Argentine anarchist men to the founding of La Voz de la Mujer (The Voice of the Woman) in Buenos Aires in 1896, one of the world’s first durable feminist j0urnals. I am ashamed because this book is about far more than an “anarcho-feminist” view of the crux of the 20th Century in the fight to the death between the left and the right, the Spanish Revolution of 1936-1939, a battle that anticipated but was ultimately obliterated by World War II: it is by far the best study in English of one of the world’s most important revolutionary organisations – one that was run and staffed by uncompromising libertarian women.
Because anarchism is at its heart prefigurative politics, the anticipation of the ways of tomorrow in the practices of today, Akelsberg has more than adequately guaranteed the deserved place of the often-ignored outrider, yet clearly aligned, Free Women (ML) at the libertarian table of the organisational triumvirate of the National Confederation of Labour (CNT), its youth wing, the Iberian Libertarian Youth Federation (FIJL), and its political parallel organisation, the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI).
From now on, historians of the period need to talk about a quad of the CNT-FIJL-FAI-ML, for in Mujeres Libres, the Spanish Revolution arguably found its fullest articulation, not only as Ackelsberg displays, within the (somewhat unreciprocated) alignment of ML with its anarchist, syndicalist and youth organisational fellows, but because it took an independent line within the broader anti-fascist front – yet was far more progressive than the “feminine” wings of the republican, Communist, Poumist, peasant and other organisations involved in the resistance to Franco. And she shows that ML outdid them all in greasing the wheels of the intersection between the revolutionary forces and the proletarian masses.
Ackelsberg, after introducing us to lively ML veterans, performs a coup de main that few leftist historians have managed so succinctly – a clear overview of the development of one of the most complex and ideologically disputed dirty wars of the 20th Century. For this alone, her book deserves kudos aplenty, and as a historian it took my breath away. Out of this background, however, flows one of the most erudite discussions of the intersection that has intrigued me for the past decade: the way in which the anarchist ethic managed to transmit from a militant minority to become the practice of mass organisations of the oppressed classes.
This articulation has been suggested and explored in new works by Chris Ealham on Barcelona, Geoffroy de Laforcade on Buenos Aires, and others, but this book makes it clear: that the linkages between both formal (movement) organisations such as the CNT and the FIJL’s Catalan-language corollary in Catalonia, the Libertarian Youth (JJLL), were hugely dependent on somewhat informal (class) organisations, from rationalist schools for children and after-hours ateneos for adults, to prisoner-support groups, street markets and other innovations of the class. Ackelsberg demonstrates that these social linkages between the syndicalists and society arose well before the Revolution, but matured during the conflict into what became the preserve largely of Mujeres Libres, which peaked at 30,000 members in 1937. It was, truly, a *social* revolution.
As Aklelsberg shows, ML’s achievements in the liberated zone, but in Catalonia and Castille in particular, were remarkable, and can be divided into the fields of: syndicalism (ML “work sections” in factories dealing in metallurgy, mechanics, textiles and other skills); education (ML primary and secondary schools on the rationalist model, ataneos and libraries for adults, vocational colleges for metalworkers, drivers and other skills, and fully-fledged universities such as the Autonomous University of Barcelona); social work (refugee assistance, nursing and the stillborn project to rehabilitate prostitutes); and the military struggle (shooting training in Barcelona; rearguard support such as tailoring uniforms; frontline support such as providing food, medicine and morale; and the provision of nurses within republican hospitals and the CNT-FAI guerrilla columns).
In just about all of these fields, the fighting corps of Mujeres Libres exercised in real life a revolutionary praxis for women (and men – because their foundational inspiration arose from the sexism *within* the ranks of anarchist men which they demanded to transform rather than abandon), that was far in the vanguard of the traditional subservient gender roles consigned to women in the Revolution by the Communists, Poumists, Catalan separatists and others.
If this seems all rather obscure to todays’ reader, Ackelsberg grounds the 1930s debates in the necessities of today’s feminism and so relocates “anarcho-feminism” – an innovation that her veteran ML interviewees see, somewhat rightly, as a post-modernist nonsense in that it divides working class compañeras from compañeros – within a truly revolutionary praxis. Her heroines – now assuredly ours – were the ones who, as with Juana Rouco Buela, Virginia Bolten and others in Argentina in the 1890s-1910s, successfully battled the sexism of their own comrades to envisage, and build, a new world in their hearts and on the streets.
Although ML co-founder Lucía Sánchez Saornil was a lesbian, and this aspect of sexuality was deliberately occluded by her and her compañeras even within the libertarian milieu (something that requires deeper study), this book is an invaluable resource not only for students of the Spanish Revolution, but also for contemporary feminists (including men), trying to devise a viable means for the sexes (in triplicate) to coexist and be mutually-supportive, with a revolutionary, game-changing end, being the liberation of all humanity.
February 2, 2025
What I really appreciated about this book is that it did not take for granted either a full knowledge of the Civil War or of libertarian/anarchist politics, but instead sought to familiarize the reader with each while at the same time treating its subject as thoroughly as possible. And I think it did a great job at that.
Acklesberg interviewed as many remaining women as she could find who participated in the women's libertarian group Mujeres Libres during the Spanish Civil War, to supplement what had been mostly fragmented documentary evidence about the group's purpose and strategy. She uses this not only to portray a fuller portrait of Mujeres Libres than previously available, but also to reflect on forms of political struggle that strive to incorporate diverse members in the pursuit of an egalitarian society with the effacement of that difference. Her overall suggestion seems to be that Mujeres Libres' strategy of organizing women through a separate group, autonomous yet closely connected, and with the explicit goal of always working for libertarian principles (not simply access for women to the social goods of the existing political order), is one that should be more carefully considered today as a means to address many of the ills that exist in first world liberal feminisms.
Acklesberg interviewed as many remaining women as she could find who participated in the women's libertarian group Mujeres Libres during the Spanish Civil War, to supplement what had been mostly fragmented documentary evidence about the group's purpose and strategy. She uses this not only to portray a fuller portrait of Mujeres Libres than previously available, but also to reflect on forms of political struggle that strive to incorporate diverse members in the pursuit of an egalitarian society with the effacement of that difference. Her overall suggestion seems to be that Mujeres Libres' strategy of organizing women through a separate group, autonomous yet closely connected, and with the explicit goal of always working for libertarian principles (not simply access for women to the social goods of the existing political order), is one that should be more carefully considered today as a means to address many of the ills that exist in first world liberal feminisms.
June 25, 2012
This is a must read for any fan of anarchism, feminism, or the Spanish Civil War. Ackelsberg is an excellent scholar and fantastic theoretician.
July 23, 2020
O começo do livro foi bastante arrastado para mim, sobretudo porque não tenho familiaridade com a história espanhola e tampouco com o movimento anarquista. Contudo, uma vez ambientada (e com algumas consultas ao google e ao meu namorado), a organização Mulheres Livres me cativou imensamente. Foi fascinante para mim conhecer tantas ações práticas de um movimento revolucionário de uma magnitude tão grande como foi na década de 30 na Espanha. Acredito que o livro o retrate de forma real, não escondendo alguns aspectos mais controversos e incertos na época.
Tenho grande admiração pelas construções realizadas por essas mulheres, que fizeram escolas, creches, hospitais, cursos de formação e conscientização social em meio a uma guerra civil. O franquismo é uma parte muito triste da história, mas é muito bonito ver que o (um dos) movimento que lutava contra ele não era apenas combativo, mas também altamente propositivo e construtivo, com um ideal de mundo bem diferente. E não acredito que tenha sido em vão. Até hoje a Catalunha (comunidade que acredito que possamos considerar o centro do movimento anarquista espanhol) segue com ideais progressistas, e muitas marcas do antifascismo, do feminismo e da revolução na política e no território catalães. O capítulo final também me surpreendeu com discussões sobre interseccionalidade que, apesar de estarem sendo muito discutidas hoje em dia (felizmente!!), acredito que eram ainda mais revolucionárias tanto para as Mujeres Libres como para o contexto dos EUA em 1991, quando foi publicado o livro. Aprendi muito com o livro, e destaco essa passagem:
"Por mais breve que tenha sido, a revolução das Mulheres Livres teve um papel muito importante. Sua experiência exerceu um impacto amplo e duradouro na vida das militantes, adolescentes ou adultas, que décadas mais tarde diriam que aqueles acontecimentos transformaram radicalmente sua vida. A energia, o entusiasmo e o senso de empoderamento pessoal e coletivo que elas experienciaram se converteram em indicadores do que a vida poderia ser e do que as pessoas poderiam conseguir se trabalhassem juntas com compromisso e esperança. Para mim, o aspecto mais gratificante deste trabalho foi o contato com as pessoas, mulheres e homens, que conservaram esse sonho ao longo dos anos de exílio e/ou opressão. Certamente, uma das razões pelas quais puderam fazer isso foi porque, para eles, a revolução não foi apenas um sonho ou uma esperança, mas, sim, uma transformação real."
Tenho grande admiração pelas construções realizadas por essas mulheres, que fizeram escolas, creches, hospitais, cursos de formação e conscientização social em meio a uma guerra civil. O franquismo é uma parte muito triste da história, mas é muito bonito ver que o (um dos) movimento que lutava contra ele não era apenas combativo, mas também altamente propositivo e construtivo, com um ideal de mundo bem diferente. E não acredito que tenha sido em vão. Até hoje a Catalunha (comunidade que acredito que possamos considerar o centro do movimento anarquista espanhol) segue com ideais progressistas, e muitas marcas do antifascismo, do feminismo e da revolução na política e no território catalães. O capítulo final também me surpreendeu com discussões sobre interseccionalidade que, apesar de estarem sendo muito discutidas hoje em dia (felizmente!!), acredito que eram ainda mais revolucionárias tanto para as Mujeres Libres como para o contexto dos EUA em 1991, quando foi publicado o livro. Aprendi muito com o livro, e destaco essa passagem:
"Por mais breve que tenha sido, a revolução das Mulheres Livres teve um papel muito importante. Sua experiência exerceu um impacto amplo e duradouro na vida das militantes, adolescentes ou adultas, que décadas mais tarde diriam que aqueles acontecimentos transformaram radicalmente sua vida. A energia, o entusiasmo e o senso de empoderamento pessoal e coletivo que elas experienciaram se converteram em indicadores do que a vida poderia ser e do que as pessoas poderiam conseguir se trabalhassem juntas com compromisso e esperança. Para mim, o aspecto mais gratificante deste trabalho foi o contato com as pessoas, mulheres e homens, que conservaram esse sonho ao longo dos anos de exílio e/ou opressão. Certamente, uma das razões pelas quais puderam fazer isso foi porque, para eles, a revolução não foi apenas um sonho ou uma esperança, mas, sim, uma transformação real."
August 11, 2020
This is a fascinating account of Mujeres Libres (translates to Free Women.) A anarchist women's organisation that existed in Spain from 1936 to 1939 and how they redefined feminism within the framework of anarcho syndicalism that existed in Spain at that time.
To be honest I had read nothing on Anarchist theory, history of movt etc. And this book didnt require anything as the author does a great job walking us through theory, arguments for and against wrt various left orgs at that time in Spain.
An essential read for anti caste leftists, and feminists about the effectiveness and limitations of idpol etc
'Politics, is not simply about the distribution of positions in a "political opportunity structure." It is about the structuring of power in the society as a whole. '
"We wanted to open the world to women, to allow women to develop themselves in whatever ways they wanted to. The first thing was to get women out of the house. "
To be honest I had read nothing on Anarchist theory, history of movt etc. And this book didnt require anything as the author does a great job walking us through theory, arguments for and against wrt various left orgs at that time in Spain.
An essential read for anti caste leftists, and feminists about the effectiveness and limitations of idpol etc
'Politics, is not simply about the distribution of positions in a "political opportunity structure." It is about the structuring of power in the society as a whole. '
"We wanted to open the world to women, to allow women to develop themselves in whatever ways they wanted to. The first thing was to get women out of the house. "
April 12, 2020
No sé ni cómo expresar lo mucho que he disfrutado leyendo este ensayo y aprendiendo sobre Mujeres Libres. Sólo decir que me ha removido mucho y se ha convertido en un imprescindible de mi estantería.
April 17, 2023
Spanish ladies 👍
August 6, 2023
Written by a Women's Studies professor I am sure it is a required book for their course.
Very detailed and deep dives into the dialectic, differences between socialism, communism, capitalism, anarchism. This is not an easy nor a quick read, it requires your complete attention. Some of the vocabulary is obscure, but to the point of rendering exact shades of meaning, not in an attempt at being obtuse nor cumbersome.
As an American I found the use of the term libertarian and its meaning in this context as compared to how the term is used today fascinating. Today's libertarians in America are social isolationists, a party of white male privilege who refuse to recognize the differences we have as a diverse culture, and the differences we have in access in our heirachical system. In revolutionary Spain, the libertarianism described in the book is communal in nature, focusing on the good of the community separate from formal fixed structures. This is where the anarchism, which did function in Republican Spain, enters, and this book does the best to describe such a system, local committees and supplementary temporary non-formal groupings coming together based on societal needs, then dissolving once that need is met/resolved. I had to constantly remind myself that in referring to libertarianism in this book the author meant the communal anarchist oriented model, not the self-centered selfish contemporary American derivative.
The author succeeds in focusing on the goals, impacts, and perspectives of the Mujeres Libres in their contemporary setting. Seeing the struggle from the viewpoint of women, how the organization rendered their support to the cause of freedom in Republican Spain, it also show the fractures in that movement which made it a less effective and ultimately failed resistance to the F*scism of Franco and the Nationalists.
What was missing from this book, and was not a stated goal, was how the Mujeres Libres continued their struggles from within Franco's Spain and in exile. I would have found this engaging. Perhaps another book. Since this book is from a viewpoint of tracking organizations and philosophies, the real life characters who repeatedly appear, are not fleshed out and the episodic nature of their appearances keeps us from getting to know them as people. A hazard of the prespective and the mission of the book.
Very detailed and deep dives into the dialectic, differences between socialism, communism, capitalism, anarchism. This is not an easy nor a quick read, it requires your complete attention. Some of the vocabulary is obscure, but to the point of rendering exact shades of meaning, not in an attempt at being obtuse nor cumbersome.
As an American I found the use of the term libertarian and its meaning in this context as compared to how the term is used today fascinating. Today's libertarians in America are social isolationists, a party of white male privilege who refuse to recognize the differences we have as a diverse culture, and the differences we have in access in our heirachical system. In revolutionary Spain, the libertarianism described in the book is communal in nature, focusing on the good of the community separate from formal fixed structures. This is where the anarchism, which did function in Republican Spain, enters, and this book does the best to describe such a system, local committees and supplementary temporary non-formal groupings coming together based on societal needs, then dissolving once that need is met/resolved. I had to constantly remind myself that in referring to libertarianism in this book the author meant the communal anarchist oriented model, not the self-centered selfish contemporary American derivative.
The author succeeds in focusing on the goals, impacts, and perspectives of the Mujeres Libres in their contemporary setting. Seeing the struggle from the viewpoint of women, how the organization rendered their support to the cause of freedom in Republican Spain, it also show the fractures in that movement which made it a less effective and ultimately failed resistance to the F*scism of Franco and the Nationalists.
What was missing from this book, and was not a stated goal, was how the Mujeres Libres continued their struggles from within Franco's Spain and in exile. I would have found this engaging. Perhaps another book. Since this book is from a viewpoint of tracking organizations and philosophies, the real life characters who repeatedly appear, are not fleshed out and the episodic nature of their appearances keeps us from getting to know them as people. A hazard of the prespective and the mission of the book.
June 30, 2007
this book is pretty useful in exploring some of the dynamics, challenges, and approaches to gendered organizing. It is a little redundant at times, lacks some detail that would be desired, but a good thing to read for those interested in taking feminism beyond the self-referential activist/middle class circles its in presently.
October 3, 2008
I read this book many years ago and enjoyed it a great deal. It provides fascinating information about Spain's pre-WWII revolutionary movement and also extremely interesting insights into how militants of both sexes struggled to make sense of different forms of domination.
October 22, 2020
Trabalho historiográfico primoroso, feito a partir de história oral, fontes jornalísticas das militantes, atas, cartas, etc. Mulheres Livres foi uma revista e depois uma Federação Nacional (1937-1939) anarquista que andava ao lado da Confederação Nacional do Trabalho e da Federação Anarquista Ibérica, criada por militantes anarquistas que participavam dos sindicatos e associações anarquistas mas que não se viam neles representadas (mesmo elas sendo metade da força de trabalho espanhola). No discurso, os anarquistas defendiam a igualdade de gênero pois ela era uma necessidade para a construção de uma sociedade sem diferenças e individualmente livre. Na prática, porém, os sindicatos e organizações eram dominados por homens e neles se discutiam temas que, no máximo, tratavam da desigualdade econômica e de como as mulheres eram afetadas pela exploração. Ou seja, nao se discutiam outras formas de exploração ou questões que mantinham a dominação sobre as mulheres, como o matrimônio, a maternidade, a sexualidade e até mesmo a ausência das trabalhoras nos sindicatos. Daí a formação da Mulheres Livres, que serviu não só para dar representatividade às mulheres espanholas, mas para formá-las politicamente e culturalmente para combater as estruturas opressivas e participarem de igual forma na sociedade política. Como elas fizeram isso? Pra saber, é só lendo o livro
May 9, 2022
I hate to give such an important book four stars, but there it is. First off, do read this book. Not only is it the only book in English to discuss the little known Mujeres Libres in depth, but as the author persuasively argues, the group's history still has lessons for us today. The group took what some today would call an intersectional approach to organizing, embracing their identities as members of the working class and as women. What distinguishes them from intersectional organizations is their commitment to organizing autonomously and viewing their own self-development as a prerequisite for women's liberation.
I'm knocking a star off for two reasons. One is that I wanted to hear more from the Mujeres Libres she interviewed, in their own voices, telling their stories. The other is that the prose was a bit flat, which I think is related to the first criticism: giving more space to testimony and personal narrative would have enlivened the book. However, I do want to recognize the clarity of Ackelsberg's prose, when so many other academics are driven to write obscurely (and exclusively) for their priestly caste.
All in all, a very important book on an unfortunately neglected topic in feminist and socialist history.
I'm knocking a star off for two reasons. One is that I wanted to hear more from the Mujeres Libres she interviewed, in their own voices, telling their stories. The other is that the prose was a bit flat, which I think is related to the first criticism: giving more space to testimony and personal narrative would have enlivened the book. However, I do want to recognize the clarity of Ackelsberg's prose, when so many other academics are driven to write obscurely (and exclusively) for their priestly caste.
All in all, a very important book on an unfortunately neglected topic in feminist and socialist history.
May 2, 2023
Really insightful, well researched, and does a great job of integrating a historical perspective with the voices of the past. A really great read in regards to criticizing contemporary liberal feminism, its faults, and why it's frankly pretty embarrassing as a political movement. Also provides a lot of context of the Spanish civil war, how it was multiple wars in one, and how that division of revolution vs. Civil war left a lot of space that led to Franco, but also that space is where Mujeres Libres did most of their organizing with great success. Great analysis of community organizing, and what social change is/can be. Also seems that she wrote this as a way to condemn Marxism? Those parts are where she lost me. The analysis felt underdeveloped, and misplaced, especially as she uses Marxism as historical context/backdrop for the era.
July 29, 2023
This book discusses the ideology and the origins of the Mujeres Libres. It details the programs they ran to educate and empower women during the Spanish Civil War and women's roles within the anarchist movement.
It also highlights the conflicts the Mujeres Libres had with other leftist organizations including within those within the anarchosyndalist movement.
This book shows that women were not emancipated like men were following the anarchist revolution in Spain, and that they still had to struggle to emancipate themselves as women. Unfortunately, the Mujeres Libres were never able to fully realize their goals as the revolution was crushed by 1939.
It also highlights the conflicts the Mujeres Libres had with other leftist organizations including within those within the anarchosyndalist movement.
This book shows that women were not emancipated like men were following the anarchist revolution in Spain, and that they still had to struggle to emancipate themselves as women. Unfortunately, the Mujeres Libres were never able to fully realize their goals as the revolution was crushed by 1939.
February 12, 2019
Martha Ackelsberg's 'Free Women of Spain' is one of the best introductions to anarchism generally as well as the Spanish Civil war or Spanish Revolution. The book is academic in nature, but is extremely accessible because she articulates very clearly the definition of various terms that are being used in the ongoing debates throughout the book. The book gives a view of an organization that is often forgotten, yet is so important for many modern debates we still engage in: what is the role of the state, why do marginalized/oppressed groups need separate organizations...cannot recommend enough.
March 11, 2018
This is a great book about the Mujeres Libres or Free Women of Spain that looks critically at both libertarian movements centred only around class issues and feminism centred only around women’s liberation in a society in which very few are free. With interviews from the surviving founders and excerpts from articles taken from the Mujeres Libres magazine. It also looks at the surrounding politics of the period and the Spanish civil war.
August 8, 2024
Not going to lie. This book is a challenge to read but let me be clear. It is a challenge to read cause of how it is written, not its content. The content is amazing. I feel like I learned so much about the dynamics between the anarchist women, their movements, the men and society at large. Truly marvellous content. Yet again, the way its written makes it so slow to read that it almost becomes insufferable.
April 28, 2023
El prólogo da ganas de meterle fuego al libro, está bien para hacer un bingo de léxico posmo.
Por lo demás, muy interesante la parte en la que se cuenta la historia de Mujeres Libres pero soporífera la autora cuando empieza a dar vueltas sobre lo mismo usando mucho las palabras identidad y diversidad.
Ser mujer no es una identidad, es una realidad material y en Mujeres Libres lo tenían claro.
Por lo demás, muy interesante la parte en la que se cuenta la historia de Mujeres Libres pero soporífera la autora cuando empieza a dar vueltas sobre lo mismo usando mucho las palabras identidad y diversidad.
Ser mujer no es una identidad, es una realidad material y en Mujeres Libres lo tenían claro.
January 25, 2021
Lo he utilizado para un trabajo de clase y me ha parecido increíble. Muy bien desarrollado, con fuentes y testimonios, explicado de una forma sencilla y que se entiende de maravilla. Se va a mis favoritos de esta temática, sin duda.
January 21, 2021
Es un buen libro de documentación acerca de este movimiento que surgió en los años de la guerra. Sin embargo, hay fases del libro que se hacen muy pesadas, llegando incluso a aburrir.
December 23, 2022
um aspecto que enriqueceria a análise e está ausente seria o lugar social e político de mulheres racializadas dentro de Mujeres Libres - se de fato havia e, se não, o porquê.
April 30, 2020
This is an excellent book documenting the work of Mujeres Libres - an anarchist women's organization in Spain in the 1930s. It's helpful, although not critical, that the reader have knowledge of the time period and major events of the Spanish Civil War and Spanish Revolution. The author writes with the assumption that the reader has this knowledge and, in my case, that was not true so I spent a fair amount of time looking up that history.
These women are so inspirational to me. Not only did they join in the social revolution in Spain from 1936 - 1939, but all the while they fought for true equality and acceptance into the decision-making bodies of the organizations they were part of, including the CNT (National Confederation of Workers). They organized educational and training programs for women so they could be better prepared to take over jobs that had been only available to men. They formed child-care groups to help working women and managed to radically influence the women they were supporting and bring them into the movement.
Make no mistake in thinking these women were what most in the 21st century think of as feminists who primarily simply want more of the capitalist pie. These women wanted to throw out that pie completely and change the entire system to a non-hierarchical one. These were the true women radicals - many of whom can still be found today in organizations like libcom.org and Black Rose / Rosa Negra - Anarchist Federation
These women are so inspirational to me. Not only did they join in the social revolution in Spain from 1936 - 1939, but all the while they fought for true equality and acceptance into the decision-making bodies of the organizations they were part of, including the CNT (National Confederation of Workers). They organized educational and training programs for women so they could be better prepared to take over jobs that had been only available to men. They formed child-care groups to help working women and managed to radically influence the women they were supporting and bring them into the movement.
Make no mistake in thinking these women were what most in the 21st century think of as feminists who primarily simply want more of the capitalist pie. These women wanted to throw out that pie completely and change the entire system to a non-hierarchical one. These were the true women radicals - many of whom can still be found today in organizations like libcom.org and Black Rose / Rosa Negra - Anarchist Federation
July 5, 2008
Really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the focus on Capacitacion, although the tales of shitty anarchist men was a tad depressing. I also thought that the distinctions between the politics of Mujeres Libres and the feminist movement were very interesting. Mujeres Libres developed their politics from the position of anarchist women within a revolutionary workers movement. Thus, they managed to skip many of the issues that would create divisions in the feminist movement of the 60s & 70s, e.g. relationship to political power, class hierarchies within the movement etc.
From Acklesburg's analysis it seems that their biggest weakness was a failure to develop a position on sexuality, she writes that members were fine with gay people within the group and generally considered sexuality a private matter, although at the same time the dominant anarchist view was that homosexuality was a deviation although not one to be condemned. This would imply that homophobia and heterosexism probably did exist within the movement in some form or another and ought to have been challenged.
Altogether a great book with much to take from it.
From Acklesburg's analysis it seems that their biggest weakness was a failure to develop a position on sexuality, she writes that members were fine with gay people within the group and generally considered sexuality a private matter, although at the same time the dominant anarchist view was that homosexuality was a deviation although not one to be condemned. This would imply that homophobia and heterosexism probably did exist within the movement in some form or another and ought to have been challenged.
Altogether a great book with much to take from it.
August 3, 2007
it was a little boring and the author was really bent on considering the free women to be a feminist movement regardless if the free women themselves didn't want to associate themselves with the feminist community. so that was a little annoying.
January 21, 2008
Bravo to AK Press for reprinting this important book. Insights in gender, class, and revolution are truly relevant today, 70 something years after the Spanish Revolution.
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June 8, 2009Mujeres Libres - lotta great things for me to learn
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