1936 The Spanish Revolution

by The Ex, The Ex

Photos from the CNT (the anarchist labor union) archives of the Spanish Revolution along with two 3" CDs featuring the Ex performing two origninal songs and two songs from the Revolution.

Genres: Spain, Nonfiction, Anarchism, History

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Amy]

Full of joyful photos of revolutionaries and includes 2 mini discs with classic Spanish revolutionary tunes such as Ay Carmela and No Pasaran.
“Against fascism, Yes. But also against any type of dictatorship because, whoever exercises it, dictatorship is also fascism.” Solidaridad obrera, cnt 18 July 1936

[Kevin Burns]

"The anti-fascist struggle is also a struggle for culture: a culture against oppression, against the curtailment of free development and for the propogation of culture among the deprived, goodwilled, civilized and compassionate Iberian people." (Lou Lichtenveld)

A wonderful book featuring many photographs of the CNT's struggle for freedom against fascism circa 1936-1937. Broken up by short, illuminating essays about different facets of the anarchist struggle in Spain and bookended by 2 cd singles by The Ex performing old revolutionary songs and songs inspired by the CNT.

[Zoë Birss]

This is a beautiful tribute to the revolutionary anarchists of Spain, compiled and with captions by The Ex - a punk band from 1986. It's a beautiful collection of photos of the revolution, by the revolutionaries. Many of these workers died within a few years of these photos, at the hand of the fascists before World War 2. These photos let the struggle of the dead speak in their own voice, with pictures of what they decided was important, what they wanted to pass on. The pictures are grouped by subject, rather than chronology, featuring photos of many different worker collectives - agricultural, textile, machinist and others - along with food distribution, political organizing, storage (often in churches, which had become irrelevant), and the front. Photos of fascists and owners and priests reestablish ing the old order after the bombing of Guernica are heartbreaking.

The photos are interspersed with short essays describing the effort and the war, and these are elementary enough to introduce a beginner to the subject.

Two 3" CDs are included, reprints of two 7" vinyl singles that originally came with the book in the eighties. Each CD contains a folk song of the people of Spain and a song by The Ex. Lyrics in English and Spanish are included in the book.

[Morgan]

What's a Dutch punk bank doing publishing a comprehensive collection of photos from the Spanish Civil War? A better question is why few other bands have ever attempted anything as ambitious or useful. I picked up the 7" record version of this some years back (softcover, but bigger than the CD reissue) and got schooled on the CNT and how anarchism functioned in action in Spain of the 1930s. The Ex threw in recordings of four songs as a bonus—two originals and two renditions of Spanish Civil War ballads. Great music. Great book.