In and Against the State: The Making and Unmaking of theBarcelona May Days (1937)

This article discusses the mobilisation and demobilisation of anarchist workers during the Barcelona May days of 1937. Using recently published and primary research, it analyses how and why these events took place. The article argues that the programmatic and organisational coherence of the uprising has traditionally been underestimated, due to a lack of historiographical attention to the activities of mid-level anarchist activists in the CNT and the FAI. Understanding the significance and potential of the May days is crucial to an appreciation of the dynamics of the anarchist movement during the Spanish civil war, the process of Republican state reconstruction, counterrevolutionary violence, and the revolutionary approach to the war effort.