Workers’ revolution in the cities.
CNT membership card, issued in Barcelona on 19 July 1936
Matches produced by the collectivised chemical industries (Industrias químicas colectivizadas) of the CNT. Republican Spain, 1936-39.
Badge issued by the CNT (1936-39).
Voucher for tobacco issued by the CNT-FAI. Barcelona, 1936..
Collectivised tram (CNT/UGT) and bus (CNT) tickets. Barcelona 1936-39. Transport was collectivised throughout the war.
Postcards of Estampas de la Revolución by Sim. Printed in Barcelona, 1936. .‘Sim’ was the pseudonym of José Luis Rey Vila, a Spanish artist who travelled with the Republican militias after the immediate outbreak of the rebellion in July 1936, drawing scenes of the war as he went. Born in 1910, Sim trained at the Escuela de Belles Artes (School of Fine Arts) in Barcelona and became radicalised as a soldier during the Rif War in Morocco in the 1920s. His civil war sketches were published as Estampas de la Revolución Española 19 Julio de 1936 by the anarchist CNT-FAI, and became the most widely known art of the civil war until Pablo Picasso’s Guernica in 1937. Editions were printed in Spanish, French and English, and distributed worldwide to raise awareness and funds for the Spanish antifascist movement. Estampas was followed by a new series of drawings, 12 Escenas de Guerra, which were also released as calendars and postcards during 1937-38. In addition, Sim created posters for the Catalan regional government (Generalitat), and exhibitions of his work were held in London and New York under the auspices of the Spanish Popular Front. After the war, he was exiled to Paris and continued to produce artwork, this time under his real name (Rey Vila). He died in 1983.Morris Brodie is a historian working on international anarchism during the Spanish Civil War.
https://qub.academia.edu/MorrisBrodie
https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/happ/Research/PhDResearchStudents/PhDResearchStudentProfiles/MorrisBrodie-studentprofile/
Hollywood star cards printed by the Sindicato Único de Espectáculos Públicos de la CNT (Single Entertainment Union), Badalona, January 1937. These two cards feature Robert Montgomery and Norma Sheerer.
Elsewhere
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Chris Ealham’s Anarchism and the City: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Barcelona, 1898-1937. Available as book or online for free here.
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VIDEO Ethel Macdonald A very interesting story about a Scottish anarchist woman’s involvement.
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VIDEO The film Land and Freedom by Ken Loach and VIDEO Loach On Location making of Land and Freedom (1995)