Democracy, Trade Unions and Political Violence in Spain

In Spain, the city of Valencia has traditionally been seen as somewhat exceptional: a prosperous, agricultural, export-oriented economy dominated by small- and medium-sized farmers. This tranquil image of Levante feliz contrasts sharply with those of rebellious, proletarian Barcelona, or impoverished, feudal Andalusia, with which the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo [National Confederation of Labour] (CNT) and the Spanish anarchist movement are most closely associated. However, this new study shows that Valencia in the 1920s and 1930s was anything but tranquil. The vertiginous growth of the CNT between 1918 and 1920 led to the province being a major target of government repression. The situation there was considered by one Interior Minister as more worrying than in Barcelona. Later, in the 1930s, urban Valencia became the focus of a fierce struggle between hard-line revolutionaries linked to the anarchist Federacion Anarquista Iberica [Iberian Anarchist Federation] and more moderate