Full Description:
A week of street fighting (May 3–8, 1937) in Barcelona between anarchist and anti-Stalinist Marxist forces (CNT-FAI and POUM) on one side, and Communist-led Republican government forces (Assault Guards and Communist Party militias) on the other. The violence erupted over Communist attempts to seize control of the city’s telephone exchange from the anarchist-controlled CNT. Hundreds were killed before the fighting subsided.
Critical Perspective:
The May Days were the civil war within the civil war—the moment the Republican coalition irreparably fractured. The anarchists had controlled Barcelona since July 1936; the Communists, backed by Soviet arms and political advisors, moved to break that control. The result was a fratricidal massacre that demoralized the Republican rank and file and handed a propaganda victory to Franco. The May Days proved that the Republic could not defeat fascism while also fighting a revolution against its own allies. Barcelona never fully recovered.
