Portrait of Carlos Faraudo y de Micheo

In Madrid on the night of 7 May 1936, a group of Falangist gunmen murdered infantry captain and instructor of the Socialist Youth militia, Carlos Faraudo, shown in the photograph. Faraudo’s funeral reflected the paramiliarization of Spanish politics that spring. Other officers who had ties to the Socialist Party militias and the Unified Socialist Youth marched by his coffin with raised fists.

The conversion of political parties into mass organizations during the interwar years was accompanied by the creation of paramilitary sections. This brutalization of politics had a number of causes. In Spain, the extrapolation of the principles, stereotypes, and methods from World War I were less important than those from the wars in Morocco, as the savage actions of colonial troops in October 1934 made clear.

Party militias were composed of armed civilians specializing in the use of violence for political purposes who operated clandestinely and independent of their parties. Their paramilitary character emanated from their military training, their internal hierarchy and discipline, and their flashy uniforms. Although their theoretical goal was the conquest of power, in Spain they operated as action squads that protected party buildings and events; engaged their opponents in flamboyant street fights; and attacked rival groups.

The growth of political militias was closely tied to the protagonism that young people claimed in the 1930s. Almost every party created a youth section, and their predilection for maximalist positions turned them into the seedbeds of the shock groups. In August 1934, the government prohibited people under 16 from joining political organizations and required that people between 16 and 23 show a letter from their parents.

Many different militias were involved in street fights during the Republic. On the right, the most important were the Carlist Requeté and the Falange’s Front Line. The Acción Popular Youth limited themselves to organizing protection services. On the left, the armed sections of the Socialist Youth and the Communists’ Worker and Peasant Antifascist Militias stand out. Rather than actual militias, the libertarian left had some defence groups organized by the CNT and a large number of gunmen connected to the FAI. The high point of militia activity came in October 1934, with the role played by the workers’ militias in Asturias and the escamots of Estat Català in Catalunya.

SVM