| Popis: |
In the September 1936, Lois Orr, a 19-year-old American woman, went to Barcelona to engage in the anarchist social revolution taking place behind the lines of the war between the elected Republican government of Spain and the insurgent general, Francisco Franco. For the next nine and half months, she lived in Barcelona where she became enthralled with efforts of the anarchists to build a new society based on values of liberty and equality. When the anarchist revolution was suppressed by the communist-influenced Republican government in 1937, Orr was arrested, held in a Soviet-run prison and eventually expelled from Spain. She recorded her experience in detail, first in letters home and later in a manuscript which remains unpublished. This thesis presents a summary of her experiences and her observations of the anarchist social experiment. It argues that her narrative is unique in English, presenting an eye-witness account of life behind the lines in Barcelona, virtually the entire duration of anarchist control there. It is complementary to George Orwell?s more well-known narrative, Homage to Catalonia. Like Orwell, Orr was in Barcelona during the tumultuous May Days when tensions between the communists and anarchists erupted in street-fighting. However, while Orwell was at the front for most of his time in Spain, Orr was in Barcelona where she watched the growing tension between the desire of the anarchists for a new society and the needs of the central government to reassert control. Her manuscript provides insight into the workings of the anarchist economy and daily life in Barcelona. The anarchist economy in Spain, although it failed, represents one of the few such alternatives in twentieth century Europe. Orr provided an important eyewitness account of its inner workings as well as its suppression. |
