First meeting of the Central Antifascist Militias Committee

On 3 October 1936, the Official Daily of the Generaitat of Catalonia announced that two days earlier it had dissolved the Central Antifascist Militias Committee (CAMC). With this measure, the Generalitat had taken back political control of all of Catalonia. The revolutionary political that had established itself as a parallel government - and in reality, the real government of the region – had been liquidated.

The origins of the CAMC lay in the context of the aftermath of the military rebellion of 19 July. On the afternoon of 20 July, when the uprising had been defeated, the president of the Generalitat, Lluís Companys, met with his cabinet and a number of other political and trade union leaders. After analyzing the situation, they concluded that it was not possible to stop the revolution born from the defense of Republican legality. It was the anarchists who controlled the streets and the weapons, and Companys, aware that the only way to restore order was to invite the anarchists to join the government, called their leaders to meet with him.

In the meeting, Companys recognized the victory that the anarchist organizations had won. He then offered them power, fully aware that they could not accept it. When the CNT-FAI did refuse to take over the government of Catalonia, President Companys proposed a new formula he thought they could accept: the creation of a new body, the Central Antifascist Militias Committee, that would be in charge of leading Catalonia while the danger lasted.

The CAMC was created by a government decree on 21 July 1936. It consisted of three representatives of the CNT, two from the FAI, three from the Catalan Republican Left (ERC), three from the General Workers’ Union (UGT), and one from each of the Catalan Republican Action, the Rabassaires Union, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), and the Unified Marxist Workers’ Party (POUM). The photograph shows them at first meeting. The decree also established a liaison and control committee for the militias made up of a representative of the Generalitat’s Interior Minister, a representative of the Head of Public Order  as well as representatives of the political parties and union organizations. Municipal-level defense committees that would act as directed by the CAMC were also established.

The CAMC became a parallel government. It controlled food supplies, the administration of justice, the organization of the militias that were sent to Aragon, law and order, and the economy. It was never able to control the local committees, however. In the towns and villages, the committees did what they wanted, irrespective of what was decided in Barcelona.