Casa C.N.T. -- F.A.I. -- Via Layetana, 32 y 34 -- BARCELONA
September 25th, 1936
Emma Goldman's first address to the Spanish comrades at a mass-meeting attended by ten thousand people.
Dear Comrades!
I greet you in the name of our comrades in England, the United States and Canada. We outside of Spain have already been given a new impetus by your great courage in the battle you are making against fascism and for our ideas. All of us are determined to aid you with all our energies and to the last drop of our blood until you have triumphed in your grand and wonderful aim.
I realize as do all the comrades in Europe and the States do that you must first concentrate your efforts to drive out of Spain the black and sinister forces that are threatening your liberty, and that are holding the people in many countries by the throat. In freeing Spain from this devastating [sic] scourge you will also break the backbone from fascism in the rest of the world. Your splendid battle is, therefore of universal scope and magnitude. I know only too well the fortitude needed, the concecration [sic], and the tremendous power of endurance to bring such a task as yours to victory. But also I know that you have all these qualifications and that you will succeed.
I am in your midst only a few days. But thanks to the solidarity and cooperation of the CNT and FAI, I have already been placed in a position to learn that over and above your struggle to crush fascism you are laying great stress on the constructive side of your battle. The factories, I visited and the houses you have requisioned [sic] for your great task are in perfect condition and order as if there had been no pitched battles with our enemies in Barcelona. Work and life has continued under your supervision perhaps better than under the old owners. You have thereby proven that our grand teacher Michael Bakunin was right when he said that the spirit of destruction is also the spirit of construction. And you have done more. You have branded as villainous misrepresentations the charges in many papers that Anarchism is a chaotic theory -- that it has no program -- that it is only bent on wreck and ruin. In the face of danger and death you have already demonstrated that Anarchism is the most constructive social philosophy, worth living, fighting and if need be dying for.
You comrades of Barcelona and Cataluna in general are giving a
shining example to the workers of the rest of the world, that you fully
understand the meaning of revolution. For, you have learned through
past mistakes that unless the revolutionary forces succeed in feeding,
clothing and sheltering xx the people during the revolutionary period
the revolution is doomed to ruin. For, its strength and its security
lie not in the state, or in the political power of parties but in the
constructive efforts during the fighting period. Your marvellous [sic]
experiment will and must succeed. But whether it does or xxxx
fails, you are planting new roots deeply in the soil of Spain, in the
hearts and minds of your people, and in the hearts and minds of the
oppressed all over the world.
I have come to you as to my own. For your ideal has been my ideal
for forty five years and it will remain to my last breath. My one
desire is to be a part, great or small, in the grandious [sic] battle
you are making. Long live the CNT! Long live the FAI! Long live your
fight for the liberation of humanity!
C.N.T. - A.I.T. - F.A.I.
SERVICE INTERNATIONAL D'INFORMATION DE PRESSE
INTERNATIONAL PRESS SERVICE
INTERNATIONALER NACHRICHTENDIENST
Emma Goldman's first address to the Spanish comrades at a mass-meeting attended by ten thousand people.
Dear Comrades!
I greet you in the name of our comrades in England, the United States and Canada. We outside of Spain have already been given a new impetus by your great courage in the battle you are making against fascism and for our ideas. All of us are determined to aid you with all our energies and to the last drop of our blood until you have triumphed in your grand and wonderful aim.
I realize as do all the comrades in Europe and the States do that you must first concentrate your efforts to drive out of Spain the black and sinister forces that are threatening your liberty, and that are holding the people in many countries by the throat. In freeing Spain from this devastating [sic] scourge you will also break the backbone from fascism in the rest of the world. Your splendid battle is, therefore of universal scope and magnitude. I know only too well the fortitude needed, the concecration [sic], and the tremendous power of endurance to bring such a task as yours to victory. But also I know that you have all these qualifications and that you will succeed.
I am in your midst only a few days. But thanks to the solidarity and cooperation of the CNT and FAI, I have already been placed in a position to learn that over and above your struggle to crush fascism you are laying great stress on the constructive side of your battle. The factories, I visited and the houses you have requisioned [sic] for your great task are in perfect condition and order as if there had been no pitched battles with our enemies in Barcelona. Work and life has continued under your supervision perhaps better than under the old owners. You have thereby proven that our grand teacher Michael Bakunin was right when he said that the spirit of destruction is also the spirit of construction. And you have done more. You have branded as villainous misrepresentations the charges in many papers that Anarchism is a chaotic theory -- that it has no program -- that it is only bent on wreck and ruin. In the face of danger and death you have already demonstrated that Anarchism is the most constructive social philosophy, worth living, fighting and if need be dying for.
You comrades of Barcelona and Cataluna in general are giving a
shining example to the workers of the rest of the world, that you fully
understand the meaning of revolution. For, you have learned through
past mistakes that unless the revolutionary forces succeed in feeding,
clothing and sheltering xx the people during the revolutionary period
the revolution is doomed to ruin. For, its strength and its security
lie not in the state, or in the political power of parties but in the
constructive efforts during the fighting period. Your marvellous [sic]
experiment will and must succeed. But whether it does or 
C.N.T. - A.I.T. - F.A.I.
SERVICE INTERNATIONAL D'INFORMATION DE PRESSE
INTERNATIONAL PRESS SERVICE
INTERNATIONALER NACHRICHTENDIENST
