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The split of a working-class city: urban space, immigration and anarchism in inter-war Barcelona, 1914–1936

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

JOSÉ LUIS OYÓN*
Affiliation:
Urbanismo Department, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Escuela técnica Superior de Arquitectura del Vallés, Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

Barcelona was the capital city of European anarchism during the inter-war years. The aim of this article is to discover the sociological and territorial features of the radicalized CNT (the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo), the anarchist union, which generated the summer 1936 revolution. By looking at the role of urban space as a variable in the collective processes of the working class the article argues that the unskilled recent immigrant worker and the neighbourhoods where this working-class figure was dominant were the key protagonists of revolutionary radicalism.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 This article is a short abstract of a longer study of the working class in inter-war Barcelona. Detailed references of its various aspects are developed extensively in Oyón, J.L., La quiebra de la ciudad popular. Espacio urbano, inmigración y anarquismo en la Barcelona de entreguerras, 1914–1936 (Barcelona, 2008)Google Scholar.

2 There are of course sundry chapters on the space and everyday life of the popular classes in diverse published works. For the big cities in the period 1900–36 I would mention: Junco, J. Alvarez, El emperador del Paralelo. Lerroux y la demagogia populista (Madrid, 1990)Google Scholar; Juliá, S., Madrid, 1931–1934. De la fiesta popular a la lucha de clases (Madrid, 1984)Google Scholar; Reig, R., Blasquistas y clericales. La lucha por la ciudad en la Valencia de 1900 (Valencia, 1986)Google Scholar; Portilla, M. González (ed.), Los orígenes de una metrópoli industrial: la ría de Bilbao (Bilbao, 2001)Google Scholar; Delgado, J.L. García (ed.), Las ciudades en la modernización de España. Los decenios interseculares (Madrid, 1992)Google Scholar; Arenas, C., La Sevilla inerme (Ecija, 1992)Google Scholar; Sevila y el Estado (1892–1923) (Seville, 1995); Castells, L. (ed.), El rumor de lo cotidiano, Estudios sobre el País Vasco Contempráneo (Bilbao, 1999)Google Scholar. For a general overview of Spanish working-class history see Alonso, A. Barrio, ‘Historia obrera en los noventa: tradición y modernidad’, Historia Social, 37 (2000), 143–60Google Scholar. On the relations between urban and working-class history, see Oyón, J.L., ‘Historia urbana e historia obrera: reflexiones sobre la vida obrera y su inscripción en el espacio urbano, 1900–1950’, Historia Contemporánea, 24, 1 (2002), 1158Google Scholar. On the progressive opening of traditional working-class history to urban history and spatial issues, see: Katznelson, I., City Trenches: Urban Politics and the Patterning of Class in the United States (New York, 1981)Google Scholar; Katznelson, I., Marxism and the City (Oxford, 1992)Google Scholar; Katznelson, I. and Zolberg, A.R. (eds.), Working-Class Formation: Nineteenth-Century Patterns in Western Europe and the United States (Princeton, 1986)Google Scholar. See also Cronin, J.E., ‘Labor insurgency and class formation: comparative perspectives on the crisis of 1917–1920 in Europe’, in Cronin, J.E. and Siriani, C. (eds.), Work, Community and Power. The Experience of Labor in Europe and America, 1900–1925 (Philadelphia, 1983)Google Scholar; Y. Lequin (ed.), ‘Ouvriers dans la ville’, Le Mouvement Social, Special Issue 118 (1982); Magri, S. and Topalov, C.H. (eds.), Villes ouvrières, 1900–1950 (Paris, 1989)Google Scholar; Savage, M., ‘Urban history and social class: two paradigms’, Urban History, 20 (1993), 6177CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Savage, M. and Miles, A., The Remaking of the English Working Class 1840–1940 (London, 1994)Google Scholar; E. Faue (ed.), ‘The working classes and urban public space’, Special Issue, Social Science History, 24 (2000); ‘Working-class suburbanization’, Special Issue, International Labor and Working-Class History, 64 (2003). Urban history literature focusing more or less specifically on space and the working class is extensive. I would mention especially: Zunz, O., The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880–1920 (Chicago, 1982)Google Scholar; Dennis, R., English Industrial Cities of the Nineteenth Century: A Social Geography (Cambridge, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gribaudi, M., Mondo operaio e mito operaio. Spazi e percorsi sociali a Torino nel primo Novecento (Turin, 1987)Google Scholar; Pinol, J.-L., Les mobilités de la grande ville, Lyon (fin XIXe – debut XXe siècle) (Paris, 1991)Google Scholar; Davies, A., Leisure, Gender and Poverty: Working-class Culture in Salford and Manchester, 1900–1939 (Buckingham, 1992)Google Scholar; Harris, R., Unplanned Suburbs. Toronto's American Tragedy, 1900–1950 (Baltimore, 1996)Google Scholar; Lewis, R., Manufacturing Montreal: The Making of an Industrial Landscape (Baltimore, 2000)Google Scholar.

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4 N. Rider, ‘Anarchism, urbanization, and social conflict in Barcelona, 1900–1932’, Lancaster University Ph.D. thesis, 1987; Ealham, C., Class, Culture and Conflict in Barcelona, 1898–1937 (London and New York, 2005)Google Scholar; see also Smith, A. (ed.), Red Barcelona, Social Protest and Labour Mobilization in the Twentieth Century (London and New York, 2002)Google Scholar; Oyón, J.L. and Gallardo, J.J. (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro. Radicalismo cenetista y obrerismo en la periferia de Barcelona, 1918–1936 (Barcelona, 2004)Google Scholar; Vilanova, M. and Grau, R., Atlas electoral de la Segona República a Catalunya, vol. II: Barcelona ciutat (Barcelona, 2006)Google Scholar.

5 Vices, J. Vicens, Industrials i polítics (Barcelona, 1958), 163–6, 165Google Scholar; critical comments by Balañà, A. García, ‘Sobre la “constitució del proletariat” a la Catalunya cotonera. Una crónica de la formació dels llenguatges de classe a peu de fàbrica (1840–1890)’, in Fradera, J.M. and Cal, E. Ucelay-Da, Noticia nova de Catalunya (Barcelona, 2005), 97119, especially 97–102Google Scholar. On this discussion, see Balcells, A. (ed.), El arraigo del anarquismo en Cataluña (Textos de 1926–1932) (Barcelona, 1973)Google Scholar; Sabater, J., Anarquisme i catalanisme: la CNT i el fet nacional català durant la Guerra Civil (Barcelona, 1986)Google Scholar. As an example of the modern balanced view see E. Vega, ‘Radicals i moderats a Barcelona i el seu entorn: una reflexió sobre les seves causes’, in Oyón and Gallardo (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro.

6 Massana, C., Indústria, ciutat i propietat. Política económica i propietat urbana a l'àrea de Barcelona (1901–1939) (Barcelona, 1985), ch. 2, 64–5Google Scholar; Nadal, J. and Tafunell, X., Sant Martí de Provençals: pulmó industrial de Barcelona, 1847–1992 (Barcelona, 1992), 139207, 273–4, 282–9Google Scholar; Sudrià, C., ‘1914–1936. L'economia catalana en els anys d'entreguerres: consolidació industrial i diversificació productiva’, in Història econòmica de la Catalunya contemporània, vol. IV: Una societat plenament industrial (Barcelona, 1988), 2597, 85Google Scholar.

7 Gabriel, P., ‘La población obrera catalana. Una población industrial’, Estudios de Historia Social, 32–3 (1985), 191260, 234Google Scholar. See also ‘Censo obrero de 1905’, Anuario Estadístico de la Ciudad de Barcelona, 1905; percentage of working families in the city: Oyón, J.L., Maldonado, J. and Griful, E., Barcelona, 1930: un atlas social (Barcelona, 2001), ch. 1Google Scholar; this study and the rest of the references to 1930 are based on a 5% sample of the 1930 census (padrón), Archivo Administrativo Ayuntamiento de Barcelona (AAAB).

8 Ayuntamiento de Barcelona, ‘L'obra constructiva de l'Ajuntament. Memória relativa a la formació del Padró d'habitants del terme municipal de Barcelona amb referència al 31 de desembre de 1930’, Gaseta Municipal de Barcelona (1930); Tatjer, M., ‘Evolució demogràfica’, in Història de Barcelona, vol. VII: El segle XX (Barcelona, 1995)Google Scholar.

9 Sudrià, ‘1914–1936. L'economia catalana’, 43–5; J. de Motes, Maluquer, ‘Precios, salarios y beneficios. La distribución funcional de la renta’, in Carreras, A. (ed.), Estadísticas históricas de España, siglos XIX–XX (Madrid, 1989), 495532Google Scholar; Gabriel, P., ‘Sous i cost de la vida a Catalunya a l'entorn dels anys de la Primera Guerra Mundial’, Recerques, 20 (1988), 6191Google Scholar.

10 Public expenditure in Barcelona went from 78.5 million pesetas in 1914 to more than 135 million in 1932; Tafunell, X., ‘La construcció: una gran indústria i un gran negoci’, in Història econòmica de Catalunya, s.XX, Segle XX, vol. VI: Indústria, finances i turisme (Barcelona, 1989), 211–24Google Scholar.

11 Cordiviola, A., García, C., Monclús, F.J. and Oyón, J.L., ‘La formación de Nou Barris. Dinámica y explosión de la construcción residencial en la periferia barcelonesa, 1897–1935’, in III Congrés d'Història de Barcelona, vol. II (Barcelona, 1993), 559–72Google Scholar; Oyón, J.L. and García, C., ‘Las segundas periferias, 1918–1936: una geografía preliminar’, in Oyón, J.L. (ed.), Vida obrera en la Barcelona de entreguerras (Barcelona, 1998), 4783, 74Google Scholar; see also: Massana, Indústria, ciutat i propietat; Tafunell, ‘La construcció’; X. Tafunell, ‘La construcción en Barcelona, 1860–1935: continuidad y cambio’, in García Delgado (ed.), Las ciudades en la modernización de España, 3–20.

12 Between 1910 and 1915 the number of buildings grew a scant 1.5%; see: ‘L'obra constructiva de l'Ajuntament’.

13 Oyón and García, ‘Las segundas periferias’.

14 Social mobility data are based on a sample of marriage registers in 1920 and 1934–35 taken at Archivo del Registro Civil de Barcelona (ARCB). On the socio-cultural features of Barcelona's social classes, see Oyón, Maldonado and Griful, Barcelona, 1930, ch. 1: this study and the rest of the references to 1930 are based on a 5% sample of the 1930 census (padrón).

15 As opposed to the approaching-wages process postulated by Carles Enrech for the period 1880–1914 in Indústria i ofici. Conflicte social i jerarquies obreres en la Catalunya tèxtil (1881–1923) (Bellaterra, 2005), the figures of the Ministerio de Trabajo or Ministry of Labour, Estadística de salarios y jornadas de trabajo referida al período 1914–1930 (Madrid, 1931), show a complete stabilization of the distance between the wages of skilled and unskilled workers from 1914 to 1930. Sundry information on some wage rises in the thirties can be seen in the personal workers' cards of the factories studied in my work and also in Vega, Entre revolució i reforma.

16 ARCB: marriage record samples 1920, 1934–35; Oyón, La quiebra de la ciudad popular, ch. 4.

17 (AAAB), padrón de habitantes, 1930. For a systematic study of immigration at 1930 padrón see Oyón, Maldonado and Griful, Barcelona, 1930, ch. 2.

18 La Maquinista Terrestre y Marítima, Fichas de personal (workers' register cards).

19 Oyón, La quiebra de la ciudad popular, ch. 2.

20 The impact of poverty was especially significant. During the 1920s, the number of poor families from Murcia and Andalusia registered at the Instituto Municipal de Demografía surpassed at some moments that of the five-times bigger group of native families. The group of Valencian-Aragonese immigrant poor families was similar. Mortality rates were higher in the blue-collar classes and especially high among the most recently arrived working-class immigrants: the mortality rates among Almerian jornaleros doubled those of the non-manual classes. Disease impact was also higher. The figures for contagious diseases treated at Hospital Municipal de Infecciosos show that in 1931 more than 27% of the hospitalized patients came from Murcia and Almeria provinces. The Catalan provinces, with a population which was seven times higher, registered only 30% more sick people. See Oyón, Maldonado and Griful, Barcelona, 1930, ch. 4; ‘Classificació de malalts assistits durant 1931’, Gaseta Municipal, 1932. Estadística, Suplemento de la Gaceta Municipal (1927), 238, 440. See also Oyón, La quiebra de la ciudad popular, ch. 2.

21 ARCB, marriage records, 1934–35. Similar conclusions may be drawn from an analysis of the 1930 census. In a sample study of census tracts, we have found that boys and girls of unskilled workers left school at an early age to devote themselves to manual labour.

22 Census tracts of the 1930 padrón (around 11,000 inhabitants) are six times larger than the English nineteenth-century census tracts and five times larger than the American ones used in urban historical geography studies. That is why segregation indexes of 30–40 in Barcelona may be considered relatively high. The segregation index of unskilled workers in Barcelona, for instance, which was around 30 for a population representing 50% of the total population, may be considered quite substantial (padrón districts could have been disaggregated if the size of the sample (5%) were larger).

23 Oyón, La quiebra de la ciudad popular, ch. 4. The basic source has been eviction proceedings from 1931 to 1936, Archivo Judicial de Barcelona.

24 C. Miralles and J.L. Oyón,‘De casa a la fábrica. Movilidad obrera y transporte en la Barcelona de entreguerras, 1914–1939’, in Oyón (ed.), Vida obrera; J.L. Oyón and C. Enrech, ‘Las diferentes movilidades de un municipio suburbano. Hospitalet y el censo obrero de 1923’, in Oyón and Gallardo (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro. Cross-comparisons with other European cities in Oyón, ‘Historia urbana e historia obrera’. See also Oyón, La quiebra de la ciudad popular, ch. 5.

25 Residential mobility has been studied in workers' register lists of various industrial firms, in a sample of ten census tracts of the 1930 padrón, in the poll lists of 1932, in the 1940 padrón and in 200 life histories. The study of courtship space has been made for 1920 and 1934–35 through marriage record analysis; that of kinship through familiy reconstitution on the 1930 padrón and 1932 poll lists in seven working-class sample census tracts. For more details on these sources, see Oyón, La quiebra de la ciudad popular, ch. 6.

26 Vega, Entre revolució i reforma, 139–40.

27 Data on the various sections of the CNT Sindicato Único de la Construcción (Sole Building Union) and on the same branch of the UGT have been taken from Archivo de la Guerra Civil de Salamanca (AGCS), Político-Social (PS) Barcelona, Carp. 1321, 1322, 1431, 1434, 1454, 371, 1515; in the metal sector: ibid., Carp. 1372, 1186; in textiles, mainly in the Ram del l'Aigua, ibid., Carp. 526, 857, 895, 902.

28 Taking 100 as the mean of the city, the rate of cenetistas versus ugetistas in the second suburbs was 133 versus 36, 128 versus 101 in the densified neighbourhoods of the Old City and 93 versus 94 in the popular suburbs. The figures refer to hundreds of well-known militants (militants of comités de relación, craft sections or quarter (barriada) sections – generally involving CNT), re-worked from AGCS, Barcelona, PS and Íñiguez, M., Esbozo de una Enciclopedia Histórica del anarquismo español (Madrid, 2001)Google Scholar; and de Sas, M T. Fernández and Pagés, P. (co-ord.), Diccionari biogràfic del moviment obrer als Països Catalans (Barcelona, 2000)Google Scholar. On the hegemony of the CNT in the surrounding municipalities see: D. Marín, ‘Anarquistas y sindicalistas en L'Hospitalet. La creación de un proyecto de autodidactismo obrero’, in Oyón and Gallardo (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro; D. Marín, ‘De la lliberat per coneixer al coneixement de la llibertat’, Universidad de Barcelona Ph.D. thesis, 1995; Marín, D., Clandestinos. El Maquis contra el franquismo, 1934–1975 (Barcelona, 2002)Google Scholar; Gallardo, J.J., Revolució i Guerra en Gramenet del Besós (1936–1939) (Santa Coloma de Gramenet, 1997)Google Scholar; J.J. Gallardo, ‘La acción libertaria en el origen de una ciudad dormitorio’, in Oyón and Gallardo (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro; Andreassi, J., Libertad también se escribe con minúscula. Anarcosindicalismo en Sant Adria' (1926–1939) (Barcelona, 1996)Google Scholar; Ballester, D., ‘La bipolarització sindical durant la guerra civil. El cas de Santa Coloma de Gramanet’, Ágora, 8 (2003), 165–76Google Scholar. On the scant significance of the UGT in El Prat de Llobregat, see S. Bengoechea and M. Renom, ‘Vells i nous espais de pràctiques sindicals i polítiques al Prat del Llobregat, 1917–1939’, in Oyón and Gallardo (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro, 303–32, 314–17; Bengoechea, S. and Renom, M., Memòria i compromís. Classes treballadores i política al Prat de LLobregat (1917–1979) (Barcelona, 1999), 6874Google Scholar.

29 I have studied some 400 militants who held positions in the various union branches or were significant figures by virtue of their militant activity. Most of them were CNT militants but some 90 ugetistas and 35 treintistas are also included, which is why these data must be considered with caution.

30 Poll behaviour in the various Republican elections shows a specific conduct of the second suburbs, which were more abstentionist than the other two working-class settings and showed greater support for political parties such as Extrema Izquierda Federal, a political organization which sought to be the upholder of many cenetista slogans.

31 AGCS, PS Barcelona, Actas de la Federación Local de Grupos Anarquistas de Barcelona, 1937 and 1938, Carp. 1307, contains sundry information on some 150 grupos and more than 700 militants. There were more than 1,000 faísta militants at the end of 1936.

32 Data worked out from the representatives at the JJ.LL. plenary assemblies of March and May 1937: AGCS, PS Barcelona, Carp. 120. About 7,000 Libertarian youths of the Barcelona area were represented at the June 1937 Regional Congress; see also Carp. 1348.

33 On the ateneos founded in these years in the Barcelona area, see Navarro, Ateneos y grupos ácratas; Solà, P., ‘La base societaria de la cultura y de la acción libertaria en la Cataluña de los años treinta’, in Hofmann, B., Joan, P. and Tietz, M. (eds.), El anarquismo español y sus tradiciones culturales (Madrid and Frankfurt, 1995), 361–75Google Scholar and Appendix; Solà, P., ‘Educació popular i comunisme llibertari al medi urbà: una mostra d'ateneus de l'àrea barcelonina’, in IX Jornades d'Història de l'Educació als països Catalans, 1918–1936 (Barcelona, 1987), 405–21Google Scholar; Solà, P., ‘L'ateneísme àcrata durant la segona república’, L'Avenç, 11 (1977), 6973Google Scholar; Solà, P., Els ateneus obrers i la cultura popular a Catalunya (1900–1939): l'Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular (Barcelona, 1978), App. IIGoogle Scholar; my list of ateneos also includes ateneos taken from other sources such as AGCS, PS Barcelona, Carp. 1307 and 921; AGCS, Recuperación, documento 3, and Libro de Detenciones, Caja 46.

34 The main source has been Fernández de Sas and Pagès (co-ord.), Diccionari biogràfic.

35 On the concept of Catalanist populism see Cal, E. Ucelay-Da, La Catalunya populista (Barcelona, 1982)Google Scholar.

36 See Rider, N., ‘Anarquisme i lluita popular: la vaga de lloguers de 1931’, L'Avenç, 89 (1986), 617Google Scholar; N. Rider, ‘Anarchism, urbanization, and social conflict in Barcelona, 1900–1932’, Lancaster University Ph.D. thesis, 1987, vol. I, 483–97, vol. II, 699–732, 815–38, 873–85, 932–46, 967–74, 988–1007; and Rider, N., ‘The practice of direct action: the Barcelona rent strike of 1931’, in Goodway, D. (ed.), For Anarchism (London, 1989), 79109Google Scholar.

37 Archivo Transportes de Barcelona, Caja 5557, Recortes de prensa sobre la concesión Torner, 1933–34; Las Noticias, 9 Nov. 1934; El Noticiero, 28 Apr. 1934, El Diluvio, 17, 20 and 29 Oct. 1933.

38 Peirats, J., La CNT en la revolución española, 3 vols. (Paris, 1971), vol. I, 78Google Scholar; memories consulted, kindly given to the author by Dolors Marín from the personal papers of José Peirats, 38–9; Camós, J., L'Hospitalet, l'història de tots nosaltres, 1931–1936 (Barcelona, 1986), 76–8Google Scholar; Marín, Clandestinos, 195–201.

39 Juliá, Madrid, 1931–1934, chs. 2 and 6. There are numerous studies on the Paris banlieue rouge: Brunet, J.-P., Saint Denis, la ville rouge (Paris, 1980)Google Scholar; Fourcaut, A., Bobigny, banlieue rouge (Paris, 1986)Google Scholar; Stovall, T., The Rise of the Paris Red Belt (Berkeley, 1990)Google Scholar; Fourcaut, A. (sous la direction de), Banlieue rouge 1920–1960 (Paris, 1992)Google Scholar; Giralut, J. (dir.), Ouvriers en banlieue, XIXe–XXe siècles (Paris, 1998)Google Scholar; Fourcaut, A., La banlieue en morceaux (Paris, 2000)Google Scholar; For a possible comparative view of Anglo-saxon cities, see Harris, R. and Larkham, P., Changing Suburbs: Foundation, Form and Function (London, 1999)Google Scholar; Harris, R. and Lewis, R., ‘The geography of North American cities and suburbs, 1900–1950. A new synthesis’, Journal of Urban History, 27 (2001), 262–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Nicolaides, B., My Blue Heaven. Life and Politics in Working-Class Suburbs of Los Angeles, 1920–1965 (Chicago, 2002)Google Scholar; Harris, R., ‘The suburban worker in the history of labor’, International Labor and Working-Class History, 64 (2003), 824CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 C. Calvo and J.L. Oyón, ‘Milicianos anarquistas de Barcelona: inserción geográfica y perfil social’, in Oyón and Galalrdo (eds.), El cinturón rojinegro.

41 ANC (Arxiu Nacional de Catalunya), Fondo Generalitat, Defensa-Guerra Civil: payment certificates of the Comité Central de Milicias Antifascistas, rolls 223–69.

42 Enzensberger, H.M., El corto verano de la anarquía (Barcelona, 1977)Google Scholar.

43 AGCS, PS Barcelona, Carp. 11, 365. A total of 250 prisoners are recorded in two long prisoner lists (September 1937 and Spring 1938) in the 1930 padrón.

44 I have found in part in the 1930 padrón the family data of a list of 55 cenetistas given by Solé, J.M. and Villarroya, J., La repressió franquista a Catalunya, 1938–1952 (Barcelona, 1988), 152–4, 244–5, 262–5, 352–82Google Scholar.

45 Suriano, J., Anarquistas. Cultura y política libertaria en Buenos Aires, 1890–1910 (Buenos Aires, 2001)Google Scholar; Suriano, J., Auge y caída del anarquismo. Argentina, 1880–1930 (Buenos Aires, 2005)Google Scholar.

46 In particular I would like to point out Chris Ealham's book Class, Culture and Conflict as a thorough documentary account of Barcelona's cenetista radicalism in the 1930s and especially of the connections of this radicalism with the cultural world of the unemployed. This is an extremely valuable book which, as opposed to the populist front historiography which most often ignores or condemns radical cenetismo without further analysis, presents it in scholarly terms. However, Ealham's book also contains some of the kind of communitarianist views to which I have referred. In my opinion (and this is merely a remark which in no way detracts from this book's enormous value), the working-class neighbourhood, which plays a fundamental role in Ealham's account, is treated as the main material support of the cenetista political behaviour without making a specific study of its internal mechanisms (the communitarian sociability networks which were supposedly the fundamental support of cenetismo) and without specifying the differences between neighbourhoods. Despite his explicit intention of attributing to the urban space a key role, Ealham's study is limited to an imprecise geography of the city. Actually, many of Ealham's references to radicalism and collective actions against the Republican order relate to the second suburbs and the Old City immigrant neighbourhoods. A good book presenting the historiographical version of the betrayal of the revolution is Amorós, M., La revolución traicionada (Barcelona, 2003)Google Scholar.