Events of 6 October

The events of 6 October (Catalan: Fets del sis d'octubre) were a general strike, armed insurgency and declaration of a Catalan State by Catalonia's autonomous government on 6 October 1934, in reaction to the inclusion of conservatives in the republican regime of Spain. They took place as part of a nationwide strike and armed action known as the Revolution of 1934. Catalan President Lluís Companys declared the Catalan State at 8 p.m. Martial law was declared, and military forces attacked the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Palace of the Government of Catalonia) and other buildings. Companys surrendered on the morning of 7 October.

This article is about the general strike, armed insurgency, and declaration of a Catalan state in 1934. For other events that occurred on 6 October, see October 6 § Events.

Events of 6 October
Part of the Revolution of 1934

Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya
Date6 October 1934
Location
Catalonia
Result Spanish government victory
Belligerents
Catalonia Generalitat of Catalonia Second Spanish Republic Spanish Republic
Commanders and leaders
Lluís Companys
Josep Dencàs		 Alejandro Lerroux
Domènec Batet
Casualties and losses
74 dead, 252 wounded[1]

Background
Part of a series on the
History of Catalonia
Arms of Catalonia
Principality of Catalonia, printed in Antwerp in 1608 by Jan Baptist Vrients
Ancient
Prehistory  
Iberians c. 6th BC – c. 1st BC
Greek colonies c. 6th BC – c. 1st BC
Roman conquest of Hispania 218 BC – 19 BC
Tarraconensis 27 BC – 476 AD
Medieval
Visigoths 5th century – c.720
Al-Andalus 713–1154
Catalan counties / Gothia c.760 – 12th century
County of Barcelona 801–1162
Crown of Aragon 1162–1715
Principality of Catalonia 12th century – c.1714
Compromise of Caspe 1412
War of the Remences 1462–1486
Catalan Civil War 1462–1472
Early modern
Catholic Monarchs 1469–1516
Habsburg Spain 1516–1700
Reapers' War / Catalan Republic 1640–1659
Treaty of the Pyrenees 1659
Revolt of the Barretines 1687–1689
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War of the Catalans 1713–1714
Nueva Planta decrees 1716
Modern
Peninsular War 1808–1814
Liberals and Carlists 1833–1876
Renaixença 1833–1892
Catalanism 1870s–
Tragic Week 1909
Commonwealth 1914–1925
La Canadenca strike 1919
Catalan Republic 1931
Statute of Autonomy 1932–1939
Events of 6 October 1934
Spanish Civil War / Revolution 1936–1939
Contemporary
Francoism 1939–1975
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By topic
Timeline
Lluís Companys

In Spain

In the general election of 1933, left-wing parties lost heavily, and the newly formed conservative Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (Confederation of the Autonomous Right; CEDA), led by José María Gil Robles, became the largest party with 115 seats. Nevertheless, incoming prime minister Alejandro Lerroux formed a government which excluded CEDA and was dominated by Lerroux's Partido Republicano Radical (Radical Republican Party).[2] Lerroux resigned in April 1934, to be replaced by Ricardo Samper. A summer of strikes and social conflict led Gil Robles to withdraw CEDA support from the Samper government and demand participation in government.[3] President Niceto Alcalá Zamora, unwilling to call new elections, instructed Lerroux to form a new government. The government was announced on 4 October 1934 and included three CEDA members.[4] Left wing republicans denounced the "betrayal" of the Republic.[4] The Unión General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers; UGT) called a general strike.[5]

The general strike began on 5 October, in places across Spain including Madrid, Seville, Córdoba and Zaragoza. There was fighting in some places, including Mondragón and Eibar in the Basque Country.[4] There were also clashes in Madrid, but in general, planned uprisings failed to materialise or were quickly put down, and members of the military and of the Guardia Civil did not, as hoped, join the rebels.[6] Outside of Catalonia, the only significant military action took place in Asturias where, in the early hours of 6 October, activists took hold of Avilés, Gijón and the centre of Oviedo, as well as Guardia Civil barracks in mining areas, beginning the Asturian miners' strike of 1934 and the "October Revolution".[7]

In Catalonia

Following the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931, a Statute of Autonomy established Catalonia as an autonomous region, but it was passed only after two important cuts that kept control of taxation and education vested in the Spanish state.[8] Elections were held in November 1932 to a new Catalan parliament, which were won by the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia; ERC), with Francesc Macià becoming president.[9]

The appointment of Adolf Hitler as German chancellor in January 1933 was followed in Catalonia by the formation of the Alianza Obrera (Workers' Alliance), an anti-fascist organisation among whose aims was preparation for a revolution to establish a federal Spanish republic.[10] Macià died at Christmas, and Lluís Companys was elected president of Catalonia a week later on 1 January 1934.[11] The ERC won the Catalan election of 1934, bucking the trend in Spain where a shift to the right was the norm.[12] The implementation of the Statute of Autonomy was seen to be threatened by the CEDA success in the 1933 election and its entry into government on 4 October 1934.[13]

6 October
Domènec Batet

The general strike in Catalonia was organised by the Alianza Obrera, working alongside the Escamots (squads), a paramilitary adjunct to the ERC.[14] The Catalan minister of security, Josep Dencàs, in theory had 70,000 armed Escamots at his disposal, but in the event they were ill-prepared for the fighting.[14] The president, Lluís Companys, was thought to be having talks with former Spanish prime minister Manuel Azaña, who had gone to Barcelona, with a view to declaring the government deposed and creating a provisional government of a federal Spanish republic in Barcelona. In fact, Azaña met with the Catalan committee of his Izquierda Republicana (Republican Left) party and it was agreed to oppose any such action. He then left his hotel and stayed with a friend.[15] Companys telephoned Domènec Batet, the military commander of Barcelona, to ask him to put his forces at the disposal of the new republic. Batet was non-committal.[16]

At 8 p.m., Companys appeared on a balcony of the Palau de la Generalitat (Government Building) to proclaim the "Catalan State within the Spanish Federal Republic". He told the crowd that "monarchists and fascists" had "assaulted the government",[14] and went on:

In this solemn hour, in the name of the people and the Parliament, the Government over which I preside assumes all the faculties of power in Catalonia, proclaims the Catalan State of the Spanish Federal Republic, and in establishing and fortifying relations with the leaders of the general protest against Fascism, invites them to establish in Catalonia the provisional Government of the Republic, which will find in our Catalan people the most generous impulse of fraternity in the common desire to erect a liberal and magnificent federal republic.[17]

An hour later, General Batet declared martial law. He moved against trade union and militia headquarters, both of whom surrendered quickly, then brought light artillery to bear against the city hall and the Generalitat.[18] Fighting continued until 6 am, when Companys surrendered.[19]

Consequences

Companys and his government were arrested. So too was Manuel Azaña, despite his having taken no part in the events; he was released in December.[20] The Statute of Autonomy was suspended indefinitely on 14 December, and all powers that had been transferred to Barcelona were returned to Madrid. In June 1935, Companys was sentenced to thirty years in prison.[21] Following the Spanish general election of 1936, the new government of Manuel Azaña released Companys and his government from jail.[22]

References
  1. Pérez i Farràs, Enric (October 1942). "Records del 6 d'octubre del 1934". Full Català (in Catalan). 2 (13): 325.
  2. Casanova, Julián; Gil Andrés, Carlos (2014). Twentieth-Century Spain: A History. Cambridge University Press. p. 131. ISBN 9781139992008. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  3. Casanova and Gil Andrés (2014), p. 134
  4. Casanova and Gil Andrés (2014), p. 135
  5. Heywood, Paul (1990). Marxism and the Failure of Organised Socialism in Spain, 1879–1936. Cambridge University Press. p. 144. ISBN 0521530563. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  6. Payne, Stanley G. (2006). The Collapse of the Spanish Republic, 1933–1936: Origins of the Civil War. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 85–6. ISBN 0300130805. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  7. Casanova and Gil Andrés (2014), p. 136
  8. Balcells, Albert (1996). Catalan Nationalism: Past and Present. Translated by Hall, Jacqueline. Springer. pp. 97–8. ISBN 1349242780. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  9. Balcells (1996), p. 101
  10. Payne (2006), p. 59
  11. Balcells (1996), p. 67
  12. Payne (2006), p. 66
  13. Balcells (1996), p. 103
  14. Payne (2006), p. 87
  15. Jackson, Gabriel (1965). Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939. Princeton University Press. p. 166. ISBN 0691007578. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  16. Jackson (1965), p. 152
  17. "Separatists' Rising: Bloodshed in Barcelona". The Times. 8 October 1934. p. 14.
  18. Payne (2006), pp. 87–8
  19. Payne (2006), p. 88
  20. Casanova, Julián (2010). The Spanish Republic and Civil War. Cambridge University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-1139490573. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  21. Casanova (2010), p. 114
  22. Pagès i Blanch, Pelai (2013). War and Revolution in Catalonia, 1936–1939. BRILL. pp. 16–17. ISBN 978-9004254275. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
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