Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video is about Revolutionary Catalonia also known as anarchist Catalonia or simply CNT-FAI. It was an anarchist region set in Catalonia during the Spanish civil war from 1936 to 1939. It implemented many anarchist ideas like labor vouchers, the abolition of private property and the collectivization of industry and farm land. They also defended the region against the attacks of the Spanish Fascist dictator Fransico Franco before ultimately being destroyed.
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Stream channel: youtube.com/channel/UCtXcyUuCaUMY2GGU_8iM1hg
Shorts channel: youtube.com/channel/UCJnMSPbU7GPEIGLRGeRFkrA
TikTok: (same content as shorts channel) tiktok.com/@viki1999clips
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
The song in the outro was produced by 08 (who gave me no way to credit them), you can listen to the whole remix on my second channel: youtu.be/jZOrMsIOZh0
Background image: reddit.com/r/Viki1999/comments/hddrtc/newest_version_of_the_background_poster_added_blm
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:10 The Spanish civil war
5:07 The CNT FAI establishes itself
8:46 Life in revolutionary Catalonia
15:28 The fall of Catalonia
19:26 Outro
This is a 5 person discord invite. After 5 people use it it becomes invalid. Hit the bell to catch it under the next video! And please only use it if you willbe active on the server, otherwise leave it for others: discord.gg/dA272Mvgpb
Transcript:
Hello everybody. Today we are talking about revolutionary Catalonia. Also sometimes called the CNT-FIA or anarchist Catalonia. It was this region in spain which was controlled by people following anarchist principles during the Spanish civil war.
In this video I will explain the historical and political context that lead to free Catalonia being established as well as some parts of the civil war that are relevant. But I will not be talking about the civil war battle for battle. This video is about Catalonia, it’s politics and what living in it was like, not about explaining the civil war battle for battle. Because I think it’s far more interesting to look at how they tried to build a new society.
If you want to see more about this topic I recommend you watch my content creator stream tomorrow at 4pm Austrian time. And if you want to know way less I now have a channel called Viki1999 shorts where I sum my videos up in 60 seconds or less. That being said, let’s get started.
Our story begins where else than world war one. Spain did not take part in the world war. But just like the rest of Europe they had massive amounts of angry leftists. These leftists could sort of be split into two camps. The state oriented socialists who you can imagine a bit like Leninists though of course they were far more diverse than the Bolshevik party.
And the anarchist leftists. They were syndicalists. Just as a short recap, syndicalists want to abolish the state and instead they want worker’s unions to run everything using direct democracy or delegates depending on the syndicalist you talk to. To anarchist the autonomy of political minority regions like Catalonia is critical.
On the far right of the political spectrum there were nationalists and later fascists that wanted pretty much the opposite. They wanted a strong state to keep foreigners out and to repress political minorities like Catalonians using a strong central government and leadership based in Madrid.
Unfortunately Spain was literally a monarchy at the time so all these groups that wanted to take over or destroy the government had a hard time actually taking power. But in 1931 the king was deposed and there was to be democratic elections. That didn’t work for very long. Both the right and the left were fractured to so many parties that they had trouble actually ruling anything.
If you watched my video on the internationals this may sound familiar. The USSR proclaimed that from now on leftist parties should create united fronts with everyone who was antifascist to more effectively resist the rising tide of fascism all across Europe.
So, in 1936 the leftist parties formed the so called Popular Front to make sure the fascist and conservative forces would not win the election in the same year. This popular front was of course made up of all of the different communist and Marxist parties, libertarian leftists and even actual liberal capitalists who opposed the fascists.
Seeing this, all fascist and nationalist forces in Spain likewise formed their own united front for this election. They were known as the nationalist faction. They had monarchists, nationalists, fascists, national syndicalists, totalitarians and a group called Francoists who were lead by a guy called Francisco Franko who was a nationalist general and will come up more than once.
This video is about Revolutionary Catalonia also known as anarchist Catalonia or simply CNT-FAI. It was an anarchist region set in Catalonia during the Spanish civil war from 1936 to 1939. It implemented many anarchist ideas like labor vouchers, the abolition of private property and the collectivization of industry and farm land. They also defended the region against the attacks of the Spanish Fascist dictator Fransico Franco before ultimately being destroyed.
Patreon: patreon.com/viki1999
Stream channel: youtube.com/channel/UCtXcyUuCaUMY2GGU_8iM1hg
Shorts channel: youtube.com/channel/UCJnMSPbU7GPEIGLRGeRFkrA
TikTok: (same content as shorts channel) tiktok.com/@viki1999clips
Subreddit: reddit.com/r/viki1999
Twitter: twitter.com/Viki1999Yt
E-Mail Address: viki1999mail@gmail.com
The song in the outro was produced by 08 (who gave me no way to credit them), you can listen to the whole remix on my second channel: youtu.be/jZOrMsIOZh0
Background image: reddit.com/r/Viki1999/comments/hddrtc/newest_version_of_the_background_poster_added_blm
Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
2:10 The Spanish civil war
5:07 The CNT FAI establishes itself
8:46 Life in revolutionary Catalonia
15:28 The fall of Catalonia
19:26 Outro
This is a 5 person discord invite. After 5 people use it it becomes invalid. Hit the bell to catch it under the next video! And please only use it if you willbe active on the server, otherwise leave it for others: discord.gg/dA272Mvgpb
Transcript:
Hello everybody. Today we are talking about revolutionary Catalonia. Also sometimes called the CNT-FIA or anarchist Catalonia. It was this region in spain which was controlled by people following anarchist principles during the Spanish civil war.
In this video I will explain the historical and political context that lead to free Catalonia being established as well as some parts of the civil war that are relevant. But I will not be talking about the civil war battle for battle. This video is about Catalonia, it’s politics and what living in it was like, not about explaining the civil war battle for battle. Because I think it’s far more interesting to look at how they tried to build a new society.
If you want to see more about this topic I recommend you watch my content creator stream tomorrow at 4pm Austrian time. And if you want to know way less I now have a channel called Viki1999 shorts where I sum my videos up in 60 seconds or less. That being said, let’s get started.
Our story begins where else than world war one. Spain did not take part in the world war. But just like the rest of Europe they had massive amounts of angry leftists. These leftists could sort of be split into two camps. The state oriented socialists who you can imagine a bit like Leninists though of course they were far more diverse than the Bolshevik party.
And the anarchist leftists. They were syndicalists. Just as a short recap, syndicalists want to abolish the state and instead they want worker’s unions to run everything using direct democracy or delegates depending on the syndicalist you talk to. To anarchist the autonomy of political minority regions like Catalonia is critical.
On the far right of the political spectrum there were nationalists and later fascists that wanted pretty much the opposite. They wanted a strong state to keep foreigners out and to repress political minorities like Catalonians using a strong central government and leadership based in Madrid.
Unfortunately Spain was literally a monarchy at the time so all these groups that wanted to take over or destroy the government had a hard time actually taking power. But in 1931 the king was deposed and there was to be democratic elections. That didn’t work for very long. Both the right and the left were fractured to so many parties that they had trouble actually ruling anything.
If you watched my video on the internationals this may sound familiar. The USSR proclaimed that from now on leftist parties should create united fronts with everyone who was antifascist to more effectively resist the rising tide of fascism all across Europe.
So, in 1936 the leftist parties formed the so called Popular Front to make sure the fascist and conservative forces would not win the election in the same year. This popular front was of course made up of all of the different communist and Marxist parties, libertarian leftists and even actual liberal capitalists who opposed the fascists.
Seeing this, all fascist and nationalist forces in Spain likewise formed their own united front for this election. They were known as the nationalist faction. They had monarchists, nationalists, fascists, national syndicalists, totalitarians and a group called Francoists who were lead by a guy called Francisco Franko who was a nationalist general and will come up more than once.
