On February 16, 1936, the electoral victory of the Popular Front brought the left to power in Spain. In July, the army, led by General Franco, organized a coup to overthrow the Democratic government, and hundreds of thousands of workers and farmers organized committees and militias and armed themselves to stop the fascists.
It was a true social revolution. From many perspectives, the level of mass initiative, labor and popular control, and social experimentation in Spain in 1936 surpassed even that of Russia in 1917. However, the Popular Front government turned against the revolution, seeing it as an obstacle to the military struggle against fascism, and proceeded to suppress it. Once the revolutionary wave was defeated, it was only a matter of time before the balance tipped in favor of the stronger military forces - Franco and the fascists who were supported by ample assistance from Hitler and Mussolini.
In the 1930s, Spain witnessed the greatest battle of the working class for its own revolutionary alternative way out of the previous major crisis of capitalism. Almost 80 years later, it is important to look back and draw lessons - both positive and negative - from the experience of a radical labor movement and a left facing political dilemmas that still resonate in Greece today.