International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

An important moderate in the Spanish anarchosyndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (National Labor Confederation, CNT), Pestaña Nuñez served various times as editor of its daily, Solidaridad Obrera (Workers' Solidarity), where in 1918 he exposed police collaboration with a German spy ring in Barcelona. A supporter of Seguí , in 1920 Pestaña was sent to Moscow as the CNT's delegate to the founding of the Red International of Unions (Profintern), but his reports on the persecution of anarchists in the USSR led the CNT to eventually reject affiliation. Pestaña survived several assassination attempts by employers' hired thugs. In 1931, he turned down an invitation to be the labor delegate to the Catalan regional government. That August, Pestaña signed “The Manifesto of the Thirty,” attacking the influence of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Iberian Anarchist Federation, FAI) in the CNT. Pestaña broke with this group, forming the Syndicalist Party, which sent two deputies (including Pestaña) to parliament in 1936. During the civil war he served in various capacities in the government, and he was readmitted to the CNT just before his death in December 1937. SEE ALSO: Anarchism, Russia ; Anarchism, Spain ; Anarchosyndicalism ; Barcelona General Strike, 1919 ; Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) ; Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) ; Seguí i Rubinat, Salvador ... log in or subscribe to read full text