ABSTRACT
The first exchange of shots was heard on 3 May. Artemi Aiguader, Minister of Security of the Generalitat, ordered, that very same day, Eusebio Rodríguez, who had been recently appointed general commissioner for Public Order, to occupy the Telefónica building in the Plaza de Catalunya which had been in the hands of the CNT since the ‘glorious’ days of July 1936. Three lorry-loads of Assault Guards arrived and laid siege to the building. They were met by firing from the CNT activists inside. The rumour quickly spread that there had begun an armed attack against the CNT and against one of the symbols of power that had been conquered months earlier in the struggle against the rebellious military. Armed anarchists arrived to help their besieged comrades and the conflict spread. Many workers left their workplaces and once more barricades were thrown up in the city. Behind them, opposing the security forces, the socialists and the communists, were to be found those militiamen who had refused to join the new army, young libertarians, anarchists from the FAI who were not recognised as such by the organisation itself and activists from the POUM.
