ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 focuses on the period 1890–1898, when anarchism in Spain became entangled with violence, particularly after 1893 and the advent of ‘propaganda by the deed’ (terrorism, which was designed to shock the working class into revolutionary action). This development was extremely damaging for the movement, which was targeted with severe, violent repression from the state. The violence of these years is the most commonly studied aspect of the pre-CNT anarchist movement in Spain. Such works are drawn to exceptional, unrepresentative figures, whose actions were largely confined to Barcelona, yet the effect of violence upon the wider movement remains understudied. Chapter 2 seeks to re-examine the role of violence within the anarchist movement, exploring how anarchists constructed different meanings of popular, individual and state violence. These debates took place primarily in print, and reveal the movement’s heterogeneous response to violence as a revolutionary strategy. Examination of the press also reveals how publishing groups attempted—and ultimately failed—to respond effectively to repression, through the construction of a martyr culture, and by providing the practical means to foster solidarity with their comrades across Spain.
