ABSTRACT
The third chapter examines how transatlantic anarchists reacted to the violence of the war, and how they justified it to themselves and to others. It looks at violence in the rearguard, including anti-clerical violence, and shows how, despite misgivings, transatlantic anarchists largely defended the actions of their Spanish comrades. It also looks at violence at the front through a discussion of the anarchist militia system. As the war progressed, the militias came to symbolise the revolutionary view of the conflict, and the debate over their incorporation into the Popular Army at the end of 1936 and spring of 1937 became a flashpoint in the international anarchist movement. Transatlantic anarchists who served in the militias, as well as non-anarchists who became milicianos, were witnesses to this tension.
