Editing Spanish Revolution of 1936 (section)

=== The end of the revolution (January 1937 – May 1937) ===
On 27 February 1937, the government banned the [[Iberian Anarchist Federation|FAI]]'s newspaper {{lang|es|Nosotros}}, thus initiating the period during which most of the publications critical of the government began to suffer censorship. The next day it prohibited the police from belonging to political parties or unions, a measure adopted by the Catalan regional government on 2 March. On 12 March, the Generalitat approved an order demanding the seizure of all weapons and explosive materials from non-militarized groups. More confrontations began between the sectors of the FPA; and on 27 March the anarchist advisers of the Catalan autonomous government resigned. During the month of March, the "militarization" of the militias was completed, transforming them into a regular army subject to its disciplinary and hierarchal regimes, against which many anarchist voices rose up.

On 17 April, the day after the ministers of the [[National Labor Confederation|CNT]] returned to the Generalitat, a force of [[Carabineros]] in [[Puigcerdá]] demanded the CNT workers' patrols hand over control of customs on the border with France. Simultaneously, the [[Civil Guard]] and [[Assault Guard]] were sent to [[Figueras]], and other towns throughout the province of [[Girona]], to remove control of the workers' organizations from the police, dissolving the autonomous Council of Cerdanya. Simultaneously, in [[Barcelona]], the Assault Guard proceeded to disarm the workers in public view, in the streets.

During May 1937, confrontations between the supporters of the revolution and those opposed to it intensified. On 13 May, after the events of the [[Barcelona May Days]], the two [[Communist]] ministers, [[Jesús Hernández Tomás]] and Vicente Uribe, proposed to the government that the National Labor Confederation (CNT) and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ([[POUM]]) be punished, bringing into practice repression against the latter party. On 16 May, Largo Caballero resigned, which was followed by the formation of a socialist government under [[Juan Negrín]], but without support from anarchists or revolutionaries.

Fenner Brockway, Secretary of the [[Independent Labour Party|ILP]] in England who traveled to Spain after the [[Barcelona May Days|May events in Catalonia]] (1937), expressed his impressions in the following words:

{{blockquote|"I was impressed by the strength of the C.N.T. It was unnecessary to tell me that it was the largest and most vital of the working-class organisations in Spain. The large industries were clearly, in the main, in the hands of the C.N.T.--railways, road transport, shipping, engineering, textiles, electricity, building, agriculture. At Valencia the U.G.T. had a larger share of control than at Barcelona, but generally speaking the mass of manual workers belonged to the C.N.T. The U.G.T. membership was more of the type of the 'white-collar' worker...I was immensely impressed by the constructive revolutionary work which is being done by the C.N.T. Their achievement of workers' control in industry is an inspiration. One could take the example of the railways or engineering or textiles...There are still some Britishers and Americans who regard the Anarchists of Spain as impossible, undisciplined, uncontrollable. This is poles away from the truth. The Anarchists of Spain, through the [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo|C.N.T.]], are doing one of the biggest constructive jobs ever done by the working class. At the front they are fighting [[Fascism]]. Behind the front they are actually constructing the new Workers' Society. They see that the war against Fascism and the carrying through of the [[Social Revolution]] are inseparable. Those who have seen and understand what they are doing must honour them and be grateful to them. They are resisting Fascism. They are at the same time creating the New Workers' Order which is the only alternative to Fascism. That is surely the biggest things now being done by the workers in any part of the world." And in another place: "The great solidarity that existed amongst the Anarchists was due to each individual relying on his own strength and not depending on leadership. The organisations must, to be successful, be combined with a free-thinking people; not a mass, but free individuals."|Fenner Brockway{{sfn|Rocker|2004|pp=66–67}}}}