Editing Simone Weil (section)

=== Participation in Spanish Civil War ===
Weil participated in the 1936 Paris factory occupations and planned on returning to factory work In 1936, but became focused on the [[Spanish Civil War]]. Despite her professed [[pacifism]], she travelled to Spain to join the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republican faction]]. She identified as an [[anarchist]]<ref>{{cite book | author=McLellan, David | title=Utopian Pessimist: The Life and Thought of Simone Weil | url=https://archive.org/details/utopianpessimist00mclerich | url-access=registration | publisher=Poseidon Press | year=1990| isbn=0-671-68521-X}} p121</ref> and sought out the [[anti-fascist]] commander [[Julián Gorkin]], asking to be sent on a mission as a covert agent to rescue the prisoner [[Joaquín Maurín]]. Gorkin refused, saying Weil would be sacrificing herself for nothing, since it was highly unlikely that she could pass as a Spaniard. Weil replied that she had "every right"<ref name="Pétrement 1988" />{{rp|p=271}} to sacrifice herself if she chose, but after arguing for more than an hour, she was unable to convince Gorkin to give her the assignment. Instead she joined the anarchist [[Durruti Column]] of the French-speaking [[Sébastien Faure Century]], which specialised in high-risk "commando"-style engagements.<ref name="Pétrement 1988" />{{rp|p=272}}

As she was extremely nearsighted, Weil was a very poor shot. Her comrades tried to avoid taking her on missions, though she did sometimes insist. Her only direct participation in combat was to shoot with her rifle at a bomber during an air raid; in a second raid, she tried to operate the group's [[heavy machine gun]], but her comrades prevented her, as they thought it would be best for someone less clumsy and near-sighted to use the weapon. After being with the group for a few weeks, she burnt herself over a cooking fire. 

She was forced to leave the unit and was met by her parents, who had followed her to Spain. They helped her leave the country, to recuperate in [[Assisi]]. About a month after Weil departed, her former unit was nearly wiped out at an engagement in [[Perdiguera]] in October 1936, with every woman in the group being killed.<ref name="Pétrement 1988" />{{rp|p=278}} During her stay in the [[Aragon]] front, Weil sent some chronicles to the French publication ''[[Le Libertaire]]''. On  returning to Paris, she continued to write essays on [[Labour relations|labour]], on [[management]], [[war]] and [[peace]].<ref name="Pétrement 1988" />{{rp|pp=280&ndash;330}}

Weil was distressed by the Republican killings in eastern Spain, particularly when a fifteen-year-old [[Falangist]] was executed after he had been taken prisoner. Durruti had spent an hour trying to persuade him to change his political position before giving him until the next day to decide.<ref>Beevor, Antony. The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. Hachette UK, 2012.</ref> Weil was deeply concerned by the intoxication of war, where humans learn they can kill without punishment, stating "I was horrified, but not surprised by the war crimes. I felt the possibility of doing the same - and it's precisely because I felt I had that potential that I was horrified."{{r|Zaretsky|p=63}}