The CNT and Voting
October 26th, 2012
Most members of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT), a major Spanish labor union, did not vote in government elections in the 1930s. Until 1936, the CNT often ran election boycott campaigns, actively encouraging people not to vote. In 1936 they chose not to run an election boycott campaign, but that is not the same as voting. Instead they ignored the election and focused on labor organizing. It is true that some of their members chose to vote, but that is not the same as the union supporting voting as an official policy. While the CNT did endorse anarcho-syndicalism and libertarian communism, it did not require workers to be anarchists in order to be members. There were non-anarchists who joined the CNT simply because it was effective as a union and was able to get better pay, working hours, etc. for its members
After the civil war started the CNT made the mistake of having anarchists take office as politicians in the Spanish cabinet. They were afraid of starting a civil war within the civil war (between rival anti-fascist groups) and thought they were being pragmatic and putting defeating the fascists ahead of ideology, but in hindsight that decision was a disaster. Putting anarchists in government leadership positions had the effect of re-legitimizing the state, which had been at the point of extinction. It rebuilt its power and eventually launched a counter-revolution against the workers, which had the effect of dividing the anti-fascists and demoralizing those on the Republican side, leading to fascist victory in the civil war.
The behavior of the "anarchist" ministers confirms the anarchist critique of electoralism because, not only did it legitimize the state, but those "anarchist" politicians were able to get anarchist workers to do or not do things that the state couldn't otherwise have done. For example, during the Maydays fighting in 1937 the "anarchist" politicians were able to get anarchist workers to give up control of Barcelona even though the workers had defeated the socialist-communist offensive, which then opened the door to massive repression by the Republic against the anarchists and the POUM. Having someone from your own movement in office co-opts your movement because you're less likely to oppose one of your own.
Spanish anarchists who voted in the 1930s, and especially ones that took office, were "anarchists" or anarcho-hypocrites. And their choice is one of the reasons the closest we've had to a successful revolution was flushed down the toilet. If we don't want to repeat the same mistake we should not be "anarchists" about voting or taking office.