Libertarian Youth

The Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth[1] (FIJL, Spanish: Federación Ibérica de Juventudes Libertarias), sometimes abbreviated as Libertarian Youth (Juventudes Libertarias), was a libertarian socialist[2] organisation created in 1932 in Madrid.[3] In February 1937 the FIJL organised a plenum of regional organisations (second congress of FIJL). In October 1938, from the 16th through the 30th in Barcelona, the FIJL participated in a national plenum of the libertarian movement, also attended by members of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI).[4]

During the purge of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and other dissident organisations that took place in Barcelona towards the end of the Spanish Civil War many FIJL members were murdered by those who were acting on the orders of Joseph Stalin.[5] After the Civil War FIJL acted in two branches, one in exile situated in Paris and one domestic as secret and illegal organisation under Franco's regime. Some FIJL members were associated with the militant First of May Group.[6]

The organisation's most famous member was Federico Borrell García who was the subject of Robert Capa's most well known photograph, The Falling Soldier. This image, taken in 1936, depicts the moment of a republican soldier's death during the Spanish Civil War.

References

  1. ^ The FIJL is referred to as the "Iberian Federation of Libertarian Youth" in, inter alia:
    • George Richard Esenwein, The Spanish Civil War: a Modern Tragedy, 2005, p 269.
    • Alexandre Skirda, Facing the Enemy: a History of Anarchist Organization from Proudhon to May 1968, 2002, p 158.
    • Peter Marshall, Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism, 2010, p 466.
    • Graham Kelsey, Anarchosyndicalism, Libertarian Communism, and the State: the CNT in Zaragoza and Aragon, 1930-1937, 1991, p 250.
  2. ^ José Peirats & Chris Ealham, The CNT in the Spanish Revolution, Volume 2, 2001, p. 76. "The anarchist youth movement had been founded soon after the birth of the Second Republic.... Later, they spread throughout the whole of Spain until they came to represent the third branch of the great libertarian family.... The FIJL had agreed upon the following statement of principles: '...This Association shall strive to invest young people with a libertarian conviction, as to equip them individually to struggle against authority in all its forms, whether in trade union matters or in ideological ones, so as to attain a libertarian social arrangement'"
  3. ^ Esenwein, p.269
  4. ^ Gómez Casas, p.237
  5. ^ Beevor(1982) The Spanish Civil War, London, Cassell, p. 275; photograph p.304.
  6. ^ Meltzer, Albert (1996). I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels. Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 1-873176-93-7. 

Sources