Land and Freedom Column

The Land and Freedom Column was a militia column organized by the CNT-FAI from the regions of Berguedà and Bages as well as from Barcelona. The column was sent to the Central front in mid-September 1936 to reinforce the republican line against a nationalist force that was entering Talavera de la Reina and besieging Toledo, thereby threatening Madrid. It had around 1,500 militiamen in its beginnings, participating in the fronts of the Sierra de Gredos and Sierra de Albarracín. The column integrated into the Rosal Column and later fought on the Serra de Montsant front. After the militarization that occurred in the spring of 1937, the column became the 153rd Mixed Brigade.

Land and Freedom Column
Columna Tierra y Libertad
Active	1936–1937
Country	Spanish Republic
Allegiance	CNT-FAI
Branch	Confederal militias
Type	Militia
Role	Home defense
Size	2,000
Engagements	Spanish Civil War: Siege of Madrid, Aragon front
Commanders
Notable commanders	Germinal de Souza

A known member of the column was Ramon Vila Capdevila, also known as Caracremada, who became a maquis in the post-war period.

History

After the departure for the Aragon front of several republican columns from Barcelona, in the Catalan countries there was also a boom in the organization of militias. They were generally attached to the columns departing from Barcelona. However, the power of the libertarian movement in the regions of Berguedà and Bages, was such that they were able to organize their own militia column. It was originally made up of between 8 and 10 centuries: one from Súria, another from Cardona, two from Manresa and another from groups of Navarclés, Sant Fruitós de Bages, Sant Vicenç de Castellet, Esparraguera and Olesa de Montserrat. There were also several centuries from Berguedà, especially from the Fígols mines, which in 1932 had carried out a popular uprising.

The column first named itself the "Red and Black" however when they arrived in Barcelona they found that there was already another column with the same name. So they changed it to "Land and Freedom", which was a classic motto of Spanish anarchism. In Barcelona several more centuries were added to the column, which received military training in the barracks controlled by the CNT-FAI. On September 7 they departed for Madrid by train.[1] They were sent as Catalan aid to the central front, the Freedom column of the PSUC and the UGT was also sent in October and the Durruti Column in November. In Madrid the column had about 1,500 militiamen, since several centuries with local militiamen had also attached to it. The column had an artillery battery with two 105mm guns, named Sacco and Vanzetti, in honor of two Italian-American anarchists executed in 1927.[1]

The first battalions to enter combat did so on October 7 in Santa Olalla, under the orders of the career military officer José Asensio Torrado. The Land and Freedom Column served as logistical support to the defenses of the Central front. In October a large portion of the column fought alongside the Rosal Column on the Sierra de Gredos front. They participated in the defense of the Madrid-Cuatro Vientos Airport, Getafe, the Madrid-Toledo highway and Olite del Teniente Castillo. At the end of October the Rosal Column was sent to Cuenca-Teruel, with the intention of it falling behind Teruel, which was being attacked by the Valencian columns. In November part of the column participated in the defense of the Casa de Campo de Madrid and was integrated into the Madrid defensive units. The Madrid CNT named José Ramos (CNT) and Germinal de Souza (FAI) as column delegates. During those months some 2,000 fighters served in the column.

Militarization

The militarization took place in June 1937. The Land and Freedom Column became the 153rd Mixed Brigade, commanded by Antonio Sabas Amorós and commissioned by Francisco Señer Martínz, both from the CNT. Battalions 609, 610, 611 and 612 were commanded respectively by Antonio Ferrándiz García, Feliciano Llach Bou, Francisco Fausto Nitti and Víctor Gómez Goiri. Their journal was called "New Era". The brigade was attached to the 24th Division. One of the column's soldiers, Pedro Flores, said this on the militarization:

Volunteering is almost non-existent, on the contrary, the number of volunteers has dropped from the first days, meaning that if we want, as we should, to continue the war, we must mobilize, and this could only be done with the army. On the other hand, by not becoming an army, and with volunteerism dwindling, our armed forces would shortly end up in the picture due to the casualties when major operations took place. In other words, as our armed forces decreased, those of the other political sectors increased through the mobilized fifths. [...] with all the force of my senses, I was an enemy of militarization. But, on the other hand, we were immersed in a cruel reality, with which it was difficult to balance feelings and duty, this time being a victim of the latter.[2]

— Pedro Flores

During the militarization process they were stationed in Binéfar and Monzón. There they were caught up in the Barcelona May Days, participating in the events by taking the revolutionary side, in favor of going to Barcelona to take control. Because of this, the Ulysses battalion (610) joined the 127th Brigade, led by the CNT militant Máximo Franco, and they went to Lérida, where they stayed to avoid a breakdown of the Republican side and an eventual "civil war within of the civil war ".[3]

Military history of the 153rd Mixed Brigade

The 24th Division, led by Miguel Vivancos, fought in the Battle of Belchite where the confederal units suffered serious losses, since they led one of the assaults on the town of Belchite, finally managing to enter on September 28. It was of little use, since the town was totally in ruins. Sebas was replaced at the head of the brigade by Antonio Teresa Miguel. Teresa was the Basque commander of the Isaac Puente battalion until the fall of Bizkaia and Santander.

During the collapse of the Aragon front in the spring of 1938, the 153rd Mixed Brigade was caught right in the middle of the Francoist assault and was defeated, retreating to the Segre river. The remains regrouped in Valdomá and on April 19 the brigade was attached to the 30th Division, under communist command, which carried out political maneuvers within the brigade to assassinate and detain libertarian or socialist commanders.[4] Under the command of the communist Antonio Núñez Balsera, the brigade participated in the Battle of the Ebro and was again decimated. In three days the brigade was broken.

Àngels Casanovas described the brigade's military operations from the Battle of the Ebro to the fall of 1938, narrating several the shady circumstances surrounding Miquel Carreras Costajussà's death.[5] In short, the historian José Peirats helps to relate the fates of the Land and Freedom Column, always at the expense of the decisions that came from the military command:

When the Aragón disaster occurred in the spring of 1938 [referring to the 153rd Brigade], it followed the same fate as the 24th Division, which had been deprived of its command. Then it was added to other Divisions that had communist command, until it fell into the orbit of the 30th Division. The leadership of the Brigade and most of the commanders were achieved by communist greed through a series of maneuvers whose style is unmistakable. Chiefs and officers suspected of being anarchists were dismissed, assigned a disposable status, or transferred to other units on remote fronts. Commanders Teresa and Leal [Feliciano Llach] had been dispossessed under various pretexts. The latter had been the hero of the delicate operation across the Segre river, carried out in August 1938, in support of the republican offensive in the Ebro sector.[6]

— Peirats

Finally, during the Catalonia Offensive, the brigade defended Juncosa first, then the Serra de Montsant, then afterwards in Igualada and finally in Santa Coloma de Queralt. The last news from the brigade was received during the defense of Vich on January 26, 1939 . Afterwards, most of its fighters ended up in the concentration camps on the beaches of southern France. While the majority of republican units dissolved in the last minute chaos, the battalion made up of the former Land and Freedom Column, "which had no discipline", arrived in France united with some 400 fighters.[7]

Tribute

In 2001, a cultural association called Columna Terra i Llibertat was founded in Berga, which took over the Center for Libertarian Studies from Josep Ester i Borrás, a member of the column. An annex on the premises of the Study Center was opened to the association, which received the name Ateneu Columna Terra i Llibertat . The athenaeum is part of the Anarchist Federation of Catalonia. It has carried out numerous cultural, political and social activities aimed at raising awareness of both libertarian ideas and local historical memory.

Bibliography

• Flores, Pedro. Memoirs of Pedro Flores . Bages Study Center. Manresa, 2003.
• Casanovas y Romeo, Angels. Miquel Carreras Costajussà (1905–1938) . Abbey of Montserrat Publications, S.A., 2011.
• Peirats, Josep. "Anarchists in the Spanish political crisis." Libertarian Utopia, Buenos Aires 2006
• Peirats, Josep. "The CNT in the Spanish Revolution." Mother Earth Editions. Madrid, 1988.

References

1. Flores, Pedro. Memòries, p. 161
2. Flores, Pedro. Memòries, p. 147-148
3. Flores, Pedro. Memòries, p. 251
4. Peirats, The CNT in the Spanish Revolution , pages. 212–216.
5. CASANOVAS i ROMEU, Àngels. Miquel Carreras Costajussà (1905–1938) . The 153rd Mixed Brigade is discussed starting on page 315.
6. Peirats, The anarchists in the political crisis ... ' ', p. 244-245
7. Flores , Pedro. Memòries, p. 224