According to most historians, the Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo, the Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist union, had no real counterpart anywhere else in the world. By the time of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, there was certainly a lot of truth in this- the only sizeable and working Anarcho-Syndicalist union outside of Spain was in Sweden. However, what is often forgotten is that when the International Workers' Association was founded in 1922, it had the support of several million workers from a large number of countries. From the 1890s until the Russian Revolution, Anarchism had been a very powerful influence in labour movements around the world, and it was only with the rise of Communist parties, hoping to emulate the Bolshevik victory in Russia, that Anarchist influence began to decline. For example, in the 1930s the French Anarcho-Syndicalist organisation (the Confederation General du Travail-Syndicaliste Revolutionnaire) had only 4,000 members, whereas in 1922 it had had perhaps as many as 130,000. Thus it was that when the civil war started, the CNT could not expect to receive large scale support from abroad, for "most of the organisations which could have given help to the CNT were themselves fighting for survival"-C. Longmore-The IWA Today, published in 1985.

The largest group of volunteers were Italians, some of whom fought in the initial fighting in Barcelona for the telephone exchange. According to CNT records, 653 joined tbe Confederal forces, of whom approximately 60 were killed and 150 wounded. The largest Italian contingent outside of the International Brigades were the Giustizia e Liberta Column, organised by Carlo Roselli. It was composed of Socialists, Anarchists and Liberals and received its baptism of fire at Monte Pelato, Sierra de Galoche on the 28th August 1936. During the action their commander, Mario Angeloni, a lawyer, was killed. Another force, the basis for the Errico Malatesta Battalion, about 100 strong and with Camillo Berneri as its delegate, set off for the Aragon front on the 18th August as part of the Ascaso Column. This group published documents attacking militarisation in October and November 1936. Italians also served in the Durruti, Tierra y Libertad, and Rojo y Negro Columns and in the "Battalion of Death". Another Italian, Pio Turroni, who had been wounded twice at the front, became a political commissar at the Spartacus barracks in Barcelona for the Italians stationed there.

French volunteers formed a Century named after the French writer and activist Sebastien Faure, and saw action on the Aragon front. The Century was involved in the fighting for Sietamo where they, along with other International troops, helped to secure the line after the militia had retreated when their attack on the village had been repulsed. The Sebastien Faure Century, along with other Internationals and supported by two armoured cars, were involved in the defence of Perdiguera in October 1936. Here they were almost surrounded by the Nationalists, though reinforcements broke through and rescued them and their armoured cars. In one, nicknamed "King Kong," only the gunner, Bonilla, was still alive. Both Simone Weil, the famous philosopher, and Sebastien Faure himself, visited the Durruti Column during the first few months of war, though Weil was disillusioned and horrified by the heavy losses and cruelty of some of the militias (though it is not clear whether she saw or heard of the execution which she described in a letter to Georges Bernanos).

One foreign Anarcho-Syndicalist who's ideas could possible have changed the course of the war was Pierre Besnard, Secretary General of the IWA. Also the secretary of the CGT-SR in France, he had a meeting with Leon Jouhaux, leader of the CGT, the Communist dominated union. In this meeting, he received the authority to talk on the CGT's behalf with Largo Caballero in proposing to internationalise the war. His ideas were to forment rebellions both in Morocco and Portugal, from where they had received assurances that both populations were ready to rebel. He believed that the plan would only be successful if Abd-el-Krim, the Riff leader, could be released from the prison on La Reunion where he was held by the French. However, when Besnard presented these plans with the support of the Spanish CNT and French CGT, to Largo Caballero in Sept. 1936, Caballero was not interested and cut short the interview.

There had been a small German speaking Anarchist community in Barcelona for a few years before the outbreak of war, and some took up arms at the beginning of the uprising (an Austrian was killed during the assault on the Atarazanas barracks). Immediately they started to form a Century, named after the poet Erich Muhsam, who had been one of the leaders of the Bavarian Republic at the end of World War I. In the spring of 1937, there was a mainly German section of the Durruti Column based at Pina de Ebro, in front of Saragossa, though the unit also included Dutch, Swiss, Luxembourgeois, and some Spanish (including one woman). Their military leader was a veteran of the First World War, and their political leader (though not called a commissar) was Michel Michaelis, a member of the Deutsche Anarcho-Syndicalisten.

All decisions were reached after a general discussion and vote, the Century being sub-divided into groups of ten, with people taking their turn as section leaders for fixed periods of time. Everyone received 10 pesetas a day, as well as a packet of cigarettes or tobacco, though wine was strictly rationed. Wages were paid weekly, and every three months they were allowed one week's leave. If anyone asked for more than this then they would have to justify their case in front of a military tribunal composed of the military leader and three militiamen.

The soldiers spent most of their time either working in the fields or training as there was not much fighting-the unit having only one Maxim machine gun and a lack of ammunition. The unit was armed with four different types of rifle- French, Spanish, Mexican and Czech, and it was a daily task to check and distribute the correct ammunition.

At the start of the war, an attempt was made to raise an American unit, called the Sacco-Vanzetti Centuria after the two Italians executed in Massachusetts in 1927, based at the Bakunin barracks in Barcelona (though whether this was successful or not I don't know). It has been claimed that no more than two dozen "true" Americans served with the CNT- as opposed to a number of Italian-Americans who also came over to Spain. These included Justus Kates, a New Yorker who travelled to Spain on his own in November 1936 and fought with Confederal forces on the Huesca front. An 18 year old called Douglas Stearns, joined the CNT's "Battalion of Death" as did a number of Italians and Germans.

In the International Brigades the most famous Anarchist was Pat Read*, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies), World War I veteran and former IRA member. The commanders of the Internationat Brigades found him to be too outspoken, and he was discharged from the Brigade by Commissar Doran because of his uncompromising opposition to the Communist Party. Other Wobblies also served in Spain, and the American IB's used to sing some of their songs including "Hold the Fort" and "Solidarity Forever."

There were also a number of Argentinians who came to fight in Spain, the most famous being Simon Radowitsky, of Russian descent, who had served 12 years in jail for murdering an Army Colonel. A member of the Argentinian Anarcho-Syndicalist union (Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina), at the age of 45 he joined the Confederal militias, was wounded several times during the war, but escaped over the French border when Catalonia fell.

Due to the small size of the Anarchist movement in Britain at the time, the CNT received few British volunteers. A 67 year old Welsh miner, who had served in the Welsh Fusiliers in his youth, applied to join the CNT, but he was turned down as they only accepted refugees, people already in Spain or those with recent military experience. Another Welsh miner and Anarcho-Syndicalist, Sam Mainwaring jnr., tried unsuccessfully to prevent NUM funds from being sent to the Spanish Communist party -he wanted the funds to go directly to Spanish miners' unions. One Englishman was still serving in Spain in May 1938 as part of the 153rd "Tierra y Libertad" brigade.

Captain Jack White, who had helped James Connolly to organise the Irish Citizen's Army in 1913 to defend strikers, came across the Anarchists in Spain and helped to train their forces. He became an Anarchist and came back to England to publicise the cause, writing a pamphlet entitled "The Meaning Of Anarchism" (which was reprinted a few years ago by Cienfuegos press).

In England itself, probably the most active supporter of the CNT was Emma Goldman, the veteran American activist. Aged 67 at the outbreak of war, she visited Spain a number of times, interviewing some of the Anarchist leaders, including Durruti, as well as visiting many of the collectives. Coming back to Britain, she was the CNT-FAI's representative and set about organising propaganda and fund raising work, as well as trying to start up an Anarcho-Syndicalist union. She spoke at a large number of meetings, alongside the ILP at times, and her views and experiences can be found in "Vision On Fire- Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution" edited by David Porter.

It would be false to think that foreign Anarchist involvement in Spain was a major influence on the result of the war, but unfortunately interest in foreign volunteers has concentrated (quite naturally) almost exclusively on the International Brigades so that the existence of non-IB units tends to have been forgotten. At a rough estimate, there were probably about 1,000 foreigners serving with the CNT, though a significant proportion of them joined because of their hostility to the Communist party. What we do owe these foreigners though are the accounts they left -both of the collectives and of the militias, which until more Spanish material becomes available, help to fill some of the gaps in our knowledge. This account has been compiled from a wide variety of sources and is without doubt neither complete nor error-free- for instance I have a feeling that the Er Malatesta Battalion may have been the same as the Battalion of Death). But hopefully further research may provide us with more details of units and volunteers.