On this day, 14 July 1896, legendary Spanish anarchist and civil war fighter Buenaventura Durruti was born.
He got a job on the railways, joined the anarchist CNT union and took part in a general strike. Durruti (pictured, centre) later helped form the Los Solidarios action group, which fought against the dictatorship governing Spain with bank robberies and assassinations of senior officials.
In 1923 he was forced to flee first to France, then later Cuba, Chile, Mexico and Argentina, before returning to Spain in 1931 when the Second Spanish Republic was declared. There he began helping organise strikes and uprisings, and was repeatedly arrested, and deported to Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea).
Durruti returned to Spain once more, and with the outbreak of civil war in 1936 he helped organise revolutionary workers' militias to fight against the right-wing nationalists of general Francisco Franco.
In an interview during the war he told the journalist: "We are going to inherit the earth. There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities and can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute."
He was killed on November 19 while leading an attack during the defence of Madrid. Historians differ on whether he was shot by distant nationalist gunfire or by accidental friendly fire. His funeral in Barcelona was the largest in Spanish history, with half a million people in attendance.
Learn more about the Spanish civil war in episodes 39-40 of our podcast:
https://workingclasshistory.com/.../e39-the-spanish.../