Editing May Days (section)

== Chronology ==
[[File:Vista general del edificio histórico de la Telefónica.JPG|thumb|Telefónica building in Barcelona, which heralded the beginning of the May Events]]
=== Preliminary events ===

On 2 May, the Minister of the Navy and Air Force, [[Indalecio Prieto]], telephoned the [[Generalitat]] from Valencia. An anarcho-syndicalist telephonist on the other side replied that in Barcelona there was no government, only a Defense Committee.<ref name="Thomas706" /> The government was convinced that anarchists were recording their telephone conversations since they, of course, had the means to do so.<ref name="Thomas706" /> The same day, there was a call from President [[Manuel Azaña]] to Companys, President of the Generalitat. During the conversation, it was cut by the operator, who said that the lines should be used for more important purposes than a mere talk between presidents.<ref>Miravitlles, p. 141.</ref>

=== 3 May ===
A force of 200 police officers, commanded by the Minister of Public Order of the Government of Catalonia, [[Eusebio Rodríguez Salas]], went to the Telefónica central exchange and presented itself at the censorship department located on the second floor, with the intention of taking control of the building.<ref name="Thomas706" /> The anarchists saw that as a provocation since Telefónica was legally occupied by an anarcho-syndicalist committee, according to a decree on collectivization from the Generalitat itself. Rodríguez Salas, on his part, had authorization from the head of internal affairs of the regional government, [[Artemi Aiguader i Miró]].<ref name="Thomas706" /> The anarchist workers opened fire from the second-floor landing of the censorship department. Salas phoned in for help, with a company of the [[Civil Guard (Spain)|National Republican Guard]] arriving along with two [[Control Patrols]] heads, [[Dionisio Eroles]] (of the anarchist police station) and José Asens (of the Control Patrols). Eroles persuaded the CNT workers to cease fire; although they resisted at first, they surrendered their weapons, not before shooting through the windows to empty their ammunition.<ref name="Thomas707">Hugh Thomas, p. 707.</ref>

A crowd gathered in [[Plaça Catalunya]], and at first it was believed that the anarchists had captured the head of the police.<ref name="Thomas707" /> The POUM, the [[Friends of Durruti Group]], the Bolshevik-Leninists and the [[Libertarian Youth]] took positions, and after a few hours all of the political parties had taken out the weapons that they had hidden and began building barricades. From that skirmish, battles began in various parts of the city. Several hundred barricades were built and police units occupied roofs and church towers.<ref name="Thomas707" />

The PSUC and the government controlled the urban sectors on the east side of the [[Ramblas]]. Anarchists dominated the western sectors and all the suburbs. In the [[city centre]], where the headquarters of trade unions and political parties (installed in requisitioned buildings and hotels) were relatively close, shooting began, and cars circulating were machine-gunned.<ref name="Thomas709" >Hugh Thomas, p. 709.</ref> In the Telefónica building a truce was agreed and telephone communications, which were essential for war operations, were not interrupted. The police, installed on the first floor, even sent [[bocadillo]]s to the anarchists, who occupied the upper floors. However grenades thrown from the rooftops blew up several police cars.<ref name="Thomas709" /> Early in the evening the leaders of the POUM proposed to the Barcelona anarchist leaders the formation of an alliance against the communists and the government.<ref>Julian Gorkin, ''Caníbales políticos'', p. 69.</ref> The anarchists refused immediately.<ref name="Peirats, La CNT, p. 274">Peirats, ''La CNT'', p. 274.</ref>

=== 4 May ===
On 4 May, Barcelona was a city plunged into silence, interrupted only by the fire of rifles and machine guns. Shops and buildings were covered by barricades. Anarchist armed groups attacked the barracks of the Assault Guards and government buildings. The government and communist militias returned fire.<ref name="Thomas710">Hugh Thomas, p. 710.</ref> Fears started over a Civil War inside the Civil War. At eleven o'clock, the delegates of the CNT met and agreed to do everything possible to restore calm. Meanwhile, the anarchists [[Joan García Oliver]] and [[Federica Montseny]] launched an appeal on the radio to ask their followers to lay down their weapons and return to their jobs. Jacinto Toryho, the director of the CNT newspaper ''[[Solidaridad Obrera (periodical)|Solidaridad Obrera]]'', expressed the same sentiment.<ref name="Thomas710" /> Anarchist ministers arrived in Barcelona, and with them were Mariano Rodríguez Vázquez "Marianet" (secretary of the national committee of the CNT), [[Pascual Tomás]] and Carlos Hernández (from the executive committee of the UGT).<ref name="Thomas710" /> None of them wanted a confrontation with the communists, and President [[Francisco Largo Caballero]] had no desire to use force against the anarchists.<ref name="Thomas710" /> Federica Montseny later said that the news of the riots had caught her and the other anarchist ministers totally unprepared.<ref name="Peirats, La CNT, p. 274"/>

On the Aragon front, units of the 26th Anarchist Division (former [[Durruti Column]]) under the command of [[Gregorio Jover]], gathered in [[Barbastro]] to march on Barcelona. However, upon hearing the García Oliver radio broadcast, they remained in their positions.<ref name="Thomas711">Hugh Thomas, p. 711.</ref> Meanwhile, the 28th Division (former [[Ascaso Column]]) and the 29th Division of the POUM, commanded by Rovira, didn't cancel their proposed march on Barcelona until the head of the Republican Air Force in the Aragon front, Alfonso Reyes, threatened to bomb them if they pressed on with their plan.<ref name="Thomas711" />

By five o'clock in the afternoon, several anarchists were killed by the police near the Via Durruti (current [[Via Laietana]]). The POUM began to support resistance publicly.<ref>Julian Gorkin, ''Caníbales Políticos'', p. 69.</ref>

=== 5 May ===
Inside the Generalitat, Tarradellas, backed by [[Lluís Companys|Companys]], still resisted the resignation of [[Artemi Ayguadé]], which was demanded by the Anarchists. In the end, a solution was reached and Companys achieved a fragile truce between the different groups. To satisfy the anarchists' demands, the Catalan government would resign and form a new one without Ayguadé that would represent Anarchists, [[Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya|ERC]], [[PSUC]] and [[Unió de Rabassaires]].<ref name="Thomas711" /> However, uncontrollable shootings still swept through the streets of Barcelona and caused the death of those who had ventured to leave their shelters. At 9:30 the Assault Guard attacked the seat of the doctors' trade union in Santa Ana Square, in central Barcelona, and the headquarters of the local [[Libertarian Youth|FIJL]]. Anarchists denounced government complicity and Soviet interests in that attack on the social revolution in Catalonia. The Friends of Durruti Group published various leaflets demanding the release of [[Francisco Maroto del Ojo]], an Andalusian anarchist who had recently been jailed, and asking people to resist.<ref name="Thomas711" /> In one of them, it declared:

<blockquote>A Revolutionary Junta has been constituted in Barcelona. All the culprits of the coup d'etat, that operate under the protection of the government, will be executed. The POUM will be a member of the Junta because they support workers.<ref name="Thomas712">Hugh Thomas, p. 712.</ref></blockquote>

Nevertheless, both the CNT-FAI and the FIJL refused to take part in the initiative of that group. At about five o'clock, the anarchist authors [[Camillo Berneri]] and Francesco Barbieri were arrested by a group of twelve guards, six of them members of the local police and the rest from the PSUC. Both were murdered during their arrest.<ref name="Thomas711" /> The climate of alarm worsened when British destroyers arrived at the port. The POUM feared that a bombardment would begin.<ref group="note">[[George Orwell]], who occupied a POUM post at the front line, shared this fear.</ref> In fact, the British feared that anarchists would take control of the situation, and talks occurred on evacuating foreign subjects from the city.<ref name="Thomas712" /> At night, [[Federica Montseny]], Minister of Health and an important member of the CNT, arrived with the purpose of mediating between all of the parties.<ref name="Thomas712" /> The Communist [[Antonio Sesé]], General Secretary of the Catalan [[Unión General de Trabajadores|UGT]] and a member of the Generalitat's new provisional council, died in a gunfight on his way to receive his new appointment.<ref name="Thomas712" />

The same day, combat occurred in [[Tarragona]] and other coastal towns. There too, the Assault Guard proceeded to oust the [[Confederación Nacional del Trabajo|CNT]] from the telephone exchanges they had occupied. Similar actions in [[Tortosa]] and [[Vic, Spain|Vic]] resulted in a final death toll of 30 anarchists in [[Tarragona]] and another 30 in [[Tortosa]].<ref name="Thomas712" /> At night, Lluis Companys and then Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero held a telephone conversation in which the Catalan President accepted the Spanish government's offer of assistance for restoring order.<ref>Ángel Ossorio y Gallardo, ''Vida y sacrificio de Companys'', p. 210.</ref>

=== 6 May ===
At dawn, the CNT once again asked the workers to return to their work to no avail although more out of fear than out of obstinacy.<ref name="Thomas712" /> In the afternoon, however, combat resumed. Various members of the National Republican Guard died in a cinema after a shelling from a 75 mm artillery cannon, carried from the coast by some members of the Libertarian Youth.<ref name="Thomas712" />

A force of about 5,000,<ref name="Thomas713" /> most of them Assault Guards, departed from [[Madrid]] and [[Valencia]] towards Barcelona. Two Republican destroyers and the [[Spanish battleship Jaime I|battleship Jaime I]], coming from Valencia, reached the port of Barcelona that night.<ref name="Thomas712" /> 

=== 7 May ===
At 8:20, the expedition of the Assault Guards reached Barcelona and occupied different points of the city. Some came by road from Valencia after they had suppressed the revolts in [[Tarragona]] and [[Reus]].<ref name="Thomas713" /> Local anarchists had bombed bridges, roads and railways to prevent the passage of the column. That day, the CNT called again for a return to work by proclaiming on the radio, "Down the barricades! Each citizen takes its paving stone! Let's return to normality!"<ref name="Thomas712" /> The expeditionary forces that entered Barcelona were under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Emilio Torres, who enjoyed certain sympathy from anarchists. His assignment was proposed by the CNT to promote the return to normality.<ref name=cntpedia>[http://madrid.cnt.es/historia/la-revolucion-traicionada/ Historia de la CNT] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180309183252/http://madrid.cnt.es/historia/la-revolucion-traicionada/ |date=9 March 2018}}, por la Federación Local de Madrid</ref> Assault Guards in Barcelona, Tarragona and many other cities proceeded to disarm and arrest numerous members of the [[National Confederation of Labour|CNT]], [[Federación Anarquista Ibérica|FAI]], [[Libertarian Youth]] and [[POUM]] who had taken part in the riots.

=== 8 May ===
The streets returned to normality despite some isolated incidents, and the suppression of barricades began. The unrest in Barcelona had finally finished. The contemporary press estimated the death toll of 500 dead and 1,000 injured.<ref>Peirats, ''La CNT'', p. 206.</ref>