It Could Happen Here - Anarchism in Gran Columbia feat. Andrew

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Andrew talks with Gare about the history of anarchist theory and praxis in modern day Ecuador, Columbia, Panama, and Venezuela.  Sources: Cappelletti, Angel (2018). Anarchism in Latin America. AK Press. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anselme-bellegarrigue-the-world-s-first-anarchist-manifestoSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CAUZO MEDIA Hello and welcome to It Could Happen Here. I'm Andrew Sage. I run Androidism over on YouTube. And I'm here with the voice of... Garrison Davis. Hello. Hello, hello.

And today we're going to continue our journey through Latin American anarchisms and their histories with a sort of a four for one special. Exciting, exciting. Very exciting. We talked about Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Cuba so far, as well as the Mapuche struggle in Chile and Argentina. And now is the time to explore what's going on at the top of the South American continent,

the territory of the former Gran Colombia. And that is the territories of Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela. But if this is the first time you're hearing about Gran Colombia, let me give a quick and brief historical context rundown. Gran Colombia was a short-lived political entity that emerged in the early 19th century during Latin America's struggle for independence from Spanish colonial rule. It was formed in 1819 and it encompassed the territories, like I said, of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama, as well as some parts of northern Peru, western Guyana,

and northwestern Brazil. The Republic was envisioned by Simon Bolivar, who had dreamt of uniting the former Spanish colonies into a powerful federation that would be able to resist foreign intervention and secure their independence. The Congress of Angostura declared the creation of Gran Colombia with Bolivar as its first president. The Republic was a centralized state with a strong executive branch. So unsurprisingly, tensions soon arose among the constituent regions due to their differences

in political vision, economic interests, and regional identities. Centralized governance had alienated local elites and debates over federalism vs. centralism deepened existing divisions. Plus Bolivar's increasingly autocratic rule, I mean, he literally tried to push for a lifetime presidency obviously sparked internal opposition. So Gran Colombia was facing external threats from Spanish royalist forces and internal fractures. By 1830 Bolivar had to resign from the presidency, disillusioned by the failure of his vision,

and in the same year, Gran Colombia dissolved into three separate nations, Venezuela, Ecuador, and the Republic of New Granada, which later on split into Colombia and Panama. Unlike the other countries of South America that we've covered, these countries had far less large-scale anarchist movements. But we'll still take a look at what little impact anarchists did make in the past two centuries in these places. This whole series, by the way, wouldn't be possible without the scholarship of Angel Capuleti, whose research I drew upon heavily for this historical review. I suggest reading his book, Anarchism in Latin America, for further details.

But let's first take a look at the history in Ecuador. At the turn of the 20th century, Ecuador was reeling from a liberal revolution that had just taken place in the country. The country was shifting as industrialization crept in, the bourgeoisie were on the rise, and feudal landowners were losing their grip on power. A new secular cultural wave was also beginning to take shape as the clerical authorities began to lose their power. The workers naturally needed a voice in this process and they founded first with the rise

of the Partido Liberal Obrero or the Liberal Workers' Party in 1906. Around the same time, on New Year's Eve of 1905, the Confederación Obrera del Ecuador was founded in Guayaquil, a city that would become a hub for worker activity. Both organizations shared a vision rooted in social reform and worker empowerment. It was also around this time that the Cuban anarchist Miguel Albuquerque made a name for himself in Ecuador. Originally, he had come seeking assistance with Cuba's independence struggle, but eventually

found himself playing a key role in Ecuador's labor movement. He established the Sociedad de Hijo del Trabajo, or the Society of the Sons of Labor, and other anarchist groups would also begin forming, contributing to the struggles taking place at the time. The first recorded strikes with anarchist influence took place in 1919, where workers in the graphic arts industry organized the demand back to conditions. By 1922, Guayaquil was the epicenter of a massive general strike, shaped in part by

the anarchist synicalists who were obviously right in the thick of it. The strike was driven by dissatisfaction among the workers, particularly among the city's urban laborers and dock workers who were facing really poor wages, long hours, and deteriorating living conditions. Tailors' Oldest Time The strike culminated in a violent crackdown by government forces also at Tailors' Oldest Time, with estimates suggesting that hundreds of workers were killed when the military suppressed the revolt. Most workers returned to their jobs after that, but the trolley workers continued their

strike until the 21st of November, when most of their demands were met. How much crossover was there between revolutionaries or workers' rights people or anarchists in Cuba and places like this? Because I assume there was a more like growing sentiment in Cuba based on how that whole situation turned out in the next like 20, 30 years. And I feel like there would be a decent like a decent number of cross or at least like some travel between some of these other like nearby places. For sure, because Cuba, as we know, gained independence much later than the rest of its last American

neighbors. Places like Mexico and Central America and Gran Colombia and the rest of South America, they all gained their independence and Cuba was still under the Spanish thumb. And they remained under the Spanish thumb until they ended up having to struggle with the Americans as well and eventually to gain their own independence. I mean, it's all one big pond, I like to say, the Caribbean Sea. So there would have been a lot of transfer and communication between these independent Latin American republics and Cuba, which was still at the time a colony. It's really interesting to see when, you know, these Cuban characters sort of show

up in other parts and then stir up some trouble. Totally. Well, and it shows just how like pop in the 1920s were kind of like everywhere. Like, yeah, well, they're looking at like labor movement in the United States or like everything that you've been talking about these last few episodes about Latin American anarchism. Like always in like the 1920s, there was always just like crazy shit going down consistently. For sure. Unfortunately, 1920s is also the time of a lot of decline for a lot of the anarchist movements, because 1920s follows, you know, the rise of the USSR. And a lot of people ended up abandoning anarchism and following that sort of popularity at the time.

Well, and similarly, once we start getting into like the early 30s, I remember in the last few episodes that you've done, you see the resurgence of like right-wing populism, like really hard. Yes, we tend to see a lot of resurgence. And like all this like revolutionary potential that's been growing the past few decades all gets like co-opted or channeled into like right-wing nationalism, right-wing populism and like that's like a whole other pivot that happens. Not just the more like you know communism's statist one in like the 20s. We do see a resurgence in the right-wing populism, yes.

We also see a resurgence in the anarchist politics. Remember the 30s was also the time of the Spanish Civil War. Sure. And so in that time, you had the anarchists picking up steam again, and you also had following that Civil War, a lot of the anarchists from Spain spreading out into a lot of the former colonies in North America. I think part of that rebirth is just because of how tied anarchism and anti-fascism is. That's true. I think inadvertently, the rise of fascism may actually give birth to the rise of more

anarchists as people get involved in anti-fascism because these things are so like, you know, sister movements in many ways. I think that may be a contributing factor. That's certainly how I kind of got into this sort of stuff was through anti-fascism. And I suspect that that may have also been the case even a hundred years ago. For sure, for sure. I think every story needs a good villain. Unfortunately. And the story of anarchism, I mean, the fascists tend to make really, really impactful antagonists,

I think. Indeed. At the same time, we also had in Ecuador, as we had these strikes going on, we also had the anarchists doing, you know, that thing that anarchists like to do, which is a study group. Many such cases. Many such cases. But I mean, it is an important aspect of their struggles. That's sort of consciousness raising.

Yes. So these anarchists, in particular in Guayaquil, they founded the Centro de Estudios Sociales, which was a libertarian study group in Guayaquil. And then a decade later, 1920, Yannick is also established a Centro Gremial Syndicalista or the Syndicalist Guild Center, which had a mission to, and I quote, liberate all the oppressed of the earth by bringing them into a libertarian syndicate that will replace the present system and opposing all political and religious doctrines as destructive and prejudicial to the rights and aspiration of workers."

End quote. As in the rest of the region, their publications played a key role in spreading the ideas. Again, early 20th century, late 19th century, the anarchists were making papers, newspapers, newspapers, newspapers. I mean, it is a bit of a blueprint for what anarchism continues to be in many ways, even with like the rise of distroism in the past decade or so in like popular anarchism. Less newspapers, more zines being held together by possibly one or fewer stables.

I like to think that I also continue that tradition, and you and I as well, by creating this kind of audio and visual content. I am a zine enjoyer. I have many zines. But we also have to evolve with the times in some ways. Not everyone's going to be reading newspapers, not everyone's going to be reading booklets, unfortunately, as much as I encourage people to do so. I do think there is value

in attacking the information ecosystem that people more often use. That includes podcasts, that includes your fantastic videos on YouTube. Thank you, thank you. And yeah, I agree. For sure, for sure. But they didn't have things like YouTube or the internet at the time. Instead they had, at least in Ecuador, they had newspapers like El Proletario and El Cacajero and Bandera Roja, which were carrying these anarchist-syndicalist ideas to the workers

across Ecuador. They also had the first truly anarchist papers that hit the country were Redencion and Luz y Accion in 1922 and 1929 respectively. But as we were anticipating, the 1930s brought some challenges. Marxist-Leninist thought began to dominate leftist circles and figures like José Carlos Marietegui and his general Amauta ended up wielding a significant influence in the workers' struggles. And by the end of the decade, anarchist groups found themselves vastly overshadowed as Marxist

Leninists consolidated power through unified political parties. But despite these shifts, anarchism in Ecuador was really never entirely extinguished. It actually continues to influence workers' organizations like the Federacion de Guayas well into modern times. But now let's make our way north to Colombia as a similar story unfolds of anarchism taking root in the early 20th century. And this is actually a fun fact here because both Elise Reclus and Mikhail Bakunin visited Colombia. Recluse was there for research purposes and Bakunin wasn't an anarchist at the time. So they didn't directly contribute to the anarchist movement as far as we know in the

country. But by the 1910s anarchist ideas were definitely spreading. Finding a home among students, artists, writers and workers. And this wasn't just idol philosophising. They also got to work building worker societies and organising mass actions like the May 15th demonstration in 1916, which of course met with brutal police repression. From there the movement gained momentum.

In 1920, port workers in Cartagena went on strike and by the following decade anarchists were the forefront of workers' militancy all across the Caribbean coast which was more connected to global struggles than the rest of Colombia and was thus a hotbed of organizing unrest. If you know the geography of Colombia you'd know that there's a lot of jungle and mountainous region in the middle of the country and it's at the coast where you tend to have more of the activity and connection with the neighboring countries in the Caribbean Sea. Fun fact, there's actually a lot of people in the English speaking Caribbean aren't aware of the fact that there are people in the Spanish speaking Caribbean who consider coastal Colombia and coastal Venezuela to be part of the Caribbean. But that's like the

sort of niche discourse that you get on r slash ask Caribbean. The few anarchists that were present in Colombia were part of nearly every major uprising, including the Barranquilla strike of 1910, the labor wave that swept Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Maria in 1918, the first strike against the notoriously bloody United Fruit Company in 1918, the Girardot Railroad Strike and the Artisans and Labour Strike in Bogota in 1919, the Oil Strikes in Baran Cabirmeja during the 1920s, including one against the Tropical Oil Company in 1927, which cost 1200 workers their jobs and painted a tug it's on the backs of the organizers because how dare you mess with

oil. And then finally there was the famous Santa Maria Banana Strike of 1928, where workers demanded fair wages and better treatment, and the government responded, at the behest of the United Fruit Company, by claiming hundreds of lives. After the massacre, the anarchist movement in Colombia was heavily repressed, and because of how small it was, it didn't quite pick back up. As historian Max Netlau noted, publications like Organación in Santa Marta and Via Libre in Barranquilla disappeared by the late 1920s. This crackdown on anarchists coupled with the rise in influence of Bolshevik-led unions shifted the landscape. And by the 1930s, anarchist organizing was all but

silenced in Columbia. But as a part of Columbia, they were missing. You see, at one point, Panama was considered part of the country. So there must have been stuff happening on that little sliver of land, right? You'd be surprised. If we rewind to the mid-19th century, between 1850 and 1855, Panama saw the construction of a trans-Isthmus railroad. And this massive project was followed by two phases of canal construction.

The first by the French between 1880 and 1895, and the second by the US from 1904 to 1914. These projects brought tens of thousands of workers from Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean, effectively turning Panama into a melting pot of laborers who brought their skills, their culture, and their ideas. The Asian workers, for example, that is, people from Barbados. If I recall correctly, there was a time in Barbados' history where it was some massive number. I'm not sure if it was like a full quarter of the country's income was just coming from

remittances from people who had like had family members sending their money from the canal project back home and it's not just the Caribbean that was impacted obviously as workers from Europe and Asia were also part of this project and it's the workers from Europe and particularly Spain that brought many of the ideas of class consciousness and anarchist cynicism that have been brewing in that region of the world. And such ideas were of course sorely needed in the horrific working conditions of death and disease that marked the Panama Canal construction project.

Workers organised some successful strikes in both the French phase and the American phase of construction both before and after Panama gained its independence from Colombia in 1903. But it was just before the transition to American control over canal construction that Panama officially banned anarchists from entering the country. For the anarchists that were left, well, when the Americans took over the canal, Governor of the Canal Zone General George W. Davis actively suppressed the anarchist workers that remained.

In 1907, however, despite that repression, 2,000 Spanish workers went on strike for better wages. In 1924, a predominantly anarchist syndicalist group founded the Sindicato General de Trabajadores, which was Panama's first central workers union. It grew to thousands of members and brought together a mix of ideologies, anarchists and Marxists alike, even those who had later found the Communist Party and the Socialist Party of Panama in 1930. But on such a small sliver of land with so many people mixed in there, there was bound to be a vibrant mix of ideas. And not all of the anarchists in Panama were of the syndicalist flair. Believe it or not,

they were actually workers within Panama who aligned themselves with Max Stener's philosophy. They had egoists and anarchist egoism. Interesting. In Panama. Yeah, exactly. This blew my mind as well. And you don't expect to see that in such context. Were they reading Stener in Panama? I'm not sure if they were reading Stener. I'm assuming so, because otherwise, how would they have come to identify with his philosophy? But they did launch a paper called El Unico in 1911. That's what I was wondering is if instead of like widely distributing just

Sturner's actual books, like, was there like some like Sturner influence, like newspaper that people were running? Yeah, yeah. Because like that makes sense. Exactly, exactly. So I was seeing some of the people either would have read Sturn Abroad or they brought Steiner In and they were obviously inspired by it and they were skeptical of this sort

of mass movement, cynicalism that was popular at the time. Sure, many people are. They were questioning its effectiveness as a strategy for anarchy. Yeah. And so they were focused primarily on organizing sort of smaller affinity groups. Yep. And one of those groups ended up launching that paper El Unico to spread the ideas. And obviously it called itself an individualist publication.

That's so funny. That's so emblematic of where we still are with anarchism. Oh, that's good. That's good. Yeah. I think that this kind of diversity of thoughts and strategies is really, really beautiful. I'm glad to see it in the most unconventional and surprising of contexts.

It's why I consider myself an anarchist without adjectives, you know? I really... Absolutely, yeah. I think we benefit greatly from conversation between these traditions and between these strategies. And so seeing that there were more than one form of anarchism in such a small context, it's really quite inspiring. Yeah, I am with you there. By the way, for those listeners who may not be familiar with the anarchist egoist tradition,

I know that we're ego and egoism, like- Conjure up some psychoanalytical Freudian- Yeah. I might bring some sort of feelings about like, Catholic individualism or like, extreme selfishness and that kind of thing. Kind of like, screw everybody except me. But there's actually a much deeper philosophical bent to anarchist egoism that I think everybody should give a chance. I actually recently read what is considered the first manifesto of anarchism and it was written by this French anarchist named Anselme Bellegarige and he was actually an individualist anarchist and you actually in reading that end up seeing a lot of

the influences that would later sort of develop further into anarchist individualism from the very beginning. You know I highly recommend reading it. It's called Anarchy, a Journal of Order. It's available on the Anarchist Library. It's a surprisingly contemporary piece, in my opinion. It was translated by Sean Wilbur, who's another anarchist scholar who I'm really inspired by lately. And it really gets into some of the ideas that I think we've forgotten in terms

of what it takes to achieve the complete liberation of all people. So that's Anarchy, a Journal of Order? Yeah, Anarchy, a Journal of Order. He ended up not publishing more than two issues due to low readership, but that's what happens, I think, when you have it. Many such cases. Many such you have many such cases. Many such cases, many such cases. Yeah, I will pull that up on the Anarchist Library and give that a read myself.

Yeah, it happens when you're ahead of the times in a sense, and he actually ends up becoming at least partially relevant to the next episode I'm going to do on the Latin American anarchism series, because he ends up making his way to Latin America at one point in his life. In fact, he dies in Latin America, but we'll get to that in time. Finally we turn to Venezuela. As late 19th century, refugees from the failed Paris Commune arrived in Caracas, bringing with them the radical spirit of the International Workman's Association. From a few of these immigrants, small anarchist cells emerged, but they were stifled by the

brutal dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gomez from 1899 to 1935. Though few in number, the anarchist immigrant efforts to form mutual societies, organize strikes, and spread propaganda gained them a notoriety that put a massive bullseye on them for Gomez's persecution. And yet amidst the repression, a few sparks of anarchism did survive. In the cultural fabric, writers like Miguel Eduardo Pardo portrayed anarchists as spiritual revolutionaries, likening them to saints. Sounds familiar? It does sound very familiar.

Yes. Yeah, if you know, you know, back in the days of St. Andrewism. There you go. But his novel, Todo en Pueblo, described anarchists as apostles of justice, which is a really fire title I must say, as they carried the flame of liberty into the streets. But it wasn't all prose. The early 20th century also saw a spike in industrial strikes. In 1918, for example, a pivotal strike involving transit workers included at least one known

Italian anarchist named Vincenzo Cusati. Although defeated, the strike left a mark in the country's consciousness. Inspired by such a strife for freedom, workers united through various mutual aid societies which they were disguised as religious guilds. The anarchist influence quietly spread among bakers, bricklayers, and oil workers. Truly it was the oil boom of the 1920s that reshaped Venice's Weyland society and continues to affect it today. While anarchist syndicalists maintained underground networks in the grown oil sector, state and

corporate power proved to be too much. By the mid-20th century, after the fall of Gomez's regime, the rise of political parties like Acción Democrática co-opted many of the workers who might have otherwise embraced anarchist syndicalism and anarchist ideals became increasingly marginalized, eclipsed by party politics and state repression. Between 1936 and 1945, in fact, anarchist repression also gained a constitutional footing in the form of the Lara Law, which banned strikes, associations, meeting without permission from the state, political propaganda, and basically all the usual dictatorial stuff. After the Spanish Civil War and the rise of Franco, more Spanish anarchist immigrants

came to Venezuela. You see how I said they would be relevant? Yes, yes. But they didn't end up impacting Venezuela so much. As immigrants, they ended up creating a mostly self-contained scene, apparently through the founding of the Federacion Obrera Rigenal Venezolana in 1958, which was affiliated with the International Workers Association. But as I said, they'd make too much of a splash in the broader Venezuelan population,

they mostly affected other Spanish immigrants. So anarchism never developed into an explicitly mass movement in Venezuela, but elements of it did persist and the unyielding pursuit of freedom was still felt even in the harshest of conditions. So looking today at the countries that composed the former Gran Colombia, I would argue that the spark of anarchism still hasn't died. You know, in Ecuador, uprisings continue to challenge extractive economies and demand autonomous control over indigenous territories. And some

anarchist collectives are active in solidarity, providing logistical support during protests and pushing for horizontal forms of organizing in the broader social struggle. After the 2021 national strike in Colombia, some anarchist practices have begun to infuse movements against police brutality, privatization, and austerity measures. Mutual aid networks have also emerged inspired by anarchist practices to support the communities hit hardest by economic crises. In Panama, anarchism exists on the fringes, but it has the potential to provide inspiration to those who are actively confronting neoliberal policies, advocating

for workers' rights, and engaging in anti-corporate actions. Finally, in Venezuela, economic collapse and authoritarianism have created space for anarchist ideals to spread through grassroots initiatives. Mutual aid and self-organized community groups have stepped in where the state has failed. Across these countries, anarchist ideas still have potency and really my hope is that these places continue to explore the creativity and solidarity that are necessary for liberation. That they continue to struggle and that they go further still. You know, viva, I live with that. All power to all the people.

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