It Could Happen Here - The Globalization of Resistance with Andrew

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Andrew talks with Garrison about how the jailing of political prisoners in Spain  inadvertently sparked the Filipino labor movement and helped globalize the anti-imperialist struggle of the late 19th and early 20th century.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. When we think of globalization, we often think of trade and late 20th century technological interconnection and the movement of capital. But there was another kind of globalization emerging in the late 19th century. That was the globalization of resistance. In the closing decades of the 1800s, a network of ideas, outlaws, and revolutionaries, would emerge to challenge the empires of the time.

Welcome to Icarapen here. I'm Andrew Sage, Andrewism on YouTube, and I'm joined again by... Garrison Davis. Hello. Welcome again. And in this episode, using the research of historian Bandit Anderson in Chapter 5 of the Age of Mobilization,

I want to look at this period in history where the tools of empire were appropriated by the very people the empire sought to suppress, to link anarchist prisoners in Montreich to intellectuals in Paris, to agitators in Cuba to nationalists into Philippines. Now, the story doesn't actually begin in Montreux prison in Barcelona, Spain, but a narrative begins there.

Following the June 7, 1896 bombing in Corpus Christi, 300 people were imprisoned in a wave of Spanish state repression. Among those caught in the crackdown was Fernando. Tarida del Marmol, a Cuban creole whose background connected him to both metropole and colony. His imprisonment was a direct consequence of the state's attempt to suppress the burgeoning anarchist movement in Catalonia, but it would only end up fueling the movement, thanks to the efforts of the radical international press. Tarida was a math teacher, which actually helped him out when he got arrested because a young

lieutenant warden recognized his former teacher and managed to sound the alarm of his incarceration. Therida also happens to be the cousin of a conservative senator who used his influence to ensure Therida's release. But Tarita didn't let these privileges cause him to forget his less privileged fellow prisoners because he immediately upon release went to Paris, the city of duality, a city that was both the central capital of colonial power and a premier global hub for political descent. So there in Paris, Tarida gained access to La Revue Blanche, a very popular periodical of era. He'd been a recognized writer from before his imprisonment, as he'd popularly advocated

for anarchism without adjectives, and he had gotten into a back and forth about workers' associations and bureaucracy and propaganda of the deed with a certain Gene Grave, who was another popular French anarchist of the period. So in La Revue Blanche, Terida published his personal, brutal experience of imprisonment, and contextualized it as a broader political indictment by connecting the gruesome suppression of dissent in Barcelona to the exact same mechanisms being deployed into Spanish colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.

Thus, he demonstrated that repression into Spanish provinces was not an isolated domestic issue, but a fundamental characteristic of Spanish colonial policy. And this narrative was taken up and amplified by the efforts of Felipe Fignon and Georges Clemen Chau.

Felifinion was an influential art critic and prominent anarchist intellectual, who helped frame the struggle against Spanish repression as a significant moral crisis. He also wrote strongly against French imperialism and revanchist nationalism, and Georges Clement Chow was a radical journalist and politician, considered a formidable figure in the defense of political prisoners as he had the capacity to mobilize public opinion around issues of justice, state authority. So together these figures helped ensure that the grievances of Tirida and the Spanish prisoners

were integrated into the global conversation. Now historian Benedict Anderson situates these events within the long 19th century, which had a lot of high-profile political violence, specifically anarchist bombings and targeted assassinations, which prompted a corresponding escalation in state power through much more stringent legal frameworks and surveillance apparatuses. Parallel to the rise of anti-terror legislation was the emergence of a new structured infrastructure of dissent, consistent. and of labour organisations and radical press, which served as a vital node in the global network, capable of circulating revolutionary ideas and coordinating resistance across borders. In addition to the Montreux Affair, the Dreyfus Affair would also be amplified by this network. The Dreyfus was an incident in French history where in 1894, a certain Alfred Dreyfus, who was a Jewish captain in the French army, was accused of treason,

alleged to have passed sensitive military documents to the German intelligence services. The evidence against him was largely based on forged documents and a high degree of anti-Semitic prejudice. St. Trafus was convicted, stripped of his rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. But the radical press began calling this out, especially when evidence suffice suggesting that the actual spy was another officer, Ferdinand Walson, Estahezy. but the French military high command had covered it up, suppressing evidence, manipulating court proceedings, and intimidating witnesses to ensure that Dreyfus remained convicted. A pivotal moment in the affair was the publication of non-radical Emil Zola's open letter,

Jacques Cuis, in the newspaper Lerourne in 1890, as Zola used the power of the press to directly challenge the military high command after the real culprit was acquitted the day after his trial began. This landed Zola in jail for libel, where he eventually got out on a plea deal, but it also earned him the tenuous respect of some critical left-wing intellectuals. Meanwhile, Terida had already left Paris for Belgium, then London, where he made use of his contacts around the world to create a coalition of, quote, liberals, freemasons, socialists, anarchists, anti-imperialists, and anti-clericals,

end quote, against the Spanish government, and especially against prime minister, Antonio Canova del Castillo, the conservative who was the chief architect of the brutal repression of Spanish anarchists, socialists, and labor activists domestically. His aim was to ensure the stability of the Spanish monarchy amidst growing pressures of anarchism, labor unrest, cluna rebellion, and American aggression. On August 9, 1897, the Italian anarchist Michelangolillo assassinated Canova's. Angiolillo was a real, monarchy hater. He had traveled to Barcelona under a fake name and was working as a freelance printer when the Corpus Christi bombing occurred. The city was put under martial law and his anarchist friends

were incarcerated in Montreich. After hearing about how they were being tortured, he fled for Paris, was expelled to Belgium, then moved to London, where Tirida's agitation against the Canova's regime was at full strength. He continued to work as a printer and engaged in activism in London for some time, where people asked who would avenge those tortured and murdered by the Spanish state, including the recently executed Jose Rezal, who was a Filipino nationalist. So after hearing this, Angiolillo was like, okay, bet, and he makes his way back to the continent of Europe with a pistol in his pocket. In France, he meets Dr. Ramon Betanus, was a Puerto Rican physician, revolutionary, who sought the independence of Puerto Rico and the dismantling of Spanish colonial authority in the Antelis.

He spent his life country hopping, helping the sick and fleeing Spanish spies. And although he wasn't an anarchist, he was connected with a lot of anarchists, particularly French and Italian anarchists, through the heterogeneous front against the Spanish state, against imperialism and monarchical tyranny. The European anarchists and socialists found a natural ally in the anti-colonial movement he was part of, as the liberation of Puerto Rico and Cuba

would represent a vital blow against the same imperialist structures they were fighting to dismantle in Europe. Now, Betancis claims he redirected the target of Angio Lilo's planned assassination from the Spanish Queen Regent and Infant Son to the Prime Minister. But Benedict Anderson calls this narrative into question because there doesn't seem to be any corroborating evidence. Anyway, so Angiolillo gets to Madrid, he learns Canova's location,

he stalks him for a bit, and then he shoots him dead with the pistol he brought from London. In his trial, Anguilino defends himself with reference to Montjuiche and Cuba and the Philippines and says, quote, Canova's personified in their most repugnant forms, religious ferocity, military cruelty, the implacability of the judiciary, the tyranny of power, and the greed of the possessing classes. I have rid Spain, Europe, and the entire world of him. That is why I am no assassin, but rather an executioner. End quote.

That does come pretty hard. It does go hard. When is this? Is this late 1800s or early 1900s? Late 1800s. Late 1800s, okay. Yeah. So after his rousing speech, he was then himself executed at just 26 years old.

Now, beyond being a symptom of imperial crisis, Canova's assassination functioned as an accelerant. By removing such a central figure of the political machinery of Spain in the midst of its war against the U.S., Angolillo's Act triggered the volatility that would culminate in the loss of Spain's final colonial possessions. In 1898, Cuba, the Philippines and Puerto Rico were in the hands of the United States, and the bullets that killed Canova's just kept going, well into the decades to come. Two weekend gold tickets

And $1,000 cash Lord, Zara Larson, Dame Grey, Somer, 21 pilots, and more. Download IHeard Radio, listen to IHeard new music for 10 minutes And enter to win.

Osiaga 2026. Every day you listen is another chance to win. Hey Ontario, come on down to Bed MGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive. The price is right, fortune pick. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show. Only at BetMGM. Access to the Price is right fortune pick is only available at BetMGM Casino.

BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BedmGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Overpass. Mountain. In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the

inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges. Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out what you already have inside. We're coming into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm going to do is pull out what you already got inside. We're there to support and celebrate each other. And that's not like your story versus my story. You're going to walk up and over that dang mountain.

You're not just going to put your mind over it. Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm going to go through it. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway, Do you realize how legendary you are?

I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got, like, so much more to do. Like, Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We dropped like five right now. Like, that's the rate we gotta be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. You also hear stories from industry legends and hip-hop pioneers like Fab Five Freddy. I directed when the Naz's early videos.

Which one? One Love. Wow. I literally filmed in his apartment in Queens Bridge. His moms were still up in that apartment. Nans was just beginning to take off. His pops used to live near me in Harlem. His dad introduced him to a whole lot of, you know, conscious stuff,

and he made a young prodigy. No matter the era, Drink Chams brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Now, speaking of the Philippines, we can turn now to that specific node of the movement network.

Isabello de los race was a moderate liberal of his time, somewhat privileged as a businessman, publisher, journalist, but he wasn't afraid to advocate strongly against Spanish colonial rule and was arrested in connection to the Philippine Revolution of 1896, as part of a broader repression against rebels, intellectuals, and activists. The revolution had begun prematurely after the Spanish authorities discovered their plot. and so many of the revolutionaries were imprisoned as a result. Now, while imprisoned, Isabello had to deal with the death of his wife

and was unable to attend her funeral or do anything for their children. Naturally, after an experience like that, he would be pissed at the colonial injustices that he and his people suffered at the hands of the government and at the hands of the religious orders. He demanded political reform and was met with relocation, first to a Barcelona municipal jail, and then to the infamous Montuich. While in Spain, he met several brave anarchists

who had been imprisoned for various crimes, crimes including advocating for Cuban independence, protesting trials by military courts, and opening secular schools gasp for children. Which, I mean, it was Catholic Spain at that point in time. Yeah. So that was like the worst thing you could possibly do. There was some anarchists who were in jail for assassination.

But I mean, come on, what's a little assassination between friends? I mean, yeah, assassination and opening a school, I think, is the same level of danger to the state at this point. Indeed. And these dangerous criminals demonstrated a level of solidarity that really inspired Isabello. And while in prison, he also got access to anarchist literature and was able to take part in discussions with anarchists. where he learned about their rejection of state authority, colonial domination, and class hierarchy. Now, in this exile period, I don't think he ever became an anarchist,

and I mean, late in his life even served as a senator, but he was profoundly influenced by the anarchists and did come to admire them for decades to come. Eventually, following the assassination of Canova's and the change in government, in 1898, Isabello was freed. He then moved to Madrid and started, a fortnightly publication, Filipinas and Europa, an anti-imperialist critique with particular focus on the growing American empire.

And it's funny because after Spain lost their colonies to the US, all of a sudden public opinion in Spain started to become sympathetic to the Filipino fight. It was like, oh, now we could start to feel bad for all. You know, the Americans embarrassed us, so now we have some sympathy for your plight. And so Isabello criticized America's claim to be. liberating the Philippines and Cuba as hypocrisy by pointing to the regular occurrence of lynchings and racist institutions within the U.S. And he also criticized the Filipino elite for their willingness to collaborate with the new colonial

rulers. The Philippine Revolution was basically over by 1901, as a key leader named Emilio Aguinaldo was captured and had to swear allegiance to the U.S. By the way, Alginaldo would also prove to be a collaborator later in his life. as he worked with the Japanese occupiers of the Philippines during World War II. So it's a pattern of behavior for that guy. Anyway, so after the end of the revolution, Isabelo decided to finally return to the Philippines, to reunite with the six children he had with his first wife, who he hadn't seen in years,

and to continue the struggle. Also, when he was in Spain, he got married. Isabello arrived in Manila with the works of Thomas Aquinas, Voltaire, Here Joseph Pridon, Charles Darwin, Carl Marx, Peter Kropotkin, and Erico Malatester. He might have been the first person to bring the works of some of these thinkers to the Philippines. And I think we kind of understate that luck of the draw, I suppose, when we talk about the movement of ideas in the 19th and 20th centuries. You know, they didn't have the internet. They didn't have the anarchist library. It takes a lot of work. Yeah.

Yeah. They didn't have all these accessible means of learning. about these ideas. So if you didn't happen to know somebody who could bring in that kind of literature for you, well, first of all, you wouldn't even know that literature existed unless somebody told you about it. The access to information was severely limited.

And so fortunately, he said Bello brought these ideas to Philippines and he was the first to do so in his time. But as we'll soon see, the history of the Philippines could have gone in a slightly different trajectory if he had not brought in that literature, learned about those ideas,

started engaging and agitating, on that basis, based on his experiences. I mean, he ended up in a Spanish prison of all places. So the Spanish empire that imprisoned him ended up sowing the seeds for rebellion in the former territory later on. As it happens. A not uncommon turn of events, actually.

Indeed. So Isabella pulls up in Manila and his reputation as an anti-imperialist preceded him. He was labeled a dangerous anarchist. And it really didn't have that the U.S. President McKinley had literally been shot to death by an anarchist just a month prior. This whole period of time is just while. Every time that I've done an episode with you about

like the late 1800s to early to early 1900s, it's always stuff like this. It's like an unbelievable collection of happening. Like history really has such a momentum during this period. Like it's unbelievable. Yeah, I just, I really enjoy drawing those connections. Because, I mean, he came to Manila with all these organizational plans. He was going to start a party. He was going to launch a newspaper. But as he pulls up and he realizes, he's literally on a list.

Yeah. You know, he kind of had to scrap those ideas and pull back a bit. And like Lenin's doing the same stuff like in Germany and Russia during the same time. Like everyone, everyone like everyone understands the mission. Yeah, yeah. Everyone knows what has to happen. And this is like before the standardization of passports. Yeah.

This is before the global visa system. And so people are literally just moving around. Yeah. I mean, I always marvel at the fact that Eric Komano tester was like, he was getting active in Egypt. At one point he pulled up in Brazil. You know, everybody has to come to Brazil eventually. He was everywhere, right? And these ideas were everywhere, too, as a result of the,

the movement of people bringing these books, bringing these ideas, get involved in conversation. It also helps, of course, that a lot of anarchists were printmakers. Still are. Yeah. Many such cases. Canadian women are looking for more. More to themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world are out of them.

And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast and IHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Hey, Ontario, come on down to BetMGM Casino and check out our newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show. Only at BetMGM. Access to the Price is right Fortune pick is only. Only available at BedMGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSeds remind you to play responsibly.

19 plus to wager, Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Bed-MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hi, everyone. I'm Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things. I'm excited to share that I have a new podcast called Mind Over Mountain.

In each episode, I interview athletes, adventurers, and adrenaline seekers to discuss the inner landscapes and life experiences that informed and inspired their extraordinary feats. I also bring a bit of advice into the mix so we too can better understand how to face our own seemingly insurmountable challenges. Do you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pull out what you already have inside. We're coming into this world fighting for our lives. All I'm going to do is pull out what you already got inside. We're there to support and celebrate each other. And that's not like your story versus my story. You're going to walk up and over that dang mountain. You're not just going to put your mind over it.

Yep, yep, exactly. And if I can't walk up and over it, I'm going to go through it. Listen to Mind Over Mountain every Thursday on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. June is Black Music Month, and on the Drink Chams podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Sway Lee. realize how legendary you are. I appreciate that. I'd be seeing it, but I'm like, man, I still got, like, so much more to do.

Like, Prince, he dropped, like, 30 albums. We dropped, like, five right now. Like, that's the rate we gotta be going. Yep, that's a good attitude. You also hear stories from industry legends and hip-hop pioneers like Fab Five Freddy. I directed when the Nazis' early videos. Which one?

One love. Wow. I literally filmed in his apartment in Queensbridge. His moms were still up in that apartment. Menaz was just beginning to take off. His pops used to live near me in Harlem. His dad introduced him to a whole lot of, you know, conscious stuff, and he made a young prodigy. No matter the era, Drinkchamps brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations.

Listen to Drink Chams from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. So, Isabello switched strategies. In his words, he took advantage of the occasion. put into practice the good ideas that he had learned from the anarchists of Barcelona, who were imprisoned with him in the infamous fortress of Montreich. So he started organizing the working class in Manila. He had the benefit of actually being able to speak the language of the swaths of workers in Manila, because he happened to come from the same region of the fastly linguistically diverse Philippines that they did.

He was from the Ilocos region of the island of Luzon, and he natively spoke the Ilocano language, like many of the workers that had migrated to Milan. Though he was technically part of the intelligents here, Isabello had a connection to the roots, you know, to the people, the streets, until he began by organizing the printers, of course, and helping them with their strikes, and from there the efforts very quickly snowballed, far quicker than the elites could have anticipated into a cross-industry worker federation. called the Union Obrera Democratica, the first of its kind in the entire country.

The Federation was flexible and loosely structured, which made it quite suited to undertaking various strike actions. But beyond demonstrations and strikes, Isabello also incorporated a little local flavor because the union was also involved in festivals and theatre and music events. So it was a combination of worker and non-worker-based organization. You get a little bit of every.

involved when you do that, rather than strictly focusing on just one plane of struggle and connection. Eventually, however, the Americans got their act together and met this movement with surveillance, arrest, and trials. And though they couldn't legally justify keeping him in jail for very long, they did throw Isabello back into jail for a short period. Now, the Wilco Federation would eventually collapse, but the ideas remained, and those ideas fed directly into various labor organizations. organizations, socialist parties, and guerrilla movements going forward. As for Isabello, his second wife, the one he married in Spain, died, and two years later, he married again to an 18-year-old.

Isabello married and was widowed three times. He actually outlived all of his wives and had a grand total of 27 children. Jesus Christ. Yeah. I have no comments. on what kind of father he may have been, but that's just... I mean, yeah, you can kind of assume based on those numbers, but yeah, that is what it is. And the fact that he was in Spain, got married in Spain, had six children back home who

had lost their mother. Yeah. I mean, he wasn't in Spain by choice, right? But, you know, he was middle class. He may have had family back at home taking care of his children, but still as rough. Yeah. That is rough. So later in his life, like I mentioned before, he got into electoral politics on the municipal level and the Senate level.

And he also in his life got to work in religious reform, eventually found in the Aglipayan Church, which was the first ever Filipino independent Catholic Christian church. Yeah, I was wondering, because like you mentioned he brought over Thomas Aquinas. Yeah, yeah. He was very critical of the religious orders, the Spanish Catholic. religious orders, but he ended up forming an independent Catholic church. So a Catholic church that is not associated with Rome. You said he didn't identify as an anarchist. Did he identify as like a socialist? What kind of was his like self-defined politics like around this point and like when he started running for office on the municipal level? I didn't see how he defined himself. I think he considered himself to be a patriot. You know, patriots, somebody who was pro-labor.

I don't know that he assigned himself necessarily the title of socialist or anarchist or liberal or anything like that. Yeah. He has, however, been called the father of the Philippine Labour movement and the father of Filipino socialism. But what do we take from all of this? You know, the empire might globalize trade, might globalize capital, might globalize various forms of suppression. but it inadvertently globalizes resistance. The same infrastructure that empires use to extend their reach

across their claim territories is the same infrastructure that radicals can use to fight. You know, even prison was used as a site of connection. A literal place of repression became a place that connected people across multiple countries. I think the lesson that I take it from this kind of narrative I've spun here between the Cuban Creole Fernando Tarida,

the Puerto Rican Dr. Ramon Betancis, the Italian Michelanguelo, and the Filipino Isabello de los race is that the globalization was not a one-way imposition. We could potentially adopt the empire's tools to fight back. And to next. work or resistance. People who are doing resistance, but on the other side of the political spectrum, do this same thing, like the formation of ISIS in prisons because of how we imprisoned Al-Qaeda members is a pretty key example of this. Yeah. This is a very common thing. Like, it turns out very, very often the master's tools actually are used to dismantle the master's house. that phrase still has some like

I think metaphorical uses but in a sort of like literalist sense I occasionally push back on it because yeah it does it does view movement as a one way thing it has it has like no dialectical analysis

and I think part of part of our job is like adapting and moving as empire and capital adapts and moves to the flow of history 100% And with that, as always, all power to all the people. Peace. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media.

For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Thank you.