Revolutionary Spain refers to a period when of the Spanish Civil War where much of the eastern half of Spain began experimenting with libertarian socialist ideas with around 7,000,000 - 8,000,000 people from 1936 to 1939. Making it the largest experiment in libertarian socialist politics in the last 100 years. The extent, effectiveness, sustainability, economics, implications and lessons of the revolution have been heavily debated since the 1930s.
Environmental Protection
Upon forming agricultural cooperatives and communes, peasants used methods that were similar to permaculture, using multiple plants to increase yields and improve soil health, such as putting shade-tolerant plants under orange trees.[1] Various metal factories were shut down after doctors discovered links between factory pollution and tuberculosis.[2] Daniel Guérin describes environmental protections further:
After the Revolution the land was brought together into rational units, cultivated on a large scale and according to the general plan and directives of agronomists. The studies of agricultural technicians brought about yields 30 to 50 percent higher than before. The cultivated areas increased, human, animal, and mechanical energy was used in a more rational way, and working methods perfected. Crops were diversified, irrigation extended, reforestation initiated, and tree nurseries started. Piggeries were constructed, rural technical schools built, and demonstration farms set up, selective cattle breeding was developed, and auxiliary agricultural industries put into operation. Socialized agriculture showed itself superior on the one hand to large-scale absentee ownership, which left part of the land fallow; and on the other to small farms cultivated by primitive techniques, with poor seed and no fertilizers.[3]
References
- ↑ Peter Gelderloos (2010) - Anarchy Works, page 105
- ↑ Iain McKay (2009) Objectivity and Right-Libertarian Scholarship
- ↑ Daniel Guérin (1970) Anarchism: From Theory to Practice