Chapter 11 Summary

Chapter Eleven is devoted to a fairly detailed analysis of the politics leading up the street fighting in Barcelona, as well as an overview of the political results of that fighting. As reliable records of events do not exist, a complete and credible picture of the situation cannot be fully created. Instead, eyewitness accounts are provided to contradict much of the inflammatory and idealistic rhetoric, which has been reported as fact.

The political situation in Barcelona involved considerable friction between two main political camps, which Orwell refers to as the Communists, including PSUC and the Spanish Government, and the anarchists, including CNT-FAI and POUM. The situation was escalated when the government ordered the surrender of all privately-held weapons and simultaneously decided to establish a heavily-armed police force that excluded trade union members. These decisions were clearly aimed at reducing the political and real...