Diego Abad de Santillán
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Sinesio Baudillo García Fernández (20 May 1897 – 18 October 1983), commonly known by his pseudonym Diego Abad de Santillán, was a Spanish Argentine anarcho-syndicalist economist. Born in León, his family moved to Argentina while he was young. He returned to Spain for his higher education and became involved in the Spanish anarchist movement. After his studies, he went back to Argentina and became involved with the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), co-founding the International Workers' Association (IWA). Following the 1930 Argentine coup d'état and the establishment of the Second Spanish Republic, he again went to Spain, becoming involved in the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI). During the Spanish Civil War, he served in the Catalan government as Minister of Economy. After the war, he returned to Argentina and largely ceased political activities, going back to Spain only after the Spanish transition to democracy.
Biography
In 1897, Santillán was born Sinesio Baudillo García Fernández in Reyero, a small, isolated town in the region of León.Template:Sfnm His father was from a Leonese family of blacksmiths and his mother was from an Andalucian family of miners.Template:Sfn In 1905,Template:Sfnm the family moved to Argentina,Template:Sfnm settling in Santa Fe.Template:Sfnm
After working a number of jobs,Template:Sfnm in 1913, the young Sinesio returned to León and earned his bachelor's degree at a local university. After some travels around Catalonia and the Basque Country, in 1915,Template:Sfn he enrolled at the University of Madrid,Template:Sfnm where he studied the humanities,Template:Sfn graduating as a Doctor of Philosophy.Template:Sfn In the Spanish capital, he began to live a bohemian lifestyle,Template:Sfn taking the pseudonym Diego Abad de Santillán while writing for dissident journals.Template:Sfnm
Santillán participated in the 1917 Spanish general strike, for which he was imprisoned for a year.Template:Sfnm After receiving an amnesty,Template:Sfn he returned to Argentina, briefly reuniting with his family in Santa Fe before moving to the capital Buenos Aires.Template:Sfn There he joined the Argentine Regional Workers' Federation (FORA), working as editor of its newspaper Template:Ill. In 1922, he went to Germany and participated in the establishment of the International Workers' Association (IWA), staying behind in Berlin in order to study medicine.Template:Sfnm There he met a number of famous anarchists, including Max Nettlau, for whom he helped translate his works into Spanish. In 1925, he briefly went to Mexico and helped organise the General Confederation of Workers (CGT) before returning to Argentina, where he took part in the Sacco & Vanzetti defense campaign and wrote a history of anarchism in Argentina.Template:Sfn In the wake of the 1930 Argentine coup d'état,Template:Sfnm he was sentenced to death for sedition,Template:Sfn but managed to escape into exile in the newly-established Spanish Republic.Template:Sfnm
In Spain, Santillán joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and became secretary of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), for which he edited their respective newspapers Solidaridad Obrera and Tierra y Libertad. Following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he joined the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia and was appointed Minister of Economy in the Catalan government.Template:Sfnm In the wake of the May Days, he took a critical line against the government of Juan Negrín and the Communist Party of Spain (PCE),Template:Sfn publishing After the Revolution, which outlined a program for workers' self-management under anarcho-syndicalism.Template:Sfnm In the program, Santillán invoked British utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill in his attacks against capitalism, declaring:
When the Republic was defeated, Santillán fled into exile in France, before finally returning to Argentina. There he continued his historical work and contributed to dictionaries and encyclopedias,Template:Sfnm notably writing Why We Lost the War, which his son Luis later adapted into film. He largely ceased political activities and gravitated increasingly towards reformism, defending anarchist collaboration with the Republican government during the war, while also coming to prioritise the abolition of the state over the abolition of capitalism.Template:Sfn
During the Spanish transition to democracy, Santillán finally returned to Spain, settling in Barcelona, where he died in 1983.Template:Sfnm
Selected works
- After the Revolution: Economic Reconstruction in Spain (1937)Template:Sfnm
- Why We Lost the War: A Contribution to the History of the Spanish Tragedy (1940)Template:Sfn
See also
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
External links
- Diego Abad de Santillán papers at the International Institute of Social History
- Diego Abad de Santillán Archive at The Anarchist Library
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- 1897 births
- 1983 deaths
- 20th-century Spanish non-fiction writers
- 20th-century Spanish economists
- Argentine anarchists
- Argentine anti-fascists
- Argentine economists
- Argentine non-fiction writers
- Argentine people of the Spanish Civil War
- Argentine revolutionaries
- Argentine trade unionists
- Confederación Nacional del Trabajo members
- Economy ministers of Catalonia
- Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Argentina
- Historians of the Spanish Civil War
- Spanish anti-capitalists
- Spanish emigrants to Argentina
- Spanish non-fiction writers
- Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
- People from Montaña de Riaño
- Deaths in Barcelona