An   example of anarchism and journalism in the Catalonia of the ´30s

Tavera i Garcia, Susanna

Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

Total of notes appeared in the section: 112. 
Section o f the paper with most protagonism: Spanish Polit ics (National). with 
15 notes. 
Section o f the paper with less protagonism: People a nd Social Li fe. with o ne 
single note. 
Promotors ofthe 112 notes: The reader affected: 54; the reader not affected: 4 1; 
the Ombudsman: 19. (There are more requests than the total sum of notes 
because some themes had been proposed jointly by more than one of the 
agents mentioned). 
Global reason of complaint: For the paper' s disinformation: 32; For onjective 
error: 30; For wrong interpretation: 10; Others: li; Replies of Ombudsman: 
There was subjectivism: 16; There was involuntary error: 15: The information 
was written in a hurry: 12; Freedom o f style was not respected: 12; Others: 2. (In 
som e cases the Ombudsman did not clarify so me questions or believed that the 
reader was not right. 
Was there blame on anyone's part? The office made the mistake: 52; Mistakes 
came from outside: 42. 
In the conclusions o f the study Manuel Lopez believes that the section o f the 
Ombudsman is converted into a window which allows the entrance offresh air 
into the profession a nd permits the public to see into this mysterious world of a 
newspaper. a Radio or television station. What the Ombudsman did not 
inform was the criteria with which the notes to be published are chosen -
between November 1985 and November 1987- 2841etters were received and 
23 1 telephone calls. white in the same period, only 236 notes were published? 
The Ombudsman of"EI País .. has served al so to de al with matters o f great pro-
fessional interest: privacy. the right honour, politicism of journalists and 
plagiarism. 
18 An example
 of anarchism 
and joumalism in the 
Catalonia of the '30s. 
SUSANNA TA VERA i GARCIA 
In this work the author makes reference to the work "How a newspaper is 
made" a leafiet of 48 pages published. before the outbreak ofthe Civil War. by 
the forner director of"Worker's Solidarity". the anarchist Fel i pe Al<iiz. "How a 
newspaper is ma de .. appeared as a first number o f a fortnightly collection titlèd 
"An hour of Reading", which. almost certainly took as model the prestigious 
"Culture Notebooks" the anarchic-trade-unionist Mari Civera published in 
Valencia. "An Ho ur o f Reading" de fines itself as a "Library o f the Self-taught 
Militant" a nd aimed to devote itselfto the spreading ofthe sciences. geography. 
history. art letters. economy and, finally. all their technical applications. Its 
director was Alfonso Martínez Rico. a former captain ofthe engineers. a perso-
ANNALS DEL PERIODISME CATALÀ 
99 
100 
na! friend of Francesc Macià, and a man who from a general republicanism 
bent towards a revolutionary trade-unionism which was to have as final goa! 
the construction of libertarian communism. 
Felipe Alaiz, author of "How a newspaper is made" was born in 1887 in the 
town o f Alba la te de Ginoa in a bouyrgeois family, studied Arts at the faculty of 
Saragossa a nd, in his nativeAragon, formed part ofthe group which, according 
to its appearances, had all the characteristics o f a "gucrilla" or "anti-fascist 
alliance"; by his side was Ramon Acin, professor of drawing, sculptor and 
painter, militant ofthe CNT a nd who was killed in the August of 1936 in Onca: 
Angel Samblancat, journalist, advocat a nd writer o f anarchic tendencíes a nd 
Joaquim Maurin later on director of POUM. 
AJaiz started o ff in journalism publishing an article in "El Sol" o f Madrid; he 
was director of"La Revista de Aragon", a publication for youth ofRepublican 
Union, he actively collaborated in "Fructidor", an anarchic review o f Tarra-
gona a nd, together with Liberto Calle jas, took charge of"Crisol", a publication 
impulsed in Barcelona by Durruti, Garcia Cliver and Ascaso, among others. 
Before Primo de Rivera, AJaiz passed by Sevilla and brought the confederal 
newspaper a nd in 1930 was director of'ïierra y Libertad" ofBarcelona. white 
in September-October of 1931 he took charge of"Workers' Solidarity", a direc-
tion he was to abandon definitively at the end of 1932. Alaiz also collaborated 
assiduously with ''The White Review" a nd "The Fighter". a weekly o f sa tire cri-
tiques, doctrine and combat which the family Montseny published in Bar-
celona. 
Susanna Tavera identifies Alaiz, on one side, with individualistic and radical 
anarchism defended by the Montseny family a nd. very especially. by Federi ca. 
the daughter, and on the other, with the bohemian nature with which he faces 
the direction ofthe confederal newspaper, in general, his was a disordered life 
and in the sa me way ran the "Soli". In general. also, propagandístic preoccupa-
tions were a constant in AJaiz' life. 
"How a newspaper is made" replies to a very specific experience, achieved by 
AJaiz at the head ofthe "Soli" a nd reflects, first of all. the desi re to overcome a 
model o f anarchic workers' press, o f weekly or fortnightly journalism a nd fun-
damentally theoretic a nd/or ideologic definition which had been fully in force 
since the times ofthe First International; and, secondly, "How a newspaper is 
made" contains the need to crea te a model ofworker's a nd revolutionary news-
paper and which, therefore, poses technical and informative problems fully 
differentiated with respect to the rest ofthe workers' press (competition with the 
rest o f the daily press, especially). It was necessary to maintain its worker's a nd 
trade-union nature, now incorporating information o f general type, especially 
political, capable of maintaining the readership indispensable to ensure not 
only the life of the paper, but also its technological renovation. 
"How a newswpaper is made" is, first of all. a journalistic discourse which 
embraces the defmition of the anarchist newspaper as "an instrument of cul-
ture", which has as im media te objective "the creation a nd maintaining o f the 
revolutionary spirit". "The essential-says Alaiz- is the propaganda of direct 
culture, that which is produced without state control or organisation ". 
The work ofSusanna Ta vera termina tes with the reproduction o f a selection o f 
the main passages of"How a newspaper is made": "Fifteen million Spaniards 
ANNALS DEL PERIODISME CATALÀ 
do not read newspapcrs": "Literary writing is a mosaic and the newspaper a 
hotbed"; "Inte~ral journalism a nd officious journalism "; "The newspaper is a 
feat o f automattsm. but cannot be ma de by au tomats": "World information wit-
hout frontiers": ''Conclusions". 
41 "Ciència" and scientific journalism JAUME GUILLAMET 
The autor o f the work starts by stating that any reference to Catalan tradition o f 
trade press in general a nd scientific press in particular has, in the review "Cièn-
cia" (1926-1933) an undeniable point of interest. "Ciència" is a successful 
example o f specialised journalism in its time. doubtlessly. the most successful 
of scientific journalism. 
In the period comprised between 1878 and 1939, thc "History of the Catalan 
Press" by Torrent and Tasis presents approximately one hundred scientific 
publications which used Catalan as the total or partiallanguage o f expression. 
but there is knowledge ofthe existence. already at the start ofthe XIX century, 
o f scientific publica tions in Spanish, particularly medica! ones. Jaume Guilla-
met expresses his reservations on thc exact number of scientific reviews in 
Catalan informed in thc works ofTorrent a nd Tasis. based on the scarce clarity 
of their methodology when classifying the publications. 
The author points to an hypothesis ofperiodisation ofthe scientific press in the 
Catalan language in the following sense: 1878-191 O, period ofbirth a nd growth; 
1910-1923. period of expansion: 1924-1931. period of recession: 1931-1936. 
new expansion. 
"Ciència" subtitled "Catalan Review of science and technology", was a 
monthly. which after six years of publication - February 1926 - February 
1933- had only published 53 ofthe 72 numbers it should have. A review wit-
hout advertising, it had to survive on subscriptions, counting. in its first years 
on a not revealed patronage a nd prescnting itself in la ter times as a bulletin o f 
the Society ofPhysical Che mica! a nd Mathematical Seien ces ofthe lnstitute o f 
Catalan Studies a nd as official organ o f the "Association o f Directors o f Elec-
tric a nd Mechanic Industries of the l.E.M.A." 1 O 1 
Among its colla bora tors should be mentioned Pere Bosch Gimpera. Josep G. 
Serra Ràfols, Leandre Cervera, Carles Pi i Sunyer, Santiago Rubió i Tuduri. 
Josep Sorrat i Honastre. coordinated a nd directed. seems, by Ramon Peypoch 
since there is no record of a director. 
Jaume Guilla met says that "Ciència" stands o ut especially for three factors: the 
interdisciplinary scope o fits editorial focus, the na mes o f its colla bora tors a nd 
the feeling ofupdateedness a nd innovation o fits li ne ofinformation treatment. 
These factors give "Ciència" the appearance of a review of scientific journa-
lism. not as a simple compilation of works in the traditional sense. 
"Ciència". which would not reach its tenth year. appears. ata moment ofincor-
ANNALS DEL PERIODISME CATALÀ 


An example of anarchism and journalism in the Catalonia of the ´30s.

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