Part of a series on
Anarchism
History Outline
Schools of thought Capitalist Feminist Green Primitivist Social ecology Total liberation Individualist Egoist Free-market Naturist Philosophical Mutualism Postcolonial African Black Queer Religious Christian Jewish Social Collectivist Parecon Communist Magonism Without adjectives Methodology Agorism Illegalism Insurrectionary Communization Expropriative Pacifist Platformism Especifismo Relationship Syndicalist Synthesis
Theory Practice Anarchy Anarchist Black Cross Anarchist criminology Anationalism Anti-authoritarianism Anti-capitalism Anti-militarism Affinity group Autonomous social center Black bloc Classless society Class struggle Consensus decision-making Conscientious objector Critique of work Decentralization Deep ecology Direct action Free association Free love Freethought Horizontalidad Individualism Isocracy Law Mutual aid Participatory politics Permanent autonomous zone Prefigurative politics Proletarian internationalism Propaganda of the deed Refusal of work Revolution Revolutionary spontaneity Rewilding Security culture Self-ownership Social ecology Sociocracy Somatherapy Spontaneous order Squatting Temporary autonomous zone Union of egoists Voluntary association Workers' council
People Armand Ba Bakunin Berkman Bonanno Bookchin Chomsky Cleyre Day Durruti Ellul Ervin Faure Ferrer Feyerabend Godwin Goldman González Prada Graeber Guillaume He-Yin Kaczynski Kanno Kōtoku Kropotkin Landauer Liu Magón Makhno Malatesta Michel Most Parsons Pi Pouget Proudhon Rocker Rothbard Santillán Spooner Stirner Thoreau Tolstoy Tucker Volin Ward Warren Zerzan
Issues Animal rights Capitalism Education Love and sex Nationalism Religion Violence
History Paris Commune Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA Cantonal rebellion Hague Congress International Conference of Rome Trial of the Thirty Haymarket affair May Day Congress of Amsterdam Tragic Week High Treason Incident Manifesto of the Sixteen Individualist anarchism in the United States 1919 United States bombings Biennio Rosso German Revolution of 1918–1919 Bavarian Soviet Republic Kronstadt rebellion Makhnovshchina Amakasu Incident Escuela Moderna Individualist anarchism in Europe Spanish Revolution of 1936 Barcelona May Days Red inverted triangle Labadie Collection May 1968 Provo LIP Kate Sharpley Library Australian Anarchist Centenary Carnival Against Capital 1999 Seattle WTO protests Really Really Free Market Occupy movement
Culture A las Barricadas Anarchist bookfair Anarcho-punk Arts Culture jamming DIY ethic Films Freeganism Glossary Infoshop Independent Media Center The Internationale Jewish anarchism Lifestylism "No gods, no masters" Popular education "Property is theft!" Radical cheerleading Radical environmentalism Squatting Symbolism
Economics Communization Cooperative Cost the limit of price General strike Gift economy Give-away shop Free association Labour voucher Market abolitionism Mutual aid Mutual credit Participatory economics Social ownership Wage slavery Workers' self-management
By region Africa Albania Algeria Andorra Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bangladesh Belarus Belgium Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile China Colombia Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Czech Republic Denmark Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Estonia Finland France French Guiana Georgia Germany Greece Guatemala Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Latvia Malaysia Mexico Monaco Mongolia Morocco Netherlands New Zealand Nicaragua Nigeria Norway Panama Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Romania Russia Serbia Singapore South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tunisia Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela Vietnam
Lists Anarcho-punk bands Books Communities Fictional characters Films Jewish anarchists Musicians Periodicals
Related topics Anti-corporatism Anti-consumerism Anti-fascism Anti-globalization Anti-statism Anti-war movement Autarchism Autonomism Communism Counter-economics Definition of anarchism and libertarianism Labour movement Left communism Left-libertarianism Libertarianism Libertarian Marxism Libertarian socialism Marxism Situationist International Socialism Spontaneous order Voluntaryism
Anarchism portal Politics portal
v t e

Anarchism in Andorra peaked during the 1930s, when anarchist ideas were at the forefront of revolutionary politics in the Catalan countries.

During the time of the Second Spanish Republic, the Spanish state questioned the role of co-prince of the bishop of La Seu d'Urgell, Justí Guitart i Vilardebó. The same situation was repeated as during the French Revolution. Spain did not conceive that one of its citizens had the sovereignty of another state. The Spanish and Catalan press began to criticize the role of co-prince, exclaiming that it was possible that the Andorran people had no sovereignty and would be subject to two feudal princes.

From Catalunya, the Catalanist and anarcho-syndicalist atmosphere greatly influenced Andorran immigrants. In 1933, the Joves Andorrans (a trade union related to the CNT-FAI) occupied the General Council, demanding universal suffrage for Andorran citizens - igniting the Andorran Revolution, which saw the General Council elected with universal male suffrage and the implementation of civil liberties.

The Spanish republic denied the bishop the right to be co-prince of Andorra, with annexationist intentions behind it. The anticlericalism of the Second Republic was very offensive to the Catholic Church which led to the bishop joining the nationalists^[1] When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936 the bishop went into exile in Sanremo. He was in the Aran Valley when he learned of the military coup. On the night of his escape, a group of anarchists went to wake him up by standing under the window where he was staying to sing the Internationale with their fists raised.^[1] Before leaving, he left the episcopal delegation in the hands of Miquel Mateu. Once in San Remo, the nationalists convinced him to sign the collective letter of the bishops of 1937. It was a manifesto in which the Catholic Church supported fascism.^[1]

With the outbreak of the revolution in Catalunya, libertarian communism was proclaimed in Urgell. The atmosphere became radicalized and many people from Urgell temporarily fled to Andorra, thinking that the coup would fail like the Sanjurjada. At first the country hosted nationalists that had fled from republican positions in Catalunya.^[2][3] Towards the end of the conflict, a second wave of refugees fled to Andorra, these were anarchists, republicans and socialists, fleeing from the nationalist offensive. Andorra welcomed everyone, on both sides of the conflict. The FAI was even installed on the Andorra–Catalunya border, where they began to take control of smuggling operations. Puigcerdà was also the border with the second-most escapes.^[1]

FHASA workers were affiliated with the CNT and the FAI, they agitated in Andorra and invited their anarchist friends to stay in the country too. Once in Andorra, they took the opportunity to register the names of the nationalists who had taken refuge and then denounced them. The FHASA's director Miquel Mateu was, on the other hand, a declared fascist and helped the nationalists as best he could. In Sant Julià de Lòria the population joined the fascist side, where Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany became anarchist refuges. Three bars of the time stand out in particular: the Hotel Mirador and the Casino d’Escaldes (republicans) and the Bar de Burgos (fascists). The lower parishes were usually more akin to the trends circulating in Castile or Catalunya while the higher ones followed the French temperament. The constant movement of people through Andorra made it impossible to take a neutral position and its people opted for one side or the other. In Sant Julià the border was blocked during the war to prevent anarchists from entering the country. Border control was so strict that even a valid pass or passport did not guarantee escape or entry into Andorra. The Andorran youth largely sympathized with the republican cause and wanted to proclaim an Independent Republic of Andorra. The older generations, on the other hand, were largely followers of fascism and hoped that it would establish "order" in Andorra. There were also Andorrans who helped the refugees on both sides by giving them food and sleep.^[1]

The two sides often settled their differences by shooting at each other in the mountains, which provided anonymity from the Andorran authorities. Within the country republicans and nationalists were waging small-scale warfare with real weapons. An improvised hospital had to be set up at FHASA to manage the arrival of all those refugees who had been shot during their entrance into Andorra.

According to the Andorran authorities, the group that caused the most instability was the FHASA workers, who gathered weapons for a republican revolution in the country. The plan was to take advantage of the fact that during the winter the port on the French side was blocked. But the attempt failed after the General Council approved French intervention by a majority. Although he did not intervene in Spain, the French co-prince Albert Lebrun did intervene in Andorra. The communes convened parish meetings which rejected the intervention and decided on what was to be done about it. The village itself decided to mount a troop of men with the help of the communes to prevent the gendarmes from passing beyond the border of the Pas de la Casa. Despite this, General René Baulard once again occupied the country.^[1]

Lists of anarchist and nationalist in Andorra were drawn up. After the occupation, many anarchists had to ask the gendarmerie for permission to stay. Spaniards, Basques, Catalans or Galicians who crossed the border thereafter were sent to French concentration camps.^[1] The turn to the right caused by the war caused many political milestones to be revoked. Universal male suffrage was suspended and freedom of expression was revoked. People were afraid to talk openly about the war or about Francoism.^[4] With the war, escape networks were created that helped Holocaust survivors, among others, to leave Europe or take refuge in isolated countries, such as Andorra. Antoni Forné i Jou, a member of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification, helped to organize the Andorran escape network.^[4][5][6]

• Badia i Batalla, Francesc (1997). "El refugi de clergues i religiosos a Andorra durant la persecució de 1936-1939". Anuari 1992-1993 de la Societat d'Estudis d'Història Eclesiàstica Moderna i Contemporània de Catalunya (in Catalan). Tarragona: Diputació de Tarragona. pp. 171–221. ISBN 8488618379. OCLC 1043397514.
• Llahí i Segalàs, Alfred (2012). Històries de la nostra història. Col.lecció Cronos (in Catalan) (1st ed.). Andorra: 2+1 editors. ISBN 978-99920-1-897-2. OCLC 955343322.
• Porta, Roser; Cebrián, Jorge (2009). Andorrans als camps de concentració nazi (in Catalan). Andorra: Ministry of External Affairs. ISBN 978-9992005309. OCLC 1026053170.
• Rubió i Coromina, Jordi (2015). L'èxode català de 1936 a través dels Pirineus (in Catalan). Maçanet de la Selva: Gregal. p. 385. ISBN 9788494389856. OCLC 931804629.
• Soriano, Amparo (2005). Andorra durant la guerra civil espanyola (in Catalan). Andorra: Consell General. ISBN 99920-52-18-X. OCLC 159919646.