May Days

Barcelona May Days
Part of the Spanish Revolution of 1936 during the Spanish Civil War
Date3–8 May 1937
Location
Result

Government victory

Belligerents

Spain Spanish Republic

Catalonia Generalitat of Catalonia
Communist Party of Spain

Supported by:

Soviet Union Soviet Union
CNT-FAI
FIJL
Friends of Durruti Group
POUM
Strength
Variable[note 1]
Casualties and losses
500–1,000 dead[1]
1,500 wounded[1]

The May Days (Catalan: Fets de Maig, Spanish: Jornadas de Mayo), sometimes also called May Events (Catalan: Sucessos de Maig, Spanish: Sucesos de Mayo, Hechos de Mayo), refer to a series of clashes between 3 and 8 May 1937 during which factions on the Republican side of the Spanish Civil War engaged one another in street battles in various parts of Catalonia, centered on the city of Barcelona.

In those events, libertarian socialist supporters of the Spanish Revolution, such as the anarchist CNT and the anti-Stalinist POUM, which opposed a centralized government, faced others, such as the Republican government, Catalan government and the Communist Party of Spain, which believed in a strong central government.

The events were the culmination of the confrontation between prewar Republican legality and the Spanish Revolution, which had been in constant strife since the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.


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  1. ^ a b Hugh Thomas, p. 713