Federica Montseny

Frederica Montseny i Mañé (Catalan: [munˈsɛɲ]; 1905–1994) was an anarchist and intellectual from Spain who served as Minister of Health and Social Assistance in the government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Civil War. She is known for being the first woman in Spanish history to be a cabinet minister and one of the first female ministers in Western Europe.

Quotes

Blessed are those whose souls are transparent, whose lives are honest, and whose hearts are pure; for theirs is the kingdom of the earth. Blessed are those who believe in human goodness, those who preserve their illusions intact and nourish the hope that for them the doors of life will open. Blessed are those who offer the world their fraternal right hand and friendly visage, those who go with a smile on their lips and cast a light before them. And blessed, too, are those who can love those who can believe, those who can discover within the human wasteland, a tree under which their anxieties concerning their ideal, and their human desires for trust and affection, can take shelter.
- "Max Nettlau, or The Choice of Modesty" (1928). Preface to her translation of Authoritarian Communism and Libertarian Communism from French into Spanish

Without goals to aim for and without any figures on the horizon in whom we can crystallize our life and our need for encouragement and for example, what would our lives be?
- "Max Nettlau, or The Choice of Modesty" (1928)

Down with the schoolmasters and down with the priests, down with the redeemers and down with sterile icons! Down with the era of messiahs and saviors, of shepherds put at the head of human herds! Down with the icons, the personifications in wood or in flesh of human ignorance and powerlessness; down with the icons which, dead or alive, attempt to assume the role of the directors of our lives, the depositories of eternal verities, the representatives of absolute ideas, the holders of religious or moral power over men.
- "Max Nettlau, or The Choice of Modesty" (1928)

We tried many times before to speed on the social revolution in Spain; attempted to stir up the feelings of the people and to raise the banner of Libertarian Communism. Since the establishment of the Republic we were the only ones who kept the masses alive; the only ones who remained faithful to their revolutionary creed. Without our continued vigilance, Spain to-day would be very different. A timid democracy, a reformist socialism would have held back the masses. Our constancy, same might call it our madness, was necessary to wear down the oppressive forces of the old democracy which, in Spain, was a hundred years behind the times.

After the Russian Revolution a strong movement of the masses developed in Spain, which is the best reply to fascism.

Although It may be our aim, to attempt a total conquest at that time would have meant a broken front, and consequently failure. The fact Is that we were the first to modify our aspirations, the first to understand that the struggle against International fascism was In itself great enough. The struggle is so great that the triumph over fascism alone is worth the sacrifice of our lives. Fascism which desires to become the master of all those who are free in spirit, Everyone-from the most moderate Republican to the most extreme Anarchist-has placed their hope and faith In the struggle which unites them.

One does not see the size of a mountain until one draws away from it. But away in the distance we turn and look and wonder. Have we really come so far? How did we manage to overcome so many serious difficulties in such a cruel and unequal struggle?

it must not be forgotten that this is not only a civil war-a social war is also being waged. It is the war of the common people against the rich, against the militarists, against the politicians-all of whom were responsible for the misery and poverty of the proletariat. The political parties were incapable of creating a new moral value in Spain and were unable to oppose the military conspirators. They were mere accomplices of the traitor generals.

In Russia, Communist Party administration has succeeded in reconstructing economy-but at the cost of a dictatorship and the submission of a whole people to mere obedience. It is our idea to construct a society directed by the workers' organisations having the complete control of the economic wealth of the land.

The love of liberty and the sense of human dignity are the basic elements of the Anarchist creed. We need no messiah and no sterile conception of a god menacing us with hell and purgatory. Love, as the basis of life will bind us together. But we must create in each person a sense of responsibility in order that each one of us can have the right to enjoy all his rights. This is an unique movement for us all, because circumstances to-day in Spain have never before existed during any other revolution. Neither the French nor the Russian revolution. To-day, a sense of sacrifice impels us to renounce our aspirations and individual interests for the well-being of all. It is this sense of responsibility which shows us the path of duty and assists us in performing it. In this way, we will avoid the fatal mistake of dictatorship. In Spain, we should have enough intelligence, enough sense of individual and collective responsibility to do for ourselves that which would be imposed upon us by a dictatorship. Very soon we will give to the world the example of a free land, that stood up without arms opposed, as a single man, to fascism, to the mentality of capitalism. It will be an example, worthy of being followed by the rest of the world. We are proud of our responsibility. The greatest joy of our lives is a determination to sacrifice all-to give all-that this dream will be realised-the union of the proletariat to obtain our fundamental aims: BREAD AND FREEDOM FOR ALL!

The most interesting women in modern European history appear in the ranks of radical political movements. It is difficult to find conservative or traditional counterparts equal to Louise Michel, Emma Goldman, and Rosa Luxemburg. Even Isadora Duncan, creator of modern dance, flirted with communism. More thoughtful and articulate and certainly as politically active as any of these women is the lesser known Spanish anarchist, Federica Montseny. On asking what attracted these women to radical politics, one discovers in each a commitment to feminism. No person, not even Emma Goldman, explored this necessary relationship between feminist and socialist principles more provocatively than did Federica Montseny.
- Shirley Fredricks in European Women on the Left edited by Jane Slaughter and Robert Korn (1981)

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