Octavi Alberola, Minorcan icon of anarchism, dies

PalmMenorcan Octavi Alberola, a key figure in international anarchism, has died in Perpignan at the age of 96. Exiled by the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, he became a leading figure in the anti-Franco resistance, particularly in the 1960s, when from exile he organized various actions against the regime, including a plot to assassinate Franco that ultimately failed.

Committed to the libertarian struggle until the very end, Alberola collaborated with the CNT and other revolutionary organizations and promoted the Defensa Interior group to combat Francoism through armed struggle. He lived in exile in France, from where he continued his activism.

Alberola was born in 1928 in Alaior, where his father, a native of Aragon and a disciple of Ferrer y Guardia, was a teacher at the Escuela Laica (Lay School). His mother was from Olot. In July 1936, when the military uprising took place, the family was in Fraga (Huesca), where his father had just opened a rationalist school.

In 1939, the family went into exile in Mexico. There, Alberola studied civil engineering and became active in the Libertarian Youth. He was arrested by the Mexican POICI in 1946. At that time he founded the Mexican Libertarian Youth and its organ of expression Red Dawn, as well as the Spanish Anti-Franco Youth.

He traveled to Mexico and Europe, holding rallies. Upon his return to Mexico, he was active in the Spanish Movement '59, preparing guerrilla actions and associating with Juan García Oliver. He actively participated in aiding Guevara's July 26th Movement and the Castro brothers, and contributed, with the support of a portion of the anarchist exile in Mexico, to the Cuban guerrilla operations in the Sierra Maestra and the fall of Fulgencio Batista on December 31, 1959. But the new Cuban regime invaded the Iberian Peninsula and aligned itself with Moscow.

In 1960, he was appointed Secretary of Defense of the National Confederation of Labor (CNT) for the Americas. The following year, 1961, he represented the Mexican CNT at the Limoges Congress, where the clandestine organization Defensa Interior, known as the submarine. This organization, linked to the Libertarian Movement (CNT-FAI-FIJL), aimed to promote the anti-Franco struggle. The Interior Defense included an activist section, known as the Demolition Section, specializing in actions to attempt to physically eliminate General Franco, attempts that were repeated several times without success. It was also linked to the Iberian Council of Liberation (CIL), a political platform that, in addition to the Libertarian Movement, integrated Portuguese anti-fascist sectors and enjoyed the sympathies of other organizations. It received financial aid and moral support from figures such as García Oliver and other comrades, including Joaquín Delgado Martínez.

In 1962, he settled clandestinely in France and militated with García Oliver, Cipriano Mera, and other prominent activists between 1962 and 1965. In September 1963, he was arrested in a French police raid against the Libertarian Youth (FI). From 1965 onwards, his name was linked to numerous activities aimed at undermining the Franco regime. He was a supporter of García Oliver's tactics and of direct action propaganda without victims.

Octavi Alberola died this Thursday in Perpignan, the city that welcomed him in exile, after a life dedicated to the libertarian and anti-fascist movement. He is the author of books such as The problems of science. Determinism and freedom, Contestation and anarchism, Spanish anarchism and revolutionary action, inter alia.