Asturian miners' strike of 1934

Asturian miners' strike of 1934
Part of the Revolution of 1934
Striking workers arrested by Guardia de Asalto and Guardia Civil police forces during the Asturian insurrection
Date	4–19 October 1934
Location	Asturias, Spain
Caused by	Asturian miners strike
Resulted in	Strike suppressed
Parties
Asturian Workers Alliance PSOE UGT CNT Militias Spanish Republic Spanish Army Spanish Navy
Lead figures
Belarmino Tomás Ramón González Peña Ramón Álvarez Palomo Alejandro Lerroux Diego Hidalgo Eduardo López Ochoa Francisco Franco Juan Yagüe
Casualties and losses
1,700 dead 15,000–30,000 captured 260 dead

The Asturian miners' strike of 1934 was a major strike action undertaken by miners in Asturias against the new CEDA-led government, from October 4-19.^[1] The strike and subsequent demonstrations eventually developed into a violent revolutionary uprising in an attempt to overthrow the conservative regime. The revolutionaries took over Asturias by force, killing many of the province's police and religious leaders.^[2] Armed with dynamite, rifles, and machine guns, they destroyed religious buildings, such as churches and convents.^[3][4] The rebels officially declared a Proletarian Revolution and instituted a local government in the territory.^[5] The rebellion was crushed by the Spanish Navy and the Spanish Republican Army, the latter using mainly colonial troops from Spanish Morocco.^[6]

The war minister, Diego Hidalgo wanted Francisco Franco to lead the troops against the rebellion but Spain's president, Alcalá Zamora, opted to send general Eduardo López Ochoa to Asturias to lead the government forces in an effort to limit the bloodshed.^[7][8] Soldiers from the Civil Guard, colonial troops, and the Spanish Legion were dispatched under López Ochoa and Colonel Juan Yagüe to relieve the besieged government garrisons and to retake the towns from the miners. The brevity of the confrontation led historian Gabriel Jackson to observe

"every form of fanaticism and cruelty which was to characterise the Civil War occurred during the October revolution and its aftermath: utopian revolution marred by sporadic red terror; systematically bloody repression by the ‘forces of order’; confusion and demoralisation of the moderate left; fanatical vengefulness on the part of the right."^[9]

The revolt has been regarded as "the first battle of" or "the prelude to" the Spanish Civil War.^[8] According to hispanist Edward Malefakis, the Spanish left had rejected "legal processes of government" and revolted against the possibility of a right-led coalition, even though they would later use the "legality" argument to condemn the July 1936 coup was against an elected government.^[10] Historian Salvador de Madariaga, a supporter of Manuel Azaña, and an exiled vocal opponent of Francisco Franco asserted that:

"The uprising of 1934 is unforgivable. The argument that [the conservatives] tried to destroy the Constitution to establish fascism was, at once, hypocritical and false. [With the rebellion], the Spanish left was without even the shadow of moral authority to condemn the rebellion of 1936".^{[11][note 1]}

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