Eduard Vives

Catalan anarcho-syndicalist militant and Civil War miliciano, born. Member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) from a young age, during the Revolution of 1936 was part of the Patrullas de Control* (Control Patrols) and fought the front in Teruel in the Columna Los Aguiluchos, where he was wounded several times. In 1938 he was captured by Franco's troops, weeks later, after being sentenced to death, managed to escape the day before his execution and go to the Republican zone. He rejoined the Republican army, becoming a decorated commander. When the war ended on 9 February 1939, he crossed the Pyrenees and spent a year interned in a concentration camp and working in the Compagnies de Travailleurs Étrangers (CTE). In 1945 he founded the local federation of the CNT in Castelnaudary and was appointed its secretary. In 1959 he went to America, where he directed a department of an electronics factory. In New York, he fought in the anti-Franco groups, collaborated with the newspaper 'España Libre', took part in group activities of the editorial group of 'Cultura Proletaria' (Proletarian Cultural) and the New York Libertarian Centre, and was secretary of the American delegation to the International Anti-fascist Solidarity (SIA). Eduard Vives died on October 20, 1971, in Woods, New York, following a stomach operation.

* The Patrullas de Control del Comité Central de Milicias Antifascistas de Cataluña (of the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia) were a short-lived 'revolutionary police' that operated in Catalonia from the early days of the Revolution until the CNT entered the government of the Generalitat on September 27, 1936.