Juan Gómez Casas

Spanish militant anarcho-syndicalist, anarchist, underground militant, writer and historian, who was the first post-Franco Secretary General of the CNT. Born in Bordeaux into a family of Spanish anarcho-syndicalists, who had emigrated for economic reasons, with proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931, his family returned to the Iberian Peninsula. After college, he joined his father as a member of the CNT (Chemical Industry section of Miscellaneous Crafts Guild) and, from 1936, the Federació Ibèrica de Joventuts Llibertàries (FIJL) in Madrid. During the civil war, he was appointed secretary of the FIJL in the Retiro district and had articles published in the CNT paper 'Castilla Libre'. In April 1938, he joined the 39th Mixed Brigade of the Republican Army and fought on the Teruel front for three months. With the triumph of Franco, he was arrested in the port of Alicante and interned in the Albatera concentration camp, but managed to escape from a juvenile prison. Returning to Madrid, he took up the clandestine struggle with the FIJL. Member of the Sindicat de la Construcció in the CNT and was an anti-collaborationist. In 1947, he was elected as the Secretary General of the Juventudes Libertarias del Centro in Toulouse, France.

Upon his return to Spain, he was arrested with his partner (María del Carmen Martínez Herranz) and his sons. In a search of his home they discovered the printing press used for the clandestine publishing of 'Tierra y Libertad' and 'Juventud Libre'. In July 1948, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for "membership in illegal organisation". On February 6 1956, he made a failed escape attempt and was finally freed from prison in 1962 and went on to work as an antiques painter, a trade he learned in prison, and was an accountant for a Madrid hotel. Despite having no formal education, he wrote many books, including 'Historia del anarcosindicalismo español' (The history of Spanish Anarcho-syndicalism; 1968), 'Historia de la FAI' (The history of the FAI; 1977) and other historical books that are still considered classical texts. He even translated the classic book 'Moby Dick' into Spanish. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Jacques de Gaulle (for dectective novels, etc.) and Benjamín. During the late 1960s, he was a member of the Grup Anselmo Lorenzo in Madrid, alongside Mariano Trapero, Pedro Amijeiras, Florentino Rodríguez and Pedro Barrios, and, among other things, published in Paris in 1969 the anti-Marxist dicussion document 'Manifest Llibertari' and the pamphlet 'Problemas presentes y futuros del sindicalismo revolucionario en España' (Present and Future Problems of Revolutionary Unionism in Spain; 1969). In the seventies, he became one of the leading representatives of the CNT during its reorganisation and its first post-Franco secretary, from August 1976 to April 1978.