Manifesto of the Durruti Column

[Chicago?]: [Solidarity Bookshop?], 1973. A two-sided poster celebrating the life of the famed anarchist militant Buenaventura Durruti. Durruti was a CNT-FAI leader who was killed in Madrid under disputed circumstances on Nov. 20, 1936. A reported half a million people attended his funeral.

The recto features a black & white image of Durruti with the Manifesto of the Durruti Column. The manifesto was issued following his death and avowed: "Comrades of the Durruti Column! Let us avenge his broken life. We must carry his name through fascist Spain and it shall mean death to our enemies!" Hours after Durruti's death, CNT-FAI militants killed 52 policemen held captive in a monastery. The verso features two essays memorializing Durruti's life and leadership: "Durruti-Anarchist" written by his comrade H. Rudiger and issued on Nov. 20, 1936; and "The Durruti Column," a radio broadcast by Carl Einstein, "militiaman of the Durruti Column."

Although there is no publication information on the poster, we find a copy offered for sale for $.50 in the May 1973, Solidarity Catalog of Anarchist Literature issued by the Solidarity Group in Chicago. We assume that they were the original publisher.

Offset printed on 19 ½" x 15 ½" cream stock. Creases from being folded in fours, a few tiny nicks and creases to the edges; dried tape residue to verso corners, some discoloration to the top right corner. We find one copy in OCLC at the Univ. of Michigan.