Politics & Power Quote by Buenaventura Durruti

There is a dare embedded in Durruti's line: the anti-fascist fight will be won not thanks to the state, but over its objections. The phrasing is tactical and contemptuous at once. "Ready" isn’t a mood; it’s a claim to legitimacy, as if preparedness itself grants the right to lead. "Once and for all" borrows the absolutist cadence of the very enemy he’s fighting, turning fascism into something you don’t manage or negotiate with, but eradicate. Then comes the knife twist: "even in spite of the Republican government". The target isn’t only Franco’s forces; it’s the cautious, coalition-bound Republic that, in Durruti’s view, can’t help but throttle the revolution it depends on for survival.

Context sharpens the subtext. Durruti, a leading anarchist of the CNT-FAI, spoke from the early Spanish Civil War moment when workers’ militias and collectivized workplaces were doing the real work of resisting the coup. The Republican government, pressured by liberals, moderates, and Stalin-aligned communists, wanted centralized command and restored state authority; anarchists wanted a war inseparable from social revolution. So the quote isn’t mere bravado. It’s a power move: staking moral and operational supremacy for the militias while preemptively discrediting any attempt to rein them in.

The line also reveals the tragedy baked into the anti-fascist camp: fighting fascism while fighting over who gets to define “victory.” Durruti’s confidence is a weapon, but it’s also an admission that the “side” he’s on is not a single machine; it’s a civil war inside a civil war.