Francisco Ascaso

Who was Francisco Ascaso?

Francisco Ascaso Abadía was a prominent Anarcho-syndicalist figure in Spain.

A baker and waiter, Ascaso joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and one of its armed groups, Los Justicieros. He left for Barcelona in 1922, where the group came to be known as Los Solidarios, integrating anarchist figures such as Buenaventura Durruti, Juan García Oliver, Antonio Ortiz and Gregorio Jover. They became active in reprisals against thugs hired by businesses against trade unionists, and they carried out several attacks on banks.

In 1923, on the wake of Miguel Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, Ascaso fled to France alongside several of his comrades. Received with hostility by the French authorities, he and Durruti left for Latin America, where they became active in violence carried out by the Argentine Anarchists. Their return to France saw them arrested on the charge of having plotted an assassination attempt on Alfonso XIII of Spain during the latter's visit to Paris. Lack of evidence prevented their conviction, but they were expelled from the country and denied future residency in other places. Ascaso nonetheless continued to live in France as a clandestine.