José Peirats

Who was José Peirats?

José Peirats Valls was a Spanish anarchist, activist, journalist and historian.

Peirats was born in the Province of Castellón. He had a limited schooling in one of the working class rationalist schools which offered an alternative to mainstream education controlled by the clergy and state. Thus he developed a thirst for learning which never left him. For many years he worked as a tile-maker, and devoted himself to the anarchist movement.

Peirats came to anarchism after moving in his early years to Barcelona. He was a long-standing member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo and at one point edited its newspaper, Solidaridad Obrera. He was also a member of the federation of anarchist affinity groups, the Federación Anarquista Ibérica.

As a historian of the Spanish anarchist movement, Peirats produced an important three volume study of the libertarian movement in the Spanish Civil War, La CNT en la revolución española. A one volume abridgement, Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution was printed by Black and Red. An English translation of the full three volume work was published by Stuart Christie, edited by Chris Ealham.