Jesus Navarro Bonilla (1881-?), rationalist master, anarchist and publisher

Abstract

Following the harsh repression of the late Nineteenth century and the failure of the general strike of 1902, the Catalan anarchism began to emerge from its slump with the introduction of a new generation raised in the Centro Obrero de Estudios Sociales. One of its most significant members was undoubtedly the Alicantinean Jesús Navarro Botella, a rationalist teacher based in Barcelona who was in Francisco Ferrer Guardia’s sphere of influence. Navarro Botella then fled to Paris in 1905, where he was involved in the failed attack of the rue Rohan against Alfonso XIII. After a forced exile in South America, he ended in Paris working in the publishing world and progressively away from his youthful anarchism. In sum, the trajectory of Navarro Botella is highly illustrative of the changes that the working movement underwent in the first decade of the 20th century. These changes would finally give birth to a new form of revolutionary syndicalism and to the creation of Solidaridad Obrera (1907), first, and to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo later on, in 1911.