Introductory note for Blind Spot : Manuel Huet and the libertarian underground in France

The Kate Sharpley Library aims to preserve the history of the anarchist movement and record and commemorate the lives of the people who made up the movement. It’s always good to see other people plugging away at the same task. The first translation of a piece by Imanol that we put up was ‘The Massana Gang’ which went in KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 97-98, February 2019. Since then we’ve been glad to host translations of his studies from El Salto which are summed up by the heading they appear under: ‘Ni Cautivos ni Desarmadas’ – ‘Neither Captive nor Unarmed’.

We’re very glad to share Paul Sharkey’s translation of Imanol’s new book El Angulo Muerto : Manuel Huet y la clandestinidad libertaria en Francia (Blind Spot : Manuel Huet and the libertarian underground in France). Manuel ‘Manolo’ Huet Piera was part of the anarcho-syndicalist action groups in the years before the Spanish Revolution, fought in the Spanish Civil War and worked in the Ponzán network smuggling escapers and refugees out of Vichy France during the Second World War. After the war, Huet continued to aid the resistance to Francoism where, until now, his contribution was necessarily unacknowledged.

If you would like to get a copy of the Spanish-language first edition see https://piedrapapellibros.com/producto/el-angulo-muerto-manuel-huet-y-la-clandestinidad-libertaria-en-francia/ We know that Imanol is already researching for a second edition so there will be new discoveries to come but, for now, here is the story of Manuel Huet: an anarchist militant, but no longer an unknown one.

Kate Sharpley Library, April 2024