[1] In mid-August, Joan Garcia i Oliver, Gregorio Jover and Miguel García Vivancos began making plans to create a force of between 10,000 and 15,000 anarchists to launch an offensive against the nationalist line on the Aragon front.

[2][3] Garcia i Oliver wanted to take advantage of the call to arms made by the Government, to organize an anarchist army.

They believed that with the departure of so many troops to the front, the war industry and the then recent collectivizations of companies would be in danger.

[5] On 19 August the CNT newspaper in Catalonia, "Solidaridad Obrera", called for volunteers to start joining a new anarchist column that was being organized at the Bakunin barracks.

On 28 August the formation of the column was completed, it left the Bakunin barracks and went to parade to Via Laietana, where the CNT-FAI headquarters was located.