[12] In response, the 7th World Congress of the Communist International adopted the strategy of the popular front, which advocated for electoral alliances between all progressive parties and abandoned the goal of social revolution.

[14] In late 1935, a series of corruption scandals brought down the government of Alejandro Lerroux, prompting President Niceto Alcalá Zamora to dissolve the Congress of Deputies and call the 1936 Spanish general election.

After prime minister Manuel Portela Valladares pledged to accept the results of the election, the right-wing Spanish Military Union (UME) began making plans for a coup d'état.

[46] The rebel military units that would participate in the coup consisted of:[47] After the coup, the conspirators planned to establish a new military government in Barcelona: Colonel Emeterio Saz Álvarez would serve as Civil Governor of Barcelona [es]; Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Isarre Bescós as Mayor of Barcelona; Quartermaster Colonel Emilio Pujol Rodríguez as President of the City Council; Captain Luis López Varela as chief of police; Captain Fernando Lizcano de la Rosa [es] as chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra; Commander Rafael Botana Salgado as chief of the aerodrome; Commander Eduardo González Feijóo as Postmaster General; Commander Andrés Martínez Uría as head of telecommunications; Alfonso Rojas as director of La Model prison; Gonzalo del Castillo Alonso [ca] as Rector of the University of Barcelona; and Félix Negrete Rabella as head of the Civic Union, a planned paramilitary organisation.

In their plans to defend Barcelona, they aimed to concentrate rebel forces at the Plaça del Cinc d'Oros [ca] and protect the Interior Ministry from the artillery and infantry based at the Parc de la Ciutadella.

[59] By 18 July, Escofet had ensured the Assault Guard would remain loyal to the Catalan government, arrested police chiefs involved in the military conspiracy and finalised his strategy to oppose the coup.

[66] They maintained constant communication with seargents José Manzana and Valeriano Gordo at the Drassanes military barracks and with officers of the Spanish Republican Air Force at El Prat airbase.

The POUM also attempted to re-constitute the Workers' Alliance [es; ca] with other left-wing organisations, but the Communist Party of Catalonia (PCC) insisted that the Popular Front already served this purpose, while the CNT responded that that they would work together on the barricades.

[78] A meeting of defense committees in El Clot concluded that, if the Catalan government would not provide the anarchists with weapons, they would have to move forward with the plan to seize armaments from the barracks in Sant Andreu.

[86] Under the orders of interior minister Espanya, police commissioner Frederic Escofet [ca] dispatched a company of Assault Guards under the command of Vicenç Guarner to seize the rifles back from the metalworkers.

The union's general secretary warned Guarner not to advance, lest he incite open conflict between the anarchists and the police, and expressed frustration that the Catalan government was attempting to take back the weapons it had already claimed did not exist.

[87] At 23:30 on 18 July, Buenaventura Durruti, Joan Garcia Oliver and Francisco Ascaso met with interior minister Espanya, demanding he disarm the police and arm the workers' militias.

[61] As tense negotiations between the anarchists and the interior minister ensued,[88] Espanya received word that members of the CNT had requisitioned cars and seized weapons from local gunsmiths.

In Lleida, the army and police occupied government buildings, shut down trade union offices and declared martial law, but they did not arrest anyone, which allowed the CNT, UGT and POUM to organise a general strike against the coup.

[114] While fighting continued on the Plaça d'Espanya, some soldiers from the Montesa Regiment and the Sappers Battallion made their way to the Avinguda del Paral·lel, where they encountered a barricade constructed by the Woodworkers' Union at the Ronda de Sant Pau [ca].

[115] At the port of Barcelona, when the Mountain Artillery Regiment left their barracks, they discovered that dock workers had used forklifts to construct a moving barricade from huge rolls of paper.

[121] The Barcelona defense committee kept in contact with militias on the Avinguda del Paral·lel through El Raval,[122] and with those on the Pla de Palau through the Gothic Quarter; gaining control of these areas would mark the turning point of the battle.

[117] The first major defeat of the rebel faction occurred at the Pla de Palau, where a barricade built on the Avinguda d'Icària blocked the passage of the Mountain Artillery Regiment.

[130] Meanwhile, soldiers on the Ronda de Sant Pau had driven the workers' militias from the Avinguda del Paral·lel and managed to make contact with their counterparts on the Plaça d'Espanya and in the port.

They were soon joined by Domingo Belmonte, a member of the CNT Woodworkers' Union, who updated them on the situation on the Ronda de Sant Pau, where the workers' militias were still pinned down by machine guns.

[146] Refusing to accept defeat, Goded telephoned Roldán again and ordered him to lead his forces to the artillery barracks in the port, where he was to rendezvous with a battery commanded by José Fernández Unzué.

Lázaro responded that the telegraph lines to the two Catalan cities had been cut, so Goded ordered an officer to go to Mataró and bring the troops back himself, but by that time the Captaincy General was already surrounded.

They settled on a plan to attach mattresses to a machine gun-mounted car, which had been outfitted the previous day by a German anarchist group, and drive it towards the sites to clear the way for militants following behind.

[186] Escofet admitted that they did not have the power to enforce their authority, and after speaking to José Aranguren and Alberto Arrando, he had concluded that it would require them to enter into a bloody battle against those who they had just fought alongside as allies.

[190] After the fighting at the Drassanes barracks had drawn to a close, the Nosotros group set off to Carrer dels Mercaders, next to Via Laietana, where the Catalan Regional Committee of the CNT had moved its offices.

[192] The debate over Companys' invitation was rushed, as the participants were exhausted after two days of fighting without rest, but showed clear divisions within the anarchist ranks: Joan Garcia Oliver argued that the anarchists proclaim libertarian communism; Diego Abad de Santillán called for collaboration with other anti-fascist political groups; and Manuel Escorza [es] suggested that, rather than negotiating with the government, the workers take control of the Generalitat, use it to bring agriculture and industry under social ownership, then allow it to collapse.

[197] He said that if they no longer needed him as President, then he would resign and join in the fight against the Nationalists; but that if they permitted him to remain in post, then he would pledge his loyalty to them and endeavour to oversee further social progress in Catalonia.

[199] Companys then informed the CNT-FAI representatives of a meeting of other anti-fascist parties happening in another room of the palace, and proposed that they join them in coordinating an executive body to oversee the continuation of the revolution.

This decree was effectively annulled later that day, when a meeting of the CNT resolved to establish the Central Committee of Antifascist Militias of Catalonia (CCMA), which was to be outside the control of the Catalan government.

[205] The advocates of collaboration felt their position was justified, as they believed the rest of Spain had already fallen to the Nationalists and that the Levante had thus been left isolated and defenseless, with enemy forces pushing in from Aragon.