Ricardo Mella Cea, anarchism, Utopia and Education

Abstract

In Spain, starting from the mid-19th century, the anarchist movement paid great attention to cultural and educational issues resulting from the influence of the ideas derived from the First International. This led, in our country, to a commitment to the integral education model that Paul Robin had proposed to internationalists as an educational program. This choice was endorsed by the Second Spanish Regional Congress of the International Workers’ Association in Zaragoza in 1872 with the approval of Trinidad  oriano’s project. This movement included what is likely to be the first exploration of the subject of education by Ricardo Mella Cea, a key figure of the anarchist movement in Spain in the last quarter of the 19th century. The influence of these comprehensive education proposals can be seen quite clearly in a brief utopian text written in 1889: “The New Utopia”. This presents a detailed design of what education should be like after the social  revolution, establishing a new model for life,  coexistence, and work. In addition to this ideal design, Mella includes brief pedagogical reflections and proposals that globally define a distinctly anarchist educational proposal, which is non-dogmatic, anti-authoritarian, coeducational, child-centered, and where rewards and punishments are rejected. These pedagogical proposals were presented nearly a decade before Francisco Ferrer founded the Modern School of Barcelona. Mella defended his proposals between 1910 and 1912 as an alternative to the Ferrerian model, which ultimately
was adopted by the National Confederation of Labor (CNT), setting aside Mella’s non-sectarian model.