Manuel Rivas

Manuel Rivas was a Spanish trade unionist. After the fall of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, he became a leading figure in the ranks of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), as leader of the Barcelona construction workers' union and as a member of the national Committee. Following the Alt Llobregat insurrection, Rivas replaced Ángel Pestaña as General Secretary of the CNT, which marked the rise of the influence of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) within the organisation. As the CNT's defense secretary, Rivas oversaw the union's participation in the anarchist insurrection of January 1933. After the Spanish Civil War, he became increasingly critical of the CNT and abandoned anarchism in favour of Marxism-Leninism.