Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism: A History of the P.O.U.M. In the Spanish Civil War by Victor Alba

Author:Victor Alba [Alba, Victor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Communism; Post-Communism & Socialism, Political Science, General, Political Ideologies
ISBN: 9781351488556
Google: ANwzDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-04T13:59:29+00:00

The Antonov-Ovsyeyenko Crisis

Beginning in November, a paradoxical situation existed. The P.S.U.C., C.N.I., and P.O.U.M. were, all three, in the government of the Generalità! But the P.S.U.C attacked the C.N.T. and the P.O.U.M and these organizations criticized the positions of the P.S.U.C The P.S.U.C could not carry the struggle to the terrain of ideas, because its position was weak and because the mass it wished to neutralize, the members of the C.N.T. , would not have accepted their positions. It was necessary, then, to put the struggle on the personal level, that of contempt and insult. Moscow, with its trials of the old Bolsheviks, had provided the example. For the official Communists, it should not have been a difficult one to follow, because they were already accustomed to it, but for the former bloquistes who had joined the P.S.U.C the matter was not so simple. The truth was that if it was costly to adapt themselves to the positions of their leaders, they did not show it and, docilely, they followed orders and did not waver in echoing the insults and defamations against those whom, only a few months before, had been their comrades.

There were doubts within the P.O.U.M. about whether it was appropriate to remain in the Generautat regime. The fact that Nin was a conseller had proven of little use, not even in bringing up the problem of confidence in him and of deciding whether the attacks of the P.S.U.C., or at least the tone it employed, would cease, or whether the administration would leave office, Nin’s appointment had not even helped the P.O.U.M., militias gain arms.

It was also of no use in protecting the P.O.U.M. members outside Catalunya. In Madrid, a Communist veto prevented the P.O.U.M. from obtaining a seat in the Defense Council for the capital. Maneei Albar, from the Socialist Party, told Enrique Rodriguez, of the P.O.U.M., local committee, “Ambassador Rosenberg has vetoed your involvement. It is unjust, obviously, but we understand it; the U.S.S.R. is powerful and between depriving ourselves of the support of the U.S.S.R. or the support of the P.O.U.M. there is no possible choice.”

The council refused arms to the P.O.U.M. militias, suspended publication of the party’s Madrid daily, “El Combatiente Rojo,” and refused permission to reestablish “La Antorcha,” which had a long history in the working class movement, as the P.O.U.M. journal. This order was received just when the news was received that Jesús Blanco, secretary of the P.O.U.M. local committee in Madrid, had been killed at the front. Finally, the council closed the P.O.U.M. offices, those of its Red Aid organization, and its radio station. In the face of all this, when at the end of the year the immediate’ danger to Madrid from the fascist offensive had passed, the P.O.U.M. executive ordered party members in the capital to move to Barcelona, where they could function as militants, rather than remaining in Madrid, exposed to persecution and impotent because .of their reduced numbers. The P.O.U.M. militias at Madrid joined a C.N.,T. column where, at least, they ran no risk of attack from the republican side.

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