The Revolutionary Left in Spain: 1914-1923 PDF
Preview The Revolutionary Left in Spain: 1914-1923
The Revolutionary Left in Spain, 1914-1923 GERALD H. MEAKER The Revolutionary Left in Spain, 1914-1923 STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS fS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA '974 Stanford University Press Stanford, California © 1974 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-8047-0845-2 Lc 73-80622 Published with the Assistance of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation To the memory of my mother and father, Helen and Henry Percy Meaner, and to Charlotte Preface This study grew out of my general interest in revolutionary movements and ideologies of the early twentieth century, and more immediately out of a re search project focused on the Spanish Anarchist response to the Bolshevik Revolution and to the Leninist concept of revolutionary strategy and tactics. My curiosity was initially aroused by what seemed to me a paradox: namely, the discrepancy between the enthusiastic reaction of Spanish workers to the Bol shevik seizure of power in Russia (which may not have been surpassed in any other European country) and the obvious numerical weakness, lack of cohe sion, and political impotence of the Communist Party that emerged in Spain in the early 1920’s. In view of the seriousness of social tensions in the Penin sula—greatly aggravated by the economic impact of the European war and by the mood of proletarian combativeness that swept over Spain following the Armistice—the debacle of the Communist movement posed an interesting historical problem, and one whose study, I suspected, might help to illuminate the whole character of the revolutionary Left in Spain. My research was thus influenced by the belief that the failure of Spanish Communism in the postwar period had to be understood in the total con text of an undeveloped, somewhat isolated, and ideologically retarded labor movement lagging in many respects behind its European counterparts. It appeared in particular that the Comintern’s failure was closely related to one of the more distinctive aspects of Spanish labor in that period: the continuing struggle waged by two regionally separated and perennially hostile tendencies, one Bakuninist and the other Marxist, for hegemony over the working classes of the Peninsula. It was clear that the histories of both sides of this peculiarly divided labor movement would have to be reconstructed and related to the central question I had raised, and that the unifying theme of my work would be Spanish labor’s response to the Russian Revolution—that is, the rise, development, and ultimate failure of the idea of a Leninist party in Spain. Within the limits of this preoccupation I have tried to write a fairly comprehensive political and viii PREFACE ideological history of the Spanish labor movement during the turbulent (and little-studied) decade that began with the outbreak of World War I and ended with the suppression of the parliamentary system by the military dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in 1923. My purpose has been to bring the several elements of the revolutionary Left —Anarchosyndicalists, Socialists, and Communists—into a common narrative framework, to trace their evolution and interaction, and to clarify insofar as possible their operative ideas, their tactics, and their internal dissensions. I have tried to write a history not of the working classes per se, but of the revolu tionary movements or elites that contested for supremacy among them. For I believe that one of the more immediate needs in early twentieth-century Span ish labor studies is for an integrated, conceptually unified history whose inter pretive schema, whether or not one agrees with it, will at least suggest some of the numerous monographic studies that must be carried out if the field is to emerge from infancy. I have no doubt that as more Spanish labor archives —official and unofficial—are opened to scholars, and as more materials see the light of day, the picture I have presented here will be broadened, deepened, and, in all probability, modified. That picture centers on the remarkable durability of the doctrines and atti tudes underlying the Anarchosyndicalist and Socialist movements during the postwar era, and on the capacity of these two major groups to resist (even as they partially succumbed to) the challenge of the Bolshevik Revolution and to preempt the field of revolutionary politics that the Comintern sought to enter. By their very existence and continuing plausibility as revolutionary movements in the somewhat backward Spanish milieu, the two major labor subcultures would create an “ideological vacuum” (as I shall later term it) within which the first Communist effort in Spain—handicapped, to be sure, by a variety of contingent disabilities—would virtually expire. Whereas the success of a political or social movement has a certain concrete ness about it that seems to narrow somewhat the parameters of explanation, the failure of a movement to grow and to achieve the stature and influence that historical circumstances had presumably marked out for it is an inherently more nebulous matter—less satisfying to contemplate, less easily structured, and possibly more diffuse in its causes. Nevertheless, the assumption that fail ure as a phenomenon can be as instructive as success is necessarily the basis of the present work. For whether one is talking about Communists, Anarcho- syndicalists, or Socialists, the history of the revolutionary Left in the years 1914-23 is essentially a history of failure—the failure of ideologically impas sioned, doctrinaire, and resolute men to create the revolutionary movement that alone, they felt, could destroy a privileged, oligarchical social order and make possible the emergence of the egalitarian New Jerusalem they desired. PREFACE IX They were, as it turned out, historically premature, they were sectarian and schismatic, and, in the end, they failed; but the story of their unavailing efforts is, I believe, well worth telling, since it sheds more than a little light on a type of revolutionary mentality that has played, and may play again, a significant role in a Spain still in the throes of the transition to modernity. This project had its origins in a doctoral dissertation carried out under the guidance of Professor Robert Wohl of the University of California at Los An geles, a scholar and teacher whose ability to generate intellectual excitement in those around him and to inspire the undertaking of difficult tasks is unex celled. I owe a major debt of gratitude to Professor Stanley Payne of the Uni versity of Wisconsin, who counseled me from the beginning and whose careful reading of the manuscript was of inestimable value. I wish also to express my great appreciation to Professor Edward Malefakis of the University of Mich igan, who, though traveling abroad at the time, consented to read my manu script under difficult circumstances and motivated me to rethink some of my interpretations. From my friend Professor John P. Diggins of the University of California at Irvine I received always penetrating suggestions regarding style and substance, which I am pleased to acknowledge. I would particularly like to extend my thanks to Señor Luis Pórtela, who invited me into his home and shared with me not only his lucid recollections of the distant era that con cerned me but his good brandy and fellowship as well. To Mr. J. G. Bell of Stanford University Press I would like to express my appreciation not only for his critical insight into the structure and intent of my work but for the remark able patience with which he awaited its completion. Mr. James Trosper, who bore the task of editing with stoic fortitude and whose suggestions improved the manuscript at innumerable points, also has my sincere thanks. For any errors of fact or interpretation the responsibility, needless to say, is entirely my own. My thanks also go to the following persons who generously helped me at various times and in various ways (that I think each will remember) with the research involved in this book: Juan Andrade, Jordi Arquer, Professor Sieg fried Bahne, José Bullejos, Professor David T. Cattell, Theodore Draper, Germinal Esgleas, Antonio García Birlan, Manuel Gómez, Jesus Gonzalez Malo, Philip Jaííe, Ramón Lamoneda, Gaston Levai, Jaime Magriña, Profes sor Julian Marias, Professor Robert Marrast, Joaquin Maurin, Max Nomad, Andres Saborit, Ramón Sender, Bertram Wolfe. Finally, I would like to thank my research assistant, Ms. Loma K. Mercer, and the following persons attached to various libraries and archives, whose helpfulness and competence greatly facilitated completion of this book: Ru dolph de Jong (International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam) ; Don X PREFACE Vicente Llorca and Amalia Lopes Valencia (Biblioteca del Ministerio de Tra bajo, Madrid) ; Charlotte Oyer (Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge) ; Walter W. Bruegger (Research Library, UCLA) ; Arline Paul, Gloria Linder, and Marina Tinkoff (The Hoover Institution on War, Revo lution, and Peace, Stanford) ; and the staff of the Bibliothèque de Documen tation International Contemporaine, Paris. I am grateful, finally, to Ms. Julia Farkas for her assistance in the preparation of the Index. G.M.
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