Left-communists and the Spanish Civil War

[Saorsa]

Whats the left-com line on the Spanish Civil War? Were there LC organisations in Spain at the time, and what did they get up to? Please, please no tendency wars, I'm genuinely curious.

[Sir Comradical]

Here's your answer.

http://en.internationalism.org/wr/296_popfront

[black magick hustla]

Whats the left-com line on the Spanish Civil War? Were there LC organisations in Spain at the time, and what did they get up to? Please, please no tendency wars, I'm genuinely curious.

There where a few splits in left communist circles over the issue. A few bordigists joined the militias. I dont remember what "pubs" or organizations were exactly (a lot of left coms organized around publications, like Prometo or Bilan). But needless to say there where a few. I think the analysis is a bit nuanced though. The workers taking arms in 1936 was a genuine workers rebellion. The counterrevolution consolidated though when the CNT joined the popular front and the stalinists were murdering working class militants.

[spaßmaschine]

A few bordigists joined the militias. I dont remember what "pubs" or organizations were exactly (a lot of left coms organized around publications, like Prometo or Bilan).Yeah, IIRC most of those around Prometeo and Bilan saw it as a war between two imperialisms and were opposed to fighting there, although the majority of the Paris section of the Italian fraction ended up going to Spain and fighting in the POUM, in groups like the Enrico Russo brigade and the Lenin Column. The ICC's book on the Italian Left devotes a chapter to the subject, if I remember properly.

[Alf]

a number of original articles from Bilan can be found here:

http://en.internationalism.org/node/2547 (International Reviews 4-7)
http://en.internationalism.org/booktree/2148 (International Reviews 6 and 7)

[Ismail]

The POUM was basically an alliance of Trots and Left-Communists, so yeah. Thanks to this wonderful unity, Trotsky was both simultaneously asked by the POUM to visit Catalonia by the Trots, and Trotsky shat upon the POUM because of its Left-Communist faction.

[Devrim]

The POUM was basically an alliance of Trots and Left-Communists, so yeah.

No, it wasn't at all. It was a fusion of those who had split with Trotsky, and a group allied to the right opposition in Russia. The Trotskyist group in Spain, Seccion Bolshevik-Leninista was tiny and had eight members. The POUM had tens of thousands of members and was bigger than the Communist Party. There were no Spanish left communists though there were some there in the war from other countries. Maybe the confusion arises because one of the groups that formed the POUM, Izquierda Comunista de España, had what looks like a left communist name, but it wasn't.

Devrim

[syndicat]

Yeah, it was Nin's group that was called Communist Left but he'd worked with Trotsky, and it would be more accurate to call them Left Leninist in that they were more democratic than the Stalinists. Moreover, Nin's group followed the other Marxist parties in Spain into the Popular Front which left communists would definitely not agree with.