Workers' Party of Marxist Unification

The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM, Spanish: "Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista"; Catalan: "Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista") was a Spanish communist political party formed during the Second Republic, and mainly active around the time of the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by the fusion of the Trotskyist Communist Left of Spain ("Izquierda Comunista de España", ICE) and the Workers' and Peasants Bloc (BOC, affiliated with the Right Opposition) against the will of Leon Trotsky, with whom the former broke.

Position

POUM was formed as a communist opposition to Stalinism in 1935 by Andreu Nin and Joaquín Maurín, being heavily influenced by the thinking of Trotsky, in particular his "Permanent Revolution" thesis. The party was larger than the official Communist Party of Spain (PCE) (and its wing, the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, PSUC) in Catalonia and the Land of Valencia. It was highly critical of the "Popular Front" strategy advocated by Joseph Stalin and the Comintern. However, they did take part in the Spanish Popular Front initiated by the leader of Acción Republicana, Manuel Azaña. The POUM tried to implement some of its radical policies as part of the "Popular Front" government, but these were resisted by the more moderate factions. The political disagreement would cause Nin to leave the government.

During the Civil War the party began to grow in popularity and, alongside the anarchist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), commanded the support of most of the proletariat in the zone not controlled by Francisco Franco's forces during the war. The British author George Orwell fought alongside members of the Independent Labour Party as part of the POUM militias, an experience recounted vividly in his book "Homage to Catalonia". Likewise, the film "Land and Freedom", directed by Ken Loach, tells of a group of POUM soldiers fighting in the war from the perspective of a British member of the British Communist Party, and deals in particular with his disillusionment with Soviet Union policy in the war.

Conflict with the Popular Front

The POUM's support of Trotsky and opposition to Stalin caused huge ruptures between them and the PCE, still unswervingly loyal to the Comintern. These divisions, particularly the accusation of Trotskyism (and even Fascism) by the Communists, manifested themselves in actual fighting between their supporters, most notably in the events Barcelona May Days of 1937, when the POUM was attacked by a mostly-Communist coalition of government forces, which included the Guardia Civil. While the much larger CNT initially supported the POUM, its more militant members such as Juan García Oliver and the Friends of Durruti were pushed towards conciliation by the moderate leadership. This left the POUM isolated along with the purely Trotskyist Seccion Bolshevik-Leninista, and both organisations were driven underground and in exile. While Nin was detained and executed, his party was consistently deemed "provocateur" in Stalinist propaganda.

International links

The POUM was a member of the "London Bureau" of socialist parties that rejected both the reformism of the Second International and the pro-Moscow orientation of the Third International. Other members included the Independent Labour Party in Britain, the PSOP in France and Poale Zion. Its youth wing was affiliated to the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations, through which it recruited the ILP Contingent of partisans in the Civil War.

ee also

* Iberian Communist Youth
* George Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia", a memoir of his military service with the POUM militia

Sources

* The [http://www.fundanin.org/ Fundación Andreu Nin] has a Spanish-language site containing an extensive collection of documents, biographical notes, and links related to the POUM. English texts include:
** [http://www.fundanin.org/solano29.htm Wilebaldo Solano "The Spanish Revolution: The Life of Andreu Nin" ILP, Leeds, 1974]
* Hernández, Jesús, [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Pamph/NKVD.html "How the NKVD Framed the POUM"] . Memoir of PCE minister in Republican Governments of Largo Caballero and Juan Negrín. Translated. Excerpted from "Yo fui un ministro de Stalin". 339 pages. G. del Toro, Mexico, 1974. ISBN 84-312-0187-8. Reprinted online by [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/Pubs.html What Next?"] Marxist journal. Retrieved May 11, 2005.
* Nin, Andrés, [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Maydays.html "The May Days in Barcelona"] . Originally published as "El significado y alcance de las jornadas de mayo frente a la contrarrevolución". Central Committee of the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM). Retrieved May 11, 2005.
* Nin, Andrés, [http://www.whatnextjournal.co.uk/Pages/History/Nin2.html "The Political Situation and the Tasks of the Proletariat"] . June 1937. Translation by David Beetham, ed., "Marxists in Face of Fascism". Manchester University Press, 1983. ISBN 0-389-20485-4. Retrieved May 11, 2005.