Leon Trotsky
“The past is another country. But doing history is, by
definition, an unending dialogue between the present and the past. Much of what
was at stake in Spain remains in present-day dilemmas, at whose heart lie
issues of race, religion, gender, and other forms of cultural war that
challenge us not to resort to political or other types of violence. In short,
as this book’s epigraph exhorts, we should not mythologise our fears and turn
them into weapons against those who are different. The Spanish Civil War and
all the other civil wars of Europe’s mid-20th century were configured in great
part by this mythologising of fear, by a hatred of difference. The greatest
challenge of the 21st century is, then, not to do this.”
Helen Graham, The Spanish Civil War
“There was no boss-class, no menial-class, no beggars, no
prostitutes, no lawyers, no priests, no bootlicking, no cap-touching.”
George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
Giles Tremlett is a competent writer, and his latest book is
well-written and thoroughly researched. However, as a liberal journalist,
Tremlett approaches the Spanish Civil War from a strongly liberal perspective,
which is not just limited but also potentially misleading. This is because the
key issues of the conflict are fundamentally political and class-related,
topics that liberalism struggles to address honestly.
Tremlett, along with other liberal historians, has long dominated
the historiography of the Spanish Revolution. Adam Hochschild referred to this
dominant perspective as the "Authorised Version," which depicts the
conflict as a clear-cut battle between democracy and fascism. According to this
view, the Republic was defeated by Franco's stronger military, the
non-intervention of Western democracies, and insufficient Soviet aid. Tremlett
mainly works within this interpretive framework.
A Marxist approach to history challenges the liberal view of
figures like Francisco Franco, emphasising that he cannot be understood without
considering the revolutionary crisis he was tasked with suppressing. The
Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was a pivotal event of the twentieth century,
representing more than just a clash between democracy and fascism. It was
essentially an unfinished workers' revolution, whose defeat was orchestrated
not only by Franco's troops but also by the Popular Front and Stalinist
institutions from within.
Franco initiated his military coup against the Spanish
Republic on July 17, 1936. Within days, workers in cities like Barcelona and
Madrid, as well as other locations, spontaneously resisted the coup by arming
themselves and forming workers' power committees. The foundation for a
socialist revolution was present. Franco's win was not predetermined; it
resulted from a political betrayal.
Francisco Franco's 1939 victory was more political than
military. It resulted from the strategic suppression of the Spanish Revolution
by what was claimed to be its leftist defenders. To understand Franco, one must
recognise the criminality of the pseudo-lefts of that time, mainly the POUM and
the Stalinist apparatus it covered for. When the Spanish army launched its
fascist coup in July 1936, the working class responded with remarkable
spontaneity and strength. In Barcelona, Madrid, and other industrial centres,
workers took up arms, formed militias, seized factories, and almost pushed the
socialist revolution forward. Franco faced not only a defending republic but a
proletariat actively revolting. The key question was whether the movement could
find the necessary political leadership to achieve victory.
The influence of the modern-day pseudo-left groups covering
for past and present Stalinist treachery persists today. Contemporary
pseudo-left groups like the British Socialist Workers Party still endorse the
Stalinist view of the Spanish Civil War. Their primary historian, Andy Durgan,
wrote a book for students and teachers that systematically justified the
Popular Front policies that led to Franco's victory. Durgan employed a
Stalinist approach: denying the existence of dual power in Spain in 1936,
dismissing the socialist revolution as a real possibility, and portraying the
Popular Front as a class-collaborationist alliance that suppressed the workers'
uprising, thereby presenting the workers' uprising as the only legitimate and
feasible form of government.[1]
As Ann Talbot, who reviewed Durgan's book sharply, observes,
“Durgan’s book reflects the rightward evolution of an entire layer of
intellectuals who would at one time have associated themselves with left-wing
politics and would even have identified themselves as revolutionaries. The book
represents a shift away from the positions that Durgan expressed in his account
of the POUM in Revolutionary History. Then the SWP hero-worshipped the POUM and
glorified its political errors. Now Durgan is happy to accept a recent modernisation
thesis, which depicts the POUM as a reactionary force opposing modernisation.
The fact that Ealham must claim in his review that Durgan opposes Graham and
Preston and their support for the Popular Front suggests that the SWP is still
not ready to go along with this position in its public utterances. But Durgan’s
position is a more accurate reflection of the SWP's current politics and the
party's essentially middle-class liberal character.[2]
Durgan is not a Trotskyist and dismisses Trotsky's writings
on Spain with casual contempt, reducing the political conflict between Trotsky
and POUM leader Andres Nin to mere personal animosity. He notes that Trotsky's
criticisms of Nin "seem particularly harsh." However, as Talbot
illustrates, the actual correspondence—letters of Trotsky show a remarkable
patience and political clarity—in which Trotsky, even as late as June 1936 and
two weeks after Franco's coup, continued to reach out to Nin and proposed
collaboration if Nin would adopt the banner of the Fourth International. The
SWP cannot fairly engage with this material because doing so would validate
Trotsky's entire analysis and condemn the Popular Front politics that the SWP
has practised throughout its history.
Tremlett’s book on Franco is just one among many of his
works that explore the Spanish Civil War. His titles include "Ghosts of
Spain: Travels Through a Country's Hidden Past" (2006), and "España:
A Brief History of Spain" (2022), which highlights Spain’s lack of a
singular, unified identity and showcases its rich, multicultural history as its
defining trait. Additionally, "The International Brigades: Fascism,
Freedom and the Spanish Civil War" (2020) provides a detailed account of
the foreign volunteers who fought against Franco's forces during the war.
Tremlett's book on the International Brigades is sympathetic
and, by most accounts, thorough in its documentary research. The volunteers who
went to Spain, about 35,000 from 50 countries, were often genuinely heroic,
motivated by a strong aversion to fascism and a desire to take action. This
deserves recognition. However, the Comintern directed the International
Brigades under Stalinist control, tying their deployment to the broader political
strategy of the Popular Front. This strategy aimed to subjugate the
revolutionary workers' movement to the "progressive" Spanish
bourgeoisie and to show Western imperialist powers that Moscow could be trusted
to uphold the capitalist order. Unfortunately, many liberal histories of the
Brigades tend to overlook this political context honestly.
A further flaw in liberal interpretations of the Civil War,
including Tremlett's view, lies in their treatment of the non-intervention by
Britain, France, and the United States. The liberal account suggests that a
more supportive stance by Roosevelt or the French Popular Front might have
saved the Republic. However, historical evidence shows that the Western
"democracies" fully recognised that a revolutionary workers' state in
Spain posed a significant threat to their own class interests. Their
"non-intervention" was not accidental but a deliberate class-based
policy. Relying on these powers to save the Republic, as the Popular Front
strategy aimed to do, was ultimately a political dead end.
This framework deliberately obscures the simultaneous
revolution occurring alongside the war. In July 1936, when Franco initiated his
coup, Spanish workers countered it in major cities through armed action. They
took over factories, collectivised land, formed militias, and created workers'
institutions. The foundation for a socialist revolution was present. As Hochschild's
analysis highlights, this revolutionary effort was not merely an aspect of the
conflict but its very essence. Interestingly, it was not Franco but the Popular
Front government and the Stalinist Communist Party, acting under Stalin's
directives, that upheld their alliance with the Western bourgeoisie and
suppressed these revolutionary movements.
Another shortcoming in Tremlett’s book is the lack of a
thorough explanation of how Franco managed to stay in power for so long. His
extended rule requires a wider social analysis. Franco’s hold on power until
1975 was not solely due to repression; it also involved the accommodation of
Western imperialism, which sought a stable anti-communist base in Iberia, and
the Spanish bourgeoisie’s preference for "order" over democracy. The
ongoing efforts by the Spanish right—including active-duty officers and the courts
to rehabilitate Franco are not just about nostalgia. Instead, they serve as a
warning that ruling elites, confronted with renewed class conflicts, are once
again considering measures outside the constitutional framework.
The lessons from Spain go beyond mere historical curiosity.
Marxists have consistently warned that the attempt by Spanish courts, the
military, and the political right to rehabilitate Franco's legacy reflects a
larger global pattern among the ruling class moving toward authoritarianism,
driven by austerity, inequality, and escalating class conflict. The answer is
not to revive a new Popular Front, which could repeat the failures of the
1930s, but to foster a revolutionary socialist leadership from within the
working class.
[1]
Andy Durgan, The Spanish Civil War: Studies in European History (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007: New York, New York)
[2] Britain’s Socialist Workers Party lends credence to Stalinist line on Spanish Civil War— www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/09/swp2-s17.html
