Evelio Boal López (

Valladolid Valladolid () is a municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and de facto capital of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. It has a population around 300,000 peop ...

, 11 May 1884 -

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, 18 July 1921) was a Spanish graphic designer,

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (s ...

and anarchist. He was one of the organizers of the Congress of Sants of the National Confederation of Labor, forming part of the commission that wrote the report.

Biography

Evelio Boal was born in

on 11 May 1884. At a very young age he went to live in Barcelona, where he worked as a typographer. By 1908 he was already a member of the board of the Union of the Art of Printing and launched the strike against ''

El Progreso El Progreso () is a city, with a population of 119,260 (2020 calculation), and a municipality located in the Honduran department of Yoro. Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport of San Pedro Sula is located west of the city. To the eas ...

'', an organ of

Alejandro Lerroux Alejandro Lerroux García (4 March 1864, in La Rambla, Córdoba – 25 June 1949, in Madrid) was a Spanish politician who was the leader of the Radical Republican Party. He served as Prime Minister three times from 1933 to 1935 and held severa ...

Radical Republican Party The Radical Republican Party ( es, Partido Republicano Radical), sometimes shortened to the Radical Party, was a Spanish Radical party in existence between 1908 and 1936. Beginning as a splinter from earlier Radical parties, it initially played a ...

. He later joined the National Confederation of Labor ( es, Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, CNT) and collaborated in the weekly '' Tierra y Libertad'' under the pseudonym ''Chispazos''. He was also an amateur actor, with which he directed the Grupo Artístico Teatral del Centro Obrero. He took part in the organization of the 1917 general strike and was the one who drafted the minutes of the joint meetings with the

General Union of Workers A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED On ...

( es, Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT). In August 1918 he was elected a member of the CNT Committee and in February 1919 he provisionally replaced Manuel Buenacasa Tomeo as the CNT's

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

. In January 1919 he was arrested during the

La Canadenca strike The strike ( ca, Vaga de La Canadenca, es, huelga de La Canadiense) was a historic strike action in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that was initiated in February 1919 by Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and lasted over 44 days evolving ...

, being released shortly thereafter by popular request. In the December of that same year, he was confirmed in office at the CNT congress that was held at the Madrid Comedy Theatre. There he was one of the 24 signatories of the opinion on the ideological definition of the CNT, which declared its purpose to be the pursuit of

libertarian communism Anarcho-communism, also known as anarchist communism, (or, colloquially, ''ancom'' or ''ancomm'') is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private property but retains r ...

. He was also delegated to meet with union leaders in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. In August 1920, together with Salvador Seguí and Salvador Quemades, he traveled to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

to rebuild the alliance between the CNT and the UGT for future mobilizations. He was secretary of the CNT Committee until March 1921, when he was arrested and imprisoned in the Barcelona Model Prison, where he was beaten and tortured. When he was released on the morning of 17 June 1921, he was assassinated at the prison gate, along with , then treasurer of the CNT, in application of the escape law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boal López, Evelio 1884 births 1921 deaths Spanish anarchists People from Valladolid Secretaries General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo