Francisco Largo Caballero (15 October 1869 – 23 March 1946) was a Spanish politician and
trade union
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 ...
ist. He was one of the historic leaders of the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...
(PSOE) and of the
Workers' General Union (UGT). In 1936 and 1937 Caballero served as the Prime Minister of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
.
Biography
Early years
Born in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, as a young man he made his living
stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
ing walls. He participated in a construction workers
strike in 1890 and joined the PSOE in 1894. Upon the death in 1925 of party founder
Pablo Iglesias, he succeeded him as head of the party and of the UGT.
Political career
Moderate in his positions at the beginning of his political life, he advocated maintaining a degree of UGT cooperation with the dictatorial government of General
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquess of Estella (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a dictator, aristocrat, and military officer who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during Spain's Restoration era. He deepl ...
, which permitted the union to continue functioning under his military dictatorship (that lasted from 1923 to 1930). This was the start of his political conflict with
Indalecio Prieto
Indalecio Prieto Tuero (30 April 1883 – 11 February 1962) was a Spanish politician, a minister and one of the leading figures of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in the years before and during the Second Spanish Republic.
Early life ...
, who opposed all collaboration with the dictatorial regime.
He was Minister of Labor Relations between 1931 and 1933, in the first governments of the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
, headed by
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres (6 July 1877 – 18 February 1949) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who served, briefly, as the first prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then—from 1931 to 1936—as its president.
Early life
...
, and in that of his successor
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the last President of the Re ...
. Caballero attempted to improve the conditions of landless labourers (''braceros'') in the rural south. On 28 April 1931 he introduced a decree of municipal boundaries to prevent the importation of foreign labour while there remained unemployed workers within the municipality. In May he established mixed juries (''jurados mixtos'') to arbitrate in agrarian labour disputes, and introduced an eight-hour working day in the countryside. Alongside these, a decree on obligatory cultivation prevented owners from using their land however they wanted. He enjoyed great popularity among the masses of workers, who saw their own austere existences reflected in his way of life.
In the elections of 19 November 1933, the
right-wing
Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...
Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA) won power in Spain. The government nominally led by the centrist
Radical
Radical may refer to:
Politics and ideology Politics
* Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change
*Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe an ...
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 ...
was dependent on CEDA's parliamentary support. Responding to this reversal of fortune, Largo abandoned his moderate positions, began to talk of "socialist revolution", and became the leader of the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album '' Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* ...
(
Marxist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...
and revolutionary) wing of the UGT and the PSOE. In early October 1934, after three CEDA ministers entered the government, he was one of the leaders of
the failed armed rising of workers (mainly in
Asturias
Asturias (, ; ast, Asturies ), officially the Principality of Asturias ( es, Principado de Asturias; ast, Principáu d'Asturies; Galician-Asturian: ''Principao d'Asturias''), is an autonomous community in northwest Spain.
It is coextensiv ...
) which was forcefully put down by the CEDA-dominated government.
He defended the pact of alliance with the other workers' political parties and trade unions, such as the
Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...
(PCE) and the
anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessar ...
trade union, the
Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Once again, this placed him at odds with Prieto. He declared, that he, Largo Caballero "shall be the second
Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...
", whose aim is the union of Iberian
Soviet republics.
After the
Popular Front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
won the
elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
in February 1936, president Manuel Azaña proposed that Prieto join the government, but Largo blocked these attempts at collaboration between PSOE and the Republican government. Largo dismissed fears of a military coup, and predicted that, were it to happen, a general strike would defeat it, opening the door to the workers' revolution.
In the event, the coup attempt by the colonial army and the right came on 17 July 1936. While not immediately successful, further actions by rebellious army units sparked the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...
(1936–1939), in which the republic was ultimately defeated and destroyed.
Prime Minister of Spain
On 4 September 1936, a few months into the civil war, Largo Caballero was designated
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
and Minister of War. Besides conducting the war, he also focused on maintaining military discipline and government authority within the Republic. On 4 November 1936 Largo Caballero persuaded the anarchist ''
Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions, which was long affiliated with the International Workers' Association (AIT). When working ...
'' (CNT; "National Confederation of Labour") to join the government, with four members assigned to junior ministries including Justice, Health and Trade. The decision was controversial with the CNT members.
The
Barcelona May Days led to a governmental crisis that forced Caballero to resign on 17 May 1937.
Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín López (; 3 February 1892 – 12 November 1956) was a Spanish politician and physician. He was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) and served as finance minister and ...
, also a member of the PSOE, was appointed Prime Minister in his stead.
The cabinet, formed on 4 September 1936 and reshuffled on 4 November 1936, consisted of:
Exile, death, and legacy
Upon the defeat of the Republic in 1939, he fled to France. Arrested during the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
occupation of France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
, he spent most of World War II imprisoned in the
Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp, until the liberation of the camps at the end of the war.
He died in exile in Paris in 1946; his remains were returned to Madrid in 1978 after Franco's death in 1975.
See also
*
Moscow gold
*
Marcelino Valentín Gamazo
Footnotes
Sources
*
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*
*
*
*
*
External links
Documents on Caballero from "Trabajadores: The Spanish Civil War through the eyes of organised labour" a digitised collection of more than 13,000 pages of documents from the archives of the British
Trades Union Congress
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...
held in the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...
Andy Durgan''The Rise and Fall of Largo Cabellero'', ''International Socialism'', 18 (1983)
* http://www.geneall.net/H/per_page.php?id=467749
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Largo Caballero, Francisco
1869 births
1946 deaths
Politicians from Madrid
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians
Prime Ministers of Spain
Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Spanish Restoration
Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic
Unión General de Trabajadores members
Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in France
Spanish revolutionaries
Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International
Sachsenhausen concentration camp survivors
Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Defence ministers of Spain
Madrid city councillors
Spanish people imprisoned abroad
Exiled Spanish politicians
Government ministers during the Second Spanish Republic