Jordi Arquer (19071981) was a Spanish communist politician and writer from

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

Biography

Arquer was born in

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 ...

in 1907. During the dictatorship of

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 ...

, he participated in the clandestine opposition, collaborating with the ''independentista'' groups of

Francesc Macià Francesc Macià i Llussà (; 21 September 1859 – 25 December 1933) was a Spanish politician from Catalonia who served as the 122nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and formerly an officer in the Spanish Army. Politically, he evolve ...

. He was a part of the Centre Autonomista de Dependents del Comerç i de la Indústria and the newspaper '' Lluita''. In 1927 he was one of the founders of the Círculo de Estudios Marxistas (Circle of Marxist Studies), and in 1928 participated in the clandestine congress of the ''Partit Comunista Català'' (Catalan Communist Party), which attracted Marxist militants from the

Estat Català Estat Català (, literally "Catalan State") is a pro-independence nationalist historical political party of Catalonia (Spain). History Estat Català is a historical pro-independence political party in Catalonia, Spain. It was founded by France ...

. Once 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 Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

was proclaimed, Arquer was one of the founders of a Communist "

Right Opposition The Right Opposition (, ''Pravaya oppozitsiya'') or Right Tendency (, ''Praviy uklon'') in the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was a conditional label formulated by Joseph Stalin in fall of 1928 in regards the opposition against certain m ...

" party, Bloc Obrer i Camperol (BOC), and an advocate of the Working Alliance (''Aliança Obrera''). In 1931 he published ''Los comunistas ante el problema de las nacionalidades ibéricas'', and after reviewing the history of

and the Catalan movement, was favorable to the recognition of self-determination of Catalonia and indicated the convenience of a Union of Iberian Socialist Republics. 1n 1935, BOC merged with the Trotskyist

Communist Left of Spain Communist Left of Spain ( es, Izquierda Comunista de España) was a Trotskyist political party during the Second Spanish Republic. Its leader was Andrés Nin Pérez, who had been a supporter of the Left Opposition while living in Russia. Althou ...

(''Izquierda Comunista de España''; ICE) to form

POUM The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification ( es, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; ca, Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist party formed during the Second Spanish Republic, Second Republic and mainly active a ...

, bringing together communists dissatisfied with the other communist and socialist parties in Spain. 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 Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

(1936–1939), he was one of the organizers and heads of the POUM militia, which operated on the

Aragon front The Aragon Offensive was an important military campaign during the Spanish Civil War, which began after the Battle of Teruel. The offensive, which ran from March 7, 1938, to April 19, 1938, smashed the Republican forces, overran Aragon, and conque ...

. Arquer went into exile in France in 1939. There he formed the '' Moviment Socialista de Catalunya'' (Catalan Socialist Movement). He continued to advocate for this organisation in publications and magazines such as ''Endavant'', '' L'Insurgent'', '' Quaderns de l'exili'', '' La Nostra Revista'' (

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

), '' Ressorgiment'' (

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

), '' Germanor'' (

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

) and others, circulated in countries including the United States. In 1977, Arquer moved back to

, where he resided until his death in 1981.

Works

* ''El Comunisme i la qüestió nacional i colonial'' (1930) * ''Crítica del programa de Gotha'' (1936) * ''De Francesc Pi i Margall al Comunisme'' (1931) * ''Los comunistas ante el problema de las nacionalidades ibéricas'' (1931) * ''L'evolució del problema agrari a Rússia, des de la servitud feudal al Comunisme'' (1934) * ''Las interpretaciones del marxismo'' (1937). * ''El futur de Catalunya i els deures polítics de l'emigració catalana'' (1943)

Biography

Works

See also