Pedro Herrera Camarero (

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 ...

, 18 January 1909 -

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, 28 October 1969) was a

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

anarcho-syndicalist Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionary industrial unionism or syndicalism as a method for workers in capitalist society to gain control of an economy and thus control influence i ...

Biography

A railway worker and friend of

Diego Abad de Santillán Diego Abad de Santillán (20 May 1897 – 18 October 1983), also known as his born name Sinesio Baudilio García Fernández, was an anarcho-syndicalist activist and economist. Selected works * ''After the Revolution: Economic Reconstructi ...

, in 1927 he settled 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 ...

, where he joined the CNT-FAI. Eventually he became one of the main leaders of the

Federación Anarquista Ibérica The Iberian Anarchist Federation ( es, Federación Anarquista Ibérica, FAI) is a Spanish organization of anarchist militants active within affinity groups in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) anarcho-syndicalist union. It is often ...

(FAI). As a representative of the FAI, he signed the UGT- CNT-

PSUC The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia ( ca, Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party ...

- FAI action unity pacts in Barcelona on 11 August 1936 and 22 October 1936. He was Minister of Health and Social Assistance of the

Generalitat de Catalunya The Generalitat de Catalunya (; oc, label= Aranese, Generalitat de Catalonha; es, Generalidad de Cataluña), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia politically organizes its self-government. It is formed ...

from 17 December 1936 to 3 April 1937 as a representative of the CNT. He supported the theses of Mariano R. Vázquez, until the latter chose to support the government of

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 ...

in 1938. During the time of the Negrín government, Herrera Camarero led the critical current of the FAI against the

collaborationism Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian Gerhard Hirschfeld, "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to ...

of the CNT with the government. At the end of 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, link ...

, he went into exile in Perpignan, where he remained for a time confined to the

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

Vernet Vernet is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: Painters * Antoine Vernet (1689-1753), French painter, father of Claude Joseph Vernet * Claude Joseph Vernet Claude-Joseph Vernet (14 August 17143 December 1789) was a French painter. ...

and

Djelfa Djelfa ( ar, الجلفة, link=no, al-Ǧilfah) is the capital city of Djelfa Province, Algeria and the site of ancient city and former bishopric Fallaba, which remains a Latin catholic titular see. It has a population of 490,248 (2018 census). T ...

. He was a member of the general council of the

Spanish Libertarian Movement The Spanish Libertarian Movement ( es, Movimiento Libertario Español, MLE) was a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist organization founded at the end of the Spanish Civil War by the CNT, the FAI and the FIJL to develop a joint clandestine activity in ...

and in April 1947 he was elected general secretary of the CNT in exile. Around 1950 he went to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

and then to

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 ...

, where he published books and the magazine ''Resurgir''. Over the years he approached

reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...

positions and is said to have supported five-pointism but without abandoning the CNT.

Works

* ''La AIT'' (1946) with José Pérez Burgos

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera Camarero, Pedro 1909 births 1969 deaths People from Valladolid Spanish anarcho-syndicalists Health ministers of Catalonia