Joaquín Maurín Juliá (

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

: Joaquim Maurín, 12 January 1896 – 5 November 1973) was a Spanish

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

politician and activist. The leader of the

Workers and Peasants Bloc The Workers and Peasants' Bloc (; es, Bloque Obrero y Campesino, BOC) was a "Right Opposition" communist group in Spain. History BOC was founded in Barcelona in 1931, as the mass front of the Catalan-Balearic Communist Federation (FCCB), a ...

(BOC) and of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), he was active mainly in

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 no ...

Early life

Born in Bonansa in Huesca,

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to s ...

, Maurín engaged in socialist politics from early youth and stood trial on several occasions.

CNT and Profintern

After law studies, he practiced in

Lleida Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, a ...

(Catalonia), where he became affiliated with 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 ...

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"). In 1920, Joaquín Maurín was elected local secretary for the

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 ...

, as well as the editor of its weekly ''Lucha Social''. In 1921, he represented the movement at the Profintern Congress in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, the capital of

Soviet Russia The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

. Upon his return, he was elected general secretary of the CNT shortly before was arrested and detained in February 1922. After his release, Maurín founded the ''Comités Sindicalistas Revolucionarios'' ("Revolutionary Trade Union Committees") as a

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

group within the CNT. He also gave the committees their own press tribune, ''La Batalla'', in December.

Communist Party of Spain

In 1924, he led his ''La Batalla'' into a merger with 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 ...

and took charge of organising the latter's local wing, the

Catalan-Balearic Communist Federation Catalan-Balear Communist Federation (in Catalan: ''Federació Comunista Catalano-Balear'') was a communist group in Spain. Formed in 1924, it joined the Communist Party of Spain (PCE), and functioned as the PCE federation in Catalonia and the B ...

(FCCB). During the crackdown on opposition parties that was ordered by the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, Maurín was arrested and jailed in January 1925. Released in 1927, he opted to leave Spain for

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. However, he returned to

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 c ...

in 1930 and worked for the reanimation of ''La Batalla'' in the months before the proclamation 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 ...

in early 1931. He became opposed to

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...

policies in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

and took a stand that saw him grouped with the emergent international

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 me ...

. He split with the Communist Party of Spain and led the FCCB into independent politics. (His wing's place in the Stalinist body was quickly taken over by the Communist Party of Catalonia.)

BOC and POUM

On 1 March 1931, the FCCB joined with the

Catalan Communist Party Catalan Communist Party ( ca, Partit Comunista Català) was a political party in Catalonia, Spain. PCC was founded in 1928. It had its origins in ''l'Ateneu Enciclopèdic Popular'', which had been formed in 1926, and in the Marxist sectors of th ...

and, in 1933, became the Iberian Communist Federation and declared its goal to occupy a place on the national stage. The unified body of the FCCB and the Catalan Communist group became the mass front

(BOC), with Maurín as its general secretary. The party was to reach a dominant position in Catalonia. During the riots provoked by the centrist stance of the Alejandro Lerroux government in 1934, Maurín advocated the forming of

united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...

''Alianzas Obreras'' ("Workers' Alliances") throughout Spain (following a pattern that was proving its force in the

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 ...

). With the indecisive end of the movements, his party opened itself to an alliance with

Andreu Nin Andreu Nin Pérez (4 February 1892 – 20 June 1937) was a Spanish communist politician, translator and publicist. In 1937, Nin and the rest of the POUM leadership were arrested by the Moscow-oriented government of the Second Spanish Republi ...

’s

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

Communist Left of Spain. The merger was carried out in September 1935, when the two groups formed the POUM and Maurín elected its general secretary. In line with his views on unified workers' action, the POUM joined the

Spanish Popular Front The Popular Front ( es, Frente Popular) in Spain's Second Republic was an electoral alliance and pact signed in January 1936 by various left-wing political organizations, instigated by Manuel Azaña for the purpose of contesting that year's el ...

in the runup for the elections of February 1936. Maurín was elected to the

Spanish Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

on Popular Front lists.

Capture and exile

With the Spanish coup of July 1936 and the start 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 Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

, Maurín found himself in Francoist

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

. Attempting to escape through Aragon, he was captured in

Jaca Jaca (; in Aragonese: ''Chaca'' or ''Xaca'') is a city of northeastern Spain in the province of Huesca, located near the Pyrenees and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón River, situated at the crossing of two great ...

and detained until 1944. A witness to both the rise of

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spani ...

and the crushing of the POUM by

forces, he took exile to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

with his close family, created his own press agency and published his writings. Maurín died in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Footnotes

External links

Joaquín Maurín
biography by Pedro Bonet y Luis Alonso at th
Fundación Andreu Nin
(in Spanish)
Joaquin Maurin archive
at Stanford University

a
Marxists Internet Archive
(in Spanish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Maurin, Joaquin 1896 births 1973 deaths People from Ribagorza Communist Party of Spain politicians Workers and Peasants' Bloc politicians POUM politicians Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic Politicians from Aragon Secretaries General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Right Opposition Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) 20th-century Spanish journalists