Joaquín Maurín Juliá ( Catalan: Joaquim Maurín, 12 January 1896 – 5 November 1973) was a Spanish communist politician and activist. The leader of the Workers and Peasants Bloc (BOC) and of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), he was active mainly in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

Early life

Born in Bonansa in Huesca,

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

, 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 (, ; ; '' see below'') is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital and largest town in Segrià county, the Ponent region and the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It ...

(Catalonia), where he became affiliated with the

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

Confederación Nacional del Trabajo The (CNT; ) is a Spanish anarcho-syndicalist national trade union center, trade union confederation. Founded in 1910 in Barcelona from groups brought together by the trade union ''Solidaridad Obrera (historical union), Solidaridad Obrera'', ...

(CNT, "National Confederation of Labour"). In 1920, Joaquín Maurín was elected local secretary for the

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

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

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

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

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, were a radical Faction (political), faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with the Mensheviks at the 2nd Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, ...

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 and took charge of organising the latter's local wing, the Catalan-Balearic Communist Federation (FCCB). During the crackdown on opposition parties that was ordered by the dictator

Miguel Primo de Rivera Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, Grandee, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Resto ...

, Maurín was arrested and jailed in January 1925. Released in 1927, he opted to leave Spain for

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. However, he returned to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 in early 1931. He became opposed to Stalinist policies in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and took a stand that saw him grouped with the emergent international Right Opposition. 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 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 Workers and Peasants Bloc (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 ''Alianzas Obreras'' ("Workers' Alliances") throughout Spain (following a pattern that was proving its force in the

Asturias Asturias (; ; ) officially the Principality of Asturias, is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwest Spain. It is coextensive with the provinces of Spain, province of Asturias and contains some of the territory t ...

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

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

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 in the runup for the elections of February 1936. Maurín was elected to the Spanish Congress of Deputies 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 () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, Maurín found himself in Francoist Galicia. Attempting to escape through Aragon, he was captured in

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

. His case came up for trial only in 1944, when he was sentenced to 30 years. However, he was detained until October 1, 1946, when he was paroled under an amnesty for some political prisoners, but confined to Madrid where he worked as a translator.Register of the Joaquin Maurin papers
/ref> A witness to both the rise of Francoist Spain and the crushing of the POUM by Stalinist forces, in 1947 he took exile to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Notes

External links

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

at Marxists Internet Archive
Joaquín Maurín archive
at 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 General secretaries of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo Right Opposition Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction) 20th-century Spanish journalists