El POUM en Gracia

In the morning I visited some of the poor districts of the city. They are reminiscent of the worst part of the harbour district in Marseilles. In the evening there was a meeting of the POUM in the Gracia district. Agenda: report on organisational questions. Members were called up through their cells. Excluding those who were prevented from attending because they had to take part in some sort of party task, virtually everyone was present. The district has 200 members. Twenty are old ones, that is members from before the revolt. One hundred and eighty have joined since June. This is clearly typical. The membership is largely young.

There was a report on trade union work, local projects and work in the schools, and a number of organisational questions were tackled. The reports were short. There was a discussion after each one. At the end some complaints were made about the fact that the local committee had not yet replied in writing to suggestions from the districts. It was explained that this was mainly due to them being pushed for time. Comrades were asked to accept oral replies. Comrade Schwarz was made organisational leader of the district, which met with general approval. Sarda is the political leader.

In the meantime Gorkin and Andrade of the Executive have returned from Madrid. They had been there to settle a dispute to do with the Madrid POUM column. Gorkin, whom I met at the Executive Committee of the POUM, was very optimistic about the military situation in Madrid. The entire civilian population of the city is being evacuated. In Barcelona itself children have been arriving from Madrid and have been warmly greeted by the locals. Gorkin invited me to the editorial offices of La Batalla for a discussion this afternoon.