Historia de Barcelona

Etiqueta: Jordi Arquer

  • La columna Arquer-Grossi del POUM sale de Barcelona y masacra a civiles en Huesca

    Los primeros milicianos catalanes

    El 23 de julio, la columna del POUM, bajo las órdenes de Jordi Arquer y el minero Manuel Grossi, desfiló por las Ramblas y la plaza de Cataluña, para salir al día siguiente desde la estación de Francia en dirección a Zaragoza y Huesca. Fernández Jurado quedó adscrito a la centuria Pedrola ?Miquel Pedrola, miembro del comité ejecutivo de las juventudes del POUM, morirá en el frente de Huesca?, en la que también formaban jóvenes socialistas internacionales como el alemán Walter Schwars o el cubano Juan Alcañiz.

    En Monzón, a donde llegaron los milicianos en camiones, Ramón toma contacto con la violencia revolucionaria que el golpe de Estado desató en los primeros momentos. El colapso político que había sufrido la República determinó una quiebra en distintos ámbitos institucionales, en particular en el control de los instrumentos coercitivos que debían asegurar el orden social. El comité local montisonense había detenido a 6 conocidos falangistas, pero la agitación callejera producida ante la primera oleada de voluntarios catalanes y las exigencias de una indiscriminada acción punitiva contra derechistas y propietarios, impuesta por el grupo denominado “Los Tigres”, elementos incontrolados de la centuria poumista Llorenç Vila, propiciaron nuevos arrestos. Un total de 24 personas fueron congregadas por la fuerza en la plaza de Monzón y al grito de “mueran los fascistas”, asesinadas. Ramón Fernández Jurado explica en su libro autobiográfico Memòries d’un militant obrer (Barcelona, ed. HACER, 1987), la incontenible repugnancia que le produjo la brutalidad desnuda, “una masacre ?dice? que se les escapó de las manos a Arquer y Grossi”, y que a él le marcó con una enorme y perturbadora impresión.

    El siguiente destino fue Sariñena. De nuevo el orden quebrantado y la justicia arbitraria comenzaban a campar por sus fueros, si bien en la población monegrina se atemperaron prontamente los ánimos exaltados. Fernández se alojó en un domicilio particular, como todos los milicianos cuando llegaban en tránsito o con carácter definitivo a un pueblo. La propietaria de la casa, que no lograba apaciguar su desconsuelo, explicó al huésped que su hijo se encontraba detenido en el edificio del Ayuntamiento y temía por su vida. Fernández Jurado se interesó por la suerte de quien resultó ser Ignacio Ballarín Segura, representante de la firma Cros de fertilizantes y abonos, logrando su libertad tras la presentación de testimonios a su favor. Ballarín, padre del futuro notario y procurador de las cortes franquistas Alberto Ballarín Marcial, de doce años en este momento, se convirtió en un buen amigo de Ramón, quien a pesar de los esfuerzos realizados, nada pudo hacer por salvar la vida del joven coadjutor sariñenense Eduardo Colay, ni del coronel retirado Bernardo Cariello. Ambos fueron fusilados mientras gritaban “Viva Cristo Rey”.

  • Las calles de Barcelona, relaciones entre el POUM y otros partidos

    Left Perpignan with the two Swiss comrades and a comrade from the POUM at 12.30 hours. The border control at the French border town of Cerbère took place on the train and went quite quickly without problems. The Spanish border town is Port-Bou, and you arrive there in a few minutes through a tunnel. The controls there are carried out predominantly by the CNT people and they are very thorough. Due to the presence of comrades from the POUM our control went through very quickly.

    Left Port-Bou for Barcelona at about three o’clock. The train had been taken over by the CNT, and they carried out a very careful passport check on the way to Barcelona. The third class compartments of the train were very overcrowded. Everybody there was a worker, or at least was wearing workers’ clothes, or military people, etc. The atmosphere was lively, cheerful and confident. As we reached the outskirts of Barcelona the Internationale was being sung in several carriages. At the station there was a further baggage check.

    The POUM comrade took us from the station to the Hotel Falcón in the Ramblas (the main street) where we were immediately billeted. From there the POUM comrade took us on to the Executive Committee of the POUM, where I met Arquer who had been at the Brussels conference. I also met Bonet, the treasurer of the Executive Committee. I told them the purpose of my visit and gave the treasurer $200 from the American CP(O). He told me that an official receipt would appear in La Batalla and in other POUM papers. In reply to my question Arquer told me that an international conference would take place in mid-January. The POUM regarded the Brussels conference as a failure. Arquer explained to me that he found it incomprehensible and contradictory that we should reject the politics of the Communist International but accept the internal politics of the Soviet Union. I tried to enlighten him as to our position in this matter, but I did not get the impression that I was successful. Arquer and Bonet belong to the Maurín wing of the POUM.

    The former Trotskyists who are on the Executive Committee come fairly close to defending the Trotskyist position on the Soviet Union. The others make concessions to this Trotskyist position but do not adhere to it too closely. But it is quite clear from their official papers that the Maurín wing rejects our position on the Soviet Union. However, it must be added that, according to the statements of our German comrades, who are closely connected with the POUM membership, it would seem that some of the members are very critical of their Executive’s position on the Soviet Union. This is not an insignificant point. It stems mainly from a reaction to the change of line adopted by the Soviet Union in respect of delivery of weapons and food to Spain. However, the mood of the POUM members can be summed up like this: they want a good and friendly relationship with the Soviet Union and reject any anti-Bolshevik tendencies, but they are nevertheless determined to prevent any Soviet and Comintern influence on their policies in Spain or Catalonia.

    The membership is quite convinced that it is they who should determine policy in Catalonia, and are therefore not interested in being dictated to by the representatives of the Comintern and the Soviet Union. This especially hits home as regards the policy of the Popular Front and their slogan, ‘For the Defence of Bourgeois Democracy’, which is expressed on a whole number of issues formulated by the party of the Comintern in Catalonia, the PSUC. There is sharp opposition to the PSUC. Every day there are vigorous polemics in the POUM and PSUC papers. The POUM’s attitude to the PSUC largely determines the attitude of the POUM membership to the politics of the Comintern.

    The Ramblas is crowded with people until late at night. The cafés and bars are all full. The public appears thoroughly proletarian according to their clothes and so on. There are few bourgeois around. You get the impression that the town is thoroughly controlled by proletarian elements. The houses are plastered with posters from the CNT, FAI, POUM and PSUC. There are hardly any posters from the Esquerra to be seen anywhere. Along the Ramblas a row of large kiosks with newspapers, books and portraits have been set up by individual political parties. The proletarian appearance of the crowds makes the street scenes reminiscent of Moscow in the immediate post-revolutionary years. There are a lot of milicianos in leather or silk jackets, and countless workers’ patrols carrying weapons. It is rare to see the khaki of a regular soldier’s uniform. The only police are traffic police in blue uniforms and white pith helmets. These police no longer have the power of arrest.

    Along the length of the Ramblas are countless loudspeakers bringing reports from the front and messages from abroad, and playing revolutionary and sometimes popular music. The crowds in the street seem lively, self confident and optimistic. There is not the vaguest glimmer of depression. The news broadcast over the loudspeakers is eagerly discussed by the masses. It would appear that, even in respect to the fate of Madrid,[The battle for Madrid began on 8 November 1936.] there is no nervousness. Unlike Moscow in the early years, the shops in the Ramblas are nearly all open for business.

    I met some of our comrades right away in the Hotel Falcón. By coincidence comrade [Karl Heidenreich] happened to be there too, on leave from the front. Here too the mood was thoroughly confident.

  • El POUM rebautiza a calles, un mítin, Lérida después de la revolución

    Monday, 1 December 1936: Some of the streets with saints’ names were renamed after POUM people who have fallen. Arquer gave a little speech at each street. There was a procession with music, flags, etc. The widows of the fallen men were there dressed in mourning.

    Finally a public meeting in a large theatre. Nin, Arquer and [Wilebaldo Alonso Solano] spoke, as did McGovern from the ILP, and a man from the SAP. Nin replied to the attacks on La Batalla and the POUM by the Soviet consul Antonov-Ovseyenko to the sound of mighty applause from the auditorium. The meeting was very lively.

    In the afternoon a trip to Lérida in the POUM car with Walter Schwarz and Sarda. Drove past Montserrat. The countryside round Barcelona has been turned into gardens for market gardening and fruit orchards. Arrived at Lérida at about 8pm. We ate in a huge old nunnery which had been taken over by the town council as a canteen for milicianos and deserters from the Fascists. The catering had been well organised and there was plenty of food, potatoes, fresh meat, wine, etc.

    Later on we went to a POUM bar. It is in the former club building of the Rightist party, very nicely decorated and in the centre of town. Downstairs is a café where milicianos and party comrades have lively discussions. The POUM dominates the town and province of Lérida. It has predominantly textile industries. Several burnt out churches. There is a lot of bustle on the streets. Lots of movement to and from the front. The party secretary is a young man in his early 30s.

    There were two regiments in the town made up mainly of farmers’ sons from the surrounding area. The officers had been preparing an uprising in Lérida, but waited for the result of the battle for Barcelona before they came out. After the defeat in Barcelona they did not dare to crack down. Two hundred officers and leading lights of the right were shot, and the soldiers were demobbed. Initially only workers were sent to the front. Now, soldiers, too, are called up.

    We were quartered in the Palace Hotel. It is clean and in good condition. Breakfast — one peseta. The POUM is in control of the UGT, which is dominant in Lérida. The CNT is weak in Lérida.