Spain's Revolution Against Franco: The Great Betrayal

by Alan Woods

The story of the Spanish revolution of the 1930s is quite well known to most people on the left, but there is a surprising level of ignorance concerning the events that occurred subsequently. History did not cease with the victory of Franco in 1939. And the story of how the Franco dictatorship was eventually brought down by the revolutionary movement of the Spanish workers is an inspiring one.

Under the most difficult and dangerous conditions, Spanish workers launched a strike wave, which, in its intensity and duration, has no parallel anywhere. There was nothing remotely like this in Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy or Salazar’s Portugal. This was a genuine revolution, which could and should have gone far further than it did. If it did not finally succeed, that was no fault of the working class. The Spanish revolution of the 1970s was shamefully betrayed by the leaders of the communist and socialist parties, who entered into an agreement with former fascists in order halt the movement in its tracks.

Alan Woods participated personally in the last phase of this struggle and was a witness to some of its most decisive moments. Using a wealth of documentary material from the time and also new interviews with key participants in the events, he tears away the thick veil of lies, myths and half-truths to reveal what actually occurred.

With new struggles and challenges on the order of the day in Spain and the rest of the world, it is the duty of all conscious workers and revolutionary youth to study the lessons of the past as a necessary precondition for victory in the future. This book is an important contribution to a necessary learning process and is obligatory reading for anyone who is interested in the struggle for socialism today.

Genres: History

534 pages, Paperback

First published June 24, 2019

About the author

Alan Woods is a Trotskyist political theorist. He is one of the leading members of the British group Socialist Appeal as well as its parent group, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). He is political editor of the IMT's In Defence of Marxism website.

Woods supported the Militant tendency within the UK Labour Party until the early 1990s, when he and Ted Grant were expelled from the tendency and founded the Committee for a Marxist International (soon renamed International Marxist Tendency) in 1992. They continued with the policy of entryism into the Labour Party.

Woods has been particularly vocal in his support for the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, and has repeatedly met with the socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, leading to speculation he was a close political adviser.

Reviews

[Andrés · Rating 5 out of 5]

Similar to the Chilean transition, we're told Spain, after Franco's 36-year dictatorship, transitioned to a democratic system. Participants from the political spheres are regarded as fighters who 'made it'. Political leaders who stood in opposition to Franco's regime are celebrated as champions of democracy that were able to force Democracy out of Fascism.

Mentioned way less often are the political maneuvers at the top, abandonment of radical programs, and co-opting of working masses which, after suffering 36 years of massacres, tortures, destruction of rights, and the worst atrocities imaginable, were still persistent in the struggle to defend their hard-fought conquests, only to be used as a bargaining chip on negotiations with the very representatives of the regime that was oppressing them.

Much can be said about the crisis of reformism and the role the PCE and PSOE had in the total acceptance of Franco's institutional framework, and perhaps more importantly, the Spanish monarchy. Without a doubt, the continuation of capitalism with a king as its steward was not what the Spanish people fought and died for.

But what's even more important is that revolutionaries across the world are able to draw lessons from past experiences, be they triumphs or defeats. By analyzing the historical forces that operated in Spain, which still operate today, and really anywhere in the world you find yourself, our tools will be more sharpened to face the even greater challenges and struggles that are yet to come. To that purpose, comrade Alan does an incredible job at telling the story of the 'democratic transition' in Spain from an unflinchingly authentic working class perspective. Such is what makes The Great Betrayal an invaluable resource.