POUM - what did they stand for exactly? (2024)

The POUM seems to be most significant (in the UK anyway) for being crushed by the Republic in May 1937, being written about by George Orwell and romanticised by Ken Loach.

However what did they actually stand for?

How should their policies be assessed comparatively with the other Spanish parties of the time?

How were they organised, and how successful were they?

Did they have a trade union?

Who were their supporters, demographically speaking?

Did their geographical support ever extend beyond Madrid and Catalonia?

How did they hope to achieve power in Spain?

What was their view of the Republic? Did they want to destroy it, or to remould it according to their own revolutionary programme, or something else?

Did they desire a continued multi-party democracy in Spain or did they seek a single party state?

Did they have a plan for dealing with dissent if they came out as top dogs in the revolution?

But for the PCE, would POUM have come into conflict with the Anarchists?

There are some interesting bits & pieces in Gerald Brennan's book The Spanish Labyrinth. Andres Nin started out as an anarchist, then founded the Communist party, then left that and founded another party which eventually became the POUM. He managed to attract the condemnation of Trotsky, despite which, was ironically branded Trotskyite by the Communists.

A further interesting titbit... POUM was syndicated to the CNT.

the POUM was not a group of extremists but mixed anarchists ideas with communists ones...and didn't recognised the gerarchical structure of the army and, overall, the commanding of Stalin...

so Stalin called them "fascists" and "traitors" and ordered to destroy their organisation and to capture and execute their leaders and officers

Some links:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPpoum.htm
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=12186
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SPnin.htm
http://www.weisbord.org/POUM.htm

Another sad chapter of the complex, convulsed history of our II Republic and Civil War.

Kind regards.

http://www.forosegundaguerra.com

Basically they were non Stalinist Communists... in a nut shell. Slightly over simplified maybe....

If you are interested there is a new study being published soon called 'Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism: A History of the P.O.U.M. in the Spanish Civil War'

The Amazon description is as follows:

Product Description
"Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism" is the first historical study of the P.O.U.M. to appear in English. Drawing from his multi-volume work on the subject, which was published in Spanish and Catalan, Victor Alba has collaborated with Stephen Schwartz to produce a condensed and amplified study that is far more than a translation.Outside Spain, the political movement known as the Workers Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxist or P.O.U.M.) is chiefly known as the revolutionary group with which George Orwell fought during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. The events in which the P.O.U.M. found itself at the center of conflict between Iberian revolutionaries and Soviet interests remain a controversial topic for historians and other writers. This book presents a detailed picture of the organization and its main antecedent, the Workers' and Peasants' Bloc, in the context of a stimulating working class political culture.Those interested in Catalan history as well as historians of Western European Marxism and the Spanish Civil War will find this book useful. It will also be of interest to those concerned with Orwell and his experience in Spain. A fitting tribute to the P.O.U.M.'s great struggle against Stalinism, "Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism" will surely stand out among the array of books that have been published on the Spanish Civil War period as a definitive study.

Synopsis
"Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism" is the first historical study of the P.O.U.M. to appear in English. Drawing from his multi-volume work on the subject, which was published in Spanish and Catalan, Victor Alba has collaborated with Stephen Schwartz to produce a condensed and amplified study that is far more than a translation.Outside Spain, the political movement known as the Workers Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxist or P.O.U.M.) is chiefly known as the revolutionary group with which George Orwell fought during the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. The events in which the P.O.U.M. found itself at the center of conflict between Iberian revolutionaries and Soviet interests remain a controversial topic for historians and other writers. This book presents a detailed picture of the organization and its main antecedent, the Workers' and Peasants' Bloc, in the context of a stimulating working class political culture.Those interested in Catalan history as well as historians of Western European Marxism and the Spanish Civil War will find this book useful. It will also be of interest to those concerned with Orwell and his experience in Spain.

A fitting tribute to the P.O.U.M.'s great struggle against Stalinism, "Spanish Marxism Versus Soviet Communism" will surely stand out among the array of books that have been published on the Spanish Civil War period as a definitive study.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spanish-Marxism ... QVZ7DIGYUN

Salud,
James