Leon Trotsky: The Catalan Federation

April 23, 1931

[The Spanish Revolution (1931-39). New York 1973, p. 107]

The Catalan Federation should strive to enter the general Spanish communist organization. Catalonia is the vanguard. But if this vanguard will not march in step with the proletariat and later on with the peasantry of all of Spain, the Catalan movement will at best be concluded as a magnificent episode in the style of the Paris Commune. The peculiar position of Catalonia is driving in this direction. The national conflict may heat up the steam to such an extent that the Catalan explosion will occur long before the situation in Spain as a whole has matured for a second revolution.

It would be the greatest historical misfortune if the Catalan proletariat, under the influence of the national ferment, permitted itself to be drawn into a decisive struggle before it has had the chance to consolidate itself with the proletariat of all of Spain. The strength of the Left Opposition in Barcelona, as well as in Madrid, can and should lie in raising all these questions to a historical level. …