Leon Trotsky: The Catalan Conflict and the Tasks of the Proletariat

Summer 1934

[Writing of Leon Trotsky, Vol. 14, New York 1979, p. 496-499]

1. Evaluation of the Catalan conflict and the possibilities flowing from it must take as its point of departure the fact that Catalonia unquestionably represents today the strongest position of the defense forces led against the Spanish reaction and against the fascist danger. Should this position be lost, the reaction would gain a decisive victory and for a long time to come. With a correct policy the proletarian vanguard would utilize the strong defensive position as the starting point for a new offensive of the Spanish revolution. Such should be our perspective.

2. This development is not possible unless the Catalan proletariat succeeds in taking the leadership of the defensive struggle against the reactionary central government at Madrid. But this is not possible if the Catalan proletariat promises to support this struggle only in the event that it is initiated [by other forces]. [The policy of the proletariat must not be dependent on] either the intransigence of the Madrid government or the regressiveness of the Catalan petty bourgeoisie (Maurín's policy of tail-ending [behind the petty bourgeoisie] is pursued by our comrades in the Catalan Workers Alliance). [It can be successful] only if it places itself at the head of the defense movement, if it outlines the perspectives, raises bolder slogans, and begins leading the struggle not only in words but in action.

3. A victorious resistance is conceivable if it not only mobilizes all the mass forces (all the prerequisites now exist) but pushes forward toward the offensive. That is why it is of decisive importance that the proletarian vanguard should explain from now on to the masses of workers and peasants in the rest of Spain that the victory or defeat of the Catalan resistance will also decide their victory or defeat. The mobilization of these allies throughout Spain must be completed now and not at the moment when a reactionary offensive by Madrid shall have become a fact (this is the position of our comrades and of the majority of the Workers Alliance).

4. Catalonia can remain the axis of the Spanish revolution. Winning the leadership in Catalonia must be the basis of our policy in Spain. The policy of our comrades makes this completely impossible. This policy must be changed speedily if we do not want a decisive situation to end, because of us, in a new defeat of the Spanish revolution which would be decisive for a long time to come. It should not be concealed that the policy of our comrades in this question has strongly injured the prestige not only of our own organization and of the Workers Alliance but of the proletariat itself and cannot be repaired except by a radical turn based on a real understanding of the facts. The position of our comrades and of those in the Workers Alliance cannot be understood by the non-proletarian working masses except in the following way: “The proletariat agrees through the voice of its organizations to participate if others begin [the struggle]; but in return it demands from the petty-bourgeois Esquerra its own price (the terms imposed by the Workers Alliance), ignoring completely the particular interests of the peasantry and the petty-bourgeois masses, and will seek as soon as the possibility offers itself to lead the struggle in the direction of its own class aims — the dictatorship of the proletariat.” Instead of appearing as the leader of all the oppressed strata of the nation, as the leader of the national liberation movement, the proletariat here appears only as a partner of the other classes; indeed a very selfish partner, to whom it is necessary to give or to promise [concessions] because and for as long a time as it shall be needed. The Catalan petty bourgeoisie, the big bourgeoisie, and the reaction, basing itself on the bankruptcy of this petty bourgeoisie, could ask for nothing better than to have the proletariat in such a position.

5. Our comrades must base their turn above all on this: They must agitate (through their own organizations and through the Workers Alliance) for the proclamation of the independent republic of Catalonia and must demand, in order to guarantee it, the immediate arming of the whole people. They should not wait for the government to arm them but begin immediately to form workers’ militias which then should not only demand better equipment from the government but must obtain it by disarming the reactionaries and the fascists. The proletariat must prove to the Catalan masses that it has a sincere interest in the defense of Catalan independence. Here will lie the decisive path toward the conquest of the leadership in the struggle of all the strata, prepared for the defense of the city and the country. The arming of the people must become the center of our agitation in coming weeks around the slogans of: No stoppage of wages: the government and the employers must bear the cost of equipment and supplies. The existing military forces must be enrolled as instructors in the formation of the militia. The officers shall be elected by the members of the militia. The base of the militia is the factory. The workers in large industries, the railroads, etc., and all the public utilities shall automatically become part of the militia. Most of the people shall be asked to join up. Every regiment elects its committee which for its part sends a representative to the central committee of all the divisions of the Catalan militia. The central committee (i.e., the central soviet) functions as the political state, but first and foremost as the controlling body and later as the central authority for supplying and equipping the forces. In achieving this task, it will have to become [transformed] from a body alongside of the government into, properly speaking, the government itself. This is the form and concrete development of soviets in the present situation in Catalonia.

6. Because the extreme divisions among the Catalan proletariat do not allow it to exercise its hegemony in Catalonia, it cannot alone and by itself proclaim the independence of Catalonia. But it can and it must appeal for independence with all its strength and demand it of the petty-bourgeois Esquerra government. It must make up for its tardiness by the immediate holding of new elections. “We need a government which represents and leads the real will to struggle of the popular masses.” The regimental committees of the militia must become the principal means for the preparation and realization of these elections. In other words, to the extent that the two phases of the problem — the proclamation of independence and the arming of the people — can be separated from each other, it is the latter by means of which it is necessary to achieve the former.

7. The proletariat must not only place in the foreground the democratic demands (freedom of the press, a state which is not costly, leveling of the salaries of functionaries, a democratic economy, more indirect taxes, graduated direct taxation of the propertied classes to finance the resistance, etc.) — [raising these] not only for itself along with its own class demands — [but it also must] put them forward with all the specific demands of the peasants and of the petty-bourgeois masses.

Information is lacking on the details of the agrarian question, but above all the proletariat should on its own initiative arm the masses with these slogans as demands to be fought for. But it must not pose these demands as conditions for its readiness to participate in the struggle.