Revolutionary Workers' Party (Spain) Explained

Revolutionary Workers' Party
Native Name:Partido Obrero Revolucionario
Partit Obrer Revolucionari
Lang1:Spanish
Leader:Aníbal Ramos
Headquarters:Barcelona
Newspaper:Sin Muro and L'Aurora
Ideology:Communism
Trotskyism
Position:Far-left
Colors:Red
European:European Anti-Capitalist Left
State:Spain

The Revolutionary Workers' Party (Spanish; Castilian: Partido Obrero Revolucionario, Catalan; Valencian: Partit Obrer Revolucionari; POR) is a Spanish far-left group. It was founded in 1974 as the radical Anti-Francoist Revolutionary Workers' Party of Spain (Partido Obrero Revolucionario de España (PORE)), a name that it kept up until 1983. This group was mainly active in the Barcelona area. Since 1998, the POR is part of United Left (IU) through the internal group known as Redes.[1] [2]

History

The party was led by Aníbal Ramos (Arturo van den Eynde) for thirty years. Its clandestine phase in Francoist Spain was characterized by ferocious persecution by the Spanish police and the arrest and torture of many of its members. In order to avoid extensive arrests PORE organized itself in tight cells.

The extremism of this group by did not abate after the caudillo's death for PORE steadfastly opposed the Spanish transition to democracy which it saw as a mere continuation of Francoism. It also opposed the reformist policies of the government of Felipe González as well as the government crackdown of the terrorist separatist organisation Basque National Liberation Movement, being one of the first to cry foul during the so-called guerra sucia.[3]

PORE was renamed POR in 1983, eight years after the beginning of the political transition. This party keeps decentralized sections only in Catalonia, being part of Esquerra Unida i Alternativa (EUiA) as the Bastida faction. In the Basque Country a sector of POR that was integrated in Ezker Batua-Berdeak (EB-B) through Erabaki abandoned the coalition in 2011 in order to ask the vote for Amaiur;[4] [5] meanwhile another sector kept within EB-B as the Sarea/Redes faction.

Internationally POR is part of the Fourth International. Its main publications are Sin Muro in Spanish and L'Aurora (Dawn) in the Catalan language.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.publico.es/espana/445122/iu-se-conjura-para-que-ninguno-de-sus-partidos-apoye-a-otras-fuerzas IU se conjura para que ninguno de sus partidos apoye a otras fuerzas
  2. Web site: Partidos de extrema izquierda . es . historiaelectoral.com . 29 March 2017.
  3. http://laaurora.netpor.org/ La Aurora
  4. http://www.gara.net/paperezkoa/20110725/280994/es/Ezker-Batua-Dos-facciones-irreconcIliables-pugnan-una-sigla-ruinas Ezker Batua: Dos facciones irreconciliables pugnan por una sigla en ruinas
  5. http://www.europapress.es/euskadi/noticia-colectivo-erabaki-eb-pedira-voto-amaiur-elecciones-reclama-unidad-toda-izquierda-vasca-20111001174739.html El colectivo Erabaki de EB pedirá el voto para 'Amaiur' en elecciones y reclama la unidad de "toda la izquierda vasca"