Communist Left of Spain

Communist Left of Spain Izquierda Comunista de España
General secretary	Andreu Nin i Pérez
Founded	1931 (1931)
Dissolved	1935 (1935)
Merged into	Workers' Party of Marxist Unification
Headquarters	Barcelona
Ideology	Trotskyism Revolutionary socialism
Political position	Far-left
Politics of Spain Political parties Elections

Communist Left of Spain (Spanish: Izquierda Comunista de España) was a Trotskyist political party during the Second Spanish Republic. Its leader was Andreu Nin, who had been a supporter of the Left Opposition while living in Russia.[1]

Although the group was affiliated to the Left Opposition, Leon Trotsky objected to its name, believing that it failed to stress that the organisation viewed itself as an external faction of the Communist Party.^[citation needed] By April 1936, on the brink of the Spanish Civil War, Trotsky had denounced the Spanish left communists:[2]

At present we must say openly that the Spanish “left communists” have allowed this extremely favorable interval to pass by completely and have revealed themselves as in no way better than the socialist and “communist” traitors. Really, there has been no lack of warnings! All the greater is the culpability of an Andres Nin, of an Andrade, etc. – With a correct policy the “Communist Left”, as a section of the Fourth International, might have been at the head of the Spanish proletariat today. Instead of this, it vegetates in the confused organization of a Maurin – without program, without perspective, and without any political importance.

It merged with the Right Opposition communist party Bloque Obrero y Campesino in September 1935, to form the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), which was also led by Nin until his kidnapping and death at the hands of NKVD in 1937.[3]

References

1. Howley, Catherine (1 June 2018). "Vanishing act". Metropolitan Barcelona. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
2. Trotsky, Leon (April 1939). "The Task in Spain". New International. 5 (4): 125–126.
3. Nichols, Dick (21 June 2013). "Catalonia: Left unites to pay homage to Andreu Nin". Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal. Retrieved 18 February 2019.