Francisco
Largo Caballero
was
born in Spain in 1869. A stucco worker
he joined the Union General de Trabajadores (UGT)
and the Socialist Party (PSOE).
Largo Caballero became
head of the UGT and controlled its newspaper,
Claridad. In this position he
called for the radicalization of the PSOE.
This included "the conquest of political power by the working
class by whatever means possible" and the "dictatorship
of the proletariat organized as a working-class democracy".
In the summer of 1917 Largo
Caballero became involved in the organization of a political strike
in Spain. The strikers demanded the establishment of a provisional
republican government, elections to a constituent Cortes and action
to deal with inflation. In Madrid
members of the strike committee, including Largo Caballero and Julián
Besteiro, were
arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, he was released
the following year.
Largo Caballero's views
were attacked by Indalecio Prieto, the
leader of the right-wing of the Socialist
Party. He wrote that "Largo Caballero is a fool who wants
to appear clever. He is a frigid bureaucrat who plays the role of
a mad fanatic". Largo Caballero replied that Prieto was "envious,
arrogant, and distainful" and was not a socialist "either
in his ideas or in his action."
In 1925 Francisco
Largo Caballero became
leader of the party. He called for "the conquest of political
power by the working class by whatever means possible" and the
"dictatorship of the proletariat organized as a working-class
democracy".
The two men continued to
argue throughout the 1920s. Largo Caballero had the support of union
members whereas Prieto gained most of his following from the middle
class and the intellectuals in the party. By 1930 the PSOE had 20,000
members.
In August 1930 Indalecio
Prieto was a central figure in the formation of the Republican
coalition known as the Pact of San Sebastián. Julián
Besteiro was
opposed to the idea but Largo
Caballero, gave it
his support as he felt it was the only way the Socialist Party would
gain power. At a conference held in July 1930, delegates voted by
10,607 to 8,326 to approve the PSOE taking part in a future coalition
government.
After Alfonso
XIII abdicated
in April 1931 both Largo
Caballero and Indalecio
Prieto joined the new coalition government led by Niceto
Alcala Zamora.
Largo Caballero served
as minister of labour and formulated agrarian policies which called
for the distribution of land to landless labourers. This increased
the support for the PSOE in rural communities. By 1935 the PSOE had
increased its membership to 75,000.
Attacked by the extreme
left for not being radical enough, the government faced an anarcho-syndicalist
uprising at Casas Viejas in January 1933. The government was severely
criticized in the Cortes
for its approval of the
way the Civil
Guard and Assault
Guard put down the uprising. This included the execution
without trial of fourteen prisoners.
In September 1933 the government
of Manuel
Azaña collapsed
and Largo
Caballero and other
Socialist Party members of the cabinet
left office. The following month Indalecio
Prieto announced the end of the Republican-Socialist coalition.
In the elections that followed in November 1933 the conservative CEDA
became the largest party in the Cortes.
On 15th
January 1936, Manuel
Azaña helped
to establish a coalition of parties on the political left to
fight the national elections due to take place the following month.
This included the Socialist Party, Communist
Party (PCE) and the Republican Union
Party.
During the early stages
of the Spanish Civil War Largo Caballero
was critical of the Popular Front government
led by José Giral. Even Largo Caballero's
opponents agreed that he was a dynamic leader and in September 1936
he was chosen to replace Giral as prime minister. He also took over
the important role of war minister.
Largo Caballero brought
into his government two left-wing radicals, Angel
Galarza (minister of the interior) and Alvarez
del Vayo (minister of foreign affairs). He also included four
anarchists, Juan Garcia Oliver (Justice),
Juan
López Sánchez (Commerce), Federica
Montseny (Health) and Juan Peiró
(Industry) and two right-wing socialists, Juan
Negrin (Finance) and Indalecio Prieto
(Navy and Air) in his government. Largo
Caballero also gave two ministries to the Communist
Party (PCE): Jesus Hernández
(Education) and Vicente Uribe (Agriculture).
After taking power Largo
Caballero concentrated on winning the war and did not pursue his policy
of social revolution. In an effort to gain the support of foreign
governments, he announced that his administration was "not fighting
for socialism but for democracy and constitutional rule."
Largo Caballero introduced
changes that upset the left in Spain. This
included conscription, the reintroduction of ranks and insignia into
the militia, and the abolition of workers' and soldiers' councils.
He also established a new police force, the National Republican Guard.
He also agreed for Juan Negrin to be given
control of the Carabineros.
Largo Caballero resisted
pressure from the Communist Party to
promote its members to senior posts in the government. He also refused
their demands to suppress the Worker's Party
(POUM) in May 1937. The Communists now withdrew from the government.
In an attempt to maintain a coalition government, President Manuel
Azaña sacked
Largo Caballero and asked Juan Negrin to
form a new cabinet.
At the end off the Spanish
Civil War Largo Caballero went to live in France.
After the invasion of the German
Army he
was captured and sent to Dachau Concentration
Camp. He survived the Second World War and
returned to Paris where he died in 1946.
(1)
Francisco
Largo Caballero interviewed
by
Edward Knoblaugh
in prison in 1935.
We will win at least 265 seats. The whole existing
order will be overturned. Azana will play Kerensky to my Lenin. Within
five years the republic will be so organized that it will be easy
for my party to use it as a stepping stone to our objective. A union
of Iberian Soviet republics - that is our aim. The Iberian peninsula
will again be one country. Portugal will come in, peaceably we hope,
but by force if necessary. You see here behind bars the future master
of Spain! Lenin declared Spain would be the second Soviet Republic
in Europe. Lenin's prophecy will come true. I shall be the second
Lenin who shall make it come true.
(2)
Francisco
Largo Caballero, speech in Madrid (March 1936)
The illusion that the proletarian socialist revolution can be achieved
by reforming the existing state must be eliminated. There is no course
but to destroy its roots. Imperceptibly, the dictatorship of the proletariat
or workers' democracy will be converted into a full democracy, without
classes from which the coercive state will gradually disappear. The
instrument of the dictatorship will be the Socialist party, which
will exercise this dictatorship during the period of transition from
one society to another and as long as the surrounding capitalist states
make a strong proletarian state necessary.
(3)
George
Orwell,
Homage to Catalonia (1938)
The Government was headed
by Caballero, a Left-wing Socialist, and contained ministers representing
the U.G.T. (Socialist trade unions) and the C.N.T. (Syndicalist unions
controlled by the Anarchists). The Catalan Generalite was for a while
virtually superseded by an anti-Fascist Defence Committee' consisting
mainly of delegates from the trade unions. Later the Defence Committee
was dissolved and the Generalite was reconstituted so as to represent
the unions and the various Left-wing parties. But every subsequent
reshuffling of the Government was a move towards the Right. First
the P.O.U.M. was expelled from the Generalite; six months later Caballero
was replaced by the Right-wing Socialist Negrin; shortly afterwards
the C.N.T. Was eliminated from the Government; then the U.G.T.; then
the C.N.T. Was turned out of the Generalite; finally, a year after
the outbreak of war and revolution, there remained a Government composed
entirely of Right-wing
Socialists, Liberals, and Communists.
(4)
Edward
Knoblaugh,
Correspondent in Spain (1937)
Largo Caballero began to realize the need for
immediate drastic action. As president of the U.G.T., he summoned
the sub-leaders of this Revolutionary Socialist group and impressed
upon them the desperateness of the situation. The result was a round-table
conference among the U.G.T., the heads of the Syndicalists National
Confederation of Labor (C.N.T.), The Federation of Iberian Anarchists
(F.A.I.), The Trotsky Communists (Partido Obrero Unificado Marxists
- P.O.U.M.), The Stalin Communists and the Left Republicans. In the
first agreement which these divergent factions had been able to reach
since the beginning of the war they approved the immediate mobilization
of all able-bodied men in Loyalist territory. A decree to this effect
was issued. Whether they wanted to join or not, all men between the
ages of 20 and 45 were pressed into military service. From this moment
on, the Loyalist army ceased to be a voluntary army.
(5)
Salvador de Madariaga, a member of the
Republican Union Party, commented on the clash between Largo Caballero
and Indalecio
Prieto.
What made the Spanish Civil War inevitable was the civil war within
the Socialist party. No wonder Fascism grew. Let no one argue that
it was fascist violence that developed socialist violence. It was
not at the Fascists that Largo Caballero's gunmen shot but at their
brother socialists. It was (Largo Caballero's) avowed, nay, his proclaimed
policy to rush Spain on to the dictatorship of the proletariat. Thus
pushed on the road
to violence, the nation, always prone to it,
became more violent than ever. This suited the fascists admirably,
for they are nothing if not lovers and adepts of violence.
(6)
Ilya
Ehrenburg, letter
sent to Marcel Rosenberg (30th September,
1936)
The question of possibly
merging the Socialists and the Communists into one party (as in Catalonia)
does not have, according to my preliminary impression, any immediate,
current significance since the Socialist party, as such, at least
in the central region, does not make itself much felt and since the
Socialists and Communists act in concert within the framework of a
union organization - the General Workers' Union - headed by Caballero
(abbreviated UGT), the activity and influence of which far exceed
the limits of a union.
What are our channels
for action in this situation? We support close contact with the majority
of the members of the government, chiefly with Caballero and Prieto.
Both of them, through their personal and public authority, stand incomparably
higher than the other members of the government and play a leading
role for them. Both of them very attentively listen to everything
that we say. Prieto at this particular time is trying at all costs
to avoid conflict with Caballero and therefore is trying not to focus
on the issues.
I think it unnecessary
to dwell at this time on the problem of how an aggravation in class
contradictions might take shape during a protracted civil war and
the difficulties with the economy that might result (supplying the
army, the workers, and so on), especially as I think it futile to
explore a more distant prospect while the situation at the front still
places all the issues of the revolution under a question mark.
(7)
André
Marty,
letter sent
to the General Consul of the Soviet Union
in Barcelona
(11th October,
1936)
The Madrid government
and general staff have shown a startling incapacity for the elementary
organization of defense. So far they have not achieved agreement between
the parties. So far they have not created an appropriate relationship
for the government and War Ministry to take control. Caballero, having
arrived at the need to establish the institution of political commissars,
so far has not been able to realize this, because of the extraordinary
bureaucratic sluggishness of the syndicalists, whom he greatly criticizes
and yet without whom he considers it impossible to undertake anything.
The general staff is steeped in the traditions of the old army and
does not believe in the possibility of building an army without experienced,
barracks-trained old cadres. Meanwhile, the capable military leaders
who have been fighting at the front for two months in various detachments,
and who might have been the basis for the development of significant
military units, have been detailed all over the place. Up to four
thousand officers, three-fourths of the current corps, are retained
in Madrid and are completely idle. In Madrid up to ten thousand officers
are in prison under the supervision of several thousand armed men.
In Madrid no serious purge of suspect elements is in evidence. No
political work and no preparation of the population for the difficulty
of a possible siege or assault is noticeable. There are no fewer than
fifty
thousand armed men in Madrid, but they are not trained, and there
are no measures being taken to disarm unreliable units. There are
no staffs for fortified areas. They have put together a good plan
for the defense of Madrid, but almost nothing has been done to put
this plan into practice. Several days ago they began fortification
work around the city. Up to fifteen thousand men are now occupied
with that, mostly members of unions. There has been no mobilization
of the population for that work. Even the basics are extraordinarily
poorly taken care of, so the airport near the city is almost without
any protection. Intelligence is completely unorganized. There is no
communication with the population behind the enemy's rear lines. Meanwhile,
White spies in the city are extraordinarily strong. Not long ago,
a small shell factory was
blown up by the Whites; an aerodrome with nine planes was destroyed
because the aerodrome was lit up the entire night; a train carrying
350 motor-cycles was destroyed by enemy bombs.
Caballero attentively
listens to our advice, after a while agrees to all our suggestions,
but when putting them into action meets an exceptional amount of difficulty.
I think that the main difficulty is Caballero's basic demand, now
in place, to carry out all measures on a broad democratic basis through
syndicalist organizations. Sufficient weapons, in particular machine
guns, are now flowing to the city to raise the morale of the populace
somewhat. Masses of peasants and workers are thronging to the city
- volunteers. They end up for the most part in the Fifth Regiment,
where they go through a very short training course, as they receive
their weapons only about two days before going to the front.
(8)
Mikhail Koltzov, the Soviet journalist, recorded the evacuation of
Madrid
by the Popular
Front government on 6th November
1936.
I made my way to the War Ministry, to the Commissariat of War. Hardly
anyone was there. I went to the offices of the Prime Minister. The
building was locked. I went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It
was deserted. In the Foreign Press Censorship an official told me
that the government, two hours earlier, had recognized that the situation
of Madrid was hopeless and had already left. Largo Caballero had forbidden
the publication of any news about the evacuation "in order to
avoid panic". I went to the Ministry of the Interior. The building
was nearly empty. I went to the central committee of the Communist
Party. A plenary meeting of the Politburo was being held. They told
me that this very day Largo Caballero had suddenly decided to evacuate.
His decision had been approved by the majority of the cabinet. The
Communist ministers wanted to remain, but it was made clear to them
that such a step would discredit the government and that they were
obliged to leave like all the others. Not even the most prominent
leaders of the various organizations, nor the departments and agencies
of the state, had been informed of the government's departure. Only
at the last moment had the Minister told the Chief of the Central
General Staff that the government was leaving. The Minister of the
Interior, Galarza, and his aide, the Director of Security Munoz, had
left the capital before anyone else. The staff of General Pozas, the
commander of the central front, had scurried off. Once again I went
to the War Ministry. I climbed the stairs to the lobby. Not a soul!
On the landing two old employees are seated like wax figures wearing
livery and neatly shaven waiting to be called by the Minister at the
sound of his bell! It would be just the same if the Minister were
the previous one or a new one. Rows of offices! All the doors are
wide open. I enter the War Minister's office. Not a soul! Further
down, a row of offices - the Central General Staff, with its sections;
the General Staff with its sections; the General Staff of the Central
Front, with its sections; the Quartermaster Corps with its sections;
the Personnel Department, with its sections. All the doors are wide
open. The ceiling lamps shine brightly. On the desks there are abandoned
maps, documents communiqués, pencils, pads filled with notes.
Not a soul!
(9)
Vladimir
Antonov-Ovseenko,
General
Consul of the Soviet Union in Barcelona
, top secret document sent to NKVD
(14th October,
1936)
In
Madrid there are up to fifty thousand construction workers. Caballero
refused to mobilize all of them for building fortifications around
Madrid ("and what will they eat") and gave a total of a
thousand men for building the fortifications. In Estremadura our Comrade
Deputy Cordon is fighting heroically. He could arm five thousand peasants
but he has a detachment of only four thousand men total. Caballero
under great pressure agreed to give Cordon two hundred rifles, as
well. Meanwhile, from Estremadura, Franco could easily advance into
the rear, toward Madrid. Caballero implemented an absolutely absurd
compensation for the militia - ten pesetas a day, besides food and
housing. Farm labourers in Spain earn a total of two pesetas a day
and, feeling very good about the militia salary in the rear, do not
want to go to the front. With that, egalitarianism was introduced.
Only officer specialists receive a higher salary. A proposal made
to Caballero to pay soldiers at the rear five pesetas and only soldiers
at the front ten pesetas was turned down. Caballero is now disposed
to put into effect the institution of political commissars, but in
actual fact it is not being done. In fact, the political commissars
introduced into the Fifth Regiment have been turned into commanders,
for there are none of the latter. Caballero also supports the departure
of the government from Madrid. After the capture of Toledo, this question
was almost decided, but the anarchists were categorically against
it, and our people proposed that the question be withdrawn as inopportune.
Caballero stood up for the removal of the government to Cartagena.
They proposed sounding out the possibility of basing the government
in Barcelona. Two ministers - Prieto and Jimenez de Asua - left for
talks with the Barcelona
government. The Barcelona government agreed to give refuge to
the central government. Caballero is sincere but is a prisoner to
syndicalist habits
and takes the statutes of the trade unions too literally.
(10)
Edward
Knoblaugh,
Correspondent in Spain (1937)
Juan Negrin, former Minister of Treasury under
Largo and a friend of the foreign correspondents, was named Premier
to succeed Largo. I had known Negrin for several years and sincerely
admired him. Even after the stocky, bespectacled multi-linguist became
a cabinet minister he continued his nightly visits to the Miami bar
for his after-dinner liqueur. I often chatted with him there, getting
angles on the financial situation.
The presence of a moderate
Socialist at the head of the new government was a boon to the regime
because it strengthened the fiction of a "democratic" government
abroad. Largo's ouster, however, produced fresh troubles. Feeling
much stronger after its critical first test of strength against the
Catalonian Anarcho-Syndicalists, the government had ousted the Anarchist
members of the Catalonian Generalitat government and followed this
up by excluding the Anarcho-Syndicalists from representation in the
new Negrin cabinet.
Largo, it had been thought,
would step down gracefully, but, bitterly disappointed and angry,
the former Premier immediately began plotting his return to power.
The Anarchists, equally bitter at their being deprived of a voice
in government, suddenly threw their support to Largo, who adopted
as his new campaign slogan the Anarchist cry "We want our social
revolution now."
Largo has another important,
if less powerful, ally, in the outlawed P.O.U.M. Trotskyites. The
disappearance and reported murder of the Trotskyite leader, Andres
Nin, added to the bitterness of the P.O.U.M. Nin, one of the
foremost revolutionaries in Spain, was arrested last June when the
government, at the behest of the Stalin Communists, raided the P.O.U.M.
headquarters in Barcelona and arrested many of the members.
It was announced that
Nin had been taken first to Valencia and then to Madrid for imprisonment
pending trial. When the P.O.U.M., supported by the Anarchists and
many of Largo's extreme Socialists, became more and more insistent
in their demands that Nin be produced and tried, and the government
was unable to dodge the issue any longer, it issued a communiqué
to the effect that Nin had "escaped" from the Madrid prison
with his guards. Even
the Anarchist newspapers were obliged to print this version, but Anarchist
and Trotskyite circles were convinced that Nin was murdered enroute
to Madrid, and he became a martyr.
Largo regards the present
government as bourgeois and counter-revolutionary, and is frankly
working for its overthrow. With the opposition to the Negrin government
now three-way, neutral observers do not believe that a decisive program
can long be avoided. The well-disciplined Communists supporting the
Negrin cabinet are confident that if an open fight eventuates, as
it seems likely to do either before or after the war, it will have
the support of a large percentage of Loyalist Spain. The government
will be able to count on its "army within an army."
Whether this will be able
to cope with the powerful labor unions supporting Largo is problematical.
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