Joaquin
Maurin
was
born in Bonansa, Spain in 1896. Maurin
developed an interest in politics while teaching history during the
First World War. He joined the Juventud Republicana
and contributed to its daily newspaper, El
Ideal.
In 1920 Maurin joined the
National Confederation of Trabajo (CNT), the
anarcho-syndicalist trade union and was appointed editor of its journal
La Lucha Social. Maurin became
a Marxist and in 1921 he travelled to Russia
where he attended the Third Congress of the Comintern.
On his return to
Spain he founded the Marxist trade-union weekly,
La Batalla.
Maurin was imprisoned for
the first time for his political activities in 1923. He served a total
of three years in prison before being forced into exile in 1930.
After Miguel
Primo de Rivera lost power Maurin returned to Spain and once again
began publishing La Batalla and
a Marxist theoretical journal, La Nueva Era.
In 1931 he established the Workers' and Peasants' Party (BOC). He
became secretary general of BOC but its membership never exceeded
a few thousand.
In
September 1935 Maurin joined with Andres
Nin to
form the Workers Party of Marxist Unification
(POUM). This revolutionary anti-Stalinist Communist party was strongly
influenced by the political ideas of Leon
Trotsky. The group supported the collectivization of the means
of production and agreed with Trotsky's concept of permanent revolution.
As a result
of Maurin's involvement, POUM was very strong in Catalonia. In most
areas of Spain it made little impact and in 1935 POUM is estimated
to have only around 8,000 members. In the elections of February 1936,
Maurin was the only party member to win a seat in the Cortes.
Maurin
was at a POUM meeting in Galicia when the military uprising took place
on 18th July 1936. In territory controlled by the Nationalist
Army Maurin
went into hiding. Although carrying false papers he was arrested while
trying to get into the Republican zone in September 1937.
Unlike
many leaders of the Republican movement, Maurin's life was spared
due to the intervention of a high-ranking relative in Franco's military.
After spending nine years in prison Maurin was released in October
1946.
Maurin
emigrated to the United States and settled in
New York where he established the American
Literary Agency (ALA), an organization that promoted the works of
Latin American writers. Joaquin
Maurin died
in 1973.
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