P.O.U.M. (PARTIDO OBRERO DE UNIFICACIÓN MARXISTA). The Spanish Revolution. Bulletin of The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification. Barcelona: 28 October 1936-21 April 1937.

11 extremely rare issues of P.O.U.M.’s weekly English newspaper promoting their brand of Marxist revolution during the Spanish Civil War.

Comprising 11 issues thus: Vol. 1, Nos 2, 6, 8 and 9, and Vol. II, Nos. 1-7, 4° (approx. 220 x 280 mm.), formed of one broadsheet folded twice making 8pp., vol. II, Nos. 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7 unopened. (Vol. I, no. 2 with leaves detached, a few minor marginal nicks and creases, occasional faint spotting.)

VERY RARE SURVIVALS of one of the Republicans’ largest left-wing factions during the Spanish Civil War. P.O.U.M. was founded in 1935 as a communist opposition to the form of communism promoted by the Soviet Union, by the revolutionaries Andreu Nin and Joaquín Maurín. Heavily influenced by Trotsky, the party grew larger than the official Communist Party of Spain (PCE).

In 1935, Stalin, through the Comintern, pursued a policy of allying Communist parties with other anti-Fascist parties as a response to the growth of Fascism. Called the Popular Front, such a coalition between leftist republicans and workers' organizations defeated the National Front (a collection of right-wing parties) at the 1936 election, forming the new Spanish Government. Although P.O.U.M. was highly critical of the Popular Front policy, it joined the coalition, and entered into government. However, attempts to introduce some of its radical policies were defeated by more centrist parties.

When in July 1936, conservative/monarchist generals instigated a coup d'état which started the Spanish Civil War, the Popular Front dissolved the Republican Army and distributed arms to various organised groups formed by the unions and workers' parties including P.O.U.M. George Orwell, in Homage to Catalonia, estimates that P.O.U.M.’s membership was roughly 10,000 in July 1936, 70,000 in December 1936, and 40,000 in June 1937.

During the Civil War, P.O.U.M.'s independent communist position and opposition to Stalin, caused huge divisions with the official Communist Party of Spain. This led to accusations of Trotskyism and even Fascism by the PCE, which is outlined in detailed in the newspapers in the current lot. Orwell’s witnessing of the Stalinist repression of P.O.U.M. would lead to his later anti-authoritarian ideas.

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