OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH WORK:
This work arises from the interest to know and deepen the evolution of Catalan socialism within the secrecy imposed by the Franco regime. It is necessary to be very present an outstanding element, the nonexistence of a party that acts like agglutinating of the different Catalan socialist currents. The Socialist Movement of Catalonia (MSC), which had been born in 1945 with the aim of regrouping Catalan socialism, will suffer its most serious crisis in 1966. A crisis that will suppose a radical break, for specifically political reasons, tactical level and at strategic level; an unprecedented split that will also lead to the delay, until 1978, of the process of articulation of a great socialist party in Catalonia, and that it will also include the addition of the Catalan Federation of the PSOE: the Socialist Party of Catalonia ( PSC-PSOE).
The present research paper seeks to collect, on the one hand, the historiographic vision around the MSC: to know its background, to deepen its organizational duality - from exile and from interior -, as well as analyze what has It has been its internal evolution. On the other hand, it intends to deal with the crises that crossed the Movement considered more important (around the 1950s, 1966 and 1968), although it wants to focus on analyzing the most serious crisis of the MSC that will lead to the breakup of August 1966. The present work places its chronological limit on the self-dissolution of the MSC, in the Constituent Congress of the PSC-Congress (1976), once it had fulfilled its historical and political function. There was still a long way to go until reaching the Congress of Unity, in 1978, where the Partido de los Socialistas de Cataluña (PSC-PSOE) was constituted
DOCUMENTARY FUNDS CONSULTATIONS:
The Historical Archive of the Rafael Campalans Foundation, linked to the PSC, brings together materials on the history of socialism in Catalonia. The Historical Archive is organized into four sections: documentary collections of people and political organizations, newspaper library, audiovisual archive and posters archive. A specialized bibliographic fund serves as support for the Archive. The Campalans Foundation provides most of the material that has allowed this work to be carried out. Within the section of the Personal Funds of the Archive, I have been able to consult three that have proved to be of great value to carry out the research: the Joan Reventós collection, organized into two registers: archive and documentation, where basic documentation of the History of the MSC and political organizations and social movements from the year 1942 until the year 1977. The Joan Soler fund (archive and documentation) has diverse documentation of the MSC, published and unpublished. Finally, the Josep Rovira fund comprises from 1943 to 1966 and collects the documentation of the personal file of Rovira on the MSC. The Joan Soler Fund and the Joan Reventós Fund have been the basis of the documentation that I have used to prepare this research work.
Other documentary funds consulted must also be mentioned:
In the first place, the CEHI Republic Pavilion: Personal Funds: FP (Josep Marlés): especially the finding of the Interior Bulletin, nº 1 and 2, of June and July of 1966, that offered a very different and critical perspective to the reports that arrived from France in the hands of Pallach. Other inquiries: A / - Palafrugell Municipal Archive: Josep Pallach Fund that compiles documentation between 1960 and 1977: it only refers to the stage of the Reagrupament and the PSC-Reagrupament. B / - Conversation with Teresa Juvé, widow of Pallach. C / - Consult with Laura Durendes, coordinator of the Archive of the Campalans Foundation.
LES DIVERSES MIRADES DE LA HISTORIOGRAFIA ENTORN A L’ESCISSIÓ DE L’MSC DE 1966.
És a partir de la data del Congrés de la Unitat, juliol de 1978, quan va néixer el Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya (PSC-PSOE), que s’acreixerà l’interès per a conèixer les arrels, la vida i la història contemporània del socialisme català i quan es demanarà la reconstrucció de la seva trajectòria més recent. Entre els treballs i les síntesis més interessants que, en conjunt, s’han escrit sobre la trajectòria de l’MSC, caldria destacar la important contribució de la Fundació Rafael Campalans amb les obres de: José Luis Martín Ramos, l’autor més prolífic i que ocuparà el lloc de director o coordinador de la producció de la Fundació, Isidre Molas –president de la Fundació-, Ramón Alquézar, Jordi Font, Albert Balcells… Aquests autors s’han ocupat de proporcionar una visió de la història del socialisme català al llarg del segle XX. A més a més, uns altres historiadors han abordat les possibles relacions i connexions que va anar establint el socialisme català. Parlem d’algunes de les obres de: Abdón Mateos, David Ballester, Gabriel Colomé, Josep Mª Colomer… Hi ha un altre tipus d’obres que ens proporcionen un vessant més testimonial, especialment, algunes de les produccions que recorden la vida i l’ideari de Pallach i de Reventós, noms centrals d’aquesta crisi. Cal recollir en aquest apartat les obres de: Antònia Pallach, Pere Meroño, Baltasar Porcel, José Martí Gómez, Glòria Rubiol…
Segons la historiografia tres eixos bàsics marquen les divergències:
A/- La qüestió sindical: des de l’MSC-Exterior s’impulsa l’ASO (integrat per UGT, CNT i SOC). L’MSC-Interior recolza les CCOO i/o USO.
B/- La política unitària: l’Interior és partidari d’integrar el PSUC en els organismes antifranquistes i l’Exterior s’oposa.
C/- La política d’unitat socialista: L’Exterior promou la creació d’un partit interclassista d’àmplia base (SODCS). L’Interior vol agrupar el socialisme a partir d’una base marxista.
D/- Altres discrepàncies: La consideració per part de Pallach d’una marcada deriva esquerrana de l’MSC-Interior; la proposta, afavorida també per Pallach, d’impulsar la participació des de dintre del règim Franquista a través de la CNS i dels ajuntaments; la petició de l’Interior de dirigir el Moviment des de Catalunya…
Caldria endinsar-se i explorar més enllà de la tesi tradicional entorn l’escissió de l’MSC, d’agost de 1966, a l’hora de buscar i d’analitzar possibles evidències que poguessin reflectir altres divergències internes. Hauríem d’aprofundir quin va ser el paper i quina incidència van tenir els desacords i les diferències internes, sobretot d’organització i control del Moviment, entre l’exili i l’interior, en la crisi interna de l’MSC de 1966. Hauríem de conèixer si l’existència, dins l’MSC, d’una dualitat organitzativa, amb una direcció dividida i compartida amb dos Consells Generals, -a l’interior i a l’exili, que es reunien, periòdicament, buscant actuacions comunes a través del Consell Coordinador- va comportar, sobretot al llarg dels anys 60, un augment dels desacords polítics que acabaran provocant la ruptura del 66.
RECEIVED FROM THE RESEARCH:
By way of conclusion we could point out one of the central aspects of the research, around the split of the MSC of 1966, which can mean a nuance to everything that had been published so far. There are a number of factors that should be considered prominent elements, which mix political and organic disagreements and discrepancies, which caused the split of the Movement:
A) Outstanding factors:
The continued internal crisis of the Movement that manifests itself in its persistence over the years. Note: 1945, 1950, 1966, 1968.
The determining element of the rupture was the struggle for the political control of the Movement, which manifested itself through organic problems and political divergences.
The beginning of the end was the application, from the Outside, of the political line approved by the Coordination Congress in August 1965.
The support that will be made by the Secretary's Office to group the socialist and democratic left (SODSC) accelerates the split.
The possibility of Pallach: the possible participation in the elections of the CNS and the city councils to democratize the regime from within, is considered treason on the part of the Interior.
The organizational duality and the secondary role of the Interior.
Personal confrontations: The case Lluís Torres, Rodolf Guerra and Amadeu Cuito will become a warning of the Interior for the support of the Exterior in the SODSC. Subsequently, the case Jordi Costa and Josep Jové becomes the answer of the Overseas with the intention of curbing the aspirations of the Interior to direct the MSC through a single Executive.
Unitary policy: yes of the Interior and not of the Outside to include the PSUC within the anti-Franco organizations.
The union question: the impulse of the ASO from the Outside in front of the support of the CCOO and of USO by the Interior.
Pallach distrusts the leftist drift of the MSC-Interior.
Secondary factors:
The Exterior makes it difficult for the MSC-Interior approach to other socialist groups (FOC).
Relations with Federalist-like peninsular socialism: the outside only coordination; Interior willing to establish organic ties.
Reply and opposition to the leadership of Pallach: criticisms centered on the total control of the party apparatus and of Endavant, a management too personalistic and absolutist, and finally a biased and fractional political orientation.
Others: economic situation and distribution of the received aids, international relations of the Movement, the different perceptions of living in exile or within the dictatorship ...
PROPOSALS ON THE CONTINUATION OF RESEARCH:
Some of the possible lines that should be used to give new perspectives to this research could be materialized from these two major sections:
A) The MSC AS A PLACE OF CONFLUENCE OF CATALAN SOCIALISM:
Since its birth the MSC wanted to bring together all the currents of Catalan socialism. We need to ask ourselves and analyze if the Movement actually achieved a political constitution, internal cohesion and a democratic functioning that could allow transforming the MSC into the point of reference of the various Catalan socialist tendencies and thus become truly a synthesis organization In relation to this possible structuring of Catalan socialism through the Movement, we should also consider whether the history of the MSC is marked by a crisis of identity: the birth of the Movement coincides with the crisis of the POUM, the 50's the crisis is related to the transformation of the movement in the party and the type of socialism that was wanted to define, the 66 suffers the most serious split of its history and in 1968, already from the Interior, a part of the CG requests the dissolution of Movement It would be necessary to investigate and deepen in the trajectory of the MSC to find out if the different sensibilities that coexist within the Movement - that oscillate between the Marxist socialism, majority to the Interior, and a clear defense, from the Outside, from a purely social-democratic perspective, made it impossible to turn the Movement into the center of the regrouping of the Catalan leftists.
B) CONVERT THE MSC IN THE HEGEMICAL FORCE OF CATALONIA:
Throughout the Republican stage, ERC was the hegemonic political force of Catalonia. It would be necessary to determine if during the passage of I exile existed the pretension on the part of the Movement to move ERC like most representative party of Catalonia and to occupy its place.
Likewise, we should mention the changes that were taking place in Western Europe, from the end of World War II, with a process of gradual transformation that led to the change of some of the liberal-led government majors for some others configured from democratic socialism. We should analyze whether the leaders of the MSC were aware of this change in trend and tried to turn the Movement into the backdrop of the future socialist party that should become central and preeminent in a future democratic Catalonia.
