Frederic Samarra analyzes in his work the newspaper from Reus called Foment, as a spokesman of the Foment Nacionalista de Reus between 1906 and 1917. The work also serves to analyze the relations between workers and Catalan in Reus during the first two decades of the twentieth century and discuss historiographical interpretations of origins and the vertebration of political Catalanism.
The origins of the political catalanism and its vertebration is a debate still open today in Catalan historiography. Likewise, the links of Catalanism with the working class at the beginning of the 20th century continues to be an aspect that has been little studied, despite its importance in understanding its development. This research work aims to be a first approach, no doubt partially and necessarily framed within a broader project, the nationalist discourse in reference to an emerging phenomenon in this period as is the worker.
The research work is based on the emptying and study of Foment, the spokesperson publication of Foment Republicà Nacionalista de Reus, since its appearance in 1906 and until the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Thus, the period covers events and the emergence of sufficiently significant organizations such as Solidaritat Catalana, la Solidaritat Obrera, la Setmana Tràgica, la Unió Federal Nacionalista Republicana, the creation of the CNT and the Mancomunidad among others. There are several reasons that justify, in addition, the choice of this publication. In those years, the capital of Baix Camp was the second city of the Principality in number of inhabitants and was an industrial and commercial center of the first order. In its pages, writings of the most outstanding figures of Catalan progressive and nationalist republicanism were published, whether they were original or reproduced from the main nationalist publications such as, for example, El Poble Català. And in the last instance, the presence in Reus in these years of the socialist nucleus led by Josep Recasens and Mercadé, the most active of the Principality and that published La Justicia Social, organ of expression of the Catalan Socialists affiliated to the PSOE between 1909 and 1916. From here we want to point out the lack of studies in the field of the local press that would help without doubt to understand in more detail the different dynamics of the Catalonia of the period.
Starting from the buidatge of a total of 112 editorials and writings related to the worker’s thematic, they identify in fins zinc great themes that characterize the nationalist discourse of aquests anysts: the vindication of a progressive and democratic catalanism that turns out to be attractive to climbers ; the interpretation of the workers’ phenomenon in nationalist clau; l’intent not reeixit d’identifica nacionalisme amb socialisme; the critique of l’anarquisme; and, finally, the rebuig to the concept of social revolution and the defense of what could be called “Republican revolution”.
