Socialist Workers Party of Spain

(PSOE; El Partido Socialista Obrero Español), an organization founded May 2, 1879, in Madrid by a group of former members of the Spanish Federation of the First International. The party was illegal until 1881. It was behind the creation of the General Union of Workers. In 1888 the party’s first congress was held in Barcelona; it adopted a program whose most important demands were a turnover of political power to the working people and the socialization of all means of production and circulation. With the coming of the era of imperialism, the Socialist Party gradually turned into a party of social reforms. In April 1921 the left wing split away and formed the Spanish Communist Workers’ Party, which in November 1921 united with the Spanish Communist Party into a single Communist Party of Spain.

With the establishment of the dictatorship of M. Primo de Rivera (1923), the Socialist Party leadership embarked on the path of collaboration with the dictatorship, but as the an-timonarchist movement grew the party joined the opposition bloc and took part in the overthrow of the monarchy (1931). In January 1936 the party joined the Popular Front. During the civil war the Socialist leaders F. Largo Caballero and J. Negrin headed governments of republican Spain. Some Socialist leaders took part, however, in Casado’s coup d’etat (March 1939), which directly contributed to the fall of the republic.

After the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in the country, the party was banned (1939). Party members are involved in the anti-Franco opposition movement.

The Socialist Party belongs to the Socialist International. The party’s leadership is in Toulouse, France. The central organ is El Socialista.