Centrist Politics in the Spanish Province of Valencia January 1930 to August 1936
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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PARTIDO DE UNIÓN REPUBLICANA AUTONOMISTA: CENTRIST POLITICS IN THE SPANISH PROVINCE OF VALENCIA JANUARY 1930 TO AUGUST 1936 Submitted by Stephen Rodger Lynam to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, July 2018. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature……………………………………………………………………. 1 2 ABSTRACT This thesis is an interrogation of the impact of the Partido de Unión Republicana Autonomista (The Autonomist Republican Union Party or PURA) on the politics of the Spanish province of Valencia, and in turn on national politics, during the politically turbulent years of 1930-1936, the period which immediately preceded the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It was the most important Valencian political force and acted as de facto provincial affiliate of the Radical Party, a conservative republican party which was to play a crucial role in national politics. This study uses a wide range of documentary sources, including contemporary newspapers, official papers, and parliamentary records, supplemented by a number of interviews with participants in the events and in-depth case study reviews of two important settlements in the province together with detailed studies of electoral and land ownership data in a further three settlements. It is the first study which places the PURA within a broader provincial context, including the impact of the economic depression of the 1930s, the socio-economic structure of Valencian society, and land ownership patterns. Particular attention is paid to the PURA’s relationship with its major political rivals, the Radical Socialists (and subsequently Izquierda Republicana, the Republican Left party) to its left and the Derecha Regional Valenciana (The Valencian Regional Right or DRV) to its right. Nationally the main focus is on its relationship with the Radical Party. The PURA, with poor quality and corrupt leadership, failed to have any meaningful impact on the political trajectory of the Radical Party nationally and was unable to utilise the PURA’s undoubted popular support to stabilise and strengthen the Radical Party. In the province the PURA acted as the single most destabilising political force, creating a violent and meretricious political culture which shut down democratic discourse. In so doing it inadvertently helped undermine the more centrist forces within its political opponents, ensuring that the local Radical Socialists moved decisively leftwards, 3 providing a strong provincial basis for the subsequent creation of the Republican Left. To its right, by cheating the DRV of an important electoral victory, the PURA strengthened the anti-democratic forces within the DRV, which went on to become a key part of the conspiracy against the republican regime in the spring of 1936. The thesis discusses why the PURA, a purportedly centrist party, acted in a way so diametrically opposed to its apparent liberal democratic credo. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has been a long time in gestation. It has its genesis in an unfinished thesis on the Valencian political right commenced in 1973 at the University of Lancaster under Professor Emeritus Martin Blinkhorn. My life-long interest in Spain and love of Spanish history began with Martin’s wonderful teaching, and I remain immensely grateful to him. This thesis, which has a different focus, was commenced at the University of Exeter in 2012. I am equally grateful for the first-rate support I have received from both my current supervisors. Tim Rees, my first supervisor, has always made himself available, to discuss, support, and challenge the development of this work as it has progressed, contributing his vast specialist knowledge on the Republic. I have gained much help too from my second supervisor, Martin Thomas, whose contributions have always been incisive, challenging and extremely useful. Both kept faith in my abilities when I doubted. In the course of my research I have worked in a wide range of archives in Spain, at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam and at the National Archives in Kew. I have unfailingly found the archivists, too numerous to mention by name, to be knowledgeable and helpful. Their dedication and enthusiasm helped to keep me going when away from home for extended periods. Thanks too to my ‘thesis buddies’, Trevor Stone, Teresa Tinsley and Tim Hicks for their friendship and the benefit of their insights. I would also like to thank Graham Kelsey, Sid Lowe, Richard Purkiss, Ray Steele, Nigel Townson, Pablo Aparicio Durán and José Luis Pellicer for their stimulating conversations and valuable comments. Thanks also to Kate Stewart for typing up and proofing the surviving sections of my original (1970s) work which proved to be a very helpful starting point. Most importantly I would like to thank my wife, Fiona McFarlane, for reading and criticising this document and for putting up with me when the going got tough. Words cannot convey just how important she was to the work presented in this thesis seeing 5 the light of day. It is only fitting that I dedicate it to her. And I dedicate it also to the my son Tom and my daughter Kit and to the memory of my late parents, Patrick and Sylpha, who always encouraged me to follow my intellectual interests and gave me unfailing support. 6 CONTENTS ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................................. 13 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................... 14 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................ 15 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 17 (i) Overview ................................................................................................................ 17 (ii) Province of Valencia: Geography and Economy ................................................ 17 (iii) Province of Valencia: Political Background ........................................................ 24 (iv) Literature Review................................................................................................... 26 (v) The PURA in the Republic: a brief summary ....................................................... 43 (vi) Thesis chapter outline .......................................................................................... 47 1 THE PURA: CENTRISM, POPULISM, REPUBLICANISM AND PARTY ORGANISATION ................................................................................................................ 53 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 53 1.2 Centrism .................................................................................................................... 53 1.3 The PURA as a ‘Particularist’ Party .......................................................................... 58 1.4 PURA Populism ......................................................................................................... 63 1.5 ‘Belt out la Marseillaise and vote blasquista’: PURA Republicanism .................... 66 1.6 Formal Structure of the PURA .................................................................................. 68 1.7 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 70 7 2 ‘HOURS OF TRANSITION’: THE COMING OF THE REPUBLIC IN VALENCIA. ....... 75 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 75 2.2 ‘To Achieve the Triumph of Our Ideals’: the PURA Reorganises........................... 76 2.3 A Party in Search of a Programme ........................................................................... 79 2.4 The Struggle for the Leadership of the PURA: Fernando Valera and the Rise of Sigfrido Blasco .................................................................................................................. 83 2.5 ‘We Must Cease to be a Crowd and Become an Army!’: the DRV is Born ........... 89 2.6 ‘Authority, Property, Liberty, Family, Regionalism and Defence of the Economy’: the Struggle for a Rightist ‘United Front’ ..................................................... 91 2.7 ‘War against the Current Régime which has Ruined the Country’: the Republican Propaganda Drive ......................................................................................... 92 2.8 ‘Our Dear Colleague, El Pueblo of Valencia’: the PURA and the CNT ................... 93 2.9 The Municipal Elections of April 1931 and the Fall of the Monarchy ..................... 95 2.10 Conclusion ............................................................................................................