Rafael Font Farran facts for kids
Rafael Font Farran (born May 26, 1912, in Sitges, Spain – died November 19, 2003, in Auxerre, France) was a Spanish politician and journalist. He helped start the Catalan left-wing party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC). Later, he joined the Spanish left-wing POUM party when the Spanish Civil War began.
He was put in prison in 1937. After the war ended, he moved to France. There, he became active in both French and Spanish left-wing politics. He was also a member of the Fourth International, a group of communist parties. Rafael Font Farran wrote books about Spanish history, Catalan nationalism, and his own life.
Contents
Early Life and Political Beginnings (1928-1931)
In 1928, Rafael Font Farran started a student magazine in Barcelona called L’Estudiant. After just four issues, the government led by Miguel Primo de Rivera banned it. The magazine was against the dictatorship.
In 1929, Font Farran was a leader in the student protests at the University of Barcelona. He helped create a left-wing student group called Esquerra Universitària. He also co-founded Palestra in April 1930, a youth group that supported Catalan identity.
In May 1930, he joined Estat Català, a political party led by Francesc Macia i Llussa. In August 1930, he published his first book, Paraules de Joventut, which was a political essay.
Font Farran was the youngest speaker at an important meeting of Catalan left-wing parties. This meeting, held in Barcelona in March 1931, led to the creation of the ERC party. Font Farran was one of its founders.
Right after Macià, the ERC president, announced the "Catalan Republic," Font Farran helped defend the Catalan Government building in Barcelona. This happened on the night of April 14, 1931. The ERC worried that Spanish troops might attack the building. A few weeks later, Font Farran started working for L’Opinió, a newspaper for the ERC. He was in charge of international news.
Debates and New Groups (1932-1933)
In 1932, Font Farran had a long debate with Joan Peiró Belis. Peiró was the editor of Solidaridad Obrera, a newspaper for the CNT union. Font Farran wrote three articles in L'Opinió, and Peiró wrote four in Solidaridad Obrera.
During the summer of 1932, Font Farran worked in Madrid. He was the private secretary for Lluís Companys i Jover. Companys was a member of the Spanish Parliament and a leader of the ERC. He later became the president of Catalonia.
In early 1933, Font Farran helped lead a plan for a new youth group within the ERC. It was called "Joventut Esquerrista." In October 1933, he helped create the PNRE, a new Catalan political party. This party formed after a disagreement with the ERC. He also helped start the "Provisional Committee" for the PNRE's youth group.
This new group aimed to compete with the JEREC (Joventuts de Esquerra Republicana Estat Català). Font Farran thought the JEREC was too extreme. However, the ERC leaders decided that JEREC would remain the only youth group for the party.
In December 1933, Spanish right-wing parties won the election. After this, Font Farran published a new political essay, La crisi de les esquerres. In it, he asked the divided Catalan left-wing parties to work together again.
Uprising and War (1934-1936)
On October 6, 1934, there was a Catalan uprising. Font Farran again helped defend the Catalan Government building in Barcelona, just like in 1931. Spanish troops took control of the building on October 7. Font Farran was arrested and put in prison, but he was later released.
In February 1936, Spanish left-wing parties won the election. After this, the Catalan Government hired Font Farran for its police headquarters (CGOP). His job was to censor foreign publications in Catalonia. Font Farran said the government did not want to "alarm" people with rumors of a military takeover against the Spanish Republic.
The Spanish Civil War started in July 1936. Soon after, Font Farran left the CGOP. He joined the left-wing, anti-Stalinist party POUM and its newspaper, La Batalla.
During the war, Font Farran worked as a journalist for La Batalla. This was the main newspaper for the POUM. George Orwell, the famous author of 1984, wrote in his book Homage to Catalonia that he read La Batalla when he fought with the POUM.
Imprisonment and Escape (1937-1939)
On June 16, 1937, Andreu Nin i Pérez, the leader of the POUM, was arrested. The Catalan police at that time were controlled by Stalin's supporters. Font Farran, as Nin's lawyer, went to the police headquarters to ask about Nin. He almost got arrested himself but managed to escape.
Later, as a lawyer for Nin's wife, Olga Pavlova Taareva, Font Farran filed a complaint. He said it suggested an unfair arrest "or a kidnapping." In the summer of 1937, he opened a law office in Barcelona. This office defended POUM members who were in prison. He rented the offices in his name. These offices were secretly used by the POUM, which was now banned.
In October 1937, Font Farran was arrested in Barcelona. He was giving out a POUM leaflet protesting the death of a POUM member. He was put in the Modelo prison in Barcelona. He was in the "second gallery," where POUM prisoners were kept. He was chosen as the "president" of this gallery. Many POUM members, both Spanish and foreign, were imprisoned there. George Orwell might have been imprisoned there too if he hadn't escaped arrest in Barcelona.
Later, Font Farran was moved to a different prison. It was a "labor camp No. 3" in the village of Els Omells de na Gaia, about 100 kilometers from Barcelona. He was then tried in Barcelona by a special court. He was sentenced to six years in prison because he was a member of the POUM.
In January 1939, the Spanish Civil War was ending. Font Farran, along with other prisoners from Modelo prison, escaped to Northern Catalonia. This area was under French control. He was put in the camp of Saint-Cyprien. But he escaped a few days after arriving. He then lived in Belgium for about a year.
Life in Exile (1940s)
In May 1940, Germany attacked. Font Farran, with other exiles in Belgium, was moved to the camp of Gurs in southwest France. Again, he escaped after a few weeks. Soon after, in Paris, he joined the French Resistance against the German army. He joined the PCI (Parti Communiste Internationaliste).
In 1943, he left this party. It had been renamed CCI (Comité communiste Internationaliste pour la Quatrième Internationale). He had been a member of its central committee. He then joined the POI (Parti ouvrier internationaliste), which was the French part of the Fourth International.
Within the POI, he was a leader of the GTE. This group brought together Spanish members of the Fourth International. From 1943 onwards, he represented Spain in the European Secretariat of the Fourth International. As part of this group, he helped organize the difficult merger of the POI and the CCI in March 1944. He was also a Spanish delegate at two important conferences: the European Conference of the Fourth International in February 1944 in Picardy, and the Second International Conference of the Fourth International in Paris in March 1946.
Later Years and Return to Spain
In 1951, Font Farran disagreed with a new plan by the Fourth International. For several years, he worked on creating an anti-Stalinist Spanish communist party. He worked with former Stalinist leader José del Barrio Navarro. They also had financial help from Yugoslavia, led by Tito.
A few years later, he rejoined the POUM. In the spring of 1961, he became a member of its executive committee. But in 1962, he disagreed with the party's direction. He resigned from the committee and finally left the POUM.
The next year, after 24 years of living in exile, he returned to Spain. There, he started writing articles for weekly magazines like Tele/Estel and L’Eco de Sitges. In 1956, he was hired by Agence France Presse. He worked there as a journalist on the Spanish-language team in Paris until he retired in 1977.
Font Farran wrote his life story in a book called Anys agitats ("Stirring Years"). His oldest son, Rafael Font Vaillant, published a book about his father in 2014.
Works
- Paraules de Joventut, Edicions Ariel, 1930.
- La crisi de les esquerres, Llibreria Catalònia, 1933.
Sources
- Font Vaillant, Rafael (2014), ¡Adelante, adelante!, Editions Vilar. (ISBN: 978-2-910395-08-7)
- Alexander, Robert J. (1991), International Trotskyism 1929–1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement, Duke University Press. (ISBN: 0-8223-0975-0)
- Figueras i Sabater, Arnau (2005), Història de la FNEC: la Federació Nacional d'Estudiants de Catalunya de 1932 a 1986, Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat. (ISBN: 84-8415-681-8)
- Guillamón, Agustín (1996), Documentación histórica del trosquismo español, 1936-1948 : de la Guerra Civil a la ruptura con la IV Internacional, Ediciones de la Torre. (ISBN: 84-7960-130-2)
- Ivern i Salvà, M. Dolors (1988), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, 1931-1936, Publicacions de l’Abadia de Montserrat. (ISBN: 84-7202-954-9)
- Prager, Rodolphe (1981), L'Internationale dans la guerre, 1940-1946, Editions La Brèche. (ISBN: 2-902524-18-8)
See also
In Spanish: Rafael Font Farran para niños
