First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance Groups - History

History

At the beginning of 1976, two months after General Francisco Franco’s death, during the Spanish transition to democracy from dictatorship, the PCE-r began a struggle against the political reforms. The PCE(r) restructured itself into different commissions; one of these was a “front against fascism”, founded by Juan Carlos Delgado de Codex, which became the GRAPO.

This newly-born movement was named after the killing of four Spanish policemen on October 1, 1975, the first violent action of the PCE(r). The "Antifascist Resistance Groups October First" (GRAPO) took this date as a starting point as a terrorist organization. Only two months later, after five PCE(r) supporters were killed by the Spanish police during demonstrations in Vitoria, the PCE(r) told its sympathizers to take up arms and create the nucleus of a future Spanish “Red Army” which would be directed by a central command. A number of explosive devicess were detonated in different locations in Spain on July 18, 1976 and GRAPO claimed responsibility for the coordinated explosions in the press, becoming well-known overnight.

After the high-profile kidnapping of wealthy politician Antonio María de Oriol y Urquijo in 1976 and general Villaescusa in 1977, as well as the killing of more Spanish policemen, GRAPO became established as a terrorist group, in a similar manner as Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) had been in Francoist Spain.

Even though GRAPO increased its activity from 1979 onwards, it didn’t reach any of its goals and the sympathy the group had in left-wing circles waned during the 1980s. The transitional democratic regime was not destabilized and GRAPO didn’t appear to the Spanish public as a "heroic" communist group.

In 1984 the Spanish authorities issued an anti-terrorist law inspired by the Italian model which facilitated the operations of the police against GRAPO and many arrests followed. GRAPO reacted simplifying its structure while “waiting for better times”. It continued its clandestine activities at a lower level by means of mobile militants, which easily formed and easily split up, becoming difficult to detect.

As years passed by police intervention allowed serious blows to GRAPO's structure. Currently the group is basically inactive, yet not formally self-dissolved.