Civil War
Solano became secretary general of the JCI (Iberian Communist Youth) in September 1935, after having joined the POUM and spent time in Valencia as a delegate of the POUM's Executive Committee, where he helped found the weekly El Comunista (The Communist). After the eruption of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 Solano represented the JCI in the Executive Committee of the POUM and headed the weekly Juventud Comunista (Communist Youth). In November 1936 he was elected secretary general of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Socialist Youth.
Solano managed to escape from the clashes between the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia and POUM on June 16, 1937. He helped found the second Executive Committee of the POUM with other fugitive poumistas. In harshly repressive conditions, this committee organized a resistance to the persecution of the POUM and an international campaign supporting Nin and other jailed leaders. During this period he edited the underground journal, Juventud Obrera (Working Youth).
In April 1938 he was detained along with other POUM leaders and placed in Barcelona State Prison by Communist-directed government authorities. He was to be included in the second trial of the POUM, which never occurred thanks to the fall of Barcelona to Francoist forces. In February 1939, Solano entered France.
Read more about this topic: Wilebaldo Solano
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“The principle of majority rule is the mildest form in which the force of numbers can be exercised. It is a pacific substitute for civil war in which the opposing armies are counted and the victory is awarded to the larger before any blood is shed. Except in the sacred tests of democracy and in the incantations of the orators, we hardly take the trouble to pretend that the rule of the majority is not at bottom a rule of force.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)