Have you heard of FRAPs? They had a relevant role in our history that is worth knowing. If they are unknown to you, it will be good for you to review history with this post, where we talk about FRAP: history and evolution with a Summary very interesting.
Recently, an element belonging to the Recent History of Spain has returned (if it had gone away!), given the convulsive and delicate political situation that it is going through, politically speaking. Largely thanks to the difficult or complicated situation that not only the government will have to face, but also the millions of Spanish citizens who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In times like these, when politicians should unite more in pursuit of the common good of an entire country (or isn’t that the ultimate goal of politicians?), shadows of the past often return to some members instead. of the government or of the opposition: past that is projected in the present of such individuals.
One of those pasts that mark the course of the present is that of Pablo Iglesias, leader of the political formation United We Can, a left-wing party that advocates, among many other things, such as social justice, republicanism, a point in common with his father, Javier Iglesias Pelaezwho, in fact, fought for the reestablishment of the republic militating in the FRAP at a time when the conflict was still more alive than now (or maybe not?).
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Who are the FRAP?
FRAP stands for Revolutionary Anti-Fascist and Patriot Front. (although the letter P sometimes stands for Patriotic) is an organization that operated from 1973 to 1978 that has its ideological foundations in four pillars:
-Anti-Francoism: that is, the strong opposition to the dictatorship established by General Francisco Franco after the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Civil War will put an end to the brief Spanish republican parenthesis, second, after many years of monarchy.
-Republicanism: as we mentioned above, it is a movement that yearned for the time of the second Spanish republic, a brief period in which Spain went from a monarchical model to a republican model, in this case, very close to related ideologies to the left of the political spectrum.
The debate on republicanism in Spain extends to the present day and although monarchical prestige points towards decline, there is still an immense number of Spanish citizens who support the monarchical system or, as a result, consider a change in the political model unnecessary.
So even though initially republicanism has nothing to do with political ideologiesin fact, a right-wing person can be a republican (yes, he should be more liberal than conservative, if we follow the established concepts to the letter), the period of the second Spanish republic was ideologically biased by ideals more close to Marxism. The FRAPtherefore, can be considered as a defender of that specific model of republic.
-Marxism-Leninism: as we stated above, the ideology of the FRAP is rather close to the Soviet model of a republic than the North American, to give an example.
-Anti-revisionism: this is another ideological evidence that we could associate with the fact of yearning for a rather specific model of a republic, since anti-revisionists are those who firmly oppose Marxist revisionism and, therefore, defend the governments of Stalin, Mao or Hoxha, in In other words, his vision is rather that of a radical left and, in a certain way, conservative (he wants to avoid new ideas that reinterpret Marx, such as those of Trotsky).
The best known members of the FRAP are:
- Elena Ódona (pseudonym of Benita Ganuza): founder of the Marxist-Leninist PCE.
- Raul Marco
- Julio Alvarez del Vayo
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History of the FRAP
The 70’s They are the scene of the appearance of radical Marxist-Leninist movements around the worldwho sought the implementation of models rather close to that of the Soviet Union (remember that the world was divided into two sides by the Cold War), thus, for example, the FRAP arisesas a split from the Spanish Communist Party.
The beginning of the 1970s also posed political difficulties for regimes such as the Franco regime, watertight, in which the division between revisionists and conservatives of pure Francoism was very clear. Despite these internal divisions, Franco’s repression did not stop: between student demonstrations, during which the one that led to the death of the young student Enrique Ruano, a series of sentences in which anti-regime militants were sentenced to 223 years of prison (Trials of Burgos) and, in addition, an attack on the Bar Association, the FRAP will see its birth in 1973, at a meeting in Italy.
The key date of the FRAP was May 1, 1973, that is, during Labor Day, for the murder of Juan Antonio Fernández Gutiérrez: in response to such an act, a violent response was made, acts that we would classify as terrorists and, as defined by some experts, revolutionary violence.
The truth is that, despite the murder of Carrero Blanco by the terrorist group ETA and the carnation revolutionwhich led the FRAP to think that Spain was prepared for the revolutionary path (that is, the coronation of Juan Carlos had to be avoided), the population was quite inactive, leaving the Front isolated.
Francoist Spain, what do you know about it?
Evolution of the FRAP
This is how a movement that, initially anti-Francoist, that even promoted the foundation or creation of movements such as the People’s Union of Democratic Teachers or People’s Union of Artists. After the radicalization of the general Spanish panorama (as a result, to a large extent, of the Burgos Process) they would end up as a radical terrorist group.
Its stage of greatest activity -of revolutionary violence- goes from 1973 to 1975, however, since that radicalization began, the FRAP began to weaken, since many of its members did not agree with violent acts.
On August 26, 1975, the FRAP ended up joining the terrorist groups against which war was declared by means of the new anti-terrorist decree-law: such a decree would lead to torture, executions and, in turn, more attacks.
Nor will they find light in the transition from dictatorship to democracy: will be excluded from the Transition, of which they also did not want to be a part. Thus, since the 1980s it will be a very marginalized and small group that will officially dissolve in 1992 (although the PCE dissolved them in 1978).
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