Figure 1.-- Little boy with the Steel (Acero) battalion cap from the Union of Proletarian Brothers (UHP). The photograph was taken in Madrid during October 1936. The UHP was an activist labor group in the Spanish province of Asturias that took part in the Asturian miners' strike of 1934. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, many UHP members fought on the Republican side. A song celebrating the group was written during the strike, was recorded by Ernst Busch in 1936 while in the Soviet Union. Click on the image for the Uou Tube recording.

The Republican faction (Bando republicano) more commonly known the Loyalists (Bando leal / gubernamental) supported the established government of the Second Spanish Republic. The Spanish goivernment moved to ghe left with the electoral victory of the Popular Front (liberals, socislists, and communists) in the 1936 klction. The name Republicans (republicanos), was mainly used by the goivernment supporters. Histoirians today tend to use the term Loyalists. The REpublican opponents used the derogatory term Rojos (Reds) to refer to them. The Republic after much of the Army went over to Franco had to build a popular army as best it could with civilian volunteers and militarized militia forces. Workers from the major cities orgnized into militia groups became a mainstay of the Republic's forces. The Republic was also supported by Basque and Catalan nationalists. The Republican government in Vitoria began a reorganization process of the fragmented Army (October 1936). The reorganized army became the People's Republican Army (Ejército Popular de la República -- EPR). It was mde up of the Spanish Republican Army units that remained loyal to the Republic and militia members who were integrated into the new military structure. Unions played a major role in organing militias. They collaborated with other republican groups opposed to the Nationalists. The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) after periods of clandestine operation and legalization was finally legalized (1936). THey were afilited with the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (Iberian Anarchist Federation -- FAI). Members of the CNT would form part of the Republicn Government, holding ministrial posts and other high positions within the administration. The Unión General de Trabajadores (General Union of Workers -- UGT) ws the major Spanish trade union association, y affiliated with the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). The militias they fornmed oulkd be the mainstay of the Reoublican fiorces.

Created: 12:31 AM 11/18/2018
Last updated: 12:31 AM 11/18/2018