N. 10 (2017)

Orwell’s “Homage to Catalonia” is almost certainly the most sold and most read book about the Spanish Civil War. However, its political analysis and prediction is deeply flawed by his acceptance of the partisan views of anarchist and POUM comrades as well as ignorance of the wider context. Yet the book’s influence on perceptions of the Spanish Civil War is massive. There are many reasons for suggesting that should not be seen as the definitive interpretation of Republican defeat in the Spanish Civil War. Alongside many examples of ignorance and error, there are also some significant omissions.

George Orwell; Spanish Civil War

The architects at the end of the Franco period, between the professional crisis and the political-social commitment

Céline Vaz

From the end of the 1960s, architects appear as the spearhead of urban criticism in Spain. They offer an emblematic example of the role in the Spanish transition of «New professionals» (architects, doctors, lawyers, etc.) who shared youth, politicization and commitment for the general interest. This commitment was partly explained by generational and political causes, but these explanations cannot be examined independently of their own professional problems. In this context, the economic and social transformations of “Desarrollismo”, and the real estate boom that accompanies it, will bring prosperity to the professional group, given the peak of commissions that it means. However, it will also exacerbate professional problems that contribute to the loss of prestige of the profession. Given this, several professional sectors, especially the younger ones who suffer more from these problems and reject it with greater force, will impose the need to renew the social mission of the profession putting it at the service of society. This article aims to demonstrate, through the example of the architects, the interest of a long-term study -from the postwar period- of certain groups better understand the causes of the political and social opposition to the dictatorship.

Francoism; Urbanism; Architects; Political-Social Commitment

A comparison of the management of the traumatic past under the socialist mandate in Spain (1982-1996) and in Greece (1981-1989)

Magdalini Fytili

This article explores the ways in which the two government socialist parties, in Spain (PSOE, 1982-1996) and in Greece (PASOK, 1982-1989), have interpreted and dealt with the traumatic past of the civil war and its consequences in each country. It attempts to demonstrate that the construction of a political identity based on the past or on future, as well as the different political strategies constitute factors which determine, to a large extent, the ways of dealing with the past. Likewise, the different ways of dealing with the past can lead to the neutralization or the reactivation of the political mechanisms of the traumatic memory.

collective memory; politics of memory; political identity; Spanish civil war; Greek civil war; socialist parties; PSOE; PASOK

The role of land occupations in the MST structuring process (1984- 1995)

Rose Elke Debiasi

This article analysed the transformations performed in (and by) the Movement of Rural Landless Workers (MST, in Brazil) from the definition of the strategic and multiform nature of land occupation, such as form of struggle, instrument for the expansion of the Movement, formative space for militancy and element of distinction of other political organizations. Through the specialized literature and a series of interviews with the actors of this process, leaders who formulated and carried out countless land occupations during the 1980s, especially in the Brazilian Northeast, the conflicts, the deliberations, are discussed the relationship with the State and the material and symbolic achievements resulting from land occupations in the national territory.

MST; Land occupation; Militancy

The Rwandan diaspora in Belgium. Political actors in popular mobilizations

Firmin Dusabe

Rwandans living abroad, especially in Belgium, are grouped and divided into different cultural associations, political groups and NGOs depending on their ethnic origin. This division reproduces the divisions that existed at the time of the Tutsi genocide that took place in 1994. The fracture between ethnic groups is visible both in organizations and associations, which makes the notion of reconciliation still unrealistic for Rwandans seeing from the outside. Finally, the lack of a democratic political culture that may generate dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation from a position of ideological plurality and Rwanda’s multiculturalism threatens peaceful coexistence.

Rwandan diaspora; Belgium; transnational mobilization; civilian society; ethnic cleavage

The past present of the revolution. One hundred years after the Russian Revolution

Juan Andrade, Guillem Martínez

The subject chosen this time for the “debates and dialogues” section is that of the Russian Revolution. Throughout 2017, on the occasion of its centenary, many congresses have been organized at both national and international level. A large number of books have also appeared in the Spanish publishing market, more than fifty. It is true that, taking into account the authors and titles, the published works have a highly varied character. Thus, it includes re-editing of classical books written by protagonists of the revolution, historiographic works published before and which have been recovered nowadays, as well as the emergence of new research on this subject.

We thank the historian Juan Andrade and the journalist Guillem Martínez –co-editor the first and co-author the second of one of the books published on the occasion of the centenary of the revolution– who have accepted our proposal to lead this dialogue in Segle XX. It seems to us that the result is an exhilarating exchange of questions and reflections on the past and present of the revolution.