The «invention» of the Socialist Tradition. The History of the Spanish Socialist Workers

Abstract

Between May and October 1976, the re-born Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (renovated sector) called upon History in order to affirm its independence and reinforce its identity at a time when the great transformations taking place within the party (and within Spanish society as a whole) had actually weakened the social patterns for which the «old» traditions had been designed. The Socialist directive searched amongst their political predecessors for role models of leadership, archetypal figures that might be useful for the contemporary purposes of the party. The 5th December 1976 saw the opening of the 27th Congress of PSOE, the first to be celebrated in Spain after the long dictatorship; it has also been labeled the most «radical» in the history of Spanish Socialism, and yet even within the pages of El Socialista (the PSOE’s official journal), the «memory» of the party had been reconstructed upon the foundations of moderation and pragmatism.