Workers' internationalism in the face of the Great War: Spanish socialism, between division and the reconstruction of the international order (1914-1919).

Abstract

The article analyzes the positions of Spanish socialism, union and political, before the scenario that generated the First World War: the conflict caused the first great fracture of workers' internationalism and, during its development, the triumph of the Soviet Revolution materialized. The analysis of the positions of the Spanish socialists during the war period -and especially, of the Ugetistas-, in the face of the complicated restructuring of socialist internationalism and the construction of the new world order, allows us to investigate the causes that led Spanish socialism to its commitment to reformism and to the Western order between the wars, which recognized, for the first time in history, the importance of the world of work on a global scale.

As primary sources, the funds of the socialist internationals kept in the Institute of Social History of Amsterdam and documentary sources of the PSOE and the UGT of the Pablo Iglesias Foundation have been used, as well as sources from the newspaper library, fundamentally, the organ of expression of the party and union, El Socialista. The evolution of the international panorama and the action of the most representative national centrals have been related to the speeches and practical action of the socialists of our country. The tour concludes with the absolute imbrication of the Spanish in the new socialist internationalism, built and adapted to develop in the world that emerged from the Treaty of Versailles, and with the strengthening of its internationalist side.