POUM

The Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista, POUM; Partit Obrer d'Unificació Marxista) was a Spanish communist political party formed during the Second Republic and mainly active around the Spanish Civil War. It was formed by the fusion of the Trotskyist Communist Left of Spain (Izquierda Comunista de España, ICE) and the Workers and Peasants' Bloc (BOC, affiliated with the Right Opposition) against the will of Leon Trotsky, with whom the former broke. The writer George Orwell served with the party and witnessed the Stalinist repression of the movement, which would form his anti-totalitarian ideas in later life.

Formation
In 1935, POUM was formed as a communist opposition to Stalinism by the revolutionaries Andreu Nin and Joaquín Maurín. The two were heavily influenced by the thinking of Leon Trotsky, particularly his Permanent Revolution thesis. It resulted from the merging of the Trotskyist Communist Left of Spain and the Workers and Peasants' Bloc against the wishes of Trotsky, with whom the former broke.

Position
The party grew larger than the official Communist Party of Spain (PCE) both nationally and in the communist hotbeds of Catalonia and the Valencian Country, where the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) represented the PCE. The POUM was highly critical of the Popular Front strategy advocated by Joseph Stalin and the Comintern; nevertheless, it participated in the Spanish Popular Front initiated by Manuel Azaña, leader of Acción Republicana. The POUM attempted to implement some of its radical policies as part of the Popular Front government, but they were resisted by the more centrist factions.

George Orwell, who fought with the POUM in the civil war, reports that its membership was roughly 10,000 in July 1936, 70,000 in December 1936, and 40,000 in June 1937, although he notes that the numbers are from POUM sources and are probably exaggerated.

Conflict with the Popular Front
The POUM's independent communist position, including opposition to Stalin, caused huge ruptures with the PCE, which remained fiercely loyal to the Comintern. Moreover, these divisions, which included accusations of Trotskyism (and even Fascism) by the Communists, resulted in actual fighting between their supporters; most notably, in 1937, a primarily-Communist coalition of government forces attacked the POUM during the Barcelona May Days. While the larger CNT  initially supported the POUM, its more militant members—such as Juan García Oliver and the Friends of Durruti—were pushed towards conciliation by the moderate leadership. This left the POUM, along with the purely Trotskyist Seccion Bolshevik-Leninista, isolated, and both organizations were driven underground. Nin was detained and tortured to death by NKVD agents in Madrid, and his party consistently labeled as provocateur in Stalinist propaganda.

Unlike the other leftist parties of the Popular Front, the POUM was never reconstituted during or after the Spanish transition to democracy.

International links
The POUM was a member of the "London Bureau" of socialist parties that rejected both the reformism of the Second International and the pro-Moscow orientation of the Third International. Other members included the Independent Labour Party in Britain, the Workers and Peasants' Socialist Party (PSOP) in France, and Poale Zion. Its youth wing was affiliated to the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations, through which it recruited the ILP Contingent in the Civil War. Foreign supporters of POUM during the Civil War included Lois Orr.

Cultural references
British author George Orwell fought alongside members of the Independent Labour Party as part of POUM militias; he recounted the experience in his book Homage to Catalonia. Likewise, the film Land and Freedom, directed by Ken Loach, tells of a group of POUM soldiers fighting in the war from the perspective of a British member of the British Communist Party. In particular, the film deals with his disillusionment with the Soviet Union's policies in the war.

The POUM is briefly mentioned in Joe Haldeman's science fiction novel The Forever War as a militia where "(y)ou obeyed an order only after it had been explained in detail; you could refuse if it didn't make sense."