Recovering a shady memory. The communist movement and the transformations of the extreme Spanish left wing.

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to partially recover a lost memory of the revolutionary left-wing parties in Spain, answering questions about their origins, their agenda, their organisational characteristics, the vicissitudes of their history and their relationship with the alternative currents in today's left wing. Accordingly, we first present the roots of the extreme European left wing and its characteristics as it emerged, giving an unequivocal family resemblance to its varied revolutionary spin-offs throughout Europe. Against this common backdrop, certain particularities set the extreme Spanish left apart from the others. These are described in the second section, whose theme is the specific evolution of the Communist movement. Once parliamentary democracy was established two alternative paths opened up for these political groups: the one that attracted the majority led to a silent, almost shameful extinction; the other, taken up by fewer travellers, offered the chance for survival and continuity. Various organisations opted to continue working actively, although they chose different ways of doing this: taking refuge in armed struggle or continuing to change. Such was the case of MC, whose acronym has disappeared from the political panorama, although its memory lives on through a group of organisations that proclaim themselves to be heirs to its experience and legacy.