"Moreover, Catalan liberals, although relatively more modern than the rest of progressive republicanism in Spain, still lacked adequate experi- ence and understanding of what the arduous task of grass roots political organization required. What was needed, then, on the wild new frontier of political life in post-revolutionary Catalonia, was a new kind of party, able to mobilize its base `bottom-up' (taking a leaf out of the CNT's book) and also unafraid to enter the fray because it had no pre-existing organizational stakes or power base to protect - only everything to gain.
"The political force which emerged to fill this political space was the PSUC (United Socialist Party of Catalonia), formed on 23 July 1936 from the merger of four smaller parties. Although the tiny Catalan section of the official (i.e. Communist International- aligned) Communist Party was one of the four, the tendency in both the AngloAmerican historiography and other literature (including Orwell) to present the PSUC as the Communist Party of Catalonia tout court is highly problematic. By far the most important numerical and ideological com-ponent in the PSUC was the Unió Socialista de Catalunya, a Catalan social democra- tic party headed by the ambitious Joan Comorera.
"Prior to the war the party merger had stalled on Comorera's refusal to accept PSUC affiliation to the Communist International (Comintern). But his reluctance evaporated in the wake of the July Days. Now, for Comorera, as for the entire liberal left in Catalonia, the overwhelming need was to mount a common defence of social `normality'. The organizational expertise and resources of the Comintern could only facilitate this process. Moreover, now the Comintern was every-where espousing politically middle-of-the- road alliances between liberals, socialists and communists as part of its Popular Front strategy, then affiliation must have seemed a small price to pay. "
From another source, a description of Red Barcelona.
The incident known as "Red Barcelona" (first referenced at 32) is the first of a series of global leftist hemorrhages debated by
Edgar’s characters. Anarchists and communists, formerly allies, end up killing each other over disagreements about fighting their
mutual enemy, the fascist Franco. Cited by Phil as a "cautionary tale," "anarchists were smashed … by the communists" (38).
Indeed, while leftist allies were fighting, their mutual enemy managed to crush both of them, ironically, during the workers’
Five Days in May.