36 Facts About Joan Comorera

Joan Comorera i Soler was a Spanish Communist politician, journalist and writer from Catalonia who spent several years in Argentina before returning to Spain in 1931 at the start of the Second Spanish Republic.

Joan Comorera was a Catalan nationalist, and was elected chairman of the Socialist Union of Catalonia in 1933.

Joan Comorera was arrested in 1954 and died in prison four years later.

Joan Comorera i Soler was born in Cervera, Segarra, Catalonia on 5 September 1894.

Joan Comorera took a teacher's training course in Lerida, but never taught.

Joan Comorera was a cofounder of the Bloc Republica Autonomista, and then of the Partit Republica Catala.

Joan Comorera was active in journalism as a regular contributor to La Lucha and editor of El Pueblo.

Joan Comorera emigrated to Argentina in 1919, where he continued to work as a journalist.

Joan Comorera was naturalized and headed the bilingual weekly paper Nacion Catalana from 1923 to 1930.

Joan Comorera was forced to leave Argentina after the coup of General Jose Felix Uriburu in September 1930.

Joan Comorera headed the socialist weekly Justicia Social from 1931 to 1936.

Joan Comorera was elected to the Parliament of Catalonia in November 1932, and was elected chairman of the executive committee of the USC in April 1933.

Joan Comorera was Minister of Agriculture and Economy in the first government of Catalonia formed by president Lluis Companys, from January to October 1934.

Joan Comorera organized the Higher Council of Cooperation and the Agricultural and Cooperative Bank of Credit.

Joan Comorera participated in the events of 6 October 1934 and was sentenced to thirty years imprisonment.

Joan Comorera's USC took the position that the Socialists should unify into one group, the Communists into another, and then the two groups should join.

Joan Comorera wrote from prison urging a quick union of the groups, and the PCC joined the committee in the first half of January 1936.

Joan Comorera led the USC into unification with the Proletarian Catalan Party in April 1936, followed by formation in July 1936 of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia Joan Comorera was appointed PSUC secretary general.

Joan Comorera was Minister of the Economy, Rafael Vidiella was Minister of Communications and Estanislau Ruiz Ponsetti was Minister of Supplies.

Joan Comorera was active in the movement to unify the Anarchist Confederacion Nacional del Trabajo and the PSUC, and attended plenary meetings of the Communist Party of Spain.

Joan Comorera was Minister of Supplies in the "syndical" government, and was accused of causing the shortage of bread in Barcelona.

On 3 April 1937 Joan Comorera became Minister of Labor, and on 16 April became Minister of Justice.

Joan Comorera was Catalan Minister of Justice when emergency tribunals began to operate around the end of April 1937 to examine "acts of disaffection against the regime not provided for or sanctioned under the Common Penal Code or in the special penal laws" and to consider crimes of factionalism.

Joan Comorera turned his party into a major political force during the civil War.

Joan Comorera was a leading member of the government of Catalonia until the fall of Barcelona and the Republican collapse in 1939.

Joan Comorera moved to Moscow in May 1939, then to Mexico in August 1940.

Until the mid-1940s the PSUC under Joan Comorera combined Catalan nationalism, communism and opposition to Franco.

Joan Comorera was opposed by Santiago Carrillo and his followers in the PCE.

Joan Comorera was temporarily made a member of the PCE politburo with the intent of forcing him to submit to its discipline.

Dolores Ibarruri was head of the Spanish communists, and Joan Comorera should submit to her, just as Tito should submit to Stalin.

Joan Comorera formed his own organization and newspaper, while saying he remained loyal to Stalin and hostile to the "degenerate traitor" Tito.

Joan Comorera was blamed by the PCE for having betrayed Gregorio Lopez Raimundo.

Enrique Lister is reported as saying that in 1949 Carrillo ordered the execution of Joan Comorera, who was saved by the precautions he took.

Joan Comorera took refuge in Cerdanya, then secretly moved to Spain in April 1951 where he settled in Ripoll under a false name.

Joan Comorera continued to be politically active, and published 32 issues of the workers' magazine Treball.

Joan Comorera was arrested on 9 June 1954 and on 23 August 1954 was sentenced to thirty years in prison and taken to the Burgos penitentiary.