José Antonio Primo de Rivera

Anthology by Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera

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In 1936, the thirty-three year old politician/barrister Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, was taken out into a field by the Spanish Republican government and executed. Jose Antonio was the son of the former Dictator of Spain. He was also the founder of the Spanish Falange, the Spanish crypto-fascist movement.

I know the Falange only by name as a movement tossed into the same stewpot as “Fascist” and “Nazi.” Beyond that I knew nothing.

I still don't. This book is a collection of excerpts from speeches and writings of Jose Antonio. It is possible from this resource to outline some of the ideas that went into the Falangist movement. Jose Antonio's essential point seems to have been the need for “unity.” This needs to be understood not only as unity between social classes, but also between regions of Spain, some of whom - Catalonia - were looking for independence. His answer to these problems was to exalt Spain, patria, and nationalism. This emphasis was in opposition to his opponents who were being supported by international Communism, which sought to eradicate Spanish tradition tout court.

Jose Antonio sought to avoid being lumped into the “Fascist” category. He refused to attend an international conference of fascists because he felt that the idea of an international movement was incompatible with the notion of nationalism. He also pointed out that there were substantial differences between National Socialism and Italian Fascism, not the least difference being the German embrace of romanticism, an attitude that he disdained. Interestingly, he mentions Aquinas as support for his positions on two occasions. Hitler never would have done such a thing.

Jose Antonio condemned both the Right and the Left. He wrote that the Right preserved tradition but did nothing to help the poor. He wrote:

“The Right wishes to preserve the Patria, to preserve unity, to preserve authority; but it ignores this anguish of the man, the individual, the fellow-creature who has nothing to eat.

And:

“The Right is the attempt to perpetuate an economic system even though it be an unjust one, and the Left is at heart the desire to overthrow an economic organization even though in its overthrow many good things should be ruined.”

This observation was written in the dungeons of Security Police Headquarters before his execution:

““Right” and “Left” are barren and incomplete values. The Right, through seeking to ignore the distress and urgent economic demands of the times, end up by depriving their religious and patriotic appeals of all human validity. The Left, through closing the minds of the masses to what is spiritual and national, end up by degrading economic conflict into the savagery of wild beasts. Today two total concepts of the world stand facing one another; whichever wins will finally break off the customary alternation. Either victory will go to the spiritual, Western, Christian, Spanish concept of life with all the service and sacrifice it involves, but with all the individual dignity and national honor it possesses, else victory will go to the materialist and Russian concept of life, which beyond subjecting Spaniards to the savage yoke of a Red Army and a ruthless policy, will disintegrate Spain into local republics.”

On the other hand, the Falangists were committed to totalitarianism and to the cult of a Heroic Leader, who had not yet appeared.

I am not sure this is worth reading as a way of getting historical insights into the history of Spain. The character of Jose Antonio in himself seems interesting and heroic. His writings may have some insights but for the most part they seem to be limited to their era.