The revolutionary left and the transition: dynamics and processes

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present, in rough outlines, the relationship between the Spanish revolutionary left and the transition process in Spain, and their mutual impact on each other. Moreover, we also address, in a synthetic way, the stages of formation, boom, and decline in the various radical forces. These clusters shared ideologies, expectations, and political cultures, as well as approaches, proposals, and forms of operation, with their homonymous European counterparts. They shared a common background upon which the dictatorship and experience in the Spanish context also left a mark, and this strongly determined the forms of action and the organisational structure of several groups which considered the anti-Francoist fight a synonym for the revolutionary fight. Their evolutionary cycle was, as a whole, linked to the ups and downs of political change during the Franco regime, and in its crisis they represented a crucial motor for social agitation and mobilisation. The rise of democracy in Spain is still developing, albeit in parallel to the decline of these collectives. After successive electoral failures and their conversion into the extra-parliamentary left, these various groups have gone into a rapid process of descent in which widespread weakening, fusions, sectarianism, and dissolution are combined in all their possible forms.