Progreso Alfarache Arrabal (1888 - 20 February 1964) was an

Andalusian Andalusia is a region in Spain. Andalusian may also refer to: Animals *Andalusian chicken, a type of chicken *Andalusian donkey, breed of donkey *Andalusian hemipode, a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds *Andalusian horse, a breed of ho ...

anarcho-syndicalist, also known by the pseudonym Antonio Rodríguez.

Biography

Self-taught, he worked as a linotype artist and in 1919 he was one of the delegates of the Graphic Arts Union of Seville to the congress of the CNT at the Madrid Comedy Theatre. The same year he was arrested for the first time for his involvement in a

rent strike A rent strike is a method of protest commonly employed against large landlords. In a rent strike, a group of tenants come together and agree to refuse to pay their rent ''en masse'' until a specific list of demands is met by the landlord. This can ...

. In 1920 he was appointed secretary of the Andalusian Regional Committee of the CNT and editor of '' Solidaridad Obrera'', and during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera he had to go into exile in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. In 1929 he befriended the writer

Ramón J. Sender Ramón José Sender Garcés (3 February 1901 – 16 January 1982) was a Spanish novelist, essayist and journalist. Several of his works were translated into English by the distinguished zoologist, Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell, including ''Seven ...

and in 1930 he settled in

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, where he served as

general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

of the National Committee of the CNT (27 June-December 1930). In August 1930 he participated, with

Rafael Vidiella Rafael Vidiella Franch (1890 – 23 September 1982) was a trade unionist and communist politician from Catalonia. He served as a minister in the government of Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Early years (1890–1936) Rafael ...

, as an observer of the CNT in what would later become the

Pact of San Sebastián The Pact of San Sebastián was a meeting led by Niceto Alcalá Zamora and Miguel Maura, which took place in San Sebastián, Spain on 17 August 1930. Representatives from practically all republican political movements in Spain at the time attended t ...

. For this reason he was arrested in Jerez de la Frontera on 27 September 1930, and was not released until March 1931. After the proclamation of the

Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII, and was di ...

he went to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

to participate in the Extraordinary Confederal Congress of the CNT (11–16 June 1931). In August of that year he was one of the promoters and editors of the Manifesto of the Thirty, which is why he was excluded from the CNT and aligned himself with the opposition cenetista unions. In April 1932 he took part in the Extraordinary Plenary Session of the CRTC in

Sabadell Sabadell () is a city in Catalonia, Spain. It is in the south of the ''comarca'' of Vallès Occidental and its joint capital (co-capital), on the River Ripoll, north of Barcelona. Sabadell is located above sea level. Sabadell pioneered the Ind ...

and on 28 May 1932 he was sentenced to six months in prison for insulting the

Civil Guard Civil Guard refers to various policing organisations: Current * Civil Guard (Spain), Spanish gendarmerie * Civil Guard (Israel), Israeli volunteer police reserve * Civil Guard (Brazil), Municipal law enforcement corporations in Brazil Histori ...

in an article published in ''Solidaridad Obrera''. In September 1933 he was appointed deputy secretary of the Graphic and Similar Industries Union of the CNT of Barcelona and participated in the creation of the Workers' Alliance. During the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

he was a member of the Economic Council of the Generalitat de Catalunya and was the secretary of

Horacio Martínez Prieto Horacio Martínez Prieto (1902–1985) was a Basque anarcho-syndicalist, of the libertarian possibilist tendency, and on two occasions the General Secretary of the CNT. Biography Acracio Martínez Prieto was born in Santurtzi as the son of an ...

when he was appointed minister. When the war came to an end he went into exile in Mexico, where he defended the

collaborationist Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime, and in the words of historian Gerhard Hirschfeld, "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to t ...

theses and it organized in 1942 the group "New FAI", opposed to the postulates defended by Joan Garcia i Oliver. In 1944 he was secretary of the CNT in Mexico and in 1945 he participated on behalf of the Spanish Libertarian Movement as Director General of Fisheries of the Minister of Public Works

in José Giral's Spanish Republican government in exile in Mexico. At the end of 1946 he returned clandestinely to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

to represent the exiles in the National Committee of the CNT, but was arrested in Madrid in March 1947 and imprisoned in the Ocaña Penitentiary. After spending a few years in prison he returned to Mexico, where he directed the magazine ''Comunidad Ibérica'' from 1963. He died of complications after an operation at the Sanatorio Español in Mexico.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfarache Arrabal, Progreso 1888 births 1964 deaths People from Algeciras Secretaries general of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo