Jonsism: The Betrayed Revolution
by Sergi Marchand
Introduction
Spain, a defeated, spineless nation, devastated in both spirit and morale. A Spain that, like Don Quixote, remained anchored to a glorious past, absorbed in the contemplation of its former imperial splendor. Yet, like a slap of reality, the final independences arrived, along with the loss of the last overseas territories: Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, the Caroline Islands, the Marianas, and Palau. But the Spaniard, no matter how stubborn, possesses an indomitable and idealistic soul, in the image and likeness of the Knight of the Sad Figure. It is in this context that Spanish nationalism emerges. In this article, I aim to address what, in my view, constitutes the truest representation of authentic Spanish fascism: Jonsism.
Spanish Reactionary Nationalism
The first Spanish nationalism arose in Barcelona, led by the Spanish Patriotic League, founded by Ramón Sales, who also created the Free Trade Unions alongside Juan Laguía Lliteras in 1919. Many historians mistakenly label these organizations as proto-fascist when, in reality, they were more tied to Carlist traditionalism, with Maurrasian influences.
Presidents of the Free Trade Unions of Barcelona in 1922
In this sense, I consider it more appropriate to discard the proto-fascist label for these groups. Both the Spanish Patriotic League and the Free Trade Unions were primarily composed of Carlists, Catholic traditionalists, monarchists, and former soldiers from the Cuban War.
These organizations played a key role as shock forces against the Catalan independence movements of the time and were part of the phenomenon of “pistolerismo,” acting as hired thugs in the monarchist bourgeoisie’s service against the CNT (anarcho-syndicalist union). The Free Trade Unions gained significant prominence during General Miguel Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship, reaching 197,853 members by 1929. Having ruled out Miguel Primo de Rivera, the Spanish Patriotic League, and the Free Trade Unions as fascist or proto-fascist, I feel prepared to address the phenomenon of fascism in Spain, or, more accurately, the national-syndicalism of the JONS.
The Youth of Ramiro Ledesma Ramos
Ramiro Ledesma Ramos was born in Alfaraz de Sayago (Zamora) on May 23, 1905, into a humble family of educators. At 16, he joined the Corps of Postal and Telegraph Officials, serving in Valencia, Barcelona, and Madrid. In the capital, he studied Philosophy and Letters and Physical and Mathematical Sciences, showcasing his remarkable intellectual capacity. Specializing in Martin Heidegger’s philosophy, he demonstrated deep knowledge of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Kant, and Hegel, and was an avid reader of Ortega y Gasset, who was his university professor. During his student years, he immersed himself in the intellectual milieu of 1920s Madrid, publishing his first literary work, El sello de la muerte, in 1924.
It was during this time that a friend introduced him to Ernesto Giménez Caballero, facilitating his collaboration with La Gaceta Literaria between 1927 and 1931, where he addressed topics in literature, mathematics, and philosophy. However, it was in La Revista de Occidente, directed by José Ortega y Gasset, where he gained greater recognition, publishing studies on philosophers like Hegel and Bertrand Russell between 1929 and 1930.
Pío Baroja, Menéndez Pidal, Keyserling, Edith Sironi, Gecé, Alberti, Emilio García Gómez, Sainz Rodríguez, Pedro Salinas, Rivera Pastor, Bergamín, Américo Castro, Antonio Marichalar, César Arconada, and Ramiro Ledesma Ramos at Ernesto Giménez Caballero’s home in late 1930
The Conquest of The State
On March 14, 1931, the first issue of La Conquista del Estado was published, a title inspired by Curzio Malaparte’s La Conquista dello Stato. It was a weekly publication of political struggle and information founded by intellectuals and university students who supported Ramiro Ledesma, including Ernesto Giménez Caballero and Juan Aparicio López.
“1. All power belongs to the State.
2. There are only political freedoms within the State, not above or against the State.
3. The greatest political value in man lies in his capacity for civil coexistence within the State.
4. It is an imperative of our era to radically overcome Marxism, both theoretically and practically.
5. Against communist society and State, we uphold hierarchical values, the national idea, and economic efficiency.
6. Affirmation of Spanish values.
7. Imperial dissemination of our culture.
8. Authentic development of the Spanish university. Universities hold the ideological supremacies that constitute the ultimate essence of science and technology, as well as the finest cultural vibrations. We must therefore champion our ideal for a great university.
9. Intensification of mass culture, using the most effective means.
10. Eradication of regionalist factions that give their aspirations a sense of political autonomy. Large regions or regional confederations, initiated by municipalities, deserve, on the contrary, all attention. We will promote vital and highly current regions.
11. Full and integral autonomy for municipalities in their traditional and proper functions, which are economic and administrative in nature.
12. Syndical structuring of the economy. Objective economic policy.
13. Enhancement of labor.
14. Expropriation of landowners. Expropriated lands will be nationalized and handed over to municipalities and peasant syndical entities.
15. Social justice and social discipline.
16. Struggle against the hypocritical pacifism of Geneva. Affirmation of Spain as an international power.
17. Exclusive revolutionary action until the triumph of the new State in Spain is achieved. Direct action methods against the old State and the old socio-political groups of the old regime.”
— Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, The Conquest of The State
A frequently debated issue has been the funding of La Conquista del Estado, as Ramiro Ledesma leveraged his connections with monarchist friends, presenting the newspaper as monarchist-leaning to secure special state subsidies.
The Juntas of National-Syndicalist Offensive (JONS)
On October 10, 1931, the Juntas of National-Syndicalist Offensive (JONS) were founded as a result of the merger between members of La Conquista del Estado and the Castilian Juntas of Hispanic Action (JCAH), led by Onésimo Redondo, a Catholic syndicalist, head of a sugar beet workers’ union, and leader of the anti-Semitic and nationalist publication Libertad. Members of La Traza, a military organization founded in 1923 and inspired by Italian squadrismo, also joined the movement.
The Ideology of The JONS
One of the first questions the Jonsists posed was: Where is the enemy? To answer this, they first identified the bourgeois class and Marxism as fundamental adversaries. They rejected Marxism’s economicist view of history, as they considered this reductionist perspective prevented it from understanding the depth and complexity of homeland values, as well as Spain’s metaphysical dimension.
The national-syndicalism of the JONS had as its primary goal the nationalization of the anarcho-syndicalism of the CNT, as they perceived in this workers’ movement the most genuine exaltation of the Spanish character. This view was firmly upheld and defended by Ramiro Ledesma and Ernesto Giménez Caballero, who supported the strike against Telefónica, as well as the revolutionary and syndicalist proclamations of the CNT. Thus, they distinguished themselves from the supposedly anti-worker nature often attributed to movements within the so-called Third Political Theory. Ramiro Ledesma himself was a fervent anti-Marxist, not due to alleged anti-worker sentiment, as some mistakenly believe, but because of his rejection of materialism. Nevertheless, he positively valued certain aspects of the Bolshevik achievements, highlighting the national character of that revolution.
“Russia, with its national-communist regime, with a wartime morality, heavily armed, in the midst of an experiment of gigantic social upheavals, is no longer, of course, the revolutionary country that conspires daily for world revolution, but it is on the verge, alert not only to the panorama surrounding it but also to the course of its internal life. For Bolshevik Russia may one day need war to cover possible internal cataclysms. Russia will more readily take up arms in such a case than to respond to external belligerent provocations.”
— Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, La Patria Libre
“We say to the dissident group of the CNT, to the ‘Thirty,’ to the syndicalist party led by Ángel Pestaña, to the possible Marxist sectors that have learned the lesson of October, to Joaquín Maurín and his comrades of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Bloc:
Break all ties with internationalist illusions, with liberal-bourgeois illusions, with parliamentary freedom. You must know that deep down, these are the banners of the privileged, of the great landowners, and of the bankers. For all these people are international because their money and businesses are. They are liberal because freedom allows them to feudally build their great powers against the National State of the people. They are parliamentarist because the electoral mechanism is soft material for the great electoral levers they control: the press, the radio, rallies, and expensive propaganda.
By singing the praises of internationalism, democracy, and freedoms, you actually strengthen the powers of the privileged, weaken the true positions of the entire people, and leave it defenseless in the hands of great capitalist powers, great landowners, and bankers. Against this formidable danger, we offer our slogan:
You must embrace the national! You must fight for Spain and its salvation, the only way to fight for the salvation of the entire people!”
— Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, La Patria Libre
“In Spain, the right-wingers are apparently fascist, and in many respects, essentially anti-fascist. And the left-wingers are apparently anti-fascist, and in many aspects and aspirations, essentially fascist.”
— Ramiro Ledesma Ramos, ¿Fascism in Spain?
A communist whom Ramiro Ledesma praised, even considering the possibility of a Spanish workers’ nationalism, was Joaquín Maurín, a Catalan POUM militant. He highlighted some of Maurín’s highly interesting quotes in ¿Fascism in Spain?.
“Nationalism as a force, in a country like Spain, whose unity was coercively imposed by the Monarchy and the Church, can only be ignited by the proletariat.”
— Joaquín Maurín, Towards The Second Revolution
Joaquín Maurín: From the Workers’ and Peasants’ Bloc to the Popular Front – Viento Sur
Joaquín Maurín himself would advocate for the formation of an Iberian union between Spain and Portugal, thus supporting a form of pan-Iberianism that bore certain similarities to the Jonsist project. Likewise, he advocated for an alliance of proletarian states that included Italy, Russia, Iberia, and Germany.
“Spain’s natural allies are not France and England as long as these countries remain capitalist. The logical line of alliances follows another meridian. And it is: Portugal-Spain-Italy-Germany-Russia. Such a bloc would subdue France and England.”
— Joaquín Maurín, Towards The Second Revolution
It is worth noting that Ledesma’s nationalism is not limited to mere Spanish nationalism but essentially constitutes the path toward a Hispanic imperial project. This does not seek a nostalgic return to the old forms of the Spanish Empire but the construction of a new pan-Iberian synthesis that revitalizes Iberian values and grants them a position of supremacy over Europe. Another fundamental aspect is the deep Euroskepticism of Jonsism, a trait that would influence all Spanish nationalisms of the era. From the regenerationist literati, who witnessed the imperial decline, to the national-syndicalists and later thinkers like Gustavo Bueno, all emphasized the opposition of a Quixotic and Catholic Spain against a Europe rooted in Protestantism.
Conclusions
In my view, the national-syndicalist ideology was betrayed by Falange, turning the movement and ideology it appropriated into a bourgeois and right-wing degeneration, insofar as it lacked an authentic working-class foundation and did not pursue the nationalization of Spanish anarcho-syndicalism. José Antonio Primo de Rivera only considered this possibility after Mussolini pointed out the need to ally with Ángel Pestaña, general secretary of the Spanish Syndicalist party and prominent CNT leader, to establish a fascist movement in Spain. However, Falange failed in this purpose due to its bourgeois and reactionary origins, elements alien to the essence of fascism. In this sense, its evolution bears certain similarities to the case of Oswald Mosley in Britain. In my opinion, the one who best articulated this critique was the great Jonsist Santiago Montero Díaz.
“Dear comrade Ledesma: The J.O.N.S. do not deviate, said issues 5 and 6 of our magazine, referring to F.E.
And when I joined the J.O.N.S., bringing a solid group of militants with me, I made this platform a slogan. We maintained the patriotic and revolutionary spirit of the J.O.N.S. as our clearest battle flag.
The National Council arrived, which I could not attend. You already know the opinion I sent you. Multiply our activities a hundredfold, clarify our stance; do not merge with a movement whose right-wing limitations were quite evident.
And the J.O.N.S. deviated.
I, for the campaign I waged throughout Galicia against F.E., based on those circulars of yours; because I know that, despite all the verbal declarations to the contrary, the people, the content, and the political ways of Falange are in open opposition to the national revolution, and they continue to be so, find myself completely sidelined within a movement that seeks to unite two trends that are in reality as distinct as the original J.O.N.S. and Falange.
And the revolutionaries of Spanish stature will also feel sidelined very soon.
That campaign of mine makes me useless in Galicia to operate under the dual banner of F.E. and the J.O.N.S., whose irreducibility I defended tooth and nail.
My deep conviction that, despite itself, the Falangist contingents are far from understanding and feeling the real objectives of our revolution prevents me from offering the unwavering and fanatical discipline that I need to give to the Party.
For this reason, comrade, and in line with my firm opinion sent to the National Council, I prefer to voluntarily place myself outside the new discipline.
Understand well—I say this to you because I never recognize any other political leader—that my national-syndicalist faith has not suffered and will not suffer the slightest breach. But my collaboration under other leaders, whom I know represent another concept of the revolution, is impossible.
This stance may be called leftist. And it is not. On the contrary, the very essence of Falange is right-wing. That essence persists despite the union. And it will prevail, unfortunately, comrade Ledesma. One day you will realize this.
And if that day you decide to reclaim the independence of the movement or create a new one under the same orientations as the original J.O.N.S., ‘waging the struggle against Marxism on the plane of revolutionary rivalry,’ you will have me unconditionally under your leadership again.
If that day does not come, or while it does not come, you can be sure that my withdrawal from all political activity will be radical and definitive. I will put into my silence the same energy you have seen me put into Jonsist action in Galicia.
Hail, comrade, and until you wish.”
— Santiago Montero Díaz, March 12, 1934
