International Information. Vol. XIV, no.35 : The Spanish Charter of Unity of Action

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INTERNATIONAL INFORMATION
Periodical Publication issued by the Secretariat of the Labour and Socialist International
Vol.XIV. No.35.		- 350 - 	August 30th, 1937
Special Article for the "I.I." 
The Spanish Charter of Unity of Action.
by Pietro Nenni.
The National Committee of the Spanish Socialist Party, which met in July at Valencia, even if it has not resolved the internal crisis of the Party - seeing that its powers were disputed by the Opposition - has nevertheless supplied the Executive with sufficiently clear indications and with the necessary authority to secure discipline and, if occasion demands, to impose it.
The Executive has used these powers to press forward with the unity negociations with the Communist Party.     The outcome of this effort was made known on August 18th with the publication of the programme of common action which henceforth links together the Socialist Labour Party and the Communist Party of Spain.
The document in question is a very important one, no doubt the most important so far signed between socialists and communists. In Spain the policy of unity of action is rooted in a soil ravaged by revolution and war; it is being realised amid circumstances so tragic, controversies so violent and convulsions so radical that the value of such unity in itself and its value as an index are thereby multiplied a thousandfold.     For these reasons the Spanish experiment (even in the matter of unity) becomes an experiment decisive from every point of view, one that marks an epoch and will set a precedent.
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The New Charter of Unity of Action formulates the fundamental demand of the Socialist and Communist workers in the war and in the first phase of the revolution.
What are, in the thriteenth month of the war, these demands?
In the military sphere:    reinforcement of the fighting powers of the popular army, including the liquidation of the remains of thousands of parties and self-governing sectors on the front; purification of the directing staffs of the army and effective realisation of unity of command; organisation of youth up to military age and improvement in the conditions of living of the troops; organisation and development of a powerful war industry with rapid nationalisation and militarisation of industries; intensification of production; appropriation of all arms behind the front; active participation in organising fortification work; contribution to the organisation and   management of transport.
In the economic and social sphere: coordination and planning of national economy under the guidance of a National Economic Council, with the collaboration of the trade unions and the self-governing provinces; municipalisation of the city services; a systematic and persistent improvement of the material situation and the conditions of work, of living and of education among the working class in town and 
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