La organización política socialista entre la emigración española en la República Federal de Alemania (1960-1982)

Abstract

This doctoral thesis deals with the organization of socialist groups among Spanish emigrants in the Federal Republic of Germany between the years 1960 and 1982. Following a chronological and thematic criterion, we have articulated a total of eight chapters. The Partido Socialista Obrero Español and the Juventudes Socialistas de España have occupied a prevailing place in this investigation, since they have organized their own sections and federations in Germany. Other socialist organizations such as the Partido Socialista del Interior-Partido Socialista Popular or the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya carried out analysis on the migratory phenomenon and included specific references in their electoral programmes and congressional resolutions. In general terms, emigration was understood as a result of the political, social, economic and cultural system of Franco's dictatorship. Spanish socialists were unsuccessful in their effort to maintain the international isolation of the dictatorship. There is also a space dedicated to emigrant return, the main demands of emigration, parliamentary debates as well as the participation of emigration in the process of transition in Spain. The case of the publication Exprés Español, published in the German Federal Republic between 1970 and 1977 and whose main editors and readers were emigrants, becomes relevant. In addition, this publication was a form of commitment of the German Social-Democracy with respect to the Spanish emigration in a time in which the relations between the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands and the PSOE evolved from estrangement to commitment. A set of cartographic, documentary and photographic annexes complement the investigation. As a conclusion, it can be said that the emigration experienced new cultural, social, economic, political and ideological coordinates in an international context. Their experience made knowledge, standardization, evaluation and the learning of democratic values possible. For some of the Spanish emigrants, living abroad brought about the first contact with freedom of expression and the ability to express themselves freely, engage in strikes or access free media. For these reasons emigration is value as a factor of change.