Grandizo Munis

Grandizo Munis (Torreón, Mexico, 18 April 1912 – Paris, 4 February 1989) was a Spanish politician.

Grandizo first entered revolutionary politics as a member of the Izquierda Comunista de España (ICE) or Left Communists of Spain. This group was led by Andrés Nin and was in sympathy with the views of Leon Trotsky and therefore affiliated to the International Communist League.

Trotsky was opposed to the name of the group, which he argued was imprecise and badly expressed the program of the Bolshevik-Leninists. In addition, he entered into a dispute with Nin and the ICE when they refused his suggestion to enter the youth organisation of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE). The majority of the ICE then split with Trotsky, leaving a small remnant grouping which included Grandizo Munis.

With the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Munis was a member of the tiny Seccion Bolshevik-Leninista. This organisation sought to influence the ranks of the larger Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and also worked closely with the more left-wing anarchists of the Durruti Column.

The Trotskyists were among the very few to oppose the Popular Front government and openly took part in the May Days of 1937. This event led to their suppression by the government, which was now dominated by the Stalinists. This meant that Munis was forced into illegality and had to flee for fear of his life.

Shortly before the fall of Barcelona Munis was able to escape the Monjuic Prison, cross Franco's lines and eventually pass over the border to France. He made his fate public in an interview with the French Trotskyist newspaper La Lutte Ouvrière published in its February 24 and March 3, 1939 issues. In the spring of 1940 Munis fled France to Mexico, where he had a meeting with Trotsky, then to New York, where he attended the May 1940 Emergency Conference of the Fourth International. Back in Mexico, that August he spoke at Leon Trotsky's funeral.

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