Juan López Sánchez
| Juan López Sanchez | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister of Commerce | |
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In office 4 September 1936 – 17 May 1937 |
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| Preceded by | Joan Peiró |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
16 January 1900 Bullas, Spain |
| Died | 1972 Madrid, Spain |
| Nationality | Spanish |
| Occupation | Construction worker |
| Known for | Co-founder of the Federación Sindicalista Libertaria |
Juan López Sanchez (16 January 1900 – 1972) was a Spanish construction worker, anarchist and member of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT, National Confederation of Labor), and one of the founders of the Federación Sindicalista Libertaria. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) he was Minister of Commerce under Francisco Largo Caballero. After the war he spent several years in exile before returning to Spain where he lived without persecution and participated in the "vertical" trade union movement authorized by the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
Juan López Sanchez was born in Bullas, Murcia in 1900, where his father was a member of the Civil Guard. A few years later his family moved to Barcelona, where López worked as a laborer. He became involved in politics as a member of the construction union in Barcelona, and was imprisoned in 1920. He was released by an amnesty in 1926 and joined the Solidaridad group. During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera he fought in the underground and participated in the congress that produced the split between the CNT and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI). He stayed with the CNT.
In 1929 López was part of Ángel Pestaña's national committee of the CNT. He edited Acción in 1930–31. He was more interested in syndicalism than anarchism, and generally supported moves to reduce the anarchist aspects of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) in favor of the syndicalist aspects. He was one of the signatories of the Manifiesto de los Treinta (Manifesto of the Thirty) in August 1931. This manifesto criticized the influence of the FAI in the CNT.
After the departure of Pestaña from the CNT in 1932 López supported collaboration with the government. As a signatory of the Manifiesto de los Treinta he was excluded from the anarchist-dominated CNT leadership, and in 1932 was expelled from the CNT. López became a leader of the Sindicatos de Oposición (Opposition Unions). Pestaña and his allies launched the Federación Sindicalista Libertaria (FSL, Anarchist Trade Union Federation), in January 1933. Pestaña was first secretary of the Federation. The FSL at once began involved in the Opposition Unions, providing a political ideology to this group, just as the FAI was doing with the CNT. In January 1934 Pestaña and other moderate anarcho-syndicalists formed a political party, the Partido Sindicalista. López and Joan Peiró became the theoretical leaders of the FSL, and worked to bring it back into the fold of the CNT. At a conference of the Sindicatos de Oposición in February–March 1936 a new national committee was elected that arranged for the unions to rejoin the CNT.
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