Camarada! Desgraciadamente el ejemplo de soldados y labradores no es todo lo contagioso que fuera menester - tambien el egoismo tiene sus adeptos y la pereza partidarios. Trabaja más y mejor. El discurso de Dr. Negrín
[Comrade! Unfortunately the example set by the soldiers and farmers is not as contagious as it needs to be - selfishness also has its followers and idleness its partisans. Work more and better. Dr. Negrín's speech]. Signed: Henry. 38, D.A.G. U.G.T., editado por el comité nacional. Barcelona, Grafos. Lithograph, 5 colors; 95 x 66 cm.
On the surface, this
poster, which quotes a February 1938 speech by the Republican Prime
Minister Juan Negrín, is a call by the UGT for greater effort
from the industrial worker. Underneath, however, it is an attack
on the anarchist workers of Barcelona by the communist-dominated
Negrín government. Note that on the side of the poster which
contains the warning against idleness and selfishness, the anarchist
colors red and black predominate, while on the other side of the
poster, Negrín's hand of reason is colored red-a reference
to the Communists. Note also that the two groups with which the
industrial worker is being compared so unfavorably are pro-Communist;
the small landowner supported the Communists because the party opposed
the Anarchists' land collectivization program, while the Republican
army, dominated by communist officers, was completely under party
The rationale behind
the poster is not altogether clear. Are the Communists taking the
opportunity to cajole the Anarchists into placing partisan politics
aside, and into working single-mindedly for a Republican victory?
Or are they merely scapegoating their rivals for the Republic's
deteriorating fortunes? Given both the tone of the poster and the
atmosphere of accusation and recrimination endemic in the Republican
camp in the final months of the war, the second hypothesis would
appear to be the more likely of the two.
Dr. Juan Negrín
(1889-1956), who became prime minister of the Republic in May 1937,
remains something of a controversial character. Negrín's
apologists see him as the supreme pragmatist, a man forced by circumstances
to toe the communist line. His detractors regard him as an opportunist,
whose overweening ambition led him to turn a blind eye to communist
excesses, including the many political assassinations carried out
by the party in the final days of the conflict.
The poster was produced
by the UGT whose national committee was, by 1938, controlled by
the Communists and the pro-communist moderate Socialists. The artist
who signs himself Henn[?] is not documented.