Andreu Nin was the leader of the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (Workers’ Party of Marxist Unity, or POUM) during the Spanish Civil War. Nin was assassinated by Stalinist agents in June 1937 as part of a wider campaign to repress the POUM that George Orwell documented in his book Homage to Catalonia. There is a plaque in Nin’s honor on Barcelona’s main thoroughfare, the Rambla, near the spot where he was abducted at the age of forty-five.

Nin’s contribution to Marxist thought is not as widely known as the circumstances of his death. We must assess that contribution against the generally poor panorama of Spanish Marxism in the 1930s. As Nin’s biographer Pelai Pagès has argued, he distinguished himself by rethinking the political problems facing Spain and Catalonia “through the prism of a critical Marxism, basing his analysis on contemporary international experiences and debates.”

Many of the questions that Nin addressed, from the danger of fascism to the self-determination of national minorities, are still very much on the political agenda today. In Spain itself, the last decade has seen the leaders of the Catalan independence movement prosecuted or driven into exile by the state, while the far-right Vox party has become a governing partner for mainstream conservatives. This article will look at the way Nin approached such issues in the context of his own time.