At the start of the Spanish Civil War he travelled to Barcelona, and volunteered and briefly served with the POUM militia, before returning to England, where he recruited a number of volunteers.
Lois Orr (23 April 1917 - August 1985), also known as Louise Cusick, Lois Cusick and Lois Culter, born in the Jewish hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, lived in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, where she was a member of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) female militia.
The writer William Tenn has stated that Sturgeon became involved with POUM while in Spain and fell into disfavor with his superiors.
Likewise, the film Land and Freedom, directed by Ken Loach, tells of a group of POUM soldiers fighting in the war from the perspective of a British member of the British Communist Party.
In his youth he was for a while affiliated with the POUM (Workers' Party of the Marxist Unification) and at 16 he was called up by the military to serve in the Spanish Civil War.
POUM |
During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, although the anarchists and Marxists both fought in a united front against the fascist movement of General Francisco Franco, the revolutionary Marxists of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), the anarcho-syndicalists of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), and the anarchists of the Federación Anarquista Ibérica (FAI) faced repression and attacks from the Communist party.
When Berzin disputed with NKVD official Aleksandr Mikhailovich Orlov about the relative priority to be given to preserving the military efficiency of Spanish Republican forces vs. conducting NKVD purges of Spanish Anarchists, POUM etc., and lost the favor of Stalin as a result, then Robles' knowledge of behind-the-scenes Soviet maneuverings in Spain became highly inconvenient to the Soviets.
The CNT, POUM and other socialist militias initially resisted the integration.
It also unified with various sectors originating in Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC).
Infighting between anarchists and communists, eventually resulting in outright battles with several hundred dead and the purging of rival communist groups like the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), also further poisoned the atmosphere as Francisco Franco's victory came closer.