Forms and limits of intellectual commitment in Madrid socialism. The case of Rafael García Ormaechea (1903-1909)

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the socialist militancy of Rafael García Ormaechea (1876-1938) between 1903 and 1909. In addition to contributing to the knowledge of García Ormaechea’s biography, this study addresses the relevance of his socialist stage for the understanding of central aspects of socialist political culture in Spain in the first third of the twentieth century. His intellectual production and political career in the Agrupación Socialista Madrileña prove how intellectuals could integrate themselves and develop a successful career in the Partidido Socialista Obrero Español. The rise of Ormaechea among the socialists of Madrid reveals the value of university education, the kind of activities associated with the militancy of an intellectual and how they could be promoted from the socialist leadership. His departure from the party, on the contrary, highlights the tensions caused by this process, as has already been verified in other cases and in the socialist movements of other European countries. Newspaper and internal documentation of the PSOE constitute the fundamental sources of our research, which we have carried out though the methodology of intellectual history.