Josep Juan i Domènech

Josep Juan i Domènech (Barcelona, 1900 – 1979) was a Catalan anarcho-syndicalist.[1][2]

Josep Juan i Domènech
Minister of Supplies of Catalunya
In office September 26 – December 17, 1936
President	Lluis Companys
Preceded by	Josep Calvet i Móra
Succeeded by	Joan Comorera i Soler
Minister of Public Services of Catalunya
In office December 17, 1936 – April 3, 1937
President	Lluis Companys
Preceded by	Joan Comorera i Soler
Succeeded by	Josep Juan i Domènech
Minister of Economy, Public Services, Health and Social Assistance of Catalunya
In office April 3 – April 16, 1937
President	Lluis Companys
Preceded by	Dídac Abad de Santillan, Josep Juan i Domènech, Pedro Herrera Camarero
Succeeded by	Andreu Capdevila i Puig, Josep Juan i Domènech, Aureli Fernàndez
Minister of Public Services of Catalunya
In office April 16 – May 5, 1937
President	Lluis Companys
Preceded by	Josep Juan i Domènech
Succeeded by	Valeri Mas i Casas
Personal details
Born	1900 Les Corts, Barcelona,  Catalunya
Died	1979 (aged 78–79) Barcelona,  Catalunya
Citizenship	Spain
Nationality	Catalan
Political party	CNT

Biography

Josep was born in Les Corts and lived in Sants.[2] As a glazier, he joined the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), with which he participated as a delegate of the Barcelona Glass Industry Union at the Catalonia conference held on May 31, 1931, as well as at the extraordinary congress in Madrid in July 1931, and at the Regional Plenary Session of Single Unions held in Barcelona in March 1933.[2] He became secretary of the CNT's Regional Committee of Catalunya when the civil war began,[2] replacing Dionís Eroles i Batlló.

With the entry of the anarchists into the Lluis Companys government during the war, he acted as Minister of the Generalitat de Catalunya: of Supplies from September 26 to December 17, 1936, of Public Services from December 17, 1936, to April 3, 1937, of Economy, Public Services, Health and Social Assistance from April 3 to 16, 1937) and again of Public Services from April 16 to May 5, 1937.[1][2] In this last position he had confrontations with Joan Comorera who accused the CNT of the situation of subsistence in Barcelona.[2] He left the government with the expulsion of the CNT following the Barcelona May Days and resumed his duties as secretary of the CNT's Regional Committee (July 1937 – 1939).[2] In April 1938 he unsuccessfully proposed the independence of Catalunya if nationalist troops reached the Mediterranean and signed a pact of unity with the UGT.[1]

In 1939 he went into exile in France,[2] where he was interned in the concentration camps at Vernet and Djelfa, which he left in 1942 after he enlisted in the British Army.[1] He aligned himself with the "possibilist" sector of the CNT, in favor of collaborating with the governments of the Spanish Republican government in exile, and was elected General Secretary of the split CNT at the Plenary of the Libertarian Movement in December 1947. After re-entering Catalunya clandestinely in 1950 he returned to Toulouse, where he participated in the Congresses of the International Workers' Association of 1951 and 1954.[1] After the Plenary of Clermont-Ferrand in 1960 he returned to the unified CNT, but he was later expelled in the Plenary Session of Bordeaux in 1969.[1] He returned to Barcelona during the Spanish transition,[2] where he died in 1979.[1]

References

1. Domenech, Jose Juana. Enciclopedia del Anarquismo Español (in Spanish). 2. p. 52.
2. Martínez de Sas, María Teresa (2000). Diccionari biogràfic del moviment obrer als països catalans (in Catalan). Abadia de Montserrat. p. 468. ISBN 848415243X. Retrieved October 9, 2010.

Bibliography

• Bonamusa, Francesc (2006). Generalitat de Catalunya. Obra de Govern 1931–1939 (vol 1) (in Catalan). Edicions de la Generalitat de Catalunya. ISBN 978-8439-373957.