Gonzales Pena, Ramon

Gonzáles Pen̄a, Ramón 

Born 1890; died Aug. 5. 1952. Spanish labor leader. Socialist.

Gonzáles Pen̄a organized the national miner’s trade union. In the 1930’s he was the leader of the Asturian socialists and was one of the leaders of the armed uprising of October 1934. After the defeat of the uprising, he was condemned to death but was freed after the victory of the Popular Front (February 1936). During the Spanish Civil War (in Russian, the National Revolutionary War of 1936–39), he was the chairman of the executive committees of the Spanish Socialist Labor Party and the General Union of Workers (from 1937). In 1938 and 1939 he was minister of justice of the Republican government. He stood for united action with the Communists and uncompromising struggle against fascism. In 1946, together with a group of left socialists who supported Negrin. he was expelled by the rightists from the Socialist Party. He died in exile (in Mexico).