Spain overturns death sentence for Salvador Puig Antich fifty years after it was carried out

Thanks, R.
pdf of text of KSL pamphlet "Salvador Puig Antich and the MIL (Moviemiento Iberico de Liberacion)"
https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/rxwght

Salvador Puig Antich was killed, garrotted, by the Spanish State on the 2 March 1974. ‘Since that sad 2nd of March, 1974, when the executioner cut short our brother’s life, we have sworn, practically without words, that we would defend Salvador’s name, as an idealistic youth with a good heart and a great sense of justice, who took responsibility for his convictions and was profoundly committed. We could never let him go down in the history books as a murderer and bandit, which is how the Francoist regime presented him in the media in those treacherous days. That lie only served to cover up their own brutal cruelty.’[1]

After years of campaigning by his sisters, the Spanish government overturned the verdict on the 16th October 2024. ‘“We have been fighting for this for 50 years. For the dignity of our brother Salvador. This moment is very important for us, we are touched and without words,” said his sister Imma Puig Antich.’[2]

Remembering Salvador is important to his political comrades too. The Memoria Libertaria campaign of the Confederación General del Trabajo have issued a statement ‘[R]egardless of what a minister does today, it is the judicial power that must annul, extinguish, render void and communicate to the public that, in compliance with the Law, the Court Martials and their sentences are repealed, that Francoist legislation is invalidated and that it has taken us more than 80 years to carry this out, how long Francoism seems to us. Every trace of Francoism must be eradicated from any judicial body. Without this step, everything we can do institutionally in the field of Truth, Justice and Reparation will be “siren songs”, clearly ineffective and with the sole purpose of clearing consciences, not of practising true equity and equality with “all the victims of Franco’s fascism”.’[3]

Those comrades were widespread: Salvador was connected to activists in France and to London’s Centro Iberico and the Anarchist Black Cross. ‘When we learnt the news of the execution of Salvador Puig Antich in March 1974, it hit those of us in and around the Anarchist Black Cross with the force of a hammer blow. To be more precise we learnt of his cold-blooded garroting at the hands of the Spanish state whose determined cruelty and malevolence shocked even the most experienced of us. The Spanish and international campaign created to save his life had failed and, as a consequence of this state murder, Puig Antich entered the list of our martyrs. The date of his execution can be commemorated on Facebook with the requisite sad faces. That simply won’t do.’ […] ‘Puig Antich’s murder stands out for its brutal cruelty but this volume challenges in every way the image of him as a victim frozen in time. His ideas and those of the comrades around him still need to be thought about and reflected on. I see him and his friends and comrades as those who realized, in the words of British anarchist George Barrett written well before they were born, that “In some near future more of us will see the beauty of the days we let slip so uselessly.” I like to think that they sensed that beauty and went to try to keep it alive and growing.’ [4]
Notes

1, p63 ‘Salvador’s memory (in Mnemosyne’s shadow) by Imma, Montse, Carme and Merçona Puig Antich in Salvador Puig Antich : Collected Writings on Repression and Resistance in Franco’s Spain edited by Ricard de Vargas Golarons, translated by Peter Gelderloos. https://www.akpress.org/salvadorpuigantich.html (Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory)

2, Spain overturns Francoist death sentence against anarchist Puig Antich after 50 years https://www.catalannews.com/culture/item/spain-overturns-francoist-death-sentence-against-anarchist-puig-antich-after-50-years

3, El ministro de Memoria Democrática anula la sentencia de Salvador Puig Antich https://memorialibertaria.org/el-ministro-de-memoria-democratica-anula-la-sentencia-de-salvador-puig-antich/

4, “An Affirmation of that for which I have fought.” by Barry Pateman [a review of Salvador Puig Antich: Collected Writings on Repression and Resistance in Franco’s Spain] In KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 104, November 2021 https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/66t2x1

(from https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7wm50k