Pablo Iglesias

Pablo Iglesias Posse ( born October 18, 1850 in Ferrol, A Coruna Province; † December 9, 1925 in Madrid) was the founder of the Spanish Socialist Party Partido Socialista Obrero Español ( PSOE ) and the socialist- oriented trade union la Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT ).

Pablo Iglesias grew up under very poor circumstances with his mother Juana Posse, who moved with his younger and later died of tuberculosis brother Manuel in 1859 by Galicia to Madrid. His mother gave him a home because of their poverty, which he left at age twelve. He learned typesetter and learned during his subsequent employment in a night school French.

During the revolutionary period from 1869 to 1875 he attended lectures of the International and entered 1870 in the Department of the typesetter. Then he was politically persecuted and dismissed in several print until he became president of the Association of the printing industry in 1870. From this position he prepared the foundation of a new Socialist Workers Party, which led to the founding of the PSOE on May 2, 1879. The founding members were 16 typesetter, 4 doctors, 2 jewelers, a stonemason and a shoemaker.

In 1888 he founded the Unión General de Trabajadores trade union, whose president he became in 1889. In the same year he participated in the founding congress of the Second International part. On 1 May 1890 he led the first Spanish May Day demonstration in which the eight-hour day and the abolition of child labor was demanded.

In 1909 he was arrested for political reasons during the events of the Tragic Week of Barcelona.

In 1910, he won for the PSOE the first parliamentary seat in Madrid. In later elections, the number of seats that party has continuously increased.

1921, the Partido Comunista de España split off by the PSOE since the Socialists refused, at the meeting convened by Lenin III. Socialist International to participate.

On December 9, 1925, he died in Madrid. His body was embalmed. 150 000 people attended his funeral.