Earlier this year Correos, the Spanish postal service, announced plans to issue a 75c stamp marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the communist party of Spain. The colorful commemorative would feature a hammer and sickle and a prominent red star. On November 12, two days before the stamp was scheduled to be issued, an administrative court in Madrid issued a temporary injunction halting its release, subject to further judicial review.
The Lawsuit
The temporary injunction was in response to a suit brought against Correos by the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers. The Foundation is a nonprofit with about 400,000 members founded in 2008 to defend Christian values “and to protect the culture of life, the family and religious freedom.”
In its lawsuit, the lawyers argued that the stamp represented “the exaltation of a political party that committed crimes.” The Foundation’s president defended the suit, saying: “It is intolerable that a public company in a democratic country propagandizes a totalitarian movement that has killed millions of people.”
The Communist Party of Spain Reaction
Alberto Garzón, the current Minister of Consumer Affairs and a member of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) described the decision as “shameful” and pointed out that the PCE is a legal party. The PCE also attacked the judge who handed down the ruling and its General Secretary, called it an "attack by the heirs of the [Franco] dictatorship."
Paracuellos Massacres
The lawsuit specifically implicated the communists for the Paracuellos massacres, the first and one of the worst atrocities of the Spanish Civil War. When the civil war broke out in July 1936, thousands of Nationalist sympathizers, including civilians, priests and soldiers, were imprisoned in Madrid. On November 7, anticipating a Nationalist attack on Madrid, the Republican government relocated to Valencia as its temporary capital, leaving Madrid in the hands of the communist-led Committee for the Defense of Madrid.
The Committee, fearing the presence of so many hostile prisoners in the city, decided to evacuate them farther from the front lines. For thousands, the evacuation was simply a pretense. Beginning before dawn on November 7, prisoners were loaded on trucks and driven to the small town of Paracuellos de Jarama northwest of Madrid near the present-day airport. They were shot and buried in mass graves. The murders occurred regularly from November 7 until mid-December. Estimates of the deaths vary widely, but are commonly placed at around 5,000.
Ironically, Correos announced its intention to issue the stamp on the anniversary of the Paracuellos massacres.
Spanish Postage Stamps
There is relatively little use of postage stamps in Spain today. If you do not specifically request stamps at a post office, the clerk will give you a meter. In one Spanish post office, the clerk told the author she did not have any stamps, “but you don’t need them.” She simply used an ink marking to indicate that postage was paid. The cards was delivered promptly to addresses in the U,S, – without stamps.
Nevertheless Spain is a prolific producer of postage stamps, with around 75 new issues each year. Apart from an occasional small multi-stamp issue depicting the king, its stamps are mostly single commemoratives. Many modern issues feature attractive foods and subjects that promote tourism. Since the extreme leftist government of took power in 2018, there have been an increasing number of stamps recognizing social issues, but none as controversial as the Communist Party commemorative.
This entire episode is almost unique for the philatelic world. Having a stamp blocked by a court due to its subject matter is possibly unprecedented. It is also rare for a multi-party democracy to dedicate a postage stamp to a single political party. Since 1992, there are few postal administrations that would honor a nation’s connection to communism.