National-Syndicalist Offensive Juntas

The Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional-Sindicalista (JONS) was a Spanish fascist group that existed between 1931 and 1934, when it merged with the Spanish Falange party. Totalitarian in nature and contrary to political parties and any democratic system, it advocated the supremacy of the State, trying to articulate this State around a vertical union.^{[citation required]} De markedly nationalist character, he materialized this ideology in the so-called national syndicalism .

Its official organ was the weekly Libertad.

Ideology and history

The JONS were born on October 10, 1931, from the merger of the group led by Ramiro Ledesma Ramos —founder of the weekly La Conquista del Estado— with the Castilian Boards of Hispanic Action, group founded by Onésimo Redondo Ortega —a former propagandist for Acción Católica— and centered around the weekly Libertad.

The JONS, considered a Spanish-style fascism, followed the fascist current in Europe, adapting some concepts —especially Italian fascism and German National Socialism— to the peculiarities of Spanish society at the time. If Nazism extolled Aryan blood, National Syndicalism replaced this concept with Catholicism. They advocated violent action as a means to achieve what they called the social revolution. They were the pioneers in adopting the symbol of the five arrows intersected in a yoke or joint, as well as the motto "Spain one, great and free!" and "Up Hispanic values!", precursor cry of the later "Up Spain!" Falangist.

On March 4, 1934, the JONS united with the Spanish Falange, forming the new FE de las JONS (Spanish Falange of the Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista) in an act held at the Calderón theater in Valladolid.

JONS and violence

As was the case with Italian fascism in the early twenties, violence was a fundamental element in the strategy of the JONS. Ledesma wrote a program guide to systematically exercise this violence. Developed in six points, it turned it into a strategic axis to achieve political ends.

For Ledesma, the time for secret terrorism had ended and a new stage was opening in which the uniformed and perfectly disciplined militias would be the ones to exercise the violence that their political objectives required. Onésimo Redondo (his other leader) would be the most explicit of all the Falangist leaders when he declared "We are in love with a certain healthy violence" or "A situation of absolute violence is approaching".

The jonista militias became provocateurs that contributed to the violent situation that the Second Republic experienced, taking advantage of the sale of their publications to engage in raids with young people from leftist organizations, making incursions into working-class neighborhoods or attending events groups of left-wing groups to boycott them. In May 1932, violence caused the first fatality in the ranks of the JONS: a JONS member died in Valladolid shot by the Assault Guard. In March 1933, at the University of Madrid, a jonista armed with a pistol wounded three students. On November 2, 1933, during a rally called by the socialists in Daimiel, Ciudad Real province, a socialist stabbed the jonista José Ruiz de la Hermosa, causing his death. The JONS itself did not cause any fatality among the militants of leftist organizations, since the first death of this type did not occur until June 10, 1934, the date on which that the organization had already merged with the Falange Española to give rise to the Falange Española de las JONS.

Once united with the Spanish Falange, the JONS group became the group most prone to using violence.