The beginnings of secular problem: the policy of housing and rent for the working class in the first Spanish socialists

Abstract

The 125th anniversary of the founding of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) has passed and a great deal of significant research has been conducted on various aspects of the history of the party. However, there are other aspects which remain to be studied and which have sufficient importance and current relevance to suggest that we attempt to clarify their historic content. One such aspect is the party’s position on the problem of housing and rent for the working class. This first analysis aims to present the official position of the first Spanish socialist government on this issue, a position that it needed to express from a number of points of view. The texts laying out the party’s position and the Socialist party’s contributions to the Commission and to the Institute of Social Reforms have been chosen as a starting point; in addition, the repercussions of the issue of housing for the working class in the first years of the Socialist majority in the Spanish Parliament have been analyzed. The findings – provisional– strongly suggest that the issue has been a concern of the party since its founding, although the resolution of the issue was not one to which the Socialist party under the leadership of Pablo Iglesias dedicated much effort, either practical or theoretical.