Editing Indalecio Prieto (section)

==Entering politics==
Spain's neutrality in [[World War I]] greatly benefited Spanish industry and commerce, but those benefits were not reflected in the workers' salaries. The period was one of great social unrest, culminating on August 13, 1917, in a revolutionary [[general strike]]. The government's fear of unrest like that of the [[February Revolution]] that year in [[Russia]] (the [[October Revolution]] there was still to come) caused it to use the military to put down the general strike. Members of the strike committee were arrested in [[Madrid]]. Having been involved in organizing the strike, Prieto fled to [[France]] before he could be arrested.

He did not return until April 1918, when he had been elected to the [[Spanish Congress of Deputies]].<ref name="thomas">Thomas, Hugh. ''The Spanish Civil War'' Penguin Books.London. 2003. p. 40</ref> Very critical of the actions of the government and army during the [[Rif War (1920)|Rif War]], or "War of Melilla" (1919–1926), Prieto spoke out strongly in the Congress after the [[Battle of Annual]] (1921). He also addressed the likely responsibility of the king in the imprudent military actions of General [[Manuel Fernández Silvestre]] in the [[Melilla]] command zone.

Prieto was opposed to [[Francisco Largo Caballero]]'s line of partial collaboration with the dictatorship of [[Miguel Primo de Rivera]].<ref>Beevor, Antony. ''The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939''. London: Penguin Books, 2006, p. 17</ref> He had bitter confrontations with both men.

In August 1930, despite the opposition of party leader [[Julián Besteiro Fernández]], Prieto participated in the [[Pact of San Sebastián]]. The broad coalition of republican parties proposed doing away with the Spanish monarchy.<ref>Beevor, Antony. ''The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939''. London: Penguin Books, 2006, p. 18</ref><ref>Jackson, Gabriel. ''The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939''. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1967, p. 24</ref> In that matter, Prieto was supported by Largo Caballero's wing of the party, as the latter believed that the fall of the monarchy was necessary so that socialism could rise to power.