Francesc Arín

Francesc Arín i Simó (1891–1936) was a Valencian trade unionist and journalist. A metalworker by trade, Arín became a union leader in the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT), within which he formed part of the moderate faction. He led the metalworkers' union through the early 1920s, which saw him arrested, exiled and blacklisted. He then switched professions to work in the fishing industry, within which he likewise became a trade union leader. During the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, he joined the Solidaridad group led by Ángel Pestaña and continued to organise the CNT throughout the period.

When he was elected as the General Secretary of the CNT in 1930, he began to pursue a policy of legalisation, opposing the use of conspiratorial methods against the government. After the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, he argued for the temporary defence of the republic until the CNT had consolidated its strength and the threat of a reactionary coup d'état had been averted. Together with Pestaña, he published the Manifesto of the Thirty, which criticised premature calls for insurrection by individual cadres. The faction gradually lost influence within the CNT and eventually split from it entirely, forming the Federación Sindicalista Libertaria (FSL). Arín pushed for the FSL's reintegration into the CNT and rejoined the organisation by 1936. He was killed by the Nationalists in the first days of the Spanish Civil War.