First Congress of the PSOE

The First Congress of the PSOE was held in Barcelona (Spain) between August 23 to 25, 1888, during the regency of Maria Christina of Habsburg, nine days after the Barcelona Workers' Congress of 1888 in which the General Union of Workers was founded, linked to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE), founded in Madrid in 1879. Thus, "for the first time in the history of Spain, a clear and distinct definition was proposed between a party of the working class (which aspires to the exercise of power) and a resistance organization or union, whose aim is to defend the interests of all workers in their relations of production (with employers or companies) and, in general, in their living conditions".^[1]

^ Tuñón de Lara, Manuel (1977). El movimiento obrero en la historia de España. I.1832-1899 (in Spanish) (2 ed.). Barcelona: Laia. pp. 290–291. ISBN 84-7222-331-0. The first (the party), pretending to group the most advanced sector of the class for a global objective; the second (the union), postulating the adhesion of every member of the class, indeed of every wage earner, for objectives of a professional and class order, but not global (which will not exclude later on, the acceptance of certain global principles).