[nfin]

Don‘t know enough to tell, just (genuinely) asking:

Is it not possibly to join a group, but actually leaning a bit in (also or partially) another direction (knowing that with our human flaws not one direction might be the only possible solution, or a mix or balance might be necessary).

Only partially related: I am for example part of several groups (ok, admittely not as deep Orwell in this example) just so I can understand better all sides of a topic. To better understand a side and interact with the people of that group, I sometimes do not contradict everything I don’t agree with, but try to ask the right questions at the right moment. It sometimes feel a better use of time for both sides.

[pjc50]

Social groups? Sure. Armed rebel groups in the middle of an insurgency? Disloyalty is .. less tolerated.

[dghf]

To be picky, these weren't armed rebel groups (at least not until the May Days). They were armed groups defending the legitimate government of Spain from a full-on mutiny and attempted coup by the armed forces and associated right-wing groups.

It was the middle of an insurgency, but these groups were fighting to suppress it, not support it.

[nfin]

oh thanks! it was about being an active part of an armed rebel group? I see. I should have read better what it ws about.

[pjc50]

Pay attention :)

Orwell was in a roughly similar role to one of the idealistic Westerners going to fight in Ukraine today, except the anti-Fascist side was much more politically fragmented, less well armed, and ultimately lost, leaving Spain as officially Fascist until 1977.

[justcreatedlol]

If i remember correctly, Orwell joined POUM just because they were sending people to the front lines while the communist party was not at the time he arrived to Barcelona (don´t remember the details, maybe they were recruiting for defending Barcelona or their militia had already departed), not out of ideology.

[dghf]

After some digging around on Wikipedia's page and in my copy of Homage to Catalonia, it appears that:

* Once he'd decided to go to Spain to fight, he approached the British Communist Party, who suggested he join the International Brigades, but he was unwilling to do that without seeing the situation in Spain for himself first.

* He had friends in the Independent Labour Party, who gave him a letter of introduction for the ILP's man in Barcelona. Once there, he joined the POUM militia, because the POUM were affiliated with the ILP.

* While on leave in Barcelona, he decided to leave the POUM, which was stationed on the comparatively quiet Aragon front, for the chance of fighting on the Madrid front. He would have preferred to join the Anarchists, but was unlikely to be sent to Madrid with them, so applied to join the Communist International Column instead. However, the May Days intervened, sparking the breakdown in relations between the Republican government and Communists on one hand, and the Anarchists, POUM, and other left-wing groups not aligned with Moscow on the other: so he returned to the Aragon front with the POUM until being shot and invalided out, and then fleeing Spain altogether just ahead of a Stalinist purge.

So it would appear that the political differences between the various groups on the Republican side weren't, at least at first, that important to Orwell: making common cause against the Fascists was the priority.