Estudio de los textos de la propaganda ilegal contra el Franquismo a través de las sentencias TOP

Abstract

The study of the leaflets and similar publications generated by the political opposition to Franco’s regime is presented as fundamental for providing a global perspective of the history of Francoism. Through these writings, we can discover the theoretical and practical aspects of the struggle staged by opposition groups to the political system imposed from 1939. This article analyses the material through a detailed study of the content of the judge-ments of the TOP (Tribunal de Orden Público), the court created in 1963 to prosecute non-violent political crimes, and which was an attempt to give an appearance of modernity to Franco’s justice system and bring it more in line with the international environment. The novelty of this study is working with lost material, mainly due to the fact that the law provided for its destruction once sentencing had taken place; those judgments, therefore, are the main way we have of knowing what generated a crime. Illegal propaganda, which was present throughout the whole life of the court, was quantitatively the second most important, after illegal association.