Issue date: 27 Oct, 2006
new stamp has been issued in the People series to commemorate the Centenary of the Birth of Ramón Rubial.
Ramón Rubial was born in Erandio, in the province of Vizcaya, on 28 October 1906. He trained as a lathe operator at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios and by the young age of 14 had already become politically active in the Sindicato Metalúrgico de Vizcaya (Vizcaya Metallurgists’ Union), part of the UGT (General Workers’ Union), with a clear ambition to build a better future for his fellow workers. In 1922 he joined the young socialists, combining his professional duties as a metalworker with his tireless political work and union activities.
Fully immersed in the social struggle to improve the lives of the working classes, Ramón Rubial paid a high price for participating in the revolutionary actions of 1934 and fighting to defend the Republic during the Civil War. He was arrested in 1937 and spent almost 20 years in jail. From his release in 1956 to his retirement in 1976, he worked in a friend’s workshops and threw himself wholeheartedly, though clandestinely, into reorganising the PSOE (the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) and the UGT, at great risk to his own life and liberty.
When Spain finally became a democratic country in 1976, he was elected President of the PSOE, becoming Senator for Vizcaya in the first democratic elections in 1977. In February 1978 he was appointed President of the General Basque Council.
In 1990, Ramón Rubial was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Fundación Españoles en el Mundo, devoted to “creating aid programmes to help Spaniards wherever they may find themselves in the world … maintaining a Spanish presence in the world through Spaniards living abroad ... and, in particular, promoting initiatives aimed at achieving complete integration by Spaniards, both in the countries in which they are now living and in Spain itself”. This institution is now called the Fundación Ramón Rubial-Españoles en el Mundo.
Ramón Rubial died on 24 May 1999, leaving a deep impression on the political landscape and an example of how one can live one’s life entirely devoted to one’s ideals. The stamp is illustrated with a close-up portrait of Ramón Rubial towards the end of his life.
Rate A - €0.75. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, up to 20 g.
Rate A2 - €0.85. For a “standard” letter or postcard within Spain, between 20 g and 50 g.
Rate B - €1.65. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to Europe (including Greenland), up to 20 g.
Rate C - €1.75. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the rest of the world (except USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand), up to 20 g.
Rate D - €2.10. For a “standard” Ordinary International letter or postcard addressed to the USA, Canada, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, up to 20 g.