Although the group was affiliated to the Left Opposition, Leon Trotsky objected to its name, believing that it failed to stress that the organisation viewed itself as an external faction of the Communist Party.[citation needed] By April 1936, on the brink of the Spanish Civil War, Trotsky had denounced the Spanish left communists:[2]
At present we must say openly that the Spanish “left communists” have allowed this extremely favorable interval to pass by completely and have revealed themselves as in no way better than the socialist and “communist” traitors. Really, there has been no lack of warnings! All the greater is the culpability of an Andres Nin, of an Andrade, etc. – With a correct policy the “Communist Left”, as a section of the Fourth International, might have been at the head of the Spanish proletariat today. Instead of this, it vegetates in the confused organization of a Maurin – without program, without perspective, and without any political importance.