He became a typographer, and as a young man joined the anarchist Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores (CNT, National Confederation of Workers).

[1] From 1931 Vidiella was head of the Catalan Federation of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE, Spanish Socialist Workers' Party).

[5] After a few months Comorera and Vidiella became members of the Partido Comunista Español (PCE, Spanish Communist Party) central committee.

[6] At first the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC, Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia) had between two and five thousand members, but by March 1937 it may have had 50,000.

[9] The government wanted to avoid trials of people charged with murder during the revolutionary period that followed the defeat of the 18 July 1936 military uprising in Catalonia.

Vidiella prepared a press release which said the Council of the Generalitat had unanimously accepted his proposal to order the courts not to treat "revolutionary events" as crimes.

Three members of the PSUC represented the UGT in this government: Vidiella (Justice), Comorera (Provisions) and Miquel Valdés (Labor and Public Works).

During the struggle between Joan Comorera and the leadership of the Partido Comunista de España (PCE, Spanish Communist Party) he sided with the latter.