70 years ago: The Spanish War Against Fascism 1936-1939
1) (New Worker) "They shall not pass!"
2) (New Worker) "Remembering the heroes who fought fascism in Spain"
New Worker Special Features - 21/7/2006
They shall not pass!
by Dolly Shaer
THE BACKGROUND to the war that was to be called the first anti-fascist war
in Europe is found in the attempts of the Spanish people over the years to
get its freedom from the ruling class in Spain.
At the end of the 19th century Spain had lost its colonies in the Americas
and the Caribbean, the last two to fall were Cuba and Puerto Rico in 1898.
By the 1930s Spain was still mainly a feudal country. Fifty-six per cent of
the population was involved in agriculture, working for the big land owners.
Modern industry, such as there was, was mainly in the north-east of the
country: textiles in Catalonia, iron and steel, shipbuilding and paper in
the Basque country and the mines in Asturias.
One economic commentator wrote: "Elsewhere Spain was not only an agrarian
economy but also a very retarded and unproductive one upon which was founded
an often staggeringly unjust society."
The two main powerful institutions in control were the church and the army.
The church controlled the education system, such as it was, and provided
what little medical aid there was. By the 1930s the church was forming a
closer alliance with the wealthy landowners - who ran their estates on
feudal lines.
The population of Spain in 1931 was 24 million, half of whom were
illiterate. Two million of the peasants owned no land and 20,000 people
owned half of Spain.
The army was over-officered, militarily inefficient and growing increasingly
towards interference in politics. For instance the army had 15,000 officers,
of whom 800 were generals.
In 1930 representatives of Republicans and the Spanish Socialist Party
joined in a pact to fight the elections.
The Second Spanish Republic 1931-1939 (the first was 1873-1874) began after
King Alfonso XIII abdicated when a socialist and republican government was
elected with its highest support in the urban areas.
In 1933 the elections produced a right-wing government which was supported
by Christian Democrats and fascists. There were uprisings by organised
labour which were put down viciously by the government.
Franco was involved in a particularly brutal attack on the miners of
Asturias (1934) causing the death of many of them.
The left-wing parties organised themselves with the result that in February
1936 a Popular government was elected.
It was on 18th July that Franco, together with other officers, started their
coup against this government.
Franco appealed to and got support from Hitler and Mussolini. Italian planes
transported an army from the Spanish colony of Morocco to support the
fascist leadership of the coup. Their advance into Spain was accompanied by
the most brutal attacks on the Spanish people. Hitler used the war as a
rehearsal of what he was to inflict on the rest of Europe three years later.
The Spanish people did not sit down and let this just happen. They fought
back.
They appealed to the governments of the world for assistance to fight these
rebels.
The only ones that offered any support were Mexico and of course the Soviet
Union. France and Britain started a policy of Non-Intervention and refused
any help at all to the legitimately elected government of the Republic. But
the working class of the world did both by sending volunteers to fight and
at home through Aid to Spain committees.
Volunteers went to Spain from about 53 countries. They formed the
International Brigades and there were around 35,000 of them, men and women.
About 2,500 men and women went from Britain, of whom about 530 were killed
and 1,200 wounded and around 150 taken prisoner. (By the very nature of
their volunteering, changing their names and so on, figures used cannot be
exact).
The British government revived a 19th century law - the Foreign Enlistment
Act - which made it illegal to enrol into a foreign army. The British
working class lost what could be called the cream of our Labour movement in
Spain, both intellectuals and active trade unionists.
It was not only the Volunteers who went to Spain who organised help for the
Republic.
In many countries Aid to Spain committees were set up and Britain was no
exception.
Large rallies were held to raise funds for medical supplies and ambulances.
The famous fund raiser Isabel Brown collected £3,800 in 20 minutes at one
such rally in, I believe, the Albert Hall. This at a time when the average
wage was £3 a week for a manual worker and £1.13 shillings a week for a
woman worker. The Coop had bins at the entrances to their shops for people
to drop food in. Money was collected in places like Trafalgar Square where
meetings were held.
The Committee also helped wives and children of the Brigaders, certainly
those of the Brigaders who were taken prisoner. My mother had some
assistance and the Woodcraft Folk and the British Federation of Young
Co-operators took the children out for one-day holidays.
The breadth of this aid was being based in anti-fascist activity that
followed on from the fight to stop Mosley in Cable Street. And it was a very
proud time in British working class history.
***
Remembering the heroes who fought fascism in Spain
by Rob Laurie
SEVENTY years ago this month General Franco led a revolt of the Spanish Army
against the Popular Front Government elected the previous February. Thus
began what is known as the Civil War in Spain - but which is more accurately
named the Spanish War Against Fascism - which was to last three years before
the fascists triumphed.
This was due to the massive open support of Hitler and Mussolini, to say
nothing of the covert support from Britain and other bourgeois democracies.
The Spanish Republic did fight not alone; support came from the Soviet Union
and the International Brigades which were formed of volunteers who came from
across the globe.
Britain sent 2,100 volunteers to fight against the fascists. Of these 526
died in battle. Today only 24 are still alive.
Contrary to the impression given in the capitalist media the volunteers were
not all poets and other gilded youth whose later memoirs greatly exaggerated
their role.
The Brigaders were largely working class: among them were Welsh miners,
Clydeside engineers and working class Jewish veterans of the struggles
against Oswald Mosley in the East End of London.
Last Saturday this heroic struggle was remembered at a ceremony at the
International Brigade Memorial under the gaze of the London Eye in south
London.
This year the ceremony was important for the first ever attendance of the
Spanish Ambassador, Carlos Miranda, which represented a long overdue
official recognition by the Spanish government of the efforts made by the
International Brigade in the war and afterwards when they campaigned for the
political prisoners held in Franco's jails.
He praised the Brigaders for their role in bringing about Spain's present
democratic constitutional monarchy. While this may not have been the aim of
the Brigaders who were largely Communists, they can be credited with
encouraging the Spanish people's resistance to the fascist system which did
not long outlive General Franco.
The well attended event was chaired by Jack Jones, former general secretary
of the Transport and General Workers' Union, himself a Brigader. Among the
seven veterans present was Penny Fyvel who served as a nurse in during the
war.
There were three wreaths laid. The Spanish Ambassador laid one; a
representative of the Jewish ex-servicemen's organisation, AJAX, laid
another and Connie Fraser laid the third on behalf of the International
Brigade Memorial Trust - who organised the ceremony.
Bob Doyle, the last surviving Irishman to fight in Spain was also present to
sign copies of his recent autobiography Brigadista. While the main speaker
was Rodney Bickerstaffe, the former general secretary of Unison, Sam
Russell, another Brigader, recited Cecil Day-Lewis's poem The Volunteer.
He also called upon the large audience to remember the role of women who
served as ambulance drivers and nurses. The meeting also saw the launch of a
new anthology of poetry written by veterans and edited by Jim Jump.
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***
Dear Friend, as part of our continued programming on L.A.'s housing
crisis, the Southern California Library will hold a film fest this Saturday,
July 29. The festival will feature local, national, and global films on
topics from gentrification to global land struggles. For more information
and a full schedule, please scroll. For summaries of the films, go to our
website at www.socallib.org.
The fest will start at 1 p.m. and continue until 8 p.m. Come for all
or part of the day.
We invite you to learn more about the struggle for decent housing in
this country and around the world.
Michele
Michele Welsing
Communications Director
Southern California Library
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
323-759-6063, ext. 15 (ph)
www.socallib.org
Working for a world where all people have the ability, resources, and
freedom to make their own histories
MOVE!
Housing and the Struggle for a Livable L.A.
Exhibit Open for Viewing
A film fest exploring the roots of L.A.'s
HOUSING CRISIS
Film Fest
Local/national/global films on gentrification, redevelopment, activism,
resistance, global land struggles, border communities, homelessness
July 29, 2006, 1 p.m.-8 p.m.
1:00: Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story (24 min.) Produced by Jordan
Mechner, 2005.
1:30: Venice Lobotomy (trailer) (6 min.). Produced by Erin Grayson, 2006.
2:00: Fall of the I-Hotel (58 min.). Produced by Curtis Choy, 1983 (updated
1993 and 2005)
3:00: All for the Taking: 21st Century Urban Renewal (58 min.). Produce by
George McCollough, 2005.
4:00: Home and Hope in the New Los Angeles (25 min.). Produced by Daniel and
Jeff Kaufman, 2006.
4:30: Tenants Unite & Fight Back (20 min.), produced by Maria Elena
Cortinas, 2006.
5:00: The Landless: On the Paths of America (Los Sin Tierras: Por Los
Caminos de America) (90 min.). Produced by Miguel Barros and El Deseo, 2003.
6:30: Favela Rising (80 min.). Produced by Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary,
2005.
Come for all or part of the day
Families welcome; childcare provided. Refreshments.
@Southern California Library
6120 S. Vermont Avenue (btw Slauson and Gage)
Los Angeles, CA 90044
***
LA Times Calendar Jazz, 7/27/2006
Celebrating Central Avenue
Saturday and Sunday, July 29 & July 30
The Central Avenue Jazz Festival celebrates the 1920s-1950's artistic
nexus of L.A.'s African American community with two days of music,
ethnic cuisine, arts, crafts and educational exhibits. The fest will open
Saturday morning with a panel discussion on the "Women of Central
Avenue" followed by a musical lineup that features primarily female artists.
Barbara Morrison, Carmen Lundy, the Jennifer York Quartet, the Susie
Hansen Latin Jazz Band and the Gerald Wilson Orchestra will perform.
Sunday's lineup will feature the all-female big band Maiden Voyage, the
Kaen Briggs Band, the Nedra Wheeler Quintet, Katia Moraes and the
Sambaguru band, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Jazz
Ensemble, the Ernie Andrews Band and the Billy Mitchell Group with
Alexandra Isley. The emcees will be Jose Rizo and Michael Dolphin.
Central Avenue Jazz Festival 4225 S.Central Ave., L.A. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday, July 29 & 30. 213-473-2304.
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