¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust l 3-2018 l £5

Artists for How they rallied to the anti-fascist cause in the

¡NO PASARÁN! Magazine of the International Brigade Memorial Trust No.49 l 3-2018

t Cover story Christine Lindey describes the way that British artists supported the Spanish Republic: see pages 11-14. Part of an opening sequence of images in the films being produced 3 News by the IBMT and Marx Memorial Library to publicise the archives. l Fascist graffiti in Spain, plus new memorials in Wigan and for two nurses Archive catalogue goes online 6 Southbank commemoration The new catalogue for the Marx short films for social media to son of Dr Len Crome, who was 8 Secretarial notes Memorial Library’s archives of publicise the archives, which the Chief Medical Officer of the l War reporting in Spain and today the and comprise by far the largest Spanish Republic’s XV Army Spanish Civil War is now online collection in Britain of material Corps, including the British 10 Alicante honours sea captain and fully searchable by subject concerning the Spanish Civil Battalion and other mainly l Bust of Archibald Dickson unveiled matter, place or name. Listing War. Each film will cover English-speaking units of 15th more than 8,000 items and separate themes of trade unions, International Brigade. Peter has 11 Artists for Spain 2,500 newly digitised women, internationalism, anti- recently donated his father’s photographs, the catalogue has and refugees. A pilot for papers concerning the 14 La Pasionaria’s farewell speech been created as a joint project the video on trade unions was International Brigades and l 80 years ago in with the IBMT and with the screened at a launch event at Spain to the library. help of funding from The the library in London on 24 July. To search the catalogue, go 16 National Archives. The films will be rolled out to the Marx Memorial Library’s l Bob Cooney’s memoir Following completion of the starting this autumn. website (www.marx-memorial- cataloguing work earlier this The main speaker at the library.org.uk) and click ‘Search 18 Letters year, the IBMT and library launch was Professor Peter our catalogue’ in the are now producing a series of Crome, IBMT Patron and the ‘Collections’ menu item. 20 Books and the arts l Including a new biography of Franco Clapton CFC’s away kit is a winner 22 Notice of Annual General Meeting Fans of Clapton Community Football Club in east London have voted to dedicate their 2018/19 ¡No Pasarán! (formerly the IBMT Magazine and season away strip to the International Brigades. the IBMT Newsletter) is published three times a The new team kit is in the red, yellow and purple year. Back numbers can be downloaded from of the Spanish Republic and features the three- the IBMT website. All content is the © of the pointed star of the International Brigades and ‘No IBMT and credited contributors and cannot be pasarán’ on the back of the shirt. reproduced without written permission. Views Clapton CFC’s Iain Aitch reports that the ‘clear expressed are not necessarily those of the IBMT. winner’ in the ballot to choose a theme for the strip was one paying tribute to the International Editor Jim Jump Brigades. ‘Our fans are something of an IBMT, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU international mix and are known for their anti- 020 7253 8748 fascist stance and work in the community,’ he [email protected] Wearing the colours of the Spanish Republic, says. ‘So this choice made a lot of sense.’ Stefan Nielsen (right) is congratulated by Stefan Clapton CFC (www.claptoncfc.co.uk) is a fan- International Brigade Memorial Trust Kilron after scoring in Clapton CFC’s 5-2 victory owned resurrection of the historic Forest Gate www.international-brigades.org.uk over Wanderers FC on 25 August. team, five time winners of the FA Amateur Cup.

¡NO PASARÁN! 3 NEWS

FAMILY AFFAIR: Spanish Civil War nurse Mary Slater (1903-1983) was honoured in her home town of Preston on 16 June with a memorial plaque (below). The plaque was unveiled by family member Vera Stephens, pictured here with local IBMT activist Terry Bayes. The plaque The International Brigade in the city centre’s Peace Garden was Memorial Trust keeps alive inaugurated as part of Preston’s the memory and spirit of annual People’s Festival. the men and women who volunteered to fight fascism and defend democracy in Spain from 1936 to 1939

International Brigade Memorial Trust 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU 020 7253 8748 [email protected] www.international-brigades.org.uk Registered charity no.1094928

President Marlene Sidaway [email protected] Chair Richard Baxell [email protected] Secretary Jim Jump [email protected] Treasurer Manuel Moreno [email protected] REMEMBERED: Tributes were paid to Derbyshire Ireland Secretary Manus O’Riordan miner Tom Gaunt on 15 June at a rededication of [email protected] a plaque in his memory (under the flag), which Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott was originally installed in Clowne Parish House in [email protected] 2009. Local IBMT member Paul Hardy (second Wales Secretary Mary Greening from right) pointed out that this year marked the [email protected] 80th anniversary of Gaunt’s death in Aragón in SPANISH BULL: Annual commemoration in Renton Merchandise Officer Chris Hall March 1938 and went on to read John Cornford’s on 13 May for the International Brigade volunteers [email protected] poem ‘A Letter from Aragon’. from Dunbartonshire. Film Coordinator Marshall Mateer [email protected] Education Officer Richard Thorpe [email protected] Other Executive Committee members Lisa Croft, Pauline Fraser, Alex Gordon, John Haywood Founding Chair Professor Paul Preston WIGAN: Spain’s Patrons Professor Peter Crome, Hywel Francis, Day of the Professor Helen Graham, Ken Livingstone, Republic, 14 April, Len McCluskey, Christy Moore, Jack O’Connor, saw the unveiling Maxine Peake, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, of a new Mick Whelan memorial to the International facebook.com/groups/7123291063 Brigaders from twitter.com/IBMT_SCW Wigan, which youtube.com/user/IBMTnews stands next to flickr.com/photos/ibmt Wigan Town Hall.

4 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust

Launching

the IBMT raffle

Readers in the UK will find two books of IBMT raffle tickets (10 tickets per book at £1 a ticket) enclosed with their copy of ¡No Pasarán!. We hope every member will either buy the tickets or sell them on to family and friends. Fundraising initiatives of this sort are crucial in helping us to continue our work in maintaining the memory and spirit of the International Brigades. The IBMT No Pasarán Raffle BANNER BRIGHT: British banner artist Ed Hall (second from right) hands over offers some wonderful prizes, a new banner for the Antwerp region of the ABVV-AC Belgian workers’ union. many of them donated by IBMT The banner pays tribute to Belgian International Brigader Piet Akkerman, who supporters. The draw will take was killed at Algora, near Guadalajara, in January 1937 while fighting with the place in the IBMT Office, 37a André Marty Battalion, in which he was a political commissar. Taking proud Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R possession of the banner, which shows Piet resplendent in a tie in Spanish 0DU at 11am on 4 October 2019. Republican colours, are ABVV-AC Regional Secretary Ronny Le Blon (left) and Do support us in this way, or, activist Levi Sollie outside London’s St Pancras International Station as they if you don’t approve of gambling, are about to board the Eurostar back to Antwerp. please make a donation instead One of the first outings of the banner was at a ceremony in May to name to assist our work and return the an Antwerp street after Akkerman. The union used the event to celebrate books to the IBMT at the above Piet’s role as a trade unionist in the diamond cutters’ union (now part of address so that they can be sold FORGOTTEN HEROINE: A plaque ABVV-AC) and especially as an International Brigader. on to others. If you would like (above) was unveiled on 12 May additional raffle ticket books to Madge Addy, the Spanish Civil contact the IBMT (admin@ War nurse turned British secret international-brigades.org.uk or agent in wartime France. The 020 7253 8748). memorial is on her last known Return all completed stubs Manchester address in Chorlton- and cheques, payable to the cum-Hardy’s Manchester Road. IBMT, to our address given above. In Spain Madge Addy was the Note that each ticket purchaser’s head nurse of the International telephone number is all that is Brigade hospital at Uclés. needed on each stub. When She was living in Paris when the returning tickets and money, Nazis invaded in 1940 and stayed in please also give your own name occupied France, working for Britain’s and phone number. Good luck! Special Operations Executive. She helped organise clandestine escape routes and delivered secret FASCIST DAUBINGS: Spanish neo- In the province of La Rioja in northern Recruit a friend messages sewn into the lining of Nazis defaced the newly inaugurated Spain, also on the eve of May Day, her clothes – for which she was memorial to the International neo-Nazis attacked a cemetery near Also enclosed with this issue of later awarded an OBE. Brigades (above) in the southern Logroño containing the remains of our magazine is the IBMT’s Her extraordinary story was Madrid suburb of Vicálvaro on the more than 400 Spanish Republicans membership recruitment brochure. brought to light by historian Angela eve of this year’s May Day. Among murdered by fascist gangs following Please pass it on to someone Jackson and published in 2016 in the graffiti were the letters ‘88’, a the military coup in July 1936. Nazi who you think might be the IBMT’s magazine under the reference to the eighth letter of the slogans and signs (below) were interested in our work and, even headline ‘Madge Addy: forgotten alphabet, ‘h’, and standing for ‘Heil daubed on the graves and across the more importantly, may consider heroine of the wars in Spain and Hitler’. The Vicálvaro local council names of the Republican dead. becoming a member. Tell them France’. The article sparked a immediately ordered the cleaning of that, as a member, they will campaign to persuade Manchester the memorial, which was unveiled in receive our magazine three times City Council to erect the plaque. November last year. a year as well as our regular This was not an isolated incident. IBMT eNewsletter.

¡NO PASARÁN! 5 ANNUAL COMMEMORATION Greetings from Labour leaders

undreds attended the My own parents first met at a IBMT’s annual rally for the embattled Spanish Hcommemoration on Republic. The Spanish people London’s Southbank on 7 July, were betrayed by the Tory which was addressed by, among government of the time, who others, Jon Trickett, Labour MP for refused the request of the elected Hemsworth and the Shadow Spanish government to support Minister for the Cabinet Office. He their fight against fascism. praised the example set by the But ordinary people stood up International Brigades and stressed across the world and answered the the need to be vigilant against the call. Over 2,500 British people resurgence of fascism today. went to defend democracy and There was music from Na-mara, resist fascism, and 526 gave their a minute’s silence followed by the lives in that struggle. They were singing of ‘Valley of Jarama’, and dockers, engineers, bricklayers, wreaths were laid on behalf of the Spanish embassy, the respective Spanish, French and US International Brigade memorial groups AABI, ACER and ALBA, Young Labour, the BC’37A Basque children’s association, the Marx Memorial Library, the Connolly Association and other groups and individuals. This year’s gathering also marked two important 80th anniversaries. Three grandchildren CORBYN: Best of our country. of International Brigaders Nan and George Green and Sam Wild – tailors, students, poets, playwrights, Emma Davey, Barney Green and shipbuilders, and came from every Gideon Long – read extracts of part of our country. writings about the Battle of the The men and women who Ebro. And Anglo-Spanish actor served in the International Yolanda Vázquez recited the famous Brigades represent the best of our farewell speech delivered by the country. Nearly 80 years on from communist Spanish Republican the Spanish Civil War, we should leader Dolores Ibárruri to the remember the words of the International Brigades in October legendary Spanish Republican 1938 (see pages 14-15). leader La Pasionaria, who told the International Brigades: ‘You are Jeremy Corbyn’s message history, you are legend!’ Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn We honour the sacrifice of (pictured) sent greetings to the those who fought in the IBMT commemoration, read out by International Brigades by our Marcus Barnett, International commitment to the struggles Officer of Young Labour… against injustice and hatred we I would like to send my best wishes face today. We can be both and solidarity to everyone who has humbled and emboldened by the gathered today to honour the courage of those who stood International Brigades, who went alongside the Spanish people in to defend the Spanish people their darkest hour and raised the against fascism in the . flag of freedom and democracy.

6 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust

Photos: Andrew Wiard

Pictured clockwise from bottom left: address to the International Brigades. l Caleb (5), Amaia (7) and Rory (5) l Na-mara: Rob Garcia and Paul laid a wreath in honour of their great McNamara. grandfather Michael O’Riordan. l Jon Trickett MP. l Claude Desmazure, of the French l Portraits clockwise from top left: International Brigades memorial Miguel Gómez (AABI), Nancy Wallach group ACER, pays his respects. (ALBA), Gideon Long, Emma Davey, l Yolanda Vázquez, who read La Barney Green and Marcus Barnett Pasionaria’s legendary farewell (Young Labour).

¡NO PASARÁN! 7 SECRETARIAL NOTES

Business and pleasure in Wales, Alun Menai Williams (1913-2006) would indeed make an ideal candidate to be I hope as many members as possible will be able remembered in the name of the bridge. So too to attend our Annual General Meeting in Hull on would Bob Peters (1914-2007) who was, strictly Saturday 13 October. The AGM conducts vital speaking, the last Welsh International Brigader. business, principally electing the Executive He died in London, however. Committee – who are the IBMT’s Trustees – for the next year, as well as reviewing our activities Manchester go-ahead and finances. The AGM is part of an entertaining weekend of social and commemorative activities Thanks go to Manchester IBMT member Stuart being laid on by an excellent group of activists in Walsh, who reports that the city’s International the city. See page 22 for more details. Brigade memorial will still be accessible to IBMT supporters and public alike. This is despite the fact that Manchester Town Hall, where the A bridge too far memorial has been located, is going to be closed Bravo to IBMT member Phil Brand of Tooting, for the next six years while undergoing south-west London, for joining in the debate refurbishment. During this work, the wood- about the naming of the new bridge linking carved memorial, unveiled in 1983, is being and Wales across the Severn. ‘Why temporarily moved to the adjoining Central name the bridge after the royal sponger Charles Reference Library. Windsor,’ he wrote in a letter to the Morning Local IBMT members organise an annual Star, ‘when a more apt name could be the Alun commemoration at the memorial each February, Menai Williams Bridge, named after the last which will now continue to take place as usual, surviving Welsh International Brigader?’ for which Stuart says we should thank the town As the last Welsh volunteer to die while living hall and library staff. s Still in use: the Manchester memorial. ’s legacy should be proper journalism, not dodgy historical parallels

oliticians and journalists efforts to pin blame for the images and information, certainly Reporters are easy kidnap targets continue to draw parallels on forces from the rebel side, are shadowy for extremist groups, which is very Pbetween the Spanish Civil loyal to the Spanish Republic. groups and individuals generally convenient for the jihadist rebels War and events in the Middle East. Mackey’s article details the way dependent on Western funding and their friends. This way they can These comparisons are usually lazy, that the Franco authorities and in favour of ‘regime change’. control the images and stories probably driven by an ulterior fabricated evidence to make out that It would be hard to imagine reaching correspondents sitting in political agenda and often involve retreating Republican forces had journalists in the Spanish Civil War offices and hotel rooms many moral posturing (which proves what destroyed the ancient Basque relying on reports and photos miles away. a powerful reference point the capital. Credit for the fact that most spoon-fed to them by pro-Franco No-one is sure what happened Spanish Civil War remains). They people weren’t fooled lies largely ‘media activists’. Just read Paul in Douma. Yet the Western media, are also invariably wrong: it’s not with one man. , of The Preston’s superb account of front- including Robert Mackey, went possible to remove events from , was among the first reporters line journalism in Spain, ‘We Saw along with the accusations levelled complexity of their historical contexts. to arrive at the scene of devastation Spain Die’, to appreciate the sheer by the rebel side. Tellingly, Mackey, The bombing of Guernica is following the fire-bombing of 26 professionalism and commitment while justly praising George Steer especially commonly invoked. An . By collecting bomb shown by reporters in Spain. in 1937, airily dismisses any example appeared recently in the fragments and talking to survivors he There are no doubt good reporters who reached Douma US online publication, The was able to tell the world of the reasons why their sort of journalism ‘under Russian military escort’ and Intercept, an influential forum for atrocity and attribute blame to is not so easy in Syria today. doesn’t even name or quote the news and left-leaning opinion. In an Hitler’s and article on 2 May Robert Mackey, an Mussolini’s . experienced journalist who has Where are today’s George Steers? ‘It would be hard to imagine journalists written for The Guardian and New Proper front-line reporting from in the Spanish Civil War relying on York Times, argues that Syria’s Syria is virtually non-existent. Most denial of culpability in the alleged reports in the Western media are, at reports and photos spoon-fed to them poison chemical attack in Douma best, filed from Beirut or Istanbul. on 7 April has echoes of Franco’s Worse still, their sources for news, by pro-Franco ‘media activists’.’

8 ¡NO PASARÁN! by Jim Jump [email protected] International Brigade Memorial Trust

Brigade – as the US volunteers are known – were Congratulations Sir Paul among the first members of the gang when it was The IBMT was delighted to send a letter of formed some 40 years ago. Their families and congratulations to Paul Preston for his friends now keep up the tradition. knighthood announced in the Queen’s birthday A key figure today is Corine Thornton honours list on 8 June. The historian and author (pictured right, with walking stick), 95, widow of of numerous books on the Spanish Civil War and Lincoln vet Nate Thornton (1915-2011). Betsy 20th century Spain received the honour in Brown (left), daughter of International Brigader recognition of his services to UK/Spain relations. Archie Brown (1911-1990) is another regular. Sir Paul is Professor of Spanish History at the Some of the gang stalwarts are remembered London School of Economics. We’re proud that on a cluster of memorial benches next to Fort he is also the IBMT’s Founding Chair. The last Point. One plaque is for Bill Bailey who, as well issue of ¡No Pasarán! carried a lengthy interview as fighting in Spain and leading a life of union with him, which was well received by readers. and political campaigning, also played a security guard in ‘Guilty By Suspicion’, the 1991 film Remembrance by the bay starring Robert De Niro about the anti- communist Hollywood blacklist. Like many other It was a pleasure to meet the Fort Point Gang on Lincoln vets, Bill himself was blacklisted during a recent trip to San Francisco. They are a group the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the 1950s. of ‘Spain-tinged’ veteran labour and peace Bailey’s son, Mike (pictured third from movement activists who meet every Thursday at right), is one of those who shows up most weeks. Fort Point, an old fort at the foot of the Golden He proudly recalls that Bill’s lifelong desire ‘to Gate Bridge and the entrance to San Francisco piss on Franco’s grave’ was realised on a return Bay. The Spanish connection stems from the fact trip to Spain. Sadly, the IBMT cannot verify s Members of the Fort Point Gang, with the that several former members of the Lincoln this claim. Golden Gate Bridge in the background. testimony of one award-winning Syrian case fabricated news and Western journalist who did report one-sided reporting have taken from the scene of the alleged over the news agenda to a degree attack. This was The Independent’s probably not seen since the First Robert Fisk, a veteran World War.’ correspondent of many Middle Earlier this year Cockburn went Eastern wars. to Raqqa after the jihadists had been Fisk arrived in Douma after the driven out by US-led airstrikes and jihadists had surrendered and been Kurdish ground forces. What he bused out by the Russians. ‘I described punctured the myth that walked across this town quite freely the aerial strikes on the Syrian city yesterday without soldier, (including 275 by British planes) had policeman or minder to haunt my been precisely targeted. ‘There are footsteps, just two Syrian friends, a districts of Mosul, Damascus and camera and a notebook,’ he wrote Aleppo that are as bad,’ he wrote, in a despatch published on 17 April. ‘but here the whole city has gone.’ He talked to local people, including The work of reporters like medics, all of whom said that no s The bombing of Guernica launched a propaganda war over who was Cockburn and Fisk should be the chemical attack had occurred. responisbe for the atrocity. It was also an inspiration for Picasso to paint his legacy of George Steer, along with Though the video footage shown masterpiece of the same name, reproduced today as a ceramic mural in the Henry Buckley, Martha Gellhorn, around the world of children and town of Gernika-Guernica. Robert Capa, Gerda Taro and all others in distress was genuine, they the other journalists who ‘saw Spain were suffering from hypoxia bombing of Syrian government British International Brigader and die’. Their legacy wasn’t ‘hotel brought on by a lack of oxygen and targets by US, British and French journalist, Claud Cockburn. Like journalism’, as Fisk has dismissed inhaled dust after a Syrian bombing warplanes on 14 April. Fisk, the younger Cockburn is much of the output of his fellow attack, not gas poisoning. notable for actually reporting from correspondents in the Middle East. It was a carefully written and ouma is a single example, inside Syria, and indeed Iraq. He They were on the ground, powerful piece of eye-witness but one that underlines has also commented in general witnessing events, verifying facts, reporting, but which was virtually Dthe damning conclusion of terms on what he sees as the abject talking to people and questioning ignored by the rest of the media. another award-winning Middle failings of recent war reportage. authority. It’s a shame we can’t The suspicion must be that this is Eastern correspondent for The ‘All wars always produce phony seem to be able to count on those because it didn’t fit the official Independent, Patrick Cockburn – atrocity stories – along with real professional standards today. narrative that had justified the who happens to be the son of a atrocities,’ he writes. ‘But in the JIM JUMP

¡NO PASARÁN! 9 HONOURED IN ALICANTE

u Unveiling of the bust of Capt Dickson in Alicante harbour, from where the Stanbrook (above) set sail in March 1939.

Archibald Dickson: legendary sea captain PEDRO OLIVARES MARTÍNEZ, of Alicante’s Civic from a humanitarian point of view to crew died. When the news reached Commission for the Recovery of Historical Memory, reports take them aboard… The number of the camps in Oran, the Spanish refugees coming aboard made it Republicans held a minute’s silence on the unveiling of a memorial to Archibald Dickson almost impossible for anyone to in memory of Capt Dickson and (pictured below), the Welshman who captained the last move on the vessel…’ his crew. ship taking Spanish Republican refugees to safety as The Stanbrook set sail on the fascist troops entered the city. evening of 28 March with 2,643 hree years ago, Alicante’s Civic men, women and children, sailing Commission for the Recovery of below the waterline. It was the last THistorical Memory unveiled a y the end of March 1939 the Meanwhile, the port was blockaded mass exile of the Spanish Civil War. plaque in the harbour to express our Spanish Civil War was about to from the sea by the Spanish rebel The ship was dreadfully gratitude to Capt Dickson and his Bend after three years of bloody navy with air support provided by overcrowded, with a shortage of fellow seafarers for their extraordinary combat and a huge working-class German Nazis, thus preventing ships food and water. act of bravery and humanity. resistance to stop fascism. The from entering and leaving the Those who had been unable to This year the annual ceremony Mediterranean ports, in particular area and carrying out any kind of embark were gathered at the port, was held on 8 April, and in addition the city of Alicante, rescue operation. while Mussolini’s Italian troops were a sculpture of Dickson’s head, made became the last During these days the British approaching. A few committed suicide. by Luis Gámez, was erected next to hope for cargo ship Stanbrook, skippered by Spain became a vast prison; there the memorial plaque. The unveiling thousands of Cardiff-born Capt Archibald Dickson, were concentration camps, torture, ceremony was attended by local retreating was waiting in Alicante to load executions, mass graves and despair. authority representatives and a Spanish tobacco, oranges and saffron. Twenty-two hours after leaving member of the Valencia regional Republicans Considering the seriousness of the Alicante, the Stanbrook arrived in government. fleeing the refugees’ plight, he decided to take Oran, Algeria. But the French colonial Many people gathered on fascist on board as many Republicans as he authorities did not allow the refugees Alicante’s harbour to pay tribute to brutality and could carry. to disembark and Capt Dickson went this legendary sea captain. The act hoping to board a This is part of the letter he sent to ashore to negotiate. As a result, closed with an emotive reading by a ship towards exile. the Sunday Dispatch newspaper in women and children were given member of the civic commission, The roads to Alicante London, published on 4 April 1939, permission to land. The other Vicente Carrasco. The homage was a were crammed with all kinds of explaining the reason why he had Republicans remained on board for deeply emotional experience for all vehicles, and men, women and taken that decision: more than a month. of us and mainly for those who children poured into the port trying ‘I was in a quandary as my Sadly, six months later, in embarked on the Stanbrook in desperately to get out of Spain instructions were not to take November, at the start of the Second March 1939 and are still alive. It was before Franco captured the town. refugees unless they were in real World War, the Stanbrook was a day to be remembered as a More than 15,000 refugees were need. However, after seeing the torpedoed by a German turning point in our history. We shall trapped around the harbour. conditions of the refugees I decided submarine and broke in two. All the not forget.

10 ¡NO PASARÁN! ARTISTS International Brigade Memorial Trust CHRISTINE LINDEY looks at the role of the Artists FOR International Association in supporting the cause of the Spanish Republic.

SPAIN q Cartoon by James Boswell in Left Review of September 1936.

he early 20th century’s momentous upheavals politicised many people and Tartists were no exception. The mechanised carnage of the First World War, the 1920s Hunger Marches, the increased immiseration caused by the Great Slump of the 1930s and the concurrent rise of fascism galvanised the left’s calls for peace and social justice. The Bolshevik Revolution and its fledgling worker state offered hope and inspired many to discover Marxism. Clive Branson, Betty Rea and James Boswell were among several artists who joined the newly formed Communist Party of Great Britain. Rea and others travelled to Russia to see for themselves, and Pearl Binder and Cliff Rowe were among those who stayed on as working artists. Unlike in Britain where the Depression dried up sales and commissions, work for artists in the was plentiful. Meanwhile working class artists such as James Fitton and Percy Horton were already politicised by the British socialist and labour movements. For socially committed artists the question was: how best to put their work at the service of ‘For socially committed artists the question was: how best to put their work at the service of political change?’ political change? One way was to organise and in 1933 a handful of artists founded the Artists International (AI). Rowe initiated it on returning from the USSR, having being impressed by the professionalism and

CONTINUED OVERLEAF

¡NO PASARÁN! 11 ARTISTS FOR SPAIN Marx Memorial Library Marx Memorial

BRITISH BATTALION BANNER being held by Communist Party leader Harry Pollitt at Mas de las Matas, Aragón, Christmas 1937. The banner and carved pole were the collective work of Phyllis Ladyman, Jim Lucas and Betty Rea.

‘SPANISH GOVERNMENT MILITIA’ (below) by Viscount (Jack) Hastings, reprinted on the front page of the POSTER (below) by Priscilla Thornycroft. AIA’s Artists’ News-Sheet, January 1937. Marx Memorial Library Marx Memorial

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE Just as the AI opposed establishment Binder, Fitton and James Holland contributed politics, so it challenged the dominant Art for biting condemnations of poverty and fascism in internationalism of Soviet artists’ organisations Art’s sake aesthetic. Preached by Roger Fry and illustrations for Left Review (1934-38). and the country’s egalitarian cultural policies Clive Bell, this held that art should address In 1935 Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia and social integration of artists. The AI was also purely formal problems and not be tainted by and Hitler’s increasingly threatening influenced by socialist and communist artists’ politics; whereas politically committed artists belligerence caused the AI to temper its groups in Mexico, France and the US. depicted the realities of working-class life and Marxist stance in the inclusive spirit of the In 1934 as membership grew to 32, the AI opposed individualism with collectivism. Popular Front. Renamed the Artists defined itself as: ‘…The International Unity of Influenced by William Morris’s socialist International Association (AIA), it widened Artists Against Imperialist War on the Soviet aesthetic, they challenged the hierarchy which Union, Fascism and Colonial Oppression…’1 placed ‘pure’ Fine Art above the Applied Arts. ‘For politicised artists the It outlined its intention to spread Marxist beliefs Indeed some artists rejected easel painting for through exhibitions, the press, lectures and meetings being unique, exchangeable commodities, and question was not whether and by collaborating on posters, illustrations, turned to socially useful public arts such as to, but how to defend the banners and stage designs and maintaining banners and prints which democratised art. international contacts with similar groups. Boswell gave up painting in 1932, and he, Spanish Republic.’ 12 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust Marx Memorial Library Marx Memorial

‘GUERNICA’ goes on show at the SURREALISTS (above) wearing Neville Whitechapel Gallery, London, in Chamberlain masks on the 1938 May Day January 1939. Speaking in front of demonstration in London. This image Picasso’s painting is Labour leader appears in ‘The Story of the AIA’ by Lynda Clem Attlee. Morris and Robert Radford (1983). FELICIA BROWNE (below) in 1936 with unknown child; one of the sketches she made in Spain (right); and (far right) a cutting from the Portsmouth Evening News of 26 July 1937. Tate/Creative Commons Tate/Creative

membership, including attracting established communists Clive Branson and Felicia Browne, volunteers of the International Brigade, in artists such as Laura Knight and , argued that in times of such political urgency which Browne became the only British so gaining public gravitas and funds. direct political action superseded artistic woman combatant. She was killed in action, as But it was the outbreak of the Spanish Civil commitment. They joined the British was Bell. War which truly united and galvanised artists Other artists argued that they could be most into action. Appalled by the French and British useful by raising public consciousness and governments’ unjust refusal to aid the Spanish ‘The British Battalion’s silk funds. The AIA arranged numerous events Republic, numerous artists rallied to its banner was made including exhibitions such as Artists Help defence in the belief that a second world war Spain. Organised in 1936 by women in just two could only be averted by defeating Franco, collectively, as Phyllis weeks, it raised the enormous sum of £500 for Hitler and Mussolini in Spain. AIA Ladyman embroidered the Artists’ Ambulance and its medical membership surged to 700 in 1937 and had supplies. Artists produced numerous leaflets, increased to 1,000 by the Second World War. Jim Lucas’s design and posters, floats, illustrations and fundraising For politicised artists the question was not Rea carved a clenched fist events such public lectures, a cabaret and whether to, but how to defend the Spanish Republic. Some, including Julian Bell and the for its carrying pole.’ CONTINUED OVERLEAF ¡NO PASARÁN! 13 ARTISTS FOR SPAIN 80 YEARS AGO

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE women would publicise the cause by attracting the press. Even artists such as ‘Portraits to Help Spanish Medical Aid’. The Henry Moore and Julian Trevelyan, whose British Battalion’s silk banner was made works normally avoided overt political collectively, as Phyllis Ladyman embroidered content, contributed posters or banners. Jim Lucas’s design and Rea carved a AIA artists were not alone in producing clenched fist for its carrying pole. Some art for Spain. But the AIA was the largest and most organised group to do so. And its clear political focus acted as a forum for the ‘Even artists such as exchange of ideas, particularly during Henry Moore and collaborative projects such as banner-making and staging exhibitions. Julian Trevelyan, whose While most artists still remained in their works normally avoided ivory towers, this minority took the radical view that artists could not escape the issues of overt political content, their time. Rea explained: ‘The future of art contributed posters hangs on the future of civilisation. It is time the artists began to think what sort of future or banners.’ they want and what they can do to get it.’2 works, such as Peter Perí’s emotive relief l Christine Lindey is a former associate On 28 October 1938 Dolores sculpture Aid Spain, conveyed anti-war lecturer in art history at Birkbeck College, Ibárruri (La Pasionaria) gave one content through traditional means. University of London, and at the University Two hundred artists marched as a of the Arts, London. Her book ‘Art for All, of the great speeches of contingent in the 1938 May Day parade, British Socially Committed Art from the 1930s modern history. including the street action by four to the Cold War’ is published this September Surrealists, who dressed and masked as the by Artery Publications. It was delivered at a farewell Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and danced minuets with his trade mark furled 1 International Literature, 1934, p.151, cited in parade for the International umbrella. In 1939 Priscilla Thornycroft Radford, R (1987), ‘Art for a Purpose: The Artists’ Brigades through central collaborated with Fran Youngman to paint International Association 1933-53’, Winchester, Barcelona. The Spanish Republic ‘Spain Fights On, Send Food Now’, from tall Winchester School of Art Press, p.22. ladders on a gigantic public hoarding, 2 Rea, BE (1935), ‘5 on Revolutionary Art’, had decided a few weeks earlier knowing that this action by two young London, Wishart, p.1. to stand down the volunteers in a forlorn attempt to convince the Western powers to put pressure on Hitler and Mussolini to withdraw their forces from Spain and persuade Franco to conclude an honourable peace.

Dolores Ibárruri was a communist deputy in the Cortes (Spanish parliament) and one of the Republic’s foremost war leaders. The farewell parade was an emotional occasion. Bystanders heaped flowers on the Brigaders, and many present were in tears. The mood is captured in La Pasionaria’s ‘SPANISH PRISONER’ words. They lose little if any of sketch (1939) by their power in translation, and Henry Moore. they are reproduced here in full.

14 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust

Dolores Ibárruri (La Pasionaria).

Arthur Dooley’s Pasionaria memorial Farewell parade for the International overlooking the Brigades in Barcelona. Clyde in Glasgow. YOU ARE LEGEND La Pasionaria’s farewell to the International Brigades

t is very difficult to say a few words For the first time in the history of the sorrowful and bloody days state, the welfare of that very cause in farewell to the heroes of the the peoples’ struggles, there has disappears into a present of freedom, for which you offered your blood IInternational Brigades, both been the spectacle, breathtaking in of peace and of wellbeing; when the with boundless generosity, are because of what they are and what its grandeur, of the formation of feelings of rancour have died and sending you back, some to your own they represent. A feeling of sorrow, an International Brigades to help save a pride in a free country is felt by all countries and others to forced exile. infinite grief catches our throat – threatened country’s freedom and Spaniards, then speak to your Comrades of the International sorrow for those who are going away, independence – the freedom and children. Tell them of these men of Brigades, you can go proudly. You for the soldiers of the highest ideal of independence of our Spanish land. the International Brigades. are history. You are legend. You are human redemption, exiles from their Communists, socialists, anarchists, Tell them how, coming over seas the heroic example of democracy’s countries, persecuted by the tyrants republicans – men of different and mountains, crossing frontiers solidarity and universality in the of all peoples – grief for those who colours, differing ideology, bristling with bayonets, sought by face of the vile and accommodating will stay here forever mingled with antagonistic religions – all of them raving dogs thirsting to tear their spirit of those who interpret the Spanish soil, in the very depth of fired with a deep love of liberty and flesh, these men reached our country democratic principles with their our heart, hallowed by our feeling of justice, and they came and they as crusaders for freedom, to fight and eyes on hoards of wealth or eternal gratitude. offered themselves to us die for Spain’s liberty and corporate shares which they want You came to us from all peoples, unconditionally. independence threatened by to safeguard from all risk. from all places from all races. You They gave us everything – their German and Italian fascism. We shall not forget you, and, came to us like brothers, like sons of youth or their maturity; their science They gave up everything – their when the olive tree of peace puts undying Spain; and in the hardest or their experience; their blood and loves, their countries, home and forth its leaves again, entwined with days of the war, when the capital of their lives; their hopes and fortune, fathers, mothers, wives, the victory laurels of the Republic of the Spanish Republic was threatened, aspirations – and they asked from us brothers, sisters and children – and Spain – come back. it was you, gallant comrades of the nothing at all. But yes, it must be they came and told us: ‘We are here. Come back to us. With us, those International Brigades, who helped said, they did want a post in battle, Your cause, Spain’s cause, is ours. It of you who have no country will find save the city with your fighting they aspired to the honour of dying is the cause of all mankind.’ one. Those of you deprived of enthusiasm, your heroism and your for us. Today many are departing. friendship will find friends – and all spirit of sacrifice. And Jarama and Banners of Spain, salute these Thousands remain, shrouded in of you will find the love, affection Guadalajara, Brunete and Belchite, many heroes. Be lowered to honour Spanish earth, but all Spaniards will and gratitude of the whole of the Levante and the Ebro in immortal so many martyrs. remember them with the deepest Spanish people who today and in verses sing of the courage, the Mothers, women, when the years feeling. the future will cry out with all their sacrifice, the daring, the discipline of pass and the wounds of war are Comrades of the International hearts – ‘Long live the heroes of the the men of the International Brigades. staunched; when the memory of Brigades, political reasons, reasons of International Brigades!’

¡NO PASARÁN! 15 BATTLE OF THE EBRO ACROSS THE RIVER This year marks the 80th anniversary of the 1938 Battle of the Ebro. It was the last great battle of the Spanish Civil War and one in which the British Battalion lost 90 dead. BOB COONEY, from

Aberdeen, was the battalion’s political commissar. Library Marx Memorial Here he describes the start of the offensive across the Ebro in an extract from his Spanish memoir ‘Proud Journey’.

e crossed the river on the morning of u Bob Cooney 25 July. On the eve of our great (bottom left), with Wadventure we held a battalion meeting other British Battalion at which every man present pledged himself to commanders during give his life if necessary for the honour and glory the Battle of the Ebro. of the battalion and the victory of the Republic. Revolutionary songs and old-time choruses were sung, and in each song could be sensed the feeling that the singers were on the eve of a great adventure and were bound together by a great u Memorial in hope and a great comradeship. Our men were Corbera d’Ebre lifted out of themselves. Stirring speeches were marking the last spontaneously made by Spaniards and Britishers action of the British from the ranks. The evening concluded with Battalion on ‘vivas’ and cheers that gave a clue to the manner 23 September 1938. of fight we would wage on the other side of the river. Then we were on the march. tyranny. How proud and happy we felt as we were turned. The 13th Brigade were preparing to We crossed at Mora where once a long pushed on in our mission of liberation. storm the town, but their rear was threatened by narrow bridge had carried the main Gandesa As we neared the road the bombing a strong body of Moors who occupied the hills to road across the river. The only opposition came intensified, and in the vicinity of the Ascó-Flix the north-east. So our battalion deployed for from the air, from which wave after wave of crossroad it became really terrific. Marching in action against the Moors. The fight for the hills Italian bombers dived on the boats and on the artillery formation, one column on either side of raged all night. There was no stabilised front. The troops waiting to cross. The first troops to cross the road, we escaped with a few minor casualties, Moors, experts in hill-warfare, established had met with heavy machine-gun fire from though most of us were showered with stones themselves in caves, behind rocks or any other fascist strong points but, going in with great and earth. cover the hills afforded. Their snipers cost us determination, they mopped up the machine- some good lads, amongst them Mick gun posts before the enemy aircraft had time ur sudden attack had obviously created a Economides, a brave Cypriot, who had been one to operate. panic in the fascist ranks. Hundreds of of the early volunteers. He had a severe wound in Half of our battalion crossed in small boats. Oprisoners came smilingly to us, obviously the back from which we did not expect him to The remainder crossed by the first pontoon to glad to be out of the war. A large number were recover, but his tough constitution and bridge the river. In front of us went the battalion Moors who amused us by holding their clenched unquenchable spirit combined to effect a colours borne proudly aloft by Frank Bush, fists high above their heads in what they fondly complete recovery. alongside the Spanish and Catalan flags. Striking imagined as the ‘Red’ salute. ‘Viva Rusia,’ they We drove the Moors from the hills, thus across country, we made for the Corbera chanted. They had been quite convinced that clearing the road to Corbera which the 13th highway. As we moved up a sunken dirt road an Franco was defending Spain against a Russian Brigade occupied without further opposition. old peasant ran to meet us. He knelt down and invasion. All foreigners were Russians – unless Bloody battles lay ahead of us. The rough with tears in his eyes kissed the Catalan flag. We they were on Franco’s side, in which case they mountainous country had been well fortified by were deeply moved by the incident, which were German or Italian ‘volunteers’. the enemy, and offered several advantages to the brought home to us what the crossing must mean Late in the afternoon we were two kilometres defenders. ‘He who has the heights commands to the men, women and children who had lived from Corbera – the town from which we had set the valleys.’ Besides these natural advantages the for three months under the yoke of fascist out on the fateful 30 March. This time the tables fascists had enormous superiority in equipment,

16 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust AND INTO THE FIRE

This new painting by Catalan artist Pere Piquer showing members of the British Battalion crossing the Ebro in July 1938 was unveiled by IBMT Ireland Secretary Manus O’Riordan at Gandesa Museum in Spain on 28 July this year. The Catalan flag is being held by Manus’s father, Michael O’Riordan. The second boat in the background is flying the Spanish Republican flag.

and had no problems of communication in their threatened the civilian population ‘without scarce it has to be doled out in minute rear as we had. In the first days of the offensive whose complicity,’ he said, ‘the crossing could quantities brought to the lines under enemy nearly 600 Italian planes and huge quantities of never have taken place.’ A tactless admission fire; when throats are parched and choked with artillery, machine-guns etc were transferred to of the place he held in the minds of the Spanish dust; when under these conditions men are the Ebro front. The ferocity of the counter- people. asked to make superhuman efforts against a attacks were said by veterans of the First World He contradicted himself later when his strongly entrenched and well equipped War to beat anything they had yet experienced. airmen dropped leaflets amongst us, telling us enemy, food becomes all important, for food Del Vayo, the Republican minister for foreign that our offensive had actually been planned by means strength. affairs, stated: ‘Reliable witnesses who took part Franco agents in our ranks. We had been lured Yet such was the strain imposed upon our in the European war assure us that in certain across the river in order that El Caudillo could slender supply lines that a week passed before aspects these attacks have exceeded in violence entrap and crush us once for all. But there was our brigade intendencia and battalion kitchens the historic German assaults against Verdun. one way out, one way by which we could win El managed to cross the river. We relied entirely on Day by day our soldiers have endured incessant Caudillo’s forgiveness. We were given captured food dumps. bombardments by 500-kilo (1,200-pound) categorical instructions as to the date on which Under these conditions we entered the battle bombs and by artillery, which, firing day and we should rise and shoot our officers and for Hill 481 – the bloodiest battle in the Ebro night, gave its discharges the tone of an incessant commissars. Only thus could we save ourselves campaign and an epic ranking with the drum-roll. Our soldiers have hung on to the soil from the wrath to come. Our officers and battalion’s first great struggle at Jarama. like parts of the soil itself, and hardly did the commissars were not noticeably alarmed. invading infantry come out to engage in hand-to- l Copies of ‘Proud Journey’ (Marx Memorial hand fighting than all their efforts were turned ur supply problems intensified as the Library/Manifesto Press, 2015) by Bob Cooney into invariable defeat.’ days went by. Not only did we lack (1907-1984) are available for £5 plus £3 p&p Our army stood firm against these assaults Oequipment. The food situation was from: Marx Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell and even advanced to the gates of Gandesa. serious. When men are being tested to the limit Green, London EC1R 0DU. Make cheques out to Enraged at his humiliating defeat at the hands of day after day, toiling up rocky hillsides which the MML, giving a name and address for where the ill-equipped People’s Army, Franco blister inadequately shod feet; when water is so the book should be sent.

¡NO PASARÁN! 17 LETTERS

The Young’uns gave us a night to remember

I went to see a performance of The Young’uns on 24 March at a local municipal theatre in Reading. I was astonished to see that it was a packed house, but much less astonished at the conclusion of the performance. Brilliant does not do justice to these three lads. It was a magnificent tribute to Johnny Longstaff and the International Brigades. I was also mightily chuffed to hear the dulcet tones of my native Tees-side. It was all wonderfully knitted together with Johnny Longstaff’s voice interspersing throughout. Congratulations must go to his son, Duncan, for inspiring this wonderful tribute to those men and women who went to Spain in 1936-39 to fight fascism. After the show I introduced myself to the boys, and, though they were busy selling their records and signing their book, I was delighted to learn that they knew about our IBMT activities in Reading. They had certainly done their homework. It was a special treat to meet and talk to them, and an added pleasure to meet my fellow ‘Hartlepudlian’, David Eagle. They even have a track on their album ‘Strangers’ called the ‘Hartlepool Pedlar’, from which I learned that Michael Marks (of Marks & Spencer) landed in Hartlepool when his family arrived in England to escape the antisemitic pogroms of eastern Europe. The performance with Johnny Longstaff’s deeply emotional tribute to the Spanish people will stay with me for a very long time. It ended with sustained applause from the audience – and not a few tears, I might add. Ray Parkes Reading l More performances of ‘The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff’ are planned for this year and 2019, including a live album recording. – Editor

Jewish Brigaders in the s Front page of one of the spoof newspapers given out by The Young’uns at their recent gigs. anti-Nazi resistance underground at Auschwitz, where he took paid the following tribute to his comrades: ‘On the photographs of the crematoria in action! The battlefields of Spain they understood the danger to Your article on Spanish Republicans in the Nazi negatives were smuggled out of the camp and the Jewish people. There wasn’t one battle in that camps (page 10, issue 2-2018) reminded me of their publication established definite proof of what long struggle against Franco and Hitler in which remarks I made in a talk I gave on 17 November had been described as mere propaganda. Jews did not participate and pay with their blood. 1987 at the Irish Jewish Museum in Dublin on Bernard Volkas was another. Born in Kovno, Nor was it accidental that the first armed groups of ‘Irish and Jewish Volunteers in the Spanish Anti- Lithuania, he was 18 when he went to Palestine in Jews in the Ghetto were organised on the Fascist War’. 1934. When the war in Spain began Volkas fought initiative of the Jewish veteran of Spain, Andrzej I said that International Brigade veterans were in the International Brigades from 1936 to 1939. Schmidt (born in Warsaw)… In August 1941 he was to be in the forefront of Jewish resistance to the Later joining the Red Army, he was parachuted into one of a group that was parachuted into Warsaw Holocaust. In 1979 Lincoln Battalion veteran Al Belarus to organise the partisans. Captured by the by Soviet planes. After six months of underground Prago wrote of two such International Brigaders. Nazis after two years, he was deported to work in the Warsaw Ghetto he was betrayed by an Josef Farber was in the underground assigned Auschwitz where he became part of the informer. He did not break under Gestapo torture to a perilous task in the Nazi death camp at resistance. and finally they shot him. The heroic beginning Birkenau. David Smulevich served in the In April 1986, Volkas, then living in California, that he and the communist Józef Lewartowski

18 ¡NO PASARÁN! Your local International Brigade Memorial Trust International made was carried forward by Mordechai Anielewicz, the Socialist-Zionist, and others.’ Memories of Peter Frye Brigade Bernard Volkas concluded: ‘Future historians will I am fortunate enough to be sent the ¡No Pasarán! have to acknowledge that the Jewish volunteers in magazine. The interview with Paul Preston (issue 2- memorial the Spanish Civil War were predecessors of the 2018) was fascinating. I so agree with him. Reading fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto. They all defended the the magazine made me feel the urge to write this group honour of the Jewish people and that is how history letter, as I remember the Brigaders with such will remember them.’ affection. Many independent locally-based Manus O’Riordan My late husband Peter Frye fought with the International Brigade memorial groups Dublin Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. He lost all have sprung up around the country in contact with his fellow volunteers during his lifetime. recent years. The IBMT welcomes this We were married in 1970 and I learned that his time development and supports their work. Casa Pinet again in Spain was of great importance to him. We lived in

I was very interested to read the letter from John Israel until 1981, and then came to Britain. Catanach (page 18, issue 1-2018) about the Casa In 1985 I brought home a publication in which Local groups that join the IBMT gain Pinet restaurant. I visited it twice in the late 1990s there was an advert for a dedication of a memorial extra benefits. They receive additional when it was situated in Tárbena, not far from in Jubilee Gardens, London, so we decided to go. copies of ¡No Pasarán!; they can buy Alcalalí; I am sure many other IBMT members have Peter talked to Bill Alexander, who invited us to join IBMT merchandise at discount prices been there. everyone at the reception afterwards. Peter asked for resale; their details are published I was introduced to Casa Pinet by two Labour Bill if he knew how he could contact the veterans of in this magazine so that members in International comrades, Shirley and Rod Smith, who the Lincoln Brigade and got an address. their area can contact them; they were then living in Dénia. In the UK at the time, the Peter wrote to them saying that the 50th enjoy all the rights of IBMT firefighters were on strike and we gave an FBU anniversary of the outbreak of the war was coming membership; they receive priority baseball cap to señor Pinet, which he hung on the up and he offered to go to Spain at his own support and advice from the Trust. ceiling. It might be still there at the new venue! expense to set up some sort of commemoration. I My Spanish was very limited but we managed to will never forget the reply. It came from Charlie To join, local groups pay an annual have a chat with señor Pinet and when we left he Nusser who said: ‘I was your commanding officer subscription fee of £30. Download gave us a couple of bottles of his house red wine – and remember you well as a loyal and brave soldier. the application form from the one of which I still have – unopened! The label We already have plans for an international ‘Membership’ page of our website depicts a tree with the hammer and sickle and a commemoration in Spain.’ We made arrangements (www.international-brigades.org.uk) or single red star superimposed on it with words to go. phone 020 7253 8748 to request an around it saying ‘la fruta será mejor que la flor Before we left, we found that the Workers’ affiliation form. promesa’ (the fruit will be better than the promise of Educational Association was giving a residential the flower). course on the Spanish Civil War in the Potteries. It DIRECTORY Of historical interest, Pinet de Tárbena was a was there that we met, among others, Jimmy Jump, l Hull International Brigade famous local smuggler (also known as El Mascarat – father of the IBMT Secretary, and we became friends Memorial Committee the masked one). In the square above Altea, north – a very special and wonderful man. Contact: Gary Hammond: of Benidorm, opposite the church, is a restaurant Peter had a stroke in 1987, which disabled him – [email protected] named after him, La Mascarada. luckily not his brain, and to keep him occupied we l Oxford International Brigade If any of our comrade members are in Benidorm wrote a joint autobiography. In it is a wonderful Memorial Committee and fancy a good walk, go along to the far end of chapter he wrote about his Spanish Civil War Contact: Colin Carritt: the Poniente beach, walk up over to Cala Finestrat. experience and I wrote about the 1986 reunion in Across the bay is a hill with an old look-out tower at Spain. The book is called ‘Double Or Nothing’ and [email protected] the summit. Take the easy zig-zag path up; along there are more details on my website (www. with the fantastic views there is information about thelmaruby.com). Pinet de Tárbena on a plaque there. Peter died in 1991. I am now 93 and still working Terry White as an actress. Through the IBMT I have become North Shields acquainted with fellow actress Marlene Sidaway, your President. Inside Casa Pinet. I went to a couple of the commemorations in New York, which were terrific. I remained friends with some of the American vets until they died. I was pleased to be at the Jubilee Gardens event this year, and, before that, the last IBMT event I was at was in the park in Fulham last year and it was beautiful. I remember walking in that park a few years ago and being amazed and thrilled when I stumbled on the International Brigades memorial. Thelma Frye By email International Brigade Memorial Trust www.international-brigades.org.uk BOOKS & THE ARTS

a fair degree of trepidation. While open our eyes to the appalling fiction is not constrained by the rules inequalities and class-hatreds of pre- of historical non-fiction, it still grates civil war Spain. when authors make lazy factual As the book progresses and the errors. Fortunately, Jessie Burton has narrative switches backwards and obviously researched thoroughly; not forwards with increasing rapidity, we many novels would include Henry begin to understand that the two Buckley’s wonderful memoir, ‘The stories are indelibly linked. Burton Life and Death of the Spanish manages to inject a real sense of Republic’, in the bibliography. foreboding, which builds steadily as ‘The Muse’ opens in 1960s the plot develops and the pace London, where we meet the young, quickens. It’s an extremely well- Caribbean immigrant Odelle crafted novel, with strong, Bastien. Fed up with her tedious job three-dimensional characters and a Joe’s latest tribute to in a shoe store, she manages to land convincing portrayal of the two very the volunteers herself a job in an obscure art gallery, different worlds in which they reside. along with a posh boyfriend who It’s also very knowing, touching on The IBMT and the memory of the seems to have little to show for themes such as racism in 1960s International Brigades have no himself, apart from ownership of a London and the long-standing lack greater supporter on the current folk mysterious, strikingly beautiful of recognition of female artists. music circuit than Joe Solo. In 2014 Well-crafted painting. If you’re on the lookout for an he dedicated an entire album to the The book then shifts to Spain in intelligent literary pager-turner, this volunteers: ‘¡No Pasarán!’ (the IBMT page-turner early 1936 and the affluent British might well be it. It’s a powerful has a few copies left for £6.50 ex-pat family of frustrated teenager follow-up to the author’s debut, ‘The including p&p). He has appeared at ‘The Muse’ by Jessie Burton Olive Schloss. She’s been offered a Miniaturist’, which sold over a several commemorative events and (Picador, 2016, £12.99). place to study art at Slade in London, million copies and was made into a was featured on the cover of our but her bipolar mother and out-of- BBC TV series. What a thing it 1-2018 issue. aving read quite a lot about touch father take neither Olive, nor would be if ‘The Muse’ – already Joe’s latest album, ‘Not On Our the Spanish Civil War over her painting, seriously. We also meet selected as Cityread London’s book Watch’, has been described in the Hthe years, I tend to Isaac and Teresa, siblings from the of 2018 – could follow a similar Morning Star as ‘lessons in the true approach novels set during the nearby Andalusian village who, trajectory. meaning of solidarity’. It features turbulent period of 1930s Spain with through their desperation for work, TOD ADDY songs dealing with topical issues

or anyone who spends their Franco’s own sister admitted that legendary skill in paying off rightist Not just working days immersed in ‘cunning and caution define his groups against each other and his Fthe turbulent events of 20th character’. The commander of the ruthlessness towards opponents, century Spain, the notion that rebel airforce, General Kindélan, demonstrating that Franco always a fascist anyone could have forgotten was apparently no more polite, intended his dictatorship to be General Franco and his brutal portraying Franco in terms that permanent. Moradiellos does regime seems far-fetched. However, might remind readers of someone concede that, despite his support for ‘Franco: Anatomy of a Dictator’ by the eminent Spanish historian rather more contemporary: ‘a man the Axis during the Second World Enrique Moradiellos (IB Tauris, Enrique Moradiellos believes that in the enviable position of believing War, Franco deftly ensured the 2018, £20). the gradual removal of the physical everything that pleases him and survival of his regime. However, at evidence of the Franco dictatorship forgetting or denying that which is the same time, he is very critical of – street-names, monuments, etc – disagreeable. Puffed up with pride, the ‘bankruptcy of Western policy to has led to a situation where many intoxicated by adulation and drunk oust him peacefully’ and their Spaniards, particularly the young, on applause.’ ‘Franco’, wrote the decision to allow the ‘Sentinel of the have forgotten the awful realities of American chargé d’affaires West’ back into the fold. The author life under Franco. Hence this new succinctly in 1950, ‘is the kind of agrees with others that Franco’s study of (or, rather, anatomy of) the Spaniard who likes to get into the abandonment of his disastrous dictator, which examines in turn movie without buying a ticket.’ policy of autarky in the 1950s led to Franco the man, Franco the Moradiellos outlines clearly much needed growth in Spain’s ‘Caudillo’ and, finally, Franco’s Franco’s extraordinary rise to economy, though pointing out that it regime. Generalísimo, pointing out (as have was not until the 1960s that Spain The first section provides the others, not least Franco himself), was transformed economically from reader with an astute depiction of that his involvement in Spain’s an essentially agrarian feudal state Franco. Clearly the author – though colonial war in Morocco is key to into a modern industrialised nation. scrupulously fair – is no supporter of any understanding of the man. The Yet Spain was still a dictatorship, the dictator, pointing out that even author remarks on Franco’s even if Franco was getting old and

20 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust ranging from the Grenfell tragedy to Welsh volunteers the Americanisation of British popular culture, from solidarity in ‘You Are Legend’, a history by Graham Sunday league football to Trump’s Davies of the 184 International travel ban. Brigade volunteers from Wales, has The album ends with the been published by Welsh Academic haunting ‘Adelante (The Ballad of Press (224 pages; £19.99 paperback). Clem Beckett)’, a powerful tribute to This welcome news follows several the Lancashire blacksmith turned months of delay. The launch had motorcycle speedway superstar and originally been planned to coincide International Brigader who was with the IBMT’s Annual General killed at Jarama in February 1937. Meeting in Cardiff last October. The The song imagines Beckett’s last book was previewed in issue 3-2017 words as he speaks to his machine- of the IBMT Magazine in a feature gunner companion Christopher article by Graham Davies (viewable on Caudwell (‘Spriggy’) as they are the IBMT’s website). about to be overrun by Franco’s Double agent Edith Moorish soldiers. Inspired, says Joe, by the amazing play by Townsend Contemporary Films has announced an English-language release for Productions (‘Dare Devil Rides to ‘Tracking Edith’ (directed by Peter Stephan Jungk, Austria, 2016). It tells the Jarama’ by Neil Gore), it is ‘my story of Edith Tudor-Hart (1908-1973), the Austrian-born photographer favourite song on the album and a and wife of British International Brigader Alex Tudor-Hart, who led a fitting way to close’. double life as a secret agent for the KGB. I guess what it all boils down to The film reveals how in 1934 Edith introduced Kim Philby to her KGB Is the one lasting thing you can give handler and former lover Arnold Deutsch. Without her, it is claimed, the That’s your life in the fight for our Five, the Soviet Union’s most successful spy-ring, would never freedom have been born. Guy Burgess described her as ‘the grandmother of us all’. To die so that others might live. Born Edith Suschitzky, she married Alex Tudor-Hart (1901-1992) in 1933 l Joe Solo’s new album is available and they were divorced in 1940. Alex served as a doctor in Spain from on CD or as a digital download from: December 1936 until the end of the war, achieving the rank of in the https://joesolomusic.bandcamp.com/ Spanish Republican army’s medical services. album/not-on-our-watch his regime was crumbling, beset by death in November 1975. full well that rightist conspirators labelling it simply as fascist is challenges: labour disputes, student He then moves on briskly to understood that the coup depended problematic: ‘Franco wasn’t a fascist, protests, Catholic support for discuss the notion of Franco as on the army, giving him huge he was something much worse,’ democracy and ETA terrorism. It Caudillo. Moradiellos argues that leverage and allowing his argues Paul Preston. Nevertheless, was the assassination of the Prime the association of Franco with the conscripted army to predominate fascism was a part of the regime, Minster, Admiral Carrero Blanco, term (and his quasi-religious over volunteer groups such as the even if it was absorbed into on 20 December 1973 that ‘crusade’) was due mainly to Falange and Carlist militias. As Francoism or used as ideological marked the beginning of the end Franco’s successful advance on Moradiellos argues, the military, window-dressing. As Moradiellos for Franco’s regime and Madrid in the autumn of 1936, Church and Falange authority argues, Franco’s regime was fascist Moradiellos logically concludes his though also to his iron control of the cemented the consistent cult of for social rather than political initial section with the dictator’s press and propaganda. Franco knew charismatic personality that would reasons; it was fundamentally ‘a continue until his death in 1975. violent and extreme expression of a Former equestrian statue of Franco The book’s final section is much movement of reaction’. in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento of more discursive, academic even, While Enrique Moradiellos’s Santander. It was taken down in looking to establish an over-arching biography of Franco is undoubtedly late 2008. definition of franquismo, even scholarly, it’s not immediately clear though, as Moradiellos recognises, that it contains enough new material the longevity of Franco’s regime (the final academic section aside) to means attempting to provide one appeal to someone who has already single definition is difficult. His read one of the numerous earlier fundamental question is: was it a biographies. Still, clear, concise and traditional conservative military well-written as it is, it will, no doubt, dictatorship, or a Spanish version of prove to be an important resource European fascist regimes? Clearly for students of contemporary Franco felt it was a dictatorship and Spanish history. most historians would accept that RICHARD BAXELL

¡NO PASARÁN! 21 2018 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The IBMT’s AGM will take place on Saturday 13 October 2018 in The Guildhall, 39 Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AG as part of a weekend of activities in the city. All members are warmly invited to attend and to participate in the AGM and associated events.

Weekend programme Banqueting Hall, The Guildhall. Entertainment includes Neil Gore performing excerpts from Friday 12 October ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ and l 6.30pm: Welcome with fish and chip some of his other shows; followed by supper at the Unison office, next to The music. Charge bar open until late. Inclusive Guildhall. tickets for film, social and buffet will be on l 7.30pm: Joe Solo performs ‘¡No Pasarán!’ sale on the day. and historian Phyll Smith talks about ‘Tom Sunday 14 October Wintringham: The Last English Revolutionary’ l 10am-11.30am: Meet outside City Hall, at St Mary’s Church, Lowgate, HU1 1EJ. Queen Victoria Square, HU1 3RQ for a Saturday 13 October radical history tour of Hull city centre led by l 11am: Opening of the ‘Spanish Civil War award-winning guide and historian Paul Art Exhibition’ – artworks by students of Schofield. Includes Corporation Fields, Hull School of Art and Design, at Hull where protesters saw off Sir Oswald Mosley College, Wilberforce Drive, Queens Gardens, and his fascist Blackshirts in July 1936. HU1 3DG. l 12noon-12.40pm: Unveiling outside the Accommodation City Treasury (near The Guildhall) of the new All venues are within a 10-minute walk of memorial by Dan Jones to the Hull each other. City centre hotels are within 20 volunteers. minutes. Many of Hull’s museums and art l 2pm-4pm: IBMT AGM in the Reception galleries, including Wilberforce House, are in Room of The Guildhall (see agenda and the immediate vicinity of the AGM locations. notice of elections below). Hotels within easy walking (15 minutes or l 4.30pm-6pm: Special viewing of the film less) of the venues: The Royal Hotel, ibis Hull The Guildhall (above), of the show ‘Ocho’ in the Reception Room, City Centre, Campanile Hotel, Holiday Inn where a memorial plaque The Guildhall. Members will be joined by Express, Gilson Hotel, Double Tree by Hilton (right) is located, will host approximately 50 young people, invited by Hull, Travelodge Hull Central, Premier Inn, the AGM. Below: Unison Unite Community Branch Hull, who will stay Kingston Theatre Hotel. More information Hull City Branch’s banner for the evening. from Marshall Mateer: film@international- features an International l 6.30pm: Evening social with buffet in the brigades.org.uk (mobile: 07960 126 997). Brigade flag.

AGM agenda the internet may request a copy to be posted to them. Write to the Secretary at (1) Chair’s opening remarks the address below. (2) Apologies for absence (3) Approval of minutes of the 2017 Nominations and agenda items AGM and matters arising l Nominations for Chair, Secretary and (4) Executive Committee’s report Treasurer and for up to 10 Executive (5) Financial report Committee members must be made in (6) Proposed amendments to the IBMT writing and received by the Secretary (see constitution* below) by 8am on 29 September 2018. (7) Election of Officers and Executive l Proposed items for agenda item (8) Committee members must be received in writing by the (8) Any other business Secretary (see below) by 8am on (9) Date and place of next AGM 6 October 2018. (10) Chair’s closing remarks l Send nominations and proposed agenda items by email (these will be *These can be viewed on our website acknowledged) to: secretary@ (www.international-brigades.org.uk/ international-brigades.org.uk or by post to: content/notice-2018-annual-general- IBMT Secretary, 37a Clerkenwell Green, meeting). Members without access to London EC1R 0DU.

22 ¡NO PASARÁN! ¡No pasarán! Memorial Brigade International Eight menfrom HullintheInternationalBrigades

Trust

Photomontage: Marshall Mateer International Brigade Memorial Trust Keeping alive the memory and spirit of the SAVE THE DATE volunteers who fought fascism and defended democracy in Spain from 1936 to 1939 The IBMT’s 2019 Len Crome Memorial Conference will be held Help us inspire new generations with the story of the International Brigades in Oxford on Saturday 23 March. The theme will be football and the l To give a donation go to www.international- brigades.org.uk and click the donate button Spanish Civil War, with guest speakers, film and music. l To become a member go to www.international- brigades.org.uk/catalog/membership International Brigade Memorial Trust ¡No pasarán! 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU 020 7253 8748 [email protected] www.international-brigades.org.uk They shall not pass!