Vol. XVI, No. 2 Fall 1994 Brandeis University dedicates the Frederica Martin Archives dedication ceremony, marking medical services of the SCW, they are ans for Special Collections, Victor A the completion of the cata- a unique source of information on the Berch and Charles Cutter, and, of loging of the Frederica Martin sadly underwritten history of the course, Professor Tobyanne Medical Papers was held at women who served in support of the Berenberg who had traveled from Brandeis University Library on International Brigades. Mexico for the ceremony. August 12. The event featured the The dedication, with over 80 Moe read out the names of the presentation of a plaque to the people on hand, was presided over donors honored on the plaque: University, honoring the principle by Dr. Bessie K. Hahn, director of Tobyanne Berenberg, David Engel- donors who enabled the Abraham the Brandeis Libraries. She spoke son, Louis Gayle, Ben Goldring, Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) to of the worldwide importance of the Nat Gross, Jacques Grunblatt, add the Martin Papers to the collection contained in the Archives, Toby Jensky, Charles Keith, Steve University's Special Collection on regarded worldwide as an outstand- Nelson, Irving Portnow, William the Spanish Civil War. ing one in its field. A matching trib- Sennett, Jack Teiger, Bill Van “Freddie’s” collection represented ute was paid by Encarnación Felix, Saul Wellman and Steve almost a half-century of labor in Campuzano, assistant to the Zak. Also inscribed are the Edward preparation for a book on the medical Spanish Consulate in Boston. Aberlin Family, the Charles Keith services of the International Brigades. Speaking for the VALB was Moe Foundation, the San Francisco Bay She was well qualified, having been Fishman, who expressed apprecia- Area Post of the ALB; and friends Dr. Ed Barsky’s head nurse and chief tion to Brandeis for its interest, John D.B. Lewis and John Sayles. administrator of all the American investment of personnel and Lincoln vets in attendance were nurses in Spain. Working from a resources to build the ALBA project. Al Amery, Bill Van Felix, Harry home in Mexico, she had accumulated He singled out for special tribute Dr. Fisher, John Hovan, Sam Walters a mass of material when her death cut Hahn, the past and present librari- and Thelma Erikson Abbott. ✇ the project short in 1991. There were half a hundred cartons of records, first-hand data, memorabilia and photographs that were shipped to ALBA that year by her daughter, Prof- essor Tobyanne Ber- enberg (University of Mexico). They origi- nated from sources across the globe. The Frederica Martin papers are not Above: (l-r) Thelma Erikson Abbott, Moe Fishman, Bill Van Felix, only a mine of unsur- Encarnación Campuzano and Harry Fisher. passed data on the Right: Dr. Bessie K. Hahn, director of the Brandeis Libraries. 2 THE VOLUNTEER, FALL 1994 Volunteer Views Whither the fight for national health care? s we prepare this Volunteer for the press, the but one has heard only muffled and crushed refer- A prospect is bad for the passage of any worth- ences to it in the U.S. Congress. The Clintons must while health care legislation. be given credit for nullifying this obscene evasion. Responsibility for the present setback falls on the The criminals here are the usual suspects: those congressional combination of reactionary Repub- sections of the insurance industry which refuse to licans and “conservative” Democrats. They are out to consent to any modification of their charges and pro- kill or, at least, maim, any beneficial measures. And, cedures, the pharmaceutical companies and doctors of course, it must not be forgotten or forgiven, that more devoted to mammon than Hippocrates. these same legislators deny the rest of the population There is an important ideological component of the health care that they themselves enjoy, paid for this fight. It is necessary to counteract and defeat by all the people. the promoted notion that the government cannot do Despite all the flaws contained in the Clintons’ anything right. It is with this kind of barrage that original proposals, and the tactical errors committed Nixon and Reagan, Bush, Dole and Gingrich have in the original planning stages, they have projected covered up the ways in which they have handed over the image of health care with a sharpness that has resources and treasures to the most powerful, and never before existed in American political discourse. thereby worsened the plight of the powerless. In the past hundred years, healthcare legislation has What lies ahead? Protracted fight. The constant- been enacted in one industrial country after another, ly increasing need is too great for the fight to be abandoned. Single payer insurance remains the best option. The fight for this kind of coverage may have Support people’s right to shift from the national arena – to be waged on a state-by-state basis. The ever present puppets in to travel to Cuba Congress have already proposed making these state initiatives illegal. This only proves how determined t has been reported that Castro has called for a their proponents must be. Imeeting with Clinton to resolve outstanding differ- ✇ ences between the U.S. and Cuba. If Rabin could All of us must join in this fight. meet with Arafat, Nixon with Deng Xiaoping, that request certainly ought to fall within the range of possibility. The Volunteer Meanwhile, the tightening of the U.S. embargo Journal of the noose around Cuba is impelling thousands of Cubans Veterans of the to attempt migration under conditions hazardous to life. There is a new urgency for continued support of Abraham Lincoln Brigade the third Freedom to Travel Challenge by the San 799 Broadway, Rm 227 Francisco-based Global Exchange, planned for Oct. 1 New York, NY 10003 through 9, and of the fourth Pastors for Peace (212) 674-5552 Friendship Caravan scheduled for Nov. 2 through Nov. 27. The latter will include a parallel Canadian Editor Caravan which will travel west to east, joining the Leonard Levenson U.S. contingent in Washington, DC. The merged Caravan will then proceed north into Canada where Editorial Board the accumulated humanitarian-aid supplies will be Abe Smorodin • Bill Susman • Irving Weissman shipped to Cuba. Contributing Editor Further information on these activities may be Seymour Joseph obtained by calling: Submission of Manuscripts • Global Exchange at (415) 558-9490, or FAX at Please send manuscripts typewritten and double-spaced, if possible. (415) 2557498; If you wish your manuscripts returned, enclose a self-a d d r e s s e d , stamped envelope. • Pastors for Peace at (612) 378-0062. ✇ THE VOLUNTEER, FALL 1994 3 News From Spain reporting that the University of Plans moving forward to honor Castilla-La Mancha, last April established in Albacete an interna- Jarama Vets and La Pasionaria tional center for archives and study t VALB’s request, associate his- clear: to demonstrate that La of the International Brigades. The A torian Frances Patai met with Pasionaria was of prime importance undertaking, the first of its kind in the Asociación Brigadas Inter- both to the final victory over the Spain, appropriately situated in the nacionales (ABI) and the Fundación Franco dictatorship and the restora- I B wartime headquarters city, is a Dolores Ibárruri (FDI), last June in tion of Spanish democracy. The cen- joint venture of the municipality Barcelona, for an update of their tennial will focus on her life not and the university. respective plans for the 1994 cere- only as a shaper of Spanish history, Under an agreement signed by mony to dedicate the lapida (monu- but as a symbol of the international the rector of the university, Luis ment) in the Morata de Tajuna struggle for progress and a more Arroya, and the mayor of Albacete, Cemetery, honoring the Lincolns just world society. Carmina Belmonte, the archives, killed at Jarama; and for the 1995 The FDI envisages the celebra- including a collection of pertinent commemoration of La Pasionaria’s tion as an ideal opportunity not books, will be housed in the General birthday centennial. only for a critical analysis of 20th Library building of the university Santiago Alvarez of the ABI, Century Spain, but for reflections under the directorship of Manuel after expressing his thanks for the on the future. Requena, professor of contemporary VALB’s $200 contribution to ABI, Frances was in Spain at the invi- history. indicated that final plans and a tation of the 2nd International The Albacete municipal govern- date for the ceremony were not yet Congress of the Association of ment will annually allocate funds to set and that VALB would be Contemporary Historians sponsored the Center for the acquisition of informed as soon as the calendar of by the University of Barcelona. ✇ documents and books, especially events is made definite. [No news as from Italy, Germany, the United of the time this Volunteer goes to States and Spain, as well as for its ✇ press – Ed.] An IB archive own research projects. La Pasionaria’s centennial in Albacete The detailed calendar of events More news from Spain has not been crystallized but the Lincoln vet John Rossen has philosophical and ideological frame- sent The Volunteer a clipping from on pages 8-9 work for the year-long celebration is an unnamed Spanish newspaper, Bill Mandel (left), radio personality, and his 100-year-old father, Max, at the west coast VALB dinner. For more on the dinners — east and west — see page 11. 4 THE VOLUNTEER, FALL 1994 Book Reviews teristic of Carroll’s book. He has Part three he calls V e t e r a n s, which A classic used the word odyssey in its classi- runs for approximately 150 pages.