IBMT Newsletter www.international-brigades.org.uk Issue 38 / 1-2015 INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE MEMORIALTRUST Scarsof awar that won’ tgo away

ArtinspiredbytheSpanishCivilWar GUERNICA THE DESTRUCT ION OF A TOWN A ND T HE CREAT ION OF A MASTERPIE CE Saturda y 7 March 2015 from 11am-5pm at the Manchester The IBM T’s Conference Centre, 78 Sackville St, Manchester M1 3NJ 2015 Len Crome Speakers G Gijs van Hensbergen: The Birth of Guernica Memorial G Nicholas Rankin: Making History –GL Steer and the Tree of Gernika Conference G Helen Little: Guernica in Britain 1937-1939 G Manuel Moreno: The Basque Children and the Aid Spain Movement Chair: Professor Paul Preston

Conference fees and booking G Conference only: £15 (in advance) £17 (on the day) G Conference, coffee and buffet lunch: £30 G Conference, coffee, buffet lunch and Spanish evening meal: £50 Send cheques payable to ‘IBMT’ plus name(s) of attendee(s) to: IBMT Treasurer, Aysgaard, Beardwood Brow, Blackburn BB2 7AT or download a booking form from www.international-brigades.org.uk (click ‘Events’) NB: Deadline for advance booking with catering is 7 February 2015 Further information G Dolores Long: [email protected] / 0161 226 2013 G Hilary Jones: [email protected] / 0161 224 1747

Accommodation Accommodation is available at the conference centre hotel: International Brigade Memorial Trust www.international-brigades.org.uk www.manchesterconferencecentre.co.uk NEWS r e t l o K

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Issue 38 / 1-2015 13 Cover story Frieda Park’s experience as a volunteer on the International Brigades Archaeology Project 3-8 News GCommemorations on Achill Island GEye-catching mural in Dartford GAnnual General Meeting in Oxford 8 Obituaries 9 Let ter from Spain Justin Byrne on rows in Madrid over International Brigade memorials 10-12 Secretarial notes S: 14-15 Exhibition review IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE VOLUNTEER International Brigade supporters tour battlefield sites around “Conscience and Conflict: British Madrid’s University City and the Casa de Campo park. The guided walk formed part of a week-long series of commem- orative events in November organised by the AABI Spanish International Brigades friendship group to mark the 78th Artists and the Spanish Civil War” anniversary of the defence of Madrid in November 1936. See more details in “Letter from Spain” on page 9. 16-17 Extras GBelfast honours International Brigaders in their own words GMedical notes ‘Goodbye Barcelona’ scoops 18 Can you help? 18-19 Letters top musical awards in Spain 20-25 Books Including new titles on the Oxford- The International Brigades musical “Goodbye war centred on the fate of Sam, an 18-year-old shire and Limerick volunteers Barcelona” was judged Best Musical in the 2014 from London’s East End, and a group of other 26 What’s on annual Spanish Musical Theatre Awards. It also International Brigade volunteers from Britain topped the Best Stage Director (Fran Arráez) and who travel to Spain to fight fascism. Best Newcomer (Antonio del Valle) categories. The musical premiered in November 2011 at The IBMT Newsletter is published three times A Catalan-language production of “Goodbye London’s Arcola Theatre for a five-week run. a year and is sent free to all members. Back Barcelona” was staged at Barcelona’s Teatre del With support from the IBMT, Lewkowicz and numbers can be downloaded from the IBMT Raval from September 2013 for an extended run. Judith Johnson worked on the musical for six website on [www.international- brigades.org. It attracted rave reviews and packed houses. years before it was first performed. Their inter - uk /newsletter.htm]. All content is the Reacting to the musical’s successes at a cere - est was sparked after reading a feature about copyright © of the IBMT and credited mony held at the Teatro Sanpol in Madrid on the surviving Brigaders in The Guardian in contributors and cannot be reproduced 3 November, co-writer Karl Lewkowicz said he November 2000. They then interviewed several of without permission. hoped they would help spread the story of the them, including Penny Feiwel, Jack Jones, Lou Editor International Brigades to a wider audience. Kenton, Sam Lesser and Alan Menai Williams. Jim Jump He was pleased to note that “Goodbye 6 Stonells Road, London SW11 6HQ Barcelona” had even seen off challenges from 020 7228 6504 Spanish productions of “The Sound of Music” [email protected] and “Les Misérables”. Actor Antonio del Valle said the accolades International Brigade Memorial Trust were “amazing considering ‘Goodbye www.international-brigades.org.uk Barcelona’ was a small and simple production, Charity no: 1094928 although done with all our hearts”. He added: “These awards are dedicated to all the Interna - tional Brigades who came to fight the fascist coup of General Francisco Franco, to defend democracy and freedom. To those who never went home and who fought and died in a coun - try that was not theirs, this award is for them.” Karl Lewkowicz (top right) with the performers and “Goodbye Barcelona” is a story of love and production staff of “Goodbye Barcelona” in Barcelona.

3 NEWS Achill pays tribute to its two Brigaders

NOAH ROSE describes the commemorations held on 16 November on Achill Island, off the west coast of Ireland’s County Mayo, to honour two Achill International Brigaders, one whose story is well known, the other virtually unknown until recently… At the Thomas Patten memorial in Dooega (above) and beside Pat Burke’s grave in Slievemore (below). umn of Irish volunteers with a handwritten dedi - Tommy Patten cation on the front page: “To Patrick Burke, fellow This first event was organised by the Friends of International Brigader, on the occasion of the the International Brigades in Ireland, who unveiling of an eloquent memorial in Achill to the arranged the laying of a wreath at the memorial to memory of Thomas Patten who died in the defence Thomas Patten that was unveiled in 1984. IBMT of Madrid, December, 1936. From Michael O’Rior - Ireland Secretary Manus O’Riordan spoke about dan, with an internationalist greeting – Salud!” how Patten (1910-1936) had been the first Eng - Manus O’Riordan read a poem by Rafael lish-speaking volunteer to die in the defence of Alberti, “To the International Brigades”, and sang Madrid, killed at Boadilla del Monte on 16/17 Alberti’s “If My Voice Should Die On Earth” in December 1936. He finished by singing “Los cua - Spanish, English and Irish. Next came a reading tro generales” (“The Four Generals”) in Spanish known facts of Burke’s life by myself. It included by Achill-born poet John F Deane of a new poem and English, and the ceremony concluded with a the reading-out of the 32 names Burke had writ - written and adapted for the event, “Deora Dé / piper playing a traditional lament. ten in his diary as “killed in Spain with the Interna - Fuchsia, the Tears of God”, followed by more tional Brigade”. poems and recitals. Pat Burke Burke was born in Dooagh, Achill Island, on 25 With the commemoration concluded, everyone A graveside gathering marked the first public trib - December 1897. At the Battle of Jarama in Febru - made their way to Gielty’s Bar in Dooagh, where ute to the life of Pat Burke (1897-1987). It was ary 1937 he had been mistakenly reported as they were able to view the exhibition loaned by organised at the instigation of his closest living rel - missing/killed in action, but was subsequently the Derry-based North West Spanish Civil War ative, Tom McNamara of Keel, Achill. Burke was admitted to hospital as wounded. The Interna - Project. This contains information on the Irish vol - Tom’s mother’s first cousin and, although he left tional Brigade Medical Commission found him unteers in the International Brigades and also on Achill as a young man, Tom got to know him in his unfit for further service and he was given a med - O’Duffy’s “Irish Brigade” who fought on the side later years when he returned to Mayo. ical discharge. Issued with an emergency pass - of Franco. Burke participated in the First and Second port by the British Consul, he was repatriated to The exhibition later went on display at Achill World Wars, as well as in the Spanish Civil War. He Scotland around 24-29 September 1937. Library for two weeks, along with enlarged photo - died without children, so little evidence was left of During the Second World War he served in the graphs of Pat Burke’s diary with its handwritten his remarkable story – yet Tom felt strongly that it merchant navy. Afterwards he settled in Glasgow list of names of his 32 comrades “killed in Spain should be better known. and continued to travel the world as a seafarer with the International Brigade”. Following an introduction by Dr Edward King of until his return to County Mayo in 1982. He was Achill Historical and Archaeological Society, Tom present at the unveiling of the Tommy Patten Noah Rose is a Manchester-based artist who has been work - McNamara shared his personal reminiscences of memorial and Tom McNamara has a copy of ing in County Mayo. He is keen to hear from anyone with more Pat Burke. This was followed by a reading on the Michael O’Riordan’s book on the Connolly Col - information on Pat Burke. Contact [[email protected]].

Updated information on Jewish volunteers MUSEUM CUTS PROTEST: The IBMT has added its voice to the chorus of protests over Martin Sugarman has updated his comprehen - Sugarman, who is the archivist at the Associa - cuts to the budget of the Imperial War sive survey “Against Fascism – Jews who served in tion of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (Ajex), Museum, as a result of which the museum the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil says that since his research first appeared some faces a deficit of £4 million and the loss of up War”. The 126-page document names all those 20 years ago he has been contacted by a large to 80 staff. The Trust wrote to Chancellor of among the estimated 15 per cent of British Battal - number of families and scholars with amend - the Exchequer George Osborne in November ion volunteers who were Jewish, along with biog - ments. “The study has proved of great interest to to urge him to ensure adequate funding for raphical information, where known. Also listed the public in general,” he adds. the museum. The IWM in London is the home are the Jewish volunteers in other International of an extensive oral archive of interviews with Brigade units, along with some historical and If you would like a PDF copy of the document email: International Brigade veterans. political background and sources of information. [[email protected]].

4 International Brigade Memorial Trust NOTICES

HOUSE-PROUD: As contro - 2015 subscriptions now due versy raged about a Labour IBMT subscriptions for 2015 are now due. If you politician’s reaction to a house have not already done so, and don’t pay by decked out in England flags direct debit, please send your payment to the during the Rochester & Strood Membership Secretary at the address below. by-election in November, in Subscription rates remain the same as last nearby Dartford an IBMT mem - ber was demonstrating a differ - year. See application form on page 16 for the UK ent mode of home decoration. and overseas rates. When returning your Sean McNeill (inset) was so cheque, clearly state your name and address so inspired by the story of the that these can be matched with our membership International Brigades follow - records. ing a trip to Madrid last August Also, please consider both making a donation that he came home and and paying your subs by direct debit. The direct decided to create this eye- debit form can be downloaded at: [www. catching mural –saying “No international-brigades.org.uk/join.htm]. pasarán Spain 36” on the side Send cheques and completed direct debit forms of his house in Chastilian Road in the north Kent town. Indeed, to: IBMT Membership Secretary, 2 Woodford it caught the eye of his local Close, Radyr Way, Cardiff CF5 2PH. For any authority, and Dartford Bor - queries, tel: 029 2019 5412 or email: ough Council officers, accom - [[email protected]]. panied by the police, duly knocked on Sean’s front door. Back to three issues a year He was out, but did, however, The IBMT will this year revert to publishing three make an appointment for a issues of the IBMT Newsletter . For the past two meeting. Fearing the worst years we have appeared only twice a year. from the Conservative-con - Although we increased the number of pages trolled council, he arrived at the meeting, only to be pleasantly published annually when we switched from surprised. “They said they’d three to two issues, IBMT Trustees now believe done a lot of research on the it’s vital to stay in more frequent touch with mem - mural and they were delighted bers through the magazine. with it.” reports Sean. We hope readers will welcome this move, which, even if we don’t increase the total num - ber of pages produced each year, will be more expensive for the Trust because of additional Dutch launch major research project printing and postage costs. For this reason please make sure you renew By Rien Dijkstra idea is to involve students to undertake the your 2015 subscription promptly – and consider research and the digitisation of the collected data making a donation, however modest, to support Research work has started in the Netherlands to under the supervision of the IISG. This will be led our activities. collect and publish the biographies of all the by Yvonne Scholten who has been researching Dutch who fought in Spain between 1936 and the Dutch volunteers for several years. IBMT survey: more responses please 1939 in defence of the Spanish Republic. We made a website for this organisation and I There was an excellent response to the IBMT An exhaustive investigation into the Dutch vol - hope you will be so kind to add the link to your questionnaire that was inserted in our last issue unteers that went to Spain to fight fascism has website and spread the news. and posted on our website at the same time. until now never been done. Researchers from Royal Holloway University At the same time we have founded an organi - Research project website: [www.dps3639.wordpress.com/ of London (RHUL) have started analysing the sation of friends of the Dutch volunteers that english]; email: [[email protected]]. survey responses. went to Spain, called Stichting Spanje 1936- They do say, however, that they are still partic - 1939, and set up a website for the organisation. Stichting Spanje 1936-1939 website: [www.spanje3639. ularly interested in hearing from members under In the Netherlands the Spanish Civil War is in org]; email: [[email protected]]. the age of 45 and from those who do not have a many ways a forgotten war. Estimates of the family connection to the International Brigades. number of Dutch volunteers vary widely. We aim If you fit either of those categories, and if you to collect information that gives an outline of the have not already done so, please take the time background of these mostly forgotten fighters. to fill out the questionnaire, which has been re- We want to give these people a face, and to say posted on our website (www.international- something about their lives. brigades.org.uk) until 1 March. Click on “IBMT The database will contain at least some basic membership questionnaire” in the black box information, such as dates of birth and death, towards the top right of our web portal. years in Spain, profession and political back - The aim of the survey is to help us get a clearer ground. In addition, we hope that for a large num - picture of our membership and what they think ber of these people we can publish a more com - of the IBMT and its activities, and thereby help plete biography, with references to interviews, lit - us plan accordingly for the future. erature, links to other websites etc. Historians at RHUL are interested in the mem - For this project, which starts in January this The Dutch-speaking De Zeven Provincien Company was ory of the Spanish Civil War, how it is transmitted year, the renowned International Institute of part of the Edgar André Battalion of the XI International today and what attracts certain people to Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam and the Uni - Brigade. Other Dutch volunteers fought in various units develop an interest in it. versity of Amsterdam have been consulted. The and battalions of the XI Brigade.

International Brigade Memorial Trust 5 NEWS

ARTWORKS: The In brief Museum of St Albans has taken possession of a GBritish expats living in the Alicante region painting and bronze joined local Spaniards and visitors from around sculpture by Frank Casey (right) depicting Scottish Europe on 7-9 November for the ninth annual Ambulance Unit volunteer homage to the International Brigades in Thomas Watters (1913- Benissa . The town was a convalescence centre 2012). Watters settled in for the International Brigades during the Span - St Albans after returning ish Civil War. Organised by the Benissa Casal from the Spanish Civil Cultural (arts centre), the weekend comprised War. The sculpture and talks by historians, along with a ceremony at portrait (both pictured the local cemetery, where there is a memorial to right) were put on display the 10 Brigaders buried there. during November, along with the IBMT’s “Antifascistas” exhibi - tion. On the final day of the month there was a performance by folk duo Na-mara and others in memory of Thomas Wat - ters and all the volunteers in the civil war.

Peter Glazer, who says the re-release brings wards to having had tears in their eyes – and “this activist history forward at a time when the were impressed by the musical’s strong punch causes are no less urgent, and the enemies of and fair story-line. They hoped it could be freedom no less dangerous”. See [www. shown to many youthful audiences. Also dis - folkways.si.edu]. cussed by participants, including several from GThe Smithsonian Folkways record label in the other European countries, was how best to US has reissued on CD the classic two-volume GThe KFSR German International Brigades coordinate activities to commemorate the collection “Songs of the Spanish Civil War”, fea - memorial group held its annual conference in 70th anniversary of the liberation of Europe turing Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer, Butch and Bess Berlin in late October, reports Victor Gross - (except Spain) from fascism in May 1945 and Hawes, Woody Guthrie, Ernst Busch and Bart man . A highpoint was a screening of the video then, in October 2016, the 80th anniversary of van der Schelling. The records were originally of the “Goodbye Barcelona” musical about the founding of the International Brigades. released on two vinyl LPs in the 1960s, bringing British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. together songs in English, German and Span - Most of the audience were curious as to GA portrait of Luton car worker James “Joe” ish, some recorded during the civil war, others whether a musical including love songs and Gough , who was killed at Boadilla del Monte in afterwards by legendary figures in the Ameri - dancing could offer a political as well as an December 1936, has been installed at the Lon - can folk music scene. The new liner notes are by emotional message. Many admitted after - don & Eastern regional office of the Unite trade union in Finsbury, central London. The oil paint - ing of the International Brigade volunteer and former AUEW member at Vauxhall Motors, is by artist Frank Casey (pictured in photo above), who is also an IBMT member.

GA plaque (above) dedicated to the Irish volun - teers who fought in the Spanish Civil War was VIEWERS: The IBMT’s “Antifascistas” exhibition went on show at the Catalan headquarters of the UGT Spanish unveiled on 9 August in the garden of the head - trade union federation in Barcelona from 22 September. A meeting to mark the opening of the display was quarters of the Irish Republican Socialist Move - addressed by, among others, Angela Jackson, one of the authors of the exhibition and its eponymous accompany - ment at 392 Falls Road, Belfast. ing book, and Josep Àlvarez, Secretary General of the UGT in Catalonia.

6 International Brigade Memorial Trust At the IBMT Annual General Meeting r

There was standing room only at e e t

IBMT events in Oxford over the a M

l weekend when the Trust held its l a h s

Annual General Meeting at Ruskin r a M

College on 6 September. : s o

Pictured here (middle left) is part t o h of the audience at the Gladiator P Club, where a benefit concert was staged on the Saturday night to raise funds for a memorial to the 31 Oxfordshire volunteers, six of whom died in Spain. Performers included the cast of the musical “¡No Pasarán!”(pic - tured top right), along with Ran Kan Kan, John Christie and the Sea Green Singers (middle right). Also pictured (below) is a section of the audience at Oxford Town Hall on the Friday night to hear a panel of experts and local historians talk about the Oxfordshire International Brigaders and the considerable local impact of the Spanish Civil War. Speakers included Richard Baxell, Tom Buchanan, Colin Carritt, Hugh Purcell and Liz Woolley. So popular were both events that the IBMT had to apologise to all those who were turned away because they were full to capacity. Also oversubscribed were two radical history walking tours of Oxford conducted on Sunday by local historian Ciaran Walsh. At the AGM itself, the IBMT’s existing trustees and executive council (see list on page 10) were re-elected for a further one-year term of office. It was also agreed to hold the next AGM in Aberdeen on a Satur - day in October 2015. Continued overleaf From Tardienta, Quinto, Purburrel Hill and Caspe to the ruins of Belchite…

By Pauline Fraser as their poems were read by Jane Bernal, Mar - Touring the got’s daughter. “Tomorrow we’ll have coffee in Huesca” we All those months spent planning and double- called the IBMT-organised tour of Aragon, the checking paid off and arrangements went title capturing something of the blighted hopes smoothly. We missed out on a visit to the Ruta battlefields of the milicianos in 1936 and 1937. Fast forward Orwell trenches near Robres, but the time we to 16-22 October 2014 and our coach party of 30 spent at Gurrea de Gallego, near the spot International Brigade enthusiasts duly drove to where artist Felicia Browne was killed, more of Aragon Huesca to enjoy that legendary cup of coffee, than compensated. remembering the many Republican fighters Glenda Browne had come from Australia to who never made it. commemorate her distant cousin. She waved a Looking down on the city from the Republican Republican flag from the railway bridge that trenches high above at Tierz, we listened to the Felicia’s militia group had partly destroyed, so words of John Cornford and Margot Heinemann, Continued overleaf

International Brigade Memorial Trust 7 OBITUARIES NEWS r e

Mayor of Tardienta María e t On the Aragon battlefields Luz with the framed copy a M

l l

From previous page of a Felicia Browne sketch a h s

delaying vital fascist supplies. Then we moved presented by the IBMT. r a

to another bridge, over the River Sotón. Glenda Pauline Fraser looks on. M read movingly of Felicia’s life. As a more lasting memorial, Glenda pre - sented, on behalf of the IBMT, a framed repro - Bernard Barry in duction of Felicia’s drawing of the miliciana Barcelona in 2009. María Petra, featured on the front cover of the Bernard Barry previous IBMT Newsletter , to María Luz, PSOE A lifelong trade union and political activist in Man - Socialist Party mayor of Tardienta, the small chester, Bernard Barry (Baruch Shimon Babin - town where Felicia’s militia unit was billeted. sky) died in November, aged 94. As a Young Com - From local historian Victor Pardo we learnt munist League member he campaigned in the something of the importance of Huesca 1930s against fascism and in support of the Span - province in Republican history. In 1930 two ish Republic. Decades later he researched and young captains made a premature bid to end authored the booklet “From Manchester to the decadent reign of Alfonso XIII. They paid Spain” about the Manchester volunteers in the with their lives. three volunteers, including Commander Peter International Brigades. It was published in 2009 Standing by the trenches at Santa Quiteria Daly, to capture the hill. by the Working Class Movement Library in Sal - overlooking Tardienta, Ramón Hernando At Caspe, we were joined by archaeologist ford, where he was a volunteer researcher for pointed out the aqueduct and the railway, Ana Martí, a long-standing friend and IBMT many years. For more information about Barry’s strategic positions in the war. Then, with Almu - member, who swept us away with a superla - life see: [http://bernard.barry.muchloved.com]. dena Cros, President of AABI (Spanish Interna - tive illustrated account of the Lincolns in the tional Brigades friendship group), acting as Great Retreats of spring 1938. Gert Hoffmann and Hans Landauer interpreter, he told us how his father had kept There were museums to visit too: at Robres, We mourn the his unit together after the fall of the Republic Fayón, and Gandesa, each of them throwing passing of the and the retreat into France, to return to con - light on the war in 1938 as it moved through last two Austrian tinue guerrilla activities until the mid-1950s. Aragon to the Battle of the Ebro. International We visited Belchite, fought over three times Brigaders, Gert during the war and left in ruins by order of IBMT Trustee Pauline Fraser was the co-organiser of the Hoffmann and Franco to show, as he thought, the crimes of Aragon tour along with IBMT Treasurer Charles Jepson. A Hans Landauer. “the reds”. longer version of this report can be seen on the IBMT web - Gert Hoffmann (left) and a 1941 Gert died on Another local historian, Antonio Jardiel, site (www.international-brigades.org.uk). A slideshow of Gestapo photo of Hans Landauer. 9 July 2014, just speaking at the ruined church in Quinto, images from the tour is on the IBMT Flickr site: [www.flickr. one month after his 97th birthday. Then within showed us the dauntingly steep slopes of Pur - com/ photos/ibmt/15675176539]. A video will also be made less than two weeks, Hans died on 19 July at the burrel Hill, only “lightly held”, the British Bat - available on the IBMT YouTube site: [www.youtube.com/ age of 93. talion was told. It took two days and the loss of user/ IBMTnews]. Both were veterans of the Ernst Thälmann Bat - talion of the XI International Brigade. A Hoffmann family statement said: “His deepest wish was that we never forget the Historic refugee home faces demolition fallen, and that we follow their example in the struggle for justice and peace, and against all The only purpose-built accom - had been used to house 20 The Glade was originally built forms of fascism.” modation in Britain for refugee refugee children from Spain’s by local resident Antoinette Following Hans’s return from Spain he was children fleeing the Spanish Basque Country from 1937 to Campbell and her husband arrested by the Gestapo in Vienna and impris - Civil War looks set to be demol - 1940. Ettore Sommaruga, himself a oned at the Dachau concentration camp. He ished despite protests by a Anderson, who lives fives refugee from Fascist Italy. remained a lifelong anti-fascist. local IBMT activist. miles from Blackboys, tried to Anderson said he was Wealden District Council in persuade English Heritage to deeply disappointed. “This is Bill Richardson East Sussex gave the go-ahead list the building. But the move clearly the end of the line for Thanks go to all those who donated £100 at the in September for the building, was rejected, despite English The Glade, a building I con - Notting Hill celebration of the life of IBMT mem - set in woods near the village of Heritage accepting that sider to be of great national ber Bill Richardson, who has died at the age of 93. Blackboys, to be converted “although not of special archi - and international historical Daughters Clare and Zoe asked for contributions from use as a youth hostel to a tectural interest the building is significance.” to the IBMT in recognition of Bill’s admiration for residential dwelling. clearly of local historical interest The children who found sanc - the International Brigades and his regret at not The owner has subsequently as the only purpose-built colony tuary at The Glade were among being able to enlist because of his age. applied for permission to huts built for child refugees of the nearly 4,000 niños vascos Born in Acton, west London, in 1920, Bill’s poli - demolish the building and the Spanish Civil War”. (Basque children) who arrived tics were forged by the anti-fascism of the 1930s replace it with a newbuild. in Southampton in May 1937 and 40s. He settled in Notting Hill and in the Efforts to save the existing during Franco’s offensive in 1950s and became a community campaigner, wooden structure, known as northern Spain that saw Guer - battling exploitative landlords and fighting for The Glade, have been made by nica and other towns bombed better housing conditions for working people. He Mike Anderson, a former IBMT from the air. The niños were dis - was an AUEW engineering workers’ union shop Treasurer, who in 2012 organ - persed to more than 100 steward and supporter of organisations such as ised the erection of a plaque on The Glade, near “colonies” around Britain, CND and, latterly, Stop the War. the building indicating that it Blackboys, Sussex. including The Glade.

8 International Brigade Memorial Trust LETTER FROM SPAIN

Fascist graffiti daubed on the International Campaigners unofficially name a square Brigade memorial in in Vicálvaro after the International the University City. Brigades in November last year. Madrid battles over ‘sites of memory’ The real political motives behind the PP’s JUSTIN BYRNE reports from the Spanish capital on how efforts to refusal to approve this or any other memorial to commemorate the International Brigades face right-wing opposition the International Brigades in the city were con - firmed at the end of November, when a full meet - he 78th anniversary of the defence of University. Featuring talks, films, book launches ing of the city council discussed a PSOE motion to Madrid confirmed November’s increasingly and a popular guided visit of Spanish Civil War officially rename the square in Vicálvaro after the T prominent place in the International Brigade remains on campus, this was organised by the International Brigades. Supported by the minor - calendar here in Spain. It was in November 1936 AABI, the university’s Chair of Historical Memory, ity United Left (IU) and the centre-right UPyD, the that popular mobilisation, Soviet fighters and the and the aptly named Unión de Historiadores Pro - proposal was voted out by the PP. Party arrival of the International Brigades turned gresistas (UHP) students’ association. spokesperson Pedro Corral justified the opposi - Madrid into the capital of the worldwide struggle Events in the University City culminated on tion by regurgitating familiar half-truths concern - against fascism. 8 November, the very day the International ing the supposed Stalinist domination and instru - However, commemoration of this legendary Brigades arrived in the city and at the front 78 mentalisation of the Brigades and the sinister resistance to the Nationalist attack has been over - years ago, with the now annual march from Mon - motives of those who want to remember them. In shadowed by the now established Battle of cloa to the memorial. Here, over 200 friends of the a heated exchange, IU spokeswoman Milagros Jarama anniversary in February and more recently Brigades from Spain and abroad took part in a Hernández predicted he would “go down in his - too by the Brunete battlefield tour at the end of short ceremony, notable not least for the début of tory as Pedro Corral the fascist”. June. That this is no longer the case tells us much the AABI’s new choir. about the current vitality of the International upport from abroad, not least from the Brigade community in Spain. It also highlights the n the same day, another tribute was held at IBMT, was instrumental in raising the role that “sites of memory” play in sustaining the the monument to the International Smemorial in the University City and stalling history and memory of the Brigades in the country OBrigades in Móstoles, to the south-west of court action to date. It still has a role to play in in which they fought and so many died. Madrid, and a week later local activists in Vicál - helping to ensure that the Brigaders are remem - Unveiled just t hree years ago, the memorial to varo repeated their unofficial street renaming cer - bered at this and other “sites of memory”. the International Brigades in Madrid’s University emony, hanging cardboard signs proclaiming Visiting these sites is now easier than ever with City, the first place the Internationals went into “Plaza de las Brigadas Internacionales” in a cur - the AABI’s three-volume guide to International action and the site of ferocious fighting in Novem - rently nameless square adjoining the former bar - Brigade sites in Madrid (available through the ber 1936, was made possible by the support of racks where the XI Brigade was billeted. AABI’s online shop and a snip at 5 euros per vol - the Complutense University, a grant from the for - The power of such “sites of memory” also ume; the English translation of volume 3 is mer PSOE socialist government and hundreds of explains the hostility they can provoke. The expected in spring this year), or David Math - donations from individuals and organisations in memorial in the University City has been van - ieson’s “Frontline Madrid: Battlefield Tours of the Spain and abroad, including the IBMT. The project dalised a dozen times over the past three years. It Spanish Civil War” [details on page 23]. Anyone to raise a memorial revitalised the Asociación de is still under legal threat. At any time the Madrid for Madrid in November this year, or on the 80th Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales (AABI) – High Court could decided to execute its order to anniversary in 2016? the IBMT’s sister organisation in Spain – in the remove the memorial on the grounds that it was run-up to the 75th anniversary of the foundation put up without a licence from the city council. Justin Byrne is a historian and teacher. He has lived in of the Brigades in October 2011. Dominated by the conservative Partido Popular Madrid for over 25 years and is currently the community The centrepiece of this year’s events was the (PP), Madrid City Council has ignored the univer - manager of the AABI’s Facebook page. See [www.brigadas - International Brigade Week at the Complutense sity’s requests for authorisation. internacionales.org].

International Brigade Memorial Trust 9 SECRETARIAL NOTES

based movement of support for the Spanish IBMT Secr etary JIM JUMP writes Republic that took in elements from virtually all sections of British society. The jihadist volun - teers by contrast are drawn from and receive Narrow view support from a very narrow part of one ethnic and religious community in Britain. The International Brigade Reaction after the programme ranged from Memorial Trust keeps emerges from outright praise for the fact that the story of the volunteers had been given air-time on national alive the memory and radio to unease about drawing any parallels spirit of the men and BBC broadcast between Spain and Syria. The Scottish YCL (Young Communist League), for example, women who volunteered shared the mixed feelings of many IBMT tweeted that to make such a comparison had to defend democracy and members about BBC Radio 4’s documentary been “shameful”. I“The Long View” on 30 July. The 30-minute fight fascism in Spain programme compared the International … so John sets the record straight from 1936 to 1939 Brigades of the Spanish Civil War with the In the discussion on the IBMT Facebook page young men and women who in recent years following the BBC’s “The Long View” radio doc - have been travelling to support Islamist and umentary, the consensus seemed to be that the jihadist groups fighting in Iraq, Syria and other programme had been “a good listen” overall. www.international-brigades.org.uk war-torn countries in the Middle East and North But the comment that received the most facebook.com /groups/7123291063 Africa. “likes” came from John Corcoran. He wrote: twitter.com/IBMT_SCW On the one hand we were presented with an “The IB volunteers were fighting for democratic excellent overview of the volunteers who went rights, equality, and progress. They were not Charity no. to Spain. This was largely thanks to IBMT fighting to establish a medieval style theocratic 1094928 Trustee and historian Richard Baxell. Inter - system which is openly contemptuous of Secretary viewed by Guardian journalist Jonathan Freed - democracy, condemns all women and non-Mus - Jim Jump land, he gave a clear and concise description of lims to permanent vassal status or slavery, and 6 Stonells Road, London SW11 6HQ opposes progress through an inherent, virulent 020 7228 6504 “However, the programme hatred of education and cultural expression of [email protected] any sort which is not specifically approved by an as a whole seemed far too Islamist thought police. So there was nothing in President common at all except that they are engaged in Marlene Sidaway eager to highlight military activity abroad.” marlenesidaway @hotmail.com similarities between the John’s post added: “Any attempt to bracket Chair anti-fascist IB volunteers with Islamist salafists Dolores Long Brigaders and the modern- seeking to engage in jihad is such a broad- [email protected] sweep definition as to be utterly meaningless. I day foreign jihadists.” would suggest that the Islamists recruited in Treasurer the motives of the volunteers, how they man - various parts of Western Europe in fact share far Charles Jepson aged to reach Spain, their experiences in the more in common with various fascist volunteers [email protected] civil war and their treatment by the British alongside Franco’s fascist army in Spain: Ireland Secretary authorities. O’Duffy’s Blueshirts from Ireland and other Ger - Manus O’Riordan However, the programme as a whole seemed man and Italian fascist volunteer brigades who [email protected] far too eager to highlight similarities between like the modern Islamists were fighting to create the Brigaders and the modern-day jihadists. In a theocratic, reactionary, anti-democratic Membership Secretary particular this was the line taken by Dr Usama regime in which inequality was firmly Mary Greening Hasan of the Quilliam Foundation, a charity with entrenched. Continuous attempts by various memsec@internationa l-brigades.or g.uk the aim of “challenging extremism” within the people of a left-leaning persuasion to portray Education Officer British Muslim community. the likes of Isis et al, who have a heavy prepon - Richard Thorpe Barely mentioned in “The Long View” was one derance of foreign fighters, is merely self-delu - thorpe.ortiz@ btinternet.com of the obvious differences, namely that the sory romantic fiction. IB battalions were not lit - International Brigades were part of a broad- erally crucifying or beheading civilians, IB vol - Merchandise Officer Chris Hall [email protected] THEN AND NOW: How pro-Republican supporters in Madrid (right) marked last Other Executive Committee members year’s 78th anniversary of the Francoist Mike Arnott, Richard Baxell, Pauline Fraser, military uprising. They assembled in Calle Hilary Jones, Duncan Longstaff, de Toledo, where in 1936 the iconic “No Danny Payne, Mick Whelan pasarán” banner was draped (left). Thanks go to Andrés Torrico Álvarez for posting the Founding Chair pictures on the IBMT’s Facebook page Professor Paul Preston [www.facebook. com /groups/712329106]. Patrons Elsewhere on social media our Twitter feed is rapidly gaining in popularity. If you Rodney Bickerstaffe, Professor Peter Crome, haven’t already done so, sign up here: Hywel Francis MP, Professor Helen Graham, [https://twitter.com/IBMT_SCW]. Ken Livingstone, Len McCluskey, Christy Moore, Jack O’Connor, Maxine Peake, 10 Baroness Royall of Blaisdon International Brigade Memorial Trust DOOMED ‘RELIC’: There’s disappointing news from Liverpool, where we learn that what used to be the city’s trade union community centre in Hardman Street is being redeveloped as a hotel. This means the destruction of a mural (pictured left) in the building’s dome that was painted by artist Mick Jones, a former IBMT Trustee and son of famed International Brigader and union leader Jack Jones. Mick left many fine murals around the country, both in public spaces and in trade union premises, before his untimely death in 2012. Many of these works included visual references to the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigades, though the mural he painted in the early 1980s in the former Merseyside Trade Union Community and Unem - ployed Resource Centre, depicting scenes and themes from local labour history, isn’t one of these. Thankfully a group of local activists, including IBMT members, have negotiated access with the owners to make a detailed photographic record of the mural before it is lost for ever. As a postscript it’s worth noting that before redevelopment the building was one of the venues for the Liverpool Biennial, a series of art exhibitions across the city that ran until the end of October last year. At least one art critic was highly dismissive of the offerings on show, especially at Hardman Street and in comparison with the Jones mural. In her review for The Independent , Zoe Pilger observed: “There is… most strikingly, a ceiling mural of the ‘people’s march’, which shows demonstrators with fists raised and banners flying. The paint has flaked off in places. This relic of Liverpool’s radical past seems over - looked, which is a great shame – for me, it is the most interesting work in the exhibition, despite the fact that it is not officially included.” unteers did not impose dress codes on women 14. Robeson was of course a great supporter of and close down education facilities for all the Spanish Republic and the International females etc etc.” Brigades. Let’s hope this important part of his impressive record of activism is given the promi - The programme can be heard again here: [www.bbc.co.uk/ nence it deserves in the film. programmes/b04brj7z]. This is not the only piece of good news about potential films. According to a report in the Cam - Fine words from Ed Miliband den New Journal on 6 November, film director Thanks are due to Ed Miliband for invoking the John Crome is planning to make a film about the International Brigades as a reason to be proud to life of International Brigader Esmond Romilly. A be English –though it was a shame he couldn’t nephew of Winston Churchill, Romilly rebelled include the other nations of the British Isles in against his well-connected family and ran a left- his remarks. Speaking at his party’s conference wing bookshop in north London before setting in Manchester on 23 September, the Labour leader singled out “those who fought in the Spanish Civil War” as examples of the English “Such a film m ight break “spirit of internationalism”. the near-monopoly that His remarks came in a passage in his speech dealing with the aftermath of the Scottish refer - ‘Land and Freedom’ seems endum on independence held in the previous to command whenever week. The vote, he said, showed that it was pos - DON’T FENCE ME IN: sible to be proud to be Scottish and British, just anyone wants to screen Are International Brigade memorials less likely to be attacked or less deserv - as others were proud to be Welsh and British. a film about the ing of protection than other war memorials? In par - He then went on to say: “So it is time we fought, ticular does this apply to the memorial stone and this party fought, for the traditions of England International Brigades .” plaque (above) in Cardiff’s Alexandra Gardens, and did not cede them to others. Englishness: a Cathays Park, which was unveiled in 1992? These history of solidarity. From the Battle of Cable off to fight in Spain against Franco’s fascist- questions were begged by an interesting snippet Street to the spirit of the Blitz. Englishness: tradi - backed insurgents. So too did his brother Giles. from Alicante-based IBMT member Malcolm Hardy. tions of fairness. From the Dagenham workers Esmond wrote about his exploits and the fate Early last September he was in Cardiff with wife Lor - who fought for equal pay to today’s campaigners of his comrades in the battle to defend Madrid raine to check out possible sites for a memorial to for a living wage. Englishness: a spirit of interna - late in 1936 in “Boadilla” and afterwards married Archibald Dickson, captain of the Stanbrook , the ship that rescued thousands of refugees from Ali - tionalism. From those who fought in the Spanish Jessica Mitford, daughter of Lord Redesdale. In cante during the last days of the Spanish Republic. Civil War to our generosity to those overseas.” the Second World War he flew with the Royal Their visit coincided by chance with a Nato summit Canadian Air Force, and vanished over the North in the Welsh capital, when the city was in the grip of Welcome plans for two films Sea after a bombing raid on Germany in 1941, pre - a police and military clampdown that kept anti-war It is being reported that Oscar-winning Steve sumed to have been shot down. He was 23. protesters at bay. Malcolm wrote to inform us: “As a McQueen’s next film will be about the life of the The NCJ says writer Terry Hodgkinson has com - result of the heavy security for the Nato conference black American actor, singer and political cam - pleted a script and John Crome – son of renowned around Cardiff, all the memorials in Alexandra Gar - paigner Paul Robeson (1898-1976). The 45-year- International Brigade doctor Len Crome – is in dens were protected by metal screens EXCEPT the IB old British director is quoted as saying that he negotiations with potential backers. Fingers memorial.” He added wryly: “Do you think there was some significance to this?” has been inspired by Robeson ever since he was Continued overleaf

International Brigade Memorial Trust 11 SECRETARIAL NOTES

From previous page crossed that this project gets off the ground – not least because such a film might break the near- monopoly that Ken Loach’s controversial “Land and Freedom” seems to command whenever anyone wants to screen a film about the Interna - tional Brigades.

Luxury accommodation in a Franco prison anyone? Hats off to German tourist Wilfried Stuckmann who asked for his money back after finding out The Hostal San Marcos in León, a former death camp, that the luxury hotel in León where he and his wife is one of Spain’s luxury parador hotels. had booked accommodation had been a Fran - coist prison and death camp for Spanish Republi - national Brigaders, as well as being a notorious cans during the Spanish Civil War. concentration camp for Spanish Republicans. Stuckmann told Spanish newspaper El Diario The monks now run a 24-room hotel in one of the that they had only realised the dark past of the wings. Sadly but predictably, they admitted there Hostal San Marcos, part of Spain’s state-owned is no plaque, notice board or leaflet to indicate the chain of parador hotels and a former 16th century monastery’s role during and immediately after convent, when they found some wall placards the civil war. A spokesman did say, however, that recounting its history. Thousands of Republican there had been talk some years ago of a memorial political prisoners were held there, many of them in the cemetery, but nothing came of it. to be executed. “We didn’t know anything about In the adjoining province of La Rioja there is a this and we were in shock,” he said. four-star hotel in Haro, one of the region’s princi - Stuckmann, whose home-town is Kleve am pal wine towns. The Hotel Los Agustinos was orig - Niederrhein, near Duisburg, told El Diario : “We’d inally a 14th century convent. During the 19th cen - never planned on spending the night in a place tury it served variously as a barracks, military hos - like that. All I know about the Spanish Civil War is pital and prison during Spain’s War of Independ - that it was won by Franco with help from the Ger - ence and Carlist Wars. Then after the military uprising of July 1936 it “It’s hard to imagine the was once again used as a prison, this time for Republican supporters rounded up by the traces of such 20th century Falangists. Many were summarily executed. Key dates from its history are noted in a plaque ABOVE: The monastery of San Pedro de Cardeña, where political crimes being there is no acknowledgement of its usage as an Interna - inside the hotel, which opened its doors to paying tional Brigade prisoner-of-war camp and death row prison deliberately overlooked in guests in 1989. But there is no mention of 1936 – for Spanish Republicans. this way in any other despite the fact that graffiti left by Republican BELOW: Graffiti left by Spanish Republican prisoners at prisoners are clearly visible nearby. Somehow it’s the Hotel Los Agustinos, Haro, and the adjacent plaque European country.” hard to imagine the traces of such 20th century that fails to mention that it was used as a prison in 1936. political crimes being deliberately overlooked in man Nazis. There fore, the civil war is part of Ger - this way in any other European country . man history and I always feel the obligation to keep history in mind.” Greta did not go to Spain After complaining to Booking.com that the Apologies for misleading readers of our last issue agency had failed to mention this important part when we said that Greta Segerson had served as of the hotel’s past, he eventually won a refund of an International Brigade nurse and was, accord - the 396 euros spent on two nights at the hotel. ing to our AABI “Amigos” in Spain, one of the He donated the money to Spain’s Association handful of veterans still alive. for the Recovery of Historical Memory, which rep - Patrik Helgeson, Chairman of Svenska Spanien - resents relatives of those killed by Franco during frivilligas vänner (Friends of the Swedish Volun - the civil war and the ensuing repression. teers for Spain), has written to explain that, We can only agree with the association’s presi - though her husband fought in Spain and she z e dent, Emilio Silva (the main speaker at our 2014 smuggled papers for the underground resistance á n r annual commemoration in London) who said that in Nazi Germany at the time, Greta did not go to e H

n

this case was symptomatic of a refusal by Spain Spain. However, she was active in the Aid Spain ó i t n

and its governments, of all stripes, to face up to movement and was a founder of FSVS in 2002. u M

the trauma of the Franco years. s o l r

And finally… a …more guilty secrets Best wishes for 2015 to all IBMT members. Thanks C News of Wilfried Stuckmann’s protest got me for your continued support in keeping alive the wondering about whether more of Franco’s for - inspiring story of the International Brigades. mer prisons hide their guilty past from the general Many exciting activities and events are planned public. this year –while we look forward to next year’s So I contacted the Sistine monastery of San 80th anniversary of the start of the war in Spain. Pedro de Cardeña, near Burgos. During the civil Jim Jump war it housed the main prison for captured Inter - [email protected]

12 International Brigade Memorial Trust COVER STORY o t z i By Frieda Park e u u g g n í i r d M

hose of us vol - o o R r

r a v

unteering on a l c Á s Tthe Interna - O tional Brigades Archaeology Project found that we uncov - ered not only the physical evidence of war, but also the scars left on Spanish society by the conflict. The dig took place over a fortnight in Septem - ber 2014 and was organised in conjunction with archaeologists of the Spanish National Research Council’s Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit). Several sites associated with the war have been Above: Volunteer excavated in recent years, but this was the first archaeologists at work with a specific focus on the International Brigades. in Aragon last Septem - We were working in the area round Belchite, Digging into Spain’s ber in search of focusing on sites of battles fought in 1937. The remains linked to the presence of the Inter - two locations we excavated were Mediana and El national Brigades in Saso, with a day also gathering artefacts near Bel - still unburied past the area. chite. We uncovered items from demolished houses, including recycled Moorish tiles, chil - tion cases, posts with barbed wire and, amaz - like much of the physical evidence we were find - dren’s shoes and medicine bottles. One extraordi - ingly, newspapers that had survived in the dry ing of war, the legacy of Francoism in Spain is still nary find that day was a rusty old grenade that conditions under collapsed shelters. all around, if not on the surface then not far below. was simply lying at the side of the path. They don’t call them “digs” for nothing, and The old Belchite, bits of which were destroyed Mediana was the site of a major battle involving working in the heat and the dust could be hard. in the war, was left by Franco to be a reminder of 7,000 troops, and in the uncultivated hills the However, the commitment of the team to the pro - “red barbarism”. But this was not enough, and extensive trenches and fortifications are undis - ject and to bringing to light another bit of the his - Franco decreed that a new Belchite be created turbed. Bullets, cartridge cases, shrapnel and tory of the International Brigades and the Spanish close by in an imagined traditional Spanish style. other remains still lie on the surface of the ground. Civil War inspired us to keep going. As well as the The forced labour of captured Republican sol - This made it possible, for example, to follow in the core team from the Spanish National Research diers, including International Brigaders, was used steps of the Spanish Republican soldiers when Council, there were students from Catalonia and to construct this. A prison camp where they were attacking a fascist position. Not only did we find the Basque Country. The international volunteers housed can be seen on the edge of new Belchite interesting objects, but we understood more came from Britain, Canada and the US. As well as and its workshops continue to be used today. about the landscape of the battle. Other parts of an ethos of hard work there was also one of cama - Strangely on the outside of these buildings the the excavation gave more insight into how sol - raderie. Whilst some of the volunteers had skills in original writing from the time can still be seen. diers lived and fought. archaeology, others did not; nevertheless we all got the opportunity to engage in different activi - Moving Fortifications ties. These included clearing sites (digging, pick- The most moving visit was to “ Rusia ”. This was At El Saso we excavated a large sheep-pen. It axing and troweling), recording finds, site-walk - barrack-like accommodation that housed Repub - had been used as living quarters and a machine- ing, metal-detecting and cleaning finds. lican families who were not to have a place in the gun post and was connected by trenches to a big - We lodged in a small village called Codo, which new Belchite. They were joined by others who had ger system of fortifications. This had been a fas - gave us a taste of rural Spanish life and for ice- come to be near the Republican prisoners in the cist position and was captured by the Republi - cold cervezas grandes in the local bar. There we camp. Without someone outside to bring food cans. At Mediana we also dug out shelters amid also quickly came face to face with the unresolved and clothing, many prisoners died. Across a huge the Republican trench system. These revealed a legacy of the Spanish Civil War: when we arrived field from the houses stands a church. The inhabi - range of well preserved finds, including ammuni - at our accommodation we discovered it was in the tants of Rusia were routinely made to stand out in Calle Generalísimo the field and forced to listen to mass and endure z e VISIT: The IBAP group u Franco. denunciations of their families – another example g í r in the ruins of Belchite. d Among the interest - of how the post-civil war legacy scarred Spanish o R

r ing talks given to us society. a c s were ones by Francisco As volunteers on the archaeology project we O Ferrándiz, a leading would like to think that we did something to bring Spanish anthropolo - to light the struggles of the International Brigades gist, who spoke about and the Republican people of Spain and to com - his work on the bat the still poisonous legacy of fascism. exhumations of mass graves, and by Amable For more information about the archaeology project visit García, an architect the website: [https://sites.google.com/site/ who is an expert on the internationalbrigadesproject/home]. There are plans for old and new Belchite. the project to continue for at least another four years; for His talk and our site vis - further information on volunteering contact Salvatore Garfi: its brought home how, [[email protected]].

International Brigade Memorial Trust 13 REVIEW

‘IBMT DAY’ IN CHICHESTER: On Saturday 14 February the Pallant House Gallery will host an “IBMT Day”. Members will be able to visit the “Con - science and Conflict” exhibition and hear talks by its curator, art historian Simon Martin (at 2pm), and by Richard Baxell, historian of the British volunteers in Spain (at 3pm). The combined charge for entry and admission to the talks will be £9 per person (normally £8.50 entry and £9 for each talk). Members wishing to reserve a place should contact Helen Martin at the Pallant House Gallery; email: [[email protected]. uk] or tel: 01243 770 838 (direct line).

CHRISTINE LINDEY reviews the exhibition ‘Conscience and Conflict: British Artists and the Spanish Civil War’. The exhibition is on show at the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, until 15 February. From 7 March it will be at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, until 7 June. How Spain’s war inspired politically aware art he momentous interwar years between 1918 and 1939 galvanised British artists into politi - Tcal commitment. Inspired by the Bolshevik revolution, and appalled by the rise of fascism and the deprivation caused by the great depression, many turned to the left. Defence of the Spanish Republic against the 1936 fascist insurrection united the anti-fascist peace movement. This exhibition about British artists’ responses to the Spanish Civil War highlights wider 1930s politi - cal and aesthetic debates. Art historian Roger Fry’s dominant ideology of “art for art’s sake” was con - tested by calls for politically engaged art by social - ist and communist artists. While working as an illustrator in the USSR in the early 1930s Cliff Rowe was impressed by its cultural policies. On returning home he founded the Artists International in 1933. It called for “the international unity of artists against imperialist war on the Soviet Poster from 1937, artist unknown. Union, fascism and colonial oppression” and its purpose was to spread this message through posters, banners, illustrations, exhibitions, meet - ings and lectures. GET THE BOOK: To coincide with the “Conscience and Con - The following year it was equipped with a politi - flict” exhibition, Pallant House Gallery has published this cally milder slogan and renamed the Artists Interna - 160-page, full colour catalogue by art historian Simon tional Association (AIA). Its membership grew rap - Martin, the exhibition’s curator. With an introduction by idly and in 1936-9 it became the main focus for Paul Preston and comprehensive text and notes by the artists’ defence of Spain by raising public con - main author, the book brings together material from a sciousness and funds. range of sources and media featured in the exhibition, Some artists argued for direct action and Felicia including posters, photographs, paintings, drawings and Browne, Julian Bell and Clive Branson fought in the sculptures, to demonstrate the extent to which artists International Brigades. Only Branson survived. engaged with the Spanish Civil War. The cover shows the Browne, at the age of 32, was the first British volun - 1938 painting by John Armstrong, “The Empty Street”. teer killed in battle and in her self-portrait she Priced £24.95, the book can be ordered online from returns our gaze squarely as a woman belligerently [http://pallantbookshop.com]. defiant of social convention.

14 International Brigade Memorial Trust y r a r b i L

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Clive Branson: artist and International Brigader. Poster for the exhibition of Picasso’s “Guernica” at the New Burlington Galleries, London, in October 1938. How Spain’s war inspired politically aware art She became a posthumous communist hero working-class district’s terrace housing, gas - Spanish Relief in 1938, when it made a massive as commemorative exhibitions and publications works and factories. impression on British artists. of her uncompromisingly decisive drawings of Some British surrealists also opposed fascism That exhibition’s catalogue is on show, along Spanish militiamen and women raised money and contributed imaginative masks and cos - with Picasso’s “Weeping Woman” and his satirical for Spain. tumes to the 1938 May Day procession. Finding print “The Dream of Franco” alongside British Other artists argued that creating propaganda and exhibiting two of these props is a real scoop. works influenced by “Guernica”, such as FE was more useful and several rejected easel paint - Yet the meanings of most of their works — such as McWilliam’s “Spanish Head”, with its anguished ing in favour of public arts as more effective tools Stanley Hayter’s – are so elliptical or ambiguous gaping mouth and carnivorous teeth. of socio-political change. that it is not clear that they refer to Spain, nor Also displayed is the recent recreating of “Guer - The exhibition includes the AIA’s modernist indeed even to antimilitarism. nica” as a large banner in Pallant House. It was banner for the British Battalion of the Interna - The enervated forms and distorted figures in stitched by a collective including political tional Brigades created by James Lucas, Phyllis his “Paysage Anthropophage” (1937) could refugees, anti-fascists and the Palestine Solidar - Ladyman and Betty Rea, James Boswell’s illustra - equally refer to personal or psychological ity Campaign to express the continuing need to tions for Left Review and Felicity Ashbee’s posters. anguish or to conflicts between unspecified protest against war and political oppression. The latter’s emotive portrayals of desperate war victims combine accessible figurative drawing ogether with its catalogue, this informative with expressionist exaggeration such as enlarged “This exhibition will and well-researched exhibition of art, docu - pleading eyes and skeletal hands. The London Tmentation and rare memorabilia makes a County Council provided 22 large hoardings hopefully galvanise a valuable contribution to knowledge about 1930s which AIA artists painted in public, so raising British politically aware art. media and public awareness for Aid for Spain as new generation to It rather overemphasises surrealists and mod - they worked. ernists but it refrains from taking the all-too-com - create politically mon patronising attitude to artists with commu - ther artists conveyed their beliefs through nist and socialist convictions. It will hopefully gal - traditional means. Henry Rayner’s power - committed art.” vanise a new generation to create politically com - Oful print “There is No Shelter” chillingly mitted art. reveals the mercilessness of aerial bombing. Of humans or animals. In the 1930s, when aca - the several figures huddling for safety under a demic art still dominated, their adherence to Christine Lindey is an associate lecturer in the Department of giant umbrella, the one holding it up turns out to abstracted or imaginary motifs was largely History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London. She is be death personified as a skeleton. incomprehensible to most people. currently writing a book on British socialist art of the 1940s Branson’s socialist-realist paintings stemmed Picasso also used modernist distortions in his and 50s. This review first appeared in the Morning Star on from his communist desire to reach a wide audi - “Guernica” canvas of 1937 but the motifs, such 25 November 2014. ence. His “Demonstration in Battersea” (1939) as the distraught woman running while carrying [see back cover picture] celebrates collective her dead child and the bull as symbol of Spain, See more information about the “Conscience and Conflict: action as demonstrators set off with communist make the painting’s meaning clear. It toured British Artists and the Spanish Civil War” exhibition in Chich - and Republican flags and banners amid the Britain with related works to raise funds for ester and Newcastle upon Tyne on page 26.

International Brigade Memorial Trust 15 Not an IBMT member? EXTRAS Join now and help keep alive the memory and Words of the spirit of the volunteers volunteers

Complete the form below and send subscriptions and any donations to : IBMT Membership Secretary, 2 Woodford Close, Radyr Way, Cardiff CF5 2PH resonate in For a Direct Debit form or for any other membership or subscription queries tel: 029 2019 5412; email: [email protected] Belfast

By Nancy Wallach Membership application form he voices of British and Irish volunteers Full name Charlie Donnelly, Bob Doyle, John Corn - Up to three additional names (for family membership)* Tford, Jim Haughey and others, and that of Dolores Ibárruri’ (La Pasionaria), were heard again at the Shankill Road Library in Belfast on 8 August. Moving readings of their poetry and Address memoirs were delivered by Marlene Sideway, IBMT President and actor, Dr Sinead Morrissey, Belfast’s first poet laureate, and Dawn Purvis, Postcode former Northern Ireland assembly member and a women’s rights activist, presently director of Email** Telephone* the Marie Stopes clinic in Belfast. The event was organised by Lynda and Ernest Membership category and annual subscription rate (please tick as appropriate): Walker, of the Belfast-based International K Free – International Brigade veterans and partners and widow/ers Brigade Commemorative Committee (IBCC), K £25 – Family (single household) and their vast library served as a resource for K £20 – Individual many of the selected works. It was one of a var - K £12.50 – Unwaged ied programme of events that took place during K Institutions – contact Membership Secretary (see above) for rates August’s month-long Feile an Phobail Irish cul - tural festival. The Shankill Road Library was a Donation of £______enclosed* most fitting venue, as it is the setting for the Signature Date latest plaque installed by the IBCC commemo - * Optional / If applicable rating six brigadistas from the Shankill Road neighbourhood. ** Members who provide an email address will receive our news service emails. John Gray, retired director of the Linen Library, Make cheques payable to International Brigade Memorial Trust. began the programme by posing the question: “Why has so much poetry been written about NB: Please note that different annual subscription rates apply to overseas (non-UK) the Spanish anti-fascist war?” He set the read - members. These reflect the higher postage costs of mailing the IBMT Newsletter . They are: ings to follow in context by characterising the GFamily (single household): £30 / $48 / 37 writing of poetry as “a movement of the pas - GIndividual: £25 / $40 / 30 € sionate conscience”. GUnwaged: £17 / $27 / €22 The overflow crowd at the library, most if not all € of whom had not yet been born in 1936, were nonetheless able to draw inspiration from the long-ago voices of these anti-fascist heroes, Gift Aid declaration thanks to the moving presentations. Please complete if you are a UK taxpayer: No mention I wish this and all subsequent payments to the International Brigade Memorial Trust to While the present regional Spanish govern - be treated as Gift Aid donations. ment makes no mention of the International Name Brigade concentration camp at the now restored monastery at San Pedro de Cardeña – even Signature Date removing a commemorative plaque installed by a Burgos anti fascist committee in 1998 – the audi - ence in Belfast heard first-hand accounts of the horrific conditions, taken from the memoirs of Keeping alive the memory and spirit of the men and women Bob Doyle and Jim Haughey. who volunteered to defend democracy and fight fascism in Dawn Purvis read from the former’s Spain from 1936 to 1939 “Brigadista” memoir and the latter’s “Lion of Lurgan”, both of which related how the prisoners ameliorated their own conditions through the International Brigade Memorial Trust same solidarity and internationalism that they www.international-brigades.org.uk Charity no: 1094928 International Brigade Memorial Trust EXTRAS y

r personnel internationally this has awarded the White Cross of Mili - a r b

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i the Catalan orthopaedic surgeon r o There were doctors on Josep Trueta fled Spain after the m e M

Franco’s side too war he went to Oxford where he x r

a Incidentally, on re-reading much of became Professor of Orthopaedics M the information about medical and a colleague of Macintosh! services in Spain, especially about those in the International Memorial for Ray Cox that Brigades, it appears to be gener - helped save lives ally accepted that no British doc - Whilst investigating the above Dr Tudor Hart and Thora tors aided the Nationalist side. I found an interesting article in the Silverthorne with the Actually this is not true. Although European Journal Of Anaesthesiol - Republican medical there was overwhelming medical ogy (February 2014, volume 31, services in Spain. support given to the Republican issue 2, pages 65-67). Not only cause, two influential British doc - does it provide further information tors and one Irish-born surgeon about Macintosh and Boston in Medical notes volunteered to help Franco. Spain but it mentions an unusual Nicholas Coni writes in consider - memorial to the death of a British By Dr Freddy Shaw strate with him and he rather rue - able detail about the New International Brigader –Ray Cox, a fully admitted that he knew little Zealand-born Professor, later Sir, lad from Southampton who died Don’t overlook innovations about medical services in the Robert Macintosh, first European heroically at Boadilla del Monte in made in the civil war Spanish Civil War apart from know - Professor of Anaesthetics at December 1936 (see “Unlikely I recently completed a course in the ing about Josep Trueta, the great Oxford. He went to Spain in late Warriors”, page 113). History of Medicine at the Society Spanish Republican Orthopaedic 1937 and helped establish mod - Southampton’s Trades Council, of Apothecaries. The penultimate surgeon. ern anaesthetic techniques Labour Party and Co-operative session was on Medicine in War - He asked for information and ref - including endotracheal intubation Society decided to commemorate fare. This was presented by Profes - erences and I told him about the in the Nationalist sector. his death by purchasing an sor Jim Ryan, an eminent expert on main works on the topic in English: His colleague Kenneth Boston, anaesthetic machine. Eventually the subject, being the first Leonard “Medicine and Warfare, Spain also from Oxford, followed him in June 1937 a Boyle’s Nitrous Cheshire Professor in Conflict 1936-1939” by Nicholas Coni after Macintosh returned to Oxford. Oxide, Oxygen, Ether Apparatus Recovery, University College Lon - (2008), “¡Salud! British Volunteers Hospital Set was purchased and don, and is now International Pro - in the Republican Medical Service sent to the International Hospital fessor of Surgery, United Services during the Spanish Civil War, 1936- at Onteniente. University, Maryland, USA, and 1939” by Linda Palfreeman (2012) A plaque was affixed to it stating Emeritus Professor at the Centre and “Unlikely Warriors: The British that it was the Ray Cox Memorial. for Trauma, Conflict & Catastrophe, in the Spanish Civil War and the It was used and no doubt helped St George’s, University of London. Struggle Against Fascism” by Future colleagues on opposing sides: to save lives. There is no knowl - When he came to the 20th century, Richard Baxell (2012). Robert Macintosh (left) and Josep Trueta. edge as to what became of it. however, in his detailed exposition Subsequently Professor Ryan The Irish-born but American- Fuller information can be found at he failed to mention the Spanish emailed me to say that in all future trained Professor Joseph Eastman the Modern Records Centre at Civil War at all, jumping from the lectures he would include the med - Sheehan specialised in plastic and Warwick University in the digi - First to the Second World War and ical services and innovations in the reconstructive surgery and was talised collection “Trabajadores: subsequent conflicts. Spanish Civil War. As he lectures to instrumental in persuading Macin - The Spanish Civil War through the I took the opportunity to remon - many doctors and other medical tosh to go to Spain. Macintosh was eyes of organised labour”.

had exhibited on the battlefields of Spain. artist Robert Motherwell termed “the most mov - tionalism he shared with the International Dr Sinead Morrissey read the prophetic words ing political event of the time”. Brigades made him an artist who belonged to the of John Cornford, the great grandson of Charles I focused on three artists whose lives spanned peoples of all the 52 countries who went to Spain. Darwin, who wrote “We are the future” in his three centuries. I began with Paul Robeson, born This was equally true of Pete Seeger, the next account of front-line battle in his poem “Full Moon in 1898, who called his visit to the front in Spain artist to whom we all paid tribute and honoured at Tierz: Before the Storming of Huesca”. “the turning point of my life”. The spirit of interna - that afternoon. I concluded with the words of John Listening to their words, learning of their indi - Sayles, a filmmaker still working into this quarter vidual histories, and in some instances personal Dawn Purvis reads from of the 21st century, sharing the speech he deliv - connections to the IBMT members whom I’d met Bob Doyle’s memoir, ered at the 1985 veterans’ reunion: “What about at past commemorations both in Spain and in Ire - “Brigadista: An Irishman’s the guys in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade?” Fight Against Franco”. land, brought home the international character of That stirring address, in which Sayles related the Brigaders and the internationalism that moti - how the heroism of the Brigades helped him to vated them. counter the cynics of his day, underscored the I was asked to speak about the Americans in value of programmes such as the IBCC’s “In Their the arts who supported the Spanish Republic and Own Words”, which let the voices and deeds of the International Brigades. Selecting a few to the volunteers continue to ring out loud and clear. introduce to the Irish audience was a difficult task, as so many generations of writers, artists Nancy Wallach is a board member of the Abraham Lincoln and musicians had responded to what the visual Brigade Archives and daughter of US volunteer Hy Wallach.

International Brigade Memorial Trust 17 LETTERS Now I realise what these men were prepared to sacrifice Joaquim “Ximo” Wilson amongst the hills. But as soon as I landmarks on the hilltops. The to sangría and some food by the (left) is a 16-year-old met Brunete historian Ernesto large houses we could see were the AABI. Soon afterwards I had to turn Spaniard who took part Viñas and Almudena Cros from the Republican headquarters during back with Brian and Sarah Walsh in last year’s Brunete AABI, I knew this was going to be a the battle. He also explained that and my mother, instead of continu - Memorial March. very interesting walk. Here were the track we were now walking ing to the dam where the walk offi - Organised by the Madrid- two people who were passionate along had until very recently been cially ended. based AABI International about the International Brigades closed to walkers and hikers as it Altogether, the walk took around Brigades friendship group, the annual and Spanish Civil War history. ran through private property. But three hours. The weather was event commemorates the Battle of Brunete We set off (closely followed by they had managed to open the extremely hot and dry. As the Battle in July 1937. This year it is being held on Protección Civil officers, for some road to visitors again after long of Brunete had taken place during 30 June. Ximo lives in Calpe on the reason), soon to reach a place negotiations with the local council. July, we had a glimpse of what Mediterranean coast, but took part in the where, in the hills below, Ernesto After this, we walked up to a big these men had had to endure. Brunete event 15 miles west of Madrid via a pointed out, Brian Walsh’s uncle house where the Republican HQ All in all, I left the walk that day friend related to the family of Samuel would have been before the battle. had been located, and Ernesto with an immense feeling of humility Walsh, one of the nearly 70 British Battalion I tried to sense how these men explained how the place would and respect. This walk has inspired members killed in the fighting. This is would have felt, sitting in those have worked and gave details of an interest in me about the Spanish Ximo’s description of the event… bushes, open to any kind of attack important dates. Then we contin - Civil War, and led me to contact a from all sides. I began to realise ued our walk towards a good van - nearby member of the AABI who is efore arriving at the train sta - what these men were prepared to tage point with great views of the going to show me all the points of Btion in Torrelodones, where we sacrifice for a free Spain. battlefield. Here, Ernesto told us interest in my nearby town of were to meet all the people going Next, we walked to the start of a about all the different stages in the Benissa. on the march, I was expecting a dirt track, where Ernesto stopped battle and why the Republicans Ximo Wilson somewhat uneventful stroll and told us to look around us at the ultimately lost it. We were treated By email

CAN YOU HELP? Geoffrey Norton Marshall Americas, 1940–1945” by William Samuel See Kevin Buyers ’s excellent website: (http:// Geoff Marshall is carrying Stephenson, Roald Dahl, Tom Hill and Gilbert internationalbrigadesinspain.weebly.com) out research into his grand - Highet, which was published in 1998. father, Geoffrey Norton Mar - Contact grandson Geoff Marshall if you have John Londragan shall (pictured right), who any more information: [[email protected]]. John Londragon served in the Spanish in Spain in 1937 Republican Navy. Aberdonians on their return home and later in life. According to the IBMT’s Kevin Buyers is trying to identify everyone in this records, Marshall had been a photo (below) of Aberdeen members of the British lieutenant on a Royal Naval Battalion on their return home. The cutting is from destroyer at the Battle of Jut - the Daily Worker dated 17 December 1938 and land. In the early 1930s he was sourced from the Working Class Movement Nina Cunnington is collecting information, anec - worked as a Communist Library in Salford. So far he has identified John Lon - dotes, recollections or photos of her grandfather, Party and union organiser in the US before being dragan (back row, first on right), William Dunbar Aberdeen International Brigader John Londragan. arrested and deported back to Britain. (middle row, first on right) and Bob Cooney (front There are plans to unveil a plaque to him when the The family believes that Marshall was living near row, third from left). The paper names others in the IBMT holds its Annual General Meeting in Foix in southern France when the Spanish Civil War group: David Anderson, Walter Bruce, Alf Christie, Aberdeen on the weekend of 16-18 October. began. He arrived in Spain in December 1936 and Robert Cooper, Charles Downie, Alexander Reid, If you can help, contact Nina on [purple_thistle captained the Spanish Republican destroyer Robert Simpson, John Watson and Charles Watt. @live.co.uk]. Alcalá Galiano . The family also understands that If you can help, contact Kevin by email: he served on the José Luis Díez , which on one occa - [[email protected]] or phone: 07719 220 Amnesty International poster about Spain sion put into Falmouth for repairs. He returned 877. He hopes to produce a pamphlet about the Amnesty International UK has asked us for help in home in late 1938. Aberdeen volunteers for the IBMT’s Annual Gen - tracking down a poster that AIUK published in From records at the National Archives, early in eral Meeting in the city in October this year. 1970 to try to dissuade tourists from visiting the Second World War he was, along with his Franco’s Spain. The poster depicted the faces of daughter Julie, a member of Special Operations Spanish political prisoners against a backdrop of Executive in France. Back in London, he contin - sand and blue sky and appeared on hoardings ued his work in the Communist Party of Great near major airports. Searches in AIUK’s archives in Britain and later served in New York with British London, Warwick and Amsterdam have failed to intelligence’s British Security Coordination, find the poster. Does anyone have a copy or image which spied on enemy agents in the US. This is of the poster, or know where one can be located? If documented in “British Security Coordination: so, contact [secretary@international-brigades. The Secret History of British Intelligence in the org.uk].

18 International Brigade Memorial Trust Jimmy Moon (right) in Bishop’s Park, Fulham, in 1997 and (above) the memorial stone with his name added on the bottom left. Pictured right is an extract from his journal containing part of what later became the poem “Cloud - less Day in Spain”. Jimmy Moon remembered: in his verse and in stone ’m familiar with an earlier printing of the poem Bishop’s Park, on 30 August 1997. Only 36 German-born photographer to prove that the pho - I“Cloudless Day in Spain” by Jimmy Moon (see names were engraved on the stone and Jimmy’s tos of the event, most famously taken by Robert issue 2-14) under the title “Thirty bleeding wasn’t one of them – although he was born on Capa, but also by others including Herbert South - years”, as a copy of it was pasted by Jimmy him - 25 February 1916 at 7 Radipole Road, Fulham. worth, which had always been known but which self into a journal started by his father Thomas Contemporary newspaper reports usually had never been satisfactorily located on the map, Moon on 18 September 1938 and later used by referred to him as being from Reading, which is must have been taken at this precise location. Jimmy as an autograph/cuttings book that he also correct, and this is probably why he was The article concludes: “We have presented took to all the International Brigade Association overlooked by Hammersmith and Fulham. Once enough evidence to prove that the International events he attended. the oversight was brought to the council’s atten - Brigade farewell events took place at what is now Judging from its position in the journal, it was tion, agreement was reached that his name the outdoor education centre of Les Masies stuck in at some time between February 1980 should be added to the memorial. It was carved within the town boundaries of Espluga de Fran - and February 1981 and may well have been in the bottom left corner of the stone along with coli and about 800 metres away from Poblet added at one or other of the Jarama reunions of two other additional names. Monastery.” those years. From the image of the pages in Sadly, Jimmy never did get to see his name on I live locally with my Catalan wife and we are question you can see that the poem and pream - the memorial as he died shortly beforehand. very friendly with the headteacher of the outdoor ble have been separated to make them fit. Cliff Kirkpatrick education centre that currently occupies the The Marx Memorial Library has an identical By email buildings surrounding the courtyard where the copy as well but their copy (Box A-12/Mo/2) parade took place. I have at times helped them hasn’t been cut in two. As is clear from the pre - There was another farewell parade with translations of articles in English or with amble, the poem was originally written in July have very recently started to read your website, French translations when they have received vis - 1966 and this extract from the unpublished Iand I notice that, whilst there is reference to the its from French groups akin to the IBMT. poem appeared in print (where?) in 1972. farewell parade of the International Brigades The plaque reads: The International Brigades Whether the version penned in 1966 was the along the Diagonal in Barcelona on 28 October were bidden farewell on 25 October 1938 at this same as the considerably longer poem “Cloud - 1938, which was addressed by Dolores Ibárruri location. In memory of the young people who less Day in Spain” given to Martin Cantor is amongst others, a previous parade, held at died defending democratic values. Espluga de unknown. Masies de Poblet (Tarragona) three days earlier Francoli Town Council, 25 October 2003. Incidentally Jimmy died in May 1998 in on 25 October seems not to be commented on. Sadly, apart from the plaque, there is no Gravesend. His health had not been good for a A commemorative plaque marks the exact other sign of the historical importance while but he did attend the unveiling of the location. A recent article by Professor Andreu of the location. memorial honouring the volunteers from Ham - Mayayo of Barcelona University in the local maga - Jim Scott mersmith and Fulham in the Peace Garden, zine El Foradot builds on the investigations of a By email a í

A plaque in Espluga de f o S Francoli commemorates a n i

the farewell parade held e R

on 25 October 1938, e t r A three days before the e d one in Barcelona. Robert o r t

Capa’s famous photo of n e C

a saluting International l a n

Brigader was taken at o i c

this earlier event. a N

o e s u M

International Brigade Memorial Trust 19 BOOKS

From previous page accompanied by a cheque payable to “Marx Memorial ‘Town and gown’ Books for sale Library”. Add £2.50 to the listed price to cover postage London’s Marx Memorial Library is the home of the costs, plus £1.50 for each additional item. Stocks are International Brigade Memorial Archive and holds a limited and orders will be dealt with on a “first come” united in the large number of books, pamphlets, periodicals and basis. Send orders with name and address to: Marx documents relating to the Spanish Civil War. Over the Memorial Library, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R cause of Spain years it has accumulated many duplicate copies of 0DU. Cheques will be returned if orders cannot be met. books and is now offering these for sale to IBMT mem - bers in order to raise funds necessary for improving the PB paperback; HB hard back; condition VG (very good) “No Other Way: Oxfordsh ire cataloguing and maintenance of the archive. G (good) R (reasonable); ed = edition; * indicates more and the Spanish Civil War Here is the first part of the list. All orders should be than one copy is available for sale. 1936-39” by Chris Farman, Valery Rose and Liz Woolley (Oxford International Bill Alexander, John Gorman & Colin Foreign Languages Publishing House G“The Triumph of Democracy in Spain” Brigade Memorial Williams Moscow (1938) HB R £15 Routledge (1996 ed) PB VG £2 Committee: Oxford, 2015) G “Memorials of the Spanish Civil War” G “En La Lucha: Palabras y Hechos G “The Politics of Revenge: Fascism and Alan Sutton Publishing (1996) HB VG* 1936-1939” Editorial Progreso (1968) the Military in 20th Century Spain” £5 (special price for IBMT £12 HB G £5 Routledge (1995) PB G* £2 members) Ronald Fraser G “El Único Camino” Éditons Sociales G “Doves of War: Four Women of Spain” G “Blood of Spain: The Experience of Paris (1962) PB G £3 Harper Collins (2002) HB VG £6 Reviewed by Richard Baxell Civil War” Penguin (1981 ed) PB R* £2 G “Dolores Vive” Mundo Obrero (1989) G “A Concise History of the Spanish G “Blood of Spain: The Experience of PB VG £5 Civil War” Fontana (1996) PB VG £2 Civil War” Allen Lane (1979) HB VG £6 Imperial War Museum G “The Coming of the Spanish Civil War: hen Paul Preston was promoting “The Span - Jim Fyrth with Sally Alexander G “Catalogue of Oral History Record - Reform, Reaction and Revolution in the Wish Holocaust”, his exhaustive account of G “Women’s Voices from the Spanish ings: The Spanish Civil War Collection” Second Republic” Methuen (1983 ed) the appalling atrocities committed during the Civil War” Lawrence & Wishart (1991) (1996) PB VG £5 PB VG £2 Spanish Civil War (and after), he pointedly stressed HB VG* £10 G “Dreams and Nightmares” (illus - G “Comrades: Portraits from the Span - Ian Gibson trated exhibition catalogue with intro - ish Civil War” Harper Collins (1999) HB his debt to historians involved in local research. G “The Assassination of Federico Gar - duction by Paul Preston) (2002) PB VG* VG* £6 While he was referring to work conducted within cía Lorca” WH Allen (1979) HB G £6 £5 Paul Preston (editor) Spain, the remark is every bit as relevant to the UK, Walter Gregory Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus G “Revolution and War in Spain 1931- where detailed regional studies of areas such as G “The Shallow Grave: A Memoir of the G “Der Freiheitskampf des Spanischen 1939” Methuen (1984) HB VG £6 Spanish Civil War” Victor Gollancz Volkes und die Internationale Solidar - G “Revolution and War in Spain 1931- Reading, Manchester and Tyneside have played (1986) HB VG £6 ität 1936-1939. Dokumente und Bilder” 1939” Methuen (1984, 1985 ed) PB VG an important part in helping piece together a wider Carmel Haden Guest (editor) (Dietz Berlin) 1956 HB G £5 £2 picture of Britain’s role in the conflict. G “David Guest: A Scientist Fights for Angela Jackson G “Revolution and War in Spain 1931- This latest addition to the literature, “No Other Freedom. A Memoir” Lawrence & G “At the Margins of Mayhem: Prologue 1939” Routledge (1985 ed) PB VG £2 Way” (the title, of course, taken from C Day Lewis’s Wishart (1939) PB R* £15 and Epilogue to the Last Great Battle of Hugh Purcell with Phyll Smith Stanley Harrison the Spanish Civil War” Warren & Pell G “The Last English Revolutionary: Tom famous 1938 poem, “The Volunteer”), unearths G “Good to be Alive: The Story of Jack (2008) PB VG* £10 Wintringham 1898-1949” Sussex Aca - Oxford’s role, examining the efforts both of “town Brent” Lawrence & Wishart (1954) HB G “British Women and the Spanish demic Press (2012) PB VG £6 and gown” in support of the Spanish Republic, G* £12 Civil War” Routledge (2002) HB VG £20 William Rust efforts that apparently united the two different Stephen M Hart (editor) Gabriel Jackson G “Britons in Spain” Lawrence & G “No Pasarán! Art, Literature and the G “A Concise History of the Spanish Wishart (1939) HB G* £8 worlds in a manner never seen before, or since. Spanish Civil War” Tamesis Books Civil War” Thames and Hudson (1980) G “Britons in Spain: A History of the This new study of Oxfordshire is to be wel - (1988) PB VG £20 PB G £2 British Battalion of the XVth comed, not least the account of the role of Oxford Ernest Hemingway Frank Jellinek International Brigade” Warren & Pell University itself. Sam Lesser, veteran of the Inter - G “The Spanish War” Fact (1938) PB R G “The Civil War in Spain” Left Book (2003) HB VG £10 £20 Club Gollancz (1938) HB R £10 Herbert R Southworth G “For Whom the Bell Tolls” Penguin Jack Jones G “Conspiracy and the Spanish Civil Copies of “No Other Way” can be ordered direct (1974 ed) PB R £5 G “Union Man: an autobiography” War - War: The Brainwashing of Francisco from the IBMT for £8 (including p&p). Send a Chris Henry ren & Pell (2008) PB VG* £5 Franco” Routledge (2002) HB VG £20 cheque made out to “IBMT” to: IBMT, 6 Stonells G “The Ebro 1938: Death Knell of the Jim Jump (editor) Philip Toynbee (editor) Road, London SW11 6HQ, giving name and Republic” Osprey Military (1999) PB VG G “Poems from Spain: British and Irish G “The Distant Drum: Reflections on £8 International Brigaders on the Spanish the Spanish Civil War” Sidgwick & Jack - address. For overseas or bulk orders contact the George Hills Civil War” Lawrence & Wishart (2006) son (1976) HB VG £6 IBMT Secretary (see page 10) for rates. G “The Battle for Madrid” Vantage HB VG £10 George Wheeler Books/St Martin’s Press (1977) HB G £8 Felix Morrow G “To Make the People Smile Again: A national Brigades and former IBMT Chair, once Victor Hoar G “Revolution & Counter-Revolution in memoir of the Spanish Civil War” confessed to me his concern that an understand - G “The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion” Spain” Pathfinder Press (1974 ed) PB G Zymurgy Publishing (2003) PB VG £6 Copp Clark Publishing (1969) PB G £12 £6 Alun Menai Williams able tendency to debunk what fellow veteran Bill Harold Ho rne G “Revolution & Counter-Revolution in G “From the Rhondda to the Ebro” War - Alexander, who was Secretary of the Interna - G “All the Trees were Bread and Spain” New Park Publications (1976 ren & Pell (2004) HB VG £8 tional Brigade Association, once described as the Cheese” Owen Hardisty (1998} PB VG ed) PB G £6 Howard Williamson “vague notion that everyone in the Brigades was £8 Steve Nelson G “Toolmaking and Politics: Life of Ted Gerald Howson G “The Volunteers: a personal narrative Smallbone –an Oral History” Linden a poet or writer” could lead to the role of artists, G “Arms for Spain: The Untold Story of of the fight against fascism in Spain” Books (1987) PB VG £10 writers and other intellectuals being down - the Spanish Civil War” John Murray Masses & Mainstream (1953) PB G £5 Tom Wintringham played, or even overlooked. I suspect that this (1998) HB VG* £10 Michael O’Riordan G “English Captain” Faber and Faber book (together with other recent publications Dolores Ibárruri G “Connolly Column: The Story of the (1939) HB VG+R* £25+ £12 and exhibitions) will go some way towards G “They Shall Not Pass: La Pasionaria Irishmen Who Fought for the Spanish TC Worsley Autobiography” Lawrence & Wishart Republic 1936-1939” New Books Publi - G “Fellow Travellers: a memoir of the assuaging his worries. (1966) HB G £ 6 cations (2005 ed) PB VG* £12 30s” London Magazine Editions (1971) “No Other Way” begins with a prologue by G “They Shall Not Pass: La Pasionaria Paul Preston HB VG* £4 Oxford professor Tom Buchanan and an introduc - G Autobiography” International Publish - “The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Charles d’Ydewalle tion by Chris Farman, which helpfully sets out the ers (1966) HB G £6 Revolution and Revenge” Harper G “An Interlude in Spain” Macmillan G “Speeches and Articles 1936-1938” (1986, 2006 ed) PB VG* £2 Readers Union (1946) HB R* £5 wider context. This leads on to what, for me, is the most interesting and central part of the 124-page

20 International Brigade Memorial Trust e Santiago Carrillo’s life. More than all this, the g BEFORE THE BATTLE: e l l themes that Professor Preston has doggedly pur - o Ruskin College’s class of C n i 1935 included two stu - sued through his career find rich expression in k s

u dents who went on to join this study of Carrillo: the puncturing of myths that R the International Brigades characterises the scholar’s study of Franco is on in Spain: former South full display; so too is the quest we saw in the Wales miner Jim Brewer author’s “The Spanish Holocaust” to reveal the (top row, second from left) sordid reality behind myths, lies and denials. and Bradford-born Kath - leen McColgan (top row, Preston unmasks a loathsome figure pos - fourth from right), who sessed of a “poisonous cocktail of vaulting ambi - travelled to Spain with the tion, supreme self-confidence and irresponsibil - London University Ambu - ity”. Certainly, through his life and career Carrillo lance Unit. They were two betrayed those closest to him. The son of the of the 31 volunteers with socialist leader Wenceslao Carrillo and the “spoilt Oxfordshire links who favourite” of Francisco Largo Caballero, the boss took part in the Spanish of the socialist union, the UGT, Carrillo would turn Civil War and whose lives on both of them. feature in “No Other Way”. Largo Caballero he left in tears by manoeuvring book: Valery Rose and Liz Woolley’s account of the stances. That criticism aside, I found “No Other the socialist youth movement into the hands of personal involvement of the people of the univer - Way” to be clearly and engagingly written and it the Spanish Communist Party (PCE). At the end of sity and its town and wider community. In addition showcases what can be achieved with careful and the civil war, Carrillo betrayed a father who had to the Oxfordshire men and women who volun - thorough research. The book provides a useful endangered his son’s position within the PCE by teered to go to Spain, the book shows how resi - template for other local studies; the hosts of the joining an anti-communist revolt in Madrid in dents were actively involved in campaigns on 2015 AGM in Aberdeen have a tough act to follow. March 1939. In a carefully drafted denunciation behalf of the Spanish Republic and in the creation he dismissed his father with the words that and support for local colonies of Basque children. Richard Baxell is the author of “Unlikely Warriors: The British between “a communist and a traitor there can be The authors illustrate the influence of European in the Spanish Civil War” (Aurum Press: London, 2012). no relations of any kind”. political refugees in the university and the key Stories also circulated that he had his first wife role played by the semi-autonomous Ruskin Col - murdered for fear she would give away some of lege, site of last year’s IBMT Annual General Meet - Treachery his secrets. Preston claims that among others ing. And though the section rightly concentrates Jorge Semprún, an important communist leader on the support for the Spanish Republic, the and ambition in the 1950s and 1960s, believed the story. authors do not shy away from unpalatable truths, “The Last Stalinist: The Violence also lay at the heart of Carrillo’s rise to pointing out that, just as elsewhere, there were a Life of Santiago Carrillo” the top in the party and he required “sacrificial vic - number in Oxford praying for a Franco victory. by Paul Preston (London: tims” both to satisfy his ambition and to fashion The second major section of the book is a col - Harper Collins, 2014) £30 changes in the Stalinist line at opportune lection of biographies of the 31 Oxfordshire volun - moments. We see this when he labelled his party teers. This is a considerable achievement, man - Reviewed by Peter Anderson rivals Jesús Monzón and Gabriel León Trilla, who aging to pull together material from myriad were organising resistance inside Spain after the sources. Like the previous sections, and the sub - here is no better historian than Paul Preston to civil war, as Francoist agents and called for the sequent methodological discussion by Jenny Twrite this biography. Preston’s studies of the elimination of such provocateurs. In 1945, mem - Swanson, it amply demonstrates the attention to Second Republic, the Spanish Civil War and the bers of the Communist Party guerrilla units oper - detail and academic expertise of the authors. transition to democracy after the death of Franco ating in Spain murdered Gabriel León Trilla. Which leads to my one minor quibble: why no give him an unrivalled knowledge of the central The suppression of the truth further marked footnotes? A strange omission, in the circum - moments in Spanish Communist Party leader Continued on page 23

IMAGES: Two posters (left) fea - tured in a new 304-page study* of how the opposing sides in the Spanish Civil War deployed imagery and cultural icons to rally support for their respective war efforts. The 1937 poster (far left) by Juan Parilla, “Help suffering and heroic Madrid”, uses the symbolic representation of the Spanish Republic to unite the var - ious regional cities indicated on the map of Spain. Meanwhile the 1938 Francoist poster by Teodoro Delgado, “Spain was, is and will be immortal”, harking back to Spain’s emergence as an imperial power, incorporates a drawing of Christopher Columbus’s flagship, the Santa María .

* “Visual Propaganda, Exhibitions, and the Spanish Civil War” by Miriam M Basilio (Ashgate Publishing, Farnham: 2013); £70 (hardback).

International Brigade Memorial Trust 21 BOOKS Honouring the Brigaders from Limerick –and a British Battalion commander

IBMT Ireland Secretary MANUS O’RIORDAN examines two new of the Spanish war itself, while the LIBMT’s Ger books about International Brigaders from Limerick. Publication McCloskey profiles the International Brigades in general and the Irish involvement in particular. has coincided with the unveiling of a memorial to the volunteers Both books are well illustrated with photo - in the city. And it has stirred a controversy concerning the execu - graphs, many previously unpublished. Each has tion of one of the Limerick men during the Battle of the Ebro. its own respective strength. The LIBMT’s is also a G wonderful cultural miscellany, with a perceptive “From the Shannon to the Ebro: The Limerick men who went to fight Franco” by review by Pamela Cahill of Limerick writer Kate Jack Bourke and John King (eds); published by Limerick International Brigades O’Brien’s 1937 book “Farewell to Spain”, together Memorial Trust; 2014; 14.99 euros; contact [[email protected]] for orders with poems by García Lorca, Miguel Hernández, G“Fighting for Republican Spain 1936-38: Frank Ryan and the Volunteers from John Liddy, John Cornford and Margot Heine - Limerick in the International Brigades” by Barry McLoughlin; published by author; mann, complemented by a biographical essay 2014; £13.72; available from [www.lulu.com\bookstore] on Heinemann by her daughter Jane Bernal. McLoughlin’s strengths as a historian are evi - he weekend of ish Republican flags. The Sunday morning parade dent in his coverage of the military aspects of the 12-14 September through the city from the Limerick Mechanics’ war, with the reader’s understanding greatly T2014 saw a cele - Institute to the city hall was led by a colour party enhanced by the author’s reproduction of maps in bration of the legacy of from Ireland’s Organisation of National Ex-Ser - respect of each of the military engagements the International vicemen, carrying both the Irish national flag and described. His knowledge of German sources also Brigades in Limerick. It the flag of the Spanish Republic, followed by Inter - provides for a greater understanding of Ger - ranged from a book national Brigade banners of the Connolly Column, many’s view of Ireland’s Second World War neu - launch to a symposium, the British Battalion and the Tom Mann Centuria, trality. He further concludes: “Fearghal McGarry, and from a concert by Limerick International as well as many trade union banners. The memo - an expert on Ireland and the Spanish Civil War and Brigades Memorial Trust (LIBMT) Patron Andy rial was unveiled by Charlotte Ryan Wetton, a on Frank Ryan’s life, writes (in his 2002 biography) Irvine (including his new song in honour of Frank grandniece of Frank Ryan, and a wreath was laid of ‘Ryan’s decision to go to Germany’, and that he Ryan) to the unveiling of a wonderful memorial at by a sister of Joe Ryan. The oration was given by was a collaborator of the Germans. A careful read - Limerick City Hall to the six Limerick International IBMT Patron Jack O’Connor, General President of ing of the sources, I believe, would suggest that Brigade volunteers: Paddy Brady, Gerard Doyle, Ireland’s largest union, SIPTU. such statements are too unequivocal.” Frank Ryan, Joe Ryan, Maurice Emmet Ryan and Historian Barry McLoughlin had originally been Jim Woulfe. working on the LIBMT brochure, but a breakdown ut McLoughlin’s soft comments are them - Attendances of up to 300 people were experi - in his relations with the LIBMT last May resulted in selves too equivocal, avoiding either a criti - enced from start to finish. Premises on the main these two books. In many ways, this has had a Bcal analysis of the selective use of primary and adjoining streets were bedecked with Span - beneficial outcome for those wanting to learn a lot sources by McGarry, or reference to any corre - more about individual International sponding secondary source. One such was my UNVEILING: Charlotte Ryan Wet - Brigaders. Both books bring to life the own point-by-point refutation of McGarry’s selec - ton with LIBMT Vice-Chairman Mike stories of all six Limerick brigadistas , but tive use of sources, posted on the [www. ireland McNamara at the unveiling of the particularly those of three little known scw.com] website for over a decade, and again Limerick memorial on 14 September. before now. LIBMT Secretary Tom Col - restated in my own chapter on Frank Ryan for the lopy tells the story of Joe Ryan, a Decem - LIBMT book. I demonstrated that throughout his ber 1936 volunteer who would be stay in Germany, as in Ireland and Spain previ - wounded in mid-1937 and later lose his ously, Frank Ryan remained a Connolly Socialist; life in August 1941 when his British mer - that the Spanish anti-fascist war never left his chant navy ship was torpedoed by a Ger - thoughts, as evidenced on the very day of his man U-boat. LIBMT Vice-Chairman Mike death in June 1944; and that he was no collabora - McNamara tells the story of Gerard tor, but rather his declared policy and practice was Doyle, already promoted to sergeant one of 100 per cent support for de Valera’s strategy when wounded at Belchite in July 1937, of saving Ireland both from war and fascism. yet back in action by the end of the year McLoughlin explains that his book was a rushed at Teruel, but captured by the Fascists, job, designed to be launched a week ahead of the along with Frank Ryan, at Calaceite in LIBMT commemoration. In the LIBMT book Alan March 1938 and fated to be imprisoned Warren is the author of the profile of the third of in the San Pedro concentration camp the unrelated Ryans among the Limerick brigadis - until released in a prisoner exchange in tas , Maurice Emmett Ryan, while the closing chap - October 1938. IBMT Trustee Danny ter of McLoughlin’s book is entitled “The Killing of Payne profiles the Liverpool-based but Maurice Emmett Ryan”. Limerick-born Paddy Brady who fought McLoughlin admits he has no new information both at Jarama and Brunete, where he to add on that death. The fact that Ryan was exe - was wounded. IBMT Trustee and histo - cuted by British Battalion commander Sam Wild rian Richard Baxell provides an overview Continued on page 24

22 International Brigade Memorial Trust Jon Snow: Why Spain’s war remains such a reference point This is the foreword movements standing up against authoritarian The deficit left by the failure of the political written by Channel 4 regimes. establishment to help the Spanish Republic News presenter And, despite the passage of time, the war in was met in part at least by the International JON SNOW to Spain remains a reference point in other ways Brigades. These volunteers from over 50 differ - “Frontline Madrid”, a too. In 1936 the elected Republican government ent countries saw clearly, even if many of their in Spain was cold-shouldered by other democ - myopic governments did not, that totalitarian guide to sites in and racies such as Britain, France and the USA, aggression had to be fought. “Frontline around the Spanish which were intent on appeasing the rising tide of Madrid” now provides an invaluable guide to capital linked to the European fascism. the battlefield sites in and around Madrid Spanish Civil War and the where, alongside ordinary Spaniards, the vol - International Brigades. Calamitous mistake unteers of the IB were prepared to put their We now know (as many did even then) that lives on the line. t is now nearly 80 years since the outbreak of the policy was a calamitous mistake. Yet the In the winter of 1936 Geoffrey Cox, a young Ithe Spanish Civil War, which savaged much of questions of when, where and how to intervene journalist who later went on to become Editor the country between 1936 and 1939. The conflict effectively to reign in authoritarian govern - here at ITN, wrote from Madrid: “Whatever the had dire consequences for many Spaniards but ments or prevent humanitarian catastrophes future brings the defence of Madrid in these its repercussions went far beyond the Iberian are among the most important issues of our days remains, in the face of terrible odds, one Peninsula and marked a watershed in 20th cen - age; in that debate the war in Spain is fre - of the finest chapters in the history of the com - tury European history. It was in Spain that the quently cited as an example of how to deal with mon people of the world.” juggernaut of European fascism in the 1930s met – or how not to deal with – international crises. This book tells their incredible story. its first serious resistance when the elected Republican government fought to prevent a mili - tary takeover led by General Franco. Before 1936 Hitler and Mussolini had muscled their way to victory from Abyssinia to the Rhineland. After Spain the dictators had to face the full force of the Allies who confronted them from 1939 onwards in the Second World War. The struggle for control of Madrid—the sub - ject of this timely and original book—was cen - tral to the resistance of totalitarianism in Spain. For nearly three years ordinary madrileños defended their city against the siege laid by Franco’s troops under the slogan “No pasarán” (they shall not pass). That slogan has remained GUIDE: “Frontline Madrid: Battlefield Tours of the Spanish Civil War” by David Mathieson is published by Signal an inspiration to anti-fascists ever since: I have Books [www.signalbooks.co.uk/2014/04/frontline-madrid]. Priced at £9.99, the 208-page guide is illustrated with seen it repeated time and again when reporting photographs and useful maps, such as this one (above) of the Battle of Jarama. Another bonus is a lively and informa - from Latin America and elsewhere by popular tive chapter titled “A Quick Guide to the International Brigades”.

The life of Santiago Carrillo Inspiration for today’s union members From page 21 Carrillo’s rise to the top of the Communist Party An International After a successful labour movement campaign to and helped turn him into a Spanish national Brigader who secure his release, he returned to Britain in 1940 treasure during the transition to democracy became the head of as one of the last International Brigaders to be after Franco’s death in 1975. the Transport & freed from Franco’s jails. At the heart of his success in the transition lay General Workers’ Injury prevented him resuming work under - a strategy perceived first by the communist Union (TGWU) in ground, so he found employment in a brewery in leader Fernando Claudín: that mass move - Wales is the subject Wrexham. He became active in the TGWU and in ments for change would need to work in coop - of the first in a series 1953 was appointed as the Regional Secretary for eration with economic elites frustrated with of short books on North Wales and in 1970 became the first TGWU discredited Francoist institutions and policies. great men and Wales General Secretary. In 1964, however, Carrillo denounced Claudín’s women in the his - The series of books was launched in October, argument as “Menshevik” and called instead tory of Unite the with Unite saying that the union hopes “these for revolutionary confrontations. Carrillo would Union and its predecessor unions. histories will provide fascinating reading and later hide this, arguing that Claudín had simply Born in Lancashire to Welsh parents, Tom Jones inspire the current and future generations of grown tired of political life and engineered his took part in the miners’ strike and General Strike trade unionists to take up the struggle on behalf own expulsion. The reality is, however, that Car - of 1926 while at the Hafod Colliery in North Wales. of working people”. rillo drew on every trick he could muster to Barely 10 years later he travelled to Spain to join ensure Claudín’s ousting from the Party. the fight against fascism. Captured in September The 44-page book can be downloaded here: [www. 1938 in the Battle of the Ebro, he survived being unitetheunion.org/uploaded/documents/Tom%20 Peter Anderson teaches 20th century history at the executed, a death sentence and years in prison. Jones%20booklet11-19899.pdf]. University of Leeds.

International Brigade Memorial Trust 23 BOOKS

taken, between Maurice Ryan and Gordon Ben - nett, when a failure to clear the gun chamber of Limerick Brigaders bullets resulted in the accidental but fatal wound - From page 22 ing of a Spanish Republican soldier and a refusal for firing on his own side has been in the public by the incensed Spaniards to allow any British domain since the 1986 publication by Ian Battalion presence at his funeral. McDougall of “Voices from the Spanish Civil War: Both Warren and McLoughlin state that it is not Personal Recollections of Scottish Volunteers in clear whose gun went off. There is, however, a bal - Republican Spain 1936-39”. Prior to that, Interna - ance of probability. Warren’s account displays a tional Brigade veterans had avoided all mention of photograph of Ryan operating his machine-gun at that execution, including two of Ryan’s fellow Irish the fiesta, but omits to complement it with the brigadistas on the Ebro front, Michael O’Riordan second photo that had accompanied it in Jack - in “Connolly Column” (1979) and Eugene Down - son’s book, of the self same Ryan attending to the ing in “La Niña Bonita agus an Róisín Dubh” dying Spanish Republican. While Ryan was (1986). But in a 2002 interview posted on the ire - undoubtedly upset by the death that resulted landscw website Downing finally did so, while from such irresponsible and drunken mismanage - O’Riordan republished that Downing interview in ment of a machine-gun, it is regrettable that its full in the second edition of “Connolly Column” in fatal consequences did not now have a sobering 2005. McLoughlin, however, complains that Scot - effect on him; quite the contrary, to such an extent tish brigadista John Dunlop’s “version of the that McLoughlin would have us believe that Ryan cause of Ryan’s final and fatal arrest has been was incapable of firing even a single bullet in that accepted by historians” and, while having end-July unsuccessful assault on Hill 481, with so absolutely no additional evidence whatsoever to many British Battalion dead and O’Riordan and present, nonetheless proceeds to present a new, ILLUSTRATION: Maurice Ryan and machine-gun, pic - Downing among those wounded. sensationalist spin. tured in “At the Margins of Mayhem” by Angela Jackson. McLoughlin argues for “the strong likelihood It is a pity that, in his rush to print, McLoughlin that Ryan was not firing the gun at all but enjoy - also engages in a rush to misjudgement. In his tion has, of course, been made, and was the sub - ing a siesta with a bottle of wine”. But such a pre-launch press release McLoughlin claims: “The ject of a controversy between Alan Warren and “fiesta to siesta” portrayal of Hill 481’s bloody final chapter is the first attempt to describe in myself in July 2008 which was posted both on the battle totally ignores the account in my July 2008 detail one of the most gruesome episodes that Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives digest and the posting of the eyewitness testimony given to me occurred in the British Battalion: the semi-judicial irelandscw website. by John Dunlop himself in Glasgow in October murder of a Limerick volunteer, the machine-gun - Warren related some gossip that Ryan had ner Maurice Emmett Ryan during the Ebro battle in killed Lewis Clive, which I immediately refuted, August 1938.” He further states in his introduc - with evidence of my own father, Michael O’Rior - “I know not of a single tion: “There was a sinister side, specifically ‘get - dan, who was beside Clive when he was shot in member of that battalion ting rid of troublemakers’ (assassination), as the the forehead by Fascist fire, and not by Ryan from case of Sergeant Emmett Ryan demonstrates.” behind. I have never tolerated false accusations who would have ever against Ryan, and in two separate publications in ild accusations of “semi-judicial murder” 2003, both of which were republished by my subscribed to a character should not be made without evidence. father in 2005, I thoroughly rejected any sugges - assassination of Sam Wild as WPaul Preston, a superbly professional tion that he was a Fascist agent. and conscientious historian of the Spanish Civil Warren readily accepted my evidence that Ryan a ‘semi-judicial murdere r’.” War, spent decades scrupulously and painstak - was innocent of Clive’s death, but now appears to ingly weighing up the pros and cons of the foren - be agnostic as to whether or not he was guilty of 2003. In the wake of reporting to Sam Wild that sic evidence in its unculled entirety before arriving any drunken “friendly fire” at all. McLoughlin, he had come under fire from a gun on his own at a definite conclusion on the shared responsibil - however, insists that he was completely innocent. side, Dunlop told me that “when he and others ity of the future Eurocommunist leader Santiago In the process he blackens Sam Wild’s character, subsequently came back to investigate what on Carrillo, together with communist and anarchist accusing him of “semi-judicial murder”. earth lay behind that occurrence, they found a forces, for what Preston describes in his 2014 There is a build-up. His account of the British drunken Maurice Ryan fast asleep beside his biography, “The Last Stalinist: The Life of Santiago Battalion fiesta on 14 July 1938, and “the second machine-gun, together with the spent belt of his Carrillo” [see review on page 21], as the 2,200 to event that throws a negative light on Wild’s leader - erratic, but mercifully off-target, fire.” 2,500 “extra-judicial murders carried out at ship”, draws on the Billy Griffiths narrative repro - Paracuellos” in November 1936. duced in Angela Jackson’s 2008 book “At the Mar - am Wild did not shoot Ryan on the spot, But McLoughlin throws his own allegation gins of Mayhem”. Because “Hooky” Walker, the al though that would not have been an around like confetti, ignoring some of the evi - battalion cook with responsibility for preparing Sunreasonable temptation. Instead, another dence that he himself has presented, while culling the fiesta dinner, “had got into a hopeless alco - five days elapsed, as Wild sought to have Ryan for - more. The prosecutor and chief witness against holic state in the morning” and had to be arrested, mally court-martialled. In the midst of a fight-to- Maurice Ryan would not for a moment have coun - “after the meal Wild returned and subjected the-death battle, this was impractical, and the tenanced his execution merely for being a loud- ‘Hooky’ to an unmerciful beating.” McLoughlin, order came back for Wild to sort it out himself. In mouthed trouble-maker. Quite the contrary; John however, in contrast to Jackson, stops short of his 1999 book, “The Irish and the Spanish Civil Dunlop had very much warmed to Ryan, saying of continuing the Griffiths narrative: “In a few days, War”, Robert Stradling more realistically him: “And yet the man, although he was such a they made up and carried on as if nothing had recounted how hurried consultations among the rogue, was an extremely likeable rogue.” Nor did happened.” But surely Wild’s behaviour that Brigade’s field officers “in effect constituted a Dunlop accuse Ryan of actually killing any fellow evening was also a reaction to the outcome of drum-head court martial” but, as the battle raged brigadista with his “friendly fire”, in which case McLoughlin’s first “negative light” event of the on, “nor could even a firing squad be spared from summary execution without the slightest delay fiesta, the machine-gun competition that took among the men on Hill 481. Thus, Sam W ild and would have been more than justified. That accusa - place, with a considerable amount of drink also his adjutant volunteered to carry out the grim

24 International Brigade Memorial Trust duty.” Downing and O’Riordan were hospitalised at the time, having been wounded in the previous week’s fighting, but Wild asked fellow-Irish brigadista Jim Prendergast to explain to them on Declaiming for the masses their return from Spain both the details and the necessity of what Wild himself undoubtedly By Jim Jump London in 1926, where he worked as a writer regarded as his “grim duty”. and publisher and was the author of several McLoughlin otherwise notes that Sam W ild ack Lindsay’s “Mass popular historical novels. was “arguably the most popular leader in the his - JDeclamations” during “Who Are the English?” marked a decisive tory of the British Battalion”. I know not of a sin - the Spanish Civil War political shift leftwards in his writings. The gle member of that battalion who would have saw groups of actors poem was also consistent with the Communist ever subscribed to a character assassination of recite his poem “On Party’s attempts in the 1930s to popularise the him as a “semi-judicial murderer”. Ryan had not Guard for Spain” at pub - idea of a radical national tradition. Indeed the been executed for any thoughts or words lic meetings in Britain to International Brigades were to take their place uttered, but for his potentially lethal actions. rouse support for the in the party’s pantheon of heroes, alongside, McLoughlin misses the point of the precise words Spanish Republic. They remain a powerful for example, those who took part in the Peas - in th e poem by fellow Ebro brigadista James Jump example of agitprop poetry, of a writer and per - ants’ Revolt, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the recalling his own warm friendship with Ryan: formers combining to deploy their art and tal - Suffragettes. “Though I do not condone what you did… you ents in an emotionally charged political cause. “On Guard for Spain” was first published in were a fine machine-gunner when you were not An anthology of the Australian-born Lind - March 1937, then appeared as a one-penny sleeping off the effects of drunkenness.” say’s poems has now been published*, and it pamphlet and was staged at the Unity Theatre, Ryan had been a courageous brigadista , and includes “On Guard for Spain” along with oth - and subsequently all over the UK to raise McLoughlin rightly pays tribute both to his hero - ers inspired by the Spanish Civil War. Among money for Aid for Spain. It begins thus: ism and his proficiency as a machine-gunner dur - What you shall hear is the tale of the Spanish people. ing the previous winter’s Battle of Teruel. But I PERFORMING: Bristol It is also your own life. know not of a single brigadista who would sub - Unity Players’ Club in a produc - On guard, we cry! scribe to McLoughlin’s contention that Ryan had tion of “On Guard for Spain” It is the pattern of the world to-day… during the Spanish Civil War. not drunkenly fired on his own side on Hill 481. I speak for the Spanish people, Nor, despite appearances, does McLoughlin I speak for the Spanish people to the workers of the know of any. world. Men and women, come out of the numbered cells In fairness to Warren, he at least retains the of harsh privation, mockingly called your homes, integrity of some key remarks by Downing, quot - break through the deadening screen with your ing in full what followed after his conclusion that clenched fists, “vino was his downfall”. McLoughlin, however, unrope the bells that jangle in the steeple of the sky, completely omits any reference to the very next make the least gap of silence in the wall of day sentence, where Downing added, without any and you will hear the guns in Spain. shadow of a doubt over his own considered con - Face here the map of your own fate, and say: clusions: “During the Ebro battle he turned his This suffering shall not be in vain. gun on his own comrades while roaring drunk.” Lindsay joined the Communist Party in the It is a pity that McLoughlin’s book is marred by Second World War, during which time he character assassination, for it otherwise has served first in the Royal Signal Corps and then much to offer, not least in respect of the one Lim - as a film scriptwriter in the Ministry of Informa - erick volunteer killed in action, Jim Woulfe. Previ - tion. He remained a CP member until his death ous histories have said little more than that he in 1990. He continued his prolific literary and was fatally wounded by a grenade at the Battle of them is “Requiem Mass for Englishmen Fallen poetic output in these postwar years. This col - Belchite in August 1937. McLoughlin, as well as in the International Brigade”, which eulogises lection, with helpful introductory and textual David Convery for the LIBMT book, have now Jack Atkinson, Sid Avner, Bill Briskey, TJ Carter, notes by Anne Cranny-Francis of Sydney’s Uni - reproduced the eyewitness account by Woulfe’s John Cornford, Alan Craig, Moishe Davidovich, versity of Technology, is a timely reminder of Canadian comrade-in-arms Peter Nielsen that Tommy Dolan, Ralph Fox, Wilf Jobling, Robert this work, which has now largely been forgot - pinpoints the spot by the church of San Agustín Symes and James Wark. ten, by a once prominent cultural figure on the where he fell. Thanks to both of them I was able to Also in this collection is the poet’s first Mass left in Britain. pay a Connolly Column tribute to Jim Woulfe dur - Declamation, “Who Are the English?”, which ing the IBMT visit to Aragon in October last year. gives its title to the book itself and which was * “Who Are the English?”, published by Smokestack penned in 1936 in response to accusations Books (Middlesbrough, 2014) £9.95 [http:// FLAG: Manus O’Riordan on 19 October outside the that communists were disqualified from smokestack-books.co.uk]. ruined church at Belchite where Jim Woulfe was killed. being able to understand “the nature of the English people”. LINDSAY: Once Though not then a member of the Commu - a prominent fig - nist Party, Lindsay was incensed by this notion ure, now largely forgotten. and his poem, evoking Anabaptists, Luddites, Chartists and other radical movements from English history, was staged as a Mass Decla - mation at the Unity Theatre in London. Born in 1900 in Melbourne, the son of the renowned – and controversial because of his nudes – painter Norman Lindsay, Jack moved to

International Brigade Memorial Trust 25 WHAT’S ON

CHICHESTER until 15 February :“Conscience and Conflict: British Artists and the Spanish Civil REMAKING ‘GUERNICA’ :A textile banner of War” exhibition at Pallant House Gallery, 9 North Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” will be on display at the Pallant, PO19 1TJ; Tues to Sun 10am-5pm (Thurs IBMT’s Len Crome Memorial Conference in Manches - until 8pm and Sun from 11am); see [http:// ter on 7 March (see details below) and one of its cre - pallant.org.uk] for more details; plus these ators, Maude Casey, will give a lunchtime talk about associated events: the project. Until 15 February the banner is on show at G15 January :“Dora versus Picasso”: a the Pallant House Gallery, Chichester (details on left). staged poetic dialogue between Pablo The banner was stitched and embroidered (left) by a Picasso and his muse and mistress Dora Maar collective of artists and activists at workshops in in 1937 by Grace Nicols, with music and Brighton, London, Manchester, Ahmedabad (India) masks, directed by Mark Hewitt; 6pm; £12. and finally Chichester. The project involved individu - G12 February :“Poetry of the Spanish Civil als and groups who said they wanted to use the power War”: a recital introduced by Professor Valen - of art against fascism and war, while making compar - tine Cunningham; 6pm; £12. isons between today and the 1930s and the Spanish G14 February :Special “IBMT Day”, including Civil War. They included Amnesty International, talks by exhibition curator Simon Martin Brighton Anti-Fascists, Gatwick Detainee Visitors (2pm) and historian Richard Baxell (3pm); for Group, Migrant English Project, Palestine Solidarity booking details see box on page 14. Campaign, University of Brighton and Women’s Inter - CHICHESTER until 14 February :IBMT’s national League for Peace and Freedom. “Antifascistas” exhibition at the Novium Picasso painted “Guernica” in response to the Museum, Tower St, PO19 1QH; Mon-Sat 10am- destruction of the Basque town of the same name by 5pm, entry free; [www.thenovium.org]. Hitler’s Condor Legion during Franco’s offensive in OXFORD 12-30 January :“Exile”, an exhibition of northern Spain in April 1937. War correspondent paintings and video by Sonia Boué and Jonathan George Steer’s first-hand account of the atrocity for Moss on the theme of exile and the French intern - The Times in London was syndicated to newspapers ment camps for Spanish Republican refugees; in France and the US. Wolfson College, Linton Rd, OX2 6UD; 10am-7pm, access subject to college commitments; tel: MANCHESTER 7 March :This year’s IBMT Len group; includes boat tour, film screening and 01865 274 100 to check before visiting. Come Memorial Conference is on “Guernica: the talks; accommodation at seamen’s mission from GLASGOW 12 February :Screening of the Ken destruction of a town and the creation of a master - 41-76 euros b&b per night: email [felix.tolle@ Loach film “Land and Freedom” (1995) at the Cen - piece”; speakers: Gijs van Hegsbergen (art histo - seemannsheim-hamburg.de]; contact Reinhardt tre for Contemporary Arts, 350 Sauchiehall St, G2 rian), Nicholas Rankin (biographer of George Silbermann for more event information: 3JD at 7.15pm, followed by a panel discussion Steer), Helen Little (Assistant Curator Modern & [[email protected]]. including Mike Arnott (IBMT Trustee) and Ian Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain) and MADRID 27 June :Annual walk on Brunete battle - Tasker (Scottish TUC); £5 (£4 concessions); Manuel Moreno (President of the Basque Chil - field organised by AABI Spanish International [www.cca-glasgow.com]. dren of 37 Association); chair: Paul Preston; 11am- Brigades friendship group; see [www.brigadas LONDON 19 February :Screening of “War is Beau - 5pm at Manchester Conference Centre, 78 internacionales.org] for more information. tiful” (2014) documentary by Aelwen Wetherby Sackville St, M1 3NJ; see notice on inside front LONDON 4 July :Annual commemoration at the about American ambulance driver James Neu - cover for more information on booking etc. International Brigade memorial, Jubilee Gardens, gass; introduced by Wetherby and chaired by NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE 7 March-7 June :“Con - South Bank, SE1; 1pm-2pm, with a social gather - Professor Paul Preston; 6pm, Cowdray House, science and Conflict: British Artists and the Span - ing afterwards; details to be announced; contact LSE, Portugal St, WC2A 2HT; see [www. ish Civil War” exhibition at the Laing Art Gallery, [[email protected]]. warisbeautifuldocumentary.com] and [www. New Bridge St, NE1 8AG; Tues to Sun 10am-5pm DURHAM 11 July :March with the IBMT banner at lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/ (Sun from 2pm); more details from [www. the annual Durham Miners Gala; volunteers canadaBlanch/events.aspx]. twmuseums.org.uk/laing-art-gallery]. needed for help on stall; contact Marlene Sid - MADRID 20-22 February :Annual commemora - LONDON : 8 March Screening of “María Querida” away [[email protected]] tel: 020 tion of Battle of Jarama, including visit to Tarancón (2004), a film by José Luis García Sánchez with 8555 6674. and memorial to Scottish volunteers (on 20th), English subtitles about memory and the Francoist TOLPUDDLE 17-19 July :The IBMT will be present battlefield tour followed by afternoon meal repression of Republican schoolteachers; part of at this year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival; if you (on 21st) and tour of University City battle sites London Socialist Film Cooperative’s 2015 season; want to volunteer on the Trust’s stall or handing (on 22nd); organised in conjunction with AABI 11am at Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton Way, WC1 4PZ; fol - out leaflets etc, contact [secretary@international- Span ish International Brigade “amigos” [ www. lowed by panel discussion; [ www.socialistfilm. brigades.org.uk]. brigadasinternacionales.org]; more details from blogspot.com] £10 (£8 concessions) . ABERDEEN 17 October :IBMT Annual General [danpayne40 @yahoo.co.uk ]. KEELE : 26 March: Lecture: “Spain: The Myths Meeting; agenda and weekend programme to be LONDON 26 February :Talk: “Photographer and Legacy of General Franco” by Paul Preston; announced later this year; 50 rooms at rate of £65 Gerda Taro during the Spanish Civil War” by Jane 7.30pm, Westminster Theatre, Chancellor’s Build - per room b&b (singles or doubles) available for Rogoyska; 6pm, Cowdray House, LSE, Portugal ing, Keele University, ST5 5BG [www.keele.ac. uk/ IBMT members at Aberdeen Douglas Hotel, 43- St, WC2A 2HT; chaired by Paul Preston; see [www. publiclectures]. 45 Market St, AB11 5EL (www.aberdeendouglas. lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/research/ CARDIFF 11 April :Provisionally planned events to com) tel: 01224 582 255; quote “IBMT15” when canadaBlanch/events.aspx]. commemorate Capt Archibald Dickson and other booking; the rooms will be held until 28 days prior NEWHAVEN 1 March-1 November :Reopening seafarers who ran the blockade of Spanish to arrival; for general AGM queries contact after winter break of IBMT’s “Antifascistas” and Republican ports; check IBMT website for confir - [secretary@international -brigades.org.uk]. “Sussex and the Spanish Civil War” exhibition at mation: [www.international-brigades.org.uk]. Newhaven Fort, Fort Rd, BN9 9DS, alongside dis - HAMBURG 29-31 May :Annual Anti-Fascist Har - NB: Events not organised by the IBMT are the plays mainly on Second World War themes; see bour Event organised by local members of the responsibility of the individuals and organisa - [www.newhavenfort.org.uk] for details. KFSR German International Brigades friendship tions concerned.

26 International Brigade Memorial Trust IBMT merchandise Proceeds help fund the commemorative, educational and publicity work of the trust

CD single Exclusively for the IBMT, Billy Bragg performs “Jarama Valley” and Maxine Peake delivers La Pasionaria’s ¡Salud! emotional farewell speech to the British Volunteers in the Republican International Brigades with a dub Medical Service during the Spanish IBMT greetings card backing from The Urban Roots. Civil War, by Linda Palfreeman £5 plus £1.99 p&p Measuring approximately 15cm x (paperback). 10cm, the IBMT greetings card £12 plus £3.99 p&p features a drawing by Rafael Alberti dedicated to the International Brigades in 1996. Blank inside. British Battalion t-shirt £5 for pack of 6 (including envelopes) In red or grey and made for the IBMT by plus £1.99 p&p t-shirt specialists Philosophy Football from ethically sourced cotton. British Battalion banner on front and “International Brigade Memorial Trust” on sleeve. IBMT badge Available in: Solid metal badge with International S (36inch chest/90cms) Brigade medal in centre and M (40inch/100cms) International Brigade Memorial Trust L (44inch chest/110cms) around the edge. XL (48inch/120cms) £3 plus £2.99 p&p Antifascistas XXL (52inch/130cms) British and Irish Volunteers in Fitted women’s (34-36inch/70-90cms). the Spanish Civil War £15 plus £3.99 p&p The story of the volunteers in words and pictures, by Richard Baxell, Angela Jackson and Jim Jump (paperback). IBMT Orwell poster £10 plus £2.99 p&p Wristband A3 poster of George Orwell designed Stretchy rubber wristband in Spanish by Simon Hawkesworth of Fold Design Republican colours and embossed for IBMT’s 2013 Len Crome Memorial with “IBMT” and “antifascistas”. Lecture. £2.50 plus £2.99 p&p £2 plus £2.99 p&p

Tom Mann Centuria t-shirt Made for the IBMT by t-shirt specialists Philosophy Football from ethically sourced cotton. Tom Mann Centuria banner on front. “International Brigade Memorial Poems from Spain Trust” on sleeve. Available in S, M, L, Collection of poems written by British XL, XXL and fitted women’s size (see and Irish International Brigaders. 75th anniversary plate above for size details). Edited by Jim Jump (paperback). A limited edition of 75 plates £13 plus £3.99 p&p £10 plus £2.99 p&p (individually numbered) made in the UK from finest bone china. Each plate Send orders, including your name (26cm diameter) has a copy of the and address, a size and colour medal given to International Brigade where appropriate, and a cheque members along with a list of major payable to the IBMT to: IBMT battles. Merchandise, 286 Brantingham £30 plus £4.99 p&p Road, Manchester M21 0QU. For multiple orders in the UK up to a value of £30 (excluding p&p) calculate total p&p by taking the highest p&p among items ordered, halving the p&p of the remaining Looking Back at the Spanish Civil items and adding them together. War There is no p&p on orders for goods IBMT’s Len Crome Memorial Lectures worth more than £30. 2002-2010 by expert historians on the Jarama 75th anniversary poster Spanish Civil War, including Helen Connolly Column t-shirt A3 poster specially designed for the For orders outside the UK or to pay Graham, Paul Preston, Francisco J Black cotton t-shirt with design IBMT by Simon Hawkesworth of Fold by credit card or PayPal, go to our Romero Salvadó, Richard Baxell, (pictured) in Spanish Republican Design to mark the 75th anniversary of Enrique Moradiellos, Angela Jackson, colours across chest commemorating the British Battalion’s first and most website: [www.international- Ángel Viñas and Julián Casanova. the volunteers from Ireland. Available bloody battle. With first two verses of brigades.org.uk/merchandise.php] Edited by Jim Jump (paperback). in S, M, L, XL. “Jarama Valley”. where there are also other items £10 plus £3.99 p&p £10 plus £3.99 p&p £2 plus £2.99 p&p listed for sale .