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Home , Communist Party of Spain, John Cornford, Popular Front (Spain)

Why The Homage to Orwell?

by LLOYD EDMONDS

One of the most commonly prescribed men and massive military aid from nazi books for students of English literature has Germany and fascist Italy. The troops been ’s Homage to . marshalled by the government on the various Educational authorities and others present fronts numbered over 600,000. this book, not only as literature, but as the The main countries all played some part in authority on the of 1936-39. the conflict. •. :ner openly, as in the case of Is this choice justified? And if not, why is it Germany, Italy and the Soviet Union, or promoted in this way? indirectly, or in an underhand way, as in the George Orwell served altogether about four case of the USA, Great Britain and France. months on the Aragon and Teruel fronts in Yet our students get as a definite statement Catalonia. On arrival in ,‘he enlisted of this Armageddon, a picture of a futile in a unit dominated by Anarchists and POUM- guerrilla skirmish. ists, had a brief excursion into the Aragon hills, fired a few shots, returned to Barcelona and, after a short stay there, returned to London. In the minds of the troops and the people of ' Because of the stalemate that had been the war zones in Central and Southern , reached in the Aragon, he saw little fighting. Barcelona represented an oasis of By a mischance he was nearly killed in May recuperation and recreation where the rigors 1937 when a bullet went through his throat. and austerities of war could be forgotten for a time at least. In Central Spain, on the front, in Andalusia, in the Asturias, in the Basque The well-being was, of course, relative. country, large armies were locked in combat. Compared with Paris, Barcelona was austere; The insurgent generals, in addition to their in comparison with Madrid, it was the regular troops, recruited over 100,000 Moorish fleshpots. mercenaries in North Africa, and also received Madrid was very nearly isolated. It was WHY THE HOMAGE TO ORWELL? 13

linked by only one route with the rest of Spain. And in comparison with these three, As its food was all brought in on this one road - Orwell’s knowledge of Spain and the war is the road - the diet of the Madrileno obviously limited and deficient. was meagre and unvarying: salted cod, lentils, Orwell and Hemingway are two leading Mexican chick peas, and ersatz coffee - that figures in the world of letters. Both went to was it. Spain on the side of the Republic. Both wrote For nearly three years the living conditions books about the war and both books deal with of the Madrileno were like that. They suffered the exploits of a guerrilla band. However, while food shortage, actual danger and physical Hemingway’s work is a novel, a piece of restriction to a limited city area. imaginative literature, Orwell’s work is a political memoir. Barcelona was heavily bombed several times, but apart from that it survived the war Hemingway really knew Spain. Before the intact without becoming a battleground. war he had lived in Spain and he appreciated Barcelona had hundreds of square kilometres the Spanish way of life. He held this of farmland surrounding it - all of Catalonia. hispanismo so deeply that, on the defeat of the From it came a constant flow of fresh food. The Republic, he went to Cuba to live. There he many textile and clothing factories of witnessed another . With the victory Barcelona operated throughout the war. Many of , Hemingway continued to live of these, particularly the self-managing in Cuba, greatly to the satisfaction of the enterprises, had their own purchasing and Cubans. selling agents in France. Through these After May 1937, Orwell returned to England channels were brought food, clothing and to be lionised by the literary establishment. cigarettes, mainly for the employees of the Orwell had gone to Spain for the experience. factories, but some trickled out to the general His immediate and unremitting concern was to population. be a writer. He needed experiences and And of course there was the port. Despite concerns that he could transmute into the blockade, some ships were generally in the literature. harborand consumer goods dribbled through. Orwell kept aloof from his fellow soldiers. He shows no particular liking or interest in the The two cities felt the impact of the war, but individual Spaniard or Catalan who were his in one case it was extreme and in the other, . The history of Catalonia, or of relatively mild. Spain, or the intricacies of the Spanish and Madrid never capitulated. It was betrayed in Catalan political scene were not his concerns. March 1939 by a clique of officers headed by Hemingway, on the contrary was in Spain Colonel Casado. because he was a partisan on the side of the Franco’s troops marched into Barcelona Spanish people. He loved their individualism, early in and the city was vigor and distinctiveness. His ear for their surrendered without a shot being fired. conversation and their thoughts is portrayed in his description of the members of the If the two cities are compared for their war guerrilla band. In sharp contrast to Orwell’s records, their devotion to democratic ideals qualified war effort, sense of futility and self­ and constancy to the Republican government, recrimination is Hemingway’s whole-hearted then Madrid deserves the honor and the glory. commitment, optimism and vigor. Truly heroic Madrid! Yet Orwell pays his homage to Catalonia. Hemingway had no doubts. Every talent and There is no lack of material on the Spanish asset he had, he devoted to the cause of the Civil War. On the contrary, a veritable spate of Republic - his writing skills and literary renown, his contacts with influential people, novels, poems, anthologies, histories, pamphlets and films deal directly with the war. his personal income. He risked his life beyond Writers of the eminence of Andre Malraux in the call of his journalistic duties. France, Jose Maria Gironella in Spain and He saw as clearly as did Orwell, cruelty, Ernest Hemingway - to name three from inefficiency and political manoeuvring. But different countries - have written major novels paramount, over-riding these, was the with the Spanish Civil War as the dominant necessity to defeat the resurgent forces of motif. reactionary Spain. 14 AuS I RALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 54

W ar To many people, especially those In contrast to Orwells desultory excursion concerned with the onward march of the in Homage to Catalonia, the band of guerrillas fascist rt^m es, Spain was the scene of over­ in H em ingw ay’s book riding importance in this struggle. has a positive role to play in the war They are part of an offensive by the Republican Army. And it is extraordinary that this struggle They are to blow up a bridge so as to disrupt should so often be presented as a story of one the communications of Franco’s forces - an man's episodic and brief stay in one region of exploit integral to the strategic plan of the Spain It is extraordinary because of the battle Republicans. of the Spanish people against the military coup of Franco, although it had aspects Orwell’s centuria makes its excursion into peculiar to Spain and arising from Spanish the hills of the Aragon with no aim. with no history, was generally regarded as part of the purpose. Its members are apparently actuated defence of democracy against . This by a consciousness of their inactivity in defence became Europe-wide, then world­ Barcelona and by a vague hope that what they wide, with World War II. do may be of some use. Orwell says of himself: “I was sick of the inaction on the Aragon front Why, then, homage to Catalonia? and chiefly conscious that I had not done my It was not Catalonia. The attraction to Orwell share of the fighting. I used to think of the was the Anarchists and their allies, whose base recruiting poster in Barcelona which was Barcelona. demanded accusingly of passers-by ‘What have you done for democracy’ and feel I could Their philosophy, their methods of only answer ‘I have drawn my rations’ .... And, organisation, or lack of organisation, their of course, I wanted to go to Madrid. Everyone more primitive style of life - these are the in the A rm y whatever his political views always factors which appealed to Orwell. A more wanted to go to Madrid.” appropriate title for his book would possibly have been "Homage to Spanish ”. Why didn’t they go to Madrid? There was nothing to stop them. John Cornford, a The Anarchists figured prominently during communist and a poet who also served with the Spanish Civil War period. It is different the POUM in Barcelona went to Madrid. He today. Summarising from a study of the was killed there. underground workers’ parties in Spain today in an inform ed article in The Economist of When staying in Madrid, Hemingway had a January 28, 1976, the prevailing trend among room at the leading hotel in the city, the the Spanish workers is towards . Of Florida. The main buildings of Madrid were the trade unionists, about half are influenced regularly shelled by Franco’s artillery, among by the communists and a third by the them the Hotel Florida. So Hemingway socialists. The article specifically states “The became a collector of shell fragments. When anarcho-syndicalist CNT, once the biggest one of the hotel rooms was hit, he gathered Spanish labor movement, is of little shell fragments, labelled them, and made his significance today”. room a museum-piece. Hemingway enjoyed showing visitors to Madrid his miniature war But today’s students in Australia read Orwell museum. - and his preference is very clear. He says “The Hemingway’s political attitude has been danger was quite simple and intelligible. It was vindicated by events in Spain today. the antagonism between those who wished the Continuing its policies from the Civil War revolution to go forward and those who wished period, the Spanish is to check or prevent it - ultimately between winning majority support of the Spanish Anarchists and Communists”. workers. Further, the two political parties that The communists’ policy was never in doubt. were the bulwark of the Spanish Republic-the It was to win the war. This was expressed by Communists and the Socialists - are the Dolores Ibarruri (La Pasionaria) when Largo workers’ parties today. The Anarchists have Cabellero proposed setting up a ceased to be an effective political force. government. She said “When we must It is doubtful whether, forthe Western world, concentrate all our efforts on the waging of a war so vital for Spain, experiments in trade any other internal conflict has had the union governments seem to be a grave error. intellectual and cultural impact of the Spanish WHY THE HOMAGE TO ORWELL?

From the Spanish Civil War: A Republican soldier shot and impaled in a tree

Should this plan materialise, it would lead to With the we won in February the disintegration of anti-fascist unity and and with this Popular Front government which accelerate the triumph of fascism. gives proportional representation to all anti­ fascist forces in the country, we shall win the "The trade unions are already represented in war " the government and have ample freedom to act. We suspect this plan is nothing but a In fact, just as Largo Cabellero never manoeuvre to push the Republican parties out abandoned the idea of leading a government of the government and the Communist Party based on his party and the UCT, so,too, the firm ly opposes it. anarchists never renounced the plan to give 16 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 54 first priority to the establishment of libertarian Syndicalists voted for the middle-class com m unism . liberals. There were two reasons for this. The first, the unbridgeable enmity which separates Here are quotations from two historians, Socialists and Syndicalists, due to their rival neither of whom are friendly to the bid for the leadership of the working classes; communists, both conservative in attitude but the second that, as the Anarchists always with knowledge of the anarchists. preached contempt for suffrage, they had no Dante A. Puzzo, in his work Spain and the political machinery of their own; so that when Great Powers, wrote: “The Anarchists had a it came to voting - which they did this time to barricade philosophy and spoke the language help oust the Monarchy - they preferred to vote of revolt in season and out. Frozen in a posture for the middle-class Republican whose liberal of defiance, they were boisterous, turbulent views were more in harmony with the anti- and troublesome always, effective Marxist ideas of the Spanish syndicalists.” never. Thus it had been under The Civil War was waged with a minimum of the Monarchy, thus it had been under the anarchist participation. When the anarchists dictatorship and so it was underthe Republic. were reproached about the immobility of the It was only after the revolt of the generals that Aragon front, they replied that they had no the Anarchists seized the opportunity created arms. by that event to implement their notions of ‘libertarian ' and then only in In fact, they had more arms than did many Catalonia where they were strongest." other fronts. At the beginning of the war they had captured most of the arms in the Gerald Brenen in The Spanish Labyrinth Barcelona fortress. Until the Negrin declares that “Ineffectual as a government later established state control force, only moderately successful in over them, the Barcelona factories worked for improving the conditions of the workers, it (the the anarchists. They also had at their disposal Anarchist movement) has dogged and a complete network of international brokers hampered every government, good or bad .... who purchased arms for them in France and By playing always for the highest stakes it has other countries. necessarily proved on many occasions, the friend of reaction.” What they did not have, and what they were constantly demanding, were aeroplanes and Why was the anarchist movement in Spain tanks - which were lacking on all fronts. The so crucial to the war period? Spain was one of limited numbers at the disposal of the the strongholds of anarchism going back a Republican government, of necessity had to hundred years. In 1873, it claimed a go to the fronts where there were offensives. membership of three hundred thousand - a large number for those days. It had 270 local The real reason for the immobility of the centres, the most important of them in Aragon front stemmed from the policies of the Barcelona. anarchists. They stated that winning the war did not mean winning the revolution. They In October 1910, a congress of anarchist planned to keep their forces intact for the groups and certain independentfederations of future libertarian communist Spain. workers met in and formed the CNT - Confederation Nacional del Trabajo. So, at the Spain had not discarded many social relics outbreak of the Spanish war, the Spanish of its past. As late as the 'thirties of this working class was divided. The trade unions century, social categories that were vestiges of had two confederations - the UGT (Union earlier economic stages of Spanish history General del Trabajadores) led by socialists of asserted themselves forsurvival. Along with its whom the best known is Largo Cabellero and mule-cart agriculture, its semi-feudal land the CNT dominated by the anarchists. tenure, the Catholic permeation of all aspects of life, its antique political parties such as two From the beginning the anarchists monarchist (one Bourbon and one Carlist), established a pattern of non-co-operation. and various regional clerical parties, it had for Salvador de Madariaga (a conservative the oppressed a simplistic and unreal political philosophy. Spanish historian), for example, writes of the 1931 elections: “The workers affiliated to the Anarchism is an expression of the primitive UGT voted for their men. But the Anarcho- economy of pre-industrial Spain. Independent WHY THE HOMAGE TO ORWELL? 17 peasants, peasants ruined by debt, the large was poised for world hegemony. But people landless population of a country not yet doubted the rightness of this cause. So started industrialised - these social strata are the battle for people's hearts and minds' So predisposed to anarchism. started the Cold War. A rthur H. Landis in Spain, the Unfinished One of the ideals that had to be undermined Revolution sums it up well. "Its (Anarchism’s) was the repute earned by the Spanish summons to violence, its generous and Republicans in their resistance to Franco. If mystical utopianism, its nostalgia for a golden not obliterated at least it could be perverted. age is readily adaptable to a country which is Hence the welcome of the authorities for still essentially rural, where the is Orwell. He became the cultural hero. As well as relatively weak and of immediate peasant a distortion of Spanish history, this origin, and where the Catholic faith has for a introduction to Orwell leads on to later works long time been the bearer of hope and where is depicted as nightmarish consolation for humble folk.” horror. Why was Orwell promoted so strongly in the Cold War period? Troops of literary authorities and educational pundits, whose general bias is to By the end of World War 11, after two decades oppose change, welcome a revolutionary of unprecedented political and social Orwell - but an Orwell urging in upheavals, ordinary people, the hoi polloi, had opposition to marxist parties who are taken part in, or seen, a major series of social denounced as conservative. collisions and governmental upsets. The same attitude pervades most histories During the 'thirties, while experiencing the of the Spanish Civil War. It is accepted practice shattering effects of the Depression, the to describe the main defenders of the breakdown of capitalist society, they, at the Republic, the socialists as well as the same time, witnessed the rise of counter­ communists, as intriguers, opportunists and revolutionary forces spear-headed by Hitler power-hungry. Now and then a footnote and his like. qualifies these assertions. Hugh Thomas, the Then the war. The fascist countries, historian of the Spanish Civil War who is propagators of hierarchical societies generally regarded as the most sound, and dominated by a master sex, a master race, a extensively quoted by the liberal educational master class. They were the enemy. and literary establishment, warns in afootnote Unabashed apostles of force and exploitation, against acceptance of Orwell’s analysis and who disdained to cloak their ideology with the facts. sanction of law or the mystification of religion. Despite this, in a recent two-hour program And to be fought they had to be exposed. on the Spanish Civil War by ABC radio, the The basic forces of society were uncovered to arranger, J.D. Pringle (one-time editor of the increasing numbers of people. Working Sydney Morning Herald), eulogised Homage people thus got a crash course in social to Catalonia both for its literary merit and ‘the education. best account of the Spanish war”. Thus art is put at the service of politics. The antithesis of fascism was the Spanish people's struggle. The sustained effort of the The anti-marxist intellectual, George Spanish people to cast off theirsocial enemies Orwell, serves current political ends, to highlighted the ’thirties. It was the alternative. discredit communists and to pervert the history of the Spanish Civil War. This mental attitude - a degree of lack of acceptance of the status quo, a lack of acquiescence in capitalist norms undoubtedly Lloyd Edmonds served in the Spanish Civil War in was a matter of concern for the theoreticians the International Brigade from 1937 until January of world . It was particularly so for 1939. During that time, he was in many parts of the the financial and industrial oligarchy of the country, but particularly the Madrid front and United States and Great Britain, as voiced by Catalonia. He knew Hemingway rather well, on first- C hurchill at Fulton in 1946. name terms, seeing him both in Madrid and on the fronts. As a result of his experiences, Lloyd The USA with immense economic power Edmonds joined the .