NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust L 2-2019 L £5

Home , Brigade of Death, Herbert Southworth, Stephen Spender

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¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust l 2-2019 l £5

Remembering the seafarers Andrew Wiard Andrew

Saturday 6 July 2019 1pm-2pm

Music l Speakers l Remembrance

International Brigade Memorial Jubilee Gardens, London Southbank Followed by an informal gathering at the Camel & Artichoke, 121 Lower Marsh Street, London SE1 7AE

International Brigade

COMMEMORATION International Brigade Memorial Trust www.international-brigades.org.uk Photos: Jim Ju AT THE LEN ¡NO PASARÁN! CROME Magazine of the International MEMORIAL Brigade Memorial Trust CONFERENCE No.51 l 2-2019 t The main speakers at Kellogg College, Oxford: Daniel Gray (left) and Sid Lowe (right), with chair Richard Baxell.

Photo: Jim Jump t IBMT Ireland Secretary t Cover story: Manus O’Riordan with the Unveiling of the microphone during one of the Blockade discussion sessions. Runners Memorial in Glasgow. See page 11.

3 News l Including this new memorial for the International Brigaders from Hull

9 Editor’s notes l Barcelona cemetery alert

10 Final farewell l Geoffrey Servante, the last veteran Civil war’s impact on English football 11 Remembering the seafarers l Crews who beat the blockade and on the Barça-Real Madrid rivalry

15 Ruedo Ibérico n exploration of the links between football Barcelona as a focus of resistance to his regime l Challenging Franco by the written word and the Spanish Civil War – some of and legacy. This had arisen for various reasons, Awhich endure to this day – proved a such as Real Madrid’s failure to highlight its 19 Books & the arts popular draw for the 2019 IBMT conference day, historic ties to liberalism and the Spanish l Including new books on China’s ‘Spanish with more than 150 people attending the event in Republic. Meanwhile, many Barça fans had doctors’ and on Cold War history battles Oxford on 23 March. cultivated their club as a symbol of Catalan Both main speakers, Daniel Gray and Sid opposition to Franco and the Madrid 22 ‘Tom Spain’ Lowe, have written books about the war in Spain government in general, while ignoring l Celebrating the last volunteer to return home and on football. Lowe, additionally, is The Barcelona’s equally close links to Francoism. Guardian’s football correspondent in Madrid. Two short films were also screened at this Gray traced the lives and footballing careers in year’s Len Crome Memorial Conference – ¡No Pasarán! (formerly the IBMT Magazine and the England and Spain of six niños vascos (Basque named after the Scottish-trained doctor who IBMT Newsletter) is published three times a year. children) who arrived in Southampton in May became a senior medical officer in the Spanish Back numbers can be downloaded from the IBMT 1937. They were among nearly 4,000 other Republic’s army: a 1938 documentary by Henri website. All content is the © of the IBMT and refugee children who were escaping the bombing Cartier-Bresson, ‘With the Abraham Lincoln credited contributors and cannot be reproduced of Basque towns by Franco and his allies. Brigade in Spain’, featuring footage of without written permission. Views expressed are As a left-winger for Wolverhampton International Brigaders playing football, and not necessarily those of the IBMT. Wanderers, Emilio Aldecoa, for example, ‘Capitán Republicano’, by Raúl Román and became in 1943 the first Spaniard to play in the Antonio Vilaseco, screened on Spanish TV last Editor Jim Jump English league. He returned to his native Bilbao year, which tells the story of Patricio Escobal, the IBMT, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU in 1947, signing for Atlético Bilbao before former Real Madrid captain who wrote about his 020 7253 8748 moving on to Real Valladolid and Barcelona. experiences as a prisoner of Franco. [email protected] Lowe’s talk challenged the assumption that The day ended with a rousing musical finale Real Madrid is ‘Franco’s team’ and that sees from Maddy Carty, Robb Johnson and Na-mara. International Brigade Memorial Trust www.international-brigades.org.uk ¡NO PASARÁN! 3 RNA IONALE TE S IN D NEWS E S L O A I

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IBMT Fundraising Officer John Haywood writes… Barcelona’ by the Lanarkshire Songwriters’ Group. Second prize in the IBMT raffle is a case of he IBMT’s No Pasarán Raffle will be an specially selected Spanish wines. important boost to our funds – but its success There are also five gift vouchers from Delta Force T depends on members buying and selling Paintball, each with 10 tokens for a day’s paintballing The International books of tickets to other people. As well as the first in any one of 40 paintball centres. Each voucher is Brigade Memorial prize of £400 or a weekend for two in a Madrid hotel, worth £100. Plus there are CDs, books and t-shirts. there are numerous other prizes – all donated by the The raffle draw will take place on 4 October 2019 Trust keeps alive IBMT and our supporters. in London. Additional books of tickets (10 tickets per Already several members have ordered more book) can be ordered from the IBMT (tel: 020 7253 the memory and than the two books sent to them in the 3-2018 issue 8748 or email [email protected]). of our ¡No Pasarán! magazine. Please join them. No advance purchase is needed, just buy or sell spirit of the men As an incentive, we are offering the member the tickets and collect the payments and send the and women who who sells the most books a prize of three money with the ticket stubs to: IBMT, 37a Clerkenwell wonderful CDs – Joe Solo’s impassioned ‘¡No Green, London EC1R 0DU. Indicate who is sending volunteered to fight Pasarán!’ and his latest and celebrated ‘Not on Our the stubs and money. Only the buyer’s name and fascism and defend Watch’ as well as the fabulous ‘From Blantyre to telephone number are needed on each stub. democracy in Spain from 1936 to 1939

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

President Marlene Sidaway [email protected] Chair Jim Jump [email protected] Secretary Megan Dobney [email protected] Treasurer Manuel Moreno [email protected] Ireland Secretary Manus O’Riordan [email protected] Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott [email protected] Wales Secretary Mary Greening [email protected] Merchandise Officer Chris Hall [email protected] Other Executive Committee members Pauline Fraser, Alex Gordon, John Haywood, Charles Jepson, Alan Lloyd, Dolores Long, Tosh McDonald

Founding Chair Professor Sir Paul Preston Patrons Professor Peter Crome, Hywel Francis, Professor Helen Graham, Ken Livingstone, Len McCluskey, Christy Moore, Jack O’Connor, Maxine Peake, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Mick Whelan

4 ¡NO PASARÁN! Notts students find out how local volunteers are remembered hird-year history and language students at Nottingham Trent T University (pictured right) are welcomed by Alan Rhodes (centre, in suit), leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, in front of the International Brigade memorial on the wall of County Hall in Nottingham. With them are Jim Jump (eighth from left), IBMT a study topic on memory and the was promptly restored when Labour father and grandfather respectively. Chair, and (top right) Kirsty and Karen Spanish Civil War. Alan Rhodes returned to power four years later. In a The Nottinghamshire memorial, by Weatherall, granddaughter and explained to the students how the session inside the building, Jim Jump sculptor Michael Johnson, is a bronze daughter of local International Brigader information board in front of the spoke about the enduring political and relief of bombed-out buildings and Frank Ellis (1914-2007), from Linby, memorial (hidden in this picture) was historical significance of the war in Spain, was unveiled by International Brigade near Hucknall. removed when the Conservatives won while the Weatherall family recalled the veteran Jack Jones and Spanish The visit, on 28 February, was part of county council elections in 2009 – but experiences and memories of their Ambassador Alberto Aza in 1993.

ON SCREEN: Historian David Rosenberg (right), takes part in one of the latest videos jointly produced by the IBMT and the Marx Memorial Library to promote the library’s Spanish Civil War archives and the role of the IBMT in preserving the memory of the International Brigades. Two new films tackle themes of internationalism and anti- fascism. Speaking on internationalism, Rosenberg, who is the co-editor of Jewish Socialist, underlines the multi-ethnic make-up of the Brigades, especially the large number of Jewish volunteers in the British Battalion. Made by Platform Films, the videos, each just over four minutes long, are part of a series made for social media (see www.international-brigades. org.uk/content/ibmt-video). The two other films focus on trade unionists and women.

VISITORS: The IBMT welcomed Searchable volunteer records now Podemos activists from around Europe on the IBMT website to the International Brigade memorial A database of nearly 2,400 International on London’s Southbank on 31 March. Brigaders from Britain and Ireland has finally They were in the capital to attend their been posted on the IBMT website (see www. party’s international forum, at which international-brigades.org.uk/the-volunteers). It the main topic of discussion was the can be searched by name, birthplace, location of forthcoming general election in Spain. death in Spain and other details. The list is the result of many years of work by IBMT archivist Jim Carmody, who died in 2016, and historian Richard Baxell, who was the IBMT Chair until October last year. Digitally converting the database and posting it online were made possible thanks to generous financial support from Unite SE/6239 Branch. Until recently the database was temporarily hosted on Baxell’s own website.

¡NO PASARÁN! 5 NEWS Spotlight on families at unveiling

amily members took centre representation in corten steel of Brigades were an inspiration to stage at the inauguration of the ‘Popular Front’ clenched fist all those confronting the Fa new memorial to the 10 salute around the three-pointed continuing menace of fascism. International Brigade volunteers star of the International Brigades. Singer-songwriter Joe Solo from Hull on 16 March. It sits on a plinth of Spanish performed his song ‘¡No Though there is already a marble, on which are inscribed Pasarán!’, written in tribute to Jack plaque inside the city’s Guildhall, the words ‘¡No pasarán!’ and Atkinson. descendents and relatives of the ‘Peace, Democracy, Freedom’. At a packed gathering before volunteers and the IBMT-affiliated The base also features the the unveiling, held inside Unison Hull International Brigades names of the local volunteers, Hull City Branch’s nearby offices, Memorial Group decided three including four who were killed in there were contributions from years ago that a more substantial action in Spain: Jack Atkinson, family members of all nine men monument should be raised. James Bentley, Morris Miller and who went to Spain. For the tenth They persuaded the city Robert Wardle. volunteer, former Hull University council to provide a site next to Attended by more than 200 student Frida Knight, who drove the Guildhall and set about people, the unveiling was an ambulance to Spain, Labour raising the funds, mainly from formally undertaken by Steve councillor Aneesa Akbar said. ‘I’m local trade unions. Hedley, Assistant General so proud of Frida and the people Created by sculptor Dan Secretary of RMT, who spoke of Hull who rallied to the cause of Jones, the memorial consists of a about how the International liberty and democracy.’ MEMORIAL FOR THE VOLUNTEERS Relatives paid tribute to each of the Hull where he blew up a bridge to halt the fascists’ Hull FC. Indeed, he wrote columns in the Hull Daily Mail International Brigaders at the memorial’s advance. He was repatriated in August 1938, after and the Rugby Leaguer under the pen-name ‘Old fighting in the Sierra Pandols left him wounded in his Faithful’. He also wrote a biography of Clive Sullivan, unveiling. Here is what two of them said: hand and head, though not badly. the legendary rugby league player who was the first DILYS PORTER about her father Joe Joe was one of the lucky ones who returned from black captain of any British national sports team. Latus and JENNY STEVENS about her Spain relatively unscathed, though a fever delayed Joe never returned to Spain. He vowed never to great uncle Jack Atkinson… his homecoming. He wanted to join the army when return while Franco lived. He pre-deceased Franco by the Second World War broke out because of his a year and died, young, at the age of 62 in 1974. JOE LATUS was one of those young men who experiences in Spain and the skills he had The young do not remember fascism and the old went from Hull and Cottingham to fight fascism in developed there but was turned down. So he would prefer to forget it. These names on this Spain. They were all working men, but none was resumed his previous occupation as a trawlerman. monument are there to remind us of what they fought ordinary. My father was a deep-sea fisherman, perhaps He had been a ship’s mate and quickly passed his and died for. Winston Churchill called them the hardest and most dangerous occupation in the skipper’s ticket and went to war again in command ‘adventurers’ and so they were. But I prefer La world. Indeed, his first brush with authority happened of a Hull trawler converted into a minesweeper. Pasionaria’s naming of them as ‘history’ and ‘legend’. in 1934 when he was fined half a guinea and He served in the English Channel, taking part in imprisoned for a week for refusing to fish the evacuation of Dunkirk, the Irish Sea and the JACK ATKINSON grew up in extreme poverty. At because of severe weather conditions. Mediterranean. He was one of the first to sweep just 14 years old he went to live with his sister in Joe, along with other Hull ashore in the first assault in the southern France Australia and there he joined the Communist Party. As Brigaders, was a member of the landings. He made many friends among the Italian a member of the unemployed workers’ movement, Communist Party and the Hull partisans while docked at Livorno, some of whom he was at the forefront of trying to prevent landlord Socialist Youth Club. His second had fought in Spain. rent evictions in Brisbane and elsewhere. involvement with the law came After the war he had two ambitions. One was the It would not be the last time that he found during this period as a result of the nationalisation of the fishing industry and the other himself arrested and in court for taking direct action. Battle of Corporation Fields against was to open a left-wing bookshop in Hull. He Jack returned to Hull in 1933 after stowing away fascist Blackshirts. He was arrested and achieved the latter and, in spite of leaving school at 14, on a ship that found him living in Edinburgh for a received his second prison sentence. became manager of Collets bookshop in Carr Lane. He while. Back in Hull, he was politically active with the He joined the International Brigades in 1937 left there many years later to become a publisher’s rep, rise of the far right. Jack was part of a group of Young when he was 25. He was a machine-gunner and working for Heinemann among others. Communists who regularly disrupted fascist rallies observer and an explosives expert. He saw action at Throughout his life he was passionate about rugby across the city. He also stood in the local elections as Belchite, Caspe, Calaceite, Gandesa and the Ebro, league. He was an ardent fan and, latterly, a director of a Communist Party candidate.

6 ¡NO PASARÁN! Photos: Jim Jump

FROM HULL Inevitably Jack was sometimes arrested for his activities. When appearing in court, he would wear his trademark red shirt to show magistrates where his political allegiances lay. When the fine was dished out, Jack would usually shout from the dock: ‘I refuse to be bound over!’ In July 1936 Mosley and his British Union of Fascists attempted to hold a rally at Corporation Fields. Along with 10,000 dockers and railwaymen, Jack and local communists made sure Mosley was not welcome in the city and his rally was abandoned after 20 minutes in what became known as the Battle of Corporation Fields. With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, thousands of communists and socialists from around the world went to fight fascism there. In early 1937 Jack was joined on his train journey to London to join the International Brigades by fellow volunteer Tommy James from Rotherham. When Jack was being assessed for recruitment it was noted that his trigger finger was missing, but he s Clockwise from top left: families gather got round this by claiming he was left-handed. around the newly unveiled memorial; Jack was soon in action at the brutal Battle of close-up of the memorial; sculptor Dan Jarama, which saw many British casualties. It was Jones (on right), pictured alongside Gary during that battle that he was killed by a sniper’s Hammond of the Hull International bullet. He was 26 years old. Brigades Memorial Group; and (left) the As his relative I am proud to say he is my hero. ‘No flag of the International Brigades flying over pasarán, Jack – not then, not now, not ever. Hull’s Guildhall for the unveiling. ¡NO PASARÁN! 7 NEWS

WRITING ON THE WALL:Tarancón’s former Hospital No.2, known locally as ‘El Hospitalillo’ [little hospital] or the Hospital Santa Emilia, now lies abandoned. Activists hope the building can be restored as a museum. The painting pictured here is by Javi Córdoba and the graffiti says: ‘Next opening: Republican health service museum’.

LEFT, FROM TOP: l Gathering at the Scottish memorial in Tarancón’s municipal cemetery . l The memorial lists the names of the 39 Scots who died in the Battle of Jarama. l Part of this year’s annual Jarama memorial march on 16 February. IBMT backs Spanish activists in pressing local council to save Tarancón’s International Brigade hospital ith the support of the IBMT, One of the highlights of February’s closely with our friends in the local International Brigades memorial local activists in the Spanish annual international commemoration ARMH to save the hospital building. association. These were centred on a Wprovince of Cuenca are of the Battle of Jarama is a ceremony at Much depends on local politics, but it’s march across the Jarama battlefield on increasing pressure on the local the memorial in Tarancón to the 39 heartening to know that the presence the following day, with IBMT members council in Tarancón to preserve the Scots killed at Jarama. Tarancón was the of the memorial to the Scots has had a joining their counterparts from around abandoned building that housed the site of at least two International Brigade wholly supportive effect on the the world to remember and celebrate town’s Hospital No.2 for injured hospitals during the battle in February campaign.’ the International Brigades. International Brigaders. 1937, which took the lives of 152 British The Tarancón hospital was part of a Unveiled in 2013, the memorial to Volunteers from ARMH Cuenca, the and Irish volunteers in the fighting network of International Brigade the Scottish volunteers was the local association for the recovery of south-east of Madrid. hospitals in Cuenca province – at brainchild of Allan Craig, whose historical memory, have already On the day before this year’s Castillejo, Huete, Uclés, Valdeganga, Dundee-born father, also called Allan unilaterally undertaken basic work to commemoration on 15 February, IBMT Villa Paz and Villanueva de la Jara. Many Craig, was wounded at Jarama on protect the building’s structure. They Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott joined British medical personnel served at 17 February 1937 and died five days have also secured a degree of historic Máximo Molina of ARMH Cuenca at a these establishments. later at Tarancón. preservation for the former hospital, press conference to propose guided Over 100 people paid their respects In 2017 the memorial was which they hope will eventually be tours around the sites at Tarancón, at the Tarancón memorial this year. The vandalised with red paint, presumably converted into a visitors’ centre telling Huete and Uclés. ceremony was part of a weekend of by local neo-fascists, on the eve of the the story of its role in Spanish Civil War. Arnott commented: ‘We’re working activities organised by AABI, the Spanish annual commemoration.

8 ¡NO PASARÁN! EDITOR’S NOTES by Jim Jump [email protected]

Better finances allow us to plan ahead BMT membership has reached difficult years when the Trust meet, and would involve agreeing a new record level, Trustees operated with deficits and we had a long-term plan to significantly Iwere delighted to learn at to draw on our reserves to keep boost income over the next few their Executive Committee doing all the things members years through increased meeting on 2 February. For the want us to do. The signs are that membership and various first time membership has gone the 2018/19 financial year will fundraising initiatives. into four figures, with the total for record only a small loss and, The overall aim is to create a the end of 2018 totalling 1,002. based on this performance, our viable organisation that will be This includes individual prospects for 2019/20 and around for many years to come, members and affiliated beyond look brighter. telling the story of the organisations, mainly unions. A move that is now being International Brigades and We were also pleased to see considered is the long-held inspiring new generations of FLAGGED UP: Resplendent on the plinth of that, thanks to careful ambition to employ a professional anti-fascists. Glasgow’s magnificent new Blockade Runners management and strict worker with campaign and With the continuing support of Memorial to seafarers of the Spanish Civil War (see budgeting, our finances have communication skills. This will be all our loyal members, we are picture on page 11) is the tricolour of the Spanish been stabilised following three considered when Trustees next confident we can achieve this. Republic. But things could have turned out very differently indeed. The contractor at first mistakenly installed Spain’s monarchist flag (see above), which is Spain’s current flag, but was used by Franco’s Barcelona cemetery alert rebel army and dictatorship. Images of the wrong flag were soon posted on social media before RMT’s uth Muller, daughter of International Nazism. The ashes of a number of International Glasgow Shipping Branch, which funded and Brigader and former IBMT Chair Sam Brigaders have been scattered there – including campaigned for the memorial, immediately ordered RLesser, and husband Mike have alerted us those of Sam Lesser. the correct flag to be painted on the plinth. to the state of Barcelona’s emblematic Fossar de As soon as we were informed about the state Pedrera cemetery on Montjuic and the fact that of the cemetery we contacted our sister public access is currently restricted. Mike visited organisation in Spain, AABI, and its Catalan Mixed message from Barcelona recently and brought home photos that partner, ABIC. They reported that the landslides show, as Ruth observed, that the cemetery had happened because of exceptional weather Spanish PM ‘appears to be collapsing!’. last autumn. ABIC is in dialogue with the city Bravo that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez The Fossar de Pedrera was a mass grave for council on what can now be done. made a point of paying tribute to the International some 4,000 civilian victims of Franco’s terror. According to the council, the landslides have Brigades during a ceremony in Mexico City on Since the dictator’s death it has become the last highlighted fundamental problems with the site, 30 January to remember the many thousands of resting place for many anti-fascists, including Lluís which wasn’t properly secured at the outset of it Spaniards who were given sanctuary in Mexico Companys, the Catalan President executed by being used as a cemetery. Officials and ABIC are following the defeat of the Spanish Republic. Franco in 1940. studying solutions. The council has even suggested Speaking alongside Mexican President Andrés Among several memorials is one for the moving everything to a new site – but this has been Manuel López Obrador – more commonly known International Brigades, and another for the Jewish firmly rejected. APIC says there is a ‘political will’ as AMLO – Sánchez praised Mexico for providing a volunteers as well as a memorial for the victims of to sort things out. Let’s hope so. home for many of the half a million of his countrymen and women. It was a ‘debt that could DANGER: Landslides (left) are encroaching on the never be paid’. He also thanked Mexico for its efforts cemetery, which includes this memorial to the during the Spanish Civil War – when it was a Mike Muller Mike International Brigades. staunch supporter of the Spanish Republic – and went on to praise the International Brigades ‘for fighting in a country that was not their own in order to defeat fascism’. However, the meeting between Sánchez and AMLO came at a tense moment diplomatically, with Spain backing President Trump’s bid to topple Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. Meanwhile Mexico joined Uruguay and other countries in calling for a negotiated settlement to Venezuela’s political crisis. It’s interesting to speculate what International Brigaders would have thought about a Spanish socialist prime minister effectively supporting a coup against a constitutional government. Most, I suspect, would have taken a very dim view of it.

¡NO PASARÁN! 9 OBITUARY Richard Baxell Richard

Right: the last known British International Brigade veteran, Geoffrey Servante, pictured in January last year. Above: his Spanish Communist Party card. GEOFFREY SERVANTE THE FINAL FAREWELL eoffrey Servante, almost certainly the last war, which ended with Franco declaring victory in had fired missed its target by miles – but it later surviving British member of the International April 1939. transpired that he had accidentally scored a direct GBrigades, died on 21 April 2019, aged 99 – Born on 18 May 1919, Geoffrey Servante was hit on a fascist officer’s car, instantly killing him and just four weeks short of his 100th birthday. hardly typical of the 2,500 volunteers from Britain his aide-de-camp. Geoffrey joined the fight against General and Ireland who joined the International Brigades, Early 1939 the John Brown Battery’s members Franco’s fascist-backed rebellion in June 534 of whom were killed in Spain. Most were were withdrawn to Valencia, then on to Barcelona. 1937, 11 months after the labour movement activists and communists. From there, a train took them half-way to the French outbreak of the Spanish Civil Geoffrey, brought up in London and educated by frontier and they joined the columns of fleeing War. As an 18-year-old Jesuits, had never been in a political party. refugees to walk the remaining 50 miles to the merchant seaman, he Indeed, he claimed in later life that he had only border, harassed all the way by Franco’s aircraft. jumped ship in travelled to Spain for a £100 bet – which he never Eventually Geoffrey and the other Britons were Valencia and caught recovered – after someone in a Soho pub had repatriated via Paris and Dieppe. a train to the said it was no longer possible to join the Within a year, he was called up into the British International International Brigades because the French border Army, serving for three years in Egypt with the Royal Brigades’ main had been sealed. Army Ordnance Corps and the Royal Electrical and base in Albacete. However, in Spain Servante joined the Mechanical Engineers. After the Second World War Because he was Communist Party, and he remained throughout his he worked in engineering, finally joining Vauxhall not yet 21 he was life extremely proud to have fought for Spanish Motors in 1957 and staying with the Luton car- refused admission democracy. He was also delighted in 2009 to maker until early retirement 20 years later. into the British Battalion accept Spain’s offer of citizenship to all surviving The IBMT was only able to make contact with and was instead members of the International Brigades, travelling to Geoffrey in the final years of his life, when he was assigned to an Anglo- the embassy in London to sign the papers. living close to his family in a nursing home in the American artillery unit known as During the civil war, with ammunition scarce, the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. This was thanks to the John Brown Battery. John Brown Battery saw little action and rarely did a locally-based journalist, Carmelo García, who Initially deployed in Extremadura in south-west much more than take pot shots at enemy lines. found out about his existence and realised that this Spain, the battery was transferred to the Toledo Geoffrey recalled in an interview with historian was in all likelihood the last known British survivor front south of Madrid in December 1937. There Richard Baxell in 2018, which was published in ¡No of the International Brigades. Geoffrey remained until the final months of the civil Pasarán!, that one such speculative shell that he JIM JUMP

10 ¡NO PASARÁN! SEAFARERS InternationalInternational Brigade Brigade Memorial Memorial Trust Trust BLOCKADE RUNNERS IBMT joins maritime union RMT in remembering brave crews With the unveiling on 2 March

of a memorial in Glasgow Jim Jump to seafarers who defied fascist bombs and u-boats during the Spanish Civil War, JIM JUMP tells this unsung story of courage and sacrifice Andrew Wiard of the crews of British ships who continued to trade with Republican Spain.

lasgow’s new Blockade Runners’ Memorial at last gives public recognition Gto those seafarers who risked and in some cases gave their lives to break Franco’s blockade of Spanish Republican ports. Designed by sculptor Frank Casey and funded by rail and maritime union RMT and its Glasgow Shipping Branch, the memorial stands proudly overlooking the Clyde and only a stone’s throw from Arthur Dooley’s landmark Pasionaria memorial to the more than 500 Scottish volunteers of the International Brigades. While the UK government and the Royal Navy for the most part turned a blind eye to attacks on British ships, the blockade-busting seafarers brought vital supplies to Spaniards fighting the fascist-backed uprising against their elected Popular Front government. Big cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao remained loyal to the Republic, while much of their agricultural hinterlands fell into fascist hands. Swollen by refugees, these urban centres became dependent on imports. Food shortages and starvation were an ever-present reality. Later in the war, British ships and crews played a key role in taking thousands of Republican refugees to safety, again running the gauntlet of German, Italian and rebel mines and bombs. The Spanish Republic’s embassy in London reported that in the first two years of the war, up to June 1938, 13 British merchant ships had been sunk, 51 others bombed from the air, two had been damaged by mines, five were attacked CONTINUED OVERLEAF

¡NO PASARÁN! 11 SEAFARERS

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE by submarines and 23 had been seized or detained by Franco’s forces.

Thirty-five crew members were killed in Geoff Cowling these attacks on British merchant ships and nearly 50 badly injured. The Royal Navy also lost eight sailors when in May 1937 the destroyer HMS Hunter struck a mine laid by Franco’s navy south of Almería. The final tally by the end of the war in April 1939 was much higher. At least 26 ships were sunk or wrecked – though the number of British seafarer deaths is not recorded. The attacks on British shipping were played out against the background of Britain’s cynical policy of ‘non-intervention’ in the Spanish Civil War. This meant an arms embargo on Spain’s legitimate government – while turning a blind ‘Thirty-five crew members were killed in these attacks on British merchant ships and nearly 50 badly s The Stanbrook, laden with Spanish Republican refugees, in the Algerian port of Oran. injured. The Royal mines around Bilbao and other northern happened to the Marie Llewellyn, whose Navy also lost eight Spanish ports to facilitate the free passage of master, Capt David ‘Potato’ Jones, had already sailors…’ British ships. made a name for himself in his native Swansea Speaking on behalf of the Conservative-led for his dismissive pronouncements about eye to the troops, weapons and airplanes that government, Home Secretary John Simon told Franco’s naval officers ‘strutting about the Hitler and Mussolini were sending Franco. the House of Commons on 14 April 1937 that quarter-decks of their miserable ships Under the international non-intervention such action would constitute intervention in intimidating the British navy and interfering agreement drawn up by the European powers, favour of the Spanish Republic. An angry with British shipping’. the Italian dictator – whose navy was Clement Attlee, the Labour leader, accused the However, it was another Cardiff-registered responsible for many of the attacks on British government of giving up trying to protect vessel, the Seven Seas Spray, that eventually and other ships trading with Republican Spain – British shipping. broke the blockade, entering Bilbao on 20 April was farcically entrusted with policing the Many British ships, however, defied the 1937, having sailed through the night with its agreement along Spain’s Mediterranean coast, government’s warning not to try to beat the navigation lights off. Thousands of inhabitants while the Royal Navy patrolled the country’s blockade of Spain’s Atlantic ports. Some did greeted the ship’s arrival, shouting: ‘Long live Atlantic seaboard. turn back or were even intercepted by Royal the British sailors! Long live liberty!’ Yet the Royal Navy was not allowed to clear Navy ships off the Basque coast. This is what Other ships soon followed, ignoring t Film footage from 1938 showed bomb damage to the British ship Stanwell and injured crew members. Two seafarers died in the attack. s Seafarers’ graves in the British Cemetery in Tarragona, including several who were killed during the Spanish Civil War.

Francoist warning shells fired across their bows, sharply in April in 1937, as the city and ships continued to ferry refugees from while Royal Navy ships looked on. They too nearby towns were bombed by German and remaining northern Republican-held ports of were cheered by enthusiastic crowds as they Italian planes. A Basque government Santander and Gijón to safety in France until docked in the Basque port. representative appealed for help on 29 April, October 1937. In doing so several were It’s true that there was good money to be fearing a mass raid like the one that had bombed, intercepted or captured by Franco’s made by shipowners trading with Republican flattened Guernica three days earlier: ‘The warships who operated within Spain’s three- Spain. The war had doubled freight rates, and fearful possibilities of an air attack on Bilbao are mile limit and therefore outside international the Basque government offered generous obvious. The population has increased from waters and the attention of the Royal Navy. incentives to masters beating the blockade. The 300,000 to 500,000, including 100,000 children. On the Mediterranean coast a similar sealift National Union of Seamen (NUS) negotiated a The food situation is acute, and the wharf is would take place in the dying days of the 50 per cent wage bonus for its members crowded with children begging the crews of Republic in March 1939. The last two ships to entering the war zone following the refusal of British ships for food.’ leave Alicante were the African Trader and the several crews to set sail for Spain without a Soon British ships were taking refugees to Stanbrook, who between them took nearly guarantee of danger money. This allowance was safety in France. A total of 10,000 lives were 4,000 Republicans to safety in French Algeria as later doubled. saved, mostly women and children, half of them enemy forces were about to enter the city. in a single convoy of nine freighters on 3 May. Attacks on British ships in the ut it was clear where most seafarers’ Bilbao fell to Franco on 19 June, but British Mediterranean were even worse during the war, sympathies lay. Many, indeed, jumped with Italian submarines operating along the Bship in Republican ports to join the ‘Soon British ships coast and the ports of Barcelona, Tarragona, International Brigades – including Londoner Valencia and Alicante regularly targeted by Geoffrey Servante – the last surviving British were taking refugees to German and Italian bombers and warships. volunteer – who walked off his ship in Valencia safety in France. A total The only time the British government made in June 1937 and promptly caught a train to the a credible threat to take retaliatory action was in International Brigade base in Albacete. of 10,000 lives were the summer of 1937 following a spate of attacks So angry were seafarers on the Glasgow- by Italian submarines – which immediately registered Oakgrove, who were fired on as they saved, mostly women ceased as a result. Significantly, the British took badly needed provisions to Santander, that and children, half of response was led by Foreign Secretary Anthony they reportedly waived their pay as a protest at Eden, who resigned a few months later in the shameful stance of the British government. them in a single convoy protest at the government’s abject policy of The crew of the Newcastle-registered of nine freighters on appeasement. Backworth made a similar gesture. The new Blockade Runners Memorial in The food crisis in Bilbao had worsened 3 May.’ CONTINUED OVERLEAF

¡NO PASARÁN! 13 SEAFARERS

HOW THE BILBAO BLOCKADE WAS BROKEN Graham Davies writes… Cardiff, without permission from the tonnes, which included salt, wine, olive The Times correspondent George harbour master and without navigation oil, hams, honey, flour, beans and peas. Steer was present at the arrival. Tens of On 19 April 1937 at 10pm Capt William lights, slipped out of the French port of As the ship left port, signals from the thousands of people were watching Roberts’s Seven Seas Spray, owned by St Jean de Luz into the darkness. shore advised Capt Roberts to stop, but from the riverbanks, cheering, shrieking the Veronica Steamship Company in The ship carried a cargo of 3,600 he was reported to have said: ‘That and running out of their houses to stand signalling was on the shore and a good on waste blocks of stone and cement at sailor does not look astern.’ At around the river’s edge. Old handkerchiefs, 6.30am the shape of a British destroyer twice read papers and thousands of loomed ahead and in international shreds of washing were waved in the code asked: ‘Where bound?’ The air along with the defiant anti-fascist shameless reply was ‘Bilbao’. The more clenched fist. intimate whisper of semaphore came Capt Roberts stood proudly on the back: ‘Enter at your own risk.’ From bridge and waved in the more Roberts came the bold: ‘I accept full traditional British manner. Steer responsibility’, followed by the emotive describes Roberts standing ‘very ‘Good luck’ from the destroyer. erect in a uniform carefully brushed, Bilbao, cleared of mines, readied with a smart white cover to his cap… itself to meet the Seven Seas Spray with a real master.’ coastal batteries manned and a welcoming flotilla of two destroyers and Graham Davies is the author of ‘You Are two armed trawlers. Legend: The Welsh Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War’ (Welsh Academic t The Seven Seas Spray in Bilbao. Press, 2018). Ships Nostalgia

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE of Film Censors, underlining the sensitivity of Glasgow lists the names of many of these British the authorities to criticism of the government’s ships that were attacked. They include the policy of appeasement. Thorpeness, bombed from the air while at Another film shot by Montagu in 1938, anchor off Tarragona on 20 January 1938. ‘Prisoners Prove Intervention in Spain’, showed Though seven crew members were killed, and footage of the bombed wreck of the British-flag another seven injured, the ship proceeded to Stanwell in Tarragona harbour, in which two Barcelona to discharge her cargo following British crew members were killed. It also temporary repairs. featured footage of a captured German pilot of Franco, meanwhile, brazenly threatened to one of the planes involved in the raid. continue his attacks. A statement issued by his Outraged at the British government’s failure authorities accused 12 named British ships of to act, NUS General Secretary William Spence carrying arms to the Republic: ‘Britain has an invoked the Royal Navy’s record in protecting easy remedy to stop the bombing of her British shipping in the past and asked: ‘Where merchant ships, by prohibiting the use of the was the strong arm of England now?’ British flag to protect the undignified Anticipating the rout of the Tories in the contraband traffic in arms to the Republican 1945 general election, Spence wrote in his zone.’ union’s journal in June 1938: ‘Neville In Britain, the NUS was so alarmed by the Chamberlain, faced by the pseudo Christian attacks and loss of seafarers’ lives that, along Spanish gentleman Franco, the murderer of with the Committee of Shipowners Trading to thousands of defenceless women and Spain and the Merchant Navy Officers’ children, was tragic in his futility. These things Federation, it commissioned a news film to be would be remembered by seamen in the next shown in cinemas. Made in 1938 by the general election.’ Progressive Film Institute and directed by Ivor Montagu, ‘Britain Expects’ pointed the finger at u Top: RMT General Secretary Mick Cash (left) with Neville Chamberlain for being the first British (from right) Brian Reynolds, Graham Wallace and Prime Minister to deny the merchant navy Dan Henderson, officers of the union’s Glasgow adequate protection. Shipping Branch. Below: Sculptor Frank Casey But the film was banned by the British Board speaking before the unveiling.

14 ¡NO PASARÁN! RUEDO IBÉRICO International Brigade Memorial Trust International Institute of Social History

Ruedo Ibérico’s offices in Paris were bombed by Franco agents in 1975. The publisher that took on Franco sales did not necessarily mean a small readership, ADRIAN POLE tells the story of how an exiled with writer Alfons Cerva assuring us that Ruedo publishing house shook the Spanish dictatorship. Ibérico books ‘were the most stolen from our homes by our own friends’. n the early hours of 14 October 1975, a bomb word against the myths and distortions propagated Today, the firm has slipped into obscurity. Ian exploded in the heart of Paris’s Latin Quarter. by the Franco dictatorship. Gibson, whose breakthrough came when José IThe blast, which could be heard throughout Given the poor output of historians in Spain, it Martínez published his book on the wartime the Left Bank, smashed several windows and was left to foreign writers to undertake the assassination of poet Federico García Lorca, damaged over 30 cars. The target was the challenge of researching the civil war in a scholarly doubts that younger Spaniards have ever heard of premises of the Spanish publishing firm Éditions and objective manner. Works by the likes of Hugh it. It comes as no surprise that, despite his Ruedo Ibérico, notorious for its bold Thomas and Herbert Southworth helped launch a countless interviews on Spanish radio and investigations – banned in Spain – into the historiographical tradition which modern scholars television, the topic ‘hardly ever comes up’. Its dictatorship of Francisco Franco and the Spanish have inherited. Ruedo Ibérico’s legacy hasn’t been legacy, as Gibson himself argues, deserves to be Civil War which had brought him to power. A limited to the footnotes of academic articles either. better understood. squad of Francoist ultras soon claimed The contraband books – translated into Spanish Éditions Ruedo Ibérico was founded in March responsibility for the attack, leading the firm’s and smuggled into the peninsula from the Canary 1961 by five Spanish exiles living in Paris, two of founder, José Martínez Guerricabeitia, to Islands or France – were sold from under the whom had to sell their cars to get the project off the conclude that the supporters of the regime were counter to Spaniards still living under the shadow ground. The driving force from beginning to end finally going on the offensive. of dictatorship. They were the very first examples was José Martínez, whose libertarian family had Martínez, an exiled anarchist from Valencia, of civil war history not written by the victors, and sided with the Republic when the military rebelled had a simple objective: to weaponise the printed they exposed no end of inconvenient truths. Small CONTINUED OVERLEAF

¡NO PASARÁN! 15 Your local International RUEDO IBÉRICO FROM PREVIOUS PAGE the Spanish costas. Born after the war, these were Brigade in July 1936. With the victory of Franco’s precisely the people who, in the words of José Nationalists in 1939 came spells in a reformatory, Martínez, wanted to ‘respond to a series of whys, to memorial prison and military service. Undeterred, the recover their own identity… to know the causes of obstinate anarchist soon got back to distributing the war, the consequences of the trauma, the group illegal literature throughout his local area before configuration of Francoism’. The consequence, deciding to join the growing ranks of Spaniards according to historian Aránzazu Sarría Buil, ‘was a Several independent locally-based seeking political refuge in France. He arrived, on period from the end of the ’60s to the end of the International Brigade memorial groups have foot, in 1948. He immediately encountered the ’70s when the book became a weapon of political sprung up around the country in recent years. same problems of finding work, lodgings and struggle’. The state could censor, but it was The IBMT welcomes this development and documentation which had been faced by his struggling to convince. supports their work. predecessors. One of his friends at the time reminds us that: ‘In ’48 life in Paris was still hard for he mountains of unpublished material

the French, but for young Spaniards it was Martínez had hoped for never Local groups that join the IBMT gain extra impossible. I remember his [Martínez’s] anguish materialised. Fortunately, an English benefits. They receive additional copies of ¡No T when he broke his only pair of glasses and spent a historian by the name of Hugh Thomas had Pasarán!; they can buy IBMT merchandise at few days in jail for problems with documentation.’ recently taken on the suggestion of a literary discount prices for resale; their details are France could already boast a sizeable agent and embarked on writing a history of the published in this magazine so that members community of exiled Spaniards by the time its Spanish Civil War. He admitted years later that, in their area can contact them; they enjoy all newest arrival crossed the border; Paris was well as a young academic searching for an interesting the rights of IBMT membership; they receive on its way to becoming a centre of intellectual topic, he might just as easily have written about priority support and advice from the Trust. opposition to the Franco regime. The founding of the Turkish Revolution had it been proposed to the Union of Spanish Intellectuals in 1944 was him. As it was, his book on Spain – entitled, quite To join, local groups pay an annual followed by a string of other institutions devoted to simply, ‘The Spanish Civil War’ – was published membership fee of £30. Download Spanish politics and culture. Martínez himself to positive reviews in the US before catching the the application form from the ‘Membership’ participated in the activities of the Spanish eye of Martínez, who commissioned a Spanish page of our website (www.international- Students’ Federation before realising longer-term translation as Ruedo Ibérico’s first title. brigades.org.uk) or phone 020 7253 8748 to goals were needed if the exiled opposition were to Published in 1968, it was the first attempt at an request a membership affiliation form. pose a meaningful threat to the dictatorship. With objective, comprehensive account of the war. the Americans feting Spain as a Cold War front The 5,000 copies smuggled into Spain soon DIRECTORY against communism, Franco seemed stronger sold out. Though few in number, copies were l Aberdeen XV International Brigade than ever and sporadic protest no longer seemed constantly passed around and discussed. Officials Commemoration Committee sufficient. betrayed their deep anxiety by sentencing Contact: Tommy Campbell Without ever renouncing his anarchism, Octavio Jordá, a 31-year-old smuggler caught at [email protected] Martínez desperately wanted to overcome the the border with two suitcases packed full of the l Belfast International Brigade factionalism of the left in order to create a cohesive book, to two years’ imprisonment for ‘spreading Commemoration Committee counter-narrative to that propagated by the victors communism’. Contact: Ernest and Lynda Walker of the Spanish Civil War. In doing so, he thought it A lecture in military history delivered at the [email protected] essential to give to the democratic opposition University of Zaragoza in the same year the book l within Spain a voice of its own. The founders of appeared gives a good indication as to how the war Hull International Brigades Ruedo Ibérico in faraway Paris assumed there was ‘officially’ represented in Spain at the time. Memorial Group must be sheaves of unpublished manuscripts in the The minutes don’t refer to a civil war at all, but Contact: Gary Hammond desk-drawers of Spaniards still stuck on the wrong rather a ‘War for National Liberation’, parroting [email protected] side of the Pyrenees. the official line that Franco had ‘liberated’ Spain l Oxford International Brigades While Martínez was busy formulating his ideas from godless anarchy by leading a three-year Memorial Committee in Paris, Spanish society was undergoing crusade for the country’s Catholic redemption. Contact: Colin Carritt momentous changes. Government technocrats in Hugh Thomas had fundamentally challenged this [email protected] Madrid had finally abandoned Franco’s ill-advised narrative, leaving readers with little doubt that the drive for self-sufficiency and had set Spain on a conflict had begun as a premeditated military coup course of economic integration with the rest of against a democratically elected government. Europe. The country was hurtling towards Most shocking of all were the details of mass industrialisation on an unprecedented scale, killings in Franco’s rebel zone. When asked about surpassed only by Japan, and suddenly found itself this, Franco responded with the absurd claim that a country of consumers. Many Spaniards – he had commuted various death sentences during especially those born after the war – began to the Civil War – something for which there is simply expect more from their government. Workers no evidence. International Brigade went on illegal strikes, dissatisfied with the absence Ruedo Ibérico’s second title was a translation of of independent unions, while university students Gerald Brenan’s 1943 classic, ‘The Spanish Memorial Trust demanded the same political freedoms enjoyed by Labyrinth’. Whereas Hugh Thomas had www.international-brigades.org.uk the German and Swedish tourists now flocking to concentrated on great men and high politics,

16 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust

s From left: Gabriel Jackson, Ian Gibson and José Martínez. s Hugh Thomas (right) and José Martínez in 1963.

Brenan’s left-wing sympathies impelled him to poet Federico García Lorca had been shot during extraordinary, and help explain why Graham take into account Spanish class structures and their the first days of the uprising. Brenan decided to lay Greene found the subsequent book to be ‘as influence on the coming catastrophe of war. At the a wreath at the poet’s grave, only to discover that interesting as a detective story’. Posing as an time he decided to write the book, Spanish such a place didn’t exist – and still doesn’t. The English teacher, turning up unannounced to ask historiography, whatever the period in question, exact circumstances of Lorca’s death would remain for interviews and secretly taping conversations was still dominated by old-fashioned political obscure for years. The embarrassed dictatorship with those he held responsible for the poet’s accounts. Having lived in Spain himself, and eventually settled into blaming the assassination on assassination were all part of his investigative having fled soon after the outbreak of war, Brenan rogue elements with private motives, thereby arsenal. He also got to know various people who was more interested in explaining why Spanish acquitting themselves of any responsibility. had known Lorca who were still living in Granada history had taken the disastrous course it had. in the 1960s. Despite people’s terrible fear of Supplementing his own experiences with n the summer of 1965, Ian Gibson, an Irish discussing the repression and the consequent extensive research, he managed to produce an doctoral student with a passion for Lorca’s difficulty of obtaining accurate information, extraordinarily vivid portrait of Spanish society on Ipoetry, settled in Granada to write his thesis on Gibson completed the book – only to have it the brink of war; a portrait in which the landless the poet. After discussions with various locals he repeatedly rejected by publishers. He was, by his labourer figured every bit as prominently as the decided instead to focus on the taboo topic of his own admission, a ‘complete beginner’, with no cabinet minister, and in which regional variations murder. ‘It was a wild, romantic thing to do,’ contacts in the publishing world. Then someone in rainfall mattered just as much as election results. Gibson writes, ‘shelving the thesis and changing suggested Ruedo Ibérico. Nothing at the time could compare to the sheer direction the way I did during that year off, but I ‘At that time,’ recalls Gibson, ‘all I knew about analytical scope of the book. Raymond Carr was powerless to resist the urge.’ Martínez was that he published Hugh Thomas and described it as a ‘revelation’. When the Spanish The lengths he went to in order to obtain Gerald Brenan.’ He wrote to the historian Herbert translation was smuggled into Spain in the 1960s, information about wartime Granada were truly Southworth, whose own ‘El mito de la cruzada de he writes, it became ‘the sacred text for the Franco’ had been published by the firm a few years democratic opposition to Franco’. Nor did Spain ‘Martínez desperately previously, causing a sensation for its systematic forget about Brenan in the years after Franco’s dismantling of the concept of the war as a ‘crusade’. death. In 1984 the townspeople of Alhaurín el wanted to overcome Southworth must have been impressed by Grande launched a successful campaign to bring Gibson’s book, as he now acted as the go-between ‘Don Gerardo’ back to Spain after it was discovered the factionalism of the and encouraged José Martínez to take it on. he was living in a retirement home in London. In left in order to create a In 1971 the definitive account of Lorca’s 1987 Brenan died in the country he loved so much, assassination – written in English in the hope that it aged 92. Today, Alhaurín is home to some 5,600 cohesive counter- might eventually be translated into Spanish – books donated from the author’s personal library. narrative to that appeared under the title of ‘La represión Brenan returned for a three-month trip around nacionalista de Granada en 1936 y la muerte de Franco’s Spain over a decade after the end of the propagated by the Federico García Lorca’. The small but revelatory civil war. Perhaps the defining – and certainly the victors of the Spanish book placed responsibility for the murder squarely most moving – part of his journey came when he on the shoulders of local reactionaries and visited the city of Granada. It was there that the Civil War.’ CONTINUED OVERLEAF ¡NO PASARÁN! 17 RUEDO IBÉRICO

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE War Studies was accordingly established under the In November 1975, with Ruedo Ibérico still demolished persistent claims that Lorca was some auspices of the Ministry of Information. Its stubbornly undefeated, Spanish television kind of unfortunate collateral damage caught up in director, Ricardo de la Cierva, himself the author announced the death of Franco. An amnesty for the chaos of war. Lorca, Gibson made absolutely of numerous books in defence of Francoism, was Francoist criminals and a ‘pact of forgetting’ clear, was not ‘apolitical’, as some would have it, charged with launching the dictatorship’s between the new political parties smoothed the but rather had powerful enemies in the town in intellectual counter-attack against Ruedo Ibérico. delicate transition to democracy, but left little which he was murdered. That it felt the need to do so demonstrates, in the room for José Martínez’s lifelong project of Some of the first copies to undertake the opinion of Sarría Buil, ‘the importance that the recovering Spain’s uncomfortable past. crossing into Spain did so in the author’s own car. regime granted to the writing of history, and its Meanwhile, his greatest opponent, Ricardo de la Distributing them to friends was a thrilling, obsession to control it’. Cierva, went on to become a senator, government subversive experience, but the regime was One of Ricardo de la Cierva’s most ambitious adviser, and Minister of Culture in the new relatively slow to catch on to its existence, only attempts to reclaim the regime’s intellectual democratic Spain. Struggling to find its place in the realising the seriousness of the situation when the new order, Ruedo Ibérico finally closed in 1982. book won a major prize in France in the following ‘Published in France There is no question that the books it year. By then, Francoist ministers had no choice published, many of them not mentioned here, but to ban it. The book, which exposed the horrific and smuggled into represent a remarkable contribution to our scale of terror in wartime Granada, was understanding of Spain. The group of writers unacceptable to officials and deeply shocked Spain, the banned brought together under the banner of Ruedo readers. Gibson was particularly moved by the books of Ruedo Ibérico Ibérico was truly extraordinary. Brenan, impact it had on Spanish poet Luis García Southworth and Gibson were not typical, Montero, professor of literature at the University constituted a challenge academic historians. They wrote their pioneering of Granada: ‘The testimony to the effect of the beyond the control of works of history because of a deep-seated desire to book on young Spaniards that most affects me is take on the systematic lying of the Franco regime, Luis García Montero’s, who has said that reading it the Juntas de Censura.’ which still, in the words of Paul Preston, receives a shocked him and changed his attitude to his native ‘relatively good press’. Some of them are Granada, where nobody had told him about the credibility was an enormous Spanish Civil War household names in Spain, more famous there scale of the repression and Lorca’s death was bibliography, published in 1968. The result – than in their own countries. This remarkable ascribed to personal motives, homosexual jealousy more propaganda than scholarship – was a legacy was never assured. As José Martínez himself or whatever.’ disaster. It listed hundreds of authors that didn’t asked: ‘…which Spanish distributor or bookseller exist and several books that had never been in his right mind would accept to distribute and sell ublished in France and smuggled into written. Herbert Southworth wrote scathingly our books at the risk of going to jail or being heavily Spain, the banned books of Ruedo Ibérico that it was an ‘intellectual scandal’. As the owner of fined for it? And let’s not talk about the readers, Pconstituted a challenge beyond the control the world’s largest collection of books about the who, in case of police registration, ran similar risks.’ of the Juntas de Censura. If anything, government Spanish Civil War, he was well-placed to make Incredibly, the readers were willing to take censorship helped shape the thematic priorities of such a judgement. The erudition and precision those risks. Like them, anyone at all interested in Ruedo Ibérico, which José Martínez came to Southworth had demonstrated in ‘El mito de la the history and culture of Spain owes Ruedo regard as an ‘anti-ministry’. Despite their inability cruzada de Franco’ was something Ricardo de la Ibérico an extraordinary debt. to prosecute authors due to their tactical use of Cierva could never compete with. Moreover, by pseudonyms, ministers were made aware of the financing the publication of the book himself, After graduating from UCL in 2013, Adrian Pole urgent need to update their approach to official Southworth had saved Ruedo Ibérico from worked in Barcelona and Madrid as an English historiography. This became increasingly urgent as economic collapse. Unsurprisingly, he and teacher. He now teaches in Leicester. He thanks Ian Spain entered the 1960s with an eye to shoring up Cierva would remain irreconcilable enemies Gibson and Aránzazu Sarría Buil for their help in its international reputation. The Centre for Civil until the end. researching this article.

18 ¡NO PASARÁN! BOOKS & THE ARTS International Brigade Memorial Trust

unaccompanied in the pubs of their native Stockton- on-Tees, have fleshed out Longstaff’s story into a multi-media stage show. In a bold move, they are joined in concert on audio by the real Johnny Longstaff, recorded in 1986 for the Imperial War Museum. His candid recollections of life in the 1930s reveal an impish wit and rousing selflessness. Interleaving his words with songs and Bryan Ledgard/Creative Commons Ledgard/Creative Bryan back projections, the resulting performance is one of remarkable depth and complexity. The Young’uns sing with understated musical embellishment throughout, tempered with unexpected flashes of humour and tenderness. Opening with a portrait of unimaginable poverty and neglect, ‘Any Bread?’, echoed later in the heart- breaking ‘No Hay Pan’, ‘Carrying the Coffin’ and ‘Hostel Strike’ chart Longstaff’s political awakening, while ‘Cable Street’ catches it in the first bloom of youth. By the time of his encounter with the plain- speaking recruitment officer in ‘Robson’s Song’, he is an old hand. The Young’uns mix naive earthiness on the ribald Longstaff lives memorably again growl of ‘Noddy’ with genuine pathos. They perform the gorgeous ‘Ta-ra to Tooting’ in front of a faded NEIL MUDD recommends a brilliant musical tribute by The Young’uns (above) photo of Longstaff and his mates giving the clenched to Johnny Longstaff (inset), a previously unsung working-class hero. fist salute of the Spanish Republic. They are barely out of short trousers. ike contemporaries The Unthanks and inspired by the real-life experiences of its The show does not shy away from the horror and Cornshed Sisters, Teesside’s The Young’uns are eponymous hero in that bloody confrontation with cruel privations of the war in Spain but its story is one L evidence of a thriving song-based tradition in police and Mosley’s Blackshirts. of hope and faith in human goodness. The wider England’s north-east folk scene. Longstaff is a fascinating figure. He was a veteran truth about the 35,000 men and women who Lively and politically charged, the trio’s repertoire of the hunger marches, the mass trespasses which volunteered to fight fascism with the International is a mix of outrage and deep-felt compassion, established the right to roam and the struggle against Brigades is still to be fully told. whether singing about the suicide of a young gay Franco’s fascists in Spain – all while still in his teens. But for now, we have The Young’uns and ‘The Muslim man or the historic Battle of Cable Street. His piss-and-vinegar determination to remain true to Ballad of Johnny Longstaff’. ‘The Ballad of Johnny Longstaff’ (CD available from his heart and political conscience resonates today. www.theyounguns.co.uk/shop) grew out of one Sean Cooney, David Eagle and Michael Hughes, This review first appeared in the Morning Star of such composition on the 2017 ‘Strangers’ album, themselves teenagers when they began to sing 31 January 2019.

REPRINTED: To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War, Manifesto Press have published two out-of-print pamphlets about the war under a single cover. ‘Two Pamphlets from the Spanish Civil War’ contains Johnny Campbell’s 1937 critique of ultra-left opposition to the Spanish Republic’s Popular Front government, along with a 1984 essay by Bill Alexander, former commander of the British Battalion in SCOTTISH VOLUNTEERS: The Wonder Fools theatre group’s acclaimed Spain, questioning key aspects of drama, ‘549 Scots of the Spanish Civil War’, is being revived this year. The play George Orwell’s Spanish Civil War was premiered in February 2018 in two weeks of sell-out shows at memoir, ‘Homage to Catalonia’. Tom Prestonpans and the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. The production will now go Sibley has written an introduction. on a four-week tour of 10 venues in Scotland, starting on 21 May. There will The 34-page publication costs £6, also be two performances at London’s New Diorama Theatre on 22/23 June. including p&p, and can be ordered See www.wonderfools.org/549 for more information and booking. via the Manifesto Press website (https://manifestopress.org.uk).

¡NO PASARÁN! 19 BOOKS & THE ARTS

n 1939, 27 volunteers from 10 fascism at this time. Many of the countries joined the Chinese Red volunteers had fled the persecution of ICross’s International Medical Relief China’s Jews and communists in their own Corps to aid China in the war against countries and, when the Spanish Civil the Japanese aggressors. They were War ended, found themselves 21 men and six women, ranging from ‘Spanish stateless. China was considered the 24 to 45 years in age. They were next battleground. physicians, nurses, biochemists and The Comintern was instrumental technicians; they were predominantly doctors’ in liaising with international, mainly Jewish, the majority communist and all British and Norwegian, relief anti-fascist. Nineteen of them had organisations to send the International previously volunteered to assist the Erich Mamlok, a Jewish, German-born Brigade volunteers to the Chinese Red Spanish Republic in her battle against doctor, joined the International Cross to form the International fascism during the Spanish Civil War of Medical Relief Corps in 1939. An Medical Relief Corps. Interestingly, the 1936-39. They became known as the investigation into his father’s London China Medical Aid Committee ‘Spanish doctors’ in China. experiences got Mamlok ‘hooked’; this provided temporary asylum to Robert Mamlok’s research for this book is imbued with a passionate – at several of the stateless Brigaders in ‘The International Medical Relief book brought him from the US to the times unscholarly – tone which is both the summer of 1939, before they left Corps in Wartime China 1937-1945’ Marx Memorial Library’s Spanish infectious and compelling. for China. by Robert Mamlok (McFarland & Co, Collection – our archive collection of The author’s account is effectively Mamlok meticulously traces each 2018). over 250 boxes on the International embedded in the fraught international of the volunteers’ journeys to China, Brigades and Aid Spain movement in political context of the 1930s. Mamlok accounts for the complex network of Britain. His research journey had been reminds us that Spain and China were different medical organisations in the a personal one. His own father, Dr seen as twin fronts in the fight against country at that time and even details

understanding of the immediate situation in 1936 advantage for the Communist Party in their and the challenges facing the Republic’s Popular efforts to replace the socialists and anarchists as Cold War Front government. the foremost party of the left. By contrast, as Burrowes acknowledges, Orwell Burrowes describes how Brenan’s desire to was no historian, but has morphed, by public settle in Spain in the early 1950s influenced his acclaim, into being regarded as a leading authority writings. His pre-1939 views underwent a major distortions on the civil war. Orwell went to Spain without any revision. He sought to appease the Franco regime knowledge of the Spanish labour movement and and benefitted substantially from his links to CIA- ‘Historians at War: Cold War Influences on Anglo- no experience in the anti-fascist struggle. He was funded magazines and the major Cold War American Representations of the Spanish Civil already an anti-communist, as he admits in a 1938 publishing house Hamish Hamilton. War’ by Darryl Anthony Burrowes (Sussex letter to the poet Stephen Spender: ‘I looked upon Though his books were banned in Spain until Academic Press / Cañada Blanch Centre for you as a sort of fashionable successful person, also 1974, the Spanish authorities put no pressure on Contemporary Spanish Studies, 2018). a Communist or Communist sympathiser, and I him. In return Brenan exercised self-censorship have been very hostile to the CP since about 1935.’ in his writings, which were published abroad. He aul Preston, in an incisive preface to this And yet after six months, largely on an inactive trimmed his views and steadily moved towards a book, points out that it concentrates on front, Orwell could write in his omniscient style political amnesty with Francoism. Panalysing ‘the way in which perceptions of and without further research what many came to Burnett Bolloten was a Welsh journalist sent to the Spanish conflict were coloured by the Cold believe was the seminal book on the war in Spain. Spain in 1936 as a United Press correspondent. War’. To do this, Australian author Darryl This was mainly thanks, as Burrowes shows, to the Unlike Orwell, he steeped himself in Spanish Burrowes looks at the writings and lives of four substantial promotion of ‘Homage to Catalonia’ by history and in the detail of the civil war. authors, all of whom had some direct experience the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the While in 1936 he considered joining the of the Spanish Civil War: Burnett Bolloten, International Research Department (IRD), a Communist Party, he later became increasingly Gerald Brenan, George Orwell and Herbert secret wing of the British Foreign Office. influenced by anarchist and Trotskyist ideas. By Southworth. While these Anglo-American 1961, when he published his most important authors all started as staunch anti-Francoists, erald Brenan was part of the Bloomsbury work, ‘The Grand Camouflage’, he was firmly in only Southworth remained wholly loyal to the Group literary set in the 1930s and was the anti-communist camp. In 1936 anti-fascism Republican cause. The other three’s work, in one Gregarded as a second-rate novelist. In was the cause to support. But when the Cold War way or other, was appropriated by the US and 1943, when the ‘Spanish Labyrinth’ was first arrived in the 1940s the smart side to be on for British intelligence services in their efforts to published, he faced both ways when assessing the publishing possibilities was with the anti- undermine the Soviet Union’s growing influence communists’ role in the civil war. He praised them communists. following the Second World War. for their military leadership, for their clarity of So, in his books Bolloten, who generally Bolloten, Brenan and Southworth were serious vision and their unity of purpose. But at the same supported the ineffectual Largo Caballero as ‘writer-historians’. All three, to varying degrees, time he damningly criticised their sectarianism Spanish prime minister, became a trenchant critic had a grasp of aspects of Spanish history and an and their constant changes of line in order to gain of Caballero’s successor, Juan Negrín. He

20 ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust the range of medical complaints and his back on the anti-Soviet position of Medical Corps. They both survived war A particularly interesting episode in conditions – from malnutrition, fleas his parents to join first the in Spain and China, but Kent this account took place in 1942 when and lice to infectious diseases such International Brigades and then the committed suicide on 4 December 10 volunteers joined the Chinese as malaria and dysentery that were International Medical Relief Corps in 1961. When Marens then attempted Expeditionary Force serving with US rife in wartime refugee camps – which to join her son and sister in the US she troops in India following the Japanese the physicians encountered during was refused entry due to her invasion of Burma. An illuminating their stay. ‘Spain and China Communist Party membership. passage highlights observations from He cites diaries and letters of the were seen as A central theme of the book is how a number of the volunteers who volunteers highlighting, for example the nascent civil war between Chiang witnessed American soldiers’ racism the contrasts in their welcome to twin fronts in the Kai Shek’s nationalists and Mao Tse towards the Chinese and their Spain – with fists raised and fight against Tung’s communists impacted the work preoccupation with ‘girls and food’. This international songs – to that in China. of the volunteers. The medics were surprised the medics, whose previous He also underlines the importance of fascism at the largely motivated to serve in experience with international forces medical improvements made in the communist-controlled areas, while the had been with their comrades in Spain. battlefront hospitals of the civil war in time.’ nationalists – who controlled the Mamlok describes this history as a Spain, including the treatment of China. He is later presumed to have Chinese Red Cross – treated them with ‘tribute’, underlining ‘they were fighting fractures and blood transfusion, and returned to the Soviet Union. great suspicion and restricted their for your freedom and their own’. In how they were adapted to conditions Edith Marens, a communist nurse activity in these areas. This frustration collating this previously untold episode in China. from Hanover, had been forced to was magnified as, once the volunteers in 20th century history, he certainly Personal details of the men and emigrate from Germany to Yugoslavia had arrived in China, war broke out succeeds in this goal. women who volunteered both in before she arrived in Spain. There she across Europe. Many felt impotent, MEIRIAN JUMP Spain and China bring the account to worked as a radiology technician. She unable to work, as they had hoped, for life. Alexander Volokhine, the son of married fellow International Brigader communism in China, nor to return to Meirian Jump is the Archivist & Library White Russians living in France, turned Heinrich Kent, who also joined the fight fascism in their homelands. Manager at the Marx Memorial Library. presented Negrín as Moscow’s man, stating that respected historians accuse Bolloten of being over Southworth’s enemies, and there were many ‘he was ready to go along with Stalin on reliant on tainted sources, which were often too in the US liberal establishment, accused him of everything, sacrificing all other considerations to close to the CIA. being a Stalinist, a fellow traveller and stooge for secure material aid’. Yet, as Burrowes does not Southworth makes a strong case for calling into the Soviet Union. Burrowes concedes that he was make clear, Negrín resisted Soviet efforts to question Bolloten’s use of El Campesino’s book none of these, but calls into question his charge the May 1937 coup leaders of the quasi- ‘La vie et la mort en URSS (1939-1949)’. El academic impartially – though interestingly Trotskyist POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Campesino – real name Valentín González – was a doesn’t get round to examining Orwell’s Marxista) with treason – and the prospect of the highly successful Republican military leader. impartiality. death penalty. Southworth shows that the book was actually Burrowes adopts a ‘biographical Bolloten lived for most of his later life in written by Julián Gorkin, a leading member of the methodology’ for his book. He subjects us to a Mexico and the US. His work has been criticised POUM, who was later recruited by CIA- number of judgements which take on moral tones by a number of Hispanists, including Herbert controlled organisations to work in Latin America on the personal lives of three of the four authors. Southworth (in particular), Boris Volodarsky (a in collaboration with the American AFL-CIO Surprisingly, in view of the facts, Orwell is mainly leading authority on the Soviet secret police union federation. spared from accusations of moral turpitude. His activities in Spain) and Paul Preston. All these shameful naming to the IRD of up to 100 alleged erbert Southworth had the distinction of enemies of the state is noted, but Christopher working as a political journalist both for Hitchens is wheeled in to excuse Orwell’s Hthe Spanish Republican cause (in the snitching. According to the ex-Trotskyist, then Republic’s New York Information Bureau neo-con, nobody was hurt, so no harm was done! between 1938 and 1941) and the US Office of This is a well written and researched book. Its War Information and other agencies between main strength is the forensic analysis of the 1941 and 1945. Both jobs serving the anti-fascist extensive efforts of American and British state cause were confirmation of Southworth’s deep- agencies to distort the facts so as to present a seated commitment, one that he maintained for specific anti-Soviet, anti-communist view of the the rest of his life. war in Spain. For deepening our understanding After 1945 he lived in Tangiers, where he of this process Burrowes is to be thanked. founded a radio station. He continued his interest TOM SIBLEY in the Spanish Civil War and amassed a large library of books on the subject. In 1960 he Among Tom Sibley’s publications is a biography of relocated to France, where he was able to former Canadian International Brigader Bert Ramelson, concentrate on his writing, which centred on ‘Revolutionary Communist at Work’ (Lawrence & challenging and demolishing the myth being Wishart, 2011). He has also co-edited and written an promoted by Franco and his supporters that the introduction for ‘Two Pamphlets from the Spanish Civil civil war was a crusade against communism. War’ (Manifesto Press, 2019) – see page 19.

¡NO PASARÁN! 21 LAST MAN HOME International Brigade Memorial Trust

t Clwyd South’s Labour MP PARADE: The Cambria Band led the march Susan Elan through Wrexham town centre to start the Jones (right) and Tom Jones commemoration. local Unison Later that day local football team Wrexham officer David AFC dedicated their National League game McKnight with against Braintree Town to the memory of ‘Twm the IBMT banner. Sbaen’– and won 3-1.

tAmong the afternoon speakers at the festival was novelist David Ebsworth (left).

Fascism has nothing to offer to the CELEBRATING THE peoples of the world except continuous war, a general lowering of the standard of living and a complete smashing of all culture, arts and learning. LIFE OF ‘TOM SPAIN’ “Fascism can only lead the world to the valley of death and destruction and to barbarism… I am rexham hosted a festival on 6 April in and Catalonia, as well as IBMT Chair Jim Jump and proud to say that Wales is well represented in appreciation of the achievements and Trustee Dolores Long. Next came a screening of the the British units here by its sturdy and freedom- Wexample of Tom Jones, the town’s most film about fellow International Brigader and TGWU loving coalminers. The Welsh national anthem famous anti-fascist and trade unionist. leader Jack Jones and in the evening there was poetry has been sung more than once in the trenches Known locally as Twm Sbaen (Tom Spain), Tom from Evrah Rose and music from Joe Solo, Nick Ellis, on the Madrid and Aragon fronts and by now Jones (pictured below) was a North Wales coalminer Isobella Crowther, Sphelm and Paint Your Guru. many brave Welsh miners have been killed. who fought Franco’s fascists in Spain Tom Jones (1908-1990) was born in Lancashire to They died to preserve democracy not only for and later became the Wales Welsh parents. He worked for 14 years as a miner in Spain but also in Wales. History will prove that Secretary of the Transport & Hafod, Vauxhall and Bersham collieries, near these Welsh miners did not die in vain.’ General Workers’ Union (TGWU), Wrexham, where he took part in the 1926 General – Extract of a letter from Tom Jones in the now Unite the Union. Strike and, as a trade unionist and political activist, Rhos Herald of 25 December 1937. Sponsored by Unite, the suffered victimisation for challenging the callousness Gwyl Twm Sbaen (Tom Spain of the mine-owners. Festival) began with a rally In May 1937 he joined the International Brigades. was eventually released from jail in Burgos in the and parade through the town With the XV Brigade’s Anti-Tank Battery, he saw action spring of 1940, becoming the last British volunteer to led by the Cambria Band to at Brunete, Belchite and Teruel before transferring to be repatriated. the Ty Pawb (People’s House), the British Battalion’s machine-gun company. In Jones resumed his union activism, this time in the where there were songs from the September 1938 during the Battle of the Ebro he was TGWU, and ended his working life as the union’s first Wrexham Community Choir – injured, taken prisoner and later sentenced to death Wales Secretary. He also played a prominent role in including ‘Twm Sbaen Is Fighting For at a show trial in Zaragoza. This was commuted to 30 the establishment of the Wales TUC in 1974. Me!’. This was followed by sessions exploring the years of imprisonment. He is remembered on a plaque unveiled in 2013 at memory and legacy of the International Brigades and His family initially believed him to be dead – a Rhosllanerchrugog, near Wrexham. A room is also Spanish Civil War, featuring speakers from Brazil, Chile memorial meeting was even held for him – but he named after him at the Unite offices in Cardiff.

22 ¡NO PASARÁN! Become a Friend of the IBMT and help preserve the memory and spirit of the International Brigades You can help make a special contribution to our with your donation, you can request a form from essential work by becoming a Friend of the IBMT. [email protected]

Donate more than £50 a year and your name will be l Alternatively, click the Donate button on our listed as a Friend of the IBMT in our magazine. If you website (www.international-brigades.org.uk) and dedicate your donation to a particular International make a donation of at least £50 via PayPal. If you do Brigade volunteer, this will be published along with this, please email [email protected] your name. We’ll also send you an exclusive Friend of to notify us. the IBMT badge (above) to wear with pride. Thank you for your support. ¡No pasarán! l Send a cheque for £50 or more made out to the A IONA ERN LES IBMT, along with your name and address, to: IBMT, NT D I E S L O A I

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International Brigade Memorial Trust Help us inspire new generations with the SAVE THE DATE story of the men and women who fought The IBMT’s Annual General Meeting will fascism and defended democracy in Spain take place in London on Saturday from 1936-1939. 5 October 2019 as part of a weekend of To make a donation or become a Friend of social, cultural and commemorative the IBMT go to www.international-brigades. activities in the capital over that weekend. org.uk and click the donate button. International Brigade Memorial Trust ¡No pasarán! 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU 020 7253 8748 [email protected] www.international-brigades.org.uk They shall not pass!

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Proceeds help fund the commemorative, educational and publicity work of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. Keyring in colours of the Free postage & Spanish Republic: Large International Brigade flag: Replica of the flag of the mainly English-speaking IBMT badge: Solid metal badge size (5.5cms diameter). packing on goods 15th International Brigade, which included badge with International £3.99 plus £2.99 p&p. Anti-fascist women’s t-shirt: Fitted t-shirt the British Battalion. Based on the flag of the Brigade medal in centre totalling £30 or more featuring names of British nurses who served Spanish Republic. 150cms x 87cms. and ‘International Brigade for orders within the in Spain. Made for the IBMT by t-shirt £10.99 plus £3.99 p&p. Memorial Trust’ around specialists Philosophy Football from ethically UK and Europe. the edge. sourced cotton. ‘International Brigade £3.99 plus £2.99 p&p. Memorial Trust’ on sleeve. Available in XXL Send orders, including (size 18); XL (size 16); L (size 14); M (size 12). your name and £19.99 plus £4.99 p&p. address, a size and colour where appropriate, and a Mug: On one side the International Brigades three- cheque payable to the pointed star and on the reverse IBMT to: IBMT the words of La Pasionaria: ‘You Merchandise, 37a are legend’. £9.99 plus £3.99 p&p. Clerkenwell Green, Tin-plated badge: Shows image of La Pasionaria and in London EC1R 0DU. the background the medal given to International For multiple orders in ¡No Pasarán! bag: Ethically sourced jute bag Brigaders when they left Spain. In Spanish Republican the UK up to a value (30cms square, 18cms across). One side printed, other blank. Robust, useful for any shopping trip colours. of £30 (excluding and a great way to show support for anti- £1.99 plus £2.99 p&p. p&p) calculate total fascism and the IBMT. p&p by taking the £6.99 plus £2.99 p&p. highest p&p among items ordered, halving the p&p of the Brooch in colours of the remaining items and Spanish Republic: Bespoke perspex laser-cut brooch adding them together. designed for the IBMT in art British Battalion t-shirt: In red or grey and deco style. 6cms x made for the IBMT by t-shirt specialists For orders outside the . Philosophy Football from ethically sourced £9.99 plus £3.99 p&p. cotton. British Battalion banner on front and UK or to pay by credit ‘International Brigade Memorial Trust’ on sleeve. card or PayPal, go to Available in: S (36inch/90cms chest);

M (40inch/100cms); L (44inch/110cms); the merchandise page Clenched fist sculpture: Life- XL (48inch/120cms); XXL (52inch/130cms); sized sculpture in specially on our website: fitted women’s (34-36inch/70-90cms). Volunteers for Liberty plate: Highly decorative treated concrete. Based on the (www.international- £19.99 plus £4.99 p&p. commemorative plate made in Staffordshire by clenched fist created by brigades.org.uk/ Heraldic Pottery exclusively for the IBMT. Fine sculptor Betty Rae for the top catalog) where there bone china. 26.5cms diameter. Re-issue of the of the pole of the original British Battalion banner. are also other items much sought after 50th anniversary plate produced by International Brigade veteran Lou 23cms high. The clenched fist listed for sale. Three-pointed star was the iconic salute of the International Brigade Kenton. Includes mount for wall display. SPECIAL OFFER: £24.99 plus £5.99 p&p. Popular Front and is still used brooch: Bespoke perspex by anti-fascists around the See the new laser-cut brooch designed for Three-pointed star International Brigade world. products/special the IBMT. 4.5cms x 6cms. £29.99 plus £7.99 p&p. £8.99 plus £3.99 p&p. offers section on the website for discount deals on certain products. 15th International Brigade t-shirt: With flag of 15th International Brigade, which included British, Irish, American, Canadian and Earrings in colours of the Commonwealth volunteers. ‘International earrings: Bespoke perspex laser-cut earrings Spanish Republic: Bespoke Brigade Memorial Trust’ on sleeve. Available in designed for the IBMT. 2.5cms x 3.5cms. perspex laser-cut earrings S, M, L, XL, XXL and fitted women’s size (see £7.99 plus £3.99 p&p. designed for the IBMT in art International Brigades British Battalion t-shirt for size details). deco style. 3cms x 2.25cms. keyring: In Spanish £19.99 plus £4.99 p&p. Republican colours. £8.99 plus £3.99 p&p. £3.99 plus £2.99 p&p.