“...and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” ABRAHAM LINCOLN TheThe VVolunteerolunteer JOURNAL OF THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

Vol. XXV, No. 2 June 2003

The Vets take the stage while the band plays songs of struggle and protest at the New York annual reunion, April 27, 2003. See page 3 for story. Photos by Richard Bermack Letters Dear Editor, I met Harry Fisher in Madrigueras. A kind, gentle, sweet, strong, very determined comrade. He told the municipal authorities about his stay in their town. Said he: “The first time in my life I felt that I had a family.” There were tears and abrazos. I salute Harry posthumously for the last time. Un abrazo fuerte. Gino Baumann Costa Rica

ALBA board member Burt Cohen congratulates John Dear Volunteer, Brademas, President Emeritus of New York University and I meet Bill Susman at the exhibit "Shouts from the Wall". President of the King Juan Carlos Center and Michael I talked with him about what it was like to be a soldier Nash head of the Tamiment Library on receiving the NEH and about his experience in the and grant. World War II. He was very nice and he roughhoused with me. He seemed really cool. I liked him a lot. NEH Funds Archives Malcolm Lee, age 11. The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded a two-year $262,662 grant to New York WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORG University’s Tamiment Library to process to and pre- Make a donation on line. We now accept serve the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives—the most important historical collection in the docu- credit cards. Support ALBA's important menting American participation in the Spanish Civil work. Donations are tax deductible. War. The grant will make it possible for the Library to preserve the archive and provide access to it. The project will arrange, describe, and conserve 333 linear feet of manuscript and printed material, more than The Volunteer 100 reels of microfilm, 5,000 photographs, 475 audio cas- Journal of the settes, 89 reel-to-reel tapes, 150 hours of film and video Veterans of the tape, 120 posters, 6 paintings and oversized documents, Abraham Lincoln Brigade and a large collection of regalia including buttons, badges, medals, uniforms, banners, and flags. an ALBA publication After this work is finished New York University 799 Broadway, Rm. 227 Libraries will mount a Web-based exhibit describing the New York, NY 10003 history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the ALBA collection. This will be followed by a schedule of regular (212) 674-5398 exhibits and an annual lecture series hosted by New York University’s King Juan Carlos Center. The expecta- Editorial Board tion is that once the ALBA Archive is fully accessible, Peter Carroll • Leonard Levenson students and scholars from all over the world will come Gina Herrmann • Fraser Ottanelli to the Tamiment Library to use it. Abe Smorodin Lincoln vets and their families are invited to help continue to build this important collection. This winter Design Production the Archie Brown Papers were added to the Archive and Richard Bermack the Robert Colodny Papers will be coming soon. Editorial Assistance For information about making donations to the Carla Healy-London ALBA Collection, please contact Julia Newman, Executive Director, ALBA, 799 Broadway, Rm 227, New Submission of Manuscripts York, NY 10003. Phone 212-674-5398; or email: Please send manuscripts by E-mail or on disk. [email protected]. E-mail: [email protected]

2 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 End of An Era Bill Susman Bill spent his first years. The house- hold was a transit point for radicals 1915-2003 passing through the area. Both par- By Cary Nelson ents worked in clothing factories. Photos by Richard Bermack Anna was active in the ILGWU, as There really were only two was Bill’s great aunt Sarah, who options—getting wounded or getting lived for some time in the household. killed. This a young lieutenant in the Charles was a Socialist Party mem- realized as he start- ber when his son was born, and he ed up a steep hill in the Ebro valley became a charter member of the new near Gandesa. The Americans and Communist Party. The marriage col- their Spanish comrades were caught lapsed when Bill was about six years in a crossfire between two machine old; in 1929 Bill and his father moved gun emplacements above them. The to the Bronx. Bill was an honors stu- idea that you could pass through dent in high school, but nonetheless that ricocheting rain of bullets felt restless. unscathed was not worth entertain- Susman entered the party’s ing. But the Republic needed the junior Groups of America at age ten, high ground. The effort had to be then became a Young Pioneer. They made whether or not it was realistic. sent him to to attend the As Bill Susman would learn over first national Unemployment and over again in , occupying Councils convention; immediately the high ground morally did not after that he graduated into the guarantee possession of the equiva- Young Communist League. By that called down for a Waldorf salad. Bill lent geographical or political terrain. time, in a Bronx high school, he was hadn’t a clue. In recompense they Like so many of his lifetime com- simultaneously taking courses at the kept him at the job without quarter. rades on the Left, he would learn the Party’s Worker School. He was eager He never quite got out of his lesson repeatedly in the years to for adventure, for travel, and Left clothes, but when the captain came come. But he did indeed live to scale politics had become central to his down for a visit a few days later he other mountains. On that day in 1938 life. He undertook some special took a liking to the ship’s young he was wounded in the elbow and work under the name William scullery scoundrel and invited him crawled behind a terrace to avoid Dorno. The new first name stuck, on deck to learn something about being shot again. Carried out of and he became William Susman. He being a sailor. He had a steering les- action, he would live to win and lose dropped out of school and in 1934 son and adapted obliquely to many future battles, bearing with was assigned to help the striking another task. Directed by a seaman him at once the knowledge that you Maritime Workers Industrial Union. with a heavy Brooklyn accent to call are never wholly in control of your When the strike ended, he decided to out “The lights are bright, sir,” when own fate and that the only compen- go to sea. eight bells rang, thereby assuring all satory leverage you have is never to On the New York docks he that the running lights were on, Bill exercise less than a maximum effort. showed a skill he would employ suc- heard the command through his Those of us who worked with cessfully the rest of his life— Yiddish ears and for a time bellowed Bill over the years would come to choosing just the right words to tip “Litza Britza.” feel a certain awe at what a maxi- an interaction his way. From on After passing through the mum effort meant for him. When board ship they called out to the men Panama Canal and disembarking on you were in the crossfire between his below looking for work to say they shore leave at San Francisco, he was will and his affection you were not needed a chef’s assistant. Never skip- ready to become involved in a West likely to forget the experience. ping a beat then or thereafter, Bill Coast strike by way of the waterfront He began life as a red diaper proclaimed himself well seasoned. YCL. Back in New York in 1936, he baby, born Samuel Susman to “Where have you worked?” “The went to sea again, joining the east Charles and Anna Susman in New Hotel Edison, the Roosevelt, the coast strike when the ship docked in Haven, Connecticut, on September Waldorf.” It was the third claim, the Baltimore. By then, a young CP 25, 1915. They returned to their home topper,that got him in trouble a few member, he was ready for a still in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where days out to sea, when the captain Continued on page 18

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 3 Fighting for Peace Legacy of the Lincoln Brigade

By Mark Jenkins at that time, still recov- ntil the middle of February, ering from surgery). the large urban campus of the Before long there was a UUniversity of Washington in second meeting with Seattle was quiet as a mouse. The over a hundred people 35,000 students and nearly 3,000 fac- on campus. ulty members seemed to be asleep as The next week a far as the looming war in Iraq was cold but very success- concerned. ful rally took over A few miles north of the campus, “Red Square,” the 87 year-old Brigade vet, Abe largest open space on Osheroff, heard the snoring. He the UW campus. became very upset. While in the Twelve hundred peo- midst of excruciating pain from a ple, mostly university herniated spinal disc, followed by personnel, gathered in delicate and dangerous surgery to the wind and rain. repair his spine, and a challenging Representatives from recovery period, he doggedly contin- faculty, students, and ued —even escalated his activism— staff declared they serving as the catalyst, mentor, were “breaking the strategist, and taskmaster for what silence” and began has become one of the largest anti- speaking out against war efforts on any college campus in the war. A small the nation. Cessna plane towed a Osheroff brought together pro- banner declaring Abe Osheroff, photo by Jose Moreno. fessors, students and staff he knows “Campus4Peace.net.” from the university. He admonished Guess who arranged for that? world crisis for students, faculty, them. He cajoled them. Sometimes Abe Osheroff, a man who, back in staff, and the wider community. The he scolded them. When friends came the 1930s, once raised money to next day the Provost met with the to offer comfort during his health hire a horse and wagon to parade UW organizers and agreed to call for ordeal, he turned the conversations through Brownsville in Brooklyn to such a day and further, to provide to the impending war in Iraq, chal- call attention to a rally earlier in his ongoing discussions, panels, and lenging them to “get something career. debates to take place throughout the going on campus.” He asked tough On this most recent, cold day in spring term. The following day the questions, he openly despaired about early March, Abe, still barely able Faculty Senate passed a resolution the silence on campus due to the to walk, climbed the seven steps to calling for a “Time of Reflection: The nearly total lack of activism and the microphone and spoke to the War in Iraq.” A new group called leadership from faculty. crowd for five minutes, personally Campus For Peace was formed to Within a few weeks his determi- “declaring war” on a tyrannical keep these efforts going. nation paid off. He inspired and, administration determined to be the Abe Osheroff is definitely back when necessary, shamed his UW world’s policemen and challenging all on his feet, proving once again that friends into taking action. First a those present to “make a difference.” one person can make a difference. small group met at his home to form The immediate purpose of the This is the legacy of the XV brigade: an action plan. Soon more people rally was to demand that the UW looking forward: Viva la Brigada from the university showed up in his administration respond to the com- Lincoln! living room. (He was confined to sit- ing war in Iraq by declaring a day Mark Jenkins teaches in the School of ting upright in a chair 24 hours a day devoted to examining the present Drama at the University of Washington

4 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 NYNYCC HHonorsonors thethe BrBrigadeigade By Anne Taibleson Photos by Richard Bermack t midday on Sunday, April 27 the skies were sunny, the Abreezes warm. It was a beauti- “In the neighborhood ful day to honor the Lincoln Brigade at the 67th Reunion held at the I grew up in, you Tribeca Performing Art Center of the either went to Spain Borough of Manhattan Community or you had a good College in downtown New York City. It was great to be back “home” excuse.” again, and though hearts are heavy Richard Dreyfuss this year, we had much to celebrate. Henry Foner, for the 27th year, played an important part in the reunion as emcee and good will ambassador. His participation was acknowledged in a surprise tribute. ALBA Chair Peter Carroll and Lincoln vet Moe Fishman presented Henry with a beautiful engraved plaque, honoring his “unfailing ser- vice to the cause.” Henry was quite moved, but did not miss a beat, and continued his emcee responsibilities with grace. Richard Dreyfuss Moe Fishman was in especially fine form. He told the audience, amazed by the reception they New York in March. With the numbering 800-plus that he and vets received from young activists during Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Len Levenson and Harry Fisher were the anti-war demonstration held in Brigade banner flying high, the cheers and hugs and kisses bestowed upon them by hundreds of young people passing by was unbelievable. “It looks like the ALBA website (www.alba-valb.org) is catching on,” he said. Fifteen vets graced the stage this year, and each had something to say, whether about the present outrage in the Middle East or their own life- changing experiences fighting against fascism in Spain. Every vet- eran there, in some way, salved all our weary souls, rallying against U.S. aggression overseas. Fredda Weiss, ALBA Executive Committee member, introduced the keynote speaker—actor, activist, and red-diaper baby, Richard Dreyfuss. Born in Bayside, NY and son of a mother proud never to have voted Democrat, this highly talented and Moe Fishman and Peter Carroll present a plaque to Henry Foner Continued on page 6

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 5 NYC Honors Brigade Continued from page 5 modest gentleman told stories about coming of age on 218th Street, passionate activism in his family that Queens, with stories of what the began in 19th century Russia; about Lincolns accomplished and how they his grandmother who was private knew the truth before the rest of the secretary to Eugene V. Debs; about world did, and how they set the stan- dard for activism and commitment. The songs of resistance and protest, put together by Bruce Barthol, musical direc- tor of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, closed the program. Developed by Bruce and ALBA’s Peter Glazer, the pro- gram’s rendition of the Harry Randall Wobbly doxology was hilarious and protest songs from the Dreyfuss said, “As long as we likes of Country Joe and the remember what the men and women Fish brought back lots of of the Lincoln Brigade stand for, we memories. can work through this present and It was another happy future chaos.” No truer words and emotional tribute to the Anne Taibleson is a member of the veterans of the Abraham Saul Wellman and Sylvia Thompson ALBA Board of Governors. Lincoln Brigade. As Richard ALBA’s April Events in NYC

Documentary film producer C M Hardt (left) screened her moving film Death in El Valle, about her investigation of the murder of her grandfather. ALBA Chair Peter Carroll and Moe Fishman honor Spain's Consul General of New York, Emilio Casaniello at the King Juan Carlos Center for his support of ALBA’s work.

6 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Songs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War By Dan Lynn Watt with Molly Lynn Watt This is May 21st and excellent fighting weather. Cold wind and hot sun. By the time you get this the news- papers will probably be reporting great victories for Loyalist Spain. Almost two years of war and still the spirit is the same – even higher. All of Spain is singing songs of struggle and victory. Just listen to us. (Excerpt from a post card written on May 21, 1938 by George Watt, Political Commissar of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, to his wife, Ruth Rosenthal Watt in New York.) New England audiences have been singing along with those spirit- ed songs from Spain, and listening to excerpts of letters exchanged between George and Ruth Watt, as part of a program called “Songs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War.” Sylvia Miskoe, Tony Saletan, Molly Lynn Watt and Dan Lynn Watt perform Folksinger Tony Saletan performs “Songs and Letters of the Spanish Civil War.” the songs with banjo, guitar, and piano, accompanied by Sylvia was a two-inch stack of yellowed The program opens with Los Miskoe on accordion. I read my typewritten pages, carbon copies of Cuatro Generales and closes with father’s letters, while my wife Molly letters written by Ruth in New York . In between, we weave many reads Ruth’s. The show attracts audi- to George in Spain. Ruth died in songs from and about Spain with ences that include Spanish Civil War April 1940, 15 months after George excerpts we’ve selected and edited aficionados as well as folks who returned from Spain and five weeks from the letters. They tell the story of know little about it. after I was born. (In June 1941 these two young lovers, idealists and We introduced “Songs and George married Margie Wechsler, political activists, separated by war. Letters” as a one-hour presentation his wife of 53 years, my dearly Set against the backdrop of interna- to liven up a daylong conference on beloved stepmother, and mother to tional efforts to prevent a World War the Spanish Civil War held in my brother Steve.) Ruth’s belongings in 1937 and 1938, the story evokes Concord, New Hampshire in were put into a box that was never parallels with today’s international February 2002. When George Watt opened until we found it last year. tragedy: died in 1994 at age 80, he left behind Except for a few photos, the let- George wrote about learning to a collection of letters he had written ters are the only personal effects I be a soldier, operating a machine to his first wife, Ruth. She kept them have ever had to tell me about the gun, dodging bullets—and getting in a scrapbook with post cards, pho- person my mother was, and my par- wounded, about the horrors of war tos, leaflets and memorabilia George ents’ love for each other. This and its effects, and about the interna- sent home from Spain. wonderful treasure—the nearly com- tionalism he experienced in Spain. Three weeks before the New plete set of letters exchanged Ruth wrote about her political work Hampshire conference, Molly and I between George and Ruth giving us organizing a boycott of silk stockings made an astounding discovery when two sides of an extraordinary con- imported from Japan, seeing the we opened a box containing my versation —became the basis for movies Blockade, Snow White and the father’s letters that had been stored “Songs and Letters of the Spanish Seven Dwarfs and Paul Muni in Zola, in my parents’ basement. In the box Civil War.” Continued on page 8

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 7 Letters Continued from page 7

and the support at home for the Eventually I plan to edit and publish Lincolns. She canvassed friends to a book of George and Ruth’s corre- write and send packages of necessi- spondence. ties—coffee, cigarettes, gum, tinned For information about upcoming salmon and warm sweaters—to the performances and materials, check boys in Spain. out the ALBA web site, www.alba- Many of the songs woven valb.org. To sponsor a performance among the letters are familiar to contact Dan or Molly Lynn Watt, readers of The Volunteer: The 617-354-8242, 603 588-6734, Internationale, Freiheit, Peat Bog [email protected] or Soldiers, Viva La Quince Brigada, [email protected]. Venga Jaleo, and others recorded during or shortly after the war and popular- ized later by Paul Robeson, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert and The Weavers among others. Tony Saletan has also found lesser-known songs of the time. Woody Guthrie’s Mr. Tom Mooney is Free complements Ruth’s letter about a “Free Tom Mooney” rally at which Fiorello LaGuardia and Heywood Broun were among the speakers. George writes to Ruth, Don’t Buy Anything September 16, 1937 Japanese was a topical Dear Muchachkele, At long last I got song, sung to the tune your letter. I had grapes, lemonade and your of Bay Mir Bistu Sheyn, letter for dessert. I had lamb stew, French and connects with fried potatoes and your letter for my main Ruth’s boycott of silk dish. Well there’s hardly any need to say stockings. Tony found what difference your letter made. It’s much verses in Yiddish to Ruth writes to George, easier now facing artillery and machine Viva La Quince Brigada and the Nov. 26, 1937 George, Do you realize we have a guns than it was before. I was really worried Song of the United Front, and celebration coming soon? Our first that I wouldn’t hear from you before we two songs by Lewis Allan Anniversary! Remember? So on went into action. Well, I’m happy, that’s all, about the Spanish Civil War, January 15, just imagine when you very, very happy. You write about my new Abraham Lincoln Walks Again go to sleep that I say, push over, and I vitality and depth of experience. Well, my and Beloved Comrade, widely crawl in next to you and you say, brr new vitality consists in infiltration (running sung at the time. you’re cold, and I say, my you’re love- and flopping towards the enemy – usually Our program has evolved ly and warm. Later you’re dying to go done on very thorny, rocky ground) and my from a one-hour performance to sleep, but I won’t let you because of depth of experience comes from digging to an evening with two acts the way I keep kissing the corner of foxholes. and an intermission. By July your eye, and rubbing my nose in Yesterday our entire section was trans- 2003 we will have given seven your cheek, and fiddling with your ferred into a Spanish company. This was performances in a variety of hair and murmuring silly things. And done to strengthen the Spanish group. This venus. We are working on a then you just turn around and go to is just the chance that most of us have been CD, and hope to develop a sleep – and even then I rub my face in waiting for. Now we are doing the job the radio show and a historical your back and am so happy I fall International Brigade was really meant to presentation suitable for asleep, too. do. That is to teach. schools and libraries.

8 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Republican Memory Returns to Spain By Helen Graham This article is an abridged version of the 2003 Len Crome Memorial Lecture presented on March 8 at the Imperial War Museum in London, under the aus- pices of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. Len Crome served in Spain as a doctor and Brigade Chief Medical Officer. n this year’s memorial lecture I have chosen to focus on the return Iof Republican memory, since it is a subject of extraordinary impor- tance now in Spain. In 1989, the North American raised son of the Spanish Republican novelist, Ramón Sender, published an account of his own and his sister’s search for the remains of their moth- er, Amparo Barayón and for the truth about her imprisonment and extra-judicial murder. She was killed at the age of thirty two, in rebel-held Zamora in northwest Spain, the Catholic heartland of Old Castile, in the early months of Spain’s civil war. The book, called simply A Death in Zamora, charts an extraordinary odyssey in time, space and memory. On his return to Spain, in the 1980s, the son, also called Ramón, discovers he has a whole extended Spanish family, which emerges like a lost continent, bearing with it the history, Ramón J. Sender and Amparo Barayón the traces, the unquiet ghost of his mother Amparo. He meets and her family received anonymous and painful recuperation of Amparo’s niece, Magadalena Maes, death threats. Republican memory, the memory of who in 1942 at the age of 17 had in I’ve begun with this snapshot the defeated, which is only now an act of tremendous courage, physi- from A Death in Zamora because it is exploding in Spain. The most well cally with her own hands removed an extraordinary book that deserves known examples are probably the her beloved aunt’s remains from the to be more widely known and read. campaign to open common graves to common grave where they lay, And it does so precisely because it identify the remains of those extra- reburying them in the family tomb. tells in microcosm almost every pro- judicially murdered by the Francoist “The bad thing [Magdalena tells found thing one could want to say forces both during and after the war; Ramón] was that they [had] put about the civil war in Spain, as a civil the campaign for recognition and quicklime in with her. There was no war; its complex social and cultural compensation by those used as coffin or anything, just the body and causes and its tremendous costs in forced labor by the regime; and most the quicklime.” For this act of the long aftermath of uncivil peace, recently as documented by the recent temerity, even though Amparo’s up to and well beyond the death of television documentary about the niece had sought and received the Franco in 1975. Above all its narra- lost children of Francoism, those requisite official authorization, she tive paves the way for the long, slow, Continued on page 10

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 9 Memory stemmed, as it did in the Republican holding farmers who had achieved Continued from page 9 zone, from “uncontrollable” groups. new tenancy rights under the In Republican Spain the military Republic; urban workers, progres- coup provoked the total collapse of sive teachers, trade unionists; “the who were notoriously taken from the state apparatus. But in the rebel new woman.” The military rebels their mothers, Republican women zone there was no collapse of public and their civilian supporters were prisoners, and forcibly adopted by order. The fascist Falangist or clerical thus redefining “the enemy” as Francoist families—which for us Carlist militia and other volunteers entire sectors of society that were now immediately recalls the shades of the right, could at any time have perceived as out of control because of later violations—in Videla’s been disciplined by the military they were beyond the control of tra- Argentina or Pinochet’s Chile. authorities that underwrote public ditional forms of discipline and In the title of this memoir, A order from the beginning. Not only order. Death in Zamora, one death stands for did this not happen, but instead, as And I mention here “the new the many. For the tens of thousands the research of the past decade has woman” because a pathological fear of people killed in the Francoist made clear, the military actively and loathing of emancipated women repression had one thing over- recruited thousands of civilian vigi- was a very powerful motive force whelmingly in common with each lantes to carry out a dirty war. Thus among the rebels. Amparo Barayón other: they had benefited in some military and civilian-instigated wasn’t just killed in lieu of her hus- way from the redistribution of power band the famous Republican writer, under the Republic. Local studies of Ramón Sender, as many commenta- the repression demonstrate quite tors have previously claimed. No, clearly that those who targeted the she was killed, as it were, in her own length and breadth of rebel Spain right. For Amparo was a modern were precisely those constituencies woman. In 1930, as Spain’s monarchs on whom the Republic’s reforming crumbled, Amparo had, aged 26, left legislation had conferred social and the conservative provincial backwa- political rights for the first time in ter of Zamora and gone to , their lives. Conversely, the many the “big city”, to become indepen- who supported Spain’s military dent. She found work as a telephone rebels (whether we take this “many” switchboard operator—a new as individuals or as entire social con- employment opportunity that was stituencies) had in common a fear of itself an indicator of Spain’s bur- where change was leading—whether geoning modernity. In Madrid she their fears were of material or psy- supported herself, lived indepen- chological loss (wealth, professional dently, educating herself both status, established social and politi- politically and culturally, and she cal hierarchies, religious or sexual, i.e. met Ramón Sender and began living gendered, certainties) or a mixture of with him—which was quite some- these things. thing for those times, even in urban The assuaging of this over- metropolitan Spain—for Madrid was whelming sense of fear was a very not Berlin or Paris. important element driving the Although back in Zamora they Francoist repression. Why do I say Amparo, approximately 16 year old wouldn’t have know about Sender, this? Well, because horrifying repres- nevertheless the very fact that sion took place everywhere in repression existed in a complemen- Amparo had spread her wings rebel-held territory. That is to say, it tary relationship. This was the inspired horror among the pillars of took place in many places—of which beginning of the “fellowship of provincial society and also among Zamora was one—where the mili- blood,” of the complicity of whole conservative members of her own tary rebels were in control from the sectors of Spanish society, ordinary family who saw her as on the road to outset, where there was no military Spaniards who became enmeshed in damnation. And it would be some of or armed resistance, no political the murder of their compatriots. these family members, determined to resistance to speak of either, in short, Who was targeted by this repres- ensure the fulfillment of their own where one would be hard-pressed to sion? Well, as I’ve already suggested, bigotry masquerading as prophecy, find a “war-situation” at all (at least all sorts of people—whether or not who were responsible for denounc- according to a conventional defini- they were active combatants—the ing her to the military authorities in tion of war). Nor is it feasible to rural landless, but also many rural Zamora. This happened in the late argue that the initial violence small holders and above all lease- Continued on page 11

10 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 summer of 1936, after Amparo had the priest in question who gave an ual physical and psychological tor- fled back to her hometown with her account to members of her family ture. Why was there such a need to two young children in the aftermath days after she had been killed. But humiliate or to break the enemy, of the military rising. She did this most notably, in the 1980s Amparo’s publicly or otherwise? with the mistaken assumption that son Ramón tracked down two of the Well, all these forms of violence home would mean safety—a mistake women who were jailed with his (in which I include the humiliation she shared with the poet Federico mother. One of them, Pilar Fidalgo, and moral suffering inflicted on Garcia Lorca and also with many who was saved from execution by a Republican children who came thousands and thousands of anony- prisoner exchange, wrote her own under the tutelage of the Francoist mous victims of the repression. contemporary account of her impris- state) were functioning as rituals As a result of the denunciation, onment which was published in through which social and political Amparo was imprisoned in late 1939, outside Spain. control could be re-enacted. And sig- August 1936. What happened to her Before the exchange could hap- nificant here too is the manner in then takes us to the heart of what the pen, however, Pilar Fidalgo’s own which the “enemy” so often met his rebel repression sought to achieve. baby, who had been imprisoned or her death at rebel hands: at the She was interrogated with the express with her, had succumbed to illness start of the civil war, the mass public intention of making her “recant.” and died. As many Republican executions were followed by the In her case the objective was that women were imprisoned with their exhibition of corpses in the streets; she make a formal denunciation of babies or young children during and the mass burning of bodies, the quasi her husband, Ramón Sender (her after the war in massively over- auto da fe of a socialist deputy in the husband by a Republican civil mar- crowded and unsanitary conditions Plaza Mayor of Salamanca in July riage ceremony, even though such deaths were not an unusual 1936, or the fact that executions in Amparo herself was a practicing occurrence (whether inside jails or in the center-north of the rebel zone Catholic). She was subjected to the transportation to or between often took place on established saints extraordinary pressure by a priest, jails). Indeed this seems to have been and feast days; or the uncanny mix- who subjected her to a torrent of part of the punishment for their gen- ture of terror and fiesta (executions abuse and, after she made her final der transgression. followed by village fêtes and dances, confession, refused her absolution. One prison official remarked to both of which the local population In other words Amparo Barayón Fidalgo that “red” women had for- was obliged to attend). was subject to a form of sustained feited their right to nourish their This violence served to exorcise psychological torture, the objective of young. There are many accounts of the underlying fear of loss of control which was to humiliate her. So even police interrogators remarking that which was the subconscious link though she had avoided the public red women should have had more uniting the military rebels with their forms of violent humiliation com- sense than to have had children various groups of civilian support- monly visited upon Republican because “reds are without rights.” ers. When they murder the “enemy,” women in the length and breadth of There were also cases of women they’re murdering change, or the rebel-held Spain—the head shaving, imprisoned in an advanced state of threat of change. And there was an the purging with castor oil and public pregnancy whose executions were assumption, again which united the parading; and though Amparo delayed until after their confinement. various civilian and military compo- Barayón was not physically tortured For the older child survivors too, the nents of the rising, that Spain could and raped, as many other female price of nourishment (via Francoist only be reborn through a blood sacri- Republican prisoners were in the social welfare organizations) often fice. In the same way, the widespread course of police interrogations—the involved what Fidalgo herself complicity of priests throughout object was the same: to break her. described (in the 1939 memoir) as Spain in the mass process of denunci- Then one day her name appeared “moral suffering: obliging orphans to ation, killing and torture of those on a list of those that the death sing the songs of the murderers of deemed opponents has to be under- squads came by night to take out of their father; to wear the uniform of stood in these terms, as a reassertion jail in the deadly sacas. On 11 October those who have executed him; and to of control, rather than solely as an 1936, nearly 3 months after the mili- curse the dead and blaspheme his avenging response to the phe- tary coup against the Republic, memory.” nomenon of popular anticlerical Amparo Barayón was taken from the If we can think past the sheer violence in Republican territory. town jail to the cemetery. There, by horror of these events, as historians, Helen Graham teaches history at lantern light, they shot her and buried eventually, always have to do, we Royal Holloway, University of her, where she fell, in a common must ask what was going on here, London. She is the author of The grave . what did these things mean? To Spanish Republic at War (Cambridge). We know of Amparo’s fate from answer that question we clearly need several specific sources, including to focus on the purpose of the habit-

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 11 Book Reviews

Republic. With this claim, the book Spain at War offers a wholly revisionist interpreta- tion of the role of the PCE, which The Spanish Republic at War, 1936- the massive escalation in foreign aid stands in direct contrast to the classic 1939. By Helen Graham, to the rebels. The centrality of interna- anti-communist reading of Bolloten Cambridge University Press, 2002. tional aid (or the lack of it) is not a and other critics, who have blamed new claim, although Graham’s book the party for destabilizing the By Pamela Radcliff demonstrates the impact of non-inter- Republic through its Stalinist-direct- vention in concrete terms and the ed power politics. elen Graham frames her new way in which the war itself, as she Graham argues that the PCE synthesis of the Spanish Civil puts it, was central to the deteriorat- operated with much greater inde- HWar around the much-debat- ing legitimacy of the Republic. pendence than has been assumed. ed question of why the Republic lost Following from her central claim, Thus, the much-vilified Soviet mili- the war. Far from re-hashing old ter- Graham argues that the Republic did tary advisers, she says, were all put ritory, the book provides a fresh and not auto-destruct through the force of in subordinate, usually technical provocative reading on the tragedy its own ideological tensions; that is, positions. Key decisions, like the des- of the Second Republic that will in the revolutionaries vs. the liberals, or titution of Largo Caballero, the turn stimulate a new generation of the debate over “revolution” vs. Socialist Prime Minister, were debates, both within academic circles “war.” While not ignoring these divi- against the wishes of Stalin, who and among the broader public. sions (the book spends a lot of time wanted to see the Graham’s basic contention is that reviewing party infighting), Graham coalition afloat. the blame for defeat can be laid argues that these divisions only When Soviet “orders” were squarely at the feet of the Non- became unmanageable as a result of implemented, she argues, they often Intervention Pact and its the tensions caused by the war and agreed with the judgments of the consequences on the Republican war the deteriorating conditions it major Spanish parties, as in the cam- effort. What the pact meant in mili- brought. As she says, “Precisely paign against the POUM, in which tary terms is that the Republic was because of the overwhelming materi- case they were not a good test of never able to mount an effective al lack of everything in Republican Soviet influence. All in all, communi- offensive campaign, even from the Spain by 1938 it is deeply problemat- cation was too slow and irregular to outset, while its defensive actions ic even to pose further questions have sustained the kind of control were increasingly restricted. about how far its political shortcom- the Comintern allegedly had. She Equally important was non- ings ‘explain’ its collapse.” Instead draws on the work of scholars using intervention’s indirect impact on the of viewing the Republic as a mass of the newly opened Soviet archives home front. The need to pour vital contradictions waiting to collapse, (She doesn’t engage directly with the resources into the procurement of Graham argues that it started out the polemical collection of documents arms from pricey black-market war with a viable political project edited by Ronald Radosh, which sources forced the Republic to that could have developed into a sta- draws the opposite conclusion). neglect civilian needs and made it ble basis for a democratic Republic. From a position of relative inde- impossible for them to provide social The most polemical and there- pendence, the Spanish communist welfare programs that might have fore stimulating part of Graham’s party embarked on a strategy that helped close the gap between the lib- contention is that the group that was, as Graham argues, the best one eral and revolutionary left. articulated and pursued this project suited for the defense of the The book makes the parallel most effectively was the Communist Republic. The party’s clear-headed point that the Francoists could not party. As the only loyalist party analysis, combined with its unique have won without the extensive with a vision of an interclass, nation- combination of mobilizing skills and Germany and aid, from the al mobilization in defense of the cross-class rhetoric explain its planes which saved a floundering Republic (through the framework of immense appeal. It was this force of coup in July 1936 by airlifting 10,000 the Popular Front), the PCE offered attraction, rather than a troops to the mainland, to the stale- both a strategy for victory and a new Machiavellian conspiracy, that mate broken after the March 1937 kind of politics that could transcend accounts for the dramatic rise in the Republican victory at Guadalajara by the limitations of the peacetime PC’s profile. While she doesn’t deny

12 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Book Reviews that party ambitions played a role, coherent political project. In her put the harsh military and home she tries to normalize this ambition telling, the story of the May 1937 front discipline imposed in the last as part of the jockeying for position events in Barcelona, when the CNT’s months of the war in the context of a within the Republican camp that was control of the “streets” was curbed, desperate situation which required more organizational than ideologi- revealed more about the hollowness tough measures to control fifth col- cal. What torpedoed the Popular of CNT power than it did about a umn activity, rather than as the result Front was not its overbearing ambi- dubious Communist conspiracy. of a Soviet-style reign of terror. She tion but progressive defeats of 1938 The failure of national republi- cites in skeptical terms recent that pulled it apart. can mobilization was demonstrated International Brigade memoirs that The vilification of the PC in not only by the 1936 coup but also by assert that the Brigades were subject Civil War historiography is rooted the variety of local responses to it. In to such terror from the moment they less in the real actions and behavior one of the most interesting chapters arrived in Spain. While there may of the party than in a post-hoc Cold in the book, Graham draws on exist- have been terror in the last chaotic War reading of them, which infect- ing local studies to sketch out a months, most of it was unofficial, she ed not only historians like Bolloten heterogeneous republican landscape says, while Negrin tried to channel the but also memoirs taken to be “pri- in the summer of 1936, where the militarized justice through the courts. mary” sources. The real combination of pre-war political cul- Much of this realpolitik reading anti-communism “on the ground,” tures and the proximity of the front of the Civil War is persuasive. which developed within Republican created “islands” of resistance. She Graham’s effort to “bring the war territory after the spring of 1938, contrasts this republican hybridity back in,” the defense of centraliza- was more the expression of frustra- with what she describes as the total- tion and militarization, the impact of tion and war weariness than a izing project of the Francoist army, Non-Intervention, and even the reflection of ideological warfare. that embarked, as she argues force- demotion of the Comintern, are The book begins with the back- fully, on a war of internal points not simply asserted but prodi- ground necessary to understand why colonization to purge the nation of giously documented with an the political space filled by the PC its diseased elements and to reinstate unusual number of footnotes for a was not occupied by other parties. social and political order. She makes narrative synthesis. There is some The context in which the PC a clear distinction between republi- tension between the effort to provide emerged as the strongest proponent can and nationalist violence, the a narrative overview of the war and of the liberal nation reflected the former arises as a result of the col- the focus on making specific argu- fragmentation of social groups that lapse of state power, the latter formed ments about why the Republic was prevented a coherent bourgeois a coherent part of the new state. Such defeated. Such a tension may intimi- national project from taking root in a distinction reinforces her broader date readers unable to follow the the nineteenth and early twentieth point, the need for re-building intricacies of inter-party struggles, centuries. The Republicans are dis- Republican state authority as the only but others will welcome the passion missed as rooted in an old elitist viable home front strategy, given the of the polemical argumentation political culture that made them overwhelming military odds. which makes for an excellent read. irrelevant to the challenges of the In hammering this point home, The book will also incite a new democratic nation. Drawing on the book sets out to demystify the polemical response, in terms of its her earlier monograph of the Civil War, to strip it of the romanti- highly positive evaluation of the Socialist party, Graham presents a cism typified in Ken Loach’s film PCE’s role in the war and its claims critical view of its internal divisions. “Land and Freedom,” that was based for the PCE’s potential to mobilize She is especially critical of left social- on Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. The the nation. While debunking some of ists, the Caballeristas, who were Republic was not swept away by the Cold War myths is a good correc- powerful enough to stir up the grand passions but by military reali- tive, it has perhaps gone too far in party’s constituency with revolution- ties. And those realities were grim the other direction of accepting the ary rhetoric but who lacked a viable enough that they required the cold, party’s own realpolitik logic that the plan of mobilization. Graham also calculating, unflinching policies ends justified the means. dismisses the CNT, despite its mobi- associated with the PCE, even if they Pamela Radcliff teaches Spanish Civil lizing powers, because its rejection of make comfortable armchair liberals War history at the University of parliamentary politics limited a squeamish. For example, she tries to California, San Diego.

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 13 Book Reviews The Second War Against Fascism

Fighting Fascism in Europe: The ture, one of discrimination, promo- the reader. Of particular interest is World War II Letters of an American tions and opportunities for combat Cane’s reaction to the explosion of Veteran of the Spanish Civil War, by denied. Assessing this situation in all the first atomic bomb, his interest in Lawrence Cane, Ed. by David E. Cane, its complexities will clearly require the Jacques Duclos letter that many Judy Barrett Litoff, and David C. Smith. further research. historians believe signaled the begin- Fordham University Press, 2003. Whether or not Cane’s experi- ning of the Cold War, descriptions of ences were typical, his letters are race relations in the Army, and moving and informative. His Cane’s efforts to fight racial discrimi- By Michael Nash descriptions of the Normandy inva- nation. Finally, there is the human f the 400 Abraham Lincoln sion provide a rare view of D-Day dimension, a young husband and Brigade veterans who fought from the perspective of a front line father committed to fighting fascism, Oduring Word War II, soldier. As late as November 26, 1944 but yearning to return home to his Lawrence Cane was the only one to Cane would write: “the Krauts are wife and child. participate in the D –Day Normandy fighting for every foot viciously, des- Michael Nash is Director of the invasion. This book is a collection of perately—but the American Tamiment Library, New York University. his letters to his wife Grace Singer powerhouse shoves on.” Cane describing his wartime experi- Cane’s idealism comes through ences from the time he began basic loud and clear in the letters. On training on August 28, 1942, until he January 27, 1945 writing from Red Bessie returned home on October 29, 1945. “Somewhere in Belgium,” at a time The letters are moving, well when American policy makers were A Radical Odyssey written, and historically significant. seriously considering destroying all A new play with songs They capture Cane’s political com- German industry, Cane declared “I by Jack Gilhooley and mitment, and his determination to want to see Germany handled so that Daniel Czitrom fight fascism and create a better some day—not tomorrow or maybe world. While many of the Lincoln even ten years but, certainly in a gen- Presented by the Edinburgh veterans were labeled premature eration—Germany will be able to Fringe Festival, August 1- anti-fascists and were denied com- take her place in the family of missions, promotions, and assigned nations. Her position not one of August 25, 1:15pm daily to noncombatant duties during sword-rattler, but a country in which At the Gilded Balloon, Cave I World War II, Cane appears to have a man’s fundamental dignity is rec- (S. Niddry St, off Cowgate) escaped such discrimination. He was ognized, and which has passed from Edinburgh SCOTLAND promoted to 2nd lieutenant, volun- the category of criminal to reformed www.gildedballoon.co.uk teered for combat duty, and became member of society.” part of an engineering unit that par- There are many other moving ticipated in the D-Day assault on passages in this book. One that Loosely based on the letters, Utah Beach. He was awarded a makes a particular impression is family, and experiences of Silver Star for bravery. Cane’s description of his meeting Lincoln vets Joe and Leo As one reads Cane’s letters it with “two former functionaries of Gordon, “Red Bessie” tells the appears that in several cases his the German Communist Party,” who superior officers viewed his Spanish spent twelve years in “the infamous story of two troubadours Civil War experience as an asset and concentration camp for politicals at who bravely battled fascism relied on his military expertise in the Buchenwald.” Cane was surprised to from the Spanish Civil War training of other soldiers. This may find that “they were still sane, in fair through the Cold War. be an exceptional story as the letters physical condition. And most impor- from other World War II veterans in tant of all—the fire still burned the Abraham Lincoln Brigade bright within them.” There is much "Red Bessie" is partially funded Archives present a very different pic- more in this book that will reward by the Puffin Foundation

14 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Book Reviews

to those who clung to the hope of Spanish Exiles in Mexico returning to Spain sooner or later, and who never managed to adapt in Exile and Cultural Hegemony: shaken these same lands. the slightest to the new and often Spanish Intellectuals in Mexico, I grew up immersed in the cul- quite adverse reality. 1939-1975. By Sebastiaan Faber, ture of the Spanish exile community: This variegated catalogue of pos- Vanderbilt University Press, $39.95. my friends from childhood and sible attitudes, reflecting the great youth, my first girlfriends, and many diversity of the intellectual exile By Hugo Hiriart of my teachers at the community, is what makes it so diffi- (Translated by Christopher university–Gallegos Rocafull, Gaos, cult, if not impossible, to formulate Nicol, Roces, Sánchez Vázquez, any kind of general theory on the Winks) among others–were native Spaniards. experience of exile. encountered Spanish exiles very And very early on, I began to under- Faber’s book, however, explores early in life. Before I was three, stand the paradox of exile: there in this possibility. Its merit lies in its Imy best friend in kindergarten the distance was luminous Spain, that broad historical sweep and its was Marcelo Estrada, the son of bloodthirsty Medea who killed her detailed analysis of a large number Lolita and Colonel Estrada of the children, but which at the same time of individual examples, which can be Spanish Republican Army. was worthy of great love. read with profit. Its weakness lies, The Colonel, whom I met in Exile is a well of nostalgia: its perhaps, in its partiality: it deals short order, was a mild-mannered, rightful home is memory, and above all with the reactions of writ- ironical, intelligent man, not at all painful memory at that. Attitudes ers who have left testimonials imperious and short-tempered, as towards this drama among the wide behind, and is less concerned with, my childish mind had imagined a range of exiles I knew varied greatly: for example, scientists, technicians, colonel to be. However, the Spanish from my friend Rafa Cordero, whose engineers, economists, and business- poet scared me: he was tall and father was Isaac Cordero, a distin- men, of whom there were many, and vociferous, and wore spectacles of guished pathologist, adapted quite successful ones. the kind that made his already quickly, became a Mexican citizen, Hugo Hiriart is Director of the Mexican intense eyes seem even larger. I saw and raised his children as Mexicans, Cultural Institute in New York. him from a distance in a café I used to go to with my grandfather. His name was León Felipe. The Spanish exodus to Mexico A Canadian in the Lincolns involved an enormous variety of intellectuals in all fields: lawyers, A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War: years before his death in 1987. painters, chemists, biologists, doc- An Armenian-Canadian in the In many ways, Stephens’ pre- tors, philosophers, historians, poets, Lincoln Battalion. By D.P. (Pat) war situation was typical of the writers and critics, musicians, physi- Stephens. Ed. by Rick Rennie. St. John’s approximately 1400 volunteers from cists, economists, and theologians. Newfoundland: Canadian Committee Canada—young, unemployed or Don Pedro Urbino González de la on Labour History semi-employed, often born outside Calle, who taught Sanskrit at the of Canada, politically left wing. His University, was a Spaniard. This experience was slightly different in exile lacked nothing! These Spanish By Larry Hannant that he was active with the Co-oper- embodiments of universal culture at Stephens’ memoir is a lumi- ative Commonwealth Federation, the generously applied themselves to nous cameo portrait of the social democratic party of Canada, move Mexican culture forward, free- Plives of volunteers from even though he did work jointly ing it from the backwardness and Canada and the United States who with the Young Communist League vacillation still in evidence. Since lib- fought as anti-fascists in the in strikes and demonstrations. eration is the opposite of conquest, Spanish Civil War. By turns caustic, While his experience in Spain this enthusiastic action was the com- tender, emotional, matter-of-fact, was also typical of other volunteers, plete antithesis of Cortés’ military frank and coy, the memoir was dic- his intelligence and range of experi- conquest which, centuries earlier, had tated to his wife, Phyllis, just a few Continued on page 21

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 15 Added to Memory’s Roster

dren, and to making the The story of his life from world a better place. Ruth Communist functionary to corporate died in 1993 after convincing executive is told in detail in his oral Harry to write a book about history on file in the Bancroft Library his experiences in the at the University of California at Spanish Civil War and help- Berkeley. ing get the project started. Born in Chicago of Russian Published in 1998, his mem- immigrant parents, Sennett’s early oir Comrades led to speaking life was one of poverty. His first lan- tours in the U.S., as well as guage was Yiddish, but he quickly Spain and Germany. The learned English in Chicago grammar enthusiastic response to the schools. Growing up during the book prompted the publica- tion of Spanish and German editions of the book. Just a week before his death, Harry finished the manuscript for his second book, Legacy, to be released in Germany this June. Negotiations are under way for the U.S. edition. He is survived by his son, John, and daughter, Wendy, and their families, including three grandchildren, and a still-

PHOTO BY EMILIA ITHEN growing number of fellow activists and loving comrades. After collapsing at the antiwar Harry Fisher demonstration Saturday, he was (1911-2003) taken to St. Vincent’s Hospital, where he briefly regained conscious- Harry Fisher, 92, soldier, paci- ness and recalled being in the same fist, writer, and lifelong activist, hospital 70 years earlier to receive died on March 22, after participat- stitches after being beaten by police ing in an antiwar demonstration in on a union picket line. New York City. Harry was truly an inspiration to After a childhood in the Hebrew everyone he met. He will be sorely National Orphan Home and a youth missed by his family and the incredi- spent as a labor activist and mer- ble number of people he touched in chant marine, he volunteered to fight his short 92 years. Great Depression, he developed a fascism in Spain with the Abraham —Fraser Ottanelli lifelong dedication to the needs of Lincoln Brigade. During World War poor people. Although his formal II, he served as a B-26 bomber turret William Sennett schooling stopped at ninth grade, he gunner in Europe. Married to Ruth was well-read, and had a lifelong Goldstein in 1939, they worked (1914-2003) passion for learning. together for nearly 50 years at the As a youth he was outraged Soviet News Agency Tass, he in William Sennett, an early mem- when he saw families who couldn’t telecommunications, she as a ber of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade pay rent forced from their homes, the research librarian and office manag- Archives and former CEO of two doors padlocked, and their furniture er. They shared an office, a daily major American trucking companies, moved onto the sidewalk. He discov- walk to work, and a passion for life. died of complications of Alzheimer’s ered that the Communist Party had a They dedicated their lives to each disease on March 30 in San Francisco strategy to help them. Young other, their children and grandchil- at age 88. Communists would break the pad- 16 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Added to Memory’s Roster locks and move the furniture back Francisco with 66 branches nation- Born in San Francisco, George into the houses before the police wide and 26 in ten foreign countries. became a maritime captain and had a arrived. Under the law the landlord Convinced that socialism was lifelong interest in sailing. Together had to go back to court and file for possible if it was strictly democratic, with his wife Sonia, they operated a another eviction notice. In the inter- he became publisher of the Chicago- progressive elementary school in im, the Communists would get the based, left-leaning weekly In These Queens, N.Y. After retiring to tenants on welfare. Impressed, Times. He also supported many orga- Vermont, they collaborated in found- Sennett joined the Young nizations dedicated to the elimination ing the annual film festival in Communist League, and later the of poverty and racism. He helped Burlington. George made a few doc- Communist Party. organize the San Francisco tenants umentary films, including In 1937 he volunteered to go to organizations and the passage of rent Washington to Moscow about the Spain to fight in the International control legislation. nuclear freeze protests of the early Brigades. He arrived just as the Sennett is survived by his wife of 1980s. The film won the UNESCO Republic received new trucks, and 28 years, Rosalie, and from an earlier Prize at a peace film festival in was assigned as a driver. For the marriage two daughters, Barbara Hiroshima, Japan. remainder of the war he worked in Gilkey and Sara Sennet. transportation, moving supplies to —Marshall Windmiller Sidney Linn the front. After Spain, Sennett married, George Cullinen (1913-2003) had a child, and went to work in the defense industry. This gave him a (1912-2003) Our father Sidney Linn died on draft deferment. But he volunteered January 27. He was 89 and, aside for military service in 1943 and was George Cullinen, Lincoln vet, from his family, he was most proud assigned to the Army Air Corps at anti-nuclear activist, and founder of of having fought in Spain. Sid volun- Keesler Field, Mississippi. He was the Vermont Film Festival died on teered to be an ambulance driver and slated for advanced training when March 3 while vacationing in the FBI advised his commanding Florida. He was 88. officer of his Communist back- ground. He was then put in charge of teaching illiterates reading, writ- ing and mathematics. After the war, the McCarran Act ushered in a period of repression of Communists, and Sennett went underground. He was already becoming disillusioned with Communism when Khrushchev made his famous anti-Stalin speech 1956. Sennett left the party, and sought a new life. He found it in the transportation industry. His administrative and negotiat- ing skills led him to a job with the Strick company, at that time a part of Fruehauf Corporation. The company manufactured and leased truck trail- ers for heavy freight. Through many company mergers, Sennett rose in the corporate hierarchy. Eventually he became the president of Transport spent 18 months on the southern International Pool (TIP). He built the front. Upon his return home to company into a multi-million-dollar Continued on page 20 corporation headquartered in San THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 17 Added to Memory’s Roster

Susman Puerto Rican volunteers. wrote in the Volunteer, he sat silently After a little over three months on a bench in the Plaza de Cataluna Continued from page 3 in Paris, Susman was delayed yet a in Barcelona in 1977 and “wept with- bit longer in his effort to cross the out knowing why.” more specific role. He jumped ship border into Spain. He was asked to There would be many reasons to in Puerto Rico to become a Party make a small purchase first. A weep over the years. Among them organizer. There he learned German civilian aircraft had landed would be the stupidity of the Spanish, organized a Puerto Rican in Paris and was up for sale. Bill was American military when he enlisted students union, and helped form a given $50,000 in cash, along with an in the army shortly after Pearl union on a pine plantation in the ancient and utterly unreliable Harbor. Repeatedly refused promo- center of the island. revolver for self-protection, and sent tion and denied formal officer Then history intervened in the off to the airport to close the deal. training, he found himself an instruc- form of a civil war in Spain. His The plane would be especially useful tor in hand-to-hand combat, setting Spanish was about to become still in Spain, since its German markings mines, and defusing booby traps, more useful. He began to recruit reduced the chance it would be fired skills he had acquired in an earlier Puerto Ricans for the International upon by fascist troops. life. Every officer who recommended Bill for promotion would himself be transferred out. When he finally got a chance to see his file he found it Bill Susman on Commitment marked “Promotion Denied—fought with Reds in Spain.” Meanwhile, “When I speak to younger people they cannot grasp why 2800 anticipating a week’s furlough from Americans would leave home and go to fight in another country. All Fort Bragg, he wrote to his girlfriend their questions are about commitment. History doesn’t move them, but (and native New Yorker) Helene they are enthralled by commitment. I was at a party hosted by the Shemel: “Take your Wassermann Spanish Ambassador—this was after Franco’s death—and a young cou- test. I’m coming up.” That was his ple approached me. ‘We just wanted to meet the man who gave the proposal; they were married on speech that changed our daughter’s life,’ they said to me. Their daughter April 17, 1942. Then he did get to the was a freshman and she told her parents that she was going to change European theater, where other her life, making it a life of meaning and commitment. They had to look ironies abounded: Bill discovered the up the Spanish Civil War to find out what she was talking about. only way he could question German “Young people are amazed that you can have a group of people who prisoners was to use his Yiddish. were involved in a struggle of life and death 65 years ago, with people When the war in Europe ended, dying all around them. And we were fighting under the most difficult Sergeant Susman was shipped off to conditions, not like where you are clothed and fed like we were in the the Philippines. His outfit was American army in World War II. I know, having fought in the infantry assigned to block any effort by the in both wars. We must have had casualties of 150 percent in Spain, Philippine liberation fighters, who because people would get wounded and then return to get wounded had long fought the Japanese, to take again. Yet that struggle still resonates. their rightful place in national poli- “To keep the legacy alive we formed the Abraham Lincoln Brigade tics. His fellow soldiers had their Archives so that we could recruit young people to take over the organi- eyes opened after they broke the zation, people who could continue to tell the story.” Bill Susman, rules and fraternized with the Huk. Interview with Richard Bermack, September 1998. Conversations about equality, democracy, and freedom ensued, conversations Bill had once engaged Brigades. Assigned to help set up Then, at last, Bill did cross the in under the dappled shade of olive arrangements in Paris for Latin Spanish border. Thereafter he trees. The Huk would subsequently American volunteers, he returned to remembered more vividly the time mount a Communist-led peasant New York and sailed for Europe in in trenches, the time with comrades. rebellion (1946-54), but were defeated service of Spain in 1937. This time he All that flooded over him forty years with the help of U.S supplied arms. traveled as William Robert Ellis. On later, after Franco had died, when he Bill was back home early in 1946; board with him were a score of his finally returned to Spain. As he Continued on page 19

18 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Added to Memory’s Roster Susman Continued from page 18 the following year his daughter Susan was born. Meanwhile, an army buddy had called to ask what he knew about broilers. “What’s to know?” Bill replied, “a chicken’s a chicken.” But the friend had a differ- ent broiler in mind, than the countertop appliance. Signed on to manage a Manhattan factory assem- bling kitchen broilers, he did so until a return stint to Puerto Rico. There were tax incentives to manufacturing on the island, so Bill found himself commuting to manage a women’s glove factory. The enterprise floun- dered after the boss was caught embezzling from the firm. Then Bill began representing other mainland manufacturers. Plexiglas. B.V.D.s. He Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple speaking at Bill Susman’s hated selling, disliked the traveling, memorial. and found work under capitalism inherently contradictory as a pro- house with nine stages and an office film, and he was able to get their film gressive. But he had a family to in L.A. They were doing industrial developed. He assisted distributors support, a family that moved to and educational shorts. When televi- of political films. Fresh Meadows, Queens in 1951 and sion took off, they became one of the The closest relationship was with finally to Great Neck in 1959. In country’s largest producers of com- Raymundo Gleyzer, the Argentinean Queens Bill was elected a Democratic mercials. Marvin Rothenberg, a director whose films included The Assemblyman. His son Paul was progressive member of the MPO Frozen Revolution (1971), made after born in 1950. Board, had helped get Bill a job. It students were slaughtered in Mexico Then the shadow of was, as they say, an opening at the in 1968 and which Bill produced. A McCarthyism fell over the land. Like bottom. Bill started by delivering cof- photograph by Gleyzer hangs in so many Spanish vets, Susman found fee and carrying cans of film. But he their living room. Their son Paul employment still more fragile. The studied to become an assistant direc- went to Argentina in the fall of 1972 FBI kept calling employers, and tor, passed an exam, moved up to to work as an assistant cameraman every time he was out of a job. stage manager, and ended as on Gleyzer’s The Traitors, also pro- Ironically, the FBI assault occurred Executive Vice President. duced by Bill. just as Susman had drifted away Suddenly capitalism and Left The following year night fell from the Party. The final psychologi- politics coalesced, at least in Bill’s again. Back in the U.S., Gleyzer was cal break would come with the own practice. He successfully hired about to board a plane to Argentina Khrushchev revelations of 1956, but Black workers when other firms when word came warning him not to Bill was already disengaged before would not, and he and Marvin return. The Susman argued with then. For one thing neither his recent helped them form their own union. him, but he decided to take the risk. nor his future employment left much Confronted with that fait accompli, He was never heard from again. Bill time for work in mass organizations. the main union was then compelled helped organize a huge worldwide The job scene changed dramati- to accept Black members. Bill also effort to save Raymundo and other cally when a break came in the built relationships with political Latin American filmmakers, but it mid-1950s. There was an opening at filmmakers from Algeria, Argentina, was to no avail. Swept up in the gen- MPO, a New York film production and Mexico. He was able to get them Continued on page 20

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 19 Added to Memory’s Roster

Linn Post of the Veterans of the Abraham Susman Continued from page 17 Lincoln Brigade. Continued from page 17 Throughout her life, Sana was an Detroit he continued his dedication advocate for peace and justice. Born erals’ nightmare, Gleyzer was one of to social justice, working for civil and raised in New York, she put her- the disappeared, apparently killed in rights, and union organizing in the self through college and Beth Israel 1976. Juana Sapire, Raymundo’s late 1940s and ‘50s. He met his wife- wife, fled Argentina with their two- to-be, our mother Anne, who was year-old son, Diego, and took refuge also an activist, when he was speak- in the Susman home while they ing about Spain at a fundraising established a new life. event in 1938. The most enduring relationship When World War II began he with an American filmmaker was tried enlisting in every branch of the with the academy award winning service, but a bad arm and health documentarian Barbara Kopple. problems exacerbated by his time in Susman took on the job of interna- Spain kept him out. He worked as a tionally distributing Harlan County, civilian for the army. As the story USA (1976), promoting it at the goes, when his commanding officer Cannes Film Festival and elsewhere. received a letter from J. Edgar It became a family affair after Hoover informing him that Sid was a Helene, who had earlier taught gui- Communist and should be fired, the tar, apprenticed at MPO and became commander erupted, “If Sid Linn is a an assistant sound editor and pro- Communist we need more damn ducer for Kopple’s American Dream Commies in this army and maybe (1990). Kopple’s work mixed the his- we’d win the war faster!” tory of unionization with After the war, Sid worked in the contemporary labor struggles. home improvement industry and at Gleyzer too had mixed footage of his funeral a longtime colleague the 1910-17 Mexican Revolution said, “Your dad was a straight with contemporary footage. It was a shooter. In a tough business he was combination that spoke to Bill’s an honest guy.” whole life. Commemoration was Our father had a difficult child- Nursing School. At age 21, she vol- part of contemporary intervention. hood–no childhood at all, really. He unteered to serve as a nurse in Spain, Memory and action, Bill Susman was orphaned at an early age and where she was stationed at Villa Paz, realized, could not be severed. They learned survival skills on the streets Alcorisa, and Cordoba. should sustain one another. A life on of New York. He and our mother Sana returned to New York in the Left was always a life of lessons raised us to value integrity, honesty, 1939 and resumed her schooling as relearned, new battles waged on old peace, and justice. He wasn’t always an occupational therapist. She and principles. Continuities, with their an easy guy to live with, but we’re her daughter, Susan, moved to San truths and their ironies, can sustain us, proud to be his daughters. Francisco in the late 1940s. In the educate us, inspire us. Knowledge of —Nancy Pearl and Susan Linn early 1960s, she helped reestablish the past was the foundation of a stead- the Bay Area Post and served as its fast politics in the present. And so in Sana Goldblatt treasurer. Sana was not one to call 1979 Susman took on one last great attention to herself or her deeds; to project, the creation of the Abraham (1915-2003) her, she did what she did because it Lincoln Brigade Archives. needed to be done. She will be great- Thanks to Paul, Susan, and Helene After living a full, exciting, and ly missed by all. Susman, Peter Carroll, and Fraser independent life, Sana Goldblatt —Susan Saiz Ottanelli for their help. passed away peacefully at her home in San Francisco. A volunteer nurse during the Spanish Civil War, she was also a founder of the Bay Area

20 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 Letters The Canadian Lincoln Continued from page 2 Continued from page 15

Dear, Dear ALBA, ences introduce a unique perspec- and Ray Steele suggest laying a Harry Fisher was an idealist and tive. As editor Rick Rennie points charge of incompetence against Law. yet, at the same time, utterly realist - out, Stephens’ “Armenian heritage, Stephens advises them to keep quiet: what you can say a dreamer too the fact that he was a Canadian serv- “Oliver Law was a strong active to dream too much. ing in a primarily American Communist, and had powerful Humorous and ironical and yet battalion, and the variety of posts he friends at Brigade Headquarters. I serious when one has to be serious. held in Spain, combine to give him a knew what the results would be… Straight, tireless, honest, utterly special insight into the war and the He would be absolved, and they incorruptible and yet sensitive and .” would become targets of petty incon- gentle and haunted by the thou- One of those insights is into the veniences.” But Katz and Steele sands images of horror which he intensely partisan political condi- persist, and an inquiry is called. At was forced to see. I cannot call him tions in Spain. Even 50 years after it, Stephens testifies, “I did not an hero because, as his friend Edwin the war, when he was telling his attribute the death of Comrade Perez Rolfe put it, hero is a word for story, Stephens feels compelled to sit to the incompetence of Comrade peacetime and for Harry there was on the fence on some matters of Law. In war, I reminded them, some not such a thing — peacetime. He political controversy. of us will be killed.” The inquiry’s fought all his life along — he fought One example was his experience result confirms his fears: “As always when he was at the Jewish orphan- with Oliver Law. There’s been a in the Army, the status quo pre- ages and when he was a young great deal of debate about Law’s vailed. Comrade Law was member of YCLA in the years of the leadership. A Communist Party exonerated, but Comrades Steele and Depression; when he was in Spain organizer from Chicago, Law arrived Katz were reprimanded for laying and during W.W.II; when he worked in Spain in January 1937 and the next mischievous charges, and cautioned for Tass, and when he retired (from month became the first African- against bad behavior in the unit.” work, not from life). And he never, American to lead a white military On small details here, Stephens’ never failed to protest against arbi- unit, taking over command of the memory is faulty. Law was not from trariness and injustice. Lincoln Machine Gun Company. Michigan and did in fact have mili- There is an old Jewish dictum: Later that year he would become the tary experience before going to “In a place where there are not Lincoln battalion commander before Spain. But the lesson he seems to human beings, fight to be a human being shot and killed at Mosquito draw from the experience rings true: being.” Thus was Harry - a human Ridge near on July 9. There’s Keeping one’s head down—bureau- being even in moments and times been a long-running and intense cratically speaking—seemed to be as where human beings were difficult debate about Law’s competence and important to survival in an army of to find. A perennial searcher of jus- about whether his own men celebrat- international anti-fascist volunteers tice and truth. Harry, communist ed at his death. as it was in any state military. “with a little c,” plain soldier in Stephens had not been centrally Stephens’ memoir also tells Spain because he didn’t accept to involved with the Communist Party much about interactions between be upgraded before leaving for before the war, and would become International Brigaders and home, Harry caring and self apolitical after returning from Spain, Spaniards and the spirit of revolu- demanding, who made in his but he recognized how important tion and solidarity that infused the twenties from an American flag as party politics were, and this is evi- Spanish people. Filled with vignettes torn as the dresses of destitute peo- dent in recounting his time with the of Stephen’s memoirs, this book ple his own banner and never machine gun company under Law’s makes for a lively and informative betrayed it, passed away, not sur- command. In one engagement, exploration of the personal side of prising, demonstrating for peace. Law’s instructions apparently con- the Spanish Civil War. tribute to the death of one of the He was my friend. I was one of machine gunners. “The boys were Larry Hannant is an historian at the many who had this privilege. furious. Oliver Law was not well the University of Victoria and Rajel Sperber liked in the machine gun company, Camosun College in British Hebrew University, especially in my section. He was too Columbia and the editor of The Jerusalem authoritarian and incompetent.” Politics of Passion: Norman Bethune’s Fellow machine gunners Jim Katz Writing and Art.

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 21 Contributions

In Memory of a Veteran Jack Winocur in memory of Bill Bailey $50 Phyllis J. Hatfield in memory of Sidney Linn Martha Weisman in memory of Harry Fisher $50 $100 Polly Perlman in memory of Normal Perlman Progressive Student Alliance of Camden, NJ, in $50 memory of Harry and Ruth Fisher $100 Polly (Nusser) Dubetz in memory of Charles Phillip Morrison in memory of Dave Doran Nusser $50 $100 Dr. Jane Simon in memory of John (Doc) Edna Whitehouse in memory of Bill Sennett Simon $50 $25 Mary O’Malley in memory of Tom O’Malley Muriel Goldring in memory of Ben Goldring $25 $100 in memory of Joe Hautaniemi Lauren & Ricky Greene in memory of Rebecca $50 Durem $50 Ronald Perrone in memory of John Perrone Gabe Jackson in memory of Harry Fisher & $50 Irving Weissman $50 Jeanette Dean in memory of Wilfred Blanche J. Bebe in memory of Bill Sennett Mendelsohn and Bill Susman $50 $100 Laura & Roger Goodman in memory of Bill Norman Berkowitz in memory of Harry Fisher Susman $25 $100 Ulrich Kolbe in memory of Harry Fisher $100 Anne Kaufman in memory of Henry Giler $50 Lisa Halpern in memory of Curley Mende $50 In Memory of Sylvia P. Marro in memory of Joe Gordon Abby London-Crawford in memory of Marc $100 Crawford & Harry Fisher $100 Eleanor & Lenore Rody in memory of John Rody $100 Contributions Eleanor & Lenore Rody in memory of Marvin Max Gerchik, M.D. $25 Nelson, Bob DeFaut, Walter Sorenson, Eddie Mitchell, all from Racine, Wisconsin $100 Thelma Mielke in memory of Ken Bridenthal, The ALBA Listserv . Readers of the Sam Spiller & Bill Wheeler $100 Volunteer are invited to continue the debate on the ALBA sponsored Internet Ellen Gradenwitz in memory of Dick & Gene Discussion List. To become a member Fein and Jimmy Yates $100 simply send a blank e-mail message to Betty Roland in memory of Harry Fisher $25 the address: [email protected] Louise & Milton Becker in memory of Harry or go to the ALBA website: Fisher $100 www.alba-valb.org and click on the “Dialog” button.

22 THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 ALBA BOOKS, VIDEOS AND POSTERS ALBA EXPANDS WEB BOOKSTORE Buy Spanish Civil War books on the WEB. ALBA members receive a discount! WWW.ALBA-VALB.ORG BOOKS ABOUT THE LINCOLN BRIGADE Spain’s Cause Was Mine by Hank Rubin Fighting Fascism in Europe: The World War II Letters of an American Veteran of the Spanish Civil War Comrades by Lawrence Cane by Harry Fisher Exile and Cultural Hegemony: Spanish Intellectuals The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Mexico, 1939-1975. by Peter Carroll By Sebastiaan Faber The Lincoln Brigade, a Picture History The Spanish Republic at War, 1936-1939. by William Katz and Marc Crawford By Helen Graham EXHIBIT CATALOGS The Selected Poems of Miguel Hernández Edited by Ted Genoways The Aura of the Cause, a photo album Edited by Cary Nelson The Wound and the Dream: Sixty Years of American Poems about the Spanish Civil War VIDEOS by Cary Nelson Into the Fire: Women and the Spanish Civil War Passing the Torch: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and Julia Newman its Legacy of Hope Art in the Struggle for Freedom by Anthony Geist and Jose Moreno Abe Osheroff Another Hill Dreams and Nightmares by Milton Wolff Abe Osheroff Our Fight—Writings by Veterans of the The Good Fight Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Spain 1936-1939 Sills/Dore/Bruckner Edited by & Albert Prago Forever Activists Judith Montell ALBA’S TRAVELING EXHIBITION You Are History, You Are Legend THE AURA OF THE CAUSE Judith Montell ALBA’s photographic exhibit, The Aura of the Cause, has been shown at the Puffin Room in New York City, the University of California-San Diego, ❑ Yes, I wish to become an ALBA Associate, and I the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, FL, the enclose a check for $25 made out to ALBA. Fonda Del Sol Visual Center in Washington DC, and Please send me The Volunteer. the University of Illinois. This exhibit, curated by Professor Cary Nelson of the University of Illinois, Name ______consists of hundreds of photographs of the Lincoln Brigaders, other international volunteers and their Address ______Spanish comrades, in training and at rest, among the Spanish villages and in battle. City______State ___Zip______For further information about The Aura of the ❑ I’ve enclosed an additional donation of Cause exhibit, contact ALBA’s executive secretary, ______. I wish ❑ do not wish ❑ to have this Diane Fraher, 212-598-0968; Fax: 212-529-4603; e-mail [email protected] . The exhibit is available donation acknowledged in The Volunteer. for museum and art gallery showings Please mail to: ALBA, 799 Broadway, Room 227, BRING THIS EXHIBIT TO YOUR LOCALITY. New York, NY 10003

THE VOLUNTEER March 2003 23 They Still Draw Pictures

They Still Draw Pictures: Children’s Art in Wartime from the Spanish Civil War to Kosovo is a traveling exhibition that was curat- ed by ALBA’s Tony Geist and Peter Carroll. The exhibit consists of 78 color drawings created by Spanish refugee children and 22 children’s drawings from other wars. April 5, 2003-June 15, 2003 Hood Museum Dartmouth College Hanover, NH For information, 603-646-3646 August 13, 2003-October 24, 2003 University Art Museum Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901 For information, 618-453-5388 February-March 2004: AXA Gallery New York City

The Volunteer NON-PROFIT c/o Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives U.S. POSTAGE 799 Broadway, Rm. 227 PAID New York, NY 10003 PERMIT NO. 1430 HACKENSACK, N.J.

THE VOLUNTEER June 2003 24