RNA IONALE TE S IN D E S L O A I L R I A B T E N R U T L A ¡NO PASARÁN! 1936 1939 D O V International Brigade Memorial Trust l 1-2021 l £5 Brigader families remember 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 declaration with your donation, you can request essential work by becoming a Friend of the IBMT. a form from [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 RNA IONALE TE S IBMT, along with your name and address, to: IBMT, IN D E S L O A I L R 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU. If you are I A B International Brigade Memorial Trust T E N R U T L a UK taxpayer and wish to make a Gift Aid 1936 1939 A www.international-brigades.org.uk D O V ¡NO PASARÁN! Magazine of the International Brigade Memorial Trust No.56 l 1-2021 t ’Brigaders with Banner’ by Crispin Green, grandson of George and Nan Green. It depicts British Battalion volunteers with the Major Attlee Company banner. See page 7. 4 Notice of Annual General Meeting 6 New Year message l IBMT President Marlene Sidaway writes 7 Crispin Green’s art 8 The Oxford Carritts 11 Tribute in verse l Remembering Walter Tapsell 12 Harry Stratton’s scrapbooks 16 Our history l Pauline Fraser gives her account of the IBMT’s forerunner organisation More photos on our website he IBMT is continuously adding new photos of However, there are still many entries in the 18 Books & the arts volunteers to its online database, which volunteers’ list without a photo. The IBMT is calling l Reviews of ‘Firing a Shot for Freedom’ and Tcontains entries for nearly 2,400 International on family members, friends and researchers to ‘The International Brigades’ Brigaders from Britain and Ireland. submit any photos they may have of International In recent months hundreds of new photos have Brigaders so that they can be added to our website. 22 Final word been uploaded, with the help of voluntary work These should be emailed to: l Paul Preston’s tribute to Stuart Christie done by Mick Brunton, and a donation of photos [email protected] or posted to from IBMT member Kevin Buyers, who maintains a the office: IBMT, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London, website documenting the XV International Brigade. EC1R 0DU. ¡No Pasarán! (formerly the IBMT Magazine and the IBMT Newsletter) is published three times a year. Back numbers can be downloaded from the IBMT website. All content is the © of the IBMT and credited contributors and cannot be reproduced without written permission. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the IBMT. Editor Ajmal Waqif IBMT, 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU 020 7253 8748 [email protected] International Brigade Memorial Trust www.international-brigades.org.uk RNA IONALE TE S IN D NEWS E S L O A I L R I he Executive Committee has A B T E agreed that the IBMT’s N R U T postponed 2020 Annual L A Notice of 1936 1939 T D General Meeting will be held online O V at 11am on Saturday 20 March AGM on 2021. Further details will be published on the IBMT website and in the IBMT eNewsletter. The main items on the agenda 20 March will be to approve the annual report The International Brigade and accounts and to elect members Memorial Trust keeps of the Executive Committee. Nominations are therefore alive the memory and invited for candidates to fill four spirit of the men and women who volunteered to fight fascism and defend democracy in Spain from 1936 to 1939. International Brigade Memorial Trust 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU Executive Officer: Ajmal Waqif 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 Paul Coles [email protected] Ireland Secretary Manus O’Riordan [email protected] Scotland Secretary Mike Arnott [email protected] Communist centenary salutes Wales Secretary David McKnight [email protected] n 17 October the Communist Party of Communist Party or the Young Communist Other Executive Committee members Britain organised a series of wreath- League. Pauline Fraser, Alex Gordon, John Haywood, Olaying ceremonies at International Gatherings took place in Cambridge, Jonathan Havard, Alan Lloyd, Dolores Long, Brigade memorials and other sites around the Cardiff, Crewe, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Tosh McDonald country to remember the role of communist Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Oxford, Sheffield, volunteers in the Brigades. Southampton and Taunton. Founding Chair Professor Sir Paul Preston Supported by the IBMT, the events were Messages came in from supporters at home Patrons Professor Peter Crome, Hywel Francis, part of the CPB’s programme of activities to and abroad. CPB General Secretary Rob Professor Helen Graham, Ken Livingstone, mark the centenary of the foundation of the Griffiths providing the following Len McCluskey, Christy Moore, Jack O’Connor, party. communication, which was read out loud to Maxine Peake, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, Historians calculate that about three- gatherers: Mick Whelan quarters of the International Brigade Britain’s Communist Party salutes the Historical Consultant Richard Baxell volunteers from Britain were members of the memory of those volunteers who went from International Brigade Memorial Trust vacancies on the Executive The names of candidates for Committee. Should five or more election will be published on the nominees accept nomination, a IBMT website in advance of the ballot will be held among members AGM. Proposed items for agenda who attend the online AGM. item ‘Any other business’ must be The four vacancies arise received in writing by the Secretary because Alex Gordon, Jonathan by 8am on 13 March 2021. Havard, John Haywood and Tosh Send nominations and proposed McDonald will have completed their agenda items by email (these will terms of office at the AGM. They be acknowledged) to: must therefore step down and an four elected members will serve on the Executive Committee. secretary@international- election, in which they are until the 2023 AGM. Nominations must be made in brigades.org.uk or by post to: IBMT permitted to stand, along with other All IBMT members may writing and received by the Secretary, 37a Clerkenwell Green, IBMT members, will take place. The nominate fellow members to serve Secretary by 8am on 6 March 2021. London EC1R 0DU. z Gatherings in (from left) Manchester, London and Glasgow. live in peace, cooperation and solidarity. the Spanish battlefield, because the British ¡No pasarán! The fascists and racists shall Communist Party immediately anticipated that the volunteers not pass! ¡Venceremos! We will win! the defence of democracy in Europe would Javier Moreno Díaz, a representative from begin in Madrid. England, Scotland and Wales to Spain in Madrid’s Domingo Malagón Foundation which That’s how it went: from 7 November 1936, defence of democracy against fascism. campaigns for the recovery of historical defending the capital of the Republic, the They played a heroic part in the struggle to memory in Spain, also sent the following heroine of Spanish democracy. ¡No pasarán! expose and resist the Nazi and fascist threat to message in support: Those first British volunteers marched, the peoples of Europe and beyond. In our thoughts are those precious anti- together with their French comrades, towards Today, as the scourge of racism, fascism and fascists whose memory still teaches us. Ciudad Universitaria to defend, and perhaps to imperialist war walks the earth with renewed Yes, the British internationalists who came die, for freedom – for our freedom, for yours, for vigour, we must ensure that the sacrifices of the to fight the coup were fundamentally workers. everyone’s, in return for nothing. International Brigaders and their medical units Our war was never an internal conflict. Our Thanks to the British Communist Party for were not in vain. war was the first battle, long, very long, against having sent its members to save Spain from Those volunteers for freedom call from Hitler and what his regime meant. reaction. Through that example, the stream that beyond the grave for unity, courage and The International Brigaders knew how to advances towards equality and socialism determination to build a society in which people stand alongside the legitimate government on continues to flow. ¡NO PASARÁN! 5 NEW YEAR MESSAGE personal letters and diaries from the Spanish Civil Despite the pandemic we War in bequeathed boxes. Yes, this has happened! uring this past year we have managed to continue to fulfill our mission arrange some meetings and Dcommemorations within the restrictions Dear IBMT member, Recent world events have made it clear that which the pandemic has forced upon us. fascism is still present and increasing in our time.