MATTHEW HAWKINS relishes the valiant defiance of two gay Scottish painters whose example resists both collectors’ taste and historical fiction
‘If anything is revolutionary it is these comrades’, John Cornford
JIM JUMP draws attention to a history of the German contribution to the International Brigades, and the post-war destiny of the volunteers
EARLY ANTI-FASCISM: Red Front Fighters' League (RFB) lead by communist Ernst Thalmann (left) and Willy Leow (right) in Berlin, June 1927. Thalmann was executed on Hitler's orders in Buchenwald on August 18 1944, while Leow was shot on October 3 1937 during the Stalinist purges
[Public Domain]
Essays on contemporary Latin American feminism, a poetry debut by a queer Texan of Mexican heritage, and a lush volume of tango and milonga drawings
JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite
The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by an incoherent show that fails to question stereotypical assumptions about the Soviet Union
WILL STONE, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Souleymane’s Story, Sunlight, Good Fortune, and After The Hunt
Spanish Sky Spreads Its Stars: The Story of the Thalmann Battalion and the First Germans in Armed Struggle Against Fascism
Ewald P Schulz, International Brigade Commemoration Committee, £6
MORE than 4,000 Germans fought in the International Brigades or in the anti-fascist militias and other Spanish military units during the Spanish civil war. Over 1,000 of them gave their lives.
Their story is recounted in this booklet by Ewald P Schulz, a Berlin-based lawyer and journalist who is active in the KFSR, the International Brigade Memorial Trust’s (IBMT) sister organisation in Germany.
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JIM JUMP looks forward to the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM taking place in Belfast later this week where the spirit of solidarity will be rekindled
The decision highlights the tension between freedom of expression and the state’s role in shaping historical memory at former concentration camps, reports LEON WYSTRYCHOWSKI
Anti-fascists from around the world will soon be travelling to Spain to commemorate the International Brigades and walk in the footsteps of the bravest of their generation, writes LYNNE WALSH
TONY FOX reports from a Hartlepool event to commemorate those from the area who went and fought for liberty in Spain