ANTI-FASCISTS gathered in London at the weekend to honour comrades, and to warn against the rising tide of the far right across Europe.

At the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) annual commemoration in London, family members and activists laid wreaths and flowers to remember the men and women who went to Spain in the 1930s to take on Franco’s rebel army, which was intent on overthrowing the democratically elected republican government.

Folk duo Na-Mara sang The Bite, based on the experiences of volunteer George Wheeler, who in a 2000 interview told of his “bite,” a small piece of wood placed in his mouth as he went into battle. He would clench it as a meagre defence against shell shock.

The two singers, Rob Garcia and Paul McNamara, updated their lyrics for the event, making reference to fighting fascists wherever they muster, including Boston and Clacton — two areas which gained far-right Reform MPs last week. 

Wheeler was cited too by historian Richard Baxell, who spoke of the appalling conditions endured by prisoners of war in the San Pedro de Cardena camp.

Battersea-born Wheeler had gone to Spain in May 1938, in the company of trade unionist Jack Jones. After his involvement in heavy fighting, he was captured by Franco’s forces in September that year.

The camp was unsanitary and overcrowded, with lice and fleas, as well as violent beatings from the guards, said Baxell. Despite this, prisoners played football and chess, and even had their own newspaper, The San Pedro Jaily News.

The crowd at London’s Jubilee Gardens also heard from Fran Heathcote, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS).

She warned of “the terrifying wave of fascism rising across Europe.

“Europe and indeed the UK is heading at a startling rate towards fascism, with far-right parties sweeping up millions of votes. The rise of the Reform party sets us on a dangerous path.

“We need to get out into our communities and workplaces, to spread the resistance to fascism. The parallels with the 1930s are there for all of us to see.”

For many years after Franco died in 1975, Spain had had a pact of forgetting, essentially designed to blot out the civil war and the ensuing dictatorship. Nowadays, there is a programme of work focused on locating and identifying bodies buried in mass graves.
IBMT chair Jim Jump welcomed the recent support of the government in Spain.

“We’re delighted that the Spanish embassy is represented here today, by Isabel Fernandez Garcia-Llamazares. We’re grateful for everything that the current Spanish government has done to help the cause of historical memory, in particular to recognise the crimes committed against supporters of the Spanish Republic and to heal the wounds of repression.”

The last brigader had died in 2019, he said.

“But we made a promise before they all faded away that we would come here every year to keep alive their memory and the spirit that took them to Spain on a journey which inspired the world.

“We need that inspiration today for reasons that will be all too obvious to everyone here. We live in dangerous times. There are scandalous attempts to rewrite 20th-century history and erase the contribution of these men and women to the long war against fascism.”

As the commemoration ended with the singing of the Internationale, with clenched fists and shouts of “No Pasaran!”, Jump’s final words had a message for anti-fascists everywhere.

“I was struck earlier this year by the words of Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, when visiting Franco’s former mausoleum in the Valley of Cuelgamuros.

“‘Sin memoria no hay democracia,’ he said. ‘Without memory there can be no democracy.’ Amen to that.”