ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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Many words for solidarity
SYLVIA HIKINS is moved by a comprehensive anthology of the literature that emerged from the International Brigades
Members of the International Brigade in the British cookhouse at Albacete raise their fists in the Communist salute.
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Remembering Spain - Essays, Memoirs and Poems on the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War
Edited by Joshua Newmark, The Clapton Press, £17
BETWEEN 1936 and 1939 approximately 2,500 men and women from Britain and Northern Ireland served in the International Brigades, a force made up of anti-fascist volunteers who fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, in an expression of international solidarity with the Spanish people’s struggle and a supreme effort to stop the spread of fascism.
The majority of British volunteers came from working-class backgrounds and had taken part in hunger marches, protests like the Kinder Scout Trespass, and activities aimed at bringing about political and social change. This was a Britain where for many the living conditions were grim, poverty rampant, and unemployment the norm.
The Brigade was truly international, with 35,000 volunteers heading for Spain from 52 countries. With Hitler and Mussolini already in power in Germany and Italy, they feared the fall of Spain would threaten the future of democracy in Europe and lead to another world war.
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