I Sing of My Comrades
by Tony Fox
Self-published £8

 MANY books have been written about the Spanish Civil War and the valiant men and women of the International Brigades. Few offer such a range of personal stories and reflections as  provided by Tony Fox’s book remembering the Brigaders from Stockton.
 
Twenty-one volunteers went from Teesside to aid the Spanish Republic, eight of them from Stockton. The book draws its title from a poem written by Brigader David Marshall. It provides an extraordinary catalogue of reminiscences from the history of the CPGB, the Unemployed Workers Movement and the battles against Mosley’s Blackshirts, and then from  the war in Spain.
 
Tony provides a simple narrative outlining the political background to the insurrection by fascist forces in Spain and the subsequent betrayal of the non-intervention pact intended to isolate the republic, leaving it at the mercy of Spanish, German and Italian fascism.
 
He draws widely on other sources to find the stories where Brigaders explain how they came to volunteer, the process of vetting (some travelling to King Street to be vetted by Harry Pollitt in person) and the complicated process of getting to Spain avoiding the embargo imposed by the British and French governments.
 
Harrowing, anecdotal and sometimes amusing snippets from the many volunteers in the book are held together by a rolling history of the three years of the conflict from the IRA’s legendary Frank Ryan, often selected from his book The Book of the XV Brigade. One such ironic reference is from Alex Clifford who summarises the many contradictory motivations that led volunteers to Spain. 

Speaking of the carnage during the third day of the  Battle of Jarama he reports: “The battalion was subjected to a tank attack; lacking any countermeasures, the men were routed, only to be rallied by the 15th Brigade commander as well as ex-Black and Tan George Nathan and the IRA’s Frank Ryan.”
 
The book concludes with an impressive record of the many different ways by which the volunteers to Spain are remembered. These include poems, songs, banners books plaques and memorial stones. One such poem is Our Open Eyes by Mike Wild, written 70 years after the Civil War. 

Its final stanza is a fitting tribute to these brave men and women and an inspiration to solidarity actions for all of us. Speaking of their decision to fight, it concludes: “So if they ask you why we came / What brought us here to fight for Spain / The only answer we would say / Our open eyes could see no other way.”
                           
The book is available from Tony Fox foxy.foxburg@gmail.com subject to a £8 donation to justgiving.com/crowdfunding.