THIS year’s annual Teesside Volunteers for Liberty commemoration was held for the first time in Hartlepool’s marvellous Heugh Battery Museum on Sunday October 27. 

We were very lucky in that the rain held off and we were blessed with fine weather, thus it was beneath cold but clear blue skies that visitors, supporters and relatives of volunteers heard from Cllr Carole Thompson, the mayor of Hartlepool, who began the day by welcoming everyone to the town and the wonderful Heugh Battery Museum.

Jonathan Brash, Hartlepool’s sitting MP, followed her by speaking about how the example of the International Brigades inspires us to take action to right wrongs today. Doc Ritchie, representing the Communist Party of Britain, related the struggle in Spain to more local and contemporary struggles.