Saturday, 22 October 2011

International Brigade 75th Anniversary

Today , 22 October, is the 75th anniversary of the Spanish Republic issuing the decree to recognise the International Brigades which were forming to join the defence of Spain's Land and Freedom. In a short period of time some 32, 000 volunteers from more than 50 countries joined the Brigades. Made by Sanum Ghafoor, Philosophy Football's film of the Gala to celebrate the 75th Anniversary features Billy Bragg, Robert Elms, Jackie Kay, Tayo Aluko, Gracie Petrie, one of the last remaining International Brigaders, David Lomon, and many others. It is educative, entertaining and inspiring, a fitting way to mark the anniversary.

Plus! Philosophy Footballs Anniversary T-shirt design features the iconic solidarity poster designed by one of Catalonia's greatest artists. No Pasaran.

Get it here.

http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=738





Volunteers for Liberty - Luis Perez Infante

Your country does not matter.

You have forgotten the name
of the city that shielded your childhood.
But the songs of your cradle
remain to return the corn
now dark with the kiss of flaming suns.

The factories you left,
and the fields with their richness, the places
impelled into life
by your rough and vigorous hands.
Your home you have left and your bed
that daily called you to rest.

Your country does not matter.

Those words are forgotten
which whispered the names
of your loved ones, the tender caress
of the anquished mother.
Forgotten the tremulous word
that troubled the ear of the lover

Your language does not matter,
for free men speak one language alone.

That language alone now matters.

Here you have spoken
in thirty-eight different tongues,
but each vibrated with one impulse,
with one passionate voice,
clamourous and pure,
That is the voice of the blood that sings.

( Translated from the Spanish by Hans Kahle and Leslie Phillips
from the Penguin Book of Spanish Civil War Verse, Penguin , 1980)

International Brigades Anthem - Himmo de las Brigades Internationales 


Christy Moore - Viva Le Quinita Brigada


Link to earler post on the anniversary of the  beginning of the Spanish Civil War.

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