In 1931, Spanish King Alfonso XIII authorized elections to decide the government of Spain, and voters overwhelmingly chose to abolish the monarchy in favor of a liberal republic. Alfonso went into exile, and the Second Republic, initially dominated by middle-class liberals and moderate socialists, was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 the 2nd Spanish Republic was declared. with the proclamation of a Republic and a Socialist-Republican Government . Its arrival was greeted with euphoria by progressive Spain, including the support of many revolutionary forces active in Spain. It had a commitment to the separation of the church and the state, and a commitment to international peace, modern systems of education, land reform, and more equal roles for both men and women. Its greatest achievement: creating some 16,000 schools, During the first two years of the Republic, organized labor and leftist radicals forced widespread liberal reforms, and the independence-minded region of Catalonia and the Basque provinces achieved virtual autonomy.
The landed aristocracy, the church and a large military clique opposed the Republic, and in November 1933 conservative forces regained control of the government in elections. In response, socialists launched a revolution in the mining districts of Asturias, and Catalan nationalists rebelled in Barcelona. General Franco crushed the so-called October Revolution on behalf of the conservative government, and in 1935 he was appointed army chief of staff.
By 1936 the Spanish Republic had recently been revived by the election of a moderately liberal government after 5 years of tension and retrenchment. A new popular front alliance of all anti-fascist parties had swept the country the previous year. Franco, at this time was sent to an obscure command in the Canary Islands off Africa.
In February 1936 a Popular Front Government a broad left-wing coalition headed by Manuel Azaña, wins the majority of seats in the Spanish Cortes (parliament) and began to enact a programme of social and economic reforms. They were planned to modernise the state, improve the income of workers and peasants, to carry out land reform, and massive education measures to tackle the abundance of illiteracy which was widespread at the time. But these involved removing the Church’s monopoly in the school system, as well as a reorganisation of the countries Military, all of which horrified the established elites.
The military revolted, and a coup began on the 17th of July 1936, in Morocco and in garrison towns throughout Spain aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic. The uprising was mainly planned by the three generals, Emilio Mola y Vidal, 1st Duke of Mola, Grandee of Spain, José Sanjurjo y Sacanell and Manuel Goded Llopis with General Franco a co-conspirator who was based in the Canaries. they quickly seized political power and instituted martial law. but did not successfully capture Spain in its entirety, with the People’s Front Government retaining two thirds of the country’s territory, including its capital and the vital industrial regions of the Basque Country and Catalonia, due to the support of its people, the majority of its navy and air force.
However on the night of 18th July , 1936 the army mutinied with their generals against the people. They bought in foreign legionnaires and colonial troops and under General Franco proclaimed a military takeover. In much of Spain, the coup was stopped by the working class, who launched one of the most far reaching social revolutions in world history.
A bitter struggle had begun, during which the most advanced segments of Spains working class were the thrust of a temporarily lived example of workers self management and social revolution.
On 19 July 1936 The Spanish military, led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco rises up against the democratically elected Second Republic. Civil war breaks out. Executions without trial were common place, Franco had the support of the aristocracy, the army, the landlords, the bankers, and the Church hierarchy and a clique of corrupt politicians went over to the conspirators the rest backed the Republic.
Following the initial success of the military coup against the Spanish Republic, General José Sanjurjo y Sacanell returned from exile in Lisbon to Spain to take on a leadership role in the Nationalist junta. Instead of utilizing a larger, more suitable aircraft, Sanjurjo opted for a smaller plane piloted by Juan Antonio Ansaldo.
Sanjurjo's decision to travel with an excessive amount of luggage, including his uniforms and medals, significantly increased the plane's weight, which was already a factor given the smaller size of the aircraft. The plane crashed on July 20 killing Sanjurjo and preventing him from leading the Nationalist forces. Sanjurjo's death significantly altered the leadership structure of the Nationalist faction, with Francisco Franco eventually becoming the primary leader.
The left wing of the popular front was determined to resist the Generals and Franco and resolved to distribute arms and weapons to newly formed militias. By the morning of 19th July truckloads of rifles from the Ministry of War were on their way to the headquarters of the Socialist and Anarchist trade unions for distribution to their members. A few weeks later a government emerged more than capable of defending the Republic against the Generals. It was the first Republican Government to have full Socialist, Communist and Anarchist support. However Franco had both Italian and German fascist support, with their finance and intervention. The fascists defended a common view of the past, while the republican coalition though, had widely different visions of the future.
Within days of the uprising, both the Republic and the Nationalists called for foreign military aid. Initially, France pledged to support the Spanish Republic, but soon reneged on its offer to pursue an official policy of non-intervention in the civil war. Great Britain immediately rejected the Republic's call for support. Faced with potential defeat, Franco called upon Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for aid. and within days the military balance of forces had been transformed, as had the conflict from Civil War to a miniature World War, with the support of Germany’s Air Force, divisions of Italy’s regular army, and Moroccan soldiers from Spain’s African army to assist the Nationalist forces. Thanks to their military assistance, he was able to airlift troops from Spanish Morocco across to the mainland to continue his assault on Madrid.
Those who rose against the Republic did not have so much difficulty in finding a single military and political leader. As of 1 October 1936, Francisco Franco was “Head of Government of the Spanish State”.
His military colleagues who put him there thought that this post would be temporary, that the war would soon be over with the conquest of Madrid and that then would be the time to think of a political framework for the new State. However, after various frustrated attempts to take the capital, Franco changed his military strategy and what might have been a rapid seizure of power became a long, drawn-out war.
He was also convinced, particularly after the arrival in Salamanca of his brother-in-law, Ramón Serrano Suñer, who had managed to escape from the “red confinement” in Madrid in mid-February 1937, that all the political forces needed to be united in a single party.
“Head of Government of the Spanish State”, Caudillo, Generalísimo of the Armed Forces, undisputed leader of the “Movement”, as the single party was known, Franco confirmed his absolute dominance with the creation on 30 January 1938 of his first government, in which he carefully distributed the various ministries among officers, monarchists, Falangists and Carlists.
The construction of this new State was accompanied by the physical elimination of the opposition, the destruction of all the symbols and policies of the Republic and the quest for an emphatic, unconditional victory with no possibility of any mediation.
In this quest, Franco had the support and blessing of the Catholic Church. Bishops, priests and the rest of the Church began to look on Franco as someone sent by God to impose order in the “earthly city” and Franco ended up believing that, indeed, he had a special relationship with divine providence. Thus emerged Franco’s Church, which identified with him, admired him as Caudillo, as someone sent by God to re-establish the consubstantiality of traditional Spanish culture with the Catholic faith.
Throughout the three years of the conflict, Hitler and Mussolini provided the Spanish Nationalist Army with crucial military support. Some 5,000 German air force personnel served in the Condor Legion, which provided air support for coordinated ground attacks against Republican positions and carried out aerial bombings on Republican cities.
The most notorious of these attacks came on April 26, 1937, when German and Italian aircraft levelled the Basque town of Gernike (Guernica in Spanish) in a three-hour campaign that killed 200 civilians or more. Fascist Italy supplied some 75,000 troops in addition to its pilots and planes. Spain became a military laboratory to test the latest weaponry under battlefield conditions.
The war crime that was Gernike ordered by the Spanish nationalist military leadership and carried out by the Congor Legion of the German luftwaffe and the Italian Aviazone Legionairre. Designed to kill or main as many civilians as possible, Operation Rugen was deliberately chosen for a Monday afternoon when the weekly town market would be at its most crowded. Guernica, in the Basque country where revolutionary sentiment among workers was deep, was defenceless from the bombers, which could fly as low as 600 feet. The airplanes made repeated raids, refuelling and returning to drop more bombs. Waves of explosive, fragmentary, and incendiary devices were dumped in the town. In total, 31 tons of munitions were dropped between 4.30 in the afternoon and 7.30 in the evening. In the aftermath of the raid, survivors spoke of the air filled with the screams of those in their death throes and the hundreds injured. Civilians fleeing the carnage in the fields surrounding the town were strafed by fighter planes. Human and animal body parts littered the market place and town center, in such horror. much of Guernica was effectively wiped of the map. From a population of 5,000 some 1,700 residents were killed and a further 800 injured. Three quarters of the buildings were raised to the ground. Farms four miles away were flattened.
The infamous bombing of the city, which was a stronghold of the Republican forces, was one of the events that paved the way for Franco’s forces to capture of northern Spain. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the bombing which evoked widespread outrage across the world. The destruction of Guernica was part of Franco's wider, brutal campaign against the existence of the Spanish Republic. This campaign led not just to widespread destruction of property, but thousands of civilian casualties too, as well as widespread displacement.
The significance of Guernica is that it was the first time that civilians were deliberately targeted in an air attack; it was the first time that a population centre was carpet bombed from the air; and it was one of the first times that a population was used as a target from the air by a foreign power to test the effectiveness of its aircraft and the effectiveness of terror on the civilian population. Guernica changed the mode of war. Before then, civilians in cities and towns away from the front were by and large relatively safe. In wars before then air power was not capable of such bombing attacks. In World War I, by and large, troops slugged it out in trenches on the front and there was no air war.
Renowned artist Pablo Picasso’s landmark painting ‘Guernica’ immortalized the bombing of Guernica in his mural, a raw and anguished anti-war statement, a haunting piece of work that still became a universal howl against the ravages of war. On a large canvas more than seven metres (23 feet) wide, he painted deformed figures of women and children writhing in a burning city. A broken sword in hand, a dismembered fighter lies with wide open eyes, an impassive bull, a wounded dove and an agonising horse nearby. Picasso did not agree with Franco´s regime and he was living in France for a long period of time until his death in 1973 when he was 91 years old. One of the most famous passages about his life is when he was interrogated by the Gestapo while the Nazi occupation in Paris. When the officers saw the Guernica they asked him “Did you paint that?” and he replied “No, you did”
Renowned artist Pablo Picasso’s landmark painting ‘Guernica’ immortalized the bombing of Guernica in his mural, a raw and anguished anti-war statement, a haunting piece of work that still became a universal howl against the ravages of war. On a large canvas more than seven metres (23 feet) wide, he painted deformed figures of women and children writhing in a burning city. A broken sword in hand, a dismembered fighter lies with wide open eyes, an impassive bull, a wounded dove and an agonising horse nearby. Picasso did not agree with Franco´s regime and he was living in France for a long period of time until his death in 1973 when he was 91 years old. One of the most famous passages about his life is when he was interrogated by the Gestapo while the Nazi occupation in Paris. When the officers saw the Guernica they asked him “Did you paint that?” and he replied “No, you did”
General Franco denied that he had nothing to do with the raid and claimed that the town had been dynamited and then burnt by Anarchist Brigades. Franco issued a statement after the bombing: "We wish to tell the world, loudly and clearly, a little about the burning of Guernica. It was destroyed by fire and gasoline. The red hordes in the criminal service of Aguirre burnt it to ruins. The fire took place yesterday and Aguirre, since he is a common criminal, has uttered the infamous lie of attributing this atrocity to our noble and heroic air force."
The Spanish church backed this story and its professor of theology in Rome went so far as to declare that "the truth is there is not a single German in Spain. Franco only needs Spanish soldiers which are second to none in the world." After the war a telegram sent from Franco's headquarters was discovered and revealed that he had asked the German Condor legion to carry out the attack on Guernica. It is believed that the attack was an attempt to demoralize the Basque people. Germany had agreed as they wanted to carry out "a major experiment in the effects of aerial terrorism."
Picasso's picture still resonates with tragedy, capturing the full terror and horror of this terrible moment in history.
The Spanish church backed this story and its professor of theology in Rome went so far as to declare that "the truth is there is not a single German in Spain. Franco only needs Spanish soldiers which are second to none in the world." After the war a telegram sent from Franco's headquarters was discovered and revealed that he had asked the German Condor legion to carry out the attack on Guernica. It is believed that the attack was an attempt to demoralize the Basque people. Germany had agreed as they wanted to carry out "a major experiment in the effects of aerial terrorism."
Picasso's picture still resonates with tragedy, capturing the full terror and horror of this terrible moment in history.
Guernica - Picasso
The town of Guernica, Spain, recently in December 2023 demonstrated solidarity with Gaza by recreating a scene reminiscent of the bombing it endured during the Spanish Civil War. Organized by the Guernica-Palestine Citizens' Initiative, the event aimed to draw parallels between the suffering of Guernica's civilians in 1937 and the current situation in Gaza. Participants formed a human mosaic depicting the Palestinian flag, and an air raid siren was sounded to evoke the historical bombing.
Guernica, now and then Trevor Harrison
I stand before Guernica, the
familiar canvas of dismembered bodies,
dead babies and soldiers;
a weeping mother, a shrieking horse;
once remembered for its chronicle of carnage,
warnings of mass murder to come,
enough to move
the dial from tragedy
to statistic, now forgotten.
Silence has settled upon
the world, snuffed out
by apologists for the
sacred State’s need for
human sacrifice.
In Madrid and Cordoba
jasmine petals loose
their fragrance; the oranges
fall to the ground.
In Gaza and Israel
combatants loose
their bombs and
bullets; the
bodies fall, broken petals.
Peace protests and beauty bloom
in the Spanish squares. I ask:
By what right do I enjoy this now?
By what right
do I not?
The burden
of living
is to live
while others
are
dying.
Trevor Harrison is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge.
Fascist Italy also supplied some 75,000 troops in addition to its pilots and planes. Spain became a military laboratory to test the latest weaponry under battlefield conditions. The Spanish conflict quickly generated worldwide fears that it could explode into a full-fledged European war.
In August 1936, more than two dozen nations, including France, Great Britain, Italy, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, signed a Non-Intervention Agreement on Spain. The latter three signatories openly violated the policy. Italy and Germany continued to supply Franco's forces, while the Soviet Union provided military advisors, tanks, aircraft, and other war materiel to the Republic.
Some scholars argue that the Non-Intervention Agreement benefited Franco, who could acquire armaments on credit from his allies, while the Republic had to pay hard currency to arms dealers to obtain often outdated weapons and find ways to transport these goods into the embargoed country.
It was clear that the militia-based Government forces were badly out-gunned and lacked the military experience to repel the oncoming tide, so they turned to the Soviet Union for aid, with the Comintern (Communist International) establishing the International Brigades to help defend the Spanish Republic.
Early volunteers came from countries which had already fallen to fascism, such as Italy, Portugal, Austria and Germany, with scores to settle, before and influx of foreign volunteers flooded the Republic.
Though the United States remained officially neutral in the conflict, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration chose not to intervene officially, although the President sought to clandestinely provide some aid to the besieged Republic after 1937.
The Spanish Civil War divided American public opinion between those who supported the Republic and those who condemned the Republican forces for carrying out attacks on the Catholic Church. Isolationism too proved to be an effective motivation for non-intervention. Fears of war and foreign entanglements helped to shape American politics in the 1930s.
Some 2,800 Americans made their way to Spain to fight on the Republican side, most famously in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Those returned veterans would become the subjects of the first serious scientific study of fear in battle, insights that would help the United States prepare its own troops to fight in the Second World War.
For many liberals and leftists throughout the world, the Spanish Civil War represented a dress rehearsal for World War II, a pending conflict between the forces of democracy and fascism. By the mid-1930s, fascism and authoritarianism seemed to be on the rise in Europe. In 1936, when Franco launched his rebellion, right-wing regimes were in power in Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Portugal, Finland, Austria, and Greece.
And openly pro-Fascist and pro-Nazi political parties existed in many other countries, including France, Great Britain, and the United States.
The important historical truth is the international flavour of those who volunteered to fight in this brutal war. A total of 59,380 volunteers from fifty-five countries served during the Spanish Civil War jjoining joining the International Brigade, to fight selflessly side by side for the ideas of liberty and social justice, solidarity and mutual aid .Rallying to the republican cause. The International Brigade, were so called because their members (initially) came from so many different countries. The International Brigaders were recruited, organized, and directed by the Cominterm (Communist International), with headquarters in Paris.
A large number of the mostly young recruits were Communists before they became involved in the conflict; more joined the party during the course of the war. This included the following: French (10,000), German (5,000), Polish (5,000), Italian (3,350), American (2,800), British (2,000), Yugoslavian (1,500), Czech (1,500), Canadian (1,000), Hungarian (1,000) and Scandinavian (1,000). Battalions established included the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, British Battalion, Connolly Column and the George Washington Battalion among others.
The British Government decided on a policy of non-intervention, which meant that not only would they not send their military to help, but they also wouldn’t provide financial aid or arms to the Republican government. The main leaders on the Republican side were President Azaña and Prime Ministers Largo Caballero and Negrín.
There are quite a few different theories for why this was: whether the government thought that supporting the Republicans would start the large Europe-wide war they wanted desperately to avoid; because the government believed Germany and Italy to be more powerful and war-ready than they really were; or whether it was the strong anti-Communist sentiment that led the government to be reluctant to support the highly Communist Republican forces.
Whatever the reason, Britain officially did not lend any support to either side of the conflict, and at the time callously refused to be responsible for the refugee children, known as Basque refugees, though some were from non-Basque regions) but throughout the summer children were dispersed to camps throughout Britain for the duration of the war.
Nearly 4,000 Basque children arrived in the UK in 1937, fleeing from the terrors Franco's fascist Spain.. Over 200 were accommodated at colonies in Caerleon, Swansea, Brechfa and Old Colwyn, and they were warmly welcomed by Welsh people who considered that Welsh miners and the Basques were fighting the same enemy - fascism.
Meanwhile, many members of the public had a completely different response – on either side. The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was very active in Britain at the time, many Catholic intellectuals supported the pro-Catholic ‘Nationalist’ forces, and some Britons even travelled to Spain to support Franco’s forces.
But far more would travel to Spain to fight for the Republican cause; around 5,000 men made the illegal journey to fight in the International Brigades, many travelling under false names, and did not list their political affiliations for fear of being captured and singled out because of them. The average age of volunteers was twenty-nine, although the most common age was twenty-three.
Volunteers came from overwhelmingly working class backgrounds, with large numbers hailing from cities such as London, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow. Only a small number of them were unemployed, with large numbers involved in industrial occupations such as labouring, construction, shipbuilding and mining.
Members of the British Battalion taken by Walter Reuter at Ulldemolins on May 18th, 1938.
Many of these volunteers had been previously involved in fighting the British Union of Fascists at their meetings and marches, such as in Cable Street in October 1936, realizing that direct action in confronting fascism was a highly effective strategy which also revealed its true nature clearly to the public.
One of the volunteers from the Young Communist League, Wally Togwell, who was a waiter from St. Pancras said: “Wherever the fascists were, our group of the YCL was there also. I was thrown out of the Albert Hall, I took part in anti-Mosley demos at Olympia and Hyde Park, I was at Cable Street helping to erect barricades.”
Joseph Garber, a cabinet-maker’s apprentice from Bethnal Green in London, and also a member of the Young Communist League, said: “I decided to go to Spain especially after the Cable Street battles when we stopped the Blackshirts getting through.”
George Green, a member of the Communist Party who later died in action, wrote the following to his Mother from Barcelona: “Mother dear, we’re not militarists, nor adventurers nor professional soldiers. But a few days ago on the hills the other side of the Ebro, I’ve seen a few unemployed lads from the Clyde, and frightened clerks from Willesden stand up (without fortified positions) against an artillery barrage that professional soldiers could not stand up to. And they did it because to hold the line here and now means that we can prevent this battle being fought again on Hampstead Heath or the hills of Derbyshire.”
It is clear that politics was a major factor in those who chose to join the International Brigades, and although not everyone was a member of the Communist Party or Young Communist League, such as Winston Churchill’s nephew Esmond Romilly, it was still a left-leaning understanding of the real threat of fascism which fuelled them in their journey.
A journey that soon became harder to take when in February 1937 volunteering for the Brigades was made illegal following the implementation of the Foreign Enlistment Act and the extension of the Non-Intervention Agreement, which both Britain and France had agreed to alongside over 20 European countries in the early days of the war.
It was this very act of non-intervention which made the International Brigades so vital, as the Spanish Government was denied the support from those counties, while the Nationalists had the full support of both Hitler in Germany and Mussolini in Italy. This was bolstered even further by American multi-nationals who supplied Franco with large quantities of oil and vehicles.
The balance of forces was clearly against Spain, and without the arms embargo of Britain and France, the Spanish Republic likely would have won. But this did not stop the British people from joining the International Brigades, with many travelling from Victoria Station in London dressed as weekend tourists, travelling to Newhaven before catching a boat to Dieppe, France, then a train to Paris, then to Nimes before getting off at Arles. They would then split into pairs, boarding a coach to Perpignan, before being issued with special shoes and climbing the Pyrenees mountains into Spain.
All this complicated subterfuge to avoid detection purely because the Non-Intervention Agreement had made it illegal for them, while both Italy and Germany could openly send men into Spain. After the journey alone, to dismiss the volunteers as adventurists or as an act of youthful folly, would be incorrect. These were people dedicated to the cause, who had to attend interviews and medical examinations before being accepted. Where military experience was first and foremost, but with political understanding and dedication coming a close second.
One of the most well known volunteers from the Young Communist League was John Cornford, a young poet and student from Cambridge who happened to be the great-grandson of Charles Darwin, and who was the first Englishman to enlist against Franco.
Just prior to his first Christmas at the front, Cornford wrote home to his girlfriend, Margot Heinemann, saying: “No wars are nice and even revolutionary war is ugly enough. But I’m becoming a good soldier, longish endurance and a capacity for living in the present and enjoying all that can be enjoyed. There’s a tough time ahead but I’ve plenty of strength for it. Well, one day the war will end — I’d give it till June or July and then if I’m alive I’m coming back to you. I think about you often, but there’s nothing I can do but say again, be happy, darling. And I’ll see you again one day.”
One of the best known poems to emerge from the Spanish Civil War is John Cornford’s love poem to his sweetheart Margot Heinemann (1913-1992). The couple, met at Cambridge University where they both joined the Communist Party.
Called simply “Poem” when it was published posthumously in 1937, it is now more commonly titled “To Margot Heinemann”. Cornford was killed at Lopera, near Córdoba, on 28 December 1936, the day after his 21st birthday. He was fighting with the English-speaking company of La Marseillaise Battalion. Before joining the International Brigades he had served with the semi-Trotskyist POUM militia on the Aragon front – hence the reference to Huesca in his poem.
Also sometimes known by its first line, ‘Heart of the heartless world’ (paraphrasing Karl Marx), the poem is considered by many to be one of the finest love poems of the 20th century, and the reader’s knowledge of the writer’s fate makes its intimate tenderness and confessional tone all the more poignant.
Heart of the heartless world,
Dear heart, the thought of you
Is the pain at my side,
The shadow that chills my view.
The wind rises in the evening,
Reminds that autumn is near.
I am afraid to lose you,
I am afraid of my fear.
On the last mile to Huesca,
The last fence for our pride,
Think so kindly, dear
that I Sense you at my side.
And if bad luck
should lay my strength
Into the shallow grave
Remember all the good you can:
Don’t forget my love.
John Cornford (27 December 1915 – 28 December 1936).
Alongside the war millions of workers collectivised the land and took over industry to pursue their vision of a new society. Fighting valiantly against the reactionary medieval ideology that was Francoism, they tried to stop fascism in their tracks. Their number was severely outnumbered by Franco's forces.
For many it was not just a war to defeat the fascists it was the beginning of a new society ,completely. A revolution in fact, unfortunately revolutions do not succeed when the people are divided. Their are many lessons to be learnt from this struggle, a struggle that continues to do this day.
The Spanish Civil War was a symbol become reality, it was forged on the class struggle, also the struggle of the artists against tyranny( did not the fascists brutally murder the poet Lorca).
It caught the poet's imagination too. Many subsequently joining the International Brigade. Many were determined to fight for Spain, to the international cause of solidarity. Unfortunately as the war progressed many became confused and disillusioned by certain divisions that had begun to set in. Communists became more intent on destroying Anarchists and Trotskyists instead of standing together against the fascists. A problem that continues to this day with members of the left fighting one another instead of our common enemies. We have a lot of lessons to learn. Complex ideas were fiercely fought but all who stood up against fascism were heroic and worthy of respect, their cause in my opinion just , a flame that will never die, sharing principles of brotherhood of man and a sense of justice, driven by political and humanitarian convictions.
It was a war, that was fought on the most part by ordinary people, for the people. Many courageous brigadiers died, and their were many tales of atrocities and heroism on this cultural battlefield where opposing notions were violently played out. Sincerely and bravely translating their faith into works, ready to endure death in their passionate unswaying convictions.
The Welsh volunteers in particular raised the morale of their comrades, by their unity, their strength, their tenacity and in particular their singing, with the miners amongst them put to good use with their tunnelling skills.
For many it was not just a war to defeat the fascists it was the beginning of a new society ,completely. A revolution in fact, unfortunately revolutions do not succeed when the people are divided. Their are many lessons to be learnt from this struggle, a struggle that continues to do this day.
The Spanish Civil War was a symbol become reality, it was forged on the class struggle, also the struggle of the artists against tyranny( did not the fascists brutally murder the poet Lorca).
It caught the poet's imagination too. Many subsequently joining the International Brigade. Many were determined to fight for Spain, to the international cause of solidarity. Unfortunately as the war progressed many became confused and disillusioned by certain divisions that had begun to set in. Communists became more intent on destroying Anarchists and Trotskyists instead of standing together against the fascists. A problem that continues to this day with members of the left fighting one another instead of our common enemies. We have a lot of lessons to learn. Complex ideas were fiercely fought but all who stood up against fascism were heroic and worthy of respect, their cause in my opinion just , a flame that will never die, sharing principles of brotherhood of man and a sense of justice, driven by political and humanitarian convictions.
It was a war, that was fought on the most part by ordinary people, for the people. Many courageous brigadiers died, and their were many tales of atrocities and heroism on this cultural battlefield where opposing notions were violently played out. Sincerely and bravely translating their faith into works, ready to endure death in their passionate unswaying convictions.
The Welsh volunteers in particular raised the morale of their comrades, by their unity, their strength, their tenacity and in particular their singing, with the miners amongst them put to good use with their tunnelling skills.
British volunteers continued to be involved in many of the major battles, right up until the last desperate Republican assault across the River Ebro in July 1938. Their casualties in Spain were high, with as many as 626 killed, many others suffering life-changing injuries, and a fair few ending up in fascist prison camps until just after the war.
The people’s forces fought heroically against big odds. One day after the fascist generals’ revolt began, Deputy of the Spanish Communist Party Dolores Ibárruri coined the famous slogan, “no pasaran!” (They shall not pass!) which inspired the anti-fascist resistance in Spain and around the world.
One of the most memorable series of battles involved Franco’s Siege of Madrid, which began November 8, 1936 but lasted until March 28, 1939 due to the stout defence of the city. Soon after the siege began, a new Republican government was installed which armed the trade unionists with rifles (unfortunately a number were not in good working order).
After Franco initially failed to take Madrid his forces and Italian forces encircled the city, during which time the heavily outnumbered Republican forces scored victories at the battles of Jarama https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2024/02/remembering-battle-of-jarama-and-fight.html and Guadalajara in Feburary and March 1937. The Republican forces also captured large quantities of badly-needed materials and equipment. As the siege continued, the main problem for the people’s forces within the city was that they had no aircraft to defend against air attacks.
The last of the brigaders were withdrawn at the end of 1938 and returned to Britain in December after a farewell parade in Barcelona. In the presence of many thousands of tearful, but cheering, Spaniards, Dolores Ibárruri addressed them: “Comrades of the International Brigades! Political reasons, reasons of state, the good of that same cause for which you offered your blood with limitless generosity, send some of you back to your countries and some to forced exile. You can go with pride. You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of the solidarity and the universality of democracy… We will not forget you; and, when the olive tree of peace puts forth its leaves, entwined with the laurels of the Spanish Republic’s victory, come back! Come back to us and here you will find a homeland.”
Upon their return to Britain they were greeted with massive celebrations and an emotional welcome at Victoria Station in London, before returning back to their families and friends, and to their somewhat normal working lives for a brief period of time until the outbreak of WWII.
Nationalist troops arrive in Madrid,
The majority of battlefield monuments erected in Spain during the war were completely destroyed by fascist forces, and many of them around the world today continue to be graffitied upon and damaged. But there is one not so prominent which was found laying in the undergrowth of the remote mountainside of the Sierra Pandols in Catalonia, discovered in spring 2000 having been undisturbed for more than 60 years. It was a makeshift pyramid of three cement blocks laying on top of one another, hurriedly built by Percy Ludwick, a British military engineer, during the intense heat and brutal fighting of August 1938.
They shall not Pass ( the Spanish people at war 1936-9) -Richard Kirch (wayland publications 1974).
Lessons of the Spanish Revolution -Vernon Richards (freedom press 1972).
Miners against fascism -Wales and the Spanish Civil War - Hywel Francis
( Lawrence and Wishart )1984.
We Live -Lewis Jones ( library of Wales).
During the war itself, 100,000 persons were executed by the Nationalists; after the war ended in spring 1939, another 50,000 were put to death. Martial law remained in place in Franco's Spain until 1948, and former Republicans were subjected to various forms of discrimination and punishment.
The fighting and persecution resulted in several million Spaniards being displaced. Many fled areas of violence for safe refuge elsewhere. Only a few countries, such as Mexico and the Dominican Republic, opened their doors to Spanish refugees.
By 1938, in Spain there were 300,000 fighters killed on both sides, with another 200,000 civilians dead in the crossfire, 100,000 executed, 250,000 people imprisoned, many towns destroyed .
The war ended in March 1939 when Franco's forces finally captured Madrid. The policy of "non-intervention" by the British and other western capitalist governments, effectively smothering the Republic to death, contributed to its ultimate defeat in April 1939 and further laid the foundations for the outbreak of the Second World War in Europe just 5 months later.
Though the siege of Madrid lasted two and a half years, today the city bears few visible scars. As the bomb craters were filled in, a silence fell over the cowed populace. A silence that until recently has largely remained unbroken. And yet, out on the edges of the city where the battle raged the fiercest, it’s still possible to find grim reminders of a time when Spain was irreconcilably divided.
Nationalist troops arrive in Madrid,
When the Spanish Civil War ended in 1939, with Franco's victory, some 500,000 Spanish Republicans escaped to France, where many were placed in internment camps in the south, such as Gurs, St. Cyprien, and Les Milles. Following the German defeat of France in spring 1940, Nazi authorities conscripted Spanish Republicans for forced labor and deported more than 30,000 to Germany, where about half of them ended up in concentration camps. Some 7,000 of these became prisoners in Mauthausen; more than half of them died in the camp.
By April 1939, all of Spain was under fascist control and Franco declared a victory .Solidifying his power with a brutal dictatorship by oppressing and systematically killing any political opposition. Over half a million people were killed in the war, and in the next few years many tens of thousands more were executed, not forgetting all those who died from malnutrition, starvation, and war-engendered disease.
Although the Republic fell and victory did not come to Spain, it influenced the knowledge and opinion of the British public, created thousands of new activists, drawing them into the anti-fascist struggle, and contributed massively to the long term defeat of fascism later on in 1945.
Perversely after the Second World War after both Hitler and Mussolini were defeated, Franco was allowed to continue his totalitarian role in Spain, and for years to come his brutal force held sway and continued to destroy lives, dissent was brutally suppressed with many thousands of voices silenced , and forced into exile.
General Franco's military regime remained in power until his death in 1975 depriving Spain of freedom for several decades afterwards, and former Republicans were subjected to various forms of discrimination and punishment. Victory for the Francoist side brought economic and political isolation for Spain until the 1950s and the denial of basic rights until the late 1970s. Only in recent years have relatives of the executed started to learn where their loved ones are buried.
Many, many people died in their struggle for a better world, we must never forget, no pasaran, another world is not only possible it is inevitable, we must remain in solidarity with all those who believe in freedom, and social justice. Around the world today you can find monuments and memorials dedicated to the memory of the volunteers who gave their lives for liberty in the face of fascism. There are hundreds of them in Britain alone (www.international-brigades.org.uk/memorials), the most prominent being on the South Bank of London across from Westminster.
The majority of battlefield monuments erected in Spain during the war were completely destroyed by fascist forces, and many of them around the world today continue to be graffitied upon and damaged. But there is one not so prominent which was found laying in the undergrowth of the remote mountainside of the Sierra Pandols in Catalonia, discovered in spring 2000 having been undisturbed for more than 60 years. It was a makeshift pyramid of three cement blocks laying on top of one another, hurriedly built by Percy Ludwick, a British military engineer, during the intense heat and brutal fighting of August 1938.
The Sierra Pandols memorial, has the names of thirty Britons, Canadians and Americans from the 15th International Brigade crudely inscribed upon it, all of whom gave their lives fighting in battles along the Ebro. Among the names are that of Labour Party councillor and Olympic Gold Medallist Lewis Clive, and Young Communist League & Communist Party members David Guest, Harry Dobson, Morris Miller, and Wally Tapsell who, like all those from Britain who died in the Spanish Civil War, have no known graves.
Following the death of Franco on November 201975, a new democratic government replaced the old regime, and as a gesture of gratitude to the international volunteers who had come to Spain, sixty years after the outbreak of the war, the Spanish Government offered citizenship to the surviving members of the Brigades.
The legacy of the Spanish civil war still haunts the Spanish state, where democratic regression and repression of dissidence —especially in Catalonia— remain all too real.
While the spectre of fascism also still haunts and universal equality has sill not been achieved.
We should not forget the international brigades who preceded us, and we must continue to resist oppressive forces, with our shout of no pasaran.
We should not forget the international brigades who preceded us, and we must continue to resist oppressive forces, with our shout of no pasaran.
A Selection of Spanish Civil War Songs
The following are a selection of poems that emerged from this conflict. Powerful and still inspiring.
For the Fallen -W.B. Keal
Brave sons of liberty, fallen in battle,
Fallen that we, their successors, might live,
Bravely they faced the machine-gunner's rattle,
Giving so bravely all they'd to give.
Hurriedly, carelessly, rudely, we buried them,
Buried them quickly, beneath the brown soil.
Hurriedly, quickly, we gave them our blessing,
Then we returned to our heart-breaking toil.
Theirs was no splendour, the fallen in action;
Theirs was no pomp, neither glory nor show,
They were the cream of the Communist fraction
We are the reapers, but they went to sow.
Shall we forget them who never forget us,
Defending the workers, while fighting in Spain?
Shall we stay passive while Fascism threatens us?
Shall their great effort be made all in vain?
Never forget them, the lessons they taught us,
Think of their travail, their suffering, pain!
Raise the Red Standard and help support us,
Lest we see in England what happened in Spain.
To the Mothers of the Dead Militia - Pablo Neruda
They have not died!
they stand upright in the midst of the gunpowder,
they live, burning as brands there.
In the copper-coloured prairie
their pure shadows have come together
like a curtain of armoured wind,
a barrier colour of fury
like that same invisible beast of sky.
Mothers, they are standing amidst the corn
as tall as the profundity of noon
that possesses the giant plains.
They area peal of sombre voices
calling for victory through the shapes of murdered steel.
Sisters as close as
the dust fallen,
hearts that have been broken
keep faith in your dead -
they are not roots only
beneath stones dyed in blood,
not only poor fallen bones
at work now in the finality of earth,
for their mouths are shaping the dry powder ready for action,
they attack in waves of iron,
in their clenched fists lies death's own contradiction.
See, from so many bodies an invincible life rises!
mothers, sons, banners,
in one single being as living as life;
one face made of all the slain eyes is guard in the darkness
with a sword that is strengthened and tempered with human
hope.
Cast aside your mourning veils, join all of your tears
tillt hey transmute into metal-
so that we may strike day and night,
so that we may hammer day and night,
so that we may spit both day and night,
till the portals of hatred be overthrown.
I have not forgotten your tragedies
and your sons, they are known to me,
and if I have pride in their deaths
in their lives, too, I have pride.
Their smiles
are like flashes in the murk of the workshops,
and in the underground
every day their feet ring by mine.
I have seen
amongst the oranges of Levante
and the fishing-nets of the south,
in the ink of the printshops
and the masonry of the buildings,
I have seen
the flame of their hearts fashioned out of fire and valour.
And, as in your hearts, mothers,
in mine there is so much of death and mourning
that it seems like a forest flooded
with the blood that quenched their smiles;
to it come the furious snows of sleeplessness,
the wrenching solitude of the days.
But beyond your curse on the hyenas
out of Africa, blood-parched, baying their foul cries,
beyond wrath and contempt, beyond tears,
Others, trans pierced by anguish and death,
look into the heart of the new day that is dawning
and know that your dead smile up at you from the earth,
raising their clenched fists above the corn, there, look, they are
standing!
Translated from the Spanish by Nancy Cunard.
T.E. Nicholas - In Remembrance of a Son of Wales ( Who Fell in Spain)
Amid the roar of guns that split the air,
Faint moaning reached him from a tortured field;
He followed to a city passing fair,
His soul aflame, his flesh a living shield.
There death-charged missiles blazed a trail of woe,
Leaving each shattered hearth a vain defence
While flocks of iron eagles, swooping low,
Clawed out the life of cradled innocence.
Far from the hills he loved, he faced the night,
Bearing, for freedom's sake, an alien yoke;
He fell exalting brotherhood and right,
His bleeding visage scorched by fire and smoke;
E'en as the sweetest note is born of pain,
So shall the song of songs be born in Spain.
Guernica - A.S Knowland
Irun-Badajoz-Malaga-and then Guernica
So that the swastika and the eagle
might spring from the blood-red soil,
bombs were sown into the earth at Geurnica,
whose only harvest was a calculated slaughter,
Lest freedom should wave between the grasses
and the corn its proud emblem, or love
be allowed to tread its native fields,
Fascism was sent to destroy the innocent,
and, goose-stepping to the exaggerated waving
of the two-faced flag, to save Spain.
But though the soil be saturated with blood
as a very efficient fertilzer, the furrow
of the ghastly Fasces shall remain barren.
The planted swastika, he eagle grafted
on natural stock shall wither and remain sere;
for no uniformed force shall marshall the sap
thrilling to thrust buds into blossoms, or quicken
the dead ends of the blighted branches;
but the soli shall be set against an alien crop
and the seed be blasted in the planting
But strength lies in the strength of the roots.
They shall not pass to ruin Spain!
LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION - Gonzalez Tunon
The bullfighters are monarchists,
The monks are preachers of fascism.
And the miners of the Asturias?
Long live the revolution!
My grandfather came from Mieres;
His wife from Pola de Siero.
The capital city of my blood
Must surely be called Oviedo!
The Moors are outside Oviedo.
Oviedo they'll never take
Though they'll kill all the Spaniards and threaten
Their wives with murder and rape!
The Regulars are bathing
In the Covadonga flood.
The lords swim at Majorca,
While the miners swim in blood.
In October there are no fiestas
Except those of the season.
But October only means to us
'LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!'
translated from the Spanish by A.L. Lloyd
The Hero- Richard Church
I could tell you of a young man
Blown with heroism into Spain.
He had a knapsack of philosophy,
And as he went he scattered the small grain
Of his few songs under the dangerous sky.
A girl, grown fond, thought him too young to die.
She put the memory of their secret joy
Behind her heart, and turned to public deeds,
Neglecting the earth he trod, and his scattered seeds.
But soon she was brought to child-bed, with a boy
Smiling up at her as his father had smiled.
And thankfully she saw that his plump back
Carried no philosophic haversack.
She saw, but only for his mother's breast
That being so, she found she could forgive
The man who died so that a dream might live,
And faith with prudence remain unreconciled.
POEMS REPRINTED FROM
EXCELLENT ANTHOLOGY :-
The penguin Book of
Spanish Civil War Verse
Edited by Valentine Cunningham
1980
( their are so many lovely poems in this collection,
essential reading for anyone interested in this period)
There have been many , many books written on the Spanish Civil War, here are some I would strongly
recommend for further perusal.
Brave sons of liberty, fallen in battle,
Fallen that we, their successors, might live,
Bravely they faced the machine-gunner's rattle,
Giving so bravely all they'd to give.
Hurriedly, carelessly, rudely, we buried them,
Buried them quickly, beneath the brown soil.
Hurriedly, quickly, we gave them our blessing,
Then we returned to our heart-breaking toil.
Theirs was no splendour, the fallen in action;
Theirs was no pomp, neither glory nor show,
They were the cream of the Communist fraction
We are the reapers, but they went to sow.
Shall we forget them who never forget us,
Defending the workers, while fighting in Spain?
Shall we stay passive while Fascism threatens us?
Shall their great effort be made all in vain?
Never forget them, the lessons they taught us,
Think of their travail, their suffering, pain!
Raise the Red Standard and help support us,
Lest we see in England what happened in Spain.
To the Mothers of the Dead Militia - Pablo Neruda
They have not died!
they stand upright in the midst of the gunpowder,
they live, burning as brands there.
In the copper-coloured prairie
their pure shadows have come together
like a curtain of armoured wind,
a barrier colour of fury
like that same invisible beast of sky.
Mothers, they are standing amidst the corn
as tall as the profundity of noon
that possesses the giant plains.
They area peal of sombre voices
calling for victory through the shapes of murdered steel.
Sisters as close as
the dust fallen,
hearts that have been broken
keep faith in your dead -
they are not roots only
beneath stones dyed in blood,
not only poor fallen bones
at work now in the finality of earth,
for their mouths are shaping the dry powder ready for action,
they attack in waves of iron,
in their clenched fists lies death's own contradiction.
See, from so many bodies an invincible life rises!
mothers, sons, banners,
in one single being as living as life;
one face made of all the slain eyes is guard in the darkness
with a sword that is strengthened and tempered with human
hope.
Cast aside your mourning veils, join all of your tears
tillt hey transmute into metal-
so that we may strike day and night,
so that we may hammer day and night,
so that we may spit both day and night,
till the portals of hatred be overthrown.
I have not forgotten your tragedies
and your sons, they are known to me,
and if I have pride in their deaths
in their lives, too, I have pride.
Their smiles
are like flashes in the murk of the workshops,
and in the underground
every day their feet ring by mine.
I have seen
amongst the oranges of Levante
and the fishing-nets of the south,
in the ink of the printshops
and the masonry of the buildings,
I have seen
the flame of their hearts fashioned out of fire and valour.
And, as in your hearts, mothers,
in mine there is so much of death and mourning
that it seems like a forest flooded
with the blood that quenched their smiles;
to it come the furious snows of sleeplessness,
the wrenching solitude of the days.
But beyond your curse on the hyenas
out of Africa, blood-parched, baying their foul cries,
beyond wrath and contempt, beyond tears,
Others, trans pierced by anguish and death,
look into the heart of the new day that is dawning
and know that your dead smile up at you from the earth,
raising their clenched fists above the corn, there, look, they are
standing!
Translated from the Spanish by Nancy Cunard.
T.E. Nicholas - In Remembrance of a Son of Wales ( Who Fell in Spain)
Amid the roar of guns that split the air,
Faint moaning reached him from a tortured field;
He followed to a city passing fair,
His soul aflame, his flesh a living shield.
There death-charged missiles blazed a trail of woe,
Leaving each shattered hearth a vain defence
While flocks of iron eagles, swooping low,
Clawed out the life of cradled innocence.
Far from the hills he loved, he faced the night,
Bearing, for freedom's sake, an alien yoke;
He fell exalting brotherhood and right,
His bleeding visage scorched by fire and smoke;
E'en as the sweetest note is born of pain,
So shall the song of songs be born in Spain.
Guernica - A.S Knowland
Irun-Badajoz-Malaga-and then Guernica
So that the swastika and the eagle
might spring from the blood-red soil,
bombs were sown into the earth at Geurnica,
whose only harvest was a calculated slaughter,
Lest freedom should wave between the grasses
and the corn its proud emblem, or love
be allowed to tread its native fields,
Fascism was sent to destroy the innocent,
and, goose-stepping to the exaggerated waving
of the two-faced flag, to save Spain.
But though the soil be saturated with blood
as a very efficient fertilzer, the furrow
of the ghastly Fasces shall remain barren.
The planted swastika, he eagle grafted
on natural stock shall wither and remain sere;
for no uniformed force shall marshall the sap
thrilling to thrust buds into blossoms, or quicken
the dead ends of the blighted branches;
but the soli shall be set against an alien crop
and the seed be blasted in the planting
But strength lies in the strength of the roots.
They shall not pass to ruin Spain!
LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION - Gonzalez Tunon
The bullfighters are monarchists,
The monks are preachers of fascism.
And the miners of the Asturias?
Long live the revolution!
My grandfather came from Mieres;
His wife from Pola de Siero.
The capital city of my blood
Must surely be called Oviedo!
The Moors are outside Oviedo.
Oviedo they'll never take
Though they'll kill all the Spaniards and threaten
Their wives with murder and rape!
The Regulars are bathing
In the Covadonga flood.
The lords swim at Majorca,
While the miners swim in blood.
In October there are no fiestas
Except those of the season.
But October only means to us
'LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION!'
translated from the Spanish by A.L. Lloyd
The Hero- Richard Church
I could tell you of a young man
Blown with heroism into Spain.
He had a knapsack of philosophy,
And as he went he scattered the small grain
Of his few songs under the dangerous sky.
A girl, grown fond, thought him too young to die.
She put the memory of their secret joy
Behind her heart, and turned to public deeds,
Neglecting the earth he trod, and his scattered seeds.
But soon she was brought to child-bed, with a boy
Smiling up at her as his father had smiled.
And thankfully she saw that his plump back
Carried no philosophic haversack.
She saw, but only for his mother's breast
That being so, she found she could forgive
The man who died so that a dream might live,
And faith with prudence remain unreconciled.
POEMS REPRINTED FROM
EXCELLENT ANTHOLOGY :-
The penguin Book of
Spanish Civil War Verse
Edited by Valentine Cunningham
1980
( their are so many lovely poems in this collection,
essential reading for anyone interested in this period)
recommend for further perusal.
Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006
Julián Casanova, A Short Histoy of the Spanish Civil War, I.B. Tauris, 2012
Ronald Fraser, Blood of Spain: Experience of the Civil War, Viking, 1979
Helen Graham, The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2005
Paul Peston, The Spanish Civil War, Harper Perennial, 2006
The Spanish Civil War - Hugh Thomas ( Penguin) 1983.
The Spanish Civil War - Hugh Thomas ( Penguin) 1983.
They shall not Pass ( the Spanish people at war 1936-9) -Richard Kirch (wayland publications 1974).
Lessons of the Spanish Revolution -Vernon Richards (freedom press 1972).
Miners against fascism -Wales and the Spanish Civil War - Hywel Francis
( Lawrence and Wishart )1984.
Fleeing Franco How Wales Gave Shelter to Refugee Children from the Basque Country During the Spanish Civil War - Hywel Davies (University of Wales press ).
We Live -Lewis Jones ( library of Wales).
