As our planet weeps, mornings laden with mourning. and we feel our hearts struggle, adverse condtions releasing overflowing tears, as we bathe in seas of melancholy, it's important to let each emotion flow, let our cries ring out, through the storms we can rise again, even the darkness that resides can be filled with light, that will never hide our love, our kindness, our beautiful depth, to allow us to find silver linings, enable us to cling on to fragile bubbles of hope, carrying us through maddening days, allowing peace and calms echo, life filled with more palpable reason, forces of tenacious and diligent effort that overcome depths of despair.
Pierre De Geyter, Belgian socialist and composer was born on October 8, 1848 on Kanunnik Street in this poor corner of Ghent, Flanders, Belgiam. De Geyter's early life was marked by hardship and struggle. His parents, who hailed from French Flanders, moved to Ghent in search of work in the textile factories. At the tender age of seven,in 1855 the family returned to France, settling in Lille, where De Geyter would spend most of his life.
Around the age of ten, after the family had relocated to France, he started working in the textile mills of Lille. In order to develop his skills, Degeyter attended a night school for workers. He showed early indications of musical talent and from the age of 17, he and his brother Adolphe used to entertain the workers with his own melodies and lyrics and those of others.
When the Franco-Prussian War broke out (1870), Degeyter was enlisted in the French army. Following the collapse of the front, he tried to get through to France, where the Paris Commune had recently been established (18 March 1871). He was, however, arrested by Duke Magenta’s soldier just outside the city and brought to Northern France and later released. How he managed to escape with his life,
In the following years, Pierre Degeyter worked in the model workshop of the iron foundry Compagnie Fives-Lille in Lille. In those years, the city, marked as it was by a high level of political activity, was a hotbed of workers’ associations of political, informative and entertaining nature.
Among the numerous associations formed during this period, was the workers’ choral society La Lyredes Travailleurs (‘The Workers’ Lyre’). Pierre Degeyter, who was known for his musical skills, was chosen choirmaster. It was, in fact, a political post of considerable importance, when we consider the significance of political songs at this time.
Being a choirmaster, Degeyter was constantly in search of lyrics he could set to music and rehearse with his choir. Gustave Delory, one of the leaders of the French socialist labor party, took an interest in the choir. In 1928, Degeyter told a journalist about what subsequently turned out to be everything but an ordinary evening in the choral society: “One Saturday evening in the summer of 1888, Delory appeared in the The Workers Lyre. As we parted after the rehearsal, Delory approached me and said: “I have a collection of poems by the late Eugene Pottier. Have a look at it, you might find something that works. We do not have a revolution song and you have the skills to write one.” As soon as I returned home, I took the little book out of my pocket, I happened to open up to the page where a poem titled Internationale started.” The book was Eugene Pottier’s Chants Révolutionnaire, published in 1887. Pottier was one of the pioneers of the Paris Commune, the revolutionary socialist government in 1871. Pierre was tasked with setting the poem The Internationale, written that same year, to create a melody that would resonate with the working class.
On a fateful Sunday morning, De Geyter sat at his harmonium and poured his heart into creating the iconic melody. He then asked his brother, Adolphe, to play it on the bugle, making minor adjustments before finalizing the composition. The Revolutionary anthem The Internationale was born.
Excerpt from the score of the hymn “The Communist Internationale”
De Geyter's The Internationale was first sung in July 1888 in a cafe at the Lille trade union's annual fête in July 1888 and sold in pamphlet form to bolster the Socialist party coffers of Lille. The song which became one of the most iconic anthems of the Socialist movement, encapsulated themes of revolution and unity among the working class took Lille and the rest of France by storm, and the rest of the world ten years later, leaving a significant mark on global political and cultural landscapes.
The penning of the music, however, was to be the beginning of a long ordeal for him. Although only named as 'Degeyter' (no space) on the pamphlets, to avoid repression by employers and the authorities on the grounds of insurgency, Pierre was identified as the composer and lost his job. He encountered financial difficulties and moved to the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis in 1901, where he worked as a lamplighter for the township..
He also became embroiled in painful legal proceedings with his younger brother Adolphe , who apparently subscribed to the “redistribution of wealth” idea in ways not intended, falsely claiming copyright in 1901 and won a subsequent lawsuit brought by Pierre. Only after Adolphe hanged himself in 1916 was the decision reversed based on the remorseful brother’s suicide note, but this didn’t happen until 1922.
In the meantime, The Internationale had become the national anthem of the Soviet Union. In 1927, leaders of the Soviet Union discovered that the real author of The Internationale, was still alive. Pierre was invited to Moscow for the 10th anniversary celebrations of the October Revolution as an honoured guest and was in the stands with the German sculptor Käthe Kollwitz at his side. It is said that tears rolled down his cheeks while his anthem was played. Joseph Stalin awarded him a Soviet Union state pension.
As this was Pierre's only income, apart from modest fees collected on music for the other Pottier poems (particularly L'Insurgé and En avant la Classe Ouvrière) and on popular tunes he had also composed, and although the left-wing town administration of Saint-Denis granted him a free apartment, Pierre Degeyter spent the last years of his life in precarity.
After his death at Saint-Denis in 1932, more than fifty thousand people attended his funeral. In popular culture After his death, even in France, his name mainly came up during copyright litigation cases. French courts ruled his compositions, including The Internationale, copyrighted until October 2017.] There is a Pierre Degeyter street in Ghent and there are Pierre Degeyter squares both in Lille (in Fives, the suburb where he used to live) and in Saint-Denis. Lille also named a procession giant after him. In Sofia (Bulgaria) there is a street Пиер Дегейтър. A bronze monument to Pierre Degeyter has adorned the Ghent MIAT (Museum of Industry, Labour and Textiles) since 1998. A documentary film on Pierre Degeyter and the story of The Internationale was produced in 1978.[1] In 1927, the 79-year-old Pierre was invited to attend the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution at the Red Square in Moscow, in the grandstand for the honoured guests. It is said that tears rolled down his cheeks while his anthem was played. Pierre De Geyter died on 26 September 1932 in Saint-Denis..He was buried at the cemetery in Seine-Saint-Denis followed to his grave by 50,000 people and the tune of The Internationale. The funeral was held by the leader of the French communist party, Marcel Cachin.
Here is an excerpt from Cachin’s speech: “A final salute to the faithful comrade Pierre Degeyter. The old man with the innocent and animated eyes of an artist, whom we, until recently, could meet in the street, belonged to the dynasty of the great people’s bards […]. And one of his compositions reached heights that no other artist can aspire to reach. When a collection of Eugène Pottier’s poems came into his possession, he chose this particular poem not only because it seemed the best suited to set to music, but because it was charged with the same revolutionary potency and rebellious class consciousness as was Eugène Pottier himself and this still, silent flame. In the history of humanity, this song, born of the meeting between these equally genius and modest workers, is beyond comparison in scope and depth. No other music, no other song has ever reached this level of beauty and significance. This man who, in a single inspiring day, has bestowed upon us such mighty weapon and bulwark of unity deserves a heartfelt thanks from the entire international working class. Pierre Degeyter, faithfull revolutionary, loyal worker without errors and vices, you who modestly got embroiled in unnoticeable cities, almost unknown, you whom faith also granted the taste of human suffering and bitter wrath, rest in peace. Your name will not be forgotten. Your immortal song has carried it to the four corners of the world.”
De Geyter's legacy extends beyond his music. He was an ardent supporter of education and workers' rights, actively participating in local socialist movements and advocating for the rights of the working class. His life's work was a testament to the power of art and activism, inspiring generations to come.
There is a Pierre Degeyter street in Ghent and there are Pierre Degeyter squares both in Lille (in Fives, the suburb where he used to live) and in Saint-Denis. Lille also named a procession giant after him. In Sofia (Bulgaria) there is a street Пиер Дегейтър. A documentary film on Pierre Degeyter and the story of The Internationale was produced in 1978.
In recognition of his contributions to music and his impact on social movements, a bronze monument honoring Pierre De Geyter was erected in 1998 at the Ghent Museum of Industrial Art and Textiles. This honor reflects his longstanding influence and the enduring value of his work.
Here's a rousing rendition of one the greatest songs in the world by the late Scottish singer Alistair Hulett and Jimmy Gregory.
A pro-Palestine protester disrupted a speech by UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Monday, criticising the party for not ending arms sales to Israel as it wages a devastating war on Gaza and shouts “We are still selling arms to Israel .I thought we were voting for change, Rachel [Reeves]." whilst highlighting her connection to three organizations in the UK that fund the Israeli army, before being grabbed by the neck, agressively manhandled and dragged out of the conference hall by Labour Party aides for his fundamental right to protest the Labour Governments complicity in Israel's genocide of Palestinians..
A reminder, Reeves previously received £75,000 from Israel lobbyist Victor Blank and the UK government is still exporting parts for F-35 jets that are bombing Palestinians in Gaza.
"This is a changed Labour Party. A Labour Party that represents working people, not a party of protest" Reeves smugly replied. Rachel - The Government should represent all people not just those who fit into Labour’s narrow definition of ‘Working People’.
The indifference with which she dismisses someone voicing genuine concern with our country's complicity in genocide is frightening, she said this to an an applauding hall full of morally bankrupt people,who actually gave her a standing ovation,and jeered the protestor,anindication of this party’s dark rightward lurch under Keir Starmer who seem more than happy to support the genocide of working class Palestinians. When the mask slips this shows their true character and I think we can all agree these are not very nice people !
Campaign group Climate Resistance claimed responsibility for the protest. Sam Simons, a spokesman for the group said: “Labour promised us change – instead we’re getting more of the same. The same pandering to the fossil fuel industry; the same arms licences that are fuelling a genocide in Gaza, and the same austerity that sees the poorest hit hardest. “It’s time for Labour to start putting the needs of people before the interests of profit. That means immediately stopping arms licences to Israel, blocking new oil and gas, and standing up for the communities already being devastated by the climate crisis.” Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said, " The brave protestor at Labour conference demanding an end to all arms sales to Israel reminds me of the party member who was dragged out of conference in 2005 for protesting the war in Iraq. Who was on the right side of history?"
"After 13 years people are crying out for change. " Reeves said last year. She and her party hypocritically talking about change but it's clear to me that all we are getting is the same old same shit! it's disgusting that this government continues to send arms licences to Israel as it carries out a genocide and displays no space for free speech, compassion or international law. The Labour Party is no longer a party of protest, now the party of genocide, now the party of food banks, now the party of poverty, now the party of big business, now the party of gifts and lobbyists.
Horrific violence continues to cause unimaginable death and destruction in Gaza but the UK Government is still allowing most arms sales to Israel despite a partial suspension It must immediately stop all arms sales, to end the UK’s complicity in this humanitarian catastrophe. Demand action, please sign the following petition:
What the herd hates most is the one who thinks differently; it is not so much the opinion itself, but the audacity of wanting to think for themselves, something that they do not know how to do. You weren't born on this rock hurtling through space just to smile politely and please people. Fight the system.
Wander the wild and photograph nothing. Become something that the world cannot eat. Boycoit consensus reality. The same reality where Israel is not committing genocide in Gaza? The same reality Israel is not running an apartheid state discriminating against non-white jews and muslims? The same reality where Israel is not starving millions of Palestinians? The same reality that is filled with lies and propaganda! Don't be sheeple people, but try and be kind.
The world twists dark shadows into light, calling evil good and good evil. Remember though there are still reasons to be cheerful, don't let the bastards grind you down. Take care of your emotional health. Social media as well as the world can be a stressful place, try and keep smiling. Between the oceans and the stars follow your dreams release thoughts of peace and love.
With every heartbeat write verses of soul incantation. that they don't want to be written, keep foraging through the twists and turns of existence. Ride the winds moonlit breath and be free,
Excuse me for disturbing you, thought I'd send you a quick message.You are a skilled songwriter, a idiosyncratic original who I truly have admired, your superb music has for a long time been part of the soundtrack of my life.your voice of rich emotional depth a valuable source of inspiration to me, however, I have to tell you that I am currently really saddened to have read that you are more than happy to continue to appease the Israeli regime, to the anguish of myself and your many fans. because at moment this state is now executing a genocidal war against 2 million Palestinians (most of them children) in besieged Gaza as I'm sure you have not failed to notice.
I really thought maybe after seeing the continuing slaughter, carnage,with over 40,000 murdered, that you might change your mind, but no. you still support Israel and disapprove a boycott and in the face of a live-streamed genocide you gave this interview to The Jerusalem Post recently with an astonishing moral bankruptcy .https://www.jpost.com/international/article-817074
It really was so disappointing to read. I have previously considered you as a warm, compassionate, sympathetic individual who back 2014, I remember that you supported 9 activists who had climbed onto the roof of the Elbit UK drone factory to protest the Israeli war on Gaza that was happening at the time, so please could you possibly tell me what has changed since then, because the current situation in Gaza is far far worse.
You have also tweeted against the resistance of the indigenous people of Palestine and condemned them for making their own resistance to apartheid. Which implies to me, that you don't care about the oppressed and you are siding with a force that is currently genociding indigenous people.
I too am disgusted by antisemitism, but your current attitude towards the Israel/Palestine conflict and lack of empathy for the Palestinian people, and your endorsement of the illegal Zionist murderous occupiers is not only dissapointing and hypocritical, but inexcusable.
Apparently it’s ok for you to ‘stand with Ukraine’, but it's too complicated to stand against the genocide taking place in Gaza. So all things considered it suggests to me that you think that the lives of Ukrainians are more valuable than the lives of Palestinians.or have I misunderstood something ? I really hope I have.
Additionally you have stated that playing in Israel is not an endorsement of the Netanyahu government, but remember that in spite of this, your concerts in Israel and public positions on the boycott have been used by Israel which openly uses culture as a form of state propaganda to justify its illegal occupation of Palestine, while continuing to target civilians and carry out the wholesale erasure of the culture and identity of Palestinians throughout their ancestral lands.
Just as South African anti-Apartheid activists called for an international boycott which led to the downfall of the Apartheid regime, Palestinians for years have been asking for a boycott of Israel as part of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) campaign. Thousands of artists across the world now refuse to perform in Israel.
The cultural boycott of Israel continues to grow, in spite of the efforts by Israeli promoters to willfully ignore it. Thousands of UK-based artists and cultural workers have signed Artists for Palestine’s online pledge to refuse to perform or exhibit in Israel. As with the boycott of South Africa, there is no “apolitical” choice. You are either with the oppressed or with the oppressor. I really hope you reconsider your stance and please add your name to the list and respect the boycott.
You can either heed the cry, respect your brothers’ and sisters’ picket line and stand with them in their struggle for the basic human rights we all take for granted, or you can turn your backs on them.
On your new highly emotional record Wild God you continues to grapple with the all-consuming traumatic nature of grief and mourning which I am aware you know a lot about. It’s impossible to contemplate your new record without considering the tragic loss of your two sons. It’s often said that the death of a child is an experience that nobody should ever have to go through. The pain that you genuinely feel must be immense. Yet you still insist on defending Israel's abject cruelty, violence and ethnic cleansing , that has caused so much collective grief for the Palestinian people. your current thoughts on the current conflict seem to me to be totally lacking in empathy for all those suffering in Gaza right now? .
I reach out to you as a fan and admirer with all my heart and urge you as a man who uses words to embody love, dignity and fairness, to think again and take a principled stand and choose humanity over genocide and apartheid. It takes courage to change a steadfast opinion. If you were somehow able to do this my utmost respect for you will return once more, as it would for so many others who can see what’s happening in Gaza and refuse to accept what is happening. In peace. Free Palestine.
Massive protest have taken place in Israel over the death of 6 hostages. The death of one single innocent human being is sad, deplorable and unacceptable in this day and age, so yes, of course I grieve for the six hostages killed. but I am not sure exactly who was responsible. The Israeli military have said the abducted men and women were killed by Hamas, though the group has adamantly claimed it was IDF fire that killed them.What benefit was it to them to murder hostages after a year of keeping them alive?
It does not make sense. Since journalists are not allowed in Gaza, we are asked to believe whatever the IOF says. It does not add up. Who would want these hostages dead in order to justify further leveling of Gaza, invasion of the West Bank, and a total genocide of the Palestinian people?
Aljazeerah has reported s that the hostages were killed by Israeli airstrikes, despite indications that a deal for their freedom was near. It is alleged that Netanyahu chose not to negotiate with the group, leading to a targeted operation.. I have two questions . When have Israel ever told the truth? Which international laws have Israel obeyed since Oct 23?
Anyway so much is being said about this by the likes of Srarmer and the press. but in contrast hardly any mention of over 186,000 Palestinians who have been műrderēd, thousands maimed, starvation as a genocidal tactic, permanently destroyed soil as a result of white phosphorus, everything decimated, while the ethnostate is now currently using polio as a weapon, but all anyone ever hears about are a few hostages. No mention of the 9000 Palestinian hostages currently being held by held in detention by an illegally occupying force without trial and in defiance of the Geneva convention..
How can people identify with the pain felt by Israelis over the fate of their hostages, when these same Israelis turn out to be cold-hearted and indifferent to the fate of the other side's hostages? Why should the whole world take an interest and work only for our for Israeli hostages, and not for the Palestinian hostages, whose conditions of imprisonment and whose deaths in Israeli prisons should horrify everyone?
Incidentally five months ago, Hamas agreed to release all their hostages in exchange for all Palestinian hostages and prisoners. Instead of an all-for-all deal, Israel chose to carry out a genocide against the people of Gaza, killing many of its own civilians in the process. I dream of a day that Israeli leaders care more about saving the lives of their own people than they do about killing the lives of innocent Palestinian people.
For their entire existence, Israel has brutally dominated every aspect of Palestinian life, and Israel has absolutely no right to do that, as a result of this systematic oppression Palestinians have the right to exist and defend themselves and resist. Israelis in occupied Palestine don't.
As I write this, Gaza is still being bombed, its citizens massacred by a state that has dehumanised itself as well as its powerful supporters over the years, each decade worse than the one before. There is no moral, political, or military equivalence as far as the two sides are concerned. Israel is a nuclear state, armed to the teeth by the US. Its existence is not under threat.
Today dozens of Palestinians have been killed in another deadly day as Israel continues its devastating assault on Gaza. The Gaza health ministry said on Wednesday that 42 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours. This includes at least six people killed after Israel bombed and destroyed the building of Namaa College in Gaza City, while several homes and residential complexes have been targeted in areas including Nuseirat and Deir el-Balah.
At least 40,861 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its war on the Palestinian territory, the vast majority of whom are innocent civilians. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have continued deadly raids across the West Bank on Wednesday, with at least 33 Palestinians killed over the course of a week of military violence in the illegally occupied territory, including seven children, with over 130 wounded.
While Israel calls Palestinian resistance terrorism, the Palestinian people have a right to armed resistance. It is guaranteed to them under international law which is unambiguous in its endorsement of “armed struggle” for peoples who seek self-determination under “colonial and foreign domination.” United Nations resolution 37/43, dated 3 December 1982, “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”
Moreover, the resolution’s preamble makes clear that it refers not to a hypothetical in the abstract, but rather specifically to the rights of Palestinians, stating, “Considering that the denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, sovereignty, independence and return to Palestine and the repeated acts of aggression by Israel against the peoples of the region constitute a serious threat to international peace and security.”
Under international law, Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, and Palestinians have a right to “armed struggle” against their illegal occupier – Israel - thus ipso facto Palestinians have a right to defend themselves against Israel, but Israel's right to defend itself against Palestinian resistance is not guaranteed in the same manner. A fact that is denied and violated by Israel and wilfully overlooked by the rest of the world.
A people living under foreign belligerent occupation may employ armed resistance against their oppressors. Palestinian people are an occupied nation and have the right under the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2625 which explicitly endorsed a right to resist "subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation". Palestinians are doing nothing illegal. The occupiers are.
The issue for the Israeli state is indeed not the nature of the act of resistance by the Palestinians, whether peaceful or armed, or even its ideology, but that any challenge to the structures of occupation and colonisation must be criminalised and suppressed. Prior to Hamas and until today, PLO factions, from leftist organisations to Fateh, Palestinian progressives and democrats, and civilians without any clear ideology, have all suffered Israeli repression.
We shouldn’t be ashamed to declare our support for legitimate armed resistance. International law allows it. Palestinians have a moral and legal right to resist their own genocide, the theft of their land and their heritage and their culture and their own extermination by the Apartheid State.
The word “resist” terrifies Israel, but for Palestinians, it is a matter of survival. It is a refusal to be subjected to physical, psychological, economic, social, and political violence and abuse. The fact that their occupiers are Jewish is deeply irrelevant - it is human nature to resist your own annihilation by whomever it is that murders your people, steals your land, and tortures your children. Palestinian people are fighting because they have to. They use the means they deem necessary because they have to. They fight as a means to an end, not as the end itself.
Jews in concentration camps had the right to resist their Nazi oppressors. Black folk in apartheid South Africa had the right to resist their white oppressors. And the Palestinians have the right to resist their Zionist oppressors and also have the right to freedom, dignity, safety, and self-determination. It's really not complicated. Free Palestine.
Black and white photograph of Felicia Browne holding a child ([c.1936])
Felicia Mary Browne was an English artist , painter, sculptor and Communist who was the only British woman combatant and volunteer to die in the Spanish Civil War , when she was killed in action at Aragon on 25 August 1936.
Felicia was born at Weston Green, Thames Ditton, Surrey, on 18 February 1904. Her family were middle class but her father, had progressive political ideas, and encouraged his daughter in her early artistic endeavors. Felicia had an older brother, called Harold, who was named after their father, and who died out in France in 1918 during the 1st World War. She also had two older sisters, Helen, and Edith, and a younger brother called Billy, who also tragically died fighting in the Spanish Civil War, two years later than Felicia, who after joining the International Brigades in February 1938 lost his life in Aragón in the following month..
Felica studied at the St John's Wood Art School and the Slade School of Art between 1920–21 and 1927–28 and was awarded the Certificate in Drawing. Arriving at the Slade at the unusually young age of 16, she was a contemporary of William Coldstream, Henry Tonks, Clive Branson, Claude Rogers and Nan Youngman.
In 1928 she went to Berlin, to study metal work and Sculptureat a state technical training facility in Charlottenburg, Berlin (she spoke several languages very well, In 1929. She became an apprentice to a stone mason whilst there, and witnessed the rise of fascism first-hand and became politically active and dedicated much of her time to encouraging working women to fight for better conditions. She also actively participated in anti-fascist activities and was involved in anti-Nazi street-fighting.
Having joined the Artists International Association, Felicia visited the Soviet Union in 1931,to see how people lived and worked under a communist regime. She also went to Hungary and Czechoslovakia, sketching the townscapes and the local people there.. She spoke at many meetings on her experiences in the Soviet Union on her return in the early 1930’s where she continued to study at Goldsmiths College and the Central School of Arts and Crafts and contributed art to The Left Review.
She donated her personal fortune to refugees, and, in a subsequent period of privation, took employment in a restaurant kitchen. Her ability to speak four languages eased her travels through some of the most remote parts of Europe.”
In 1933 Felicia joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, attracting the interest of M15 and Special Branch. Whilst she was a patient at Guy’s Hospital, she distributed leaflets and attempted to convert some of the nurses to communism. As a result, a watch was established on her postal mail, and it became clear that her home, in Bessborough Gardens and then Guilford Street, London, were being used as cover addresses for foreign mail being sent to Communists in Britain.
In 1934 Felicia won a prize for her design of a medal for the Trades Union Congress, which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Ironically, some of the future recipients of this medal, also turned out to be Communists.
Felica's involvement in the Spanish Civil War was not directly planned. While many of the other fighters had to travel from Britain in secret after the British government declared it illegal to go to Spain to fight, Browne had, in fact, arrived just before the war broke out,. In July 1936 Browne embarked on a driving holiday to France and Spain, accompanied by her friend Dr. Edith Bone, who was a left-wing photographer. Bone went on to become heavily involved with the establishment of the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, (PSUC) in Barcelona.
Their objective was to reach Barcelona in time to attend the International People's Olympiad, which had been organized as protest against the 1936 Olympics that were being held in Hitler's Berlin, however just two days before the the event’s scheduled date, on July 17, 1936, the fascist military rose up against the Spanish republic, and the Spanish Civil War began. Felicia and Edith were immediately caught up in the violence that engulfed Barcelona. and as Athletes either fled or were stranded; Browne decided to stay and fight.
The Spanish Civil War had began after generals Emilio Mola and Francisco Franco instigated a coup aimed at overthrowing the country's democratically elected republic.At first, the efforts by Nationalist rebels to fire up military revolts throughout Spain succeeded only partially. In rural areas with a pro right-wing political allegiance, Franco's confederates generally succeeded, seizing political power and imposing martial law. In urban areas, particularly cities with leftist political traditions, such as Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Bilbao and Málaga, the revolts met with fierce opposition and were repulsed.
The Nationalists on one side were mostly composed of the military, large landowners, businessmen and the Roman Catholic church. The Republicans on the other side were urban workers, most agricultural labourers, the intelligentsia and the educated middle class. The two sides were partly composed of members from opposite extremes of the political spectrum, such as the fascist-oriented Falangists and the militant anarchists.
The conflict pitted the leftist Republican government against fascist-backed Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco. With Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini already in power in Germany and Italy, anti-fascists around the world feared that Spain would be the next to fall, threatening the future of European democracy. When world powers like the United States and the United Kingdom refused to intervene in the Spanish Civil War, more than 35,000 anti-fascist volunteers poured into Spain from 52 countries to take up arms against the Nationalists. They included Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany, idealist intellectuals like a young George Orwell and communists like Felicia committed to crushing an ideological enemy.
At the same time as the Spanish Civil War was raging, Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists was gaining strength in Britain, marching and holding meetings in predominantly Jewish areas. In 1936, a clash between Mosley’s blackshirts and anti-fascist demonstrators in London’s East End – what was to become known as the Battle of Cable Street – spurred many people to scrutinise what was happening in mainland Europe. Fighting in Spain was seen by many as the only way to stop fascism spreading further across Europe, They saw in Spain the risk of allowing fascism to spread unchecked. For them, joining the struggle was about stopping that advance, which is reflected in many of the popular calls to action that echoed throughout the Spanish Civil War: “No pasarán” (They shall not pass), “This far and no further” and “If you tolerate this, then your children will be next.”
The foreign volunteers who fought in the “International Brigades” of the Spanish Civil War hoped to ward off the coming nightmare of Franco’s brutal dicatorship and, in turn, arrest the insidious spread of fascism across the rest of Europe.
“The Spanish Civil War looked like it could be the moment when fascism was finally thrown back,” says Richard Baxell, an historian and author of Unlikely Warriors: The Extraordinary Story of the Britons Who Fought in the Spanish Civil War. “There was this feeling that perhaps people could go out armed with just a gun and political conviction and do their bit alongside the Spanish people to defeat fascism at last.” The foreign volunteers who fought in the “International Brigades” of the Spanish Civil War hoped to ward off the coming nightmare of Franco’s brutal dicatorship and, in turn, arrest the insidious spread of fascism across the rest of Europe. Sadly it didn’t work out that way.
Browne learned of a mission to blow up a fascist munitions train and boldly volunteered for it. However, the Communist party attempted to dissuade her participation. She defied the orders and went to the party offices, where she demanded to be enlisted to fight on the Saragossa front. According to the Daily Express correspondent Sydney Smith, she declared that "I am a member of the London Communists and I can fight as well as any man." embodying the fearless determination with which many women travelled into the warzone with a readiness to lay down their lives.
A desire for equality of the sexes underpinned the ideologies of many women volunteers. While a number claimed to have no political inclination or reason for entering the conflict beyond religion or humanitarianism, those that did were often also fuelled by the feminist sentiments spreading across the continents at that time.
One of many female volunteers to fight – there were mixed-gender Spanish combat battalions on the front line and women-only rear guard battalions – Felicia was the only known British woman.The Spanish Civil War was one of the first wars where women were allowed to participate in combat, which further cemented the Republic’s view of women as equals.
Drawing by Felicia Brown of a Republican militia (1936)
Felicia Brown sketches
On 3 August 1936, Felicia successfully enlisted in the PSUC (Catalan Communist) Karl Marx militia to fight in Aragon. Shortly after joining she wrote to her friend Elizabeth Watson in England, describing her desperation to get involved; "Apparently no chance of aviation school on account of my eyesight, God damn it."
James Hopkins, the author of Into the Heart of the Fire: The British in the Spanish Civil War (1998) describes Felicia’s mission and tells how she met her death on 25 August 1936:
"A German comrade on the raid, George Brinkman, has left a fascinating typewritten report, describing their mission. According to Brinkman, the pudgy, bespectacled Browne was forced to clear a final gender hurdle before being allowed to accompany the raiding party. She went to its leader and asked if he would accept a woman comrade as a volunteer. After attempting to intimidate Browne by telling her of the dangers that awaited them, and failing, he accepted her as one of the ten who would attempt the hazardous mission. They left Tardienta by car and travelled to the farthest point of the front, where they disembarked walked about twelve kilometres to the rail line. Browne and two others were told to keep watch and signal if there was trouble. The remaining seven moved close to the tracks. They set the charges with only thirty seconds remaining before the train passed."
"On their way back, the group stumbled upon a macabre scene, a crashed plane with the remains of the pilot in the cockpit. As they hurriedly buried the dead man, a dog suddenly appeared, and with him an oppressive sense of danger. Brinkman moved quickly up a steep incline where he saw thirty-five or forty enemy soldiers nearby. He signaled to the rest to take cover. To re-join them, Brinkman had to run through heavy rifle fire. An Italian volunteer beside him fell with a bullet through his foot. Brinkman made him as comfortable as possible under the desperate circumstances and then ran to the others for help. Browne insisted on returning with first aid for the wounded man. When she reached him, the enemy concentrated its fire on the two of them, killing her with bullet wounds to her chest and back.”
As Angela Jackson pointed out in British Women and the Spanish Civil War (2002): "Her story has all the ingredients essential to heroic legend, the willing sacrifice of her life to save that of a comrade."
Browne's body could not be recovered, and had to be left there, but her comrades retrieved a sketchbook from her possessions, filled with drawings of her fellow soldiers, these stoic men and women all having been captured in Browne’s lyrical, romantic modernist style.
In her obituary in the Artists International Association journal it said: “She had it in her to represent the very best type of the new woman, but the kind of upbringing to which she was automatically subjected to, and the forces with which she had to compete in a society where commercial values are preeminent, seriously and unnecessarily delayed her in harmonizing all the remarkable powers within her”.
“She had most of the best human characteristics, but she conceived her own variety more as a source of opposition than of enjoyment. She was without guile, duplicity or vanity; painfully truthful and honest, immensely kind and generous, completely humane, loving any aspect of livingness, and as capable of enormous humour as she was deeply serious. She was gifted at every craft that she tried, a witty letter-writer, an amusing cartoonist, a vital and interesting companion, and socially much too gracious to belong credibly to the twentieth century."
“But if her fighting was the expression of her deeply conscientious but less happy side, at least she had intellectual faith in the future. And she found happiness at the end, as far as one can judge from her letters, in a real sense of comradeship with her fellow militiamen. Intellectually she was quite clear about what was necessary for the next few years other life.”
Felicia Mary Browne's friend and colleague Nan Youngman, who was much affected by Felicia's death, organized a memorial exhibition for Browne in October 1936.
The Spanish Civil War was one of the greatest idealistic causes of the first half of the twentieth century, Of the roughly 40,000 selfless3 foreign volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 were killed and thousands more were recorded as missing. They paid the ultimate sacrifice for their ideals,
Most of those who fought in Spain were men with left wing sympathies, motivated by the Europe-wide threat of fascism. British writers like George Orwell, WH Auden and Laurie Lee were just three of the men whose work now better informs our understanding of the war and British participation in it. Felica's story in contrast, is far less well known, but through her sketches and drawings, she documented her own experiences, as an unofficial war artist .
While some historians view the International Brigades as naive idealists or expendable pawns for the communist regime in the USSR, but at the time they showed the Spanish Republic and people around the world that Spain was not fighting fascism alone, Given what was going on in the world, that was a powerful message.
In her farewell address to what remained of the beleaguered International Brigades in 1938, the Spanish Republican leader Dolores Ibarruri, known as “La Pasionaria,” praised the foreign volunteers: “Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, Republicans—men of different colors, differing ideology, antagonistic religions, yet all profoundly loving liberty and justice, they came and offered themselves to us unconditionally… You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of democracy's solidarity and universality.”
Sadly Franco , with help from Hitler and Mussolini, overpowered the Republicans, Franco mounted a major attack against Catalonia in January 1939, which proved a decisive moment because Barcelona, the region’s capital, was unable to fend off the superior power of the Nationalists. On March 28, 1939, the Nationalists triumphantly entered Madrid, leaving the Republicans little option but to raise the white flag over the city, bringing to an end the bloody threeyear struggle. Franco ruled as a dictator until his death in 1975.
Even in death Felicia Mary Browne continued to help the cause she died for: Her drawings made their way to Tom Wintringham, a journalist for the Daily Worker, who suggested to Harry Pollitt that they be sold by the Artists' International Association (AIA) to raise money for Spanish relief campaigns. The AIA presented Browne as being the epitome of an artist choosing to take direct political action.
“If painting or sculpture were more valid or urgent to me than the earthquake which is happening in the revolution,” she once told a friend who questioned why she didn’t simply concentrate on her art, “if these two were reconciled so that the demands of the one didn’t conflict … with the demands of the other, I should paint or make sculpture.”
Felicia Mary Browne 's collection of drawings, prints, book designs, sketchbooks and correspondence were purchased by the Tate in 2010 and have since thankfully been fully digitalised. Now, with the Tate archive , we can at last get a fuller picture of the only known British woman to give her life to the Spanish civil war. Here is a link to the collection:
The spectre of fascism still haunts and universal equality has not been achieved. We should not forget the likes of Felicia Mary Browne and the other internatinalist brigade volunteers who preceded us who gave their lifes so selflesssly,, and we must continue to resist oppressive , fascist forces, with whatever way is at our disposale,.
Felicia Browne: Unofficial War Artist : Animating the Archives
The following film uncovers the work and untimely death of Felicia Browne, an event that reverberates through the work of artist Sonia Boue, here reflecting on the significance of British volunteers, like Browne, who helped republican exiles like her father.
co
Felicia Browne) is celebrated here in this evocative song composed by Patrick Dexter.
The Road to Barcelona (Felicia Browne)
Words and music by Patrick Dexter
Vocal by Eilís Dexter
Oh the sweet sound of the guitar
Play on comrade, play on!
Let the music flow like this cheap wine in my cup
while I sit here in my reverie
Every strum draws my mind back
to that journey we took together
We packed the car and set off
on the boat to France
Passion and ideas were our potion
We sipped fine wine,
You and I
As Eagles soared way up high
The snow capped mountains in our rearview mirror.
In café’s, through cobbled streets
We shared our passions and our dreams
Oh how I miss that sweet aroma
On the Road to Barcelona
Seized upon our chance
Became volunteers at last war for us,
hell to those who doubt our gender
My dearest friend Felicity you always had one up on me
Debating the world’s changes that were stirring
“Anything is possible” you kept declaring
You were going to change the world miss Brown
Through vineyards and sweet smelling flower fields
As we drove through sunshine with the rooftop down
We sipped fine wine,
You and I As Eagles soared way up high
The snow capped mountains in our rearview mirror.
In café’s, through cobbled streets
We shared our passions and our dreams
Oh how I miss that sweet aroma
Of the Road to Barcelona
Now I am old I drink bad wine here all alone
My thoughts a drift in this muddy river
But what good is sweet reverie
When you are gone, all is left is this memory
I long to be back again the times we had there my dear friend
But with the wind in our hair our ideals took over
You died for your beliefs, a martyr for your dreams
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