From:[NextGenderation]
=======================================================
Actually, I don't think this is a fair comment.
Pilger's reconstruction
of the Spanish Civil War suggests that there were only
two sides:
fascists and anti-fascist. The reality was much more
complex.
Authoritarian socialists, supported by the USSR, were
not only fighting
fascists, they were also attacking the anti-fascist
anarchist movement,
undermining one of the world's largest movements for
freedom from rigid
authority. Pilger brushes over these differences as
his politics are
more closely aligned with those of state socialism
than
anti-authoritarianism. The anarchist movement argued
that any State, by
claiming unquestionable authority and the legitimacy
to regiment the
lives of others, is closely related to more overt
forms of fascism.
If you're interested in an account of gender and
anarchist politics
from
the Spanish Civil War, I highly recommend reading
'*Free Women of Spain
Anarchism and the Struggle for the Emancipation of
Women' by Martha
Acklesberg available from
http://akuk.com/ (UK) or
http://akuk.com/
(US). It is an inspiring piece of writing not only of
women's history,
but a challenge for contemporary feminist/radical
gender politics.
End of advert :)
cheers,
Jamie
*
Nadira wrote:
>FASCISM THEN AND NOW
>by John Pilger
>
>We gathered, the other day, at the International
Brigades' Memorial in
>Jubilee Park beside the Thames in London. It was warm
with no breeze,
"a
>Spanish day", one of the Brigaders said. Like the
others, all in their
>eighties and older, he took shelter in the shade and
rested on his
>walking stick. He wore his red beret. Twenty yards
away, tourists
>waiting to board the London Eye looked bemused at the
elderly men in
>their berets, and the rest of us, without knowing who
we were, what
the
>men had done and why we were celebrating them.
>
>Between 1936 and 1939, the International Brigade
fought in Spain on
the
>side of the republican government against the fascist
forces of
General
>Franco. They were British and other Europeans,
Americans and
>Australians. They were very young and volunteers,
determined to stop
>fascism in its tracks. Although the republican
government eventually
>fell, in February 1937 the 600-strong British
Battalion of the XVth
>International Brigade stopped Franco's advance on
Madrid. Four hundred
>were killed, wounded or captured in four days' bloody
battle.
>
>There were many battles like that. Sam Russell, a
Brigader, described
>eloquently how on the Sierra del Pandols, "there was
not enough soil
to
>bury the dead, so we covered them with stones". The
poet Martin Green,
>whose father, George Green, was killed when Martin
was four years old,
>stood at the edge of the crowd. For his father, he
had written:
>
>You had no funeral nor hearse
>No grave except the place you fell
>. . . I was a boy too young
>To take the blow that felled
>The tree that was your man.
>
>Now, 67 years on, we sang, to the tune of "Red River
Valley", the
>rousing song of the Battle of Madrid. Jack Jones, the
president of the
>International Brigade Memorial Trust, read out the
names of his
comrades
>who had died since their last reunion a year ago:
Charlie Matthews
(who
>had been reported killed on the battlefield in 1939
and whose obituary
>had appeared in his local paper) and Cyril Sexton,
who was wounded at
>Jarama and went on to fight at Aragon, Belchite,
Gandesa and Ebro
where
>he was wounded again. Last April, he died in Tenerife
at the age of
91.
>
>A Brigader and poet, David Campbell, had nominated me
for the honour
of
>describing the meaning of their heroism today. This
is what I said:
>
>I first understood the importance of the struggle in
Spain from Martha
>Gellhorn. Martha, who was one of my oldest friends,
is remembered as
one
>of the greatest war correspondents and especially for
her dispatches
>from Spain during the Civil War. In November 1938,
she wrote this:
>
>"In Barcelona, it was perfect bombing weather. The
cafes along the
>Ramblas were crowded. There was nothing much to
drink: a sweet fizzy
>poison called orangeade and a horrible liquid
supposed to be sherry.
>There was, of course, nothing to eat. Everyone was
out, enjoying the
>cold afternoon sunlight. No bombers had come for at
least two hours.
The
>flower stalls look bright and pretty along the
promenade. 'The flowers
>are all sold, Senores. For the funerals of those
killed in the eleven
>o'clock bombing, poor souls'. It had been a clear and
cold day all
>yesterday ... 'What beautiful weather', a woman said,
and she stood,
>holding her shawl around her, staring at the sky. A
catastrophe,' she
>said. Eeryone listened for the sirens all the time,
and when we saw
the
>bombers, they were like tiny silver bullets, moving
forever up, across
>the sky."
>
>How familiar that sounds. Barcelona. Guernica.
Hiroshima. Vietnam.
>Cambodia. Palestine. Afghanistan. Iraq. All those
"tiny silver
bullets"
>moving across the sky and bombing to death tens of
thousands of men,
>women and children. Martha Gellhorn wrote of the
International
Brigade:
>"Whatever their nationality, whether they were
Communists, anarchists,
>socialists, poets, plumbers, middle-class
professional men, or the one
>Abyssinian prince . . . they were fighting for us all
in Spain."
>
>The enemy then was fascism, out-and-out fascism.
Armband wearing,
>strutting, ranting fascism.
>
>The enemy then was a great world power, adventurous,
rapacious, with
>plans of domination, of capturing the world's natural
resources: the
oil
>fields of the Caspian and the Middle East, the
mineral riches of
Africa.
>They seemed invincible.
>
>The enemy then was also lies. Deceit. News dressed up
as propaganda.
>Appeasement. A large section of the British
establishment saw fascism
as
>its friend. Their voice was heard in a section of the
British press:
the
>Times, the Daily Mail.
>
>To the propagandists, the real threat was from
ordinary people, who
were
>dreamers, many of them, who imagined a new world in
which the dignity
of
>ordinary life was respected and celebrated. Some were
wise dreamers
and
>some were foolish dreamers, but they understood the
nature of fascism,
>and they saw through the lies and appeasement.
>
>They knew that the true enemy did not always wear
armbands, and strut,
>and command great rallies, but were impeccable
English gentlemen, who
>sold out their country to rampant power behind a
smokescreen of
>propaganda that appropriated noble concepts like
"democracy",
"freedom"
>and "human rights" and "our way of life" and "our
values". Their words
>were echoed by courtier journalists and justified by
pseudo-historians,
>who feared the public's ability to reason why.
>
>Does all this sound familiar?
>
>I ask that question, because when I read the aims of
the International
>Brigade Memorial Trust, I was struck by a reference
to "the historical
>legacy of the men and women who fought with the
International Brigades
>against fascism ..."
>
>The "historical legacy" of the International Brigade,
as Martha
Gellhorn
>wrote, is that they were fighting for us all. That
means, for me, a
>legacy of truth - a way of seeing through the
illusions and lies and
>deceit, notably the propaganda of our own
governments. It means
>confronting murderous power in whatever form it
appears.
>
>That legacy is needed today more than ever.
Impeccable gentlemen now
>invade defenceless countries in our name, destroying
hospitals,
shooting
>doctors, rounding up thousands and writing a number
on their forehead
or
>forearm, then imprisoning and torturing them. They
speak of freedom
and
>democracy, and our way of life and our values, and
they deride those
who
>reason why. They do not wear armbands and they do not
strut. They are
>different from fascists. But their goals are not
different: conquest,
>domination, the theft and control of vital resources.
>
>When the judges at Nuremberg laid down the ground
rules of
international
>law following the Second World War, they described an
unprovoked
>invasion of a defenceless country as "the paramount
crime against
>humanity ... from which all other war crimes follow".
The judges also
>pointed out the obvious: that violent invasion would
beckon violent
>reaction, which compounded the original crime.
>
>The world is a very different place from the Sierra
del Pandols, and
the
>Valley of Jarama in 1937, where the best of men lie
beneath the
stones,
>but the legacy of those who understood and confronted
fascism then
>endures as a warning to us all today.
>
>It is a warning about sinister ambitions behind
democratic facades:
>about messianic politicians, apparently touched by
God, and their
denial
>of the consequences of their violence, and it is a
warning about those
>who shout down the reasons why in the name of a fake
patriotism. It is
>also about moral courage: about speaking out,
breaking a silence. I
>salute those of you International Brigaders who are
here today, who
did
>more than speak out. I thank you and your fallen
comrades for what you
>did for us all, and for your legacy of truth and
moral courage. La
Lucha
>continua.
>
>
>You can support the International Brigade Memorial
Trust by e-mailing
>marlenesidaway@???
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
