[Badgirlz-list] Spanish Civil War, Woman Struggle and Anarch…

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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@???
>


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