Dr. Barsky addressing an international conference on medical aid to Republican Spain in Paris in July 1937 International again declared ``the readiness of the Comintern to begin negotiations on joint action at any moment".
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE USSR
THE INSTITUTE OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING-CLASS MOVEMENT
SOVIET WAR VETERANS' COMMITTEE
__TITLE__ INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITYProgress Publishers
Moscow
[1] __EDITORS__ INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL BOARD:
Britain
FRANTISEK KRUZIK
Czechoslovakia
ROGER MICHAUT
France
HANS TEUBNER
German Democratic Republic
RENATO BERTOLINI
Italy
PIOTR WASILUK
Poland
IVAN NESTERENKO
USSR
LAZAR LATINOVIC
Yugoslavia
COJlHflAPHOCTb HAPOAOB C HCFIAHCKOH PECnyBJIHKOFI
1936---1939
Ha anrjiHftcKOM
__COPYRIGHT__
First printing 1975
© Translated into English. Progress Publishers 1974
Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
10605---85 014(01)-75
[2] CONTENTS Page From the Publishers .... 5 The Fight Goes On. ByThe idea of publishing a book about the international solidarity with the Spanish people in the thirties was advanced in July 1966 at the Berlin international meeting of veterans of the Spanish national-revolutionary war and former international brigaders. An International Editorial Board was set up for the purpose. At its meeting in Moscow on January 10 through 19, 1970, the Board discussed and approved for publication the materials presented by a number of national organisations of Spanish war veterans.
Naturally, the collection could not contain material on all the national contingents that took part in the struggle in Spain. Nevertheless, the contribution made by anti-fascists from the countries listed in the book was decisive both for the movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic and for the organisation of International Brigades.
The International Editorial Board was greatly helped in its work by Dolores Ibarruri and other editors of the monumental study The War and Revolution in Spain 1936--1939; by International Brigade veterans Franz Dahlem (GDR), Franciszek Ksiezarczyk (Poland), Karlo Lukanov (Bulgaria), and Valter Roman ( Rumania).
The articles on the solidarity movement with Republican Spain were prepared by the following organisations of veterans of the movement and of the anti-fascist war of the Spanish people in 1936--1939 (the authors' names are given in brackets):~
A group of Argentinian volunteers in the Spanish People's Army (a group of authors);~
The Association of Austrian Volunteers for Republican Spain in 1936--1939 and Friends of Democratic Spain (Max Stern);~
The International Brigade Association and Friends of Republican Spain, Britain (Nan Green);~
The Anti-Fascist Fighters' Committee, Bulgaria (D. Sirkov);~
Veterans of the International Brigades---Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion of Canada (a group of authors);~
5A group of Cuban fighters in the Spanish Republican Army (Ladislao G. Carbajal, Ramon Nicolau);~
The Union of Fighters Against Fascism, Czechoslovakia (Prof. Frantisek Kruzik);~
A group of Finnish international brigaders (Paavo Koskinen, Onni Hukkinen);~
The Fraternity of Former Spanish Volunteers, France (Roger Michaut);~
The section of former fighters in Spain, the Anti-Fascist Fighters' Committee in the GDR (Prof. Hans Teubner);~
The Union of Hungarian Guerrillas (Jeno Gyorkei);~
A group of Irish veterans of International Brigades (Michael O'Riordari);~
The Italian Association of Anti-Fascist Volunteers in Spain (Cesare Colombo);~
A group of Norwegian veterans of International Brigades ( Randulf Dalland, J. Lappe, S. Mortensen, E. Reiersen);~
The Central Commission of the Veterans of the Dabrowski Brigade under the Union of Fighters for Freedom and Democracy, Poland (a group of authors);~
The Anti-Fascist Fighters' Committee in the Rumanian Socialist Republic (Mihai Burca, Valter Roman);~
The Union of Swedish Volunteers in Spain (Knut Olsson, Sixten Rogeby);~
The Fraternity of Former Swiss Fighters in Republican Spain (a group of authors);~
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, USA (Arthur H. Landis);~
The section of participants in the national-revolutionary war in Spain, the Soviet War Veterans' Committee (Prof. D. Pritsker);~
The Fraternity of Former Yugoslav Volunteers in the Spanish Republican Army (a group of authors).
The article ``The Fight Goes On" is written by Chairman of the Communist Party of Spain Dolores Ibarruri; the article ``An Important Stage in the Peoples' Struggle Against Fascism'', by former Commissar General of the International Brigades Luigi Longo, now Chairman of the Italian Communist Party; the article ``The War in Spain and the Struggle of the International Communist Movement for Unity of the Anti-Fascist Forces'', by the veteran of the International Brigades, Franz Dahlem (GDR), now member of the CC SUPG; the concluding article was prepared, on instructions from the International Editorial Board, by the Soviet Editorial Board (I. S. Kremer and I. N. Nesterenko).
__FIX__ All that above is AUTHORS field! [6] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE FIGHT GOES ON __AUTHOR__ DOLORES IBARRURIThe resistance of the people of Spain to the military-fascist revolt that began in June 1936 holds a special place among the political events that shook the consciousness of Europe and the world in the thirties.
In a period when the so-called democratic governments were conceding position after position to fascism and thus helping it to gain ground, this powerful and unexpected resistance immediately won the sympathies of the most progressive forces in all countries, and particularly those of the working class, who declared their support for the Spanish people in no uncertain terms.
A counterweight to this attitude of the popular and democratic forces was the open hostility to the struggle of the Spanish people on the part of the governments of France and Britain, which from the outset tried to stifle it with the help of the so-called policy of non-intervention, which in effect meant aiding and abetting the aggressor.
This policy prevented the Spanish Government from purchasing the arms so badly needed for defence against the counter-- revolutionary revolt, that had its origins in Mussolini's Italy and in Hitler Germany, which were then preparing to launch acts of aggression in Europe.
The force opposing the policy of cowardly tolerance of and concessions to fascist aggression adopted by the ``democratic'' governments (a policy that was very soon to turn against those who conducted it---openly or shamefacedly) was the Soviet Union. Then the only socialist state, despite its geographical remoteness from the scene of events, which made it almost impossible physically to come to the aid of the Spanish people, it declared from the very first hour of the struggle that the cause of the Spanish Republic was that of all progressive and forward-looking mankind.
The Soviet Union consistently proved in practice that its declaration was not a mere propagandist phrase, that it reflected an unswerving determination to help the Spanish people and government in their desperate resistance to fascist aggression. And this despite the fact that between Spain and the Soviet Union at that time there had not even been any diplomatic relations.
7The fascist putsch left the Republic without means of defence. Popular resistance seemed impossible without aircraft, without tanks, without guns, without all the things that could have been used against the insurgent forces, which Italy and Germany were supplying with every kind of offensive and defensive weapon.
The Soviet Union provided the Republican Government with military equipment to fight the revolt. But it was no easy task to deliver it both because of the distance between Spain and the USSR and because of the policy conducted by the governments of France, Britain and the U.S.A.
How many Soviet ships were attacked and sunk on the way to Spain! How many Soviet people filled with a heroic resolve to help the Spanish people defend their right to a life of freedom in a democratic Spain sacrificed their own lives in this cause!
How many aircraft, how many engines remained on French territory, held up by the Blum government at a time when our soldiers were crying out for arms with which to defend themselves! A considerable quantity of these arms never arrived in Spain and was subsequently used by the Germans against the French people themselves. Nothing can wash away the historical guilt of those who devised the policy of ``non-intervention''!
Appealing to the internationalist consciousness of the Communists, of the whole international working-class movement, of all progressively-minded people, the Communist International in every country mobilised for aid to the Spanish people the most capable fighting elements and organised the International Brigades. In the trenches of Republican Spain the soldiers of these brigades won eternal glory. Defending the Spanish people and the freedom of their own countries, they raised the banner of proletarian internationalism to the highest peaks of heroism and self-sacrifice.
The Communist International, realising that all peoples of the world had a stake in the struggle of the Spanish people, called upon all working people, all progressive forces to come to the aid of Republican Spain in its resistance to fascist aggression.
Italians and Germans, French and Poles, Britishers and North Americans, Rumanians, Bulgarians and Yugoslavs, Austrians and Swiss, Finns and Swedes, Irish, Norwegians and Albanians, Canadians, Cubans, Argentinians, Mexicans and representatives of other Latin American republics, people of all continents, arrived in Spain to fight alongside the Spanish people in the first great battle against fascist aggression, a battle that became the prologue to the Second World War. There may not have been so many of them, but all the same their participation was of immense importance because of their heroism, selflessness and spirit of self-sacrifice. The contribution of the internationalists was of invaluable assistance to us and inscribed the finest page in the history of international solidarity.
8With the deepest emotion one reads this book and feels how alive and strong, despite the passage of time, is the memory of Republican Spain, the first country to face armed fascist aggression.
Along with the fighters of the International Brigades Soviet airmen and tank crews arrived in Spain as fighting men and instructors for our soldiers, who did not yet know how to use modern weapons. Together they fought heroically and died gloriously, showing the full significance of proletarian internationalism, how much it meant that there was such a country as the Soviet Union, the first socialist country in the world.
Although the armed struggle ended with the defeat of the Republic because of the inequality of forces and the betrayal by the Madrid Junta led by Colonel Casado, the struggle for the Republic and democracy did not end with the establishment of the Franco dictatorship. It has heroically continued in the most difficult conditions of a terrorist regime, and it continues to this day, inspired above all by the working class and its Communist Party.
This struggle which is being fought by the workers, peasants and students of universities and institutes in Spain, by the intelligentsia, professional people, and the basic political groups of our country, excluding of course the most reactionary section of the big bourgeoisie and the still surviving groups of the fascism of yesteryear, this struggle has brought about the crisis that the dictatorship is experiencing today. The further development of this crisis will undoubtedly condemn Francoism to extinction and lead to the establishment of a democratic system in Spain.
The most interesting thing about this struggle is that, just as in the years between 1936 and 1939, it is being waged mainly by the young generation, not only Communists but also other democratically-minded contingents of youth. The young people are continuing the tradition, the glorious and heroic tradition which takes its source from our fighters of 1936 to 1939 and their fraternal unity with the comrades of the International Brigades. This tradition lives on consistently and vigorously. Youth today fights with the revolutionary conviction that only by struggle can they put an end to dictatorship and open up for Spain the path to democracy and socialism.
Today this struggle is supported by all the main democratic forces of our country, including many people and groups that only yesterday were supporting Franco. This struggle is shaking the fascist structure of the regime and creating conditions for the establishment of a democratic system in which the working class and democratic forces will play a role that determines the political and social structure of Spain---a Spain open to all that is progressive, whose goal is socialism, and socialism only, a goal towards which all of today's main political forces who are aware of the historical realities of our epoch are striving.
9 __ALPHA_LVL1__ AN IMPORTANT STAGE IN THE PEOPLES'The pages of this book recall the great urge for solidarity that arose when the working people and democrats of all countries hastened to the assistance of Republican Spain, which had been attacked by the combined forces of the insurgent generals, German nazism and Italian fascism.
The news of the Franco revolt roused great anxiety throughout Europe and the world. Massive popular demonstrations of solidarity took place in London, Moscow, Stockholm, Paris, New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and many other capitals. Everywhere people expressed a determination to render real assistance to the Spanish Republic, the victim of attack. Food and medical supplies were hastily collected and sent to Spain; field hospitals were organised. Volunteers from various countries tried every means of getting to the Franco-Spanish frontier in the Pyrenees or of reaching Spain by sea from the ports of Southern France. Foreign antifascists living in Spain or those who had arrived at Barcelona to take part in the People's Olympiad^^1^^ volunteered for the ranks of the first people's detachments that fought against the militaryfascist conspirators.
After the emotional upsurge of the first days came the question of how to find organisational forms for rendering material assistance and participation by the volunteers. This problem assumed special importance in France, partly because in France there were many groups of emigres who had left their homeland for economic or political reasons (heavy unemployment or savage reaction and fascist regimes) and who were now eager to help Republican Spain. The French working people and democrats---under the influence of the Popular Front---took an active part in the _-_-_
~^^1^^ The People's Olympiad, to be opened on July 22, 1936 in Barcelona, was sponsored by proletarian and democratic sports organisations of a number of countries.---Ed.
10 national and international struggle for peace and freedom. France was then almost the only gateway into Spain, but this gateway was by no means easy to reach or to pass through. This was the France of the Popular Front, but it was also the France of Leon Blunj, and neither material aid nor the volunteers themselves could freely enter neighbouring Spain.This is confirmed by the massive evidence collected in this book concerning the difficulties that the anti-fascist volunteers from many countries encountered and had to overcome to defeat the vigilance of the police when crossing the frontier.
As is known, the capitalist states of Europe conducted a policy of what they called non-intervention. But this ``non-intervention'' was one-sided. Despite Franco-Spanish agreements, the French government considered it its duty to prevent the flow of aid to Spain. At the same time the fascist government of Italy and the nazis met no obstacles in sending arms and troops to the assistance of the rebel generals.
With the permission of the so-called democratic governments, and sometimes without it. Aid Spain centres were set up in various countries. In order to stimulate and co-ordinate the activities of these centres the first European Conference in Defence of the Spanish Republic assembled in Paris in August 1936. It set up the International Co-operation and Information Committee for Aid to the Spanish Republic.
Communists, Socialists, Social-Democrats, the League of Human Rights and various movements in the Protestant Church, people of the Anglican Church, world-famous representatives of the Catholic religion and numerous public figures in science and culture actively joined in organising aid for Republican Spain.
It can be justly asserted, as was stated authoritatively by Stalin at the time, that the Spanish cause had become the cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.
The working people of Spain answered the revolt of the generals and the treachery of whole sectors of the traditional state machine by taking upon themselves the task of saving the democratic freedoms of their country. The struggle in defence of the Republic assumed above all a deeply national character. It was the people who initially offered resistance to the rebel generals.
The war in Spain was a conflict between the alliance of reactionary forces and the bloc of popular forces that had taken shape in the struggle against the regime of the so-called ``Black Two Years".^^1^^ This clash made still more urgent the necessity for providing the republican state with a democratic and socially advanced substance.
_-_-_~^^1^^ From the autumn of 1933 to late 1935, when the country was ruled by the bloc of reactionary and pro-fascist parties and groups that had won the elections to the Cortes.---Ed.
11
Soviet volunteer airmen at Karl Marx's grave. London, 1938
Thus there emerged a deep connection between the crisis of the social and political structure of Spain and the hopes that had arisen in the popular mind after the proclamation of the republican system. This connection explains not only the enthusiastic and militant participation of the people in the defence of the Republic, but also the profound democratic character of the armed struggle of 1936 to 1939.
This connection also explains the unity of the democratic forces, which survived the whole course of the war. Popular initiative made it possible to overcome the disorganisation caused by the revolt and to create the basic---administrative, economic and military---elements of the new state and lay the foundation of a society that would differ fundamentally from its predecessor. Finally, the above-mentioned connection between the crisis of the whole previous system and the hopes of people was also to a considerable extent characteristic of the activity of the most progressive political forces of the Republic.
``We,'' said Jose Diaz, Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain, a few days before the decisive victory in the elections to the Popular Front in 1936, ``are the continuators of those who have given their lives for the freedom of Spain. All that is progressive in Spanish history belongs to the people."^^1^^ Diaz demanded satisfaction _-_-_
~^^1^^ Jose Diaz, Tres anos de lucha, Ediciones Europa-America, Paris-- MexicoNueva York, 1939, p. 89.
12 of the most urgent and specific needs of the poor people, and provision of human conditions of life for the dispossessed. Here he found arguments for a broad mobilisation of the masses to solve both immediate, pressing problems and the most general structural questions determining the democratic, progressive character of the Republic.``We don't want the peasants to go on eating grass,'' Diaz continued, ``we want them to be fed by what is produced in the fields that they till, we want them to be able to exchange their surpluses with the workers of the cities for the goods that they produce. We want a Spain in which the intellectuals, the doctors, the men of science and art can serve the people and not a clique of exploiters. We want the universities to open their doors to the workers, to the people.. . . We want the doctors to treat the workers and all poor people. We want to have a Spain where it is impossible for such crimes and cruelties to be committed as were committed against our brothers in Asturias, whose only fault was that they wanted to build a just Spain. We want a Spain where the working people have bread, work and freedom."^^1^^
The battle that in this situation the mass of the people continued urgently required that they should be united at a higher level and that a more effective social and military organisation should be set up. This problem was complicated by the diversity of the forces taking part in the Spanish popular movement and by the influence of specific national factors due to differences in the processes of historical development and the specific features of the formation of separate national groups (Basques, Catalonians, Galicians). The difficulties were also due to the uneven development of various political forces taking part in the popular movement and the wholly understandable hostility of the masses (for centuries they had experienced the harshest types of government) to any forms of discipline that remotely suggested the oppression from which they wished to liberate themselves.
In the face of all these difficulties it was essential to win massive support for the united front and to rally all anti-fascists. ``You wonder what can be set against an armed and crafty enemy with all the cruel machinery of suppression at his disposal,'' Jose Diaz asked at one of the meetings. ``Is enthusiasm alone enough? This enthusiasm must be embodied in a strong organisation that can develop the struggle and bring us to victory over reaction and fascism. Mere wishes and enthusiasm are not enough. There must be organisation and still more organisation.''
The dilemma that confronted Spain was clear: ``Either democracy would conquer fascism or fascism would destroy democracy; either the revolution would triumph over counter-revolution or _-_-_
~^^1^^ Ibid., pp. 90--91.
13
Each time I speak in
Geneva or elsewhere
supporting the Spanish
Government's stand on
the recall of the
non-Spanish combatants,
I emphasize the difference
between the one kind of
``volunteers'' and the
other. Some invaded
Spain on orders from
their rulers, others came
to defend it, deeply
convinced that a
decisive battle for
democracy and for peace
in Europe was developing
in Spain.
Comrades from the
International Brigades, the
glorious vanguard of
world anti-fascism,
honorary citizens of
heroic Madrid and
Spain that will be
victorious tomorrow,
there are no words in the
Spanish language, capable
of expressing the subtlest
shades of feeling, that
can convey our admiration
for you and our
gratitude!
Julio Alvarez del Vayo
Address of Foreign Minister Julio Alvarez del Vayo, Commissar General of the
Republican Army, to volunteers of the International Brigades
14
counter-revolution would turn Spain into a country of poverty,
starvation and terror.'' ``We want to avoid this,'' said Diaz on the
eve of the February elections of 1936, ``this is why we propose
setting up a popular bloc now and preserving it after victory at the
elections so that the bourgeois-democratic revolution will develop
consistently and lead---at this first stage---to something that has not
yet been realised in our country and that the French revolution
achieved in 1789---to the abolition of the feudal survivals that are
still one of the material pillars of reaction."^^1^^
As we know, as soon as the results of the Popular Front victory in the elections on February 16, 1936 were published, the reactionaries began preparing a coup d'etat that would have nullified the expression of the people's will. Reaction steered a course towards overt fascism and sought to achieve its ends with the help of the military, including a group of generals, the so-called Africanists.^^2^^
The victory of the Popular Front in Spain was followed a little later by its victory in France. It was becoming clear that this was an upsurge of the mass of the people capable of barring the road to fascism in Europe and promoting the policy of collective security which the Soviet Union was at the time pursuing in the name of peace.
Reinforcement of the front of anti-fascist democracy could have become a sound bulwark of peace in Europe, a counterweight to Hitler's revanchism, which constituted the greatest threat to world peace, and a counterweight to the military adventures of Mussolini in Africa and the Mediterranean area.
The reactionary Spanish oligarchy chose the path of fascism. To save the Republic and democracy in Spain it was essential to thwart the conspiracy of reaction, to widen the mass base of the republican system, to disarm the reactionary forces and to strike at the very foundations of their influence and power.
This made it urgently necessary to implement in full and as quickly as possible the most important demands of the programme of the Popular Front: uncompensated confiscation of the estates of the big landlords, the church and the monasteries, and their immediate transfer free of charge to the poor peasants and agricultural workers; liberation of the overseas territories oppressed by Spanish imperialists; the rights of self-government and self-determination for Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia; and a general improvement of living and working conditions for the working class.
In the complex and eventful situation of those days the vanguard of the working class made use of the experience it had acquired in the battles of the Black Two-Year Period and in the process _-_-_
~^^1^^ Jose Diaz, op. cit., p. 118.
~^^2^^ Africanists---the most reactionary section of the officer caste of the Spanish army, which had made their career during punitive expeditions against the population of the Spanish colonies in Africa.---Ed.
15
__FIX__ Caption text starts at NEWLINE + When the time came to fight for the Republic it was the working class that gave the people unity and that braced their fighting spirit, their determination and inherent sense of organisation. The people were well aware of the aims of the struggle: the Republic was not a mere fetish or label for them; despite all its serious shortcomings, it was not only the sum total of their democratic gains _-_-_
~^^1^^ Milicianos---soldiers of the People's Militia; volunteer armed detachments set up by political parties and trade unions to defend the Republic from the military-fascist insurgents. The most numerous, disciplined and efficient fighting force of the People's Militia was the famous 5th Regiment, formed by the Communist Party of Spain. The ranks of the 5th Regiment produced many talented organisers and leaders of the Republic's armed forces, and its numerous battalions formed the nucleus of the regular units of the new Republican Army.---Ed.
16 but also the point of departure for the waging of more decisive social and political battles.The counter-offensive against fascism followed immediately thanks to the vigilance and initiative of the alerted masses of the people. The people answered the fascist revolt by an immediate general political strike, by universal arming of the masses on their own initiative (later legalised by the republican authorities), by lightning assaults on the fascist barracks and strong points, by street demonstrations and establishment of control over populated areas.
The long and persistent struggle for unity during the period preceding the fascist revolt resulted at the dramatic moment of the Franco attack in joint action in response to appeals by the Communist and Socialist parties. There was an obvious continuity between the phase before July 18 and the new phase that began with the struggle by the republican and anti-fascist forces.
Jose Diaz in one of his radio speeches generalised the objectives of the struggle as follows: ``What is the Spanish people fighting for? It is defending its freedoms and democratic rights against fascism, against the military traitors who wish to condemn our country to barbarity, poverty and starvation. The Communist Party is in the front rank of this struggle for defence of the democratic Republic. In face of the fascist threat we have risen to defend our right and the people's right to life. We are determined that our people shall not experience the disgrace of a fascist regime. We want to live in peace with the peoples of the whole world."^^1^^
The counter-offensive of the people's united forces prevented the fascists from achieving their planned objectives. The navy remained almost totally on the side of the Republic. A large part of the African army was stranded on Moroccan territory. Of the four columns detailed for an assault on Madrid only two were able to move, but even they were halted at the Sierra Heights. Santander and Vascongadas on which the insurgent generals had placed their hopes remained in the hands of the people.
Eight days after the revolt had begun the German diplomatic representative in Madrid informed Berlin on the situation stating that unless something unexpected happened there was little hope that the military revolt would be successful. It was then that the Italian fascists decided to launch their mass invasion of Spain. Italian ships and aircraft transported the main forces of the insurgents from Morocco to the metropolis. Then came the invasion by regular fascist divisions from Italy, the special nazi Condor Legion, the Heinkels and Junkers of the German air force.
The civil war in Spain assumed a different character. The war unleashed by world fascism against the Spanish people now _-_-_
~^^1^^ Jose Diaz, op. cit., pp. 260--61.
__PRINTERS_P_17_COMMENT__ 2---781 17
Thus the organisation of the International Brigades began as an expression of the idea of the Popular Front. They put themselves at the disposal of the Spanish people and its government agencies.
From the very outset it was decided that the international military formations would be part of the regular Spanish Republican Army and come under the command of its General Staff, that their commanders and commissars would be enlisted in the Spanish army and that its discipline would apply to them, that the banner of the International Brigades was the banner of the Spanish Republic. At the same time the International Brigades were allowed to carry also a red banner as a symbol of international solidarity.
The International Brigades fought valiantly in defence of Madrid and afterwards took part in all the main battles on Spanish soil. Their heroism was an inspiration to the world.
At the mustering point of the International Brigades in the town of Albacete volunteers arrived at the rate of about six hundred to seven hundred per week. The total in the period from autumn 1936 to summer 1938 exceeded 30,000, who came from nearly all the 18 countries of Europe, from North and South America and even from Africa, India and China.
This book provides yet another affirmation of the valuable contribution that the International Brigades made to the struggle of the Spanish people; when the new Republican Army was formed out of the detachments of the People's Militia the international units set an example of order and discipline. But the main service and fundamental role in the cause of defending the Republic against the aggression of the insurgent generals, Italian fascism and German nazism belong, of course, to the Spanish people themselves---at the beginning, to the detachments of the People's Militia, and later to the Republican Army.
When the Republican Government under pressure from the socalled democratic governments and the League of Nations decided in September 1938 to withdraw from the front all non-Spanish soldiers, the population of Barcelona mounted a massive demonstration of welcome in the name of the whole Spanish Republic for the volunteers who had come to defend Spain and who were now bidding her farewell, leaving forever on her soil many of their best comrades who had fallen in battle.
On this occasion Dolores Ibarruri, La Pasionaria, addressed all women of Spain: ``Mothers! Women! When the years pass and the wounds of war are staunched; when a present of freedom, peace and well-being dispels the memories of the sorrowful and bloody days of the past; when feelings of rancour are dying away and all Spaniards feel equal pride in their free country---then speak to your children. Tell them of the men of the International Brigades!
``Tell them how, coming over seas and mountains, crossing frontiers, bristling with bayonets and watched for by ravening dogs thirsty to tear at their flesh, these men reached our country as Crusaders of Freedom, to fight and die for the freedom and independence of Spain over which hung the threat of German and Italian fascism. They gave up everything: love, country, home, fortune, mothers, wives, brothers end children and came to say to us: 'We are here! Your cause, the cause of Spain, is ours; it is the common cause of all advanced and progressive mankind'."^^1^^
_-_-_~^^1^^ Dolores Ibarruri, En la lucha. Palabras y hechos, 1936--1939, Vol. I, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1968, p. 355.
[19] __ALPHA_LVL1__ THE WAR IN SPAIN AND THE STRUGGLEThe valiant struggle of the Spanish people for freedom and independence against the military-fascist revolt and the intervention of the fascist states---Germany and Italy---roused an unprecedentedly broad movement of solidarity. Millions of people in various countries contributed their mite to the cause of aid for the Spanish Republic.
The tremendous scope of this movement had been prepared by years of active anti-war and anti-fascist struggle by the working people in many countries, developed on the initiative of the Communist parties united in the Communist International. The historic service performed by the Comintern lay in its timely noting of the growing danger of a new imperialist war and its accurate indication of the sources of this danger---European, particularly German, fascism and Japanese militarism. On the other hand, the reformist leaders of Social-Democracy, like the liberal groups among the democratic public, persisted for a long time in denying the danger of war.
On January 1, 1933, a conference of Communist parties of nine European countries---Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Luxembourg---was held in Essen, in the centre of the Ruhr. It passed important decisions on organisation of joint action by the proletariat of individual countries. Specifically, it recommended that there should be "general anti-war demonstrations by people who have suffered from war, women, young people, athletes, writers, artists, actors, doctors, engineers and other workers in the intellectual field''. International campaigns were to be organised against the white terror, against the punitive expeditions, executions and physical extermination of revolutionary fighters. The resolution stressed the significance of the Amsterdam anti-war movement and Communists were called 20 upon to take an active part in it.^^1^^ So the Communists sought and found general democratic, mass forms of struggle against the threat of war.
In 1933 alone, on the initiative of the International Committee Against Imperialist War, set up by the Amsterdam anti-war congress, several impressive international gatherings were held that placed the struggle against war and fascism in the focus of public opinion and rallied all fighters for peace, from Communists to pacifists, from proletarians to British Tories.
The European anti-fascist congress in Paris, the Latin American anti-war congress in Montevideo, the anti-war conference of the Scandinavian countries in Copenhagen, the US anti-war congress in New York, the Asian anti-war congress in Shanghai, the international congress of youth against war in Paris---such is a by no means complete list of the anti-war forums of 1933.
Right up to the outbreak of war in Spain the anti-war movement marched from strength to strength. It spread from the congress halls to the streets and squares of cities. The anti-war slogans merged with demands to bar the road to fascism, with campaigns in defence of the victims of fascist persecution and murder. In 1935 and 1936 May Day demonstrations were held in many countries under the slogans of struggle against war and fascism. The events in Spain endowed this movement with new strength and extended its influence on the broad masses.
By this time the international communist movement in the shape of the decisions of the 7th Congress of the Comintern (1935) completed the work of formulating a strategic and tactical policy suitable to the new conditions. The struggle against fascism as the main task, defence of democratic regimes, alliance with all political and social forces opposing fascism and war---such were the main features of this policy. As history has shown, the decisions of the 7th Congress helped to bring together the democratic forces in a number of countries in an anti-fascist Popular Front.
In France, owing to the joint efforts of the Communists, Socialists and Radicals, the attempt at a fascist coup d'etat in February 1934 was defeated. The Communist Party of Spain by its consistent adherence to the policy of the Popular Front promoted the victory of democracy over the forces of reaction and fascism at the general elections in 1936, the crushing of the military fascist revolt of July 18 in the main centres throughout the country, and later the organisation of popular resistance to the Italo-German invasion.
The international communist movement did everything possible to help the working people of Spain in dealing with the complex _-_-_
~^^1^^ Rote Fahne, January 10, 1933. The anti-war movement dates its history from the Amsterdam international congress held on August 27--29, 1932.
21 problems of consolidation of the Popular Front and organisation of the defence of the Republic, and in protecting the democratic system in Spain. Prominent figures in the communist movement--- Palmiro Togliatti, Victorio Codovilla, Maurice Thorez, Jacques Duclos, Wilhelm Pieck, Harry Pollitt, Tim Buck and many others ---made a great contribution to the struggle of the Spanish people and its vanguard, the Communist Party of Spain.The principal role in the formation and fighting leadership of the International Brigades, the pride and fighting force of the international solidarity movement, was played by well-tested members of the Communist parties: Luigi Longo, Andre Marty, Franz Dahlem, Giuseppe Di Vittorio, Karlo Lukanov, Ferdinand Kozovsky, Ralph Fox, John Cornford, Ferenc Miinnich, Mate Zalka, Karol Swierczewski, Vladimir Copic, Veljko Vlahovic and others. The revolutionary experience and Marxist-Leninist training of these Communists helped them, together with the anti-fascists of various other parties, to deal with a difficult and historically unprecedented task, that, of welding together tens of thousands of enthusiastic volunteers without military training, speaking different languages, differing in nationality, social status, cultural level and political beliefs, to form the regular military units of the Republican Army---the International Brigades that were models of organisation and discipline, capable of fighting the regular army of the insurgents and interventionists and inflicting upon it heavy defeats.
As the valiant struggle of the Spanish people developed, the masses in the various countries became increasingly aware that in Spain not only the fate oi the Spanish people but that of all progressive humanity was being decided.
The Soviet Union, which rendered all-round political, material and military aid to the Spanish Republic, once again showed itself to be the bastion of all forces of freedom and world peace. At the same time the participants in the international movement of solidarity saw more and more clearly that at this crucial moment the Spanish people needed not only aid in the shape of food, clothing and medical supplies. Confronted with a cruel and ruthless enemy---fascist Germany and Italy who without hindrance and in unlimited quantities were sending military equipment and troops to Spain---the Spanish people could win through only if the legitimate right of the government of the Republic to purchase arms abroad was restored. A strong arm was needed to stop the governments and ruling classes of a number of countries from pursuing a policy of appeasing the aggressor.
The mass of the people in the non-fascist countries, particularly Britain and France, and also the U.S.A., demanded a change of policy from their governments. But to achieve success, to set up an unbreakable peace front in all countries, there had to be unity of 22 working class action in every country and on an international scale, and this was the task that was set by the Communist International.
In the autumn of 1935, after the 7th Congress of the Communist International, at which Georgy Dimitrov proved the need to bring together in a Popular Front all the forces defending democracy and freedom, the Comintern made a proposal to the Labour and Socialist International that there should be joint action in every country and on an international scale against the threat of aggression by fascist Italy in Ethiopia.
In his letter of September 25, 1935, Dimitrov wrote to the Secretariat of the Socialist International that what had been done so far was still not enough in the face of this grave danger. The efforts of both Internationals to save peace must be united. Both Internationals should act in concord and by their joint efforts thwart the plans of the fascist warmongers.
Joint action by both Internationals would rouse the working class, which would also bring in its train peace supporters from other classes of the population. It would rouse whole peoples to take part in the struggle for peace. It would call to life such a powerful movement against war that its impact would compel the League of Nations to take more effective action against the aggression of Italian and German fascism.
It was still not too late to prevent the terrible disaster towards which the fascist criminals were pushing humanity.
Only on October 15, 1935, after the second letter from the Comintern, of October 7, was an answer received. Friedrich Adler, the Secretary of the Socialist International, wrote: "With reference to the proposal of the Communist International for a conference with four of their representatives, the Socialist parties of Great Britain, Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Czechoslovakia have declared that they cannot agree to accept this proposal, first, on account of the composition of the delegation of the Communist International and second, because they renounce all joint action with the Communist parties of their countries and all joint action of the two Internationals.
``Since the Executive Committee of the LSI is bound to consider the point of view of these powerful parties of the working class, it cannot accept the proposal of the Communist International.''
The only result of Dimitrov's letters was a message from Adler
to the effect that the Chairman and the Secretary of the Socialist
International were prepared to meet representatives of the
Comintern for an exchange of information. The meeting which took place
between Emile Vandervelde, Friedrich Adler, Marcel Cachin and
Maurice Thorez came to nothing. Nevertheless Dimitrov in his
letter of October 27, 1935 to the leaders of the Socialist
23
Dr. Barsky addressing an international conference on medical aid to
Republican Spain in Paris in July 1937
International again declared ``the readiness of the Comintern to begin
negotiations on joint action at any moment".
Thus the socialist leaders sacrificed the general interests of the working class and all working people to anti-communist prejudices and, in some countries, to a policy of co-operation with the bourgeoisie.
__*_*_*__When the fascist revolt broke out on July 18, 1936, a dangerous situation was created for the Republic and in view of the insurgents' advance on Madrid Marcel Cachin and Maurice Thorez demanded, in the name of the Comintern, a meeting with the representatives of the Socialist International. On October 14 they met Louis de Brouckere, Chairman of the Socialist International, and Friedrich Adler. But the Socialist leaders refused to accept the Comintern's proposal to call an international conference on measures to be taken by all working-class organisations to help Spain.
In the final months of 1936, when the fascist assault columns had already penetrated the Madrid city boundary and the fate of the Republican capital hung by a thread, the Comintern three times--- October 25, November 7 and December 28---appealed to the leaders of the Socialist International proposing joint action for urgent assistance to the Republic. But the leaders of the Labour and Socialist International stubbornly maintained their position of renouncing joint action.
24On March 11, 1937 an international conference of the Socialist International on the question of Spain was held in London. Three days before the conference---March 8---the Italian interventionists had launched a major offensive on the Guadalajara sector. Flushed with their first successes, the fascist aggressors were advancing on Madrid. The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julio Alvarez del Vayo, a Socialist, appealed to the conference to help Spain. The Socialist Pascual Thomas, speaking on behalf of the Spanish trade unions, proposed the calling of a world conference with the participation of the Socialist International, the International Association of Trade Unions, the Comintern and the trade unions of the Soviet Union and the United States. Leon Jouhaux read out a resolution of the French General Confederation of Labour which stated: ``Unity of action of all organisations of the working class must be ultimately realised on an international scale.'' In reply to the speeches of his colleagues Walter Citrine, the leader of the British trade unions, declared that a united front would be `` undesirable''. Another labourite, Ernest Bevin, said even more bluntly that the British labour movement would not allow the war in Spain to exert any influence on its decision or tactics. Because of the labourites' negative position the conference passed a useless, vacuous resolution. The Spanish walked out of the conference, stating: ``We asked for arms and they gave us a slip of paper.'' If the fate of Spain had depended on the decision of the Labour and Socialist International, the Spanish Republic would even then have ceased to exist. But the young Republican Army and the international volunteers in its ranks won at Guadalajara the first major victory over Italian and world fascism.
At that time even the members of the Socialist International who were in Spain---Pietro Nenni, Julius Deutsch, Jean Dalvigne---began to act with the Communists---Luigi Longo and Franz Dahlem---in making joint appeals for resolute international measures in aid of the Spanish Republic.
The Communist International mobilised an active movement of solidarity in all countries. Representatives of 21 Communist parties gathered for the conference of April 21, 1937 in Paris and took specific decisions on joint organisation of measures to aid Spain. They discussed how joint measures could be carried out in each country. These decisions were in line with the ardent desire of the popular masses for unity. The Socialist leaders could not ignore this desire and also the popularity that the international volunteers had won throughout the world. In April 1937 Walter Schevenels and Friedrich Adler visited Spain. As guests of the International Brigades they were ungrudging in their praise and promises. Friedrich Adler, welcoming the 14th International Brigade, declared that ``the international volunteers have 25 set an example of a united front that is worthy of imitation. And Schevenels, on learning of the lack of arms in the Franco-Belgian battalion, exclaimed: ``Comrades, I promise you you will get arms.'' But these words were not borne out by deeds.
In May 1937 the savage bombardment of Almeria by the German navy and the declaration of the nazi leaders that they reserved freedom of action in regard to Spain showed the whole world that the intervention of German and Italian fascism in Spain was assuming an even greater scale. World indignation was aroused by the criminal acts of the fascist gangsters, who had destroyed a peaceful city and murdered thousands of women and children. In France and Britain mass protest against the policy of ``non-intervention'' gathered stength.
Under these circumstances the Spanish Communist and Socialist parties and the Spanish General Union of Workers appealed to both Internationals and also to the International Trade Union Association for assistance. Georgy Dimitrov immediately suggested to Chairman of the Socialist International de Brouckere that they should meet and agree to set up a committee of the three international organisations for joint action to prevent the military intervention of Germany and Italy against the Spanish Republic. De Brouckere in his reply to this proposal asserted that neither he nor Adler had powers to set up such a committee. Dimitrov repeated his proposal in a telegram, pointing out the inconsistency of de Brouckere's motives. Finally the latter agreed to meet the delegates of the Comintern for an exchange of opinion. The meeting took place on June 21, 1937 in the French town of Annemasse. It was attended by Luigi Longo, Pedro Checa and Franz Dahlem from the Comintern and de Brouckere and Adler from the Labour and Socialist International. This event awakened hope in the hearts of millions of working people. The Comintern representatives made concrete proposals for joint action by both Internationals in defence of the Spanish Republic. At Annemasse an agreement was reached containing the following three points: first, it was established that both Internationals advanced similar demands; second, it was acknowledged that at the present moment more than at any other time action in defence of Spain should be taken in every possible field, by general agreement, in order to avoid friction; third, both delegations recognised the need for discussions on specific measures to render moral and material support to the Spanish people.
It appeared that at last a foundation had been created for united action by the working class, but once again the old enemies of unity appeared on the scene. The labour leaders dissociated themselves from de Brouckere and Adler with the result that both of them resigned. Subsequently they were recalled to their posts but, 26 as the facts showed, at the price of renouncing the joint action agreed upon in Annemasse.
On June 26, 1937, after the fall of Bilbao, the Basque capital, Dimitrov again appealed to the Socialists, pointing out the danger that threatened Asturias and suggesting practical measures to accelerate joint aid. He proposed:
Communists and Socialists should jointly appeal or in some other form to the governments of their countries, demanding support for the Annemasse Agreement;
both Internationals should jointly appeal to the League of Nations, demanding that the Charter of the League should be applied to Spain;
both Internationals should mobilise all international proletarian organisations and world public opinion in support of these demands.
On July 9 de Brouckere and Adler met Cachin and Thorez. The Comintern representatives developed and further defined Dimitrov's proposals as follows: = (1) both Internationals should support action to be organised by the International Committee for Aid to Republican Spain (ICARS) and the International Youth Committee for Republican Spain on July 18, the anniversary of the fascist revolt; = (2) both Internationals should in future support the activities of the ICARS; = (3) they should send a joint deputation to the League of Nations with a demand for recognition of Spain's rights as a member of the League of Nations; = (4) both Internationals should agree at once to joint, co-ordinated measures for increased aid to the Spanish people, evacuated women and children, and for the further evacuation of women and children, particularly from Northern Spain.
The communique on this meeting stated: as a result of an exchange of opinion both sides have reached agreement regarding measures to be taken for the benefit of Republican Spain.
In July the Republican Army launched a big offensive operation at Brunete with the objective of helping Asturias and the whole Republican North. At that time de Brouckere visited Spain. He took part in many meetings held in the battalions of the International Brigades and gave many assurances and promises, but his deeds were not as good as his words.
In October the North fell in spite of the Republican Army's diversionary offensive which liberated Quinto and Belchite. Now the fascists' northern forces constituted an additional threat to Madrid and the whole Republic. In this situation the Communist and Socialist parties of Spain once again appealed to the two Internationals for joint action in the spirit of Annemasse under the slogan of ``Stop Aid to Franco''. Both working-class parties demanded help to prevent the brutal fascist terror in Asturias; they proposed a general boycott of goods exported from territory occupied 27 by the fascists and intensification of the campaign for the recall from Spain of all foreign troops, including the Moroccans and the Foreign Legion. But this appeal, like all the other appeals of the Spanish fighters and the efforts of the Communist International to reach agreement on joint action by the international centres of the working-class movement, achieved no results. The negative position of the leaders of the Social-Democratic parties did tremendous harm to the cause of the Spanish Republic and the whole anti-fascist and anti-war movement. Moreover, in rejecting all proposals for international agreement the Right-wing leaders of the Socialist International and the International Association of Trade Unions sought to destroy the co-operation of all proletarian and democratic forces that had been achieved within the framework of the Popular Front in Spain.
The Spanish Republic was able to wage a prolonged struggle lasting almost three years in the relatively small area of the Pyrenean Peninsula under conditions of blockade and the enemy's tremendous superiority in arms mainly because unity of action was achieved in the Spanish working class and a close alliance was formed between the working class and the peasantry, because the masses were united within the anti-fascist Popular Front and cemented by the Communist Party of Spain. For this reason attempts to undermine the unity of the Popular Front in Spain, and particularly the co-operation between the Socialist and Communist parties, attempts made by the Right-wing leaders of the Socialist International, were equivalent to aiding the enemies of the Spanish Republic. The wavering and capitulatory elements in the ranks of the Spanish Popular Front, to be found among the bourgeois Republicans and Right-wing Socialists, gained support in the splitting policy of the leaders of the French Socialist Party, which at the end of 1937 virtually tore up the agreement on joint action with the Communist Party, thus bringing about the collapse of the Popular Front in France.
Toeing the line of the bourgeois governments of their countries, the Right-wing leaders of the Socialist International supported the Munich agreement of September 1938, which sanctioned the enslavement of the peoples of Czechoslovakia by nazi Germany and helped the strangling of the Spanish Republic by GermanItalian fascism.
Six months later, in March 1939, these leaders welcomed the
capitulatory conspiracy against the government of the Republic, led
by the Right-wing Socialist Besteiro and Colonel Casado. Thus
the line adopted by the Socialist International of stubborn refusal
to take joint action with the revolutionary vanguard of the
antifascist and anti-imperialist forces---the Communist International---
for aid to the Spanish people and its struggle against fascist
aggression culminated in what amounted to solidarity with the aggres--
28
Louis de Brouckere, Lulgi Longo and Franz Dahlem at a meeting of
international volunteers in Albacete
sors and their accomplices. This anti-working-class and
antidemocratic position hastened the collapse of the Socialist
International. A few weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Republic the
Chairman and Secretary of the Socialist International, de
Brouckere and Adler, resigned their posts.
The Communist International rendered active support and assistance to the fighting Spanish people to the very end of the national-revolutionary war. After its tragic outcome the efforts of the Communist parties were transferred to helping refugees from Spain, former fighters in the Republican Army and the International Brigades interned in French camps, and to mobilising world opinion against the terror campaign in Spain.
The efforts of the Communist International to achieve unity of action of the whole international working-class movement in the struggle against the fascist military aggression in Spain were not fruitless. Joint action was achieved in practice in many countries, where on the initiative of the Communists all workers and progressive organisations mounted a united front in defence of the Spanish Republic. This brought into being a broad mass movement of solidarity embracing nearly all countries of the globe. It was the most powerful expression of solidarity since the time of the imperialist intervention against the Land of Soviets and the ``Hands off Soviet Russia!" movement.
29This experience of a policy of unity and also the positive results of the Communist Party of Spain co-operation within the framework of the Popular Front were widely used in organising resistance to fascism during the Second World War and in the struggle for the democratic development of the world in the post-war period.
Thus the events of 1936 to 1939 went down in the history of the international proletarian and democratic movement as an important stage in the development of the spirit of solidarity, of effective proletarian internationalism, and of enriching the methods and forms of struggle for unification of all anti-fascist and antiwar forces.
[30] __ALPHA_LVL1__ ARGENTINAA few days after the beginning of the fascist generals' revolt against the Spanish Republic a committee of aid for the Government of the Popular Front was set up in Argentina. The committee immediately launched a vigorous campaign throughout the country. One of its founders had been the Spanish Patronate for Aid to the Victims of Fascism (PEAVA)---an organisation set up during the Black Two-Year Period of the temporary triumph of reaction in Spain after the uprising of the Asturian miners had been suppressed in October 1934. In the summer of 1936, a weekly magazine La Vox de Esfiana, subsequently called La Nueva Espana, which gave a truthful account of Spanish events, began to appear in Argentina.
The working people of Argentina felt deeply committed to the struggle of the Spanish Republic for freedom and independence. In the first days of August 1936 the citizens of the small town of Coronel Dorrego, southwest of Buenos Aires, and the poor peasants of this province assembled at the Spanish Consulate and decided to set up a junta to help the Spanish Republic. Because the poor peasants who constituted the majority of the population of Argentina would find it difficult to make monetary contributions, it was decided that a collection of farm produce should be organised. The campaign was so successful that large sheds were needed to store the grain and cereals that were delivered to the aid fund not only by peasants but also by workers, bakers and shop-keepers. In the Chaco province, and also in the poorest districts of Argentina, Santiago del Estero and Misiones, people also collected wool and cotton.
The broad movement of solidarity with the Spanish Republic and help for the Republic was headed by the Communist Party of Argentina. On its initiative in August 1936, 212 local Aid the Spanish People committees were set up, including committees in Santa Fe, Mendoza, Bahia Blanca and other towns. One of the 31 forms of activity of these committees was the collection of food rations for the men of the Republican Army. In February 1937, 5,804 collectors gathered 52,080 rations to a value of 16,144 pesos; in March of the same year 18,306 people gathered 114,480 rations to a value of 34,558 pesos, and six months later the number of collectors had increased to 36,995, and the number of rations collected, to 328,406, valued at 101,805 pesos.
On March 7, 1937, the first consignment was sent to the fund of the International Trade Union Committee for Aid to the Spanish People (Paris). It consisted of eighteen bales of clothing, four crates of food and a ton of flour. Regular deliveries continued. By April 1938 the total value of material help for Spain amounted to six million pesos, or 2.5 million dollars. By November 7, 1938 thirty tons of dried and condensed milk had been sent to Spain and money for the purchase of another thirty tons of milk had been sent to France.
The workers' May Day demonstration in 1937 was held under the slogan of Aid for and Solidarity with Spain. Besides the red flag and national Argentina flag the banners of the Spanish Republic flew over the columns. Ambulances that were to be dispatched to Spain drove in front of the demonstrators. A big meeting was held to welcome the Spanish Ambassador, Dr. Angel Osorio y Gallardo. Five thousand people met him at the port and accompanied him to the embassy. On the first anniversary of the defence of Madrid a meeting was held in the Luna Park and a collection was made to buy food for the figliters of the Republican Army and their children.
A year after the outbreak of the fascist revolt in Spain hundreds of committees were active in Argentina: women's, youth, ambulance, and also emigre Spanish organisations, etc. They were united in their hatred of fascism and boundless admiration for the valour of the Spanish people. Help for fighting Spain had to be increased at all costs. The communist and progressive press called for increased aid and this was the subject of discussion at provincial Aid Spain congresses in Cordoba and Mendoza (May and July 1937) and finally at an illegal national congress held between the 7th and 9th of August, where unity of organisation was achieved.
More than ten public organisations approved the decision of the congress to set up a Federation for Organisation of Aid to the Spanish Republic (FOARE) whose function would be to co-ordinate the activity of all committees. The agreement to set up the federation was signed by three organisations of the Spanish emigres, four provincial organisations (Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza and Bahia Blanca) and four national organisations. After a time the Argentinian Junta for Medical Aid to Republican Spain and the repatriation centre of the Spanish republicans joined the federation. 32 Later, in January 1939, it was decided at a plenary assembly of the organisations of the Buenos Aires province, united under the title of ``Friends of the Spanish Republic'', that they should also join the FOARE. Many political and trade-union people took an active part in the federation's work.
The magazine La Nueva Espana became the organ of the FOARE. It had a circulation of 40,000 copies, which sometimes rose to 90,000. Its reports gave reliable information on the military operations in Spain. The radio station ``Radio Mitre" in Buenos Aires broadcast a daily bulletin of news from this weekly magazine. Later such broadcasts were banned by the government.
In the first months of the federation's activity over 167,000 pesos were collected in cash and 18,000 pesos worth of food supplies. On behalf of the International Co-operation and Information Committee for Aid to the Spanish Republic the federation used the money to purchase pencils and exercise books for Spanish schoolchildren and for the ``abolish illiteracy" brigades, and also tobacco for the fighting men. About 114,000 packets of cigarettes were sent to the Republican Army.
On the anniversary of the Spanish Republic, April 14, 1938, the federation sent the fighting people of Spain 500,000 francs.
In January 1938 a campaign for the collection of gifts for orphans whose parents had been killed during the war was launched. In April of the same year a large meeting to honour the Republic's anniversary was attended by the Spanish ambassador. Many prominent Argentinian cultural celebrities took part in the meeting. The arrival in Buenos Aires of the Spanish theatre company directed by the famous actress Margarita Xirgu with a repertoire containing plays by Federico Garcia Lorca was yet another opportunity for the expression of solidarity with Spain.
In the autumn of 1938 meetings dedicated to the situation in Spain were held and special stamps were issued in aid of the Republic that sold quickly among the people of Argentina. October 12 (the day of the discovery of America by Columbus) was celebrated in Argentina as a National Aid Spain Day, which started the third winter campaign of help for the Republic. Over 50,000 people marched past the General Consulate of Spain in Buenos Aires on that day. The consul had to receive delegations and individual visitors expressing their solidarity with fighting Spain from eight in the morning to eleven at night. On the same day a large meeting organised by the Republican Spanish Club in Argentina was addressed by the Spanish ambassador. People sacrificed their last pennies for Spain. There were even cases when unemployed workers took off their coats and gave them in for dispatch to Spain. The day's collection came to more than 10,000 pesos. Between the 1st and 22nd of October, 1938, a sum of 620,000 French francs was collected for Republican Spain and a big transport of food, clothing __PRINTERS_P_33_COMMENT__ 3---781 33 and footwear was dispatched. On the average the Argentinian people, who then numbered only 12 million, contributed 3 million francs a month. From the outbreak of hostilities in Spain to October 1938 fifty million francs were collected.
The activity of the FOARE was highly appreciated by the Spanish people and the international Aid Spain movement. Expressions; of gratitude were received from members of the Republican Government, generals, outstanding figures among the intelligentsia, the International Red Aid people, youth associations and Aid Spain organisations in various countries.
On July 29, 1936, ten days after the outbreak of hostilities, a plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) of Argentina took place with the participation of the trade-union secretaries of Buenos Aires. It sent a telegram of welcome to the General Union of Working People (UGT) of Spain as a sign of solidarity with the trade unions' struggle against fascism. "The CGT declares,'' the telegram stated, "that it has begun collecting funds throughout the country. The money collected will be handed over to the UGT of Spain.''
The first contributions from the trade unions and donations from workers and office employees at factories and commercial firms started coming in at the beginning of August. On August 10 the CGT handed over to the UGT of Spain the first contribution of 20,000 francs.
Under the leadership of the CGT a Central Aid Commission was set up that included three sub-commissions: food and medical supplies, clothing and footwear, propaganda and collection of funds.
On January 15, 1937, the consignments for Spain comprised: 10 tons of condensed milk; 1,000 cases of corned beef (amounting to 144,000 soldiers' rations); 100 cases of lamb (or 1,400 soldiers' rations); 100 cases of tinned meat (or 1,400 soldiers' rations); 100 large crates of clothing and footwear; 50 kg of sweets for the children. Later another 1,100 cases of corned beef (13,200 tins) were sent off. The total value of aid rendered by the CGT to Spain up to April 1937 amounted to 366,715 pesos.
All rank-and-file members of the trade unions took an active part in collecting funds, but the reformist leaders of the CGT failed to attach due importance to this campaign. On April 30, 1937, the National Labour Federation of Builders and the Union of Construction Workers of the Federal Capital organised a fete in the Luna Park as a sign of solidarity with the Spanish Republic. It was attended by a huge number of people. The appeal to contribute a day's wages for the Spanish working people was greeted with enthusiasm. Another 100,000 pesos were added to the Aid Fund. But through the fault of the reformist leadership of the CGT this money was not passed on to the People's Government of Spain.
34The organisations of the Spanish emigres in Argentina were also active in helping the Republic. Mention must be made of the Federation of Galician Societies, which was exceptionally united in spirit and had ten branches. The Asturian and Valencian committees of aid for the legitimate Spanish Government, the so-called Catalan House, the Friends of the Spanish Republic organisation and others.
The valiant struggle of the Spanish people for their independence helped to initiate a broad and well-organised women's movement in Argentina. The constituent assembly of the Argentinian Women's Committee for the protection of Spanish orphans, the first women's organisation in the country to take an active part in helping the Spanish people, was held in March 1937. During the fighting for Madrid the committee collected money to purchase an ambulance and provided it with personnel and medical equipment. Another five ambulances were sent later. In dozens of workshops, organised by active members in their apartments, diligent women's hands darned old clothes and made new ones, and knitted children's sweaters and socks. Women and children collected money to buy food for soldiers' rations. At the end of 1938 five thousand children's outfits made by women anti-fascists were sent off to Spain.
The women took an active part also in the work of the provincial committees. Quite often they were threatened by the police and the authorities. In the township of Algarrobo, for instance, despite constant police threats, the women took a particularly active part in the Aid Spain movement and organised a Committee of Aid for Spanish Children.
The Argentinian Junta for Medical Aid did a lot of work to provide the Republican Army with medical supplies. With the support of the workers and other employees of the pharmaceutical industry, and of doctors and nurses, medical posts and laboratories for making medicines were set up in Spain. The Junta also helped to provide the army and rear medical institutions with ambulances. Forty fully equipped ambulances costing 5,000 pesos, i.e., more than 2,000 dollars each, were sent to Spain. The last of them, after the defeat of the Republic, was transferred to Chile to care for the Spanish refugees who had arrived there on the S. S. Winnipeg.
Spurred by hatred of fascism, the young people of Argentina showed active solidarity with the Spanish people. The organisation of Young Friends of Republican Spain in Buenos Aires comprised Communists, Socialists and young people of other political trends, including many children of Spanish emigres. The young men and girls, schoolchildren, many of whom were for the first time taking part in the social life of their country under the banner of solidarity, enthusiastically collected money in city streets, organised wheat sheaf and carnation processions, and distributed thousands 3* 35 of badges, post cards, leaflets and brochures exposing the crimes of fascism against the Spanish people.
On November 7, 1938, in the central cafes specially hired by Argentinian students anyone who liked could drink ``a cup of the coffee that Mola had been going to drink in Madrid on November 7, 1936''. The reference was to the boastful declaration of the fascist General Mola in October 1936 that Madrid was just about to be captured and he would order himself a cup of coffee there.
At the Avellaneda Club an auction was arranged for the ``broom that will sweep Franco out of Spain": it brought in 500 pesos for Republican Spain. The 5th, 6th and 7th of November, 1938 were declared donation days for the Spanish Republic. This campaign was conducted under the slogan of youth unity.
In the Rosario province the Aid the Republic Junta produced a newspaper, Espana Republicana. The Jewish community organised a commission of help for the Spanish people, which published bulletins in two languages with a circulation of 16,000 copies. The money from the sale of the bulletin went to the aid fund. The newspapers Galicia, Espana Republicana and Correo de Asturias, organs of the provincial committees of the FOARE, were widely distributed.
The FOARE publishing house La Nueva Espana, and also the houses of other progressive organisations, put out a series of books about Spain with a special stress on the national-revolutionary war. The most famous of these were: / Testify. ... One Year of Struggle in Free Spain by the Spanish lawyer Antonio Ruiz Vilaplana; Peasants of Spain in the Struggle for Land and Freedom by B. Minlos; Spain in Struggle: A History of the Civil War of 1936 and an Investigation of Its Social, Economic and Political Causes by Jarry Gannes and Theodore Repard; The Armoured Rose by Raul Gonzalez Tufion; Spain Versus Fascism by Bernardo Edelman; Spain, Its Struggle and Ideals by Angel Osorio y Gallardo, etc. Each of these books had a printing of between five and ten thousand copies, which for those days was an unusual event in Argentina.
On the initiative of the La Nueva Espana publishing house there were showings of the films 'The Heart of Spain, Children of Spain and Land of Spain. Displays of photographs of battle episodes and views of cities reduced to rubble by the Italian and German air forces and photographs of homeless hungry children were organised in the capital and other cities.
Thousands of people responded to an appeal by the Spanish
Patronate for Aid to the Victims of Fascism. It received postal
orders for 50 centavos, 80 centavos and 1 peso. People gave what they
could afford. The Argentinians also responded to the patronate's
appeal to help the Spanish sailors charged with mutiny by the
36
Graves of volunteers of the International Brigades in Fuencarral, Madrid
Argentinian authorities; these sailors had taken over the ship Cabo
San Antonio to stop it from going to Franco Spain.
The Italian community also took an active part in the solidarity movement. Many Italians then living in Argentina went to Spain to fight in the International Brigades.
The help that Argentina gave the Spanish people in money, clothes, food, medical supplies and medical equipment amounted to more than 4,000,000 dollars or 1,400 million Argentinian pesos at the present-day rate of exchange. The Argentinian Republic held a leading place in the amount of aid that it sent to Spain.
After the defeat of the Spanish Republic the FOARE and the Argentinian Union of Aid for the Victims of the Spanish War, along with democratic forces in Chile, its trade-union centre, the Chilean Committee of Aid for the Spanish People and the political parties in the Popular Front obtained permission for two thousand refugees to enter Chile. For each of them a surety of 3,000 francs had to be deposited. At the same time an agreement was achieved with the Chilean Aid Committee to set up a reserve fund for supporting the refugees until they could find work.
Nearly 2,200 refugees arrived on the S. S. Winnipeg and the FOARE, in accordance with its promise, transferred to the Chilean Aid Committee more than 1,000,000 Chilean pesos.
In the first months of 1940 a solidarity congress, organised by 37 the Argentinian Union of Aid for the Victims of the Spanish War, was held in Buenos Aires. The congress had to be conducted illegally. Its chairman was the outstanding representative of the Cuban intelligentsia, the writer Juan Marinello, and there were delegates from nearly all countries of Latin America and the United States. The Chilean poet Pablo Neruda spoke at the congress. A decision was taken to continue the campaign in support of the Spanish Republic, to strengthen the movement of solidarity with the victims of fascism, to help the refugees and devote every effort to struggle against fascism, which had by then unleashed the Second World War.
The Argentinian patriots, particularly the Communists, were eager to help Spain in the International Brigades. More than 500 Argentinian volunteers, including many emigres from other countries---Italian building workers; Ukrainians and Poles from the Avellaneda and Beriso refrigerator plants; Yugoslavs from the oilfields of Comodoro Rivadavia; Spaniards, Bulgarians and Germans from other industrial areas of the country---made their way to Spain illegally, at the risk of their lives.
Argentinian volunteers fought in the units of the Republican Army and the International Brigades: in the Thaelmann, Dabrowski, Garibaldi and other battalions.
The volunteers included the Communist Ortiz, commander of the 24th Brigade of the Republican Army; the Communist Jungman, a company commissar in the 13th International Brigade; Fanny Edelman, an active member of the Spanish section of the International Red Aid (IRA), at present a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Argentina; Jose Belloqui, a lieutenant in the Republican Army, later Central Committee member of the Communist Party of Argentina and secretary of the district party committee of the Buenos Aires province, Angel Ortelli, a commissar in the famous llth Division, former leader of the Builders Trade Union; Elguer, a commissar in the medical service; Fierro, Raquel Levenson, Bernardo Edelman, Jose Manzanelli and many others.
The emigres who left Argentina for Spain include Max Doppler, who was killed in action commanding the famous Thaelmann Battalion; Captain Sieloff, one of the leaders of the Builders Trade Union; the Italian Bonano, a commissar in the Giuseppe Garibaldi Brigade, the Spaniard Manuel Seoane, a commander in one of the Galician guerrilla detachments, a former printer, who was shot by Franco's men. Among the Latin Americans who had emigrated to Argentina and then made the journey to Spain were the Bolivian Valenzuela and his wife, the Argentinian Communist, both of whom were killed during the defence of Madrid.
A group of Argentinian doctors worked in the medical service of the Spanish Republican Army right up to the last day of the war.
38There is not sufficient space here to name all those who fought in Spain and held high the banner of anti-fascist solidarity of the Argentinian people and its working class. Many Argentinian volunteers honourably preserved the fighting traditions of the International Brigades in the concentration camps of Gurs and Argeles and continued them by taking part in the French Resistance.
The splendid mass movement of solidarity of the Argentinian working people with the Spanish people during the national-- revolutionary war remains to this day a fine example to the young generation in the struggle for the national independence of Argentina.
[39] __ALPHA_LVL1__ AUSTRIAGeneral Franco, who led the revolt against the Spanish Republic, represented reactionary forces of the very same kind that in February 1934 had destroyed in Austria the last vestiges of democracy, relying, like him, on the support of foreign fascist powers. On February 12, 1934, the workers of Austria tried to put up armed resistance to the advance of fascism. But the Schutzbund^^1^^ detachments and also the Communists who fought with them were weakened by the fact that the leaders of the Social-Democratic Party and the trade unions did not participate in the struggle. The uprising was defeated and the Communist and Social-Democratic parties banned. Yet the workers' fighting spirit was not broken. When the great battle against fascism flared up in Spain, many Austrian anti-fascists, and particularly those who had taken part in the February fighting of 1934, saw it as a long-awaited chance of again taking up arms to defeat fascism---this time on Spanish soil. They joined the ranks of the fighters of the International Brigades.
``Learn from Spain!" was the title of an article about the Spanish events published in the March issue (1936) of Rote Fahne---the central organ of the Communist Party of Austria. The paper stressed the vital importance of the unity of action achieved between the Socialist and Communist parties of Spain on the basis of the revolutionary struggle against fascism, because it had become ``the central factor that has united all true democrats and friends of freedom in a single anti-fascist Popular Front''. The significance of the Popular Front in Spain, the role of unity, were also understood by some of the Social-Democrats.
On July 11, 1936, a week before the Franco generals' putsch, the Chancellor of Austria Schuschnigg concluded an agreement with Hitler. As the Austrian Communist Party's theoretical _-_-_
~^^1^^ Schutzbund was an armed organisation of the Austrian Social-- Democratic Party. It was set up in 1923 as a means of defence from fascist military detachments.---Ed.
40 magazine Weg und Ziel noted in March 1937, while formally recognising the state independence of Austria, German fascism used this agreement to gain virtual control of its foreign policy. The plans that Germany and Italy had by that time already worked out for Spain had made it necessary to obtain as soon as possible a modus vivendi in respect of Austria.When General Franco, who was acting in collusion with the fascist powers, attacked the Spanish Republic, bourgeois Austria took the side of the insurgents. Admittedly, the Austrian Government officially declared its non-intervention in Spanish affairs, but the bourgeois press from the first days of the fascist revolt set out to smear the Spanish Republic. In mid-August 1936 the government-inspired newspaper Weltblatt expressed its indignation that "in the last few days some papers have been publishing in a more or less veiled form statements expressing sympathy for the Popular Front'', and demanded an effort to find "ways and means of putting a stop to this''. For publishing truthful reports from Spain on the situation at the fronts the Vienna bourgeois-liberal newspaper Tag was fined by the Polizeiprasidium five hundred schillings and given a warning.
Information on Austrian military aid to Franco---for understandable reasons, far from complete---appeared only in the illegal working-class press. For example, the newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung reported on September 4, 1936 that the Vienna firm Graf und Stift had sold the insurgents a consignment of 40 tanks and loaded them in Trieste for shipment to Spain. On November 19, 1936, the bulletin Pressedienst der Roten Fahne wrote: ``We are informed by reliable sources that at the arms factory in Hirtenberg they are working three shifts of eight hours each. Forty per cent of the output goes to the Spanish insurgents. Ammunition is being sent to Portugal through the Hamburg transport firm Mathias Rothe.''
The Austrian Government also facilitated recruitment of Austrians for Franco's army. The insurgent troops included Austrian nazis recruited in Austria itself as well as those who went to Germany and enlisted there in the Condor Legion. The Pressedienst der Roten Fahne of December 23, 1936 reported that on the initiative of the Aktion katholischer Adeliger (Aristocratic Catholic Action) nearly 200 Austrians joined the insurgent army in Spain. An officer of the fascist Heimwehr from Innsbruck Rudolf Penz returned from Spain to Austria to enlist new mercenaries there. Every recruit received 100 schillings and a free railway ticket (to Genoa, rest of the journey by ship), and in addition the members of his family were presented with a life insurance policy.
Big industrialists and financiers were approached to contribute funds to purchase arms for the insurgents.
Most of the 1,700 anti-fascist Austrians who fought in Spain arrived direct from Austria. Many of them had acquired the 41 rudiments of military training in the Schutzbund detachments and in the Communist worker self-defence groups; those who had participated in the street battles of February 1934 had a certain amount of fighting experience.
As soon as the Spanish people rose up in arms, many of the Schutzbund fighters, who after the suppression of the February uprising had found political asylum in the Soviet Union, hastened to their aid.
The overwhelming majority of the Austrian volunteers were members of the Austrian Communist Party or the Communist League of Youth; there were also Revolutionary Socialists^^1^^ and non-party people from Austria in the International Brigades.
Doctor Julius Deutsch (a member of the Board of the SocialDemocratic Workers' Party, in the past a leader of the Schutzbund, who arrived in Spain from emigration in Czechoslovakia and soon became a general of the Republican Army) wrote in the newspaper of the International Brigades Le volontaire de la Liberte: ``In this great struggle it has come about of itself that the contradictions that up to now existed between anti-fascists have disappeared. Whether a man was in the past a Socialist or a Communist, here in Spain it is of no significance, which is something that would be hard to imagine in the rest of Europe."^^2^^
Of course, some disagreements and difficulties arose between Communists and Socialists when it came to taking practical action. Serious contradictions appeared after the POUM putsch in Barcelona in May 1937 over the question of the attitude to be adopted to Trotskyism, but this had no effect on the relations between the members of the International Brigades.
In Austria itself the illegal working-class organisations---- revolutionary Socialists, the Communist Party, the Austrian section of IRA and the Free Trade Unions---invariably came out on the side of the Spanish Republic and their unity of action continued. A joint declaration of the Communist Party of Austria and the Party of Revolutionary Socialists, passed at the end of 1936, stated: ``The central committees of both parties are unanimous in continuing to support the struggle of the Spanish people ... and increasing aid. They welcome all acts of solidarity on the part of the international working-class movement ... particularly the political, moral and material assistance rendered to the Spanish people by the Soviet Government and the peoples of the Soviet Union-----"^^3^^
In September 1936 the Communist Party began sending groups _-_-_
~^^1^^ After the Schutzbund was defeated in February 1934 and the SocialDemocratic Party banned, illegal Social-Democratic organisations assumed the name of ``Revolutionary Socialists".
~^^2^^ Le volontaire de la Liberte, March 17, 1937.
~^^3^^ Pressedienst der Roten Fahne, December 3, 1936.
42 of volunteers to the International Brigades. Johann Koplenig undertook the organisation of this difficult task. The police and border guards were arresting anyone they found crossing the frontier whom they thought suspicious, and usually put them in concentration camps. Many volunteers made their way across the mountains into Switzerland disguised as mountaineers or skiers. Anti-fascists who were under police surveillance and had no passports had to be provided with forged papers. To reach Spain the Austrian volunteers were ready to make any material sacrifices and many of them sold their property to do so. For example, the young Tyrolese farmer Max Bair, whose story has been told by Egon Erwin Kisch, sold his cattle in order to obtain funds for himself and his friends for the journey to Spain.In the conditions of fascist terror the mass international solidarity of the Austrians could find expression in few other ways except illegal collection of funds for aid to Spain, which also demanded considerable efforts, self-sacrifice and courage. It must be stressed that mass unemployment and low wages naturally limited the size of contributions.
Here is one fact that shows how the authorities persecuted those who expressed their solidarity with the struggle of the Spanish people. On August 24, 1936, Thomas Hofer of Knittelfeld, unemployed, was denounced for collecting money for Spain. The accused confessed to having collected 2.6 schillings (at that time this sum amounted to payment for three hours' work at a low rate). A military court in the town of Leoben condemned him to two years of strict imprisonment ``for state treason''. The sentence contained the following motivation: ``Inasmuch as Hofer was collecting money for Spain, it is obvious that he was doing this on the instructions of the Communist Party. Such collection is to be regarded as propaganda of communist ideas in Austria, which is state treason."^^1^^
``Not a single event since February 1934 has roused such a deep response at factories as the movement of solidarity with the Spanish people,'' wrote the newspaper Tribunal, the organ of the Austrian section of IRA (Nos 9 and 10, 1936). ``The Austrian workers are performing in practice true miracles of solidarity.'' It gave the following example. At automobile and arms factories in Steier the workers had refused to collect funds for a squadron of the Austrian army and had taken a decision that everyone should contribute one schilling in aid of the Spanish Popular Front. The money was collected at almost all the factories in the district of Floridsdorf, Vienna, and also at all factories of the metal-working industry of the capital. The Vienna tram workers collected a considerable sum. In the district organisations of the Communist Party of Austria the collections were made under _-_-_
~^^1^^ Arbeiter-Zeitung, October 18, 1936.
43
SPANISH
The government's answer was police persecution. On September 15, according to the Arbeiter-Zeitung of September 27, 1936, the police arrested for fund-collecting twelve trade-union officials and eighteen other workers at the Siemens-Schuckert factory in 44 Engerthstrasse and at the cable factory in Leopoldau (a district of Vienna.---Ed.). The workers went on strike. The police surrounded these factories and made fresh arrests. The workers of the AustroFiat works then declared a two-hour solidarity strike and some of the arrested men were released. On October 4, 1936, the same newspaper reported arrests at the Shuttleworth works, at a Vienna milk-processing factory, at the main tram depot Vienna-Simmering, in Trauzl, at the railway in Floridsdorf and at the Alpine-- Donawitz works. On November 2, twenty-eight tram workers were arrested in the Brigittenau district.
International solidarity, however, was not to be broken by police persecution. The constant explanatory work carried on by the underground working-class organisations kept up a high level of anti-fascist consciousness. There was not a single illegal central or local or factory newspaper that did not devote considerable space to reports about Spain, the solidarity movement and the letters of the Austrian volunteers. Even the harsh sentences passed by the Austrian courts could not stop the movement of solidarity. Here is an example of such a sentence, quoted from the ArbeiterZeitung of October 18, 1936: ``A cabinet-maker's apprentice from Miirzzuschlag, Peter Draxler, has been sentenced in Leoben to five years' strict imprisonment for being in possession of a pamphlet against Franco. There was not a word about Austria in the pamphlet, it was written against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini! But this was enough to earn him a sentence of five years in gaol!''
Mention must also be made of the great help rendered by Austrian anti-fascists to the internationalists of other countries who were making their way across Austrian territory into Spain.
Even before the creation of the International Brigades Austrians were fighting the fascists on Spanish soil as part of the Thaelmann Centuria. One of them was the young Viennese Communist Franz Hrejsemnou, who succeeded in reaching Spain in the first days of the Franco putsch; later he took part in the defence of Madrid, served in a ski reconnaissance detachment, then joined a tank crew and was killed in action at Brunete in the summer of 1937. The Viennese medical student Pepi Schneeweiss also fought in the same centuria and had been one of the first to set out for Spain at his own risk.
Later the volunteer anti-fascists started going to Spain in groups, usually through Paris, where their further transportation had for long been managed, on the instructions of the Communist Party of Austria, by the well-known Austrian writer Otto Heller (who afterwards died in a nazi concentration camp).
In October 1936 the fnst organised groups of anti-fascists from
various countries, including Austria, began to reach Spain. One
of them was Adolf Reiner (real name Anton Dobritzhofer), a
Viennese mechanic, and former company commander of the
45
A group of Austrian volunteers of the Thaelmann Battalion, May 1937
Schutzbund Karl Marx Regiment. In December 1936 he took part in the
defence of Madrid as a machine-gunner, and during the operation
on the River Ebro in the summer of 1938 commanded the llth
International Brigade in the rank of Major.
The first commander of the llth International Brigade, General Kleber (Manfred Stern), who played a prominent part in organising the defence of Madrid in autumn 1936, was also born and brought up in Austria. From 1936 to 1938 Major Kurt (Josef Dycka) fought in Spain, having been one of the leaders of the illegal Schutzbund organisations in 1934 to 1935. During the Brunete offensive he was the chief of staff of the 35th Division; he was killed during the Second World War, fighting the Hitler troops in a Soviet partisan detachment.
Most of the Austrian volunteers in Spain fought in the Chapayev Battalion of the 13th International Brigade and in the llth Brigade. They were particularly good machine-gunners. They were to be found in all arms of the services except the navy, and in every kind of unit. The former Schutzbund men, fighter pilots Hans Dobias and Walter Korous helped to defend Spain in the air; Major Walter Fischer was a doctor in the llth and 15th brigades, and later in the 3rd Division. Major Fritz Jensen was at first brigade surgeon of the 13th Brigade, and later in command of the medical centre in Benicasim. Many Austrian doctors and nurses served in units of the Republican Army.
46Major Adolf Fischer (Hugo Muller) commanded a battalion of machine-gunners of the 33rd Division; Laurenz Hiebl, a Spanish battalion of the 35th Division; Engineer Leopold Knopp, a battalion of the 14th Brigade; Major Fritz Trankler, an engineer unit; Doctor Heinz Diirmayer, one of the commanders of the illegal Schutzbund, was commissar of a 15th Brigade unit; Captain Franz Willinger served in the 16th Corps; the former Schutzbund man, Rudolf Had was commander of the Thaelmann Battery; Franz Hirschmann, an instructor in the 3rd Division; Ferdinand Erb fought in the 122nd Brigade; Leopold Mallina was chief of staff of the 86th Brigade, which included an international battalion.
The Austrians made up the largest national group in the international armoured vehicle company. It was commanded by Linzer Sepp Mittermaier from Linz. Nearly twenty Austrian mountaineers commanded by Hias Hitzenberger fought in a guerrilla group in the Don Benito area, near the Portuguese frontier. The officers Toni Sandmann, the brothers Franz and Willy Etz and Alfred Ruzicka served in a light-tank regiment, in which Leo Dank (Hermann Neissl) was battalion commissar. In the booklet The February Fighting, published in Spain, Ruzicka wrote about one of the Austrians of the International Brigades: ``Comrade Josef Kavka, whom we used to call Joschka, was 25 years old. He came from a family that had been working class for generations. For the last two years he had been serving in the Austrian army. He left for Spain in November 1936. On the 3rd anniversary of the heroic February fighting in Vienna he was killed defending the Spanish people and international democracy.''
Other Austrian anti-fascists whose names are not mentioned here, fought valiantly in the International Brigades. Nearly 700 Austrian volunteers lie buried in the soil of Spain. Many of them who survived the fighting there later gave their lives in active struggle against the nazis or perished in Hitler's concentration camps.
On November 11, 1936, 625 internationalists arrived in Albacete. They were formed into the Chapayev Battalion which became part of the 13th Brigade. After a brief period of training the brigade was sent to the Teruel Front to take part in an offensive. Seven attacks and a 24-day defence of the positions captured--- such were the first operations of the Chapayev Battalion, a baptism of fire for many of the Austrians, particularly the men of the machine-gun company. During the fighting the battalion's standard bearer was Franz Luda, of Vienna; he was badly wounded and had to have both legs amputated.
On February 13, 1937, after the fall of Malaga, the 13th Brigade
was sent to reinforce the Southern Front. Doctor Fritz Jensen
described the road to the front as follows: "The 180 kilometres from
Almen'a to Adra were covered very slowly. The road was blocked
with people: milicianos, old men and children. ... Then we entered
47
Austrian volunteers of an armoured car company
Adra. The population were piling their belongings on to donkeys.
Our first lorries drove in. ... The men jumped out, formed up and
started singing. . . . Everyone's spirits rose. Not only the population,
but also the milicianos. We proposed that anyone who wanted to
could join the Chapayev Battalion. More than 250 people
responded. . . .''
From the end of February to the end of June 1937 the Chapayev Battalion fought in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada (at a height of 3,000 metres above sea level) at Valsequillo, La Granjela and (in terrible heat) at Penarroya.
``The Chapayev Battalion occupied positions in the difficult terrain of the Sierra Nevada mountains,'' wrote Julius Schacht (Heinrich Fritz), the commissar of a machine-gun company. "Many of the Austrian comrades were accustomed to mountain country and this was a great help. . . .
``One day at six in the morning a platoon commander and I set out to inspect machine-gun nests high in the mountains. We were mounted but only at noori did we spot the machine-gun crews. . . . They had no tents and we could only promise to try to obtain blankets, greatcoats and ponchos for the men in the nearby villages. A few days before they had endured a snowstorm. There were no shelters. Their clothes and blankets were wet through. . . . In these conditions the men had a whole week to wait before they would be relieved.''
48After four and a half arduous months in the front line the 13th Brigade was relieved, but instead of resting it was sent to the Central Front to take part in the offensive on Brunete. On July 7 the Chapayev Battalion participated in the assault on Villanueva de la Canada. Later the 13th Brigade crossed the River Guadarrama and captured fascist positions on the heights of the eastern bank. During this operation it suffered heavy losses and was later reformed. The Austrian volunteers were put into the 4th Battalion of the llth International Brigade.
Austrians fought in this brigade from the moment of its formation. One of them, Gustav Szindo who later became its commander, described two episodes of the battle for the Jarama in his book The llth Brigade: ``On February 15, 1937, the fascists attacked in the sector held by the Thaelmann Battalion.... Many of the men who were bringing up ammunition were wounded, others could not get through because the fascists had mounted a heavy fire curtain. A 24-year-old Austrian farmhand Johann Mayer then volunteered to deliver the ammunition. He managed to supply one machine-gun and two infantry companies with cartridges and hand grenades... . He saved the lives of many wounded comrades by carrying them off the field of battle.... The outcome of the engagement of February 15 depended on Mayer because on that day ammunition was the key factor. Johann Mayer fell in March of the same year in the fighting at Brihuega.
``Johann Mayer was the hero of February 15, and a few days later his fellow countryman Adolf Reiner (later brigade commander) also performed a feat of valour. During a fascist tank attack he crawled a distance of 100 metres with a rifle and armourpiercing bullets towards the advancing tanks and put two of them out of action. This created panic among the crews of the other tanks and they retreated.''
At home the Austrian anti-fascists were supporting their fellow countrymen fighting on the Spanish fronts. The central committees of the Communist Party of Austria and the organisation of Revolutionary Socialists appealed to the Austrian people that, in honour of the anniversary of the February fighting in Austria, February should be made a month of collection of funds for the International Brigades.
After the Jarama the Austrians in the ranks of the llth International Brigade fought against the motorised Italian divisions at Guadalajara, both in defence and in the counter-attack during which the Republican Army routed four Italian divisions. Later the Austrians took part in the fighting at Utande. In July 1937 they had a red-letter day: an Austrian battalion was formed as part of the llth Brigade. This was not only an acknowledgement of the fighting services of the Austrian volunteers; it was also of great importance to the anti-fascist struggle in Austria.
__PRINTERS_P_49_COMMENT__ 4---781 49
The Austrian fighters decided to name their battalion ``The 12th of February, 1934''. They all made a sacred vow to fight to the last drop of blood for freedom and independence of Republican Spain, realising that this would serve as a noble example for the liberation struggle of the Austrian people. A few days later the Republican troops launched an offensive against the fascists in the Brunete area. In this operation the Austrian battalion received its baptism of fire. Owing to lack of weapons, particularly machine-guns, it was at first in the reserve, but when the attacking battalions were held up in front of Quijorna the 12th of February Battalion was ordered to ioin the offensive. After a successful third attack on a cemetery held by 600 Moroccans, more than 100 prisoners were taken along with many rifles and other trophies, including much needed ammunition. The division command officially thanked the fighters of the llth Brigade who had liberated Quijorna and proved their worth in combat.
In August 1937 the 12th of February Battalion once again distinguished itself, this time on the Aragon front. In the assault on Quinto the Austrian volunteers captured a fascist artillery battery and won yet another message of thanks from the command. When the fascists made desperate efforts to relieve the garrison of Belchite which had been surrounded by Republican troops, the 12th of February Battalion and other units of the llth Brigade blocked their path and beat off all attacks at Mediana.
Right up to the end of the war there was not a single major battle in which the llth Brigade, and with it the 12th of February Battalion, did not take part. During the second operation at Teruel in January 1938 the battalion held out for weeks, repulsing the attacks of numerically superior fascist forces. On the sector held by 50 the Austrian volunteers the continuous fascist attacks were supported by tanks and aircraft, but the volunteers withdrew from their positions only after receiving orders from the superior command.
The battalion suffered heavy losses. During the assault on Quinto its commissar, Willi Soukup, a favourite with everybody, was killed. At Teruel the deputy commissar of the battalion, Communist Paul Zimmermann (Karl Kaspar), and many other comrades laid down their lives.
The battalion also fought valiantly during the enemy breakthrough on the Aragon Front and in the Levante. In March 1938 during the heavy rearguard actions of the retreating Eastern Front the Austrian brigaders heard the sad news of the occupation of Austria by nazi Germany. "All the more reason for us to fight against fascism and smash it here, in Spain,"---such was the reaction of the volunteers of the 12th of February Battalion.
Spaniards, Germans and men of other nationalities also fought in the 12th of February Battalion. It was commanded at various times not only by Austrians---Majors Karl Bauer, Emil Reuter, Franz Berger, Adolf Reiner and Captain Karl Rimbach---but also by Germans---Captain Harry Hellfeld and Major Willy Benz. Its other commissars were the Austrians Leo Wurzel (Lorenz Mraz) and Paul Steiner (Peter Hofer), the German Walter Knobloch and the Spaniard Vincente S. Bordes. A sound international fighting friendship grew up in the battalion.
In the middle of October 1937 a battalion meeting was held in a small village on the Aragon Front. Battalion Commissar Paul Steiner described it as follows: ``We held our meeting by the walls of a church on a hill. Five hundred comrades of different nationalities stood shoulder to shoulder.... While a letter addressed home appealing for unity of the anti-fascist forces in Austria was being read out, it grew dark and we had to light candles. This gave the meeting even greater seriousness and solemnity. In answer to the question, who would vote for the letter, five hundred clenched fists went up. The letter was accepted unanimously. The Spanish comrades shouted, ``Long live unity!" and the meeting ended with the singing of the Internationale...."
When Hitler's army occupied Austria in March 1938, some of the anti-fascists succeeded in leaving the country. The flow of Austrians into the International Brigades once again increased. They included activists from the Communist Party. Fighting in the ranks of the Austrian battalion they took part in the last major offensive of the Republican Army on the Ebro.
Lieutenant Julius Schindler, the battalion adjutant, wrote in his memoirs: ``On the night of July 24, 1938, the battalion crossed the river near the village of Vinebre and in the morning occupied the township of Asco. From there it advanced on Fatarella, routing __PRINTERS_P_51_COMMENT__ 4* 51 isolated fascist groups on the way. On July 28 we attacked the Gandesa-Batea heights but without success. The next day Brigade Commander Otto Flatter (Ferenc Munnich) was wounded. He was replaced on August 12 by Major Adolf Reiner and the command of the battalion was taken over by a German, Major Willy Benz.''
On the 17th and 18th of August the 12th of February Battalion attacked Height 481 in the Sierra Pandols five times. Though they failed to capture it, the brigade considerably improved its positions on the Tortosa-Gandesa road. Between September 7 and 23 at Height 565 the brigade beat off incessant attacks of the fascists, who were massively supported by artillery and tanks. On September 12 the Austrian battalion relieved the Thaelmann Battalion and held the front line from early morning to late at night under constant bombardment and repulsed all attacks.
On September 24 the llth Brigade was withdrawn to the reserve. The 12th of February Battalion suffered heavy losses on the Ebro. It started the operation with 500 officers and men of various nationalities and ended it with only 122. Losses included the former editor of the newspaper Rote Fahne, Fabian (Rudi Auerhan), Schutzbund Lieutenant Franz Zartl, Captain Fritz Mitter from Upper Austria, Sergeant-Ma j or Hans Wagner and Victor Lenhardt from Styria.
The withdrawal of the battalion from the front line coincided with the order issued by the Spanish Government to demobilise the internationalists in the Republican Army. It was very sad to part with the Spanish comrades. The Austrians, like the other international brigaders, were determined to continue the struggle against fascism. Brigade Commissar Ernst Blank wrote in the newspaper Pasaremos: ``Yesterday I was in the 12th of February Battalion when our comrades gave their fraternal promise to fight as they had been fighting for the cause of Spain, for peace and the freedom of the peoples. Such a promise is no empty phrase for our people.''
The demobilised Austrians from the llth Brigade remained until January 1939 in a small township near the River Ter in Catalonia. They could not return home and not a single `` democratic" country of the West was prepared to accept them. The Republic had recalled the internationalists from the front at a time when Hitler and Mussolini, in violation of their promises, were strengthening their troops operating in Spain. At the end of January the Italian motorised divisions with Franco's troops behind them approached Barcelona. Tens of thousands of women, children, old men and wounded crowded the roads leading to the French frontier.
On January 23, 1939, the demobilised brigaders again took up arms. They had to cover the retreat of the Republican troops. The 52 Austrians were commanded by Major Adolf Fischer. On January 24 fascist aircraft bombed the battalion's positions and on February 3 the last battle was fought against Italian troops at the town of Gerona. A group of 28 Austrians commanded by Lieutenant Hans Hertl defended the railway bridge over the Ter until it had to be blown up to prevent the Italian advance. On February 9, these 28 Austrians, having done their duty, crossed the French frontier near Port-Bou.
At the end of the Spanish war some of the international brigaders were given refuge by the Soviet Union, some of them succeeded in obtaining permission to enter Britain and the Scandinavian countries, but the majority remained in France and were later put into the concentration camps of St Cyprien, Gurs, Vernet and Argeles. Some of them escaped from these camps and lived illegally in France. In the camp at Gurs the 450 Austrians who remained there set up a school to improve their general and political education which was attended by 300 people.
The French authorities tried to get rid of the international brigaders and demanded that they should go either to North Africa or back to their own country, which had now become part of the ``Third Reich''. The Austrians were transferred to Argeles, where their barracks were surrounded by two companies of mobile guards. The members of the International Brigade were forced to go to Africa for the alleged purpose of building a railway, but in fact when they got there they were pressed into the Foreign Legion. The Austrians resisted and some of them were arrested.
After the fall of France the officers of the German armistice commission offered the Austrians repatriation with the assurance that they would not be persecuted on their return. The fighters of the 12th of February Battalion had no illusions on this score, but they wanted to continue the fight against Hitler in their own country and not be sent away to Africa. Faced with this choice, most of the internees in Argeles, and also some of the prisoners of the Vernet camp, decided with the consent of the leading organs of their parties to accept repatriation. Few, however, succeeded in retaining their freedom.
On May Day 1941 nearly all the repatriates entered the Dachau concentration camp. Even in the concentration camps they continued the fight against fascism. Thanks to their unity and high morale a relatively large number of fighters of the International Brigades succeeded in surviving the terrible conditions of their imprisonment. Of those who perished in this struggle mention must be made of the former Schutzbund battalion commander of Favoriten (a district of Vienna), Rudolf Friemel, who represented the Revolutionary Socialists in the 12th of February Battalion. The Gestapo arrested him in Auschwitz during an attempt to establish contact between the International Resistance Centre, of which 53 he was a member, and the Polish partisans. He was brutally tortured and hanged on December 30, 1944.
On the day of the liberation of Dachau the Austrian international brigaders Anton Hackle and Erich Hubmann (Lustig) were killed in a fighting with SS men. Sepp Plieseis, who had fought in a guerrilla detachment in Spain, succeeded on August 20, 1943, in escaping from a gang working outside the camp near the town of Hablein. In the Alt Aussee mountains he formed a guerrilla detachment, which gave the SS a great deal of trouble, and saved seven thousand unique paintings plundered by the nazis in various countries of Europe.
The Austrian international brigaders who reached the Soviet Union fought in the Red Army and in partisan detachments. Others displayed great courage in the struggle against the Hitler occupation forces as members of the French Resistance.
Communist Fritz Lettner of Salzburg, who was suffering from tuberculosis, was in a French hospital under police surveillance. In 1943 he and other prisoners escaped and got through to the French guerrillas. He fought with them till the liberation of France and returned home as an officer of the French Resistance forces.
Richard Sdolsek, who beginning with the defence of Madrid in 1936 took part in all the engagements of the llth Brigade, escaped from a French camp and went underground for a time, then made his way to Vienna. The Gestapo did not know that he had taken part in the Spanish war. In 1943 he was called up for the Wehrmacht. With another comrade he escaped to the Italian guerrillas with whom he fought until the liberation of the Reggio Emilia province.
The Austrian emigre Communists and participants in the fighting in Spain took an active part in the French Resistance and showed no less heroism there than in armed guerrilla warfare. They brought out pamphlets and newspapers for the Austrians serving in the Wehrmacht and distributed them in the German garrisons of Paris, Bordeaux, Nancy, Lille and other cities. The antifascist newspapers Soldat im Westen and Soldat im Mittelmeer, which were aimed at the men in the German army, were also published by the Austrians. The first of them was founded by the Austrian international brigader Viktor Milliner (Hans Zipper), who was later murdered by the nazis in the Grossrosseln concentration camp. Austrian women, including nurses who had taken part in the fighting in Spain, helped to distribute illegal publications and arms for the guerrillas.
In 1943 the Austrians adopted a new method of underground
struggle. Pretending to be French, they enlisted for work in the
``Reich'' as foreign workers, so that when they got to Austria they
could organise resistance groups at factories and in towns and
villages. This was done, for example, by two nurses, former
54
The banner of the llth International Brigade
participants in the Spanish
war, Mara (Frieda
Ginsburg) and Anni
Peczenig (her
husband, a former
volunteer, had been taken
from the French camp
and murdered in
Auschwitz). These brave
women were tracked
down by the Gestapo
and shot in the
women's concentration
camp of Ravensbruck.
The Austrian Freedom Battalions were of special significance in the ranks of the Yugoslav NationalLiberation Army and the Styria fighting group, in which the former international brigaders played a leading part.
In the autumn of 1944 Franz Honner, one of the organisers of the 12th of February Battalion and several other comrades parachuted from a Soviet aircraft over the frontier between Slovenia and Croatia. This group was joined by Resistance fighters and Austrians who had deserted from the Wehrmacht. Thus was formed the first Austrian Freedom Battalion. This battalion, which was engaged in heavy fighting right up to the unconditional surrender of Hitler Germany, had as its commanders and commissars former participants in the fighting in Spain---Max Bair, Romen Fiichsel, Leopold Stanzl and Franz Gebhart.
Towards the end of spring 1944 twenty-five parachutists landed in a liberated part of Slovenia. Of these fifteen were international brigaders, including eleven Austrians, two Spaniards and two Italians. One of the Spaniards was Americo Brizuela, commander of the llth Brigade (after the recall of the internationalists from Spain). This unit, which called itself the Styria fighting group, conducted major military and propaganda operations. In the heavy fighting the group, which was often left to act on its own for weeks 55 on end and had to operate in any weather, suffered substantial losses. Of the Austrian international brigaders, Leo Engelmann and Karl Sattler (Prater) were killed, and the former signals chief of the llth Brigade, Captain Sepp Spanner, was gravely wounded. But this fighting group achieved considerable success. Just before the end of the war it captured the town of Schwanberg in Southern Styria and by this time it had grown to five hundred strong.
At the beginning of January 1945 about twenty-five Austrian Communists made their way from France to liberated Belgrade, where out of former prisoners of war they formed the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Freedom battalions. They were commanded by the international brigaders Peter Hofer, Zalel Schwager, Max Goldberger and Laurenz Hiebl. Immediately after the German surrender the 2nd Battalion moved from the Croatian front to Vienna, where it arrived on May 12, 1945. Here it formed the nucleus of the new police force.
The former fighters in Spain did a lot for the restoration of the Austrian Republic. Many of them were in responsible positions in the Communist Party; fifteen former international brigaders were at various times, or still are, members of the Central Committee of the CPA.
The fate of the banner of the 11th Brigade, which was entrusted on April 17, 1938 to the 12th of February Battalion is worth recording. After the battalion resumed military operations in Spain in January 1939, the battalion's machine-gun company entrusted the banner to Ferdinand Barth, of Vienna. He wrapped it round his body and carried it safely under his uniform across the French frontier. In the St Cyprien camp he sewed it between two blankets. The banner then passed from camp to camp until Otto Glaser (Max Stern) ``disappeared'' with it for four weeks to conduct talks with the Austrian Party Committee in Toulouse. He returned without the banner, which had been left in the care of Mali Fritz, a Vienna-born woman. In the autumn of 1940, during a big terrorist sweep against the Austrian participants in the Resistance movement Mali was arrested, but she succeeded in taking the banner, sewed into a blanket, with her to a prison cell where she was kept with Gerta Schindel, a former worker for the Paris Aid Spain Committee. From there the banner went with them to a concentration camp in the Lozere department.
After her escape from the camp Gerta informed the comrades where the banner was. On Christmas Eve 1941, in a snowstorm, Mali passed the brigade's banner through the barbed wire to an Austrian participant in the Spanish fighting, Fritz Weiss. Meanwhile the Germans had occupied the whole of France and the banner of ten had to be moved to new hiding places. Finally it came to Paul Kessler in Lyons. In June 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo but would not speak even under brutal torture. During 56 transfer to the Buchenwald concentration camp he escape