10

p 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.

p 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  [10•1  volunteered for the ranks of the first people’s detachments that fought against the militaryfascist conspirators.

p 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 11 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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".  [11•1  This clash made still more urgent the necessity for providing the republican state with a democratic and socially advanced substance.

12 Soviet volunteer airmen at Karl Marx’s grave. London, 1938

p 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.

p 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.

p “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."  [12•1  Diaz demanded satisfaction 13 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.

p “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."  [13•1 

p 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.

p 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.”

p 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 14 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 15 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."  [15•1 

p 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.  [15•2 

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 16

Dolores Ibarruri, member of the Political Bureau of the Spanish Communist
Party’s Central Committee, addressing officers and men of the International
Brigades
of rallying democratic forces in the struggle for the victory of the Popular Front in the elections. This prepared the ground for a mass counter-attack against the imminent military-fascist revolt. The operations designed to alert people to the danger of the military plot that was being hatched in secret merged with the concrete measures taken by the republican forces to strengthen their ties with the masses. Steps were taken to build up the Anti-Fascist Workers’ and Peasants’ Militia, which had been founded in 1933 to combat the fascist pistoleros, and which in July 1936 formed the organisational core of the heroic milicianos,  [16•1  which were the first to take up arms against the insurgent generals.

p 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 17 but also the point of departure for the waging of more decisive social and political battles.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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."  [17•1 

p 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.

p 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.

p The civil war in Spain assumed a different character. The war unleashed by world fascism against the Spanish people now 18
The people of Barcelona give a warm send-off to volunteers of the International Brigades emerged as the first stage of fascist aggression against the peoples of Europe. Realisation of this fact by the democratic forces of the whole world stimulated more concrete and tangible aid for the Spanish Republic. Volunteers began to pour in, eager to fight Spanish and world fascism.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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 19 countries of Europe, from North and South America and even from Africa, India and China.

p 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.

p 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.

p 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’."  [19•1