Dolores Long writes… Two things had a huge effect on me in understanding what the Battle of the Ebro must have been like for the volunteers from 25 July to 23 September 1938. One was going to the area where the fighting took place: the horrendously difficult terrain, huge, high bare mountains with no shade […]
Andy Jones writes… On Sunday 23 July the No Pasaran Memorial Committee held their 10th anniversary memorial service in the Duchess of Hamilton Park in Motherwell. Those attending gathered to remember and pay respects to the 40 brave volunteers from our communities here in North Lanarkshire that went to fight as part of the International […]
This is an edited version of the talk delivered by Peter Crome at the annual commemoration of the British volunteers who fought in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War held on the South Bank on 1 July 2023. I have been asked to say a few words about the medical services at the […]
IBMT member Nancy Phillips writes… Eighty five years ago the Ebro offensive was initiated by Republican forces, who crossed the Ebro river on 24/25 July with the aim of stopping the advance of Franco’s Nationalist troops towards Valencia. It became the longest and largest battle of the Spanish Civil War, with massive air warfare that […]
It’s said that every county in Britain sent volunteers to join the International Brigades, no matter how remote or difficult the journey to Spain must have seemed and proved to be. It’s no surprise therefore that the Islands of the Firth of Clyde, historically part of Buteshire, and the Outer Hebridean island of Lewis, once […]
Address by Nancy Wallach, of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, at the IBMT’s annual commemoration at the International Brigade memorial in London’s Jubilee Gardens on 1 July… It is a great honour to join you today, and to bring you greetings from ALBA, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. Now, more than ever, in these times, […]
Thanks go to Tommy Campbell of the IBMT-affiliated Aberdeen XV International Brigade Commemoration Committee for coming up with this gem from Aberdonian Brigader Bob Cooney. Here is Cooney reciting his poem 'Hasta la vista, Madrid!' during a radio interview, which Tommy thinks probably took place just a few years before hid death in 1984. The […]
Here is a slideshow of photos taken by Andrew Wiard at the IBMT's annual commemoration on Saturday 1 July at the International Brigade memorial in Jubilee Gardens on London’s South Bank. This year's guest speakers included Nancy Wallach, daughter of Lincoln Brigader Hy Wallach and board member of the New York-based Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives […]
During a short holiday on Majorca this month, IBMT activist Pauline Fraser laid flowers in Republican colours at the grave of Matilda Landa in the cemetery at Palma. Matilda Landa Vaz (1904-1942) was a member of the Communist Party who fought against fascism and the Franco dictatorship. Working with the International Red Cross she defended […]
Historian Christopher Hall writes… The weekend of 23-25 June saw the Orwell Society celebrate the 120th anniversary of to the birth of George Orwell (real name Eric Blair). I was invited as a guest speaker to talk about ‘Homage to Catalonia’. The location for the weekend centred around the two sleepy and beautiful Oxfordshire villages […]
Doc Ritchie of AVzounds writes… No Pasaran! is a 30-minute musical documentary about the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War and uses electronic beats, voice-overs, samples, contemporary songs and music to tell a story of great courage, danger, and political conflict. Listen to it here. In 1986, I was in Barcelona, 50 years after […]
Jeremi Galdamez, of the Freedom Volunteers Association (Stowarzyszenie Ochotnicy Wolności) of Poland, writes… Polish threads in the Civil War in Spain (1936-1939)” – exhibition in Warsaw. July 7 to October 1, 2023. Vernissage: July 7, 5:00 pm. An exhibition in Warsaw from 7 July to 1 October recalls the participation of volunteers from Poland in […]
