This piece, originally shared in the Friends and Family of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (FFALB) Google Group, tells the story of the 13th Dąbrowski Brigade, which fought on the side of the Spanish Republic as part of the International Brigades. It also highlights the role of the Polish International Brigade memorial organisation, the Volunteers of […]
Last month north-west IBMT activist Graham Briggs produced a pamphlet connecting the history of Rochdale with the Spanish Civil War. Available through the Touchstones museum, ‘The Rochdale Connection’ tells the stories of the nine known International Brigade volunteers who fought in Spain and are linked to the town. The pamphlet is the product of months […]
Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal, an (ethno)archaeologist specialising in the study of the contemporary past, writes about the issue of anti-fascist memory when it comes to the recently leaked plans for a Spanish Civil War museum in the city of Teruel. This article originally appeared in Spanish in Público on 9 February 2023, and has been reproduced in […]
Clem Beckett (1906-1937), originally from Oldham, was an engineer, speedway cyclist and an activist associated with the Young Communist League and the Communist Party, who later fought against fascism as an International Brigader in the Spanish Civil War. Well-known as a daredevil motorcyclist, Beckett campaigned throughout the 1930s for safer tracks and against the exploitation […]
'Our Fathers Fought Franco' is a collection of biographies of four International Brigaders, James Maley, George Watters, Donald Renton and Archibald Williams. Travelling from different corners of Britain, all of them came to serve in the No.2 Machine Gun Company and fought at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937. After being captured in battle […]
Issue 1-2023 of the IBMT magazine ¡No Pasaran! went out to members last week. The cover story is an interview with artist Josh Knowles discussing his upcoming graphic novel about his International Brigader grandfather Les Starr. The covert art by Knowles is a preview of the dynamic cartoon style he is using to tell Starr's […]
This is an expanded and edited version of a piece which originally appeared in the newsletter of ACER, the IBMT’s French sister organisation, written by Fabienne Reberioux. From 25 May to 25 November 1937, Paris hosted the International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life. For the Spanish Republic’s pavilion, the Republican government called […]
Here is a vivid account of the Battle of Teruel which took place 85 years ago this month. It is reproduced and translated from the website of the IBMT’s Spanish sister organisation AABI (Asociación de Amigos de las Brigadas Internacionales). After two months of reorganisation, training and relative rest, the International Brigades returned to action […]
IBMT President Marlene Sidaway writes… After the Covid years, 2022 was a year when we were finally able to meet again, enjoy each other’s company and more importantly remember and celebrate the International Brigaders in the way we have done since the IBMT was formed. Beginning with the Len Crome Memorial Conference in Edinburgh in […]
In August 2021 the Sandhurst Trust published, via their Facebook page, a celebration of Bill Alexander (1910-2000), who served as a commander of the British Battalion and a Sandhurst alumnus. The IBMT acknowledges the post as a welcome surprise as the International Brigades and their service in Spain are virtually never recognised by the armed […]
Earlier this year the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, the IBMT’s US-based sister organisation, received a note from Alfonso Repullés Buj, a Spaniard in his late sixties from Aragón. It was about his father and the iconic photograph from the Spanish Civil War in which Steve Nelson has his right arm around the shoulder of Oliver […]
The Alvah Bessie Programme, run by the General Directorate for Democratic Memory in Catalonia, have published a video (above) of their launch session held on 29 April 2022. The event was held in Mataró, Barcelona and included speeches by Antoni Font i Renom – then General Director for Democratic Memory, Dan Bessie, son of Lincoln […]
