Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died 50 years ago today [20 November]. Jim Jump looks back at his blood-soaked rule and toxic legacy on Spain today.

‘Spaniards, Franco has died,’ came the announcement 50 years ago on Spanish TV. If there was any truth to the widely-held story that Barcelona immediately ran out of cava, the corks would have been popping behind closed doors. Most Spaniards held their breath on 20 November 1975, fearful of what might happen next. 

After nearly four decades of brutal dictatorship, reactionary forces dominated the country’s institutions and the generalísimo himself had boasted that everything was being left ‘well tied up’. 

Confounding expectations, however, King Juan Carlos appointed a government that steered Spain towards free elections in 1977, the first since the Spanish Republic. In 1981 he helped face down a botched coup attempt by diehard army and civil guard units, who briefly seized the Cortes, the Spanish parliament. In the following year the PSOE socialists – the dominant party in the Republic’s Popular Front government – won the general election.

Today Juan Carlos, who abdicated in favour of son Filipe in 2014, is again at the centre of controversy. His autobiography praises Franco’s ‘intelligence and political sense’. But it says nothing in 500 pages about the victims of Franco, nor the scars that the Spanish Civil War have left on Spanish society.

Publication of the memoir comes at a time of heightened political tensions in Spain. Far-right Vox is surging in the polls. In half a dozen autonomous regions the party props up right-wing administrations fronted by the more mainstream Popular Party (PP) – which is itself a haven for Franco apologists. The approaching anniversary of the dictator’s death has also seen anti-immigrant fascist groups on the streets of Madrid giving Nazi salutes, singing Francoist anthems and waving SS-inspired flags.

Though many have applauded Juan Carlos’s role in Spain’s transition to democracy, they often overlook the tide of popular agitation that was also forcing his hand. Hailed as a triumph of peaceful top-down politics, the transición was far from bloodless. Hundreds died in political violence, including terrorist attacks by a shadowy far-left group, Grapo, that is now known to have been heavily penetrated by Francoist secret police.

Hearses with the bodies of communist lawyers killed by fascists in 1977 pass through crowds in Madrid.
Wiki Commons

Among the worst atrocities was the assassination in 1977 of five communist lawyers by fascist gunmen in Madrid’s Atocha Street. More than 100,000 people attended their funeral – one of the first mass demonstrations since the Caudillo’s death. This was followed by strikes and displays of solidarity across the country. A few weeks later the PCE communist party was legalised.

The blood on Franco’s hands never dried. After launching the military uprising that sparked the country’s civil war in 1936, he climbed to power over the dead bodies of more than 150,000 summarily-executed Republicans, leftists and trade unionists. Their toll easily outnumbered the victims of revenge attacks against supporters of the coup. 

Victory in 1939 was secured courtesy of troops, aircraft and weapons sent by Hitler and Mussolini. When their planes mercilessly bombed Guernica, Barcelona and Madrid, the world was shocked. But in characteristic Perfidious Albion fashion, the British government chose to appease the fascist dictators by covertly favouring Franco with an arms embargo on the Republic – all under the guise of ‘non-intervention’.

Even when the war ended, the systematic torture and killings continued in Franco’s vast network of penal camps. In 1940 in Madrid alone there were 30 prisons housing 100,000 Republican prisoners, a quarter of them on death row. And so it went on, year after year, with the terminally ill Franco signing the last five death warrants as he was about to climb into his death-bed.

In Britain, veterans of the International Brigades, who had fought so bravely during the civil war, kept up their struggle in other ways. The International Brigade Association helped organise frequent protests and embassy pickets. The IBA worked with socialist lawyers to send observers to trials of political prisoners along with food for their families. Others went further. Dublin-born Brigader Bob Doyle, for example, used family trips to Spain to take money to the the anti-Franco underground and on one occasion scattered leaflets on a Madrid bus and among football crowds before making a swift getaway.

There had been a glimmer of hope at the end of the Second World War that Franco’s regime, by then an international pariah, might be toppled. But the US cavalry rode to the rescue, finding in Franco a dependable anti-communist stooge during the Cold War. Generous long-term loans began in 1950 and three years later the US was handed air and naval bases in exchange for more economic and military aid. 

Spain today is a vibrant, open society, though one with all the familiar social problems of advanced Western liberal democracies. Scratch the surface, however, and historic divisions open up and old attitudes forged by 40 years of censorship and dictatorship lies re-emerge.

It wasn’t until the start of this century – a full quarter century after Franco’s death – that the unofficial pact of silence that accompanied the return to democracy was broken. Younger people began asking what had happened to their grandparents during the war, why they didn’t have a grave and why no-one dared speak about it. Soon they found out the awful truth that Spain is a country covered with mass graves of Republicans. There were – and still are – thousands of them – including ones with remains of International Brigaders whose bodies were dug up and dumped after Franco won the war.

The man who initiated the first exhumation was Emilio Silva. He was trying to find the remains of his grandfather in the village of Priaranza del Bierzo in north west Spain. But in the process he launched a social movement of Spaniards demanding to know the truth about the past. ‘What I wanted was to bury him with my grandmother and go back to my life as a journalist,’ Silva recalled in a recent interview. ‘I thought I was going to return to how things were before finding the mass grave, but everything became unstoppable.’ 

Many thousands of murdered Republicans have since been given proper burials, though it is estimated that the remains of more than 100,000 of Spain’s ‘disappeared’ still lie unidentified in the Spanish earth.   

Anniversary cover of Spain’s satirical magazine El Jueves is headlined ‘Happy 50 years without Franco’ and shows the dictator holding the leads of Vox leader Santiago Abascal and the Popular Party’s rightwing head of the Madrid community, Isabel Ayuso.

Propelled by this mass movement for the recovery of historical memory, the PSOE-led governments of José Luis Zapatero and current prime minister Pedro Sánchez have made worthy efforts to help Spain come to terms with the crimes of Francoism. Memory laws have acknowledged old injustices and addressed the issue of mass graves. Streets glorifying fascists have been renamed. Franco’s body was removed from the grotesque mausoleum he built for himself with Republican slave labour north west of Madrid. Exiles, International Brigaders and their descendants have been welcomed as Spanish citizens.

Unsurprisingly Vox and the PP have resisted all these moves, with regional authorities led by them rolling back memory laws and refusing to identify and protect mass graves. Yet, as one historian has pointed out, Spain is the only country in western Europe where it is possible to randomly dig a hole in the ground and run the risk of unearthing human remains. Meanwhile those who call for an end to this scandal are accused of stirring up old hatreds.

Bill Alexander, former commander of the British Battalion in Spain, noted proudly after the country’s return to democracy that anti-Francoists in Britain had ensured that Franco and his underlings were never accepted by the British people. Their campaigning had ‘remembered the heroic struggles of the Spanish people and recognised that only the end of Francoism could bring freedom’. Sadly, the toxic legacy left by Franco has still not been properly expunged and Bill’s words remain true to this day.

Jim Jump is the IBMT Chair. This article also appears in today's Morning Star (20 November 2025): https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/struggle-against-francos-legacy-continues

Words spoken by joint Ireland Secretary Luke O'Riordan at Belfast City Hall on 3 October 2025 during the IBMT AGM weekend…

It is a great honour to be asked to say a few words among friends and comrades this evening as we gather to remember the bravery of the International Brigades.

Many of you will have known my grandad Michael, or Mick, and many more of you will have known my dad, Manus.

Michael O'Riordan in 1936.

As well as being incredibly proud of the conviction and courage shown by my grandfather Mick as a mere 20-year-old young man to fight for what is right, I am likewise incredibly proud of our dad, Manus, for the role he played in carrying that flame for many decades until his passing four years ago.

Manus O'Riordan proudly holding the Connolly Column banner.

We are indebted to the work of people such as my father and so many of you here in preserving, researching and bringing to life the stories of all those brave volunteers from Ireland, Britain and further afield, who fought for what they knew was right.

I think back to the AGM of the IBMT here in Belfast in 2007. It was the first such meeting I had attended since the passing of our grandad a year and a half previously.

As a 19-year-old who was very close and immensely fond of him, there was an extra layer of nostalgia to the occasion.

Another layer was added later that evening at the social event in the Europa Hotel, where Tommy Sands was among the performers.

For it was his song Your Daughters And Your Sons, which for me encapsulates why the work of the International Brigades Memorial Trust is so important.

I’ll quote a verse of that song:

They tortured you in Belfast and they taunted you in Spain

and in that Warsaw ghetto they tied you up in chains.

In Vietnam and Chile they came with tanks and guns,

It's there you sowed the seed of Peace in your daughters and your sons.

It is a song that draws upon the many global injustices of the 20th century, passed on to the next generation, that highlights the value in sowing the seeds of freedom, justice, equality and peace to the next generation.

And that is exactly what the International Brigades Memorial Trust does.

In keeping alive the memory of the International Brigades, it sows those seeds for future generations.

Unlike my grandfather, I am not a great public speaker and unlike my father, I am neither a historian nor a researcher.

Luke O'Riordan (left) with siblings Jess and Neil next to the stained-glass window dedicated to the International Brigades in Belfast City Hall.

So, instead, I will take a moment to remember how growing up as the grandson of someone like Michael O’Riordan, and how both he and my parents, Manus and Annette, sowed those seeds for me, Jess and Neil.

For anyone who knew our grandfather, you will know he had a bit of a presence about him.

Holding court in Connolly Books, he might size you up as to whether he wanted to engage with you or not. But if he did, he was very generous with his time and his insights.

And as a grandfather, he was loving and kind, and always had great time for all of his grandchildren, and for other children and young people as well, as his lifetime of activism and want for a better world never faltered.

Memories of grandad speaking about his time in the International Brigade, and his views on politics and the world more generally, are seared into the memory of my childhood.

I will forever be grateful to my parents for bringing me to Spain in 1996, the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the biggest-ever reunion of Brigadistas in Spain.

The experience of walking through the streets of places such as Barcelona, Madrid and Guernica, and visiting battle sites such as Jarama alongside our grandad and his comrades from all over Europe are memories I cherish and will never forget.

Even though I was only 8 years of age, it imparted on me the great sacrifice so many of these men made.

Equally impactful on that trip were the throngs of Spaniards and Catalonians who rushed to greet and embrace the Brigadistas on the streets.

They had been silenced for decades under the brutality of Fascism, their stories left untold. But those who survived still remembered, and their sheer emotion showed that they were still forever grateful.

Not long after that trip to Spain in 1996, my grandad addressed my primary school, kids aged 5 up to the age of 12, and spoke for a couple of hours about his experiences, his audience enthralled.

American Brigader Louis 'Lou' H Gordon. Photo: ALBA

Not long after, our grandad’s comrade, Lou Gordon, a Lincoln Brigade veteran from New York, came to stay with us in our family home.

He also came to my school, and told those same children that if the world had realised what was happening in Spain in the 1930s, then he might not have had to be one of the people who had to liberate Dachau concentration camp seven or eight years later.

These might seem like trivial anecdotes, but for me they are not.

Remembering and commemorating the International Brigades in one function of occasions like that one we are having this weekend.

But an even more important function is educating, engaging and inspiring future generations.

Because the world is, once again, in a dark place.

The myth of Western values has, once again, been shattered.

Never again is now. This week alone, as world leaders bury their heads in the sand or turn the other way, it took normal, everyday men and women to take a stand by setting sail on a flotilla to attempt to break the siege of Gaza and bring aid to a starving population.

So when we gather at events like these to commemorate the International Brigades…

In the words of Christy Moore: Let us all remember them tonight.

But as well as that, in the words of Tommy Sands: Sow the seeds of freedom in your daughters and your sons.

Ireland’s singing and songwriting legend Christy Moore has sent this message, including a rendition of ‘Viva la Quince Brigada’, to the IBMT’s 2025 Annual General Meeting in Belfast. The AGM was held over the weekend of 3-5 October.

Moore is an IBMT Patron and has done much to spread the story of the Irish volunteers who fought fascism and defended the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War.

Marking the 40th anniversary of the unveiling of the International Brigade memorial in London’s Jubilee Gardens, IBMT Chair Jim Jump looks back at the drama behind its installation…

Linger by the International Brigade memorial on London’s Southbank and you’ll soon notice tourists stopping to find out what this imposing piece of public art is all about. Standing four metres high, it’s the only sculpture or memorial in Jubilee Gardens, a green oasis facing onto the Thames and squeezed between the London Eye and the Royal Festival Hall.

The memorial today with its inscription inspired by Cecil Day Lewis's poem 'The Volunteer'.

As these curious tourists read the inscriptions, some, especially Spaniards, are clearly surprised. How come a memorial of this sort, dedicated to a cause still considered controversial in some official and rightwing circles, should be located on a prime site in the heart of the capital?

It’s a good question. Little do most people know the politics and cliff-hanging drama that led up to its unveiling 40 years ago on 5 October 1985.

The impetus for a national memorial emerged in the years following Franco’s death in 1975 and the process of restoring democracy in Spain.

Through the International Brigade Association, the veterans had, until Spain’s often fraught transición, concentrated on campaigning against the country’s brutal dictatorship and on behalf of its many political prisoners.

Now, with the approach of the 50th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1986, they could devote efforts to a national memorial to their more than 500 fallen comrades and to all those anti-fascist volunteers who had, as the memorial in Jubilee Gardens states, ‘left these shores’ to go to Spain. These were carefully chosen words to include all the Irish, Cypriots and those from the dominions and colonies who didn’t count themselves as ‘British’.

Supporters in Scotland had already led the way. In August 1980, Glasgow City Council raised the landmark Pasionaria memorial to the International Brigades. Created by Liverpool sculptor Arthur Dooley, the figure of legendary Spanish Republican leader Dolores Ibárruri faces south across the Clyde, arms outstretched.

Something equally as impressive was needed nationally. And in the leftwing Labour-run Greater London Council, the Brigaders found friends, notably leader ‘Red’ Ken Livingstone, chair Illtyd Harrington and arts committee chair Tony Banks. The GLC agreed to provide a site for the memorial in Jubilee Gardens, which it owned and was located next to its headquarters in County Hall.

The International Brigade Memorial Appeal (IBMA) was set up and began raising the necessary funds, including an £18,800 grant from the GLC.

Six leading sculptors were asked to submit ideas for the memorial, and in December 1984, the commission was awarded to Ian Walters, creator of, among other works, the bust of Nelson Mandela on London Southbank and the statue of Harold Wilson in Huddersfield.

Sculptor Ian Walters (left), with his maquette for the memorial, and (from right) Brigaders Bill Alexander (International Brigade Memorial Appeal chair) and Jimmy Jump (IBMA Secretary).

Meanwhile, Red Ken was becoming a thorn in the side of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The GLC hoisted, for example, a massive banner on top of County Hall, clearly visible across the river from the Houses of Parliament, with a running total of the growing number of unemployed in London.

Thatcher was not amused, and she characteristically went for the political nuclear option, announcing in 1983 that she would abolish the GLC. Two years later, royal assent was given to the Local Government Act, which on 31 March 1986 dissolved the GLC and its powers were distributed to the London boroughs.

County Hall was to be sold off – it’s now a leisure hub for attractions such as the Sea Life London Aquarium and London Dungeon – and Jubilee Gardens was eventually handed over to a specially-formed charitable trust.

Thatcher’s attack on the GLC galvanised campaigners. At the meeting of the IBMA on 8 January 1985, appeal chair Bill Alexander said it was now ‘essential to hold the unveiling ceremony while the GLC is still in control’. Illtyd Harrington urged it to be held ‘the sooner the better’, the meeting heard.

Committee members of the International Brigade Memorial Appeal inspect the unfinished sculpture in Ian Walters’s studio in Battersea. From left are Brigaders Robert Walker (partly hidden) and Joe Monks, Betty Birch, Solly Kaye and Ann Mildwater.

With the clock ticking, plans for an unveiling on 19 July 1986 were scrapped, and Ian Walters was told to speed things up for the new deadline in October 1985.

The new deadline was met, though even after the unveiling, uncertainty still hung over the memorial’s future.

‘It is intended to hold a public event at the memorial on 19 July 1986, 50th anniversary of the fascist revolt,’ wrote Bill Alexander in the International Brigade Association’s newsletter.

‘But the GLC, whose many-sided and generous support made the memorial possible, will have been replaced by a government-appointed quango who will control the Southbank,’ he said. ‘The character and form of the event cannot therefore yet be decided.’

5 October 1985: Michael Foot MP with his hand on the memorial shortly after he unveiled it. From his left to right are: Norman Willis (TUC General Secretary), Brigader Jack Jones, Tony Banks and Communist Party General Secretary Gordon McLennan. With her hand on the plinth is Dame Janet Vaughan and, next to her, Bill Alexander.

Thankfully, not only did the 1986 event go ahead, but a commemoration has taken place in July ever since. And, with excellent relations with the Jubilee Gardens Trust, the IBMT is confident that the volunteers will continue to be remembered at the memorial for many years to come.

Activist and long-standing IBMT member Lisa Croft on her Brigader forebear…

My grandfather was Archibald Campbell McCaskill Williams, “AC” for short. He was a lifelong socialist, believing in equality and freedom for the ordinary person, and an International Brigade comrade in Spain, becoming a prisoner during the Battle of Jarama.

AC Williams, who was born in Southsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 1904.

He spent his childhood in Skye and his youth in Invergordon, but spent much of his adult life away from Scotland. He returned home for the last 12 years of his life, living in Renfrewshire, and died in Glasgow Infirmary in 1972.

Many young Scots were unemployed during the 1920s and left home for work elsewhere. AC was the eldest and best educated of six sons. Aged 19, he set off for Toronto, Canada. He never saw his parents again.

After some short-lived secure employment as a bank clerk, followed by a variety of jobs as lumberjack, fur trapper and rancher, like thousands of other migrants, he found himself in one of the unemployed workers’ camps. Conditions of extreme poverty and brutality by camp guards led him and fellow inmates to organise and demonstrate against their situation.

He joined the Canadian Communist Party and, after one particular violent clash with police, he was arrested, convicted as a 'rabid agitator', and imprisoned. Following his sentence, he was deported in chains to the UK.

Unemployed in London and living in a hostel, he met and married Jane. They were both Communist Party members and politically active in the fight against the Blackshirts in the Jewish East End of London. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil Warthey became involved in the Aid Spain movement.

Supported by his pregnant wife, Jane (my grandmother), AC volunteered to join the International Brigades. He was responsible for recruiting another member, Alexander Foote, who became one of the most notorious Soviet spies of the time. They both joined a group of Brigaders who set off on 23 December 1936 for France via Dover.

From Paris, they went by train to Perpignan, then to Figueras in Spain. At Albacete, he became part of the no. 2 machine-gun company and was issued with an ancient machine-gun, as he’d had experience with firearms as a trapper in Canada.

In February, the company was involved with the rest of the British Battalion at the Battle of Jarama, where they were defending the road from Madrid to Valencia. They were ill-equipped compared with Franco’s fascists, who were supported by German and Italian soldiers and armour and on the first day of the battle, half of the battalion were killed orwounded.

AC’s machinegun company was ambushed by Moorish soldiers, who they thought were their own side’s reinforcements, having been tricked by the singing of 'The Internationale'. They were overpowered and captured, then marched off with their hands above their head. Two of them were shot in cold blood.

Captured members of the British Battalion at Jarama. Third from left on the lorry is AC Williams.

The British were the lucky ones; other prisoners were shot daily, with the Spaniards being treated the worst. AC kept a notebook while in prison, including autographs of other comrades, a score sheet and commentary for a baseball game played and a copy of a telegram to send home.

After three months at Talavera, they were transferred to Salamanca, put on trial and found guilty of 'aiding a rebellion'. Five of them were sentenced to death, and the others to 20 years. Thankfully, this did not happen, as in May 1937, they were exchanged for Italian prisoners, though not before being paraded and marched through jeering crowds of fascist supporters to the French border.

Getting to know baby Rosemary after his release from Franco’s prisons.

AC was met at Waterloo station in London by wife, Jane. While he was in prison, she had given birth to a daughter and, thinking he was dead, called her Rosemary for remembrance and Nina, the Spanish for girl.

MI5 kept a close eye on my grandparents for the rest of their lives, with their telephone bugged and letters intercepted. Their flat was also broken into, and the book he had written was stolen. I recently received a copy of his MI5 file. It included a transcript of his interrogation by the fascists while in prison in Spain.

My grandfather did not talk to his children or grandchildren about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. He was traumatised by both of his prison experiences, but mainly by the terrible events witnessed in Spain, particularly the brutality of the fascists towards the Spanish people and seeing his close comrades shot.

A photograph was taken of the prisoners on the back of a lorry after their capture; it was published in the Daily Express. The International Brigade volunteers were scorned by this rightwing paper and portrayed as misguided fools caught up in another country’s war. The 27 men were imprisoned in a makeshift jail in an old factory at Talavera, where conditions were unbearable. Their heads were shaved, many became ill,
food was scarce, they were covered in lice, and it was bitterly cold, their overcoats having been taken from them.

As a child, I do remember a group of comrades visiting my grandparents’ home, one wearing a black beret. They greeted one another with the clenched fist salute and talked into the night. My grandparents would often speak Spanish to one another; as children, we knew that 'dinero' meant they were talking about money.

AC was a popular, gregarious, charismatic and loving man. He had a gentle Highland accent with a touch of American drawl. I’m very proud of him, what he stood for and what he believed in.

August talk pulls in the crowds at the Shankill Road Library…

On 1 August, a 70-strong audience attended the Féile Lecture 2025, organised by the IBMT-affiliated International Brigade Commemoration Committee (IBCC).

The speaker this year was renowned historian Dr Brian Hanley, who spoke on the topic 'Blueshirts, and Blackshirts: fascism in Ireland north and south'.

Brian Hanley delivering his lecture.

Féile An Phobail is Ireland's biggest community arts festival. Running from 26 July until 10 August, it is the flagship event of a programme of inclusive arts, cultural and community-based activities throughout the year.

Jackie Redpath, CEO at Greater Shankill Partnership, chaired the event.

The Shankill Road Library was a fitting venue: it is home to a plaque dedicated to the seven Shankill men who died in Spain, which we will be visiting in October as part of the IBMT's programme of social and commemorative events.

Standing room only at the Feile Lecture 2025.

All photos: Paddy Mackel

---

To find out more about the IBMT AGM, see the provisional programme. To book tickets, go to Eventbrite. The AGM is being organised by the Belfast-based International Brigade Commemoration Committee (IBCC).

David Grant, a former teacher and now a PhD student at the University of Leeds, introduces a new schools module focusing on women's roles in the Spanish Civil War…

Members and supporters may already be familiar with the excellent teaching resources on the IBMT website: Why did so many people volunteer to fight in the Spanish Civil War? The IBMT is now pleased to announce a recently added unit, titled Women and the Spanish Civil War. The units are designed to be taught in UK state schools in History lessons for students aged 13 to 14.

Historians have generally overlooked the role of women in the Spanish Civil War, with some notable exceptions, such as Angela Jackson, Linda Palfreeman and Emily Mason. Moreover, the war itself is rarely taught in secondary schools – and the part women played in that conflict, probably not at all, being overshadowed by the two world wars and the rise of fascism and Nazism.

The Spanish Civil War is an inspiring and engaging topic that allows school students to explore an overlooked aspect of 20th century history. The subject is important considering the significant contributions women made during the war, both in their home countries and in Spain.

British nurses in Spain.

The teaching aid focuses primarily on women from Britain, but also references volunteers from Australia, Spain and the US. The changing status of women in society is well illustrated by the variety of volunteer roles carried out during the Spanish Civil War, which included nursing, administration, fundraising, campaign organising, supporting refugees and, in some cases, fighting in militia units.

Both sets of materials available on the website were written by current and former history teachers. The IBMT also welcomed the input and advice of academic specialists at the University of Leeds.

Although it is recognised that in England, as opposed to the rest of the UK, the National Curriculum is heavily prescribed, it is hoped that teachers can find space in their non-statutory optional units to offer opportunities for their students to learn about the Spanish Civil War.

A slide from the PowerPoint presentation.

With this in mind, the materials provided consist of guidance notes for teachers, a knowledge organiser, a PowerPoint, short biographies of many of the women volunteers and a Historical Enquiry booklet containing source material and questions.

The resources will hopefully guide students to reach a better understanding of this important but neglected event in history while providing supporting materials to enable educators to effectively deliver the unit in the classroom.

If you are not a History or Humanities teacher yourself but know someone who is, please bring this new and exciting resource to their attention so they can share the inspirational stories of the International Brigades with their students.

This latest addition to the Trust’s online Education pages is part of the IBMT’s Schools Project, which aims to help teachers bring the story of the Spanish Civil War into classrooms. It has received funding from the Lipman-Miliband Trust and individual donations from IBMT members.

IBMT member Robert Macdonald looks forward to an event this Saturday (26 April) in Salford to mark 80 years since the defeat of fascism in Italy…

The liberation of Italy during the Second World War and the lives of ordinary Italian people who resisted fascism over many years, despite huge risks and suffering, will be marked at an event in Greater Manchester in late April to celebrate its 80th anniversary.

Various Italian organisations in Greater Manchester are working on the event and encouraging people from all backgrounds to hear about Italy's experiences. It is called Voices of the Resistance: Stories that Shaped Liberation, and will take place this Saturday, April 26, at The Eagle Inn, Collier Street, Salford, at 11.30am.

Every April, the liberation of Italy is marked with a public holiday in Italy and celebrations, called Festa della Liberazione. This reflects historic events in April 1945 when liberation movements in Italy declared a general insurrection against Nazi German forces and remaining Italian fascist garrisons, and began issuing decrees to assume power. Days later, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured while trying to flee Italy and executed.

But liberation came after 20 long years of a brutal fascist dictatorship in Italy, which began with Mussolini’s rise in 1922. The regime tried to crush all opposition, terrorising the Italian people generally and targeting opponents with persecution, violence, imprisonment, torture and death.

Later, Mussolini's regime backed Hitler's Nazi Germany in the Second World War. But as events gradually turned, Italy's fascist regime dismissed Mussolini in 1943 and then declared an armistice with the Allies. However, in turn, Nazi Germany then treated Italy as an enemy nation, with more atrocities and reprisals.

But throughout all the years of suffering under the changing regimes, many ordinary Italians resisted fascism in different ways and contrtibuted to its eventual defeat - men, women and children. Examples included disobedience and defiance in many aspects of life, from workplaces to sport, along with intelligence gathering, sabotage, armed fighting and working with the Allies.

Giulia Sirigu (second from left), one of the event's organisers, speaking at last year's event.

One of the Greater Manchester event organisers is Giulia Sirigu, Secretary of the Manchester chapter of the Italian Partito Democratico political party. She said: “The event on Saturday will reflect on how fascism impacted the lives of ordinary people and how they resisted it. There will be speakers, literature, poetry, videos and songs from the Open Voice Community Choir. Additionally we will draw connections with today’s world and current affairs.

“Everyone is welcome, regardless of whether you have Italian links or not. It is an opportunity to listen, learn and engage with the voices of Italy's past and beyond. This will be a meaningful gathering to celebrate resilience, courage and the spirit of liberation.”

The event is free but booking is required on Eventbrite. There will be pizza provided while drinks will be available to buy

Represenatatives of local groups at Italian Liberation Day in April 2024.

Organisations involved include the Partito Democratico, the INCA UK-CGIL advice organisation, the NDIL CGIL Italian trade union, the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia (ANPI) which highlights the Italian resistance; and ACLI, a Christian association of Italian workers.

Also involved is the Open Voice Community Choir and the North-West International Brigade Memorial Group. It highlights Greater Manchester and Lancashire’s links to the Spanish Civil War and volunteer fighters from this region who joined the International Brigade. 

During the 1930s Spanish civil war, anti-fascist volunteers from around the world joined the International Brigade to support the Spanish government against a coup by army general Francisco Franco. Later, Italian volunteers then return to Italy and joined the resistance in Italy including during the Second World War, which ended in 1945.

On Saturday 12 April Jayne Dunn, Lord Mayor of Sheffield, unveiled the 'Boy with Dove' statue in the city's Weston Park.

Created by artist Anthony Padgett, the statue is a tribute to Picasso, to the International Brigade volunteers from South Yorkshire, to the Basque children who were given sanctuary by the people of Sheffield, and to all Sheffield’s workers and citizens.

The statue is located in Weston Park, Sheffield S10 2TP, and has been added to the IBMT directory and map of memorials.

Here is a selection of photos from the unveiling…

'Boy with Dove', which honours Picasso, who attended the 2nd World Peace Congress in Sheffield in 1950.

A close-up of the plaque on the bench.

Standing, left to right: Sam Morecroft, President Sheffield Trades Union Council, Simon Martinez, Trustee Basque Children Association ’37, Anthony Padgett, sculptor, and Martin Mayer, former Secretary Sheffield TUC.
Seated, left to right: Jayne Dunn, Lord Mayor of Sheffield, Megan Dobney, IBMT Secretary, and Dolores Long, IBMT Executive Committee member.

Artist Anthony Padgett sits alongside his creation, 'Boy with Dove', which depicts Picasso as a boy holding a dove of peace.

Flags representing the organisations that backed the project and the people they support.

Jayne Dunn, Lord Mayor of Sheffield, who unveiled the statue, sits alongside the 'Boy with Dove'.

Photos: Gideon Long.

IBMT Archivist Alan Lloyd has transcribed a letter from commissar John Gates reporting the death of Humfry Scott (1904-1937) after the Battle of Pozoblanco. The letter, dated 30 April 1937, was addressed to Humfry’s Sudeten Czech wife, Hedwig ‘Hedi’ Zappe. The original is held in the Scott family archive.

Dear Comrade Hedi,

It is with great sorrow that I write you of the death in action of your husband, Humfry Scott. Not only because it will be a great blow to you but because we lost one of our best and most valuable and dearly beloved comrades.

Comrade Scott was political commissar of the English section of our company, the 2nd Anglo-American Company of the 20th Battalion of the International Brigade.

A teacher and translator from Bournemouth, Humfry Scott is pictured above before leaving for Spain in 1936.

He had a great understanding of his work and was of tremendous aid to me in the political work. Our company was known as the most disciplined company in the Battalion, with an extremely high morale.

And now, after one month at the front, we not only retain that reputation but have added to it a record of discipline, heroism and courage under fire. To this record, the work of Comrade Scott contributed in no small degree.

He was not only a fine political worker but also was an example in the fighting.

The position we occupied at the front was a very dangerous one – dominated by the enemy from a superior height and under heavy sniping fire at all times. We were daily subjected to heavy artillery and aviation bombardments.

In all this Scott occupied one of the first trenches. On the day of the fatal action, under cover of artillery fire, the enemy (Moors) advanced to within 10 metres of our position and surprised us with hand grenades, forcing us from the position. In this, Comrade Scott, in his position, was killed by a grenade before he knew what had
happened. He died instantly.

The next day we counter-attacked and took the position back again.

We buried Comrade Scott with military honours on Chamorro mountain, near Pozoblanco, in the province of Córdoba. His grave is marked with a hammer and sickle built of stone. I enclose a letter which I found among his personal effects. I am sure you will find it dear to you.

John Gates, political commissar of the Anglo-American 2nd company of the 20th Battalion, pictured in May 1938 by the 15th International Brigade Photographic Unit. Photo: Tamiment Library.

In closing, I want to say that although Comrade Scott was not a member of the Communist Party, his work and the example he gave us, proved that he would have filled with honour a place in any Communist Party in the world. He was a True
Bolshevik.

The memory of Comrade Scott will always be treasured by us. Long live the International Brigade!

Forward to victory over Fascism! For a free and Democratic Spain!

Comradely yours,
John Gates.

Eighty-eight years on, young and old pay homage to the sacrifices of British Brigaders, writes Robert Hargreaves…

Uniforms neatly pressed, boots polished, and standing perfectly to attention, Tom Wintringham, commanding officer of the British Battalion at the Battle of Jarama, a stickler for discipline, would have been proud of them. 

The Lost Sons of Albion, dedicated volunteers committed to preserving the memory of brave anti-fascists from Britain and Ireland, were proudly on parade at Manchester’s annual Jarama commemoration.

Expert on the history of the battle, and armed with a fascinating collection of artefacts, the re-enactment enthusiasts – Tom Conyard, Ethan Harvey, John Conyard, Tom Whitfield, Rory Pratt and Charles McKnight – formed a special attraction at a packed commemoration in the city’s Central Library. 

The Lost Sons of Albion re-enactment group.

The lads, who between them, demonstrate an impressive historical knowledge of the British Battalion, contributed to a moving event, focussing on contributions from stalwart IBMT member Stuart Walsh and university researcher Jude Percival on the theme of medical aid and help to the beleaguered people of the Spanish Republic.

Faced with the onslaught of Franco’s fascist forces, supplied with arms and aircraft by Mussolini and Hitler, it fell to the 600 members of the newly formed and inexperienced British Battalion to hold the line and help save Madrid from Franco’s forces. More than 250 were killed and many more were wounded.

IBMT member Stuart Walsh acknowledging the support for Spain from North East Lancashire.

Lisa Croft and Paul Ward introduced the speakers and set the scene for fascinating insights into medical aid and help for the Spanish people. Stuart stressed the tremendous generosity and hard work of people in his native North East Lancashire, as they raised money for food ships through dances, jumble sales and public meetings.

University researcher Jude Percival speaking about Spanish Medical Aid.

Jude outlined the massive contribution made through Spanish Medical Aid, including the work of doctors and nurses, and the supply of fully-equipped ambulances. The Manchester and District Spanish Medical Aid Committee which covered the cotton towns of South East Lancashire arranged a tour of a field ambulance that was built by workers of Blake Motors and paid for by funds from people in Rossendale.

It was described at the time as 'a concrete expression of Lancashire’s sympathy with a suffering people'. By the end of 1937, the local committee had sent five fully-equipped ambulances, while still appealing for clothing, tinned milk and bandages. 

Giulia Sirigu of Manchester’s Partito Democratico.

Attendees also heard expressions of anti-fascist solidarity from a representative of Partido Comunista de Espana, together with Giulia Sirigu of Manchester’s Partito Democratico and members of the Italian Partizan group. A rousing rendition of Bandiera Rossa by the Bolton Socialist Choir further emphasised the mood of international solidarity.

The Bolton Socialist Choir performing at the event.

Preceding a minute’s silence, Paul Ward and Stephanie Turner read out the names of 14 greater Manchester men killed at Jarama, and wreaths were laid at the memorial situated in the library. 

As always the occasion was graced by the Manchester Group’s eye-catching illustrated panels on the walls of the library’s performance space, with this year’s display being enhanced by items of British Battalion memorabilia – some genuine, some replica – such as blankets, uniforms, belts, flags and identification cards, even genuine Spanish Republic banknotes, brought along by The Lost Sons of Albion. The unit, by the way, takes its name from the opening lines in The Young’uns version of ¡Ay Carmela!

‘We are the lost sons of Albion,
The men of the British Battalion,
There is no golden path to glory,
Ay Carmela, Ay Carmela!’ 

Like the song itself, the infusion of enthusiasm from these young’uns is a very welcome sign for the Trust. If you would like them to put on a show at your upcoming event they can be contacted at Thelostsons1937@gmail.com.

Pauline Fraser reports from the unveiling in Beeston, Nottinghamshire…

A good fifty people braved the cold to gather outside Nan Green’s birthplace, on Sunday 9 February, for the dedication of a plaque to this former Secretary of the International Brigade Association, volunteer in the Spanish Civil War and peace activist.

Flowers in the colours of the Spanish Republic underneath the new plaque. Photo: Pauline Fraser.

Marlene Sidaway, IBMT President, laid flowers by the plaque, which is attached to the fence in front of Surrey Cottage, 12 Glebe Street, Beeston, while Tamar Feast of Beeston & District Civic Society gave a warm tribute to the work Nan undertook in Spain and accompanying refugees to Mexico. Tamar has campaigned for more Lady Plaques and Nan Green’s is the second in the series. They have a biography of Nan on their website.

Pauline Fraser and Marlene Sidaway in Beeston.

Tamar introduced Sue Paterson, Labour Mayor of Broxtowe Borough Council, who welcomed the initiative to get more plaques to women. Sue was accompanied by Robert Bullock, Deputy Mayor.

Tamar Feast (left) of Beeston Civic Society and Beeston Mayor Sue Paterson. Photo: Pete Fraser.

Five of Nan Green’s grandchildren travelled to Beeston to honour their grandmother, joining members of Beeston Civic Society and Nottingham Local History Society, local Broxtowe councillors and IBMT members and supporters.

Grandchildren of Nan Green: (from left) Crispin Green, Barnaby Green, Katie Green, Polly Green, Emma Brouard. Photo: Pauline Fraser.

Notts TV reporter Kateryna Sabadash covered the event. Her report was broadcast on Monday 10 February. Watch from 37:17.

The full address for those wishing to visit the plaque is Surrey Cottage, 12 Glebe Street/Elm Avenue corner, Beeston, Notts, NG9 1BZ. The plaque has been added to the Trust's directory and map of memorials.

The crowd gathers for the unveiling.