International Brigade Memorial Trust
The IBMT’s annual commemoration at the International Brigade Memorial on London’s South Bank takes place this year on Saturday 2 July from 1pm-2pm.
Among the performers and speakers will be actor Maxine Peake, historian Paul Preston and the cast of ‘Dare Devil Rides to Jarama’, the forthcoming new drama about the International Brigades.
There will be music from folk duo na-mara and Spanish rap artist Perro Lobo.
In addition, trade unionist Rodney Bickerstaffe and Almudena Cros, the President of the Madrid-based AABI International Brigade memorial association, will address the gathering.
Afterwards there will be an informal gathering from 2.30pm at the Camel & Artichoke (121 Lower Marsh Street, London SE1 7AE).
Wreath-layers are being asked to notify the IBMT of their intention to lay a wreath in Jubilee Gardens so that their names can be called out during the ceremony (email: secretary@international-brigades.org.uk).
Unions and their branches are also being urged to bring their banners.
The commemoration is held in front of the International Brigade Memorial in Jubilee Gardens (off Belvedere Road, London SE1).
The memorial is dedicated to the 2,500 volunteers from the British Isles who defended the elected government of the Spanish Republic against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. Of these, 526 gave their lives.
Only one British veteran survives: Stan Hilton, aged 98, a former merchant seaman from Newhaven, Sussex, who lives in a nursing home near Melbourne, Australia.
