Hundreds gathered at the International Brigade memorial on London’s Southbank on 5 July for the annual commemoration of the 2,500 volunteers from Britain and Ireland who took part in the fight in Spain against fascism from 1936-39.

Speakers included Gawain Little, General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, and Meirian Jump, Director of the Marx Memorial Library in London – and a granddaughter of one the British volunteers.

IBMT Executive Officer Helen Oclee-Brown opens proceedings next to the International Brigade memorial in Jubilee Gardens, London Southbank.

There was music from Maddy Carty, and wreaths were laid from various organisations and individuals, including the Spanish embassy in London, the Basque Children’s Association UK, IB Cymru, Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee, train drivers’ union Aslef, Marx Memorial Library, Communist Party of Britain and the London branch of the PCE Spanish Communist Party.

Gawain Little praised the heroism and sacrifice of the volunteers, along with the ambitions of that generation of activists to create a world without exploitation and class divisions.

Those who went to Spain were there to push back the tide of fascism that would soon engulf much of Europe, he said. 'They were there to defend Spanish democracy and the young Republic. But most of all they were there because of an ideal, a grand vision, a belief that the working class, united across borders, could together build something incredible – a society fit for our children and grandchildren.'

Maddy Carty.

Meirian Jump described the Marx Memorial Library’s current project to digitise its Spanish Civil War archive – the largest in the country – and eventually make the collection freely available online. There were also plans to redevelop the library itself to create space for, among other things, exhibits about the volunteers who went to Spain.

On a personal note, she told the gathering that, aged just six months, she had been present at the unveiling of the Southbank memorial along with her twin sister Clara.

Gawain Little.

Her grandfather, Brigader Jimmy Jump, had been the secretary of the appeal committee that raised the memorial and wrote a poem about the occasion.

Part of the poem said: ’When I am gone / and you are grown / here is something to boast about / to make you feel proud / something to shout out loud. / You will not recall this day / you do not remember it now / but when you are grown / when you have children of your own / you may bring them here to play and / pointing to the date carved in stone / will say / ‘My sister and I were here that day.’

Meirian Jump.

She went on: 'And so here I am—almost 40 years later—with my own child, my wonderful four-year-old son, Victor Alan Jump.’

Jump praised the vital role played by the IBMT in ensuring we continue to speak to our children—through educational resources, memorial events, conferences, and publications.
She added: ’We know history is not neutral. It is a battleground—a contested space. The terms "fascism" and “appeasement” are often cynically deployed today to justify foreign wars, and the legacy of the Brigaders is distorted by Cold War and anti-communist narratives.

Antonio Casado Rigalt lays a wreath for the Spanish embassy.

Mick Whelan, General Secretary of the train drivers' union Aslef after laying a wreath. IBMT Secretary Megan Dobney and President Marlene Sidaway (partly hidden by memorial) clap and look on.

‘But this is our history. And we must hold onto it. Understanding the past is essential if we are to change the future. History is a weapon in our hands.’

In his address, IBMT Chair Jim Jump welcomed Antonio Casado Rigalt, Political Counsellor at the Spanish embassy. He said the Trust applauded what the Spanish government was doing to help the cause of historical memory in order to heal the wounds of repression and restore posthumous justice to those whose only crime had been to support democracy.

‘There is, however, unfinished business for us in Spain,’ he added, in the form of up to 500 bodies of British and Irish International Brigaders in unknown and unmarked graves across the country.

He went on: ‘I’m happy to say we’re working well with the Catalan government in their efforts to locate and identify – with the help of family DNA – all those International Brigaders who fell in the Battle of the Ebro – more than 90 of them from the British Battalion.’

Jim Jump.

That should be a model for the rest of Spain, Jump added. Sadly it wasn’t. ‘We have a continuing stand-off with Madrid City Council over plans to build a waste facility on or near a mass grave of 450 International Brigaders, several of them British, at Fuencarral cemetery.

‘In other regions of Spain, under the influence of the ultra rightwing Vox party, Francoism is being excused and rehabilitated, and memory laws are being torn up.’

Thelma Ruby, aged 100, widow of Canadian volunteer Peter Frye, acknowledges the applause for her.

The IBMT would counter these challenges – along with rising ‘sinister trappings’ of fascism across the world, such as racism, ethno-nationalism, bans and censorship, militarism, the slaughter of civilians and genocide, by keeping alive the inspirational story of the International Brigades.

‘Their story, ‘ he declared, ‘is one of anti-fascism, of international solidarity and of men and women whose blood, in the words of Spanish poet Rafael Alberti, could sing across frontiers.

Singing 'The Internationale', from left: Stuart Walsh, Manuel Moreno and Colin Carritt.

All photos: © Andrew Wiard. More photos viewable here.