Words spoken by RMT General Secretary EDDIE DEMPSEY at the IBMT’s annual commemoration on 4 July 2026 at the International Brigade memorial on London’s Southbank.

The history of the International Brigades is not just any history, it's our history too in the RMT. Visitors to our head office in Unity House will see a memorial, which lists well over 120 names of railway workers and seafarers, members of the NUR and NUS, who offered their lives in defence of democracy and in the fight against fascism in Spain. 

These were ordinary workers. They were dockers, they were guards, they were signalmen, they were seafarers, and they made an extraordinary decision to go and defend democracy in Spain. They saw first what our establishment didn't: the threat that fascism posed at a time when the politicians were more interested in appeasement and tacit support for Franco.

Our forebears understood the threat, not just to democracy, but to our labour movement. One of the figures in our history to sound the early warning was NUR President William Dobbie, who warned workers about what he had seen in Germany – the crushing of the trade union movement and the throwing in prison of trade unionists. He raised the alarm by saying that fascists recognised their enemies in our movement. This is why trade unionists were often first to face persecution. 

Our General Secretary at the time, John Marchbank, attacked Sir Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, accusing him of being a violent racist. He was sued by Mosley. Although Mosley won the case, the court’s award was one farthing, a quarter of a penny. It was a humiliation, showing that, although the BUF leader technically won his case, it was John Marchbank and his defence of our movement and his exposure of the true nature of fascism that had really won the day. 

That spirit was shown again later that year at Cable Street in October 1936. Many leading figures in our movement, including Jim Prendergast, who later served on the NUR executive committee, who had fought the Blueshirts in Dublin and who organised the King's Cross rail workers’ anti-fascist group, marched our members to join the Jewish, the Irish and the East End community, along with the communists, to defeat the fascists at Cable Street. 

They recognised this wasn't enough, which is why, under the motto ‘They Shall Not Pass’, they went to Spain as part of 2,500 from Britain and Ireland and the many tens of thousands from around the world. 

I want to name some of them. There was Ginger McElroy, who was a railway worker from Wishaw. He was killed at Jarama in 1937. There was Alwyn Skinner, who was a railway worker from Neath in South Wales. He was killed at the Ebro. There was John Alexander, a railway worker from our Dundee branch. He was killed at Brunete. 

They weren’t professional soldiers. Indeed, Jim Prendergast was wounded very badly at Jarama after running out of bullets in that battle. They were ordinary working people who understood the threat of fascism and understood the importance of defending democracy. 

I also want to remember members in our seafaring section, the blockade runners who broke the fascist blockade. One of these ships, the Seven Seas Spray, sailed into Bilbao under complete darkness with every light on the ship turned out in the middle of the night. And the docks were lined with the people of Bilbao who were cheering: ‘Long live the British sailors! Long live freedom!.’ After Bilbao fell, British crews helped to get around 10,000 refugees out of northern Spain and delivered them to safety in France. 

The lessons they learned and the lessons they teach us is that, when governments and our establishment can't see the way, it's our class and our own people we have to rely upon. Although threats change and it's a different picture today, our principles have to remain the same. 

We remember the International Brigades as an inspiration to our generation, but, more than that, they place on us a historic duty to carry on that fight. Their inspiration to us is their stand against fascism, against racism and against hatred and in favour of peace, socialism and solidarity. This is what inspires all of us today. 

But the responsibility that they have placed on us is even more powerful because we see again in the world genocide. We see war, imperialist war. It's worth remembering who Franco was. His was the Army of Africa, returning home to Spain. What is fascism if it's not colonialism brought home? 

So, when we see in the world around us the wars that are going on, we have a duty to oppose them because they will come home. We see our civil liberties being trampled on here in this country. When we see our young people being given lengthy custodial sentences under terrorism legislation for standing against genocide and when we see our retired people being thrown in police vans for holding signs saying they oppose genocide, we have to recognise that our rights and our freedoms, indeed our trade union freedoms, are not given to us, but they're won through bitter fights. We only keep them as long as we stand together and fight for them. 

So we remember Ginger McElroy and Alwyn Skinner and John Alexander and our seafarers. We remember Jim Prendergast and all of the volunteers. That generation showed us that solidarity is stronger than division, that hope is stronger than fear, that courage is something that can unite us. 

But their inspiration is only one thing. They have also placed a duty upon us. They carried the banner so we could pick it up and carry it on to the next generation. We remember the International Brigades, but we also redouble our commitment to the fight before us today against fascism, against division, for peace, for solidarity and for socialism. No pasarán! 

Eddie Dempsey photos are © of Andrew Wiard. More of his photos can be viewed here.

Music was provided by Maddy Carty, who sang two of her songs as well as 'Valley of Jarama' and 'The Internationale'.

More than 200 people attended the commemoration.

Flowers were laid by several organisations, including the Spanish embassy, Basque Children of '37 Association, Marx Memorial Library, Communist Party of Britain, PCE-GB Spanish Communist Party, Doncaster Trades Council, International Brigade memorial groups from Oxford, the North-West, Scotland and Wales, plus many family members.