Gelhorn and Hemmingway were there...

Below is part of John Pilgar's report from Truthout.org :

I first understood the importance of the struggle in Spain from Martha Gellhorn. Martha was one of my oldest friends. She was one of the greatest war correspondents and is remembered for her dispatches from Spain during the Civil War. In November 1938, she wrote this:

"In Barcelona, it was perfect bombing weather. The cafes along the Ramblas were crowded. There was nothing much to drink: a sweet fizzy poison called orangeade and a horrible liquid supposed to be sherry. There was, of course, nothing to eat. Everyone was out, enjoying the cold afternoon sunlight. No bombers had come for at least two hours. The flower stalls look bright and pretty along the promenade. 'The flowers are all sold, Senores. For the funerals of those killed in the eleven o'clock bombing, poor souls'. It had been a clear and cold day all yesterday …'What beautiful weather', a woman said, and she stood, holding her shawl around her, staring at the sky. 'And the nights are as fine as the days. A catastrophe,' she said … everyone listened for the sirens all the time, and when we saw the bombers, they were like tiny silver bullets, moving forever up, across the sky."

How familiar that sounds. Barcelona. Guernica. Hiroshima. Vietnam. Cambodia. Palestine. Afghanistan. Iraq.

Martha never tired of explaining why people fought for the Republic, "the Causa", and why going to Spain was so important. She wrote of the International Brigade: "Whatever their nationality, whether they were Communists, anarchists, socialists, poets, plumbers, middle-class professional men, or the one Abyssinian prince … they were fighting for us all in Spain."

The enemy then was fascism, out-and-out fascism. Armband wearing, strutting, ranting fascism.

The enemy then was a great world power, rapacious, with plans of domination, of capturing the world's natural resources: the oil fields of the Caspian and the Middle east, the mineral riches of Africa. They seemed invincible.
The enemy then was also lies. Deceit. News dressed up as propaganda. Appeasement. A large section of the British establishment saw fascism as its friend. Their voice was a section of the British press: The Times, the Daily Mail.

To them, the real threat was from ordinary people, who were dreamers, many of them, who imagined a new world in which the dignity of ordinary life was respected and celebrated. Some were wise dreamers and some were foolish dreamers, but they understood the nature of fascism, and they saw through the lies ands the deceit and the appeasement.

They also knew that the true enemy didn't always wear arm bands, and didn't always strut, or command great rallies, but were impeccable English gentlemen who supported ruthless power behind a smokescreen of propaganda that appropriated noble concepts like "democracy" and "freedom" and "our way of life" and "our values".

Does all this sound familiar?

I ask that question, because when I read the aims of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, I was struck by a reference to "the historical legacy of the men and women who fought with the International Brigades against fascism …"

The "historical legacy" of the International Brigade, as Martha Gellhorn wrote, is that they were fighting for us all. For me, that means a legacy of truth - a way of seeing through the smokescreen of propaganda, including and especially the propaganda of our own governments: a legacy of confronting great and rapacious power in whatever form it appears.

That legacy is needed today more than ever. Impeccable gentlemen now invade defenceless countries in our name. They speak of freedom and democracy, and our way of life and our values. They don't wear armbands and they don't strut. They are different from fascists. But their goals are not different. Conquest, domination, the control of vital resources.

When the judges at Nuremberg laid down the ground rules of international law following the Second World War, they described an unprovoked, violent invasion of a defenceless country as "a crime against humanity, the paramount war crime."

The world is a very different place from Barcelona in 1938, and from the Sierra del Pandols, and the Valley of Jarama, and all the battlefields of Spain, but the legacy of those who confronted fascism then endures as a warning to us all today.

It is a warning about sinister power behind democratic facades that uses the battle cries of democracy. It is a warning about messianic politicians, apparently touched by God, and about appeasement and truth. And it is about moral courage: about speaking out, breaking a silence. I salute those of you International Brigaders who are here today, who did more than speak out. I thank you and your fallen comrades for what you did for us all, and for your legacy of truth and your moral courage. La Lucha continua!
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