Category: Contributions

The Struggle for the Soul of Celtic

On a rather wet Glasgow afternoon, you’d be forgiven for thinking that any attendees of Celtic’s home match with Dundee would want to dart from the car and into the dry safety of the stadium, however for many this presented an opportunity to protest the regime at the club that allowed them to stagnate and fail so spectacularly last season. The Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou and his charges were met with rapturous cheers, and the full back catalogue of songs from a support who had been desperate to cheer on their men for the best part of 18 months.

Welsh Communists mark 85th anniversary of Spanish Civil War and legacy of International Brigaders

A range of speakers contributed to the event at at the Welsh International Brigades Memorial earlier this month (21 July 2021) in Cathays Park Cardiff including Will Barton, secretary of the Cardiff branch of the Communist Party (whose speech is published in full below), Robert Griffiths General Secretary of Communist Party and Marc Bilbao Asensio from the Communist Party of Spain. There were revolutionary songs from Cor Cochian Caerdydd and a poem and reading from International Brigades Cymru. Keeping alive the memory of the Welsh international brigaders: Yn cadw’r cof am y brigadwyr rhyngwladol o gymru yn fyw.

YCL100: ‘The Defence of Madrid’ by Phil Gillan (1937)

Phil Gillan, a Young Communist League member from Glasgow, was the first of 549 volunteers from Scotland to join the Spanish Civil War. Fresh from the battlefield, he writes about his time training in the Tom Mann Centuria before serving within the Thälmann Battalion, and the realities of war against the fascists. After miraculously surviving a serious injury inflicted by German Nazis, he returned home where he told his story, and helped to recruit many others to join in the united fight for freedom

YCL100: The Spanish Civil War and The International Brigades

The 17th July 2021 marks the 85th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Joe Weaver takes a look at what happened, and the contributions made by members of the Young Communist League & Communist Party of Great Britain.

Remembering Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo (1907 – 1954) was born in the early 20th century in an era of global political upheaval, revolutionary uprisings and world war. In turn, the artist´s native country was not immune to such instability and in 1910 Mexico was plunged into revolution. Kahlo´s childhood was set against a backdrop of armed rebellion against the suppression of the peasant classes, calls for land reforms and nationalisation of resources.