Tag: Spanish Civil War

London gives remembrance to The British Battalion

On Saturday 10 December 2022, the London Branch of the Young Communist League of Britain gave remembrance to The British Battalion, who had returned to London via Victoria Station on 7 December 1938, after serving as volunteer fighters during the Spanish Civil War.

Challenge archive: Salute to the fallen

From 1936-1939 the Spanish Civil War waged between the people of Spain and the forces of General Franco. Over 35,000 men and women from over 50 countries left their homes in order to volunteer willingly to help the Spanish people, including 2,500 from Britain & Ireland.

Just under 200 of them were listed as members of the Young Communist League, and Challenge Magazine gave lots of coverage throughout. The following article from January 9th, 1937 is dedicated to three comrades who were killed on Christmas Day in 1936.

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.

Poetry Corner: December 1936, Spain by Clive Branson

December 1936, Spain by Clive Branson, 16 June 1939

Clive Branson was born in 1907. He became a skilled painter and studied at the Slade School of Art. At the age of 23 he exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy. He joined the ILP around 1927 but moved to the Communist Party in 1932.

Clive was active in the fight against the British Union of Fascists in London and played a leading role in the local Aid to Spain campaign, so naturally he enthusiastically volunteered for the International Brigades.

Here we feature his poem December 1936, Spain, an exhortation for aid and solidarity to Spain, highlighting the common cause of all people’s in the struggle against fascism.

Poetry Corner: Victory at Guernica by Paul Éluard

Victory at Guernica by Paul Éluard, 1937

Paul Éluard is well known as one of the founders of the Surrealist movement and he was also politically and artistically dedicated to the French Communist Party.

The poem  La Victoire de Guernica, was written in condemnation of the infamous fascist bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War, immortalised in the Picasso painting of the same name.

Poetry Corner: [To Margot Heinemann] by John Cornford

[To Margot Heinemann] by John Cornford

John Cornford from a relatively privileged families and attended Cambridge University. It was at Cambridge that he met and fell in love with Margot Heinemann and where they both joined the Communist Party. John’s mother, Frances Crofts Cornford, was a poet, and he himself was already writing poems at school.

After gaining a BA first-class honours in History, he became the first Englishman to enlist against Franco in the Spanish Civil War and was killed in battle on the Andujar and Cordoba Front on 27 or 28 December 1936.

Cornford wrote just a few poems in Spain, including A Letter from Aragon, Full Moon at Tierz: Before The Storming of Huesca and the poem featured here [To Margot Heinemann].

Remembering Dolores Ibárruri – la Pasionaria

Today marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Dolores Ibárruri – La Pasionaria – the Spanish Republican and communist politician of the Spanish Civil War, known for her now famous slogan ¡No Pasarán! (“They shall not pass”) during the Battle for Madrid in November 1936. Here we reproduce a short biography of her life and contribution to the struggle.