18by Vote Receives ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism

May 24, 2024
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18by Vote Receives ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism

In a stirring ceremony on May 4th, the youth organization 18by Vote, represented by its President, Ava Mateo, received the 2024 ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism. The gathering, which took place in the historic building of the Spanish Benevolent Society on New York’s West 14th St that houses the ALBA office, also featured...
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ALBA’s Busy Spring: Triangle Fire, Theater Preview, Immigrant Workshop, and George & Ruth Watt

May 24, 2024
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ALBA’s Busy Spring: Triangle Fire, Theater Preview, Immigrant Workshop, and George & Ruth Watt

“At the Barricades” Previewed at NYU On April 5, the theater company What Will the Neighbors Say? presented a selection of scenes from their current project, At the Barricades, as part of the Fridays on the Patio series at NYU’s King Juan Carlos Center. The preview...
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Posted in News, Events

Upcoming Events: Communists in Closets and a New Series of Online Film Workshops

May 24, 2024
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Upcoming Events: Communists in Closets and a New Series of Online Film Workshops

ALBA Celebrates Pride Month On Tuesday, June 25 at 3 pm ET/12 noon PT, ALBA will once again commemorate LGBTQ Pride month with an online event entitled “Telling Our Stories,” featuring Shannon O’Neill and Bettina Aptheker. O’Neill, Curator for the Tamiment-Wagner Collections at NYU Special...
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Posted in News, Events

ALBA Board Elects New Officers and Welcomes New Board Member

May 24, 2024
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ALBA Board Elects New Officers and Welcomes New Board Member

At its annual meeting in New York City, the ALBA Board of Governors elected longtime board member Aaron Retish as its new Chair. The author of several books on...
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Posted in News

Fundraiser in Berkeley for Robert Merriman Monument on Campus

May 24, 2024
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Fundraiser in Berkeley for Robert Merriman Monument on Campus

On April 29, members of the San Francisco Bay Area ALBA community joined staff, faculty, and students at UC Berkeley to celebrate Robert Hale Merriman, first commander of the...
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Posted in Uncategorized

Letter from ALBA: Forging a Community of Human Rights Activists

May 24, 2024
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<em>Letter from ALBA:</em> Forging a Community of Human Rights Activists

Dear Friends, As human rights and academic freedom are under threat throughout the world, it was gratifying to hear former winners of the ALBA/Puffin Award speak to each other...
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Posted in Letters

“Recovering the Black Antifascist Tradition Means Recovering the Best Features of the Left in US History.” —Jeanelle Hope and Bill Mullen

May 24, 2024
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“Recovering the Black Antifascist Tradition Means Recovering the Best Features of the Left in US History.” <em>—Jeanelle Hope and Bill Mullen</em>

The roots of fascism lay right here in the United States. In fact, anti-Blackness is a persistent feature of fascism in all its forms. But there is a long lineage of Black antifascists that still have things to teach us. When the House Un-American Activities Committee was first created, in May 1938, its chair,...
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Posted in Features, Interviews

“And the Oscar goes to…” Documenting War in Ukraine (2022) and Spain (1937)

May 24, 2024
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<em>“And the Oscar goes to…”</em> Documenting War in Ukraine (2022) and Spain (1937)

Why we should read the Oscar-winning documentary about Mariupol as a tribute to The Spanish Earth, Joris Ivens’s Civil War classic. Watching Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol, which shows the Russian bombing of the Ukrainian city at the beginning of the ongoing war,...
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Posted in Essays

In Africa, Thinking of Stalingrad: Lossowski Recalls the War Years

May 24, 2024
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<em>In Africa, Thinking of Stalingrad:</em> Lossowski Recalls the War Years

Vince Lossowski (1913-1984), who was born and raised in Rochester, New York, in a Polish working-class family, served with the International Brigades from August 1937 until September 1938. In 1942, he was recruited for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), along with half a...
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Posted in Features

France Pays Tribute to Foreigners in the Resistance

May 24, 2024
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France Pays Tribute to Foreigners in the Resistance

This year marks the 80th anniversary of many World War II milestones in France, from the D-Day landings in June, 1944, and those of Province in August to the...
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Posted in News

Staging Death in Southern Spain: The 1936 Córdoba Miner Strike

May 24, 2024
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Staging Death in Southern Spain: The 1936 Córdoba Miner Strike

As Patricia Schechter dug into her family’s history, she uncovered one of the untold stories of the Spanish labor movement: an Andalusian strike in early 1936 grounded in a...
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Posted in Features

From Puerto Rico to Spain: The Search for Carmelo Delgado

From Puerto Rico to Spain: The Search for Carmelo Delgado

Carmelo Delgado, a Puerto Rican law student in Madrid, fought as a militiaman on the Republican side until he was taken prisoner by the rebel forces and shot. Can...
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Posted in Features

Courier for the Republic: The Short, Adventurous Life of Charles Jacobs

May 24, 2024
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Courier for the Republic: The Short, Adventurous Life of Charles Jacobs

What Was a Young Dutch Pilot Doing in Civil-War Spain? Saturday, March 20, 1937. Farmers at work in a vineyard near Narbonne, in southern France, see a Dutch plane...
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Posted in Features

In Memoriam: Naomi Rucker (1954-2024)

May 24, 2024
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<em>In Memoriam:</em> Naomi Rucker (1954-2024)

Dr. Naomi Gabrella Rucker, a loving and devoted mother and grandmother who was an accomplished psychologist and psychoanalyst, died from cancer on April 4, 2024, in Savannah, Georgia. She...
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Posted in Memory's Roster

In Memoriam: Helene Susman (1920-2024)

April 25, 2024
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<em>In Memoriam:</em> Helene Susman (1920-2024)

With deep sadness, I write of the passing of Helene Susman, widow of Bill, at the age 103. She did not go to Spain with the Lincolns nor held...
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Posted in Memory's Roster

Book Review: Ten Biographies by Richard Baxell

May 24, 2024
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<em>Book Review:</em> Ten Biographies by Richard Baxell

Forged in Spain, by Richard Baxell. London: The Clapton Press, 2023. 412pp.
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Posted in Reviews

Letters to the Editors: On Jewish Palestine

May 24, 2024
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Letters to the Editors: On Jewish Palestine

I found the article by Raanan Rein in the March, 2024 issue of The Volunteer to be interesting and insightful. But there was just this one phrase that raised...
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Posted in Letters

FFALB Book Club Tackles Picasso: You Are Invited!

May 24, 2024
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FFALB Book Club Tackles Picasso: You Are Invited!

The Spanish Civil War has inspired a rich trove of novels, memoirs, histories, and poetry, with new books coming out all the time. Each month, the FFALB book club...
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Posted in News, Events

Virtual Spanish Civil War Museum Expands

May 24, 2024
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Virtual Spanish Civil War Museum Expands

The Virtual Museum of the Spanish Civil War—www.vscw.ca—has opened new galleries that more than double the number of objects on display. It has also added a French version to...
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Posted in News

Visits to Veteran’s Graves in Virginia

May 19, 2024
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Visits to Veteran’s Graves in Virginia

Only five veterans of the Spanish Civil War are known to be buried in Virginia outside of Arlington National Cemetery: two in Richmond, two in Norfolk, and one in...
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A Search for Answers: Where Lies Farris and Does He Deserve a Flag?

April 29, 2024
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A Search for Answers: Where Lies Farris and Does He Deserve a Flag?

On Friday April 26, 2024, as part of my work with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Tribute Project I set out to visit the grave of Harry Farris in North...
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“The Interrogation of the Passengers of the Sans-Pareil”

May 20, 2024
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“The Interrogation of the Passengers of the Sans-Pareil”

Peter Verbergh translated this article from CeSoir describing the arrest of the Dallet-Nelson Group. “The Interrogation of the Passengers of the Sans-Pareil”, CeSoir, March 29, 1937 (From our Special...
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Update on the Passport Project

March 9, 2024
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Update on the Passport Project

ALBA’s passport project is currently in the third of four planned phases.  The first two phases concentrated on volunteers whose name appears on the “Scope of Soviet Activity” list...
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HARD DAYS ON THE EBRO by Marko Peric

April 6, 2024
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HARD DAYS ON THE EBRO by Marko Peric

The “Spanija” series translates selected autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google translate from Croatian to...
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