Letter from ALBA: Brigades Will Be Forming Again
Dear Friends,
“There will be Brigades forming again,” John Garfield’s character says at the end of The Fallen Sparrow, the 1943 spy thriller in which he plays Kit McKittrick, a traumatized Lincoln vet who singlehandedly foils a Nazi plot. Although the phrase is easy to miss, it is key to understanding the story’s political point—or, at least, that’s what we concluded when we discussed the film as part of ALBA’s online movie sessions, in July. When Kit left Spain, we learn as the story unfolds, he risked his life to secure his Brigade’s battle standard; the Nazis are after him because they are out to destroy it. Kit is determined to protect it with his life. Not because he’s bought into ideas of heraldic honor, but because, to him and his fellow volunteers in the International Brigades, it represents the spirit of the worldwide antifascist struggle. In the final scene of the movie, which is set in 1940, Kit takes off to recover the standard. The implication is clear: The war in Spain may be over, but the collective struggle goes on.
Brigades will be forming again. At ALBA we think of you—our supportive, combative community—in much the same way. As we discuss, teach, and honor history of antifascism together, we are securing its battle standard, keeping its spirit alive, because we understand that the fight has not stopped, to the contrary.
In fact, it was much the same idea that radicalized Black Lincoln vets like Bunny Rucker and Walter Garland who joined the US armed forces during World War II, as Anna Duensing shows in a compelling piece. Our other stories also connect fascism and antifascism across time. We cover two highly relevant exhibits on the Hollywood Blacklist and the antifascist painter Ben Shahn. We speak with one of Spain’s best-known graphic novelists. Cynthia Young shows how two of Robert Capa’s photographs inspired citizen activists in Germany and Spain. We feature a touching poem by Alan Entin about his uncle Bernie, who died at Brunete. We are also thrilled to report that the Lincoln volunteers from New Hampshire are finally honored with a plaque. And as two exclusive online features, we present new stories on Salaria Kea and the CPUSA.
This magazine and ALBA’s extensive programming would be impossible without all of you. It’s up to all of us to keep the antifascist spirit of the Lincolns alive. We are deeply grateful for your steady support.
¡Salud!
Sebastiaan Faber & James D. Fernández
Editors
