Yesterday was the last of the three-day workshop. I look forward to participating in future ALBA events. I already started teaching the Spanish Civil War and used the ALBA website.
Read more »
Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War. By Ronald Liversedge. Edited by David Yorke. (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2013).
Read more »
In June 1935, nearly 2,000 young, unemployed, and angry men living in western Canada and intent on demonstrating their discontent hitched a ride on a train of boxcars to Ottawa. The men who participated in the “On-to-Ottawa Trek” were fed up with the abhorrent conditions in Prime Minister Richard Bennett’s ‘relief camps’ and...
Read more »
On November 6, the Spanish delegation to the United Nations said that it would not review the 1977 law which gave amnesty for political crimes committed during the civil war and General Francisco Franco's dictatorship. According to Baltasar Garzon, at least 152,000 civilians living in territory controlled by Franco's Nationalist forces disappeared between...
Read more »
Earlier this month, Pope Francis 'beatified' over 500 Spanish Clerics 'martyred' in the Spanish Civil War, despite opposition asserting that the Catholic Church has not yet apologized for its role in the war and Francisco Franco's dictatorship. In spite of the UN's recent efforts to open a full public investigation of Franco's crimes,...
Read more »
Today, October 22, marks 100 years since Robert Capa's birth in Budapest, Hungary. One of the most famed photojournalists of the 20th century, Capa's reputation has been challenged in recent years by claims that the "Falling Soldier," arguably his most famous photo, was staged. Earlier today, the International Center of Photography released one...
Read more »
Last month, an Argentinian judge named María Romilda Servini de Cubría, called for Antonio González Pacheco's extradition. One of the Franco's most notorious torturers, Antonio González Pacheco, was reportedly spotted running in a Madrid half-marathon.
On Sunday, El Mundo newspaper published a photograph of González Pacheco that shocked many of his alleged...
Read more »
In 2011, a Chilean judge requested the extradition of Former American Navy Captain Ray E. Davis in connection with the murders of Americans Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi after Pinochet's 1973 coup. However, it appears that Davis had been living in a Santiago nursing home for the last year, before dying of a "multisystemic...
Read more »
Jules Paivio, the last Canadian veteran of the Spanish Civil War, died last week at the age of 97. He volunteered to fight for the Spanish Republic at the age of 17. His family had taught him to "believe in justice, liberty and fair play for all." Yet, when asked why he volunteered...
Read more »
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Augusto Pinochet's CIA-backed coup, overthrowing the democratically elected presidency of Salvador Allende. In the weeks that followed, thousands of leftists were arrested, beaten, and murdered, including the famous folk singer Víctor Jara. After tracking down Jara's murderer to the United States, Jara's widow Joan filed a lawsuit against...
Read more »
The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) is an educational non-profit dedicated to promoting social activism and the defense of human rights. ALBA’s work is inspired by the American volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who fought fascism in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Learn more at our website or
sign up to receive email updates from ALBA. Support ALBA through a tax-deductible gift! To inquire about a donation, please contact the ALBA office at info@alba-valb.org or 212-674-5398.
I am searching for information about Morton ‘Vic’ Vicker. I have reason to believe he was in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. I did not meet Vic until November of 1969 in Aguacate, Cuba, on the first Venceremos Brigade.* We bunked together, cut cane together, and spent a lot of time talking. I was...
Read more »
A preview of a Q&A with Robin D.G. Kelley that will appear in the December issue of The Volunteer.
Read more »
Guardian Newspapers has published two reviews of the new book by Giles Tremlett, ‘The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War’. On Saturday 3 October, The Guardian’s review by Dan Hancox gave the following misleading impression: ‘The brigades drew an astonishing array of international literary figures – Orwell, Hemingway, Spender, Auden’. None of...
Read more »
The University of Washington’s Stroum Center for Jewish Studies added part of Dr. Joseph Butwin’s oral history project to its Digital Jewish Studies online collection in 2018. Butwin noted that “initiative” for the project came the “Vets themselves.” The web pages discuss the project’s history and offers individual pages on five veterans: George Watt,...
Read more »
Originally published in The Volunteer, V. 1, No. 1 1978. September 21, 1938, Hill 281, Sierra de Caballs. “The men of the Botwin and Shevchenko companies distinguished themselves in particular by their heroic defense of every inch of ground. They resisted to the last grenade when the enemy broke into their trenches. Nearly all...
Read more »
Edward Muscala’s hastily scrawled graffiti on the wall of the Hermitage of San Gregoria de Aguaviva during the battle of Teruel was preserved by the town. Ann Marti first reported on the inscription in her article In the Footsteps of the Lincoln-Battalion. This relic of the war was recently spray painted by vandals. Town...
Read more »
The Volunteer, Volume 1, No. 1, 1978. I cried when I heard you died, Larry. The tears flowed while rage racked my insides How could you die Larry not you not yet we are almost there! ...
Read more »
Originally published in The Volunteer, Volume1, No. 1, 1978. In view of the importance of the ‘Yates Project’ – refer to letter, national mailing of March ’78 – we called James Yates with some last minute questions. He very kindly sent us some last minute answers. Without a doubt his is a ‘work’ that...
Read more »
A long-time ALBA supporter contacted the office to inquire about a possible volunteer Herbert Rathman. In the mid-1960s, Rathman was the Science Chairman at Rhodes Preparatory School, a private school located at 11 West 54th Street in Manhattan. Rathman had told his students that he was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and served...
Read more »
ALBA wholeheartedly rejects white supremacy and racial inequality. We condemn the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the systemic police brutality in black communities throughout the United States.
Read more »
ALBA's project to provide a complete list of the more than 2,800 individuals who left from U.S. territory to fight with the Spanish Republic
Search the Database