In an op-ed in yesterday's Monde Diplomatique, Robert Zaretsky adds to the ongoing discussion about the extent to which the lessons of the Spanish Civil War can be applied to the Libyan situation. Wondering "What would Orwell do?" he concludes that "Orwell would make the case for intervention":
The “sang-froid with...
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ALBA Board Member Soledad Fox recently sent me this lovely dispatch about an excursion she led of US college students to the town of Gernika in the Basque Country. A professor at Williams College, Fox is the author of the outstanding book about Constancia de la Mora, In War and Exile: International Voice for...
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Did you know ALBA is on Facebook? Join our groups: Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives; ALBA-Puffin Human Rights Activism Award.
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From El Universal, a 3-minute video clip of Garzón's book presentation three days ago:
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Tickets for ALBA's annual celebrations in New York and the Bay Area can now be purchased online. The New York program–on May 14th, at the Eisner/Lubin auditorium on Washington Square, New York City (tickets here)–will feature Judge Baltasar Garzón, who will receive the first ALBA-Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism, alongside Michael...
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The Independent sent a reporter on the annual Jarama walk, in which veterans, family members and sympathizers commemorate the first major battle action the International Brigades saw in Spain. (Meanwhile, efforts continue to locate the graves of the thousands of soldiers who died during the bloody battle.) Stephen Kelly's long piece appears...
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Yesterday's San José Mercury News features an obituary of Hank Rubin, the Lincoln vet and well-known Bay Area food critic who passed away in February:
Long before Chez Panisse was born, before Berkeley's Schoolyard Garden was sown, and healthy, wholesome, local food became such bywords, there was the Pot Luck, a small Berkeley...
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Manus O'Riordan, Ireland Secretary of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, writes to let us know that the Irish language TV channel TG4 has placed temporarily back online the song “Roll Away the Stone” which he sang on May Day 2009 at the funeral of Jack James Larkin Jones, President of the...
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The conflict in Libya has stirred up memories of, and analogies with, the Spanish Civil War. Earlier this month, Australian foreign minister Kevin Rudd warned of aerial bombing campaigns, stating that "we should never forget Guernica." Later, Tony Karon in Time magazine considered to what extent 2011 Libya is comparable to 1936 Spain:
The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has just uploaded a 105-minute video recording of a visit by Lincoln vet Lou Gordon to the Spanish class of Professor Noël Valis (now at Yale). Watch the video here.
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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
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New information about the New Zealand-born Spanish Civil War surgeon Doug Jolly (1904-1983) has emerged following the recent publication of his biography, Frontline Surgeon.
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On September 24, 1945, Dr. Barsky delivered this speech during the Spanish Refugee Appeal rally at Madison Square Garden.
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In 1944, Barsky wrote A Surgeon Goes to War, an 18-chapter memoir of his time in Spain, which was never published but can be consulted at NYU’s Tamiment Library. This is the first chapter.
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Self-effacing and shy though he was, Dr. Edward Barsky’s experience in Spain made him an outspoken activist, tireless organizer, innovative frontline surgeon, and political prisoner. “Eddie is a saint,” Hemingway wrote. “That’s where we put our saints in this country—in jail.”
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The Volunteer is thrilled to honor Dr. Barsky on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.
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For Edward Barsky, political and humanitarian activism were two sides of the same coin. Those who persecuted him begged to differ.
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The time she spent in civil-war Spain loomed large in the life of Martha Gellhorn, the St. Louis-born war journalist. “The truth is that Martha could not stop thinking, feeling, and writing about her Spanish experiences.” “Objectivity bullshit.” That’s what Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998) called the journalism of her day. Her letters to personalities like...
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Among the thousands of Jewish volunteers who joined the International Brigades were many descendants of the Sephardim. What was it like for them to “return” to Spain? Three case studies: Lini de Vries, César Covo, and Samuel Nahman, aka Manny Harriman.
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How the 22-year-old Jewish American dancer Janet Riesenfeld performed flamenco to help raise money for the Second Republic under fascist attack.
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Why did Jawaharlal Nehru, future prime minister of India, visit civil-war Spain in 1938? As it turned out, the triangular relationship between Britain, Spain, and India had deep cultural and geopolitical implications.
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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
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