The exhibit “Chile Vive” featuring historical posters from Salvador Allende’s Popular Unity Government in Chile (1970-73) is on show at El Taller Latino (2710 Broadway, NYC) until November 2. (See here for a review in the Indypendent.) Curators are Andrea Arroyo and Carol Smith, who sends along the following: I had the great privilege...
Read more »
Juan Arana writes (for a version in Spanish, see below): Today, September 29, 2013, a group of friends and sympathizers of the International Brigades, brought together by Luis Granell, a writer and journalist from Zaragoza, gathered in La Puebla de Híjar, Teruel (Spain) to pay tribute to Sam Levinger and all the other members...
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 »
The New Yorker's David Denby has followed up his negative review of Ben Urwand's new book, The Collaboration: Hollywood's Pact with Hitler--which claims that major Hollywood studies actively collaborated with Nazi Germany--with a detailed blog post pointing out additional errors and omissions:
Urwand leaves the impression, despite some perfunctory nods to the Hollywood Anti-Nazi...
Read more »
The Mexican Suitcase: The Rediscovered Spanish Civil War Negatives by Capa, Chim, and Taro, the exhibit curated by Cynthia Young of the International Center for Photography, has finally made it back to Mexico City, from where the negatives were recovered several years ago. The show will open at the Antiguo Colegio San Ildefonso on October...
Read more »
Situated next to the old church of Corbera d‘Ebre, a memorial plaque marking the last stand of the British Battalion in Spain in September 1938 was unveiled on 24 September 2013 by family members of those who took part in the Battle of the Ebro. The plaque has been sponsored by the International Brigade Memorial...
Read more »
“What we have before us, Mr. President, is a serious case of violation of human rights and civil liberties, a case of invasion and capture of confidential secret information pertaining to business activities, and above all, a case of disrespect to the national sovereignty of my country.” Dilma Rousseff did not hold back in...
Read more »
On September 18, the Argentine judge María Servini de Cubría requested the extradition of four Franco-era officials accused of torture. The order is the first arrest warrant issued for those suspected of committing crimes against humanity during Spain’s forty-year dictatorship since the country passed an amnesty law in 1977. The four accused are Jesús Muñecas...
Read more »
“The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will visit Spain from 23 to 30 September 2013,” according to a press release from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: During the official visit, the UN experts will examine the measures taken by Spain on issues related to the prevention and eradication...
Read more »
The Spanish Truth Commission Platform, a broad coalition of organizations that include the International Garzón Foundation and ALBA, has released a compelling new video to increase awareness about the lack of judicial support for the victims of Francoism.
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.
Although this text by Ivens is little known—and has never been translated before—it offers an eye-opening reflection on the power of his filmmaking.
Read more »
Antifascism has long been synonymous with American values. In 1934, student activists at New York’s City College arguably understood this better than many do today.
Read more »
After the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, the Seegers family did not hesitate to join the resistance. They had experience fighting fascism: their son Piet had fought for the Spanish Republic. When Tom King started digging into his family history seventy years later, he fell from one surprise into the other.
Read more »
Tina Modotti’s short life took her from Italy to North Beach and from there to Mexico, Berlin, Moscow, and civil-war Spain. Rightly known as a pathbreaking modernist photographer, she was also a radical activist. “Modotti spent the second part of her working life fighting for revolution.”
Read more »
Kirsten Weld has spent years studying Latin American dictatorships and the citizens who fight to hold them accountable. That experience has proven valuable in her current role as president of the AAUP chapter at Harvard, which, in March, sued the federal government for targeting students and faculty—and won.
Read more »
Targeted by the far right, Rutgers historian Mark Bray and his family went into exile in October. Speaking with The Volunteer from Madrid, he reflects on the current political situation. “Fascism shamelessly takes over institutions that, under liberal norms, are supposed to remain neutral.”
Read more »
I. In the Beginning Second child, Bernard, born March 1, 1915 Older brother, my father, Jacob (Jack), born June 3, 1912 Younger sister, Roslyn, born (June 1, 1922) disabled, hospitalized, died February 10, 1942 Their father, Abraham, died March 21,1930 Their mother, Nettie, died April 29, 1953 Bernie Brilliant student, graduated High...
Read more »
The title of this new occasional feature of The Volunteer is the Esperanto word for “archive.” In it, we will present, translate, and contextualize iconic non-English language documents related to the anti-fascist struggle in Spain.
Read more »
In recent years, citizen groups in Leipzig and Madrid have fought to preserve the buildings that were backdrops in two of Robert Capa’s best-known photographs. Their steadfast dedication has created two sites of historical memory whose significance extends far beyond Capa’s original images.
Read more »
On November 8, 1937, Salaria Kea, a 26-year-old African American nurse from Ohio, had been in Spain for seven months and one day. The country was in disarray. Half its territory was controlled by fascist rebels. Cities were being bombed, and civilians were killed by the thousands. Thousands more were forcibly displaced. But Kea...
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