Mass demonstrations were held in Spain and other parts of Europe this week to protest against the austerity measures being imposed throughout the European Union. Depending on who you believe, the demonstration in Madrid on November 14 mobilized as many as one million people (according to its union organizers) or as few as 35,000 (according...
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The CBC program Living Out Loud celebrates Remembrance Day with a four-part documentary The Spanish Crucible. The first two parts were broadcast on November 9 and 11; the third and fourth will be aired on November 16 and 18. More details here; clips and an interactive timeline are here. Listen to the first...
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We just received the sad news that Harry Wayland Randall, one of the last surviving veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, passed away last night at a care facility in Snowflake, Arizona. Harry was a Sergeant in Mac-Paps battalion and Chief Photographer of the Photographic Unit of the 15th International Brigade. His unit’s work is...
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Severiano Montero of the Association of Friends of the International Brigades reports:
Dear friends:
We inform you that the week dedicated to the Defense of Madrid and the participation in it of the IB was successful.
On Tuesday 6th, at the...
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NPR's Karen Michel visited Pete Seeger, who has cut two new albums:
Tall and lean, in faded Levi's and corduroy shirt, Pete Seeger still pretty much looks like he did when the young Harvard dropout met the man who helped him find his life's work: Woody Guthrie. ... In a spoken-word track on...
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"Every Thursday evening, in the middle of the Puerta del Sol, a small crowd gathers around an equestrian statue of King Carlos III to stage a modest protest. There are rarely more than 25 people, most of them in their 70s. The first thing several of them do is unfurl a banner that reads:...
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A mural to Irish International Brigade veteran Bob Doyle was dedicated last weekend in northern Dublin.
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Severiano Montero from the Association of Friends of the International Brigades writes: This year’s homage to the International Brigades will be part of the commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the defense of Madrid. This is the program: November 7th. Meeting at the Ateneo de Madrid, at 19:30, to commemorate the De fence of...
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The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court in Chile approved an extradition request on Wednesday against a former American Navy officer indicted in the killings of two United States citizens in the aftermath of the 1973 coup. Retired Capt. Ray E. Davis was commander of the United States Military Group at the embassy...
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Len Tsou writes from Spain: Tens of thousands of Spaniards poured into the streets of Madrid to join the Global Noise Against Debt on October 13. Men, women and children banged pots, pans and instruments marching from the EU headquarters, en route congress, to Puerta del Sol. They are furious about bailing out banks...
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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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