A recent article by Canada's Time Colonist journalist Cory Ruf explores the history of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, its survivors, and how it has (not) been remembered.
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Founded by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade
A recent article by Canada's Time Colonist journalist Cory Ruf explores the history of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, its survivors, and how it has (not) been remembered.
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Suzanne Daley, writing for the New York Times, profiles José A. Lorente, a Spanish expert in forensic genetics whose work has helped families worldwide find their missing children:
He has made headlines around the world helping to identify the remains of Christopher Columbus and Simón Bolívar, and bodies found in mass graves...
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Norman Markowitz, writing for People's World, mourns the death of his long-time friend Mike Nash, the director of the Tamiment Library who passed away unexpectedly late last month:
The son of New York City school teachers - his father a victim of the post World War II firings and blacklisting, his mother a trade...
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Today from 3:00-4:00 p.m. WNYC AM 820 aired an interview with Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran James Benet. The interview was aired as a segment of PRI's "The World". Read and listen to the program here.
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In an op-ed for The Guardian, Michael Ratner wrote yesterday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom he represents, is right to fear prosecution in the United States once he has been indicted from the United Kingdom to Sweden in relation to a case of alleged sexual misconduct. "There are several unambiguous signs that...
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For the past three years, the Colombian insurgency has been taking an increasing amount of control of the country's civil war. Despite the implementation of the 7 billion dollar Colombia Plan (a plan designed to bolster the state and resist the insurgency) by the United States in 2000, the North American Congress on Latin...
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The current issue of The Nation, guest-edited by Peter Kornbluh of the National Security Archive, investigates the impact in Latin America of Cablegate, the biggest leak of documents in US history. With contributions by Kornbluh (Latin America After Cablegate: What Changed?), Blanche Petrich Moreno (WikiLeaks and the War...
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According to upsidedownworld.org, last week a Mexican official told the news site Al Jazeera that the United States' Central Intelligence Agency does not do their job in assisting Mexico in their Drug War. The spokesman, who works for the Chihuahua state government argued that instead, the CIA actually manages the war. While many...
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Mining is one of the most pressing political issues in many Latin American countries, from Guatemala, to El Salvador, to Peru. In each country, mining can almost always be traced to governmental corruption. Peru is no exception. BBC News reports that, whereas President Ollanta Humala campaigned on the promise the elimination of poverty...
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On July 23rd, Cuba lost an important leader and advocate for human rights, democracy, and freedom of expression. As Global Voices reports, Oswaldo Payá was killed in a car crash in the city of Bayamo. Internationally recognized as a proponent of non-violent protest, some of Payá's major achievements include having founded Cuba's Christian...
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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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