The United States' federal judiciary is turning its back on constitutionality. With the emergence of several legal cases involving the complicity of the United States in tortures and disappearances that have occurred over the past decade, it is becoming increasingly evident that our justice system is corrupt. According to writer Scott Horton of...
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As the Canadian Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion slips from popular memory, one professor attempts to bring to light their tragic history in Spain.
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Like the Spanish Civil War, argues Pat Buchanan, the American governemnt should not send weapons or aide to Syria.
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An article in 'The National Interest' debates the merit of a new Lincoln Brigade for Syria.
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The Royal Spanish Academy of Language has announced it will revise the official definition of the word "marriage" in the DRAE (Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary). This change will mark the first time the DRAE recognizes marriage as more than the union of two opposite-sex partners, reports elpais.com. The new definition will include the...
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I had the pleasure of visiting the ALBA archives a couple of weeks ago with Alan Levine, a New York-based civil rights attorney with a longstanding interest in the Lincolns. In the early 1960s, fresh out of Yale Law School, Alan took a job on Wall Street, a decision which he soon regretted. In...
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Last Friday, June 15th, President Obama announced that his administration would stop deporting young undocumented immigrants who entered the United States as children, if they meet certain criteria. While the President acknowledged that this was not a "permanent fix" to the deportation issues that have only been exacerbated under his presidency, his action, "effective...
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The uruguayan government has announced its decision to control the means of production and distribution of marijuana, making it the first country in Latin America to do so. The goal of this measure is to combat drastic consumption and narcotrafficking in a drug war that, according to politician Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro, "has already been...
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Last week the 1929 Picasso painting, mujer en sofá rojo was vandalized at the Menil Collection of Houston, Texas. The vandal approached the painting unhindered and spray painted the figure of a bull with the word "conquered" below it, reported elpais.com. Fortunately, the museum houses a conservation laboratory and the painting was salvaged...
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The Vatican will consider taking punitive actions against bishop Fernando María Bargalló after videos and photographs showing him embracing a woman and displaying flirtatious behavior were distributed by various argentine media outlets. Despite the photographic content, Bargalló insisted that the woman he had been seen with was a childhood friend, reported elpais.com. In...
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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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