Features

Human Rights Column: Do Refugees Have Rights?

August 23, 2018
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<i>Human Rights Column:</i> Do Refugees Have Rights?

The distinction between “illegitimate” migrants fleeing poverty and “legitimate” refugees escaping political persecution originated during the Cold War to bolster the anti-communist aggression of U.S. and Western governments. Today, it’s used to justify some of the greatest atrocities of our times.
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“I’m Not a Theorist. My Vocation Is Biography”—Checking in with Sir Paul Preston

August 23, 2018
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“I’m Not a Theorist. My Vocation Is Biography”—<em>Checking in with Sir Paul Preston</em>

The British historian Paul Preston, who just turned 72, has been knighted—a good moment to look back on his career and assess the latest developments in Spain, where one of his major research subjects, Franco, continues to stir up controversy. “In Spain, there’s a kind of historic notion that the British are polite, gentlemanly,...
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Del Berg vs. J. Edgar Hoover: What the Last Lincoln Vet’s FBI File Tells Us About Cold-War Surveillance

August 23, 2018
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Del Berg vs. J. Edgar Hoover: <em>What the Last Lincoln Vet’s FBI File Tells Us About Cold-War Surveillance</em>

Like many returning U.S. veterans of the Spanish Civil War, Delmer Berg was targeted for surveillance by the FBI. His file, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, tells us less about Berg than about Hoover’s agency.
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Will Franco Finally Be Exhumed? Anthropologist Francisco Ferrándiz: “This Is As Complex As Ground Zero or Srebrenica.”

August 23, 2018
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Will Franco Finally Be Exhumed? <em>Anthropologist Francisco Ferrándiz: “This Is As Complex As Ground Zero or Srebrenica.”</em>

Spain’s new Prime Minister, the Socialist Pedro Sánchez, has decided it’s time to remove Franco’s body and redefine his mausoleum, the Valley of the Fallen. Few people know more about the Valley and its possible future than the anthropologist Francisco Ferrándiz. An interview.
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FACES OF ALBA: Herman Schmidt

July 1, 2018
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FACES OF ALBA: Herman Schmidt

Herman Schmidt of Charlotte Court House, Virginia, talks about how he learned about ALBA and how the lessons of the Lincoln Brigade have informed his politics. He is pictured here with his Triumph motorcycle. Herman rides, camps and hikes across Virginia and as far away as Utah.
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Doug Jolly: New Zealand Surgeon in Spain

July 1, 2018
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Doug Jolly: New Zealand Surgeon in Spain

Doug Jolly, a New Zealand-born surgeon who served with the Spanish Republican Army’s medical services during the civil war has been posthumously honored in his home town.
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Human Rights Column: A Progressive Movement in the United States: Is it Possible?

July 1, 2018
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<i>Human Rights Column:</i> A Progressive Movement in the United States: Is it Possible?

Since the inauguration of Donald Trump as President, a number of action-based movements in the United States have emerged Can these largely single-issue movements coalesce into a more unified progressive and democratic movement? There are important lessons from the past that can help progressives today build a successful movement for social change.
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The Right to Bury One’s Mother: Filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar on Franco’s Victims’ Quest for Justice

May 29, 2018
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<em>The Right to Bury One’s Mother:</em> Filmmakers Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar on Franco’s Victims’ Quest for Justice

After seven years of work, a new PBS documentary on the international quest to bring Francoist officials to justice is making the festival rounds. An interview with the filmmakers. When I visited Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar in their Madrid apartment last November, they seemed prey to a peculiar mix of exhaustion, expectation, and...
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From the Face of My Memory: American Women Journalists in the Spanish Civil War

February 27, 2018
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<i>From the Face of My Memory</i>: American Women Journalists in the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War, sparked the imagination and allegiance of a small group of pro-Republic American women journalists: Martha Gellhorn, Josephine Herbst, and Frances Davis. These women, displaced in war, are representative of a much larger displacement.
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“Who the hell worked out a plan like that?” New Light on the 1935 Bremen Riot

February 27, 2018
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<i>“Who the hell worked out a plan like that?”</i> New Light on the 1935 <i> Bremen </i> Riot

When the Bremen, a German luxury ship proudly flying the Swastika, was ready to sail from its berth at Pier 46 in New York, two seamen who later volunteered to fight in Spain managed to fool the crew and rip down the Nazi flag. In the archives, Dan Czitrom came across a deserter’s testimony...
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