Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of three articles about the work of the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica (ARMH), a grassroots Spanish organization helping the victims of Francoism in their pursuit of truth, justice and reparations. Click here for the second and third. In early January, El...
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At a manifestation held today at the central Plaza del Sol in Madrid today, several thousand Spaniards--including lawyers, victims, family members, and public intellectuals--demanded the creation of a Truth Commission to properly deal with the unresolved judicial and human-rights legacy of the crimes against humanity committed during the Spanish Civil War and the Franco...
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ALBA is now accepting nominations for the 2013 ALBA/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism. About the Award The ALBA-Puffin International Award for Human Rights Activism is granted on an annual basis to individuals or organizations whose work has had an exceptionally positive impact on the advancement and/or defense of human rights. The Award was established in 2011 to...
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The civil war in Spain stands at a crossroads in Europe’s “dark twentieth century”: that is, in the story of how, not so long ago, the mass killing of civilians became the brutal medium through which European societies came to terms with structure-shattering forms of change. The Spanish conflict was all about this. But...
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Spain is among the countries hardest hit by the economic meltdown. But, much like in 1936, it is also Spain that is seeing some of the most inspiring reactions to the crisis. Amidst the ruins, revolutionary initiatives flourish: new and not-so-new forms of economic and political organization. Jorge Gaupp, who has been involved with...
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(English version.) Para Antonio Gamsci,  la crisis sistémica —orgánica, que decía él— consistía en “el hecho de que lo viejo no acaba de morir y lo nuevo no puede nacer”.(1) Sobre qué ocurre con “lo viejo” leemos algo en el periódico cada mañana y hablamos de ello con nuestros congéneres. Conversaciones que, en España,...
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The Spanish on-line paper El Plural is reporting a rather shocking story from Madrid. “The State Secretariat of Information has decided that the news conference planned for next week by the Circle of Foreign Correspondents in Spain with former judge Baltasar Garzón “is not appropriate” (“no es idóneo”), and it has denied permission for...
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The controversy regarding Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's decision to grant asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange this morning is growing at a rapid pace. According to The Guardian, Assange "took refuge in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of sexual misconduct." Ecuadorian officials are...
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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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Names matter. Paul Preston’s choice of The Spanish Holocaust, his latest and most ambitious account of the massive violence unleashed in the wake of the 1936 coup, is as polemical as it is well-pondered. It reflects a conscious attempt on Preston’s part to reframe how we think about the war in Spain and its...
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