The doctrine of Universal Jurisdiction allows tribunals from any State to prosecute heinous crimes that are an affront to all humanity. It is our most important weapon in the battle against the great criminals of history. Yet the United States is dragging its feet.
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In Spain this past May, the usually dull and boring elections to the European Union’s Parliament produced a sudden shock to the political system. A new two-month-old party led by a 35-year-old, pony-tailed political scientist, appeared out of nowhere—but clearly from the Left—to sweep up a surprising 8 percent of the votes. The result...
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Three 8th-grade students placed fifth at the National History Day Finals for their work on the history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
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When things seem bleakest, hope often sparks.
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Kicking off a busy fall, ALBA worked with teachers in Tampa.
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In October, the Smithsonian is releasing a stunning new edition of its legendary two Folkways albums, Songs of the Spanish Civil War. First published in the early 1960s, these LPs compiled songs recorded on 78s by Pete Seeger, Tom Glazer, Ernst Busch, Bart van der Schelling and others during and shortly after the war....
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Join us for ALBA’s Bay Area Reunion!
Sunday, October 5, 2014 2:00 PM (doors open at 1:00 PM)
Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse
2020 Addison Street Berkeley, California
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Norman Bethune in Spain: Commitment, Crisis and Conspiracy. By David Letherbridge. (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press: Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies, 2013.)
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Señoritas in Blue. The Making of a Female Political Elite in Franco’s Spain. The National Leadership of the Sección Femenina de la Falange (1936-1977). By Inbal Ofer. (Brighton; Portland, Oregon: Sussex Academic Press, 2009.)
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Franco’s Crypt: Spanish Culture and Memory since 1936. By Jeremy Treglown. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.)
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Málaga Burning: An American Woman's Eyewitness Account of the Spanish Civil War By Gamel Woolsey. Introduction by Zalin Grant. 204 pages. $22. (Reston, VA: Pythia Press, 1998.)
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Betty Medsger delivered the annual Susman Lecture, based on her recent book The Burglary: he Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI. Medsger's book features the never-before-told full story of the history-changing break-in at the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, in 1971. (Video, 49')
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Don Myers has long been the production manager for ALBA’s spring event. What do you do as a production manager? I oversee the technical and presentational aspects of the event and coordinate with both in-house and outside contractors to make sure that everyone is communicating with each other and aware of their responsibilities on...
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John Hovan, one of the first veterans of the Lincoln Brigade to take advantage of the Spanish law granting citizenship to foreign volunteers of the International Brigades, died in Providence, Rhode Island, on March 27. He was 97.
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Bryan Stevenson’s message was a simple one: This country and the world are deeply scarred by histories of injustice that need to be acknowledged--and taught.
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Andrew Plotch, ALBA-Puffin Foundation Youth Activist and a high school senior in New Jersey, is the creator and leader of the nationwide Fight Apathy Campaign.
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The era of DNA has changed the face of criminal justice forever. DNA tests have contributed to the exoneration of hundreds of innocent individuals —and exposed a deeply flawed system. Maddy deLone, executive director of the Innocence Project, makes the case for science-based judicial reform.
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ALBA hosted another successful teaching institute this spring, the first one in Massachusetts.
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Stuyvesant High School marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the Spanish Civil War with presentations based on ALBA’s recent Teaching Institute.
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Some ninety African-Americans joined the Lincoln Brigade in Spain. They came from urban inner cities in the north and the rural south; they were sharecroppers, labor organizers, mechanics, laborers, merchant seamen, and students. They all shared a commitment to justice and equality. I must keep fightin’/Until I’m dyin’. . . Paul Robeson sang these...
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Video summary (17'); Stevenson’s acceptance speech (31'), Farrell and Stevenson (podcast | video, 55').
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In a stirring and honest conversation with actor and activist Mike Farrell, ALBA/Puffin Award winner Bryan Stevenson addressed the United States’ continuing struggles with racial injustice, moving his New York audience to tears. (Podcast | video, 55'.)
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At ALBA’s moving event in New York, actor Mike Farrell, singer Josh White, Jr., and Amnesty International’s Steven Hawkins help honor Pete Seeger and Bryan Stevenson while celebrating the Lincoln volunteers’ commitment to social and racial justice. Video, 17'
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The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic: A Witness to the Spanish Civil War. By Henry Buckley (London: Tauris, 2013).
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Lily Margaret Powell was born in March 1913, one of nine children, at Cwm Farm, Llangenny, where her father farmed a small Welsh hill farm. She attended the village school, leaving home aged 16 to train as a nurse, first in Essex, later in London at St Giles’, Camberwell, and St Olave’s, Rotherhithe –...
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The unsung story of the British ships and seafarers who defied fascist bombs and u-boats – along with British government indifference – to trade with Republican Spain.
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We’ve been assured by our friends in Madrid that the International Brigade memorial in the capital’s University City is not in danger. As reported in our last issue, the memorial was deemed to be under threat following a Madrid court ruling in favour of a writ brought by a lawyer with far-right connections complaining...
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A plaque to the British Battalion’s last stand in southern Catalonia in September 1938 was unveiled on 24 September 2013 by family members of those who took part in the fighting. Erected by the IBMT, it stands next to the old church of Corbera d’Ebre, which was ruined during the Battle of the Ebro...
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Her reputation as a ground-breaking war photographer long overshadowed by that of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro is the focus of a new book* that powerfully asserts the importance of her work in the Spanish Civil War, writes Jim Jump.
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Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War. By Ronald Liversedge. Edited by David Yorke. (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2013).
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Shoot the Messenger? Spanish Democracy and the Crimes of Francoism: From the Pact of Silence to the Trial of Baltasar Garzón. By Francisco Espinosa Maestre. Translated by Richard Barker. (East Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2013).
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I Am Spain: The Spanish Civil War and the Men and Women Who Went to Fight Fascism. By David Boyd Haycock. (Brecon: Old Street Publishing Ltd, 2012).
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On April 24, 1937 Captain Mirko Markovic traveled to Madrigueras, site of one of the training bases of the International Brigades, to initiate the formation of a second American Battalion. In Madrigueras Markovic found approximately 100 American volunteers. On first impression Markovic was an odd choice to take the command.
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One of the two last reported living veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, Delmer Berg, turned 98 on December 20. We invited you to send your birthday greetings were been completely overwhelmed by the response. You can read a sampling online at www.albavolunteer.org/2013/12/happy-birthday-del/ where you can also see part of a recent video...
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Goodbye Barcelona. A musical written by Judith Johnson & K.S. Lewkowicz and directed by Karen Rabinowitz. 2011.
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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
sign up to receive email updates from ALBA. Support ALBA through a tax-deductible gift! To inquire about a donation, please contact the ALBA office at info@alba-valb.org or 212-674-5398.
My grandfather (Nana), Suresh, moved to the United States in 1959 as a young man on a student visa pursuing his master’s degree. His parents, my great grandparents, sought value in being ‘foreign educated’ and bringing his education home – to Mumbai, India to run their family business. 2 years after my Nana moved...
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Peter N. Carroll, a respected and prolific writer, poet, and US historian, died after a short illness on September 16, surrounded by his family. He was 80. Born in New York City in 1943 to a secular Jewish family, Peter grew up in the Bronx and Queens, where his father worked as a composer,...
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LA RÉPUBLIQUE -QUOTIDINEN DE COMBAT RADICAL ET SOCIALISTE, February 5, 1938 Foreign Volunteer Arrested On March 27 last, 29 North Americans were arrested on board the boat Sans-Pareil while they were attempting to reach the Spanish Coast. They were sentenced to a prison term for violating the decree of February 18, 1937 on the...
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The “Spanija” series translates selected autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google translate from Croatian to English and he edited the selections. As this is a machine translation, the idiomatic features of Croatian or Serbian and the translation of names and...
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The Spanija series translates select autobiographical accounts by Yugoslavian and Montenegrin volunteers of their actions in the Spanish Civil War. Dr. Ray Hoff used Google Translate from Croatian to English and he edited the selections. As this is a machine translation, the idiomatic features of Croatioan or Serbian and the translation of names and...
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Peter Verburgh’s translation from the French Newpaper Le Journal about a group of 29 Americans arrested in France. “29 American Volunteers Arrested in Muret” Le Journal, 5 April 1937 Toulouse, 4 April- The Control services of the Non-Intervention Committee do not remain inactive, especially with the help of the French Police and Gendarmerie. Thus...
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ALBA Board Member Steve Birnbaum made the trek on Memorial Day to the Home of Eternity Cemetary in Oakland, California to pay tribute to ALB veteran Hans Joachim. Joachim was born in Berlin, Germany in 1906 and moved to the US in 1924. He served in Spain with the George Washington Battalion and later...
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Please find attached photos of my visits to the graves of Lester Rowlson and Tersil Obriot last weekend. I left a brigade flag and a fresh white rose at each. ,,, I was also proud to include aspects of my Clapton CFC scarf; you might have heard of this small football club in London that...
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Peter Verbergh translated this article from CeSoir describing the arrest of the Dallet-Nelson Group. “The Interrogation of the Passengers of the Sans-Pareil”, CeSoir, March 29, 1937 (From our Special Correspondent) Perpignan March 28 (By Telephone) Yesterday morning around 10am, The Coast Guard Vessel Cebère docked in the port of Port-Vendres alongside the torpedo boat...
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Only five veterans of the Spanish Civil War are known to be buried in Virginia outside of Arlington National Cemetery: two in Richmond, two in Norfolk, and one in Big Stone Gap. ALB Tribute visited the graves of Harry Edward Farris and Thomas Moore in Richmond as well as Manuel Lizarrago and Crawford Morgan...
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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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