A Barcelona court wants Italy to apologise for the war crime of mass bombardment during the civil war, in support of General Franco. The picture shows the destruction casued by the March 1938 Coliseum bomb. More here in The Guardian
Author Archives: nick2
Guillermo Zúñiga
Photo by Guillermo Zúñiga, somewhere on the Madrid Front.
More information here about the discovery of this remarkable photographer, who has been called the Robery Capa of Madrid
http://www.publico.es/390260/guillermo-zuniga-ha-nacido-otro-capa Plus brilliant archive here: http://www.publico.es/especial/lopez-zuniga/
Canute Frankson
Above photo Afro-American members of the Abraham Lincon Brigade.
“Why I, a Negro, who have fought through these years for the rights of my people, am here in Spain today? Because if we crush Fascism here, [we] will build us a new society – a society of peace and plenty. There will be no color line, no jim-crow trains, no lynchings. That is why, my dear, I am here in Spain.”Canute Frankson.
(to my dear friend).
Albacete, Spain, July 6, 1937.
(to my dear friend).
Albacete, Spain, July 6, 1937.
Street sign guerillas
Somebody last year had the fun idea in Barcelona of sticking up the 1936-39 street names over the plaques with today’s names. This particular street (Marqués de Campo Sagrado) was renamed after anarcho-syndicalist printer Tomás Herreros Miguel a month after he died in 1937. PS it wasn’t me.
Martha Gellhorn on the Spanish maquis
Referring to the contribution of the Spanish Maquis to the French resistance movement, Martha Gellhorn wrote in The Undefeated (1945):
“During the German occupation of France, the Spanish Maquis engineered more than four hundred railway sabotages, destroyed fifty-eight locomotives, dynamited thirty-five railway bridges, cut one hundred and fifty telephone lines, attacked twenty factories, destroying some factories totally, and sabotaged fifteen coal mines. They took several thousand German prisoners and – most miraculous considering their arms – they captured three tanks. In the south-west part of France where no Allied armies have ever fought, they liberated more than seventeen towns.”
L’Esquella de la Torratxa
Front page of L’Esquella de la Torratxa, 1934. Usually a satirical magazine, but in this case a special edition dedicated to the repressive use of Montjüic and its castle.
Spain’s peaceful transition
Spain’s so-called peaceful model Transition between 1975 and 1983 resulted in 591 deaths at the hands of extreme left and right terrorist groups but also including no less than 188 by the Institutions of the State. Photo is of the funeral of communist labour lawyers killed in 1977 in a neo-fascist terrorist attack at Atocha, Madrid. Article here is entitled “The Transition was a Fairy Tale“
Still Cause exhibition
If you happen to live near Falkirk (Scotland), my friend Christine Jones has organised what looks like a very interesting exhibition (until 20 April) inspired by Gerda Taro. Christine notes
“Still Cause is a project and exhibition focused on the struggle for justice and recognition which is ongoing in Spain post-Franco, with the notions of memory, loss, activism and solidarity implicit within the work. Initially inspired by the photojournalist Gerda Taro and her work during the Spanish Civil War, this first exhibition is dedicated to her memory.”
Ethel MacDonald in Barcelona
This is a great video about Scottish anarchist Ethel MacDonald who was in Barcelona between 1936 and 1937, working with the CNT. In the crackdown after May 1937 she assisted the escape of anarchists wanted by the Communist secret police and by helping anarchists escape Spain, she became renowned in the British press as the “Scots Scarlet Pimpernel
Photos of Anarchism
This is a great slideshow of photos of Anarchism in Spain between 1936 and 1939. El Público
In the above photo, peasants arrive in Barcelona from the Aragonese front in 1936. The photo is in Plaça Catalunya.