El més petit de tots

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These photos were sent to me by the family of Bill Susman, American International Brigader, wounded at the Ebro. He brought this famous and lovely figure back from Catalonia in 1938. It’s called “El més petit de tots” (The smallest of them all”). It was created by the sculptor Miquel Paredes for the Comissariat de Propaganda of the Catalan government de la Generalitat de Catalunya in February 1937 as a symbol of the revolution and resistance of the Catalan people against fascism. There was also a children’s book. There were Catalan Republican, Anarchist and Communist versions. This one has the three-point star of the International Brigades so it’s in homage to that. They were usually painted so I guess this was unfinished when Bill acquired it, probably in Barcelona.

Crossing the River Ebro

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The River Ebro flowing fast near Mora d’Ebre. They crossed it on a moonless night in July 1938, seeming a great victory, became a terrible defeat. Later they sang to it in union halls in Glasgow, exile cafes in Caracas and Toulouse, secretly at night in camp huts in Austria in Europe’s dark heart.

Republican forces crossing the Ebro river at Minavet at start of eponymous battle in July 1938. The image is in fact staged as propaganda shot some time after crossing (which in any case was at night) but portrays dramatism of events.

Posters by Evarist Mora Roselló

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Poster by Evarist Mora Roselló, “Don’t send your products to the free market. Sell them to the agricultural unions” The “free market” is represented by the wolf. Catalan Dept of Agriculture Barcelona 1937

CARTEL DE EVARIST mORA ROSELLO PUBLICADO POR LA DIRECCIO GENERAL DE AGRICULTURA. BARCELONA 1937

“Hikers / be careful with fire! : your lack of care could destroy your best friend, the forest.” Catalan Dept of Agriculture Barcelona, 1930s.

everist

The United New School Board

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CENU_1936

One of the revolutionary changes in Catalonia during the war, was the establishment of the CENU (Consell de l’Escola Nova Unificada) school board on 27 July 1936 which provided free, secular, mixed education for ALL, including to my knowledge the creation of the first free public nurseries in Spain.

We could do with going back to this universal system today, instead of the elitist public/semi-private/private modal which dominates today in Catalonia.