International Brigade memorial under threat in Madrid

ib memorial madrid

Unbelievable….except it isn’t anymore. “Madrid’s Complutense University has been given 10 days (from 3 June) to remove the memorial to the International Brigades that was unveiled on 22 October 2011 in the presence of four IB veterans, including David Lomon. The order was made by a Madrid court, the Tribunal Superior de Justicia, on the grounds that the monument had been erected without planning permission. The IBMT donated 500 euros towards its cost.”

The Guardian Well worth reading this article.

“It is often said that history is written by the winners. But what is happening in Madrid is not just an asymmetrical exercise of historic memory. It is an intolerant, dangerous, dysfunctional way to treat the past and sits uneasily with the image Madrid likes to project as an open, diverse and transparent city of the future.”

And here too also in the Guardian

Canute Frankson

afro-americans_spanish-civil-war
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.