Fighters Against Fascism - Max Arthur

FIGHTERS AGAINST FASCISM – MAX ARTHUR

“I ain't got no heroes,” as Johnny Rotten once said “They're all useless.” and overnight a generation identified and adopted 'No more heroes' as a totem. We were all so much older then and we're younger than that now, however, and after being round the block a few times we see now that there are indeed heroes in this world, with some more deserving of the accolade than others. The International Brigades – those men and women from all corners of the globe who made their way to Spain during the Spanish Civil War in defense of the Republic against Franco and his fellow Fascist supporters – are such heroes to me.

Fighters Against Fascism – British Heroes Of The Spanish Civil War by Max Arthur is a collection of the fascinating and inspiring testaments of various British men and women who answered the call in 1936 and headed to Spain. There are eight testaments in total, this being the total number of those still alive at the time of writing who went there and survived to live to a ripe old age. Written in 2009 they are now, however, all departed, serving to make the book more poignant and more important than ever.

The first thing that is apparent when reading these testimonies is that they were all of the Left, but also that they were all working class and had all come from extreme poverty. As Jack Jones (who in later life went on to become the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union) says: 'I was continuously struck by the working class background of most of the British and Irish who were fighting in Spain. This was the first working class war, in which people got involved directly, rather than being in an organised force in trenches. In that sense it was genuine warfare.'

Interestingly, he identifies an exception to this in the appearance of a young Ted Heath – future British Prime Minister – who was there as part of a five-man delegation from the Federation of University Conservative Associations. Though not there to take up arms, apparently Heath was genuinely supportive of the Spanish Republic as opposed to those in the Labour Party who advocated non-intervention who Jones held a strong feeling of repugnance towards. As Jones says, he had more support from Ted Heath than he had from the Labour leaders and in later life identified more with him than with Harold Wilson.

Heath was, however, an exception as exemplified in the testimonial of Bob Doyle, a former IRA member who whilst being held captive in a Fascist concentration camp in San Pedro de Cardena was visited by a British government delegation headed by Lady Chamberlain, widow of the British Foreign Secretary, Austin Chamberlain, who was the brother of the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain.

Whilst inspecting the line of prisoners, Lady Chamberlain asked them why they had come to Spain, to which they all replied “To stop Fascism before it comes to England”. According to Doyle, she probably would have preferred someone to say “I was in Hyde Park one day and someone came up and asked me if I wanted to go to Spain and as I was unemployed, I joined up”. Disgusted with the actual replies, she turned to her escort and said “I say, can you pick me out an intelligent one?”

All of the testimonials give mention to Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts and indeed, Jack Edwards says in his testimonial 'If it was me I'd have bloody shot Mosley if I'd had a gun. I would: I hated the bastard. He was against the working class and that was it'.

What also binds them all is their conviction that if other governments had supported the Spanish Republic and quashed the Fascist threat in its infancy, the course of history might have been different, and perhaps there would have been no Second World War.

According to Penny Feiwel, who went to Spain as a nurse: 'If the Fascists in Spain were beaten, there wouldn't be any danger of air raids over London. I never ceased to believe this, all the time I was in Spain. Spain was a warning of what would happen to all of us. If we let Spain go, then it would be our fate too, to go to war'.

According to Sam Lesser, an East London boy growing steadily wary of the rise of the Blackshirts: 'The Spanish could have beaten Fascism, and could have stopped Hitler and Mussolini. I know it sounds idiotic to say so – we might even have averted or avoided the Second World War'.

And according to Jack Jones again: 'At that time Hitler and Mussolini weren't the enemy of everyone in Britain, but at the time of the civil war there were Mosleyites – Fascists openly marching around in black shirts. The Second World war ended any idea of sympathy for Fascism. Our cause was justified subsequently, so in a way we feel ours was a little part but in a progressive direction, justified later by the war against Fascism in general, in which the whole country was involved'.

When Johnny Rotten declared that he didn't have any heroes, he himself became a hero of sorts but at the same time forged a contradiction and a conundrum. Rotten inadvertently threw a question mark over the word that ultimately could only be resolved subjectively. The word 'hero' comes always with context and it's the context that always needs to be considered before agreeing whether the attribute is fitting or not.

When it comes to the people featured in Max Arthur's book and indeed to all those who joined the International Brigades, there is no doubt in my mind that they are heroes whose bravery, foresight, compassion and conviction should be applauded and forever remembered. The word 'hero' is too easily bandied about these days as indeed so too the word 'Fascist'. Max Arthur's book and the testimonies therein underscores the true meaning of the word.

As La Pasionaria Dolores Ibarruri declared in her farewell speech to the International Brigades at a parade at which more than 300,000 people lined the streets: 'Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, Republicans – men of different colours, differing ideology, antagonistic religions – yet all profoundly loving liberty and justice, you came and offered yourselves to us unconditionally. You gave us everything – your youth or your maturity, your science or your experience, your blood and your lives, your hopes and aspirations – and you asked us for nothing. But yes, it must be said, you did want a post in battle, you aspired to the honour of dying for us.

Banners of Spain! Salute these many heroes! Be lowered to honour so many martyrs!

You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend.'

John Serpico