75th Anniversary of the Spanish Revolution!

This month, 75 years ago, one of the most significant democratic movements in human history got underway in Spain.

The onset of the Spanish Civil War will be remembered by many for the tragic and valiant struggle that took place in Spain to stem the tide of fascism in Europe.  It is certainly important to remember and celebrate that struggle that took place in Spain between 1936-39.  But less well known and more important – to my mind – was the democratic revolution that took place in Spain between 1936 and 1937.  It was an immense revolution and it ushered in a new economic and social order where workers and farm labourers organised and controlled this places of work and their communities.  For an important and significant period of time a different way of organising society and economic production – where human needs came ahead of profits – held sway.

Let’s face it, in today’s world – where inequality is rampant; where poverty and starvation is rife while the world’s wealthy party on; and where environmental destruction seems never ending – it is important to remember and cherish this possible way forward for human kind.

Even now the scale of the revolution and the  its achievements are not fully acknowledged.  Although this is a situation that is gradually being reversed – with more academic research now focused on this important revolutionary period in Spain’s history.

Over the long period of this anniversary I hope to look at different aspects of the revolution and its eventual fate.   There’s no real plan here other than to cover topics of interest whilst completing research for a fictional work that is in part set in revolutionary Spain – of which more much later on.

But first a salute to those that resisted dictatorship and fascism and in the process opened up  a real window of hope for a viable and free socialist society.

Related articles and further reading:

• Anarchist sources on  The Spanish Revolution

the glove and the iron fist

Does anyone believe this hand-wringing in respect to US atrocities in Western Afghanistan?

For the last few months there have been repeated massive bombardments in the area without any concern for the impact on the huge number of civilians caught up in the conflict.  A series of leaks from the latest US military report on this concedes as much stating that “dozens of civilians were killed in the air strikes in western Farah province” earlier last month.   Dozens?  It seems that the real number is more in the region of several hundred.  Note this: “In one case, a compound of buildings where suspected militants were massing was struck, even though it was in a densely populated area and there was no imminent threat, the New York Times said.” Indeed, a disregard for civilian casualties so that mission objective is achieved seems to be order of the day.

I drew attention to this in an earlier blog in February entitled The Obama Lie.  It seems that on the one hand Obama is keen and adept to present a caring image of his presidency.  But the reality for many ordinary citizens of this planet is much different: women, men and children have literally been bombed beyond recognition in what is a brutal and unrelenting assault in Western Afghanistan; that assault is all about securing US foreign policy into the future.

Few column inches are spared for the dead from these dreadful assaults by the US military machine.  Indeed we hear little about them and who they are; what they loved in life and who was near and dear to them.  Instead these hundreds of dead in Afghanistan are anonymous and will remain so it seems, discarded as mere numbers in the various reports which which casually allude to each atrocity as it happens.   Contrast that with, if you wish, the many column inches given to the awful killing of the traveller Edwin Dyer in Mali earlier this week.  The Guardian carried a good article about Mr Dyer – who he was and the fate that befell him.  It is a sorry, ugly story but in it we learn that Mr Dyer was ‘was well-respected in his community’.  A number of strongly worded condemnations of his murder also carried in the same article.  Such a report of course is important for his family and friends – granting them and the victim some respect in what is for them a tragic time.

But no such words and not even the names for the countless murdered by the US military machine.

We Bombed It And Bombed It …

‘We bombed it and bombed it and bombed it, and bueno, why not.’

This comment is attributed to an unnamed Franco staff officer and refers to the savage attack on the city of Guernica on April 26, 1937.   It is not clear how many died on that day during what was a watershed attack, regarded now by many as the first indiscriminate and purposeful aerial terror attack on a civilian population.  Estimates put the death toll at anywhere between 300 and 1650, with many more injured.

The quote comes to mind as we witness the brutal aerial and ground attack on the Gaza strip.  The overwhelming superiority of the Israeli forces and the military might they are able to bring to bear on what is a largely civilian population is in itself shocking.  The awful tragedy is our inability to do so little about it and to stop it.  We are unable to stop the aggressor in this case – since they are backed by the USA – and so the dreadful experience of Guernica is repeated.  My heart goes out to these peole at this time and what they must be going through…

I am reminded of the poem by Herbert Read called ‘Bombing Casualties in Spain’  and quote it here in solidarity with those suffering at this awful juncture in history:

Dolls’ faces were rosier but these were childrens

their eyes not glass but gleaming gristle

dark lenses in whose quicksilvery glances

the sunlight quivered.  These blench’d lips

were warm once and bright with blood

but blood

held in a moist bleb of flesh

not split and spatter’d in tousled hair.