Orwell went on to write Homage to Catalonia, one of his most famous books, which revealed the sharpening divisions between Communists and others on the left and exposed the role of Stalinist agents in destroying the revolution.

The trip will take place on the weekend of 19/20th May (75 years since Orwell was wounded) and take in Barcelona, Alcubierre and Huesca. It is hoped that some talks will be given on the Saturday evening at the monastery hotel of Lecinena, close to the Ruta Orwell.

Those expected to attend include members of the newly formed Orwell Society, as well as Orwell’s adopted son Richard Blair, and Quentin Kopp, son of Georges Kopp, a commander of the ILP’s sister party, the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and later captain of general staff of the International Brigades.

Members and friends of the ILP who would like to join the visit should contact Alan Warren of Porta de la Historia on hill705@googlemail.com.

Costs for accommodation, transport and food are not yet confirmed but the organsiers expect it will not exceed 300 Euros for two nights, not including flights. The idea is to arrive at Barcelona on the evening of Friday 18th May and return to the UK on Sunday 20th after 8pm.

Porta de la Historia is a co-operative initiative of four individuals living in Catalonia who are fascinated with the Spanish civil war and the social struggles that followed the conflict, especially in connection with the International Brigades.

They provide a variety of initiatives and activities to raise awareness of the region’s history in this important period and to help individuals, groups and schools explore the events and places of the civil war.

More information on Porta de la Historia from: www.pdlhistoria.wordpress.com

Land and Freedom, the ILP’s pamphlet about the Spanish civil war is available here.

We are doing this, first, because the last edition was published in our centenary year, 1993, which makes it rather dated, and secondly, because there is a growing interest in our history among political activists, Labour politicians and academics. So this seems like a good time to proceed.

To help with the process, we are publishing the whole of the original pamphlet on the website and we hope readers will take the opportunity to respond and comment on the material.

We aim to put the text online in six stages, starting below with the chapters which deal with the early years of the ILP and the birth of the Labour Party. Each of these instalments will be supplemented by a series of ‘side stories’, boxed out material from the original pamphlet which highlight some important aspects of the ILP’s journey.

It is then over to anyone who wishes to respond to do so. This will help us to enrich what we hope will be a moving account of how different generations of people have sought to build a better society.

Of course, if you wish to purchase the printed version of the pamphlet, complete with images and historical photographs, you can do so from our publications page – we still have a few copies left.

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The ILP: Past & Present

The ILP in the 30s

Despite its numerical decline, the ILP remained a significant political force throughout the thirties. In addition, it retained a small but vocal parliamentary presence until Jimmy Maxton’s death in 1946.

But, if disaffiliation appeared to resolved the ILP’s dilemma about its role as a left group within the Labour Party, it posed a new and equally crucial question. What was to be its role outside the party? Squeezed between the electorally cautious Labour Party linked wit the unions, and the manipulative Communist Party linked with the international communist movement, the ILP found it had little room for manoeuvre.

Influenced by a pro-communist group in the ILP, serious consideration was given to affiliating to the Communist International. But the terms were found to be too stiff, just as they had been two decades earlier when the ILP tried to set up a alternative international movement (known as the Two-and-Half International) to build a bridge between reformist and revolutionary socialists. In particular, the ILP was unwilling to subordinate itself to Moscow’s demands.

At the same time, the ILP’s relations with the British Communist Part worsened due to the latter’s subservience to the Soviet Union. Like its counterparts in the rest of the world, the Communist Party in Britain took its political line from the Soviet leadership. That often meant rapid political changes to conform to changes in Stalin’s foreign policy. This was usually accompanied by wholesale abuse of others on the Left who disagreed. The Moscow trials and execution of former Bolshevik leaders further widened the breach between the two main left parties in Britain.

In spite of the difficulties facing the ILP in its new role, it continued with its active propaganda, including the open air meetings for which it was famous. It also retained an energetic youth section where a great many political activists were schooled.

The major campaigns of the decade had a strong ILP presence. The Unity Campaign, organised jointly with the Communist Party and Socialist League, the Hunger Marches, and the anti-fascist activities are among the better known examples. The ILP played a leading role in mobilising mass opposition to thwart the march by Oswald Mosley’s fascist through London’s East End, the heart of the Jewish community.

After the rise of fascism, first in Italy and later in Germany, the ILP actively supported the work of socialists from those countries. There was also a fierce debate about how to respond to the fascist threat while not siding with the imperialist powers.

Mussolini’s invasion of Abyssinia in1935 brought these matters to a head. Arguably, it led to one of the least honourable decisions taken by the ILP. At first, the ILP conference agreed to support independent working class action against Italy, to oppose its aggression, and to boycott the transport of arms and other supplies. Among the keenest supporters of this policy was a small Trotskyist group inside the ILP, led by the black writer, CLR James.

Jimmy Maxton and the parliamentary party strongly disagreed with the position. They argued that working class sanctions would be indistinguishable from other sanctions and would make war with Italy more likely. They made it clear that they felt unable to comply with the policy. As a result, the conference backed down and agreed to ballot the ILP membership.

As Fenner Brockway wrote: “I agreed at once without any illusions about the result. I knew it was inevitable that the vote would be influenced by the desire to retain Maxton and his colleagues than by the political issues.”

He was right. This led to a political attack on the ILP by the exiled Trotsky who until then, had seen it as a useful channel for his group’s activities. They then left the ILP, although CLR James continued to co-operate with the ILP in anti-colonial activities.

Spanish Civil War

In 1936, to the horror of socialists across the world, there was a fascist uprising in Spain against the elected republican government. Led by General Franco, the rebels were actively backed by Hitler and Mussolini and greatly assisted by the non-intervention of the British and French governments.

To begin with, people fought off the fascists with great courage but they were ill-equipped and the republican side was politically divided. It was also dependent for arms and other material help on the Soviet Union – and Stalin had his own very different agenda. Anxious to forge an alliance with Britain and France against Nazi Germany, he did not wish to do anything that would greatly upset them.

Obviously, developments in Catalonia and its capital, Barcelona, were particularly disquieting for him. A social revolution was taking place and society was being completely reorganised. Influenced by anarchist and socialist ideas, workers were running the factories and the local administration and peasants were collectivising the farms and taking control of the countryside.

Stalin wanted to defeat the fascist but he did not want a revolution, fearful that if he was seen to support if he would fail to woo Britain and France into an alliance. So while he encouraged Communist-led International Brigades to fight, he was also at great pains to stifle the rest of the Left and bury the revolution.

A small ILP contingent went to fight in Catalonia. Among the ILP volunteers was the writer Eric Blair, who was later to find fame under the name of George Orwell. The ILP gave particular support to the non-Stalinist, revolutionary Marxist workers’ party (POUM) which was ruthlessly suppressed by the Communists. Foreign sympathises of the POUM were jailed. Among them was Bob Smillie, chair of the ILP Guild of Youth, who died a prisoner after being arrested at the border.

Stalin succeeded in suppressing the revolution but by 1939 the fascists had won the war. Spain was to endure four decades of Franco’s oppressive rule. Tens of thousands of Spaniards lost their lives in the fighting and even more were killed when the fascists took control.

Labour Relations

It would be a mistake to suppose that the ILP’s disaffiliation from the Labour Party had ended the relationship once and for all. Not so, several attempts were made to re-open the links in the 1930s.

The most promising attempt began in 1938 with an initiative by the Labour Party leader and former ILPer, Clement Attlee. Both Labour’s executive, with a clear majority, and the ILP’s administrative council, with a narrow one, agreed the general terms of re-entry.

In supporting re-affiliation, Fenner Brockway argued that the ILP had changed significantly. He claimed: “when the ILP was in the Labour Party it had no fundamental philosophy or policy and could not act with a united purpose; but during its period outside it had developed a revolutionary socialist basis and its personnel, although smaller in numbers, had vastly improved in dependable quality; the ILP of 1938 was very different from the mixture of reformism, sentiment, utopianism and awakening revolutionism which characterised the ILP of 1932. This being so, was there not a great deal to be said for entering the Labour Party as a disciplined unit, regarding it not as a socialist party with a policy that commanded our consent, but as the class party of the workers and therefore the right and most fruitful field of activity?”

The ILP convened a special conference to decide its future. The meeting never took place. The conference was called for September 1939, the month that Britain declared war on Nazi Germany.

The two parties differed in their attitude to the Second World War as they had done to the first. Opposing involvement, the ILP saw it mainly as a battle between rival imperial powers and once again its members were imprisoned for refusing military conscription. During the war the ILP played a role in what became a broad current of radical dissent against Churchill’s coalition government and there was a revival of interest in its publications.

Actively supporting the war, Labour participated in the war-time coalition. And it emerged from the hostilities stronger, with a reforming programme, winning its first overall majority in the Commons in 1945.

After the War

Post-war Britain left the ILP in continuing decline, with the return of many of its leading figures, like Fenner Brockway, to the Labour Party. The ILP continued with its anti-colonial work, opposed the post-war Labour government’s use of troops in the docks for strike breaking, and participated in a European campaign to build a united socialist Europe.

But as it shrank so its hostility to the Labour Party increased. Although a minority of its members actively supported Labour in their localities, the formal position of the ILP towards the Labour Party really was sectarian. This purism was reinforce by those who recounted stories of left-wingers who joined the Labour Party to transform it but who were themselves politically transformed.

While the ILP continued to support a host of progressive campaigns during these years – particularly in the peace movement – it was inclined to indulge in pious resolution-mongering. Its libertarian outlook attracted people who were unhappy about the lack of tolerance and democracy on much of the left, but otherwise its politics became diffuse.

While the ILP almost sank below the political horizon in these years, it survived by a fine thread. This was due to the resources it had accumulated in earlier years but, more importantly, thanks to the loyalty and commitment of ILPers with fond memories of the party in days gone by and wished to keep something of that alive. The ILP has always been more than a political party. It was a political movement which valued socialist fellowship and this made it possible for it to renew itself.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was a small but significant influx of younger activists from the anti-nuclear movement, and some former members of the Communist Party who were disillusioned after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Unhappy about the lack of radicalism and democracy in the Labour Party and wary of the politics and practices of the far left, the new generation were looking for some kind of alternative. Whatever its faults, the ILP provided them with space to rethink their politics.

In doing so, they became frustrated with the lack of direction of the ILP which by now was a very weak organisation. They challenged its lack of perspective and, as they developed their ideas, they sought to turn the ILP outwards and to reconsider the relationship of socialists to the Labour Party. Support for this rethink also came from longstanding members of the ILP.

In 1974, after several years of debate, the ILP re-adopted a socialist commitment of the Labour Party in its Outline Perspective. In 1975, it changed its constitution to become Independent Labour Publications. On both occasions there were members present who had attended the 1932 disaffiliation conference. Indeed, there were some whose experience went back to before the First World War.

A few months after the decision to change the ILP’s constitution, the national executive of the Labour Party agreed that members of the ILP could join the Labour Party and vice versa. Not only did this end four decades in which the ILP had gone its separate way from the Labour Party but it opened a new chapter in the ILP’s history.

Buy The ILP: Past and Present here

Read other extracts from The ILP: Past & Present here, including:
ILP History 1: The Early Years
- Great Expectations
- Beginnings in Bradford
ILP History 2: Ethical Socialism
- Independent Women
- Living for that Better Day
ILP History 3: Labour’s Rise and Disaffiliation
- Strongholds of the ILP

]]> http://www.independentlabour.org.uk/main/2012/01/22/ilp-history-4-war-and-after/feed/ 0 http://www.independentlabour.org.uk/main/2011/07/25/remembering-spains-volunteers/ http://www.independentlabour.org.uk/main/2011/07/25/remembering-spains-volunteers/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 21:16:46 +0000 Matthew Brown http://www.independentlabour.org.uk/main/?p=1848 On Saturday 16 July, the 75th anniversary of the first involvement of anti-fascist volunteers from north west England in the Spanish Civil War was commemorated at Manchester Town Hall. CHRIS HALL was there.

Over 100 people, including many young Spaniards, were present to hear about the contribution of the north west in the fight against fascism in Spain between 1936 and 1939. The commemorative plaques honouring the International Brigades and the ILP Contingent were side-by-side for the first time.

The Manchester Lord Mayor Harry Lyons opened the proceedings and was followed by speakers who recounted the experiences of the volunteers.

First, I stated that over 400 volunteers came from the north west to serve in Spain. Most were wounded and many were killed. Also, in light of the recent opening up of M15 records, it’s possible that maybe many more volunteers went to Spain from the north west than was first thought.

I went on to recall the views and experiences of two Liverpool volunteers – Bob Edwards, who commanded the ILP Contingent, and Jack Jones, the famous trade unionist, who served in the International Brigades.

Diane Bradbury then recounted the life story of Stalybridge’s Lillian Urmston who served in Spain as a nurse.

Finally, Dolores Long talked about her father Sam Wild from Manchester who was the last Commander of the British Battalion of the International Brigades in Spain. She followed this with a resounding rendition of ‘Pasionaria’s’ farewell speech to the International Brigades.

Songs were sung by Mike Wild, another offspring of Sam Wild, about why people volunteered to fight in Spain, and the commemorative event ended with the singing of the ‘Jarama Valley’ song and a minute’s silence.

Afterwards people mingled and took pictures of both plaques, and the Spanish in particular were interested in the ILP plaque, asking who the ILP volunteers were and what happened to them.

The event was totally non-partisan and finally, at last, the contribution of the ILP volunteers has been commemorated alongside those who served in the International Brigades.

Salud

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More information from the International Brigade Memorial Trust.

Organised by the International Brigade Memorial Trust, the event will mark the role of the north west volunteers in the Sculpture Hall at 11am before a walk round ‘radical manchester’ at 2pm.

The Trust exists to “educate the public in the history of the men and women who fought in the International Brigades and in the medical and other support services in the Spanish Civil War, in particular by preserving and cataloguing valuable historical material relating hereto, and by making such material available to the public.”

It also seeks to “foster good citizenship by remembering those who have fallen in the Spanish Civil War by preserving, maintaining and assisting in the construction of war memorials.”

More details here, or from the International Brigade Memorial Trust.
Email: secretary@international-brigades.org.uk

Roma Marquez Santo born in Barcelona on 6 November 1916 into a political family who owned a variety of books including some by Russian authors. One of six children, he began work at a garage and became a member of the socialist trade union, the UGT.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936 he received a rifle from a loyal artillery regiment and, together with two brothers, went on to to join the militia of the POUM. His youngest brother, aged 14, ended up fighting in the defence of Madrid in November 1936 while Roma became part of the POUM Lenin column (29^th Division) and joined the POUM political party. One of his sisters took part in the failed attack on Majorca by Catalan militias in 1936.

The three brothers volunteered to man four 50mm mortars, and during an engagement in September 1936 Roma was wounded in the leg and evacuated to Barcelona. There he witnessed the funeral of the anarchist militant Durutti on 23 November before returning to the Aragon front in late December 1936.

Roma remembered two incidents in partiuclar from his time in the Lenin Column: one was seeing a very fat George Kopp riding a white horse plastered in mud; the other was when he helped evacuate his section commander’s family from their farmhouse as it came under fire. Roma carried a rather large and hysterical 14-year-old girl across a river, and later met up with this same girl in 2009 more than 70 years later. (Read more)

In August 1937 Roma and one of his brothers joined an anarchist unit, after the POUM had been declared an illegal political party and the Lenin column forcibly disbanded.

They both attended officer training school and became lieutenants in the republican army. Roma was assigned to the 147^th Mixed Brigade based in Andalucia, and when the war ended he was trapped in the south of Spain before being imprisoned as a “dangerous Marxist”.

Roma spent over three and a half years in prison before being released in the winter of 1943. On returning to Barcelona he became a builder and had to report often to the local police. He never married.

In later life he visited the UK and Ireland and met British International Brigaders to talk about his experiences of the civil war. In May 2009 he came to Salford and unveiled a plaque honouring the contribution of ILP volunteers in the Spanish Civil War.

Roma died from cancer in Barcelona on 29 December 2010. He will be sadly missed by all who met him.

Chris Hall is author of ‘Not Just Orwell’: The Independent Labour Party Volunteers and the Spanish Civil War, published by Warren and Pell, May 2009.

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A Tribute to Roma

On 30 May 2009 Roma came to the Working Class Movement Library in Salford to unveil the first ever public commemoration of ILPers who fought in Spain. Read more

Land and Freedom, written by Barry Winter, is the ILP’s account of the of the Spanish Civil War, using the often-silenced voices of Spanish activists.

HARRY OWEN pays tribute to the man who fought fascism in Spain in the 1930s yet could still hold audiences charmed and spellbound with tales of his experiences more than 70 years later.

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On 30 May 2009, Roma was at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford to unveil the first ever public commemoration of ILPers who fought in Spain. Read more

Alan Warren’s obituary to Roma is on the Poumista site, here.

Saturday 7 August, 2pm
People’s History Museum
Left Bank
Spinningfields
Manchester M3 3ER

FREE ENTRY

Historian Dr. Richard Baxell lectures on the day-to-day experiences of the British and Irish volunteers in The Spanish Civil War, during the early part of 1937.

The lecture will include audio and video clips from some of the interviews with Brigaders and will cover the formation of the battalion, its baptism of fire at Jarama and its subsequent recovery and rebuilding before returning to action at the Battle of Brunete in July 1937.

As Baxell says: ‘The period of training – let alone combat – must have been an immense culture shock to the members of the battalion, almost all of whom spoke no Spanish and had rarely travelled, even within Britain. Factor in an unfamiliar diet, woefully insufficient and often sub-standard weaponry and a general lack of appropriate military experience and you begin to understand the scale of the appalling task facing the British Battalion in their first experience of combat.’

Richard Baxell, with Jim Jump and Angela Jackson, compiled the ANTIFASCISTAS exhibition for the International Brigade Memorial Trust (see below). He is also the author of British Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, the history of the British Battalion in the International Brigades.

More details of Richard’s work can be found at www.richardbaxell.info

In addition, Civil War songs will be performed by Manchester group The Maddonnas.

For more details of the event contact: Dolores Long: 0161 226 2013 or Hilary Jones: 0161 224 1747

To book a place, please telephone the People’s History Museum on 0161 838 9190 or email: info@phm.org.uk

ANTIFACISTAS

Antifascistas is the exhibition commissoned by the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) on the British and Irish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War and will be at the People’s History Museum from 6-31st August.

For more information on the work of the International Brigade Memorial Trust
email: secretary@international-brigades.org.uk
tel: 020 8555 6674
web: www.international-brigades.org.uk

More than 60 people filled the Working Class Movement Library in Salford on 30^th May to see former POUM militia man Roma Marquez Santo unveil a plaque to the ILP’s Spanish Civil War volunteers.

In a moving speech Roma declared it an honour for people, like himself, who fought fascism in the 1930s to be remembered by today’s generation. Many in the audience felt that the privilege was the other way round.

The plaque is the first ever public commemoration of the ILPers who fought in Spain, and its unveiling was marked by the launch of Chris Hall’s new book Not Just Orwell.

While disagreements about the civil war – particularly over divisions on the Republican side – will no doubt rumble on, Chris stressed that this occasion was not about rehashing old debates but commemorating and remembering individuals who stood up against fascism. Keen to redress what he called the “forgotten story” of the British left’s involvement, he recounted the contribution and sacrifices made by the ILP contingent and their comrades in POUM.

For the ILP, Barry Winter welcomed the book and plaque, which recognise the ILP’s role: “It is time to acknowledge the role played by those who, like Orwell, went to Spain to fight under the ILP banner, to stand alongside their comrades in the POUM. They are part of the story of the civil war and rightly deserve recognition.”

Remembering past anti-fascist struggles is particularly important today when the political influence of the far right is once again increasing across Europe.

The event ended with a performance of Spanish revolutionary songs by the Manchester group, the Maddonas.

You can read more about Chris Hall’s book and order a new edition of the ILP’s pamphlet Land and Freedom.

Christopher Hall explains what drove him to discover the untold stories of ILP volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War

In 2006 many new books were published and many events held to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

As an historian and researcher on the Spanish Civil War for over 20 years, I was eager to be involved and so I helped to stage a concert in Manchester headlined by Billy Bragg on behalf of the International Brigade Memorial Trust. Yet as 2006 came to an end it dawned on me that in Britain all the events and most of the articles had focused on the International Brigades. Those anti-fascist volunteers who had served in the ILP contingent alongside George Orwell and the POUM (an anti-Stalinist Communist Party militia) had been seemed to have been ignored.

Many books have been written about the Spanish revolution and the way it was crushed by the Spanish republican government and its Stalinist allies. Probably the most famous is Burnett Bolloten’s monumental work. However, very few books mention the role of the ILP contingent in any depth. The most famous and, in some opinions, the most controversial account is George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia, which tells about his time fighting with the POUM. Using this, and my earlier interview with ILP volunteer Stafford Cottman as a starting point, I began my research.

My aim was not to write about the Spanish (social) revolution or to explore the political intrigues of the time but to discover who the members of the ILP contingent were, why they went to Spain, what happened to them in Spain, and what became of them on their return home.

I discovered about 40 names but the available details of their lives differed greatly. For example, Bob Edwards – the leader of the ILP contingent – has a whole archive in Manchester, whereas there is only the odd line or picture of some volunteers. For background I found it was necessary to include a brief history of the POUM and the ILP, and cover in more detail the role of the two parties in the Spanish Civil War.

ILP support

The role of the ILP in the Spanish Civil War has been criticised by many academics and by the majority of the Labour movement at the time. In fact for a small political party, the ILP was hugely involved in the Spanish Civil War and continued to support the Spanish republican government even after POUM was suppressed.

The ILP continually raised money for POUM and the Spanish people. It paid for a fully equipped ambulance to go to Spain (named after the POUM leader, Maurin, who was presumed dead). One of the ambulance drivers with experience from World War I stayed in Spain to help train and command an artillery unit. When the Basque country was being overrun by the fascists, the ILP looked after and fed some refugee children from anarchist families at a house in Street near Bristol. Over 100 ILP members served in the republican forces in military and non-military units, with many serving in the International Brigades too.

Leading ILP figures visited Spain three times to try and free POUM prisoners with varying degrees of success. The most infamous case relating to the ILP was the death of their leading young activist and leader of the ILP ‘Guild of Youth’, Bob Smillie. He died in prison after being arrested on the border because he did not have the proper discharge papers. In prison he died from a combination of neglect and appendicitis. To their credit the ILP made no attempt to make political capital out of this and continued to support the Spanish republic till the end of the Civil War.

A mass of biographies and autobiographies of British and Irish volunteers in the International Brigades have been published, and many hundreds of books have been written about the International Brigades and the British involvement in them. Some of the ILP volunteers, including Bob Edwards, Stafford Cottman, Frank Frankford and Urias Jones, have been interviewed for the Imperial War Museum and South Wales Miners Library. Before my work, however, the only written account of the ILP contingent in Spain was a 1987 article by Peter Thwaites in the Imperial War Museum Review. No easily accessible book on the ILP contingent has existed until now.

One of the main criticisms of the ILP contingent has been that it served for only six months on a quiet front in Spain, achieved little and then went home. Looking at the involvement of the International Brigades in every major battle of the Civil War, and their huge losses, this criticism at first seems justified. But as my research progressed, and more information about individual members of the ILP contingent came to light, this view of the ILP volunteers proved to be much less than the whole picture.

Fifteen members of the ILP contingent were involved in a small action at a place called Ermita Salas and several volunteers were wounded. ILP members did indeed serve on a quiet front and became embroiled in a ‘civil war within a civil war’ while on leave in Barcelona. Many of the volunteers did return home after just over six months but since POUM had been declared illegal they risked imprisonment if they remained in Spain.

Several ILP volunteers served in other republican units, even in some cases in the International Brigades. Around a third of ILP volunteers were wounded or hospitalised and two died – a statistic that shows the ILP volunteers’ commitment to the anti-fascist cause in Spain. And several ILP volunteers served for long periods – Reg Hiddlestone from January 1937 to January 1939 (much longer than most International Brigade volunteers); and Robert Williams, who joined up alongside Orwell in December 1936 and served with republican forces until November 1938. He was wounded three times.

John Donovan served in the International Brigade alongside Winston Churchill’s nephew, Esmond Romilly, before deserting to join the ILP contingent. In the attack on Ermita Salas he was cited for bravery by his commanding officer. He later left the ILP contingent to serve in an Anarchist unit before returning to Britain. Arthur Chambers, a First World War veteran, was an NCO in the ILP contingent. In May 1937 he also left the ILP contingent to join an Anarchist unit, and was killed on the Aragon front in August 1937.

Overshadowed

Until now the role of the ILP contingent in the Spanish Civil War has been overshadowed by the fame of George Orwell, and any examination of the ILP volunteers has centred on him. This book includes a brief biography of Orwell as his book Homage to Catalonia is still a major source for any discussion of the ILP contingent. Orwell’s account also provides invaluable descriptions of the way the Spanish militias were organised, trained and armed. As its title clearly states, this book is not solely about Orwell but about the volunteers who served with him.

The book provides the first full account of the ILP contingent’s role in Spain, alongside a list of those men who served in the contingent and their experiences. Stafford Cottman became a friend and advisor to the film director Ken Loach when he was making his 1995 film ‘Land and Freedom’, which was loosely based on Cottman’s experiences.

According to his wife, Stella, Cottman attended a film premiere in Bath for ‘Land and Freedom’, and afterwards said: “George Orwell always said, ‘The truth about what happened to the republican cause in Spain will never be told.’ But now it has been.”

I hope in some small way this book has a similar impact and changes people’s perception of the role of the ILP in the Spanish Civil War.

–

‘Not just Orwell’: The Independent Labour Party Volunteers and the Spanish Civil War by Christopher Hall, is published by Warren and Pell, May 2009.

The book is available for £14.99 plus £2.50 postage and packing from Warren and Pell
http://www.warrenandpellpublishing.co.uk

The book launch took place on May 30^th at Salford Working Class Movement Library near Manchester, where a plaque honouring the ILP volunteers was unveiled by 1930s ILP activist, Sidney Robinson, and former POUM militia man, Roma Marquez Santos, who spent ten years in a Franco jail.

Further details of the event: www.independentlabour.org.uk/main/?p=359

Seventy years after the end of the Spanish Civil War the first ever memorial plaque commemorating the anti-fascist British and Irish volunteers who fought alongside George Orwell in the ILP Contingent is to be dedicated.

Two political veterans will do the honours: Sidney Robinson, an Independent Labour Party activist in the 1930s who chaired the Newport Spanish Aid Committee, and Roma Marquez Santos, who served in the POUM on the Aragon front with the ILP volunteers. Roma was to spend 10 years in one of Franco’s jails.

At the same time there will be a book launch for ‘Not just Orwell’: The Independent Labour Party Volunteers and the Spanish Civil War by Christopher Hall. For the first time we have a publication that examines the experiences of the ILP combatants and the role played by the ILP. This acknowledges the tragic political conflicts between POUM and the anarchists on one hand and the Communist Party.

The twin events will be held at the Working Class Movement Library in Salford beginning at 2.00 pm, Saturday, 30^th May.

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To be sure of a place, or for a copy of the book, please contact:

Chris Hall christoff_hall@yahoo.com

Barry Winter b.winter@leedsmet.ac.uk

ILP (Independent Labour Publications) info@independentlabour.org.uk