Country people. Tortosa.
Estampa. 18 July 1933

In Catalonia the situation wasn't so bad with its milder climate,
and more equal distribution of (largely fertile) land. Conditions
were probably worse for the factory workers and the unemployed
in Barcelona.


When news of the Nargis cyclone broke I was going over some
Spanish Civil War documents, specifically the daily log of the
Information and Liaison section of the organization in charge
of civil defence: La Junta de Defensa Passiva de Catalunya.

The minute by minute reports of the raids, from the detection
of approaching enemy planes to the final count of the victims, are
hard reading.

The chaos, the fear and the tragedy get closer.

I was looking at the log of March 1938 and wondering why Amposta
and Tortosa, small towns in the delta where the river Ebro comes
down to the sea, were getting bombed so frequently.

The Delta de l'Ebre is a now a wetlands sanctuary for over 300
species of birds.

But they also grow rice and have done for hundreds of years.

That log entry from 15th March '38: the destruction of a rice
factory in Amposta the previous day with five dead. Of course,
they were trying to destroy supply lines to the front, further up
the river.


Rice fields and war - inevitable images of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Weary, angry that so little changes.


As if natural disasters were not enough.

Do you have a flag?

It's Sunday and for so very many who share this planet the Horror is near.

So much impotence.


Humour can help to lighten the load and is sometimes a powerful
weapon against those who would be king.

This version of British comedian Eddie Izzard's sketch was apparently
made by a fifteen-year-old in the USA.

Queridos Cómicos indeed.

(Click on Eddie's name to see the original.)

The Road from Mandalay

Over 100 years of British Colonial interference and rule in
Burma ended in 1948. For most of its 60 years' independence
the country has been dominated by the military. It's probably
not a coincidence. The present is inextricably linked to what
has gone before.

George Orwell, author of Homage to Catalonia, served the
British Raj as a police officer in Burma.

He resigned.

A convinced anti-imperialist, he came to Spain in 1936 to
fight for the Republican government against fascism.

And the Generals.

It's probably not a coincidence.

The Generals (again)

An ear of rice and stars.

Beautiful symbols on the Myanmar/Burmese flag.

Though I doubt that survivors of the cyclone have much
time to contemplate or get philosophical about starry skies.
They are probably more concerned about the rice.

And the dead.

International offers of aid pour in but the current General and
his Junta are being difficult.

Military dictators always have so many things to hide.

General Than Shwe would like the aid but isn't so enthusiastic
about the aid workers. He may be right, first you get the aid
but then you find you got the CIA or some other intelligence
agency as well.

And Blackwater gets the monopoly on the contracts.

MAYDAY

In Manila, a woman cooks food scavenged from
restauarant garbage.

Photo Reuters April 25 2008

"A lot of scavengers sell recycled food that they segregate
from other waste. It's common practice around here."

Three out of ten Filipinos in a population of 88.57 million
live below a poverty line of $149 a month for a family of five.

Meanwhile...

The Fidelity Millionaire Outlook, a 2008 survey of 1000 people
with at least $1 million in assets to invest, reports that they, too,
are feeling the economic squeeze. 19% do not even consider
themselves wealthy.

Those with more than $10 million being the most pessimistic.

They're not sure where to invest their money to get the best returns.


Garbage bags, perhaps.

CNT FAI AIT Food Sector Union


DISTRIBUTE
FOOD
EQUALLY
DENOUNCE HOARDERS

Song for Monday

"Johnny"

La Polla Records (late, lamented) Basque punk band

Johnny coge el bombardero
y lo eleva por el cielo,
no hay cañon que alcanze a Johnny
ni rival que lo derribe.
Johnny está en un video juego
controlando la pantalla
Johnny nunca ve la muerte
Johnny tira los pepinos oyendo heavy-metal
Es nuestro campeón.
Johnny no mata la gente,
elimina el objetivo.
Johnny no es un asesino.
Johnny tiene un buen oficio.
Johnny es frío y profesional.
Johnny escribe en una bomba
"el petroleo es para mi"
y la gente quiere a Johny
que defiende a su pais.
Se acabo la gasolinaaaaa
Y aunque Johnny vuelve a casa
convencido de su hazaña.
Johnny solo es un cretino
que maneja un bombardero.
Johnny es un bastardo.

Johnny gets into his bomber
Takes it up into the skies
There's no cannon can touch Johnny
no rival that can shoot him down.
Johnny's inside a video game
he's controlling all the screen
Johnny never sees the dying.
Johnny drops his bombs listening to heavy metal
He's our champion.
Johnny doesn't murder people
He eliminates objectives.
Johnny isn't an assassin
Johnny's got a real good job.
Johnny's cold and professional
Johnny writes on one of the bombs
"The petrol's all for me."
And the poeple do love Johnny
He's defending his country.
The gas has all run out now.
And though Johnny's going home,
Sure of his what he has achieved,
Johnny is just a cretin
Who flies a bomber plane
Johnny is a bastard
Oh Johnny is a bastard.
Repeat.

A little more to do with air raid shelters

The barbarians came with their arms blessed by the Pope
Gráficas Valencia. U.G.T. C.N.T 1937 (?)

Southworth Collection. University of California San Diego

At a Pentagon press conference last Friday, America's

top military officer, Admiral Michael Mullen, announced
"potential military courses of action" against Iran.

The excuse?

Iran's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq."


Pardon me, "Sir."

(Is that the correct form of address? I obviously cannot
misuse "Compañero")*

The only lethal and malign influence most of us have noticed
in the last few years in Iraq is the purveyor of those B-2 Spirits.
Et al.

"Stealth" bombers?

We did notice who sent them.




*At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War there was an attempt to
abolish forms of address denoting rank or title. In the new world
they were fighting for everyone would be an equal, a "compañero,"

a companion.

Rank

Pedrero. Junta Delegada de Defensa de Madrid
Delegación de Propaganda y Prensa. 1937(?)
Sindicato de Profesionales de las Bellas Artes, UGT.

Southworth Collection UCSD


Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that
the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons,
will somehow work for the benefit of us all.

(or words to that effect)

John Maynard Keynes.

Useful translations:

English to Catalan/Spanish:
Rank (n) Rang/Rango
Rank (adj) Putrefacte/Podrido.

Spanish to English:
"isimo" suffix meaning enormously, most superlative.

"El Generalisimo" is the title given to Franco by his admirers.

One wonders if they were being sarcastic.

Franco was only 5ft 4in. tall.

This is not a way of life at all

Share of arms sales of top 100 arms-producing companies
excluding China. 2004


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a
theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those
who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms
is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat
of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes
of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any
true sense."

Dwight D.Eisenhower April 16th 1953

Nothing to do with air raid shelters

Banksy


Or maybe it has.

PRICE RISES MARCH 2007 - MARCH 2008

CORN 31%

RICE 74%

SOYA 87%

WHEAT 130%

Source BBC

Gerda Taro

Gerda Taro. Guadalajara front, Spain July 1937
International Center of Photography.

A few posts down (10 March) I posted a wonderful photo
of a group of Republican Navy marines.

I had been digressing about war ships and the news had
just come in that the ultra-conservative Popular Party
had not won the Spanish general elections. The men in
the photo are all beaming. For those who do not understand
Spanish perhaps I should also have mentioned that a polite
translation of the song "Tragala" linked to the post might be
rendered as something like "Oh you'll just have to grin and bear
it."

I found the photo on some web page which cited the author as
"Capa".

Robert Capa is considered one of the greatest of war photographers,
thanks, partly, to his much-published photos of the Spanish Civil War.
But this wasn't one I recognized as his so I didn't post his name.


I'm glad I didn't because the photo was taken by Gerda Taro.


Gerda Taro was Robert Capa's friend, lover and companion.
She was also a photographer but, until the recent exhibition of her
work at the ICP in New York, had been given very little credit for her
work or for being, perhaps, the first woman photo-journalist to cover
a war.

The first to die.

She was 26 years old when she was hit and killed by a tank at the
battle of Brunete on 25 July 1937 soon after the photo on this post
was taken.

There's more about her on the ICP web and The New York
Times and The Telegraph.



I hope they bring the exhibition to Barcelona.

Boy wearing cap of FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation)
Barcelona August 1936. Gerda Taro.

I love Poble sec, the district I live in in Barcelona.

I love the narrow little streets and the park of Montjuïc behind.

I love its working class history, the sense of community.

Which survives.


Gerda probably didn't know that this photo was taken in Poble sec.

It's the anarchist barricade in front of the old Molino Rojo theatre
(Barcelona' s version of Le Moulin Rouge) and was decisive in
stopping the advance of the insurgent troops at the beginning of the
Civil War.


I love that she was here.

Truth, Lies and the Olympics

Photo: Agustí Centelles Ossó

"All British and US troops serving in Iraq will be withdrawn within
a year...The planned pull-out from Iraq follows the acceptance by
London and Washington that the presence of the coalition ...is now
seen as the main obstacle to peace."
Telegraph 08/03/2006


"...the Bush administration has begun negotiations...to keep U.S
troops in Iraq for years, even decades, after George W. Bush leaves
office."
Washington Independent 26/03/2008


I would prefer to explain the history of the suitcase with the
negatives of Agustí Centelles photos of the Spanish Civil War,
recuperated, like Robert Capa's, to bear witness to a time.

But that must wait.

Because Iraq is now.


Britain isn't saying much about troop withdrawal except that it
has been "delayed".


Meanwhile preparations for the 2012 Olympics in London
continue.

Just think how many armless, legless athletes they can bring from
Iraq for the "Para-Olympics".


I wonder who will boycott London.

Fear and loathing in Barcelona

Manuel Monleon

On Monday afternoon Tony Blair was in Barcelona to give a
conference.

2000 of the more economically privileged were invited.

But not the general media. Apparently at his request.

Afraid of something, Tony?

After all hundreds of thousands of people protested in Barcelona
about the invasion of Iraq and TV3, the main Catalonian television
channel, has always maintained a critical coverage of the Iraq war
and its terrible and continuing aftermath.


Tony Blair, who is directly responsible for the deaths of unimaginable
numbers of Iraqi people was paid nearly 300.000 dollars for a 30
minute speech.

His visit was given very little advance publicity and was surrounded
by strange secrecy.

Like a sneak thief.

Like the criminal he is.

What did he speak about?

There is little information available.

Probably something to do with the wages of sin.


"New Labour"?

The old labour is still around. It earns 31 dollars a day.

STOP THE WAR COALITION

Tibet and Berlin 1936

Two years before Hitler came to power in 1933,
the 1936 Olympics had been awarded to Germany.

Intimations of what the Nazi regime was and
would be capable of led some to call for a boycott.

Not many listened.

But that Spain of 1936...

The dreams of freedom and a better world.

The Republican government decided not to send
any participants to Berlin. Instead, with the government
of Catalonia and the City of Barcelona, they organized
an alternative in protest:

The People's Olympic Games.

With 6000 registered athletes from 23 nations the games
were due to start with an inauguration ceremony on the 19th
July.

But with the fascist uprising on the night of 18th to 19th
Spain was plunged into 3 years of civil war. The popular
Olympics, evidently, did not take place.

Some of the foreign athletes immediately enlisted in the
militias on behalf of the Republic forming the basis of what
would later be the International Brigades.

Some died.


I don't like competitive sports and do not believe the
Olympics significantly further peace and understanding
between Nations. But, oh, I would have liked to have seen
Hitler, Master of the Master Race, watching Jesse Owens,
black and beautiful, winning 4 gold medals that summer
in Berlin.


Today, on the news, I watched the Olympic torch on its
journey through London, surrounded by heavy police
protection and jeered by crowds protesting about Tibet.

I wonder who will boycott Beijing.

Manel Cabanes Fernandez

Photo Copyright: Carmen Cabanes

The 70th anniversary of the March bombings
of Barcelona in 1938 seems a fitting time to get
back to the story of Air Raid Shelter 307.

Manel, to whom this blog is partly dedicated,
died on the night of the 17th March when a section
of the shelter collapsed. He was 5 years old.

He had always been terrified of the narrow, winding
tunnels of the shelter and never wanted to go
inside. But the intensity of the air raids which had
started the previous day was so frightening for his
mother, her sister and their four other children
that he was forcibly taken inside

There is no record of a direct hit on the shelter.
Lack of foresight, materials and manpower meant
that many shelters were being used while work was
still in progress. A section collapsed just where the
children were sleeping.

Manel's eight-year-old cousin Dolores died instantly.
Manel was still alive but bleeding from the eyes and
ears. There were no ambulances or cars available in the
chaos. So his mother ran, with her son in her arms, to the
central hospital.

It's about 40 minutes´walk, uphill, on a normal day.

They couldn't save him.

His mother, Angela, never really forgave herself for
making him go inside the shelter. She washed and kept
the jacket he was wearing the night he was killed. She
died in 1998 and was buried, as she had requested, with
the jacket in her arms.

I can think of others to blame.


Manel's sister Carmen, who was born after the war so never
knew him, told me the story. We cried, for the pity and the
horror of it all.

I look at his photo and imagine losing a child in this way.

I look at the photo.

Strange premonition, the doll's striped suit.

It looks so much like the ones issued to inmates of the
Nazi concentration camps.

Of flags and freedom and other messages

Flags are a difficult subject.

They have dubious military and patriotic associations.

But, sometimes, they are an easy and beautiful way to attract people's attention.

To the abuse and misuse of power.

There were lots of flags at the anti-war demonstration on Saturday.

The Tibetan flag.

The Palestinian.

"A World Without Wars"

There were many messsages.

Some were innocently hopeful.

"No to a Global Guantanamo"

Others angry about illegal, insidious incursions on basic human rights and freedom.

"Solidarity with Malalai Joya"

Some a celebration and solidarity with Afghani women who dare to be free.

At the end of the demonstration one of the speakers was a little
Pakistani girl.

Her father is one of the men arrested, violently, in Barcelona in
January accused of planning a terrorist attack on the city. She
begged for tolerance, for resistance to fear and criminalization
of Muslim people.

For presumption of innocence.

Her father may or may not be guilty. Spain suffered one of the
worst al-qaeda inspired terrorist attacks in Madrid in March
2004 which left 191 dead and 1755 injured.

But I remember a similar spate of arrests in Catalonia in 2003,
"Operation Estany" when 22 men of Arab origin were arrested
on suspicion of plotting a chemical warfare attack. They were
later freed without charges though some have since been re-arrested
and convicted. The sentence is still under appeal.

But one man, Youb Saoudi, not one of the convicted, was extradited
to Algeria in 2006 where he was put on trial accused of belonging to
a terrorist cell. He was found innocent.

The Spanish authorities are refusing to give him a visa to return to
Spain and his family.

The incriminating chemical substance found at the time of the
original arrests was washing powder.

5 YEARS

Josep Renau

On February 15 & 16 2003, with the invasion of Iraq imminent, unprecedented anti-war demonstrations were held all over the world. Estimated numbers vary, strangely, but in 800 cities in 60 countries, between 8 and 30 million people went out onto the streets to say no to war.

So what?

You just lie your way through when you want the petrol and the profits of war.

Bush´s recent visit to the Middle East, alone, resulted in arms deals of an estimated 20 billion dollars.

This man accuses Iran and Syria of fomenting violence.

If he can he will move the war to Iran.


This afternoon there will be demonstrations, for those who still rage and sorrow, to mark the 5th anniversary of the war.

In Barcelona: Plaça Universitat 17.00h


I do try to get back to the story of the air raid shelter.....

War Games. Are contagious.

Photo: EFE

It seems I was too quick to criticize the Americans for how they spend public funds.

Not to be outdone, last Monday Spain also launched a new battleship, the "Juan Carlos I".

Capable of transporting 1,200 troops, it will be equipped with the normal array of canons and machine guns plus its own anti-missile defence system. It will also double as an aircraft carrier. On the news I heard the Captain mumbling something about humanitarian missions.

Like saving Iraq perhaps.

It cost over 553 million dollars.

Ah yes, humanitarian missions.

The "Juan Carlos I" could be so useful.

Spain is only a few miles from the North African coast, such a terrible temptation for the hopelessly poor. The war-weary.

That dream of a better life.

So many die in the attempt.


The photo is from Boris Hoppek´s "86 Negritos" (86 Little Negroes) exhibition last summer in Cadiz.

Another Song for (Election) Sunday

Photo: Gerda Taro
Marines playing musical instruments on board the battleship Jaime I,
Almeria, Spain. February 1937.


I was looking for the song "Cabo de Palos" about
the Republican Navy but found this.

Somehow it seems more appropriate.

How will it ever change?

Spanish children, especially working class children, didn't have many toys in the 1930s.

Life was hard.

For the poor.

The little cardboard boat in the picture, the old battleship Jaime I (which remained loyal to the Republican Government after the fascist uprising in 1936) was part of a series:

THE REVOLUTION
IN SURPRISE ENVELOPES

issued during the war.

It cost 25 cents or was available in exchange of 25 of the vouchers
given for each purchase of 5 pesetas or more in ALMACENES
ALEMANES (The German Store) (collectivized) in the centre of
Barcelona.

It`s one of my prize possessions.


Last Sunday I read that the US Navy had just launched a new destroyer - the USS New York.

The bow contains 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from Ground Zero

In honour of those who died.

They think it will defend freedom and combat terrorism.

A war boat.


There is no National Health Service in the United States of America.

Life is hard for the poor, if they fall ill.

Perhaps a state hospital would have been a more fitting tribute.

Of books and books

Encouraging the underprivileged to read was one of the constant Republican preoccupations during the Spanish Civil War.

It was seen as a way to fight fascism.


But there are books and books.

And bookshops.


This afternoon David Irving, Holocaust denier (he has claimed that Auschwitz was merely "a labour camp with an unfortunately high death rate") anti-semite, racist and jailbird has been invited to speak at the same bookshop in Barcelona where David Duke was prevented from giving his conference a couple of weeks ago.

David (a rather unfortunate name for an anti-semite) (I seem to be repeating myself) has written a lot of books about Nazis and Nazi Germany, mostly in a rather favourable light. This is somewhat perplexing given that they nearly killed his father in 1942 when they sank the boat he was serving on.

He has been barred from entering Austria, Germany, Italy, Canada and New Zealand and in May this year was expelled from the 52nd Warsaw International Book Fair in Poland for attempting to promote pro-Nazi and anti-Semite books.

Barcelona is a wonderful, generous, open-hearted city. But sometimes...

Christmas

This year the boys and girls from Santa's Ghetto have moved the show to Bethlehem.

Where else?



Thursday evening.

Coincidentally the International Commitee of the Red Cross has just issued a report about the Gaza Strip entitled "Dignity Denied", the political nature of which is unusual for their normally discreet, "non-political" stance.

Worth a read.

Click the link for the full report.


Some extracts:

Occupied

Throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people's existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day...

Trapped in the Gaza Strip

While the Gaza Strip is sealed off, the conflict between militants and Israel continues inexorably. Palestinian militants are launching rockets towards Israel almost every day. The Israeli army regularly carries out incursions deep into the Strip, air strikes and attacks from the sea. The civilian population remains trapped, with no escape possible, and is also affected by continued intra-Palestinian clashes...

"Even after the disengagement, they did not leave us alone, they return every now and then, levelling our land, uprooting our trees and destroying our houses. In addition, you only know that you are inside the buffer zone when they shoot at you."
Saleh, farmer, Gaza

Since the violent clashes between Hamas and Fatah-affiliated forces and the Hamas takeover in June this year, the crossing points remain closed to most Gazans. Studying or receiving medical treatment in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel or abroad has become nearly impossible, with the exception of patients who are in need of life saving treatment. And sometimes even they are not permitted to leave...

Since its unilateral disengagement in 2005, Israel has gradually established a buffer zone along the fence that surrounds Gaza, extending into the Strip's already cramped and overpopulated territory, with heavy consequences for the population. More and more agricultural land is being lost through the ill-defined extension of this buffer zone, and this is endangering anyone who gets too close. Indeed, Gazans are often killed, wounded or arrested when they approach the fence.

Enough to survive, not enough to live

"It is difficult to find certain types of medication, such as antibiotics. We have already run out of cereals, and these days milk powder for babies is very hard to find. When you do find it, it is unaffordable for most, as its price has increased dramatically."
Dr Salah, pharmacist, Gaza

According to the World Food Programme, some 80,000 Gazans have lost their jobs since June 2007, increasing the already high rate of unemployment to the point where around 44% of the working population is jobless. Many local industries had to shut down and fire their personnel, as 95% of local production depends on imports of raw materials from Israel. Israel has restricted imports to what it deems "basic goods" – mostly staple food products – while other essential items needed to keep industry running or repair infrastructure cannot enter the Strip.

Shrinking agricultural production

"First, they took land for the road, then more land for the security zone along the road, and then they destroyed my house because it was too close to the security zone. Now they have levelled the land again. I have nothing left."
Abdul, Gaza


Crumbling infrastructure

The infrastructure of the Gaza Strip is in a fragile state. Some eight months ago, a wastewater lagoon in northern Gaza containing hundreds of thousands of litres of raw sewage burst its embankments. Sewage flooded a Bedouin village, killing five people, injuring 16 others and destroying the homes of thousands. Since then, no substantial repairs could be carried out due to a lack of funding and Israel's restrictions on imports of spare parts.

Since Israeli air strikes destroyed a large part of the Gaza Power Plant in June 2006, it has been working at roughly half of its original capacity. The electrical supply to the Gaza Strip is precarious, unreliable and dependent on external sources. In its current state, it cannot produce sufficient power to meet the needs of the population.

As a result, essential infrastructure such as hospitals, water systems and sewerage systems is having to use backup generators. Relying on generators is risky, and creates new dependencies on fuel and spare parts, quite apart from the higher running costs. Current import restrictions are preventing delivery of essential fuel and spare parts, which means that vital services are in danger of complete collapse.

Access to land

The humanitarian situation in the West Bank is also deteriorating day by day. Palestinians stand by powerlessly as their land is confiscated. Over the years, Isitraeli settlements and roads have expanded, taking over more and more of the land that the same families have cultivated for generations.


Access to roads

Many West Bank roads that used to connect Palestinian villages to nearby cities are now closed off by concrete blocks, ditches, earth mounds or iron gates. These obstacles separate Palestinians from their lands, their water sources and even their rubbish dumps. They divide one community from another, villages from cities, and districts from each other...

Harassment by settlers

"I had to build a high fence around my house to protect my children. Before, my children were stoned by settlers when they were playing outside. They stone us for the simple reason that we continue to live on our land and do not want to leave."
Anwar, Hebron

Palestinians living close to Israeli settlements are not only dispossessed of their land, but are often harassed by settlers. The number of assaults on civilians in the West Bank has grown steadily. ICRC data collected in the field indicates that the number of offences more than tripled in the last five years, while complete police investigations are rare and most of the time reach the conclusion that "the culprits could not be identified.”

An appeal for a dignified life

The dignity of the Palestinians is being trampled underfoot day after day, both in the West Bank and in Gaza.

Israel's harsh security measures come at an enormous humanitarian cost, leaving those living under occupation with just enough to survive, but not enough to live normal and dignified lives.

Israel has the right to protect its own civilian population. However, there should always be a sound balance between Israel's security concerns and the protection of the rights and liberties of the Palestinians living under occupation. So far, the balance between the Israeli legitimate security concerns and the right of the Palestinian people to live a normal life has not been struck.

The 1.4 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip continue to pay for conflict and economic containment with their health and livelihoods. Cutting power and fuel further compounds their hardship and is contrary to fundamental humanitarian principles.

In the West Bank, the establishment of Israeli settlements affects every aspect of Palestinians’ lives and leads to the loss of much land and income, together with recurrent violence by settlers. Exhausting movement restrictions hinder access to work and have led to unprecedented levels of unemployment and poverty.

Only prompt, innovative and courageous political action can change the harsh realy of this long-standing occupation, restore normal social and economic life to the Palestinian people, and allow them to live their lives in dignity.

AY, CARMELA. A song for Sunday.

Ay, Carmela, is one of the most famous of Spanish Civil War songs. This version by the group El Ultimo Ke Zierre uses the lyrics dedicated to the XVth Brigade formed in 1937 and which incorporated volunteers from twenty-six different countries including 600 Englishmen, 550 Americans (the Abraham Lincoln Battalion), 800 French and Belgians and 800 from the Balkans.

I doubt if anyone will ever dedicate a song to Mr David Duke.

But a good friend in the US, when I told him Duke was coming to Barcelona wrote:

"David Duke is fortunately a crook rather than a fanatic and has been bought and sold more times that a 10th Avenue hooker. That's all I can say that's positive about the swine."

Perhaps, once more, the less said the better.


Better the lyrics of the song

Viva la quince brigada,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Que se ha cubierto de gloria,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Luchamos contra los curas,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Legionarios y fascistas,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

En los frentes de Gandesa,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

No tenemos municiones, ni cañones
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Pero nada pueden bombas,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Donde sobra corazón,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Sólo es nuestro deseo,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

Acabar con el fascismo,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!

Luchamos contra los curas,
Rumba, rumba, rumba

legionarios y fascistas,
¡Ay Carmela, ¡Ay Carmela!


Long live the 15th Brigade
The glorious 15th Brigade.
We're fighting the priests
The Foreign Legion and the fascists.
On the fronts of Gandesa
We have no ammunition or canons
But bombs can do nothing
Where there are hearts and to spare
Our only desire is
To eradicate fascism.
We're fighting the priests
The Foreign Legion and the fascists.

Ay Carmela, Ay Carmela!

This is fascism

Padial. Socorro Rojo de España, Comisión de Propaganda.

Lit. S. Dura Socializada, U.G.T. C.N.T. Valencia. 1937(?)



This is fascism!

Misery, destruction, persecution and death.

David Duke. Foiled by the Redskins. And friends.

Gran de Gracia. Barcelona. 24.11.07

David Duke,* white-supremacist, racist, anti-semite, holocaust denier, nazi sympathiser, homophobe (the list is rather long), former Grand Wizard (oh, please, how old are these people?) of the Ku Klux Klan, and former jailbird was in Barcelona on Saturday evening to spread the word.

David (a rather unfortunate name for an anti-semite) believes North America belongs to North Americans.

Preferably the blonde, blue-eyed sort.

He seems to be forgetting something.

David was born in Oklahoma.

Land of the Cheyenne, the Comanche, the Black Pawnee. Amongst others.

Such beautiful names

So it seems fitting that his talk at a neo-Nazi bookshop in Barcelona was cancelled, in part, because of the protest organized by young anti-fascist groups, including skinheads who call themselves "Redskins."

Of course he also believes Europe belongs to Europeans.

Preferably the blonde, blue-eyed sort.

He had come to Spain, allegedly to promote some anti-semite book he´s written, but more likely to spread his racist venom on the dangers of immigration.

Early in the afternoon all streets leading to the bookshop were blocked by rows of riot police.
Few, apart from the press, were allowed access and those who were were searched and asked for identification.

Like criminals.

Inside the bookshop members of the police were ready to record
Duke´s conference, with instructions to interrupt and suspend the
act at the first signs of hate-mongering.

This would probably have left him with very little to say.

The act was cancelled.

In a subsequent declaration to the press Duke "lamented that Barcelona was the only city in Spain where he had been unable to present his book."


I have great taste in cities.

*The link is to a Jewish web. Excellent information if you wish to know more about
Duke. But perhaps they should themselves reflect on the dangers of racial hatred.

Gran de Gracia. Barcelona 24.11.07

After the street-fighting at the anti-fascist demonstration last week,
the riot squad were out in force. But this time, I'm pleased to say, there was minimal gratuitous violence.

The squad looked a little bored, the batons, shields and rubber bullets superfluous. Contingents occasionally skipped off, one behind the other, in their manly boots to look for the main body of demonstrators who had disappeared somewhere into the night after burning a white-robed effigy of Duke from a lamp post. Finding all approaches to the bookshop blocked they soon marched back but stood around in peaceful protest till the news came that the conference had been cancelled.

Yankee go home indeed.

Standing around in the cold I was reminded of the photos I had seen of a very different farewell. On October 28th 1938 Barcelona paid homage to the International Brigades, men and women who came from all over the world to fight for the Republic. They were finally forced to leave to comply with the terms of the Non Intervention Agreement. Thousands of people lined the streets as they marched by during the farewell ceremony, by coincidence just a few hundred yards away from where Duke was planning to speak.

But the message then was a little different.

The closing words of Dolores Ibarruri , La Pasionaria's, speech at the ceremony were:

You will not be forgotten.... Come Back.

Salvador Puig Antich

By one of those strange coincidences the 20th November is also the anniversary of the death of General Francisco Franco.

Almost forty years after his bloody military coup he died in his bed.

The less said the better.

I prefer to commemorate the death of the Catalan anarchist Salvador Puig Antich, the last person to be executed by garrotte vil on Franco's orders on the 2nd March 1974.

A recent film, "Salvador", relates a romanticized, falsified version of his life and execution.

The less said the better.

I prefer to recommend the film "El Verdugo" (The Executioner, Luis Garcia Berlanga. 1963), a black comedy about capital punishment and one of the best Spanish films I´ve ever seen.


The 20th November is also the anniversary of the execution by the Republicans in 1936, of the founder of the Falange, José Antonio Primo de Rivera.

It is not a coincidence that last week, with a variety of commemorative acts and demonstrations organized by right-wing, neo-Nazi groups and others who mourn the passing of the dictatorship, the American white-supremacist and former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, was invited to speak in several Spanish cities.

Graffiti. Legal, but still graffiti.

In 1974, the year of Puig Antich´s execution, the Catalan artist Antoni Tapiès had an exhibition in the Maeght Gallery in Paris.

The painting on the left, "Assassins", was used for the poster advertising the exhibition.

It was posted all over the streets of Paris.

The message was clear.

"In Memory of Salvador Puig " Antoni Tapiès

Inside the gallery exactly who and what Tapiès was referring to
was more explicit.

BUENAVENTURA DURRUTI

When the air raids began on Madrid and civilians, including children, died the Republican Government published this poster.

It was printed in Spanish, French and English

Hopefully.

Innocently.

Perhaps they thought France and England would change their minds?

Both had rushed to sign the Non-Intervention Agreement in August 1936 which was then ratified by twenty-seven other countries. Basically this meant the much-needed supply of arms to the democratically elected, legitimate Republican Government was prohibited.

The fascist rebels, of course, had no problem flouting the ban with troops, planes and war material from Italy and Nazi Germany.

The poster probably did affect international public opinion, there is nothing like a woman crying with a child in her arms to move people.

But she wasn´t crying in fear of the bombs.

She was crying for Buenaventura Durruti.

20th November 1936

Photo: International Institute of Social History. Amsterdam


"The bourgeosie may blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here in our hearts."

Buenaventura Durruti.

The anarchist leader Buenaventura Durruti died in Madrid on the 20th November 1936.

He had been shot the previous day in circumstances which have never been fully explained.

His body was taken to Barcelona where his funeral was attended by a quarter of a million people.

The photo above was taken as the cortège passed on its way to Montjuïc cemetery.

Still defending a dream

Joaquina Dorada, 90, Montjuïc cemetery Barcelona Sunday 18 November during the act in remembrance of Buenaventura Durruti and Francisco Ascaso and the thousands of fighters
who gave their lives, who were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and shot or forced into exile in defence of anarchist ideas and the CNT.

In 1936 Joaquina Dorada was a member of the Iberian Federation of Young Libertarians of Poble sec. An active participant in collectivizations she became Secretary of the woodworkers' union. Imprisoned several times after the war for clandestine anti-Franco activities, when sentenced to 15 years in 1952 for "aiding the rebellion" of 1936 she replied: "What rebellion?
The rebels were the fascists." She escaped to France in 1957.

Concha Perez

Concha Perez (seated) 92.

Anarchist member of Les Dones del 36 (The Women of 36) an association formed in 1997 to explain the experiences of Republican women during the Spanish Civil War, Concha fought with the CNT at the Aragon front until the women were ordered back to the rearguard where she spent the rest of the war as an active member and worker in a collectivized factory. She was an adviser to Ken Loach for his film "Land and Freedom."


Standing on the far left is Durruti´s daughter Collette.

BARCELONA 1936. A WARNING.

But they didn't listen.

Noone seems to be very sure exactly how many people died in the Second World War.

Fifty million ? Sixty million?

Maybe it´s irrelevant.

Just start counting:

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven ...

Carlos Javier Palomino

Plaça Universitat. Barcelona 17.11.07

"You don´t argue with fascism, you destroy it."
Buenaventura Durruti.

On the 11th of November Carlos Javier Palomino was on his way to protest about an anti-immigration demonstration in Madrid which had been organized by the neo-Nazi group Democracia Nacional (National Democracy).

He was stabbed to death on the underground, apparently by a professional soldier in favour of, and probably on his way to, the demonstration.

Carlos was 16 years old.


Yesterday in Barcelona, as in other Spanish cities, a protest was called.

They came in hundreds, dressed like punks and skins.

Young and angry.

Bless them.

It ended in a street battle with the police.

But what can you expect?

A date: the 11th of September

2007

US Military deaths Iraq 3772


Civilian deaths
Reported Minimum 71,720
Reported Maximum 78,296
Iraq Body Count

The picture of George W. Bush by Phil Hansen is made up of the names of 1768 coalition soldiers killed in Iraq.

A date: the 11th of September

2001


THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A date: the 11th of September

Ambitions
Militarism
War

This is fascism

1973

Salvador Allende.

Assassinated by the Generals


in collusion with U.S. transnational corporations, the U.S. government and other centres for international capital, and the Chilean oligarchy.

A date: the 11th of September

"Onze de setembre" Lluis Alaves

1714

On 11 September 1714, with the fall of Barcelona after street to street fighting and nearly 4000 dead, Catalonia was finally defeated by the Spanish troops of Felipe V of Bourbon.

Catalonia had been a sovereign nation up to this point. It lost its national rights and liberties, its own laws were abolished and Catalan language and culture were banned.

With some of these rights restored, it is now the National Day of Catalonia and a holiday

Of Puppets and Puppet Masters

Jordi Beltran and Osama
"Threading Songs." Bodega Salto 17.7.07
Poble Sec annual street festival

"At the third UNCTAD I was given the opportunity to discuss the phenomenon of the transnational corporations. I emphasized the vertiginous growth in their economic power, political influence and corrupting action. World opinion should react with alarm in the face of this reality. The power of these corporations is so great that it extends beyond all borders...

We are facing a direct and very real confrontation between the large transnational corporations and the states. The corporations are interfering in the fundamental political, economic and military decisions of the states. The corporations are global organizations that do not depend on any state and whose activities are not controlled by, nor are they accountable to any parliament or any other institution representative of the collective interest.

In short, it is the entire world political structure that is being undermined. 'Traders have no country. They have no ties to the place where they carry out their business; they are only interested in the profits'. This affirmation is not mine, the words are Thomas Jefferson‘s. "

President Salvador Allende of Chile
Speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations.
4 December 1972



Two names. Of many.

Halliburton.

Blackwater.
(article 7)