The Volunteer, July 1999

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...and that government of the people,by the people, and for the people,shall not perish from the earth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

TheVolunteerJOURNAL OF THE VETERANS OF THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE

Th eVo l u n t e e rVol. XXI, No. 3 Summer 1999

Chicago Friends of VALB-ALBA The Annual NY Reunion Ariel Dorfman:Sweet Circles News from the Basque Country Consul General of SpainEmilio Cassinello Fraser Ottanelli: A Plaque on a Wall in FlorenceHannah Creighton Clinic George Watt Awards

By Peter Carroll

Ever since Bill Clinton award ed posthum ousCongressional Medals of Hon or to seven AfricanAm erican h eroes of World War II, includ ing Staff Sergeant

Edw ard Ca rter, Jr., the ad ministration could take cred it for

correcting th e racial injustice that had dep rived b lack sol-

diers of equal treatm ent in the w ar against fascism. But

wh at the publicand the presidentdid not know w as

that the celebrated Sgt. Carter had been tw ice victimized:

Once because of racial discrimination in the Arm y and a

second tim e because of the color of his po litics. Carter had

da red to fight in the Span ish Civil War.

Last year, Carters family allowed me to examine a

suitcase full of docum ents that tell the story of his long,

lonely, and u ltimately futile effort to overcome the stigma

of having served in Spain. Then, this past Mem orial Day,

the r elease of Carter s FBI and military intelligence files

prom pted U.S. News and World Report to put Carters pic-

ture on the cover with the caption: Sgt. Edd ie Carter was a

hero. But w hen he came hom e, the Arm y accused him of

treachery. It was a lieone that took 50 years to expose.Carters prob lems began in September 1949, when he

learned that that the Army had rejected his application for

reenlistment. He then journeyed to Washington, D.C. to

From War Hero toBlacklist

THE LONELY ODYSSEY OFA LINCOLN VET

Continued on page 11

INSIDE


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2 THE VOLUNTEER, Summer1999

Marv Gettleman is no longer a mem ber of The

Volunteers editorial board. He w ishes to thank the vet-erans of the Abrah am Lincoln Brigade for the

opp ortunity to assist them d uring the last two and a h alf

years in up hold ing the ideals of antifascist international-

ism they exemplified not only wh en they bravely

volun teered to fight in Spain against Hitler, Mussolini

and Franco, but also in their ongoing struggles over the

last six decad es. Salud ! to them and to their ind elible

legacy.

The VolunteerJournal of the

Veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade

an ALBA publication

799 Broadway, Rm 227New York, NY 10003

(212) 674-5552

Editorial Board

Richard Bermack Peter CarrollLeonard Levenson Fraser Ottanelli

Abe Smorodin and Bill SusmanSubmission of Manuscripts

Please send manuscripts by E-mail

or typewritten and double-spaced, if possible. If you wish your

manuscripts returned, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope.E-mail at:[email protected] or [email protected]

An Exercise inDemocracyby Abe Smorodin for the staff VALB

A

fter much discussion, th e staff of VALB decid-

ed to subm it a resolution on the

NATO/ Clinton bombings in Yugoslavia to its

mem bership. We had previously agreed in the

interest of unity to take no p osition on this issue,

but the long and prou d h istory of our organization

on matters of war and peace mad e it an imp ossible

position to m aintain.

Therefore the fol low ing resolution w as adoptedand forwarded to our membership:Be it resolved that VALB consistent with its record of

support for peace through the years hereby resolves that:

We call upon our government to stop the bombing ofYugoslavia now being conducted by NATO/U.S. forces

and call on all parties to begin negotiations.

Here are the results:140 Vets received the resolution

60 voted yes

14 voted no

1 checked both boxes

With the Pros and Cons came many com-

ments reflecting how deeply our comrades

had though t about the comp lexity of the sit-

uation in the Balkans. Despite the cessation

of the bombing, we u rge all Vets, particular-

ly those who did not respond to write to us

and in general stay in touch with ou r office.

A Salud to all our supporters!

From: Kol Ze'ev JerusalemMy u ncle-Henech Blankrot w as a Jewish volun -

teer of the Polish Brigade d uring the Spanish CivilWar. He w as born in Kalisz, Poland in 1907. I knowthat he w as killed in Zaragoza, Spain. Does anyone

know if there is a Jewish cemetery th ere? Or, even ifthere w as one m ain cemetery of fallen soldiers thatmay have includ ed Jewish soldiers? I was just toldthat he m ay have been killed in a m ilitary vehicleaccident.

Leon [email protected] Adum im, Israel

Dear Sir,I had an uncle who was a volunteer in Spain d ur-

ing the Civil War. His name was MaximilianFriedm ann an d h e came from Rum ania. We think thathe d ied in a concentration camp in France. Wouldyou know how I could find ou t what happ ened tohim?

Thank you!

Carin [email protected]

Let ter s to ALBA


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THE VOLUNTEER, Summer 1999 3

MadisonPlans

MonumentLincoln Vet Clarence Kailinhas succeeded in gainingapp roval from the Mad ison City

Parks Com mission for the con-

struction of a monu ment to

honor Wisconsinites who served

in the International Brigades.

When I heard that Seattle had

erected a m emorial, Kailin told

a local reporter, I thou ght, its

time to do something in

Mad ison. This is a progressivecity. It only seemed right.

Kailin and the Parks

Commission have agreed to a

site near the citys old Ga tes of

Heaven synagogu e in James

Mad ison Park. The project has

won endorsement from n umer-

ous local and state leaders,

including Mad isons U.S. Rep.

Tammy Baldw in and Mad ison

Mayor Sue Baum an.

Sup porters of the memorial

still need to raise about $10,000

to complete construction that

will include a flagstone walkway

and an inscribed monu ment.

Contributors should mail checks

to Veterans of the Abrah am

Lincoln Brigade (VALB), c/ o

Clarence Kailin, 501 Evergreen

Ave., Madison WI 53704.

Ive w aited a long time to

see some recognition for all the

vets from Wisconsin, Kailin

add ed. But, more than that, Iwan t to see a monum ent to the

struggle for economic and social

justice that our fight w as par t of.

I want to see a monum ent

because thats a struggle just as

important tod ay as it was in 1937

and 1938.

ChicagoShoutsFrom the

WallReceptionFeaturingStudsTerkel

T

he Chicago opening of the

Shouts From the Wall

poster show featured a star-studd ed reception on

Saturd ay, Augu st 14 at the

Chicago Pu blic Library's

Harold Washington Library,

400 South State Street. The

opening reception w as co-sponsored

by the Ch icago Pu blic Library,

Chicago Friends of the Lincoln

Brigade, the Instituto Cervantes, the

Center for New Deal Stud ies,

Roosevelt University and the Mary

and Leigh Block Museum .

Stud s Terkel highlighted the p ro-

gram. Other speakers included

Congressman Dann y Davis, 7th C.D.;

Jam ie OReilly an d Michael Smith

with mu sic from their acclaimed

revue, Pasiones: Songs of the Spanish

Civil War; and Peter Glazer wh o pre-

sented Spain in the Heart, poetry

readings from the w ar.

Upcoming Chicago Events

Pasiones: Songs of Spanish Civil War,Sept 16, 5;30 p.m.Film:The Good Fight, Sept 22, 7 p.m.Painting and Writing While Bombs AreFalling: Art and Literature During theSpanish Civil War, by Prof. Cary Nelson,

Sept 25, 2 p.m.Film series Sept 28- Nov 30

including The Good Fight, and You areHistory You are Legend.

For Information:Chicago Friends of the Lincoln Brigade5320 N. Sheridan Road, #1902Chicago, IL 60640773-769-2665

Grave MarkerSought forEddieBalchowsky

Polly Con nelly, retired U AW

organizer, discovered th at

Lincoln vet Edd ie Balchow sky is

buried in a mar kerless grave in

Forest H ome Cemetery. Conn ellyis working w ith Chicago Friends

of the Abrah am Lincoln Brigade

mem ber Jeff Bech, a relative of

Balchowskys, to get a proper

grave marker.

Any one w ishing to don ate or

help with this cause can contact Jeff

Bech through CFLB.


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ALBA in Chicago

Milt Wolff Speaksat HemingwayCentennial

Oak Park, a near-west suburb ofChicago, was a beehive of activity in

mid-July during a week long celebra-

tion of the Centennial of the birth of

Ernest Hemingw ay. Milt Wolff, last

Comman der of the Abrah am Lincoln

Battalion add ressed a stand ing room

only gathering at the Oak Park

Library. Other speakers included

Brian Peterlinz, Chicago teacher an d

Co-chair of the Ch icago Friend s of the

Lincoln Brigade, and Lincoln veteran

Charles Ha ll. The aud ience was com-

posed of all ages, wh ich ind icated th e

intense interest in the legacy of the

International Brigad es and for the role

of Hemingw ay and other journalists.

Joe Powers Sr, an Oak Park r esident,

told the story of Than e Sum mers, a

family friend of the Hem ingway's,

and a gradu ate of Oak Park River-

Forest High School. Sum mers

volun teered for th e Lincoln Battalion

wh ile a stud ent at the Un iversity of

Washington and was killed in Spain

in March, 1938. Efforts are u nd erwayto find an ap prop riate form of com-

memoration, such as a Tradition of

Excellence awar d in h is honor, at the

high school.

The following d ay, at a literary

conference, I Knew Pap a: Friends

and Family Remem brances, Wolff

stressed the importance of

Hem ingways sup port and w ritings

for the cause of dem ocratic Spain.

The cast of Peter Glazers Heart of Spainwith Lincoln vets (seated, left to right)John Rossen, Carl Geiser, Charles Hall, Max Shufer, and Bob Steck.

Lincoln Brigade Commander Mil tWolff and Ernest Hemingway, 1938

Sixty years ago , on Apr il 22, 1939,

71 Am erican p risoners of war

marched across the International

Bridge from Spain to freedom in

France, after having been held as pris-

oners of war in the concentration

camp of San Pedro Cardena for over a

year. Only eight of that group survive,

and four of themCarl Geiser,

Charles H all, Max Shufer, and Bob

Steck met in Chicago . The reun ion

included events by the ChicagoFriends of the Abraham Lincoln

Brigade, such as a read ing of Peter

Glazer's Heart of Spain.

Heart of SpainReadings of the mu sical play

were performed at N orthwestern

University's Struble Theater. Written

by Peter Glazer with original compo-

sitions by Eric Peltoniem i, the play

combines original text with poetry,

mu sic and stories of the Spanish Civil

War. Glazer is interested in continuing

to developHeart of Spain and eventual-

ly would like to put on a full-scale

prod uction. But for now he said he is

happy with the students' work and

with the m usical as a staged reading.

The produ ction opened the week-

end of April 17-18.

How does art relateto history?Glazer also produced a symp o-

sium dealing with the relationship

between art and history. Are artistic

and cultural presentations created

du ring the times more authentic than

the trad itional historical narrative?

Continued on page 7

San Pedro Prison Vets Reuniona Big Success


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New York Events

Consul General of Spain Emilio

Cassinello passed on special words of

thanks t o the veterans of the Abraham

Lincoln Brigade at the A LBA-V ALB

annual celebration in New Y ork, on

April 25, 1999, printed below.

There was a timetoo long atimein w hich in Spain th erewas d arkness at noon. For almost half

of the past hund red year s of this 20th

century, d emocracy w as seen as asickness by those wh o believed that

they had w on a sad and long civil

war, not kn owing that a civil war is

never ever w on. It is always lost, and

lost it is by all: by those w ho p roclaim

them selves the victors and , obviously,

by those w ho are the victims.

Precisely just the first day of th is

mon ththe past first of Aprila sad

ann iversary has gone by p ractically

un noticed: the 60th

anniversary of the

so called victory,

the victory of a fas-

cist takeover o f the Spanish p eoples

destinies by a m ilitary coup , and the

conversionin med ieval fashionof

the citizens into subjects.

On th e very same first days of

April, through out four d ecades, an

unrelenting celebration w ent on in the

streets and avenues of the Spanishcities, a perver se celebration of th e

loss of freedom, of the disap pearance

of the free spirit, a painful remind er of

the imp ossibility of challenging th e

official truth, how ever spiteful or lud i-

crous it might be.

So, we have rightfully ignored a

date that remind s us of the sinking of

Consul General ofSpain AddressesALBA-VALBAnnual

Celebration

Continued on page 6

The annual reunion of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade inNew York included a performance

by folk singer Odetta (top-right), a

speech by Consul General of

Spain Emilio Cassinello (top-left

with Bill Van Felix to his right), anda reading of poetry by Martn

Espada including a poem about

Abe Osheroff (Espada above with

Osheroff ), and a speech by

Congressman Jerold Nadler. The

winners of the Watt Awards

were also announcedsee story

page 17.

PHOTORICHARDBERMACK


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civilized coexistence in Spain. A d ate

to be deliberately forgotten because

we, the new Spaniard s, have a clear, a

very clear conscience, that u pon the

remn ants and salvages of a civil disas-

ter, upon the wreck of a civil war,

nobody can construct anything m ean-

ingful. Upon a collective d efeat

nobody can build a futu re. Something

afresh had to be reinvented . Thu s, for

very p ractical reasons, nobody in this

new, contemporary, modern Spain,

has been w illing to even remember

what is better forgotten: the sham e of

the traged y, the ru thlessness, the injus-

tice, the death, the cruelty, the m isery,

all have to be forgotten; the oppres-

sion, the lunacy of many a human

soul, are not to be remem bered.

Those painful m emories have to

be forgotten. But w e have to d istin-

guish between m emories and lessons.

In tod ays Spain, for our own collec-tive health, the lessons of those years

have to be kept alive, retrieved an d

pr eserved. An d so it will be. Yet, after

20 years of dem ocracy, and already in

the thr eshold of the 21st century, one

can also assert that m emories have ful-

filled their sociopolitical role

including their therapeutic function.

Thus, the Spanish p eople have

come to the conclusion that w e can

call it quits with ou r strenuous, stress-

ful, tiring past. We better do it, if onlyfor what John Elliot advises us

Spaniards, pointing out that w e have

had a sickly tendency to dw ell on his-

torical catastrophes, warning usthe

same Elliotthat the obstinacy of

remembering the defeats of the p ast,

can up set the futu re. It is obvious

that we have good, practical reasons

to lay away, for good , the narcissism

of disaster, as Juan Mar ichal put it.

But there are other mem ories of

those fateful years that also coun t as

critical lessons, and that n ot only

deserve to be kept and rem embered,

but m ust also be honored. Those are

the memories that have to do with

commitment and conviction, w ith

bravery, with integrity and resolve.

Those are images that are still imp rint-ed in our eyes and mind s as acts of

compassion, care and love. I am r efer-

ring to the p resence, on Spanish soil,

of the International Brigades, and,

more specifically, of the Lincoln

Battalion. Some m ay say, patron izing-

ly and cond escendingly, that back in

the 30s you w ere young and impu l-

sive, as if you need ed to be excused

and justified for something you did

that w as weird an d exotic. But w e

know better.

You w ere there, in Spanish land s,

out of conviction, ou t of the explicit

belief in hu man dign ity: because free-

dom of spirit and solidarity overcame

self-interest, because for you (as I have

just read in a moving obitu ary of a

Lincoln Brigade m ember), legitimate

anger w as a form of love. And I canassure you (and it is all too painfu lly

obvious) that those attitud es and th at

resolve of the men and wom en of the

Lincoln Brigade, are an extremely rar e

thing in the history of mankind ,

wh ether past or present.

For that, all Spaniard s of good -

will, all of Spain, owes you a

perman ent debt of gratitud e. You kep t

us comp any in difficult times; you sac-

rificed you r lives; you came to ou r

rescue. It is not only a m ystical deb t, it

is a real cred it you have in the balancesheet of our recent history. You w ere

offered Span ish citizenship it was

the least we could d o. And just last

month, the General Archive on the

Civil War, being set u p in Salaman ca,

has includ ed a p rominent and specific

chapter on the International Brigades.

A llow me, at this point, to sharewith you an autobiographicalfootnote, foras it is imp ortan t for

todays and future Spaniards to have

the orderly rescue of the m emory I

have myself a personal debt with you.

I was born just 10 days before the

outb reak of the w ar, in July 1936, in a

small town of La Mancha, not far

aw ay from Albacete. Subsequen tly I

lived in exile, in Mexico, for 17 years,being part of the p ainful exodus th at

was provoked by the civil war. And I

have heard my father and m y fathers

friends tell, once and again, episodes of

the dark years, in wh ich ever so often

the lightning of your extreme bravery

shed som e brightness. You w ere part of

those stories and that history.

Thus, my imagination and m y

reasoning ow es you some of the first


Consul General, NYContinued from page 5

The Amigos from Spain at the New York annual event.

In todays Spain, for our own collective health, the lessons ofthose years have to be kept alive, retrieved and preserved.

PHOTOERICLEVENSON


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serious thou ghts of a youn g ad oles-

cent, pond ering wh at values in life

were w orth fighting for, what w as

hum an decency about -and how fun-

dam ental sanity lay in simp ly being

true to ones ideals. And then som e-

thing that may seem again anecdotal

but not for m e: I also still cherish at

heart the moving m emories of listen-

ing to an old worn record, smuggledinto Spain, with spirited, popular, mil-

itant songs, in one of wh ich you gave

your m ailing add ress your

parad eroen el frente d e Gandesa,

primera lnea de fuego.

Times have changedradicallychangedand than ks to the imag-ination and efforts of todays

Spaniards, the past h as gone by and

the wou nd s have all but healed, the

scars becoming pr actically invisible.

Today, on the footsteps of the 20th

Anniversary of the Spanish dem ocrat-

ic Constitution, w e, all contem pora ry

Spaniardsand you, our friends

have cause for celebration. Because, in

just tw o decades, things hav e taken aturn for the better, mu ch better. Not

only can w e be proud to be the eighth

country in the world by indu strial

GDP and a found er of the euro; not

only are we the eleventh countryin the world in terms of UNDPgeneral well-being indicators; but,above all we can celebrate that welive in a free, open society, in ademocratic country with gu aran-

teed individu al rights und er therule of law, with freedom ofspeechand full, unrestricted public liberties.

Less than a year aw ay from the

21st century, u nd er a m ature Consti-

tution, we have reasons to believe

and we shou ld act on such a belief

and h opethat our children, and our

grand children, and th eir sons and

dau ghters, will have as we dotodaythe same reasons to celebrate

for years and years to come. To close

these words let me sum u p stating the

obvious. The war is over. It has

already been over for decades. A new

Spain is on its feet.

But you, men and wom en from

the Abraham Lincoln Brigadeour

lasting friendsyou are not the past,

you are not on ly legend, you are n ot

only mem ories: you belong to ou r civ-

ilized fu ture. That is why a long letter

of gratitud e is still being w ritten by

the Spanish p eople, by all the

Spaniard s of goodw ill, to those of you

wh o came from afar to help u s in

those fateful years. A letter tha t no

longer has to be add ressed to any w arfront, any fire line. A letter that is still

flowing because our d ebt is a standing

debt of love, that has no exp iration

date and that cannot be canceled. As

the old Span ish saying goes, love can

only be repaid w ith love. And th at,

takes forever.

You w ill always have our gratitud e

and our hearts.

Such issues were hotly debated at

The Aesthetic and the Au thentic in

Representations of the Span ish Civil

War. Contributor and p rodu cer of

man y VALB events, Glazer contrasted

Lincoln vet Chuck Hall's person al

reflections on the w ar w ith film clipsfrom Joris Ivens 1937 documen tary

The Spanish Earth, and then slides of

poster, photographs, and art images

from the w ar, followed by a 1942

recording of the song El Qu into

Regimiento and a passage from

Edwin Rolfe's 1948 poem Elegia.

Art as a Weapon

ALBA H istorian Peter Carro ll

described how du ring the Spanish

Civil War art and culture were an

integral pa rt of the struggle. Films,posters, photograp hy, and poems

documen ted the horrors of fascism,

including th e first aerial bombings to

terrorize civilian popu lations.

A panel includ ing Dr. Scott

Cur tis, Assistant Professor of Radio/ -

Television/ Film at North western;

Laura Labau ve-Maher a Lecturer in

Hispanic Studies, David Mickenberg,

director of North western 's Block

Museum; and Dr. Michael Sherry,

Professor of History at Northwestern

discussed h ow th e denial of the

Spanish Civil War's significant p lace

in the stand ard histories of World

War II give add ed imp ortance to

stories, images, and artifacts for

understanding the War.

About 50 people attended the

event. Graduate stud ents and faculty

joined in d iscussion w ith veterans of

the San Pedro p rison, and CFLB mem -

bers. Even organizer Glazer was

particularly proud of this synthesis of

academia and living history.Scholarship can often be far too iso-

lated from its foun dations, its

substan ce, its sources, its inspirations,

its players--and in that sense, we are

also lucky and perhap s somewhat

chastened to have our witnessing of

history here today, he stated.

Chicago: Art and WarContinued from page 4

PHOTOTHESOSSENKOS

Lincoln Vets Moe Fishman (left) and George Sossenko (right) at a reception in thehome of Consul General Emilio Cassinello


8/24


The Basque p roblem rem ains oneof the greatest challenges that con-fronts Spanish d emocracy, and in our

Pais Vasco (the Basque Coun try)

things are still far from ru nn ingsmooth ly. Our situation reflects a long

history of failure. During the 19th cen-

tur y, our p eople failed in its fight for

liberties and un iversal civil rights, and

the liberal revolution had ba rely start-

ed then. Ideas without acts and acts

without ideas. That was our history

accord ing to Karl Marx.

Not u ntil the second Republic of

1931 did the ideas of nationality and

liberalism again have a chance. But as

we all know, the d emocratic revolution

became a civil war, and we lost. Afterthe civil war, the clock was set back.

Und er Franco, the highly centralized

and dictatorial state ignored our tradi-

tional rights (the Fueros) and

und ertook, among other things, the

repression of ou r national language.

In this atmosphere of national

opp ression, ETA (Basque Land and

Freedom ) was born . Initially, it was

widely acclaimed as a revolutionary

grou p, finding its justification in the

resistance to Francos d ictatorship . But

subsequently ETA became a d rawback

for the fragile Span ish democracy. It

was only after Francos death that

ETAs terrorism becam e most active,

grad ually increasing its activities, and

refusing to ad mit that the dictatorship

was over and that we have a democrat-

ic state. ETAs strategy of provoking a

Coup dEtat that wou ld open the eyes

of the Basque work ing class and

wou ld drag th em into the fight, was in

the end destined to fail.

Actually they have failed beforethe supreme Court of History. ETA

has wasted m ore than two decades of

its militants an d of ou r collective d ig-

nity. One of the biggest problems of

Basque society today is the reconcilia-

tion of the victims and executioner s.

There are man y justifications for

ETAs violence: it is a just cause, our

rights have been supp ressed, one

thou sand reasons. But, still, ETA has

killed, often in cold blood, other

hu man beings for the crime of not

thinking exactly like them.

There is no p olitical ideal, not even

a d emocratic one, that justifies thedeath p enalty, much less without the

rights of trial and due process. Two

years ago the Basque peop le and all of

Spain took to the streets by the millions

to ask that ETA not kill the young

Basque council mem ber from the PP

(Popu lar Party) who they had kid-

naped . Two d ays later he was found in

a hole assassinated w ith a shot in the

back of his neck, and a true p opular

uprising took place to protest the crime.

The ETA side has its own dram as.

The policy of previous governmentshave dispersed 600 ETA prisoners in

Spanish p risons. This policy was

app roved by all the political parties,

including th e PNV (Basque

Na tionalist Party). The objective of

placing the prisoners in d ifferent pris-

ons all over Spa in was to break their

relation with ETA. Many p eople and

political parties disagree w ith this pol-

icy. In add ition, there is the horr or of

the antiterrorist-terrorism by the orga-

nization GAL (Antiterrorist Groups of

Liberation) created in the early 80s

with the sup port of high members of

government, which caused numerous

casualties in the ETA entour age andseriously weakened the found ations

of the new Spanish d emocracy .

The Basque coun try, Euskad i o

Euskalerria (we cannot even agree on

a nam e) is now immersed in a p rocess

that som e call a peace process and

others of democratic normalization.

More than a year ago ETA declared a

cease fire. Now , most p olitical and

social nationalist forces hav e reached

a p olitical agreemen t the so-called El

Pacto de Lizarrathat is satisfactory

to ETA too.

But th e pact is not acceptable to

the two strongest parties in the coun-try, the PP an d PSOE (Socialist party ).

These two p arties rejected the agree-

ment for tw o reasons. One problem is

territorial and reflects the claim a s one

of the most sacred aspirations of

Basque n ationalism that N avarra be

integrated in the Basque coun try

together w ith the three French-Basque

territories. Yet most p eople in those

territories do not vote n ationalist;

instead they vote for parties that do

not agree with that philosophy.

The other point of conflict iswh ether Spain w ill accept w hatever

decision the Basque p opu lation m akes

un ilaterally. In all the elections so far

the pop ulation of the current

autonom ous government have voted

roughly 50-50 for and against nation-

alism (in all its varieties, modera te or

otherw ise). In the case of secession,

that sup port w ould fall dramatically.

As for France, prospects for national-

ism are far d immer.

Probably the time h as come for

Basque nationalism to harvest the

fruits of its success in having resisted

uniformity, centralism, and dictator-

ship; accomp lished the sur vival of itsancestral language; given cohesion to

a small country; and obtained one of

The Basque Country: The end of a cycle

Init ially, it was widely acclaimed as a revolutionary group,finding its justification in the resistance to Francos dictator-ship. But subsequently ETA became a drawback for the fragileSpanish democracy.


By Kati Gutierrez

Kati Gutierrez is a high school historyteacher and member of the BasqueParliament, representing IzquierdaUnida (United Left). Translation providedby Professor Jose Maria Garcia of Bilbaoand Victoria Parraga, ALBA Associate.

Pais Vasco


9/24


by Fraser Ottanelli

For the stud ents of my Florida StateUniversity overseas program onfascism in Florence, Italy, it w as the

perfect historical link. Located in th e

citys med ieval heart, on the sid e ofthe building opposite the classroom in

wh ich I taught, was a plaque m arking

the spot where Alessandro Sinigaglia,

one of the city's most revered antifas-

cist resistance leaders, had been

gunn ed d own in February 1944 by

Italian fascists wor king for the N azis .

As an edu cator I cannot often

bridge the physical distance between

the classroom and the locale of perti-

nent historical events. Sinigaglia's

story w as the exception. H is militant

opp osition to fascism, from you thfulactivities in his native Florence, the

Garibaldi Battalion of the International

brigades during the Span ish Civil War

and his martyrdom, provided a

uniqu e personal history. The students,

from various universities in the

United States, were brought h ome to

the complex experiences and the p rice

paid by a generation of antifascists. In

addition, Sinigaglia's background

makes him stand ou t among the mem-

bers of th e Italian resistance: his father,

David, was an Italian Jew an d h is

mother, Mary White,was an African-

American from St. Louis who had

come to Florence to work as a m aid fora wealthy family in one of the v illas on

the northern slopes of the city.

While I know that there is more to

identity than genetic makeup, never-

theless, as an Italian American, I claim

Sinigaglia as "one of our own." Now,

with material draw n from various

archives in Italy and in Moscow, here

briefly is Sinigaglia's story.

A faded ph otographic portraittaken d uring th e Spanish civilwar provides some ind ication of

Sinigaglia's backgrou nd . Recalling his

bravery an d resolve, one of his com-

rades d escribed him as "of medium

height, strong, with a dark complex-

ion, an open and intelligent

expression, with eyes and cheekbones

resembling those of a Mongolian."Born in 1902, Sinigaglia matured in

the strong Socialist and Communist

culture of Florence's working class

neighbor hood s. We learn from h is file

in the archives of the Italian police

that at the age of eighteen he joined

the Arditi del Popolo, a paramilitary

organization, composed mostly of

Communists, to resist the bloody

Fascist offensive waged at the end of

1922 against wor kingclass organiza-

tions and activists in the period

previous to Mussolini's rise to power.

Following th e Fascist victory,

Sinigaglia became one of the leader s

of the city's Commu nist und erground

organization. Eventually, however, his

activities brought h im to the attention

of the infamou s OVRA, a special

branch of the Italian p olice in chargeof repressing antifascist activities.

Returning from a meeting, late one

night in Mar ch 1928, Sinigaglia found

three policemen w aiting for him in

A Plaque on a Wall in Florence

Alessandro Sinigaglia wearing the uniform of the Spanish Republi can navy stand-

ing between Giuliano Pajetta (r), political commissar of the XIIth, XIIIth and XVthbrigades, and an unidentified member of the International Brigades. Photographcourtesy of Instituto storico del la Resistenza inToscana


Fraser Ottanelli, vice-chair of ALBA,teaches U.S. history at the University ofSouth Florida and is writing a history ofItalian Americans.

As an educator I cannot oftenbridge the physical distancebetween the classroom and thelocale of pertinent historicalevents.


10/24


front of his apartm ent building.

Surprisingly, they did not recognize

him an d he w as able to flee. Through

the Party's und erground network,

Sinigaglia illegally crossed th e bord er

into France and eventually mad e it tothe Soviet Union. In Moscow he

attend ed the prestigious Lenin School,

married a Russian w ho worked for the

Comintern and h ad a child.

By 1935 Sinigaglia was once again

involved in clandestine operations as

a mem ber of the Italian Comm un ist

partys und erground in Switzerland .

There he learned of the outbreak of

war in Spain and w as among the first

of the international volunteers to rush

in defense of the Republic in August

of 1936. In Spain Sinigaglia displayedun ique m ilitary an d p olitical skills.

Shortly after arrival, in light of h is ear-

lier experience as a subm ariner in the

Italian navy, he was assigned to the

Republican cruiser Mend es Nu ez.

His person nel record in the archives of

the International Brigades in M oscow

contains several reports he prepared

for Luigi Longo (Gallo), Inspector

General of the International Brigades,

on the morale and overall prepared-

ness of the Repub lican fleet.

Eventually he w as assigned as

liaison officer betw een the Spanish

Repub lican navy and Soviet military

advisers. How ever, his most imp ortant

job du ring the war was to su pervise

the clearing of the mines that the fas-

cist forces repeated ly placed along the

access channels to the port of

Barcelona. According to his personnel

record, in the performance of this task

he d isplayed great p ersonal courage

and technical expertise, repeated ly

placing h imself in harm's w ay and

devising n ew techniques to neutralize

explosive devices of varied types.

Following th e defeat of the

Republic, together with thousand s of

Spanish repu blicans and m embers of

the Intern ational brigad es, Sinigaglia

crossed the border to France and w as

interned in th e infamous Vernet con-

centration camp .

In 1941, following th e Germ anand Italian occupa tion of France, the

Vichy authorities hand ed h im over to

Mussolini's police together with most

of the other Italian volun teers, who

were then sentenced to four years of

internal exile on th e island of

Ventotene. This policy of bringing

Italian volunteers back to Italy and

confining th em in the same place was

to backfire against the Fascists.

In the su mm er of 1943 the Kings

decision to depose Mussolini led to

the r elease of political prisoners.Drawing on their military experience,

the Italian veterans of the International

Brigades provided the core around

wh ich the armed resistance movem ent

was established. Upon his release

Sinigaglia returned to Florence and was

at the head of the Comm unist party's

military organization where he played

a central role in organizing and leading

the urban partisan organization, the

GAP (Group s of patriotic action).

Totaling between 20 and 30 mem bers,

the GAP w ere divided into small cells,

unconnected to each other, so that in

the case of capture the entire organiza-

tion would not be jeopard ized.

Dur ing the w inter of 1943 and

1944 , the GAP carried ou t scores of

daring attacks against Nazi and

Fascist troops an d installations. Their

most spectacular feats were blowing

up the head quarters of the Fascist

par ty and executions of the city's chief

of police and a p rominent mem ber of

Mussolini's governm ent. Sinigaglia

carried ou t the dan gerous task of

maintaining contacts between the

leadership of the Comm unist party

and th e partisan units.

A marked m an, he was targeted

by the four saints, a group of Italian

fascists und er the comm and of the

Nazi S.S. After a long manhu nt they

found Sinigaglia in a restaurant in the

center of Florence dining w ith another

Italian Span ish Civil War vet. His com-

rade w as imm ediately captured and

later executed together with 65 parti-

sans. Sinigaglia overcam e his attackers

and fled. How ever, he got no farther

than a few hu nd red yards before he

was tracked down, woun ded and then

killed w hile lying on th e sidewa lk. In

his honor, the 22nd Garibaldi partisan

Brigade took the n ame of Brigata

Sinigaglia, and he was p osthumou slyawarded the Silver Medal for valor,

Italy's second highest military award.

As for my stud ents I hope that

standing on the spot w here "this guy

whose mother was from St. Louis"

was killed helped th em better und er-

stand the internationalist character of

the struggle against op pression.

the most advan ced au tonomous self-

governments in the world. We have

our ow n p arliament, the Basque gov-

ernm ent collects all taxes, has its ow n

police force, and comp lete au tonom y

in edu cation, public works etc. But itis time to get rid of some id eological

ismsits ethnicism, its ancestral

voices, its nation above th e rights

and the w ill of its citizens to the p oint

of justifying any hu man rights viola-

tion for the sake of that nation.

The Basque Coun try is now at a

crucial point. It can be th e time to

establish by consensus am ong u s

Basques a political fram ewor k in

which we can live in our d iversity, in

which the reconciliation and healing

of wound s can take place. But also itcan be the time for the sordid an d

fanatic fights in a battlefield ever

more divided in two irreconcilable

fronts.

Obviously we are for the first

alternative, but w e mu st adm it that it

is not going to be easy.

Drawing on their military experience, the Italian veterans ofthe International Brigades provided the core around which thearmed resistance movement was established.

BasqueContinued from page 8

SinigagliaContinued from page 9


11/24


plead h is case with the Ad jutant

General, but his request for an inter-

view was den ied. He app ealed for

assistance to the legal dep artm ent of

the N AACP, but they d eclined to help

because h is case involved civil liber-ties not civil rights.

Carter took his case to the Am erican

Civil Liberties Union,

wh ich agreed to

make a private

inquiry to the White

House. In 1950, one of

President Trumans

personal ad visors

reported that th e Carter

case w as officially

closed. No charges were

ever filed; Carter w asnever allowed to learn

what he had been

accused of doing.

The release of Carters

FBI files this year clarified

his pr oblem. As U.S. News

reported, there were two

grounds for questioning the

Sergeants loyalty in 1943. First,

Subject reported ly was a mem -

ber of the Abraham Lincoln

Brigade, having served for two

and a half years [sic] with said

Brigade in Spain. Second ,

Potentially adverseSubject is seem-

ingly poten tially capable of having

connections with su bversive activities

du e to the fact that he spent his early

years (un til 1938) in the Orient an d

has a speaking knowledge of

Hind ustani and Mand arin Chinese.

Although the story in U.S. New s

dep icted Car ter as a political nave, he

certainly knew tha t in going to Spa in,

he had violated State Departmentru les. Other Lincoln vets were treated

by the Army as prematu re antifas-

cistsa euphemism for

commun istand w ere denied offi-

cer promotions and overseas service.

The Road to Spain

Carters odyssey began w hen h e

followed his fathers missionary call to

India an d China in th e 1920s and 30s.

As a teenager in Shanghai, he stu died

the military arts at a Chinese academy

and had volunteered to fight against

the Japanese invad ers of China

between 1931 and 1935. From Ch ina,

he had returned h ome to Los Angeles

and soon afterward went to Spain. His

family believes he joined th e

International Brigades as a p rofession-

al soldier to fight th e good fight.Evid ence o f Carters service in

Spain remains sketchy. Aside from th e

listing of h is nam e on the official

VALB roster ,

there is no

other men-

tion of his

name yet

found in

the

archives. In a

1942 inter -

view, Carterreferred to

his

frozen feet in Spain, suggesting th at

he had participated in action arou nd

Teruel du ring the winter of 1938. In

1946, he told an other interv iewer for

Peoples World, a west coast commu -

nist newspap er, that when the fascists

broke throu gh the Repu blican lines in

March 1938, he had retreated all the

way to the French border and been

arrested in France. Thu s h is ser vice

in Spain p robab ly lasted only a few

months. We have not yet found infor-

mation about w hich u nits he served

with an d no surv iving Lincoln veteran

can remember him in Spain.

By 1939 Carter was back in Los

Angeles, where he married and h ad

the first of his two sons. When World

War II began, he enlisted in th e U.S.Arm y. His service in the segregated

army was limited to menial assign-

ments. After his un it was shipp ed

overseas, he repeatedly volunteered

for a combat assignm ent. His app lica-

tion w as finally accepted in 1945.

Down graded to a pr ivate, he got

his chance to fight in Mar ch 1945.

When the tank he w as riding on came

un der fire from a farmhouse in

Germany, Carter led a three-man

squad to locate the enemy. Almost

immediately Carters two comradeswere shot. He was left in an exposed

position, targeted by heavy m achine

gun fire. Five times he w as shot, yet

he u sed his marksm an skills to take

out an unknow n nu mber of German

soldiers.

Finally, the German s sent eight

soldiers to captur e him. Carter killed

six of them and captured the other

two. Carter, bleeding from wounds,

walked across a German field w ith his

bayonet stuck ag ainst the neck of one

German , his rifle pointing at the back

of the other. Carter was recomm ended

for the Medal of Honor; he got the

DSC instead.

After the w ar, Carter return ed to

Los Angeles, trying unsuccessfully to

start a small business. He also assumed

leadership of a local black business

association, aimed at en ding racial

discrimination.

Ebony magazine featured Carter

BlacklistedContinued from page 1


Peter Carroll, chair of ALBA, is theauthor of TheOdyssey of the AbrahamLincoln Brigade.

The Germans sent eight soldiers to capture him. Carter killed sixof them and took the other two prisoners....Carter was recom-mended for the Medal of Honor; he got the DSC instead.


12/24


with six other African Am erican DSC

winners. The article quoted him say-

ing that black soldiers in World War II

proved that racial cooperation was

possible. He also said the arm y might

benefit from some imp rovement

about 99 percent imp rovement.In 1947, Carter accepted recogni-

tion from a local group of the American

Youth For Democracy and attended

their Welcome H ome Joe party .

Other guests included Hollywood

celebrities, such as Ing rid Bergman ,

and political rad icals, includ ing

Lincoln vet and screenwriter Alvah

Bessie (soon to achieve notoriety a s

one of the Hollywood Ten) and Pau l

Robeson. Carters attend ance at this

event is verified by th e report of an

FBI informant.By 1947, Carter decided to reen list

in the arm y. The m ilitary overlooked

his alleged offenses and a ssigned h im

as a weap ons instructor in a new ly

created N ational Guard un it for black

soldiers. But w hen the Guard pu b-

lished their roster of instru ctors,

Carters name was missing, foreshad-

owing his future p roblems.

Carter served well during the next

two years, receiving no warn ings about

impend ing problems. One day before

his reenlistment w as expected, the

army instead gave him an honorable

discharge. His pap ers were stamped

Not p ermitted to reenlist without

app roval of the adjutant general.When neither a personal appear-

ance nor the NAACP nor the ACLU

could persuad e the army to reverse its

decision, Carters life turn ed sou r.

Letters to his attorneys reveal a fru s-

trated and angry m an. He even sent

his DSC to a lawyer with the request

that he return it to the White Hou se.

When Ebony magazine prepared

to pu blish a sequ el to the earlier arti-

cle abou t black DSC winners in 1950

asking w here are they now ?Carter

could barely respond. He finally sent

a lame response that his work w as

confiden tial. The accompanying

photograp h shows the despair that

cloud ed h is life.When further ap peals to the gov-

ernment brought no response, Carters

anger turned to bitterness and dep res-

sion. He began to drink h eavily,

neglected h is appearance, and became

a problem for his family. In 1958, a

friendly physician wrote once more to

the ACLU, pleading for a reopening of

Carters case in hope that the restora-

tion of his military career w ould

restore his self-respect. The ACLU

could offer no hop e.

In 1963, at the age of 46, StaffSergeant Edward Carter, Jr. was dead

in Los Angeles. No obituary appeared

in the new spap ers; only his family vis-

ited the grave.

And there the Carter case rested

un til President Clinton m oved in 1996

to amen d th e errors of military justice

for African A mericans. The White

House ceremony blazed Carters

name on front pages; World War II

comrad es came forward to recall his

heroism and mourn his early death.

Only his family knew wh at the

government had d one to this prou d

veteran of two wars. We need to end

the hurt, his daughter-in-law told me,

to show the American people justwhat the army d id to Edw ard Carter.

We wish to r estore his dignity.

Veterans of the Lincoln Brigad e,

wh o won man y medals for courage

du ring World War II and w ho shared

with Ca rter the honor of being called

premature antifascists, welcome

him into their ranks.

BlacklistedContinued from page 11

We need to end the hurt, to show the American peoplejust what the army did to Edward Carter. We wish torestore his dignity.

Sweet

Invited to speak at the annualVALB reunion in Oakland, Californiaon February 28, 1999, the writer ArieDorfman began by describing theimpact of the Lincoln Brigade on hisimagination when, as a 9-year oldboy, he was taken by his father toSpain for the first time. As a youngman in the early 1970s, Dorfman helda government position in the leftistregime of Salvador Allende in Chile.

He was nearly killed and then forcedinto exile when General AugustoPinochet, with the aid of the U.S. CIA,toppled the government in Septembe1973. Now, as the legal system ofpost-Franco Spain attempts to bringPinochet to justice for crimes againsthumanity, Dorfman turned to thequestion: Why Spain?


13/24

My love affairwith theAbraham LincolnBrigade, and in

fact my debt to its

Veterans, started

many years ago,

wh en I was nine

years old. It start-

ed the d ay I stood

on the frontier of

Spa in in October

of 1951, the yea r I

visited Europe for

the first time.

My Argentinefather, a former

commun ist and

still very mu ch a

man of the left

like many of his

generation wh o

had Espaa en el

corazn, Spain in

their heartsmy

father had sw orn

that he would

never step on

Spanish soil until

Franco w as gone

or dead . But w e

swear many

things in life and

life makes

demands of us

that are not

always heroic or d efinitive; life ha s a

way of confronting u s with that Primo

Levi called the grey zones. My father

was w orking at the time at the United

Nations in New York and h e had p ro-fessional business to cond uct in

Madrid an d Barcelona and so we

came to the frontier of the coun try he

had never w anted to visit in his life

even though it had been at the center

of that life and on his mind ever since

its struggle against fascism in th e thir-

ties had inspired him and countless

millions around the w orld.

What I remember above all was

that frontier. We had been trav elling

from France and , because the tracks

were narrow -gauge on the Spanishside, it was necessary to descend in

Irun, I believe it was, and change

trains. My father took me by the hand

and w alked m e to the very edge of

Spanish territory. He crouched dow n

to my h eight, so he could look me in

the eyes and told me that this was the

place where the Republic had been

betrayed . Here, he said, right here, the

weap ons that the Repu blic had paid

for had been blocked by the French,

with the acquiescence of the English

and the Americans. Proclaiming theirneutrality, these countries, future

allies against Germany, had conspired

to starve the Repub lic, not realizing

that they w ere, in fact, encourag ing

the app easing of Hitler and Mussolini.

Did I know H itler and Mu ssolini?

I nodd ed my head solemnly.

Hitlers aircraft, my father said,

Mussolinis groun d troops w ere

engaged on the side of Franco. And I

knew w ho Franco was because he was

the hijo de p uta w ho governed this

land and wh ose name I shouldnt

mention w hile we were in Spain. Even

then, as a child, I was being trained , asmy own children w ould be many

years later in Chile, to hide m y

though ts from the men in pow er, to

hide w hat our family really though t

about Franco.

Franco, my father twisted the

word in his mouth as if it hurt him

merely to say it. Here is wh ere the

Second World War began, my father

went on. Never forget that here is

wh ere the Spanish w ere betrayed...

For m e, in 1951, the existence of theLincoln Brigades d id not w orkmerely as a legendary story of hero-

ism, of men an d wom en w illing to

give their lives for the cau se of democ-

racy while their governm ents stood by

and watched the Repu blic bleed to

death. Though born in Buenos Aires, I

was then a little yankee boy wh o

though t of himself as an American or

perhap s it would be more adequate to

amend that to read: from the N orth,

an American from the North. I refused

to speak Span ish, sang the StarSpangled Banner with fervor and

swore that N ew York w as the best city

in the best country in th e world.

Like any little patriot, I was

always looking for a reason to justify

my love of my adop ted homeland.

And yet, I was also the son of a father

persecuted by McCarthy, a witch-hun t

that wou ld eventually lead u s to aban-

don the Un ited States a few years later

and head for Chile. At nine years of

age, I was living an irreconcilable con-

trad iction: the coun try I considered

my ow n w as trying to exile my father

and might perhap s even kill him. Thefact that the very United States that

was houn ding my family and so many

of my familys left w ing gringo friend s

had also prod uced the Lincoln

Brigades, was a source of comfort to

me and also one of the first profound ly

political lessons I received in my life.

It confirmed m e in something I



CirclesbyArielDorfman

A sweet way for the pendulum of history to swing back, for abalance to be restored to the cosmos: that the Madrid which theVeterans defended in the battle of Jarama, that the Spain theyhad to leave against their will, be the final prison for General

Pinochet or, at least, the place where his trial will take place.


14/24


15/24


Nor does the Spanish connection

with Chile cease there: later, wh en

Allende became a perennial candidate

for president, his marches were

always pu nctuated by the songs of the

Spanish Civil War. We thought of our-

selves often, in Ch ile, as rep eating the

Spanish experience, but this time with

a happy ending.

While our adversaries used Spainas a warning, reminding us that what

had h appened there could happ en in

Chile. And , in 1973, it did . The coup

came, the massacres came, the perse-

cution came. And then, si Espaa

estuvo en el corazn p ara la generacin

de m i padr e, if Spain lived on in the

hearts of my fathers generation, Chile

found its way into the heart of my

generation across the planet dur-

ing the seventies and eighties.

Allendes democratic

road to socialism created thehope that there w as an alter-

native not only to capitalist

developmentor should I say

misdevelopmentbut also an

alternative to stalinist mod els

of society, a p roject that w as

crushed in part by U.S. inter-

vention just as the search for

socialism with the human face

was d estroyed in Prague by

Soviet tanks in m ore or less

the same years. And our

defeat in Chile, as the

Republics defeat in Spain, ush-

ered in long years of repression

around the world, concentration camps

and torture, censorship and exile,

disappearances and executions.

The fact that it shou ld be Spain thatis demanding General Pinochetsextradition, that it is post-Franco

Spain that is willing to judge those

crimes that our ow n Chile, because of

und erstandable flaws and w eaknessesin our transition to dem ocracy, has not

and probably w ill not be able to carry

out, is a cause of great satisfaction to

those who struggle for hu man rights

all over the world but m ust be particu-

larly satisfying to th e Veterans of the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who

watched Francisco Franco d ie in his

bed w ithout ever having been held

accoun table. The fact tha t [Pinochet]

the ideological heir to Franco, who

went to the Caud illos fun eral and

then h ad to leave hurriedly before

Juan Carlos was crown ed, the fact that

the Franco of our tim es is und er arrest

because a Spanish judge decided to

charge him w ith the murd er of

Spanish citizens and internationa l ter-

rorism an d crimes against hu manity,

has to have brou ght man y smiles toour Veterans who have, unfortunate-

ly, seen far too m any disasters all over

the w orld following the fall of the

Republic...

A sweet way for the pendu lum of

history to sw ing back, for a balance to

be restored to th e cosmos: that the

Madrid wh ich the Veterans defend ed

in the battle of Jaram a, that the Spain

they had to leave against their will, be

the final prison for Genera l Pinochet

or, at least, the place wher e his trial

will take p lace...

This does not attenuate the need ofthe people of the United States toadd ress the crimes committed in for-

eign lands in their nam e. There are

two Americas, the America thathelped to overthrow democracy in

Chile and the America that fought that

intervention. The Am erica of Nixon

and the Am erica of the Lincoln

Brigade. And th e America of the

Lincoln Brigade still has un finished

business at home, right here in the

United States.

It is not enou gh for Pinochet to be

tried for his crimes against humanity.

Hu manitythe hum anity of the

United States pu blicmust also

dem and that the America that put

Pinochet in power an d su stained h im

there for m any years, open its files, let

the world kn ow w hat those files hide

about th e d ictators hu man rights vio-

lations and , even more important, the

U.S. government mu st be pressured to

ask for the extradition of GeneralPinochet to the United States to face

trial for the m ur der of Allendes

Foreign Minister Orland o Letelier and

his American assistant, Ronnie

Moffett. If the U.S. is really interested

in fighting intern ational terrorism...

All [Presiden t Clinton] has to do is

instruct his Attorney General to

demand General Pinochets extradition.

Then the circle

wou ld be truly complete.

Think of the day w hen

the Veterans who are leftthe Veterans wh o crossed

the Atlantic to die and

live for Spain, the veter-

ans wh o fought their

own governm ent over

Vietnam and Nicaragua,

the Veterans wh o gave

me hop e as a child on

that frontier in Spain an d

inspired me as an ad oles-

cent and later as a

revolutionary in Chile

and even later as a wan-

dering bilingu al exile for

years and years, think of

those Veterans filing into a cour troom

in Washington D.C. and seeing the

self-proclaimed heir to Franco stand

accused of crimes against h um anity.

Then the circle that started in the

States and wove throu gh Spain would

be truly complete, would be incredi-

bly sweet. In a sense, the Brigad istas

wou ld finally have come hom e.

Ariel Dorfmans complete speech,

including his memory of first learning of

the Lincoln Brigade from his father, is

available as a CD recording for $16.50

(including postage). Make checks payable

to VALB, P.O. Box 884354, San

Francisco, CA 94188.

Ariel Dorfman with Bay Area post comander David Smith

PHOT

ORICHARDBERMACK


16/24


by Dave Smith

WWOWIt w as an aw esome sight,

the 10x14 foot cabin , built in

1906, hanging from a crane 40 feet

above the g round . Bill Baileys former

home w as placed on a flat bed tru ckand hauled from Telegraph Hill to a

temp orary storage site in San

Francisco.

Both local newspap ers, the

Chron icle and the Examiner, covered

the event, referring to

Bailey as the leg-

endary w aterfront

labor leader. The

VALB cottage com -

mittee got the supp ort

of San Francisco

Mayor Willy Brown and help from theInternational Longshore and

Warehouse Union.

Baileys former neighbor, Peter

Dw arres, recalled his mem ories of the

former ILWU officer: He was ru gged ,

one of a k ind, ind ividualistic, a social-

ist, and a very fine gentleman. H e

gave the neighborhood character.

Since 1997 our Vets committee

has been involved with p lans for the

cottage. Without going into many

details, there is now a question about

the final resting place of Bills house.

A p roposal to move the cottage to a

nearby site has been sen t to the San

Francisco Board of Supervisors for

their approval.

Dave Smith is the VALB Commander ofthe Bay Area Post

TThe obituary of VALB AssociateHannah Creighton appeared in theWinter 98/99 issue of The Volunteer.Since then, Gene Coyle, Hannahs wid-

ower, and Dean Slocum organized aneye clinic in Cuidadela GuillermoManuel Ungo, El Salvador in Hannahshonor. Twenty-two volunteers from the

Pacific University's Los Amigos optome-try organization brought 10,000 pairs ofdonated prescript ion glasses, 450 read-ing glasses, medications, and examiningequipment to El Salvador. The clinic washeld in a school room in Marin,Californias sister city. In five days theclinic treated 2000 patients.

Most of t he patients only neededreading glasses. To test the strength,patients were given a needle andthread and then tried on differentglasses until they could thread the nee-

dle without difficulty.After the traveling eye clinic left,

the school build ing was renamed anddedicated to Hannah. The Bay Areapost is proud of the contribut ionsmade by Hannah and the dedicationof the clinic. It is another milestone inthe contributions of the Vets andtheir associates to the cause ofhumanity.

Bill Baileys CottageSeeks New Site

A Legacy of Hannah Olson Creighton

Bay Area News

Dean Slocum (left) and Gene Coyle


17/24


GGeoreorge Wge Watt Aatt Awwarardsds

Salaria Keeby Catherine Wigginton

They w ere there in Spain 1937-1938,

American Negroes. History has record-

ed it. Before that time, the leading

ambassadors of the Negro in Europewere jazz-band musicians, concert

artists, dancers, or other performers. But

these Negroes in Spain w ere fighters

voluntary fighterswh ich is wher e

history turned another page.

Salaria Kee was one of the 2,800

Americans w ho traveled to Spain in

1937 to volunteer for the Second

Spanish Repu blic. Sixty women and

ninety African-Americans were

included in that group. Kee was the

only African-American woman.

Kee arrived w ith the Second

Amer ican Med ical Unit in Spain on

Apr il 3, 1937. Her g roup set up a base

hosp ital in Villa Paz, near Mad rid,

and hosp ital beds imm ediately filled

with hun dreds of woun ded soldiers.The m edical site lacked both sufficient

skilled labor and many resources, but

Kee did not mind . Under these cir-

cumstances the American doctors and

nurses had to work quickly and effec-

tively. Hence, leadership and respect

were given based on m erit alone.

Kee's sup erior nu rsing skills resulted

in her appointment as head nu rse of

two w ards in the hospital.

Five m onths into her service, Kee

met an d fell in love w ith Pat O 'Reilly,

a wound ed Irish International brigader.

The two marr ied on October 2, 1937.

Four m onths later, in Febru ary 1938,

the med ical unit received ord ers to

move to the front, but in March a

bomb dropped by fascist planes over

her field h ospital converted her into

the p atient, no longer capable of mili-

tary service. Kee spent the n ext

several months in America fun dra is-

ing for the w ar effort, until the civil

wa r end ed in 1939.

Althou gh after the Spanish CivilWar Kee fell out of political activity,

she had established h erself in history.

Not on ly had she mad e a d ifference in

her ow n life by pu tting herself in a sit-

uation w here she experienced

equality, but she had also been a par-

ticipant in one of the greatest

struggles of the twentieth century.

Dr. Edward Barskyby Yossef C. Blum

Dr. Edw ard Barsky, a world-

renowned surgeon who devoted his

great talents to helping the Spanish

Republic and the Spanish refugees,

was an extraordinary individual.

After grad uating from Columbia

University of Physicians an d

Surgeons in 1919, he became a top

surgeon at Beth Israel Medical Center

in Manhattan. His medical expertise

was w ell established, and manyregarded him as one of the ablest sur-

geons in th e East. Yet, he did not limit

his app lication of the med ical model

to individ ual cases; he sought to aid

hum an beings on a grander, more

global scale.

Dr. Barsky helped form the

Am erican Med ical Bur eau to Aid

Spanish Dem ocracy, a relief grou p

that succeeded in raising over

$1,000,000, an extraordinary sum for

that time. Although he also was incharge of pu tting together a group of

doctors and nu rses to assist the

Abrah am Lincoln Brigade in Spain, it

came as quite a surprise to him wh en

he was called u pon to lead the med i-

cal effort in Spain.

Risking h is life on a da ily basis,

Dr.Barsky d escribed h is work in Spain

as "a forbidd ing workload u nd er

formidab le conditions." Despite all the

various problem s, Dr. Barskyinvented several innovative

surgical procedures that vir-

tually revolutionized th e

practice of war med icine.

After the war Dr. Barsky

devoted countless years to helping

Spanish r efugees. In 1941, he helped

found the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee

Comm ittee (JAFRC), an organ ization

devoted to imp roving the horrendou s

health and living conditions of the

refugees. While this organization was

initially successful, the JAFRC wasone of the first organizations to be

attacked by H UAC. Presented w ith an

order to produce the JAFRC's records,

Dr. Barsky led the comm ittee's refusal

and w as subsequently charged with

contempt.

Throughout the trial, the three

years of app eals, and his jail sentence

of five m onths, Dr. Barsky r eceived

wide sup port from many wh o felt he

had simp ly done nothing wrong; his

primary goal had been to save thou-

sand s of innocent lives.

Of Dr . Barskys sacrifice, Ernest

Hem ingway said, Edd ie is a Saint.

That's wh ere we pu t our saints in this

country, in jail.

ALBAs annual George Watt Awards are given to students for the best paperson the Spanish Civil War. The awards include a $500 cash prize. This yearswinners are Yossef C. Blum of Yeshiva University, New York, for an essay onDr. Edward Barsky, and Catherine Wigginton, Cole College, Iowa, for an essayon Salaria Kee. Summaries of the award winning essays are printed below.


18/24


Spains Women Prisoners SpeakPrison of Women, Testimonies of War

and Resistance in Spain, l939-l975by Tomasa Cuevas. Translated andedited by Mary E. Giles.Albany State University of New YorkPress, 1998

by Shirley Mangini

In 1989, Mary Giles, a Professor ofHu man ities at California StateUniversity, Sacramen to, was in

Madrid researching d ocuments from

the Spanish Inquisition wh en she

came up on a book of prison testi-monies by wom en from the Span ish

Civil War, Carcel de m ujeres 1939-

1945 (Barcelon a: Sirocco, 1985)

compiled by Tomasa Cuevas. Giles

later found that Cuevas had pu b-

lished tw o other volum es: Carcel de

Mujeres (1985) and Mujeres d e la

resistencia (1986). She began corre-

sponding w ith Tomasa and they

agreed on a tran slation.

When they m et to work five

years later, Giles was overw helm-

ingly impressed b y this tiny spirited

woman w ho had endu red years of

torture and imp risonment, and in

her w aning years stil l had the sense

of commitment an d the energy

required to travel around Spain w ith

a tap e recorder in search of her lost

cellmates.

Mary Giles has accomp lished a

laud able feat. By selecting testimonies

from the th ree books (largely the first

two), editing and translating, them,

she has given the English-speaking

world the opp ortunity to read these

moving and tragic stories of solidarityand survival. In addition, while in all

three volumes Cuevas de-emph asizes

the importan ce of her ow n testi-

mon ies, Giles reorders her

intermittently rend ered life story and

brings it to the foreground . What we

have is both a tribute to Tomasa and

well-edited narrative of the life of a

woman w ho never wavered in her pur-

suit of a free Spa in.

Cuevas describes her early years

as the d au ghter of a chronically-ill

mother and a hand icapped fatherwho had to abandon her education to

help h er sick m other, thereby learn-

ing only elemen tary skills. At the age

of nine she was w orking, and shortly

thereafter began delivering messages

for the Commun ist Party, though she

later joined the JSU (the u nified

socialist and comm un ist youth orga-

nization). Her first arrest came in

1934, to be followed by oth ers after

the war wh en she worked with the

resistance un til she finally fled to

France in 1953.

Cuevas tells many stories about

her p light that are similar to those of

her p risonmates. Her life is the portrait

of a wom an of exceptional w ill power

who, though severely injured wh ile tor-

tured, never revealed the whereabouts

of her comrades. Tomasa married

another resistance member, had a child

and endu red countless emotional and

physical hardships as an und erground

activist. She describes the pa in of being

alone for years at a time, wh ile her

husband w as away on dangerous mis-

sions and her dau ghter was cared for

by family mem bers.

Yet her nar rative is not a plaint or

an ap ology, nor d oes it reveal any bit-

terness. It merely d escribes the life of

an ind omitable crusader wh ose exem-

plary life of commitm ent m akes her a

heroine of qu ixotic stature. Despite the

limitations of her writing skills and

her m eager financial resour ces,

Cuevas d id not hesitate to subsidize

her travels and the pu blication of the

transcribed testimon ies. She was con-

vinced h er goal was w orth every

ounce of strength an d every last pese-ta to br ing the voices of her cellmates

to print. She was right.

The book describes the peregrina-

tions of the wom en from prison to

pr ison, the hunger, the torture, the ill-

nesses caused by the abominable

Book Re v ie w s

They lost their voices, their freedom, their health, their familiesand their country. Fortunately, many of the survivors neverrelinquished their ideals and persevered and because ofTomasa Cuevas, who has acted as a medium for those silencedwomen, we are able to read their stories today.

For information about purchasing thisbook see page 21


19/24


SHOUTS FROMTHE WALLChicago

August 14 October 17Chicago Public Library

400 South State StreetChicago, IL 60606(312) 747-4876, TDD (312) 747-4969

DallasNov. 8, 1999Feb. 21, 2000DeGolyar LibrarySouthern Methodist University6404 Hilltop LaneDallas, TX

CarbondaleMarch 15, 2000-May 15, 2000The University MuseumSouthern Illinois UniversityCarbondale, IL

ALBAs photographic exhibit,The

Aura of the Cause, has been shown at

the Pu ffin Room in N ew York City,

the University of California-San

Diego, the Salvador D ali Museum inSt. Petersbur g, FL, the Fond a Del Sol

Visual Center in Washington , DC,

and the University of Illinois. This

exhibit, curated by Professor Cary

Nelson of the University of Illinois,

consists of hund reds of photograph s

revealing the Abrah am Lincoln

Brigaders, other international volun -

teers and th eir Span ish comrad es in

training and at rest, among the

Span ish villages, and in battle.

BostonSept. 1-30, 1999Goffman GalleryUniversity of MassachusettsBoston, MA

EugeneOctober 10-Nov. 20, 1999Cultural Forum, University of Oregon1585 East 13th Avenue

Eugene, OR 7403For additional information, contactJessie Johnson, Visual Arts Coordinator:

541-346-0007.

For further information abou t The

Aura of the Cause exhibit, and its com-

panion exhibit Shouts From The Wall,

posters from th e Span ish Civil War,

contact ALBAs executive secretary,

Diane Fraher, 212-598-0968. Both

exhibits are available for museum

and art gallery showings.

ALBAS TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS

BRING THESE EXHIBITS TO YOUR LOCALITYContact Diane Fraher, ALBA executive secretary: 212-598-0968; Fax: 212-529-4603

conditions and the hu miliations

inflicted on th em by righteou s prison

guards, often m erciless nuns. It offers

some of the most dramatic stories

repeatedly told by women w ho were

incarcerated during the regime: that of

Matilde Landa, who h elped m any

wom en elud e the death sentence and

wh ose own m ysterious death haun ted

her cellmates, and that of the 13roses, 13 teenage girls wh o perished

before a firing squad and wh ose

crime had been to collect money for

the Loyalists. It provid es the testimo-

ny of Rosaria la Dinam itera, the

young miliciana w ho lost her hand ,

mak ing bombs in the first days of the

war. We read of the escape of several

young w omen from the Le Corts

Prison in Barcelona an d Blas Rojos

eerie memories abou t life on death

row an d the horrific sound s of men

being tortured and killed.

Prison of Women is a major contri-

bution to literature on prison life

du ring the Franco Regime, especially

to the small body of wor k about the

women w ho suffered in myriad w ays

at the hand s of Franco's inquisitors.

They were women w ho had trans-

gressed and were to be "reformed."

They lost their voices, their freedom,

their health, their families and theircountry. Fortunately, many of the sur-

vivors never relinquished th eir ideals

and persevered and because of

Tomasa Cuevas, who has acted as a

medium for those silenced w omen, we

are able to read th eir stories today.

Shirley Mangini, ALBA Board member,is a professor of Spanish Literature atCalifornia State University, Long Beach,and the author of Memories of Resistance:

Womens Voices from the Spanish Civil War.

Official Web Site of thePilots Association of the

Spanish Republic

from: Henri San Benito

ADAR (Asociacin d e aviadores de

la Republica Espa ola)

I have the p leasure of annou ncing

the new incorporation on the web

of the O fficial Web Site of the Pilots

Association of the Spanish

Repub lic ADAR.

http://members.xoom.com/ADAR_ES/Index.htmI invite you to comm un icate with

us via Email

Salud

Henri San Benito

[email protected]

THE AURA OF THE CAUSE


20/24


Adde d to Me m orys Ros te r

Franois MazouFranois Mazou, French IB veter-

an d ied at the end of July in Pau. As

commissar in the 6th of February

Battalion, pa rt of th e original 15th

Brigade, he was w ound ed an d left for

dead at Morata de Tajula. Wound edagain in the Ebro camp aign, he later

comman ded the IB hospital in

Figueras. He w as instrumen tal in

aiding Spanish refugees in the Gurs

concentration camp, and participated

in the French resistance on both sides

of the Pyrenees.

Active in IB veterans a ffairs, he

helped w ith the restoration of the for-

gotten IB section of the local cemetery

of Morata.

Sid LevineSid Levine, one of the original

contingent of volunteers who named

them selves the Lincoln Battalion, died

in California last July. Known for his

courage and skill with heavy machine

guns, he became comp any comman-

der at Brunete. In 1938 he w as

assigned to p olitical work in France,

but w hen he learned of the fascist

advances that sp ring, he left his joband returned to action in Spain. Many

vets remember his heroism du ring the

battalions last actions.

Anthony De MaioObituary next issue

Ruth DavidowIf there were Forever Activist

Awards, Ruth Davidow would get the

Red Star. After serving as a nu rse in

the Spanish Civil War, she used h er

med ical skill to serve the disadvan-

taged as a pu blic health nurse. In 1960

she jour neyed to Cuba, joining the

Public Health Organization in

Havan a, wh ere she worked for two

years. In 1965 she participated in the

civil rights movem ent in Mississipp i,

working w ith the Medical Committee

for Hum an Rights, during "Freedom

Sum mer." When N ative Americans

occup ied Alcatraz Island, they asked

Ruth to ru n the health care services.

She w as one of the few non-NativeAm ericans allowed on the island. She

celebrated her 85th birthday at the

Third International Women's

Conference in Beijing, wh ere she w as

a delegate. A key subject in several

docum entaries including, The Good

Fight, Their Cause was Liberty , and the

Academy Award nominee, Forever

Activists, Davidow became a film

maker herself, produ cing 21 films, on

subjects from health care to p olitical

activism. She was bor n in Russia in1911, and im migrated to the United

States when she was th ree. She grad u-

ated from Brooklyn Jewish H ospital

with a degree in nu rsing in 1936. After

the civil war she ma rr ied fel low

Lincoln Vet Fred Keller. David ow

died on June 28.

Grigore NaumGrigore Naum (Naum Rotstein)

was born in 1911 in Baltzi, Bassarabia.

He joined the youth movemen t and

organized anti-Nazi demon strations

for which he w as arrested and

expelled from engineering school.

When Nau m joined the

International Brigades he delivered

the design of a new w eapon, invented

by his older broth er, to Russian m il-

iary specialists in Spain. The w eapon

become know n as "The Katiousha."

Tragically, his brother w ould be

arrested an d shot in Russia by Stalin,

after inquiring about h is own d esign.Grigore was w ound ed in battle,

but w as rescued by the bravery of his

comrades. When the Republicans

were forced to withdr aw into France,

he w as sent by the French to Gu rs

prison cam p an d later to Djelfa in

French Sahara along with other

Romanians. When the camp was lib-

erated in 1942 the Romanian grou p

joined the fight on th e Russian front.

For his activity du ring the WWII he

was d ecorated as a war veteran by the

Romanian and European Community.

After the war Nau m became a man-

ager of a Pharmaceu tical Company. In

1992 he joined his family in SanFrancisco and became active in the

environmental movement.

PHOTORICHARDBERMACK

You don't have to be a VIPbecause I never wasandyou don't have to be the

smartest or the most success-ful. All you need is a greatcommitment to the lifeyou're living and thecommunit y you're in,and the rest of it is joy."

Ruth Davidow


21/24


BOOKS ABOUT THELINCOLN BRIGADEMadrid 1937 Letters from the Spanish Civil Wared. by Nelson & Hendricks (cloth) $35

Another Hillby Milton Wolff (cloth) $25

Our FightWritings by veterans of theAbraham Lincoln Brigade:Spain 1936-1939

ed. by Alvah Bessie & Albert Prago (pbk) $15

Trees Become Torches,Selected Poemsby Edwin Rolfe (pbk) $10Collected Poems of Edwin Rolfe (pbk) $21

From Mississippi to Madridby James Yates (pbk) $15

Spain, the Unfinished Revolutionby Arthur Landis (cloth) $25

Prisoners of the Good Fightby Carl Geiser (pbk) $15

Spains Cause Was Mineby Hank Rubin(new) (cloth) $29

Comradesby Harry Fisher (new) (cloth) $25

(ppb) $12

Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigadeby Peter Carroll (pbk) $15

Remembering Spain:Hemingways VALB Eulogyby Ernest Hemingway, Cary Nelsonand Milton Wolff (audio tape & pamphlet) $15

Prison of Womenby Thomas Cuevas $10

EXHIBIT CATALOGSThe Aura of the Cause, a photo albumed. by Cary Nelson (pbk) $25

Shouts from the Wall, a poster albumed. by Cary Nelson (pbk) $16

VIDEOSThe Good Fighta film by Sills/Dore/Bruckner (VCR) $35

Forever Activistsa film by Judith Montell (VCR) $35

You Are History, You Are Legenda film by Judith Montell (VCR) $25

POSTERSTwo Spanish Civil War posters (Madrid Lionand

Victoria) are available at $10 plus postage, and thanks

to Eva and Mark Fasanella, copies of five of RalphFasanellas posters ($20 each, plus postage). They are:

Subway Riders(1960); Family Supper(1972); The Great

Strike, Lawrence, 1912(1978); The Daily News Strike

(1993); South Bronx Rebirth(1995).

These books and tapes are available at the indicated

prices from:

Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

799 Broadway, R. 227

New York, NY 10003-5552

Tel: (212) 674-5552

Shipping cost: $2 per copy of book, album or tape.Make checks payable to ALBA.

Lincoln Brigade Video Wins PrizeThe Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a video produced last yearby Jamie L. Cromack of Phoenix, Ari zona, and broadcaston the High School Channel, has won a Telly Award fromthe Center for Creativity. The 25-minute productionincludes footage of the Spanish Civil War provided byALBA and interviews with vets David Smith and RobertSteck as well as ALBAs Peter Carroll. Copies of the videoare available for $15. Checks should be made out toALBA and sent to : ALBA, Box 1571, Tucker, GA 30085


22/24


Over two d ecades ago four veterans

of the Abrah am Lincoln Brigade

Bill Susman, Leonard Lamb, Oscar

Hu nter and Morris Brier created a new

organization: ALBA, the Abraham Lincoln

Brigade Archives, bringing in a group of

scholars interested in the Spanish Civil

War and the International Brigades.

From th e ou tset, one of ALBAs main

tasks was to help manage and expand the

Spanish Civil War archive hou sed at

Brand ies University in Waltham,

Massachusetts. Explicit in this u nd ertaking

were the ed ucational goals of preserving,

disseminating and transmitting to futur e

generations the history and lessons of the

Spanish Civil War and of the International

Brigades.

To carry ou t these go als ALBA, in col-

laboration w ith VALB, pu blishes The

Volunteer. ALBA also collaborates on the

prod uction of books, films and videos,maintains a w ebsite at ww w.alba-valb.org,

helps send exhibitions of photographs,

documents and artwork throughout the

United States and Canada, and organizes

conferences and sem inars on the Spanish

Civil War and on the role of the

International Brigades in that conflict, and

afterward . ALBA has established the

George Watt Memorial prizes for the best

college and gr adu ate school essays on

these subjects, and has d esigned a wid ely-

used Spanish Civil War high school and

college curriculum .

In the coming months an d years

ALBA will greatly expand its activity. To

do so effectively ALBA m ust h ave you r

sup port. Please fill out th e coupon b elow,

enclose a $25 check (or larger amou nt)

mad e out to ALBA and send it to us. It will

insure that those of you wh o are not veter-

ans of the A braham Lincoln Brigad e, or

The Volunteer, July 1999

Documents

Transcript of The Volunteer, July 1999