#anti-Francoist

[nando161mando]

Anarchist anti-Francoist guerrilla Quico Sabaté firing a mortar loaded with propaganda leaflets over Barcelona in 1955.

[argyrocratie]

"We know that currently in our context it is not easy to always act according to anarchist practice. But it should not be too much to ask for a minimum coherence between the actions we choose to follow and maintain the anarchist principles of struggle against capitalism and all its state and corporate institutions, not only on paper but also in the strategies of struggle. Organisations (like people) are what they do and not what they say they are. In the same way that, at least some of us, reflect on whether this or that thing we do is anarchist, this parameter of coherence should also be used to look at organisations.

(...)

Here it is clear to everyone that the de facto position of the CNT-CIT to involve in a conflict with another anarchist union the state judicial system, which in the case of Spain is a post-Francoist system, already directly invalidates their position as anarchists. This break with facts, which are on top of having contact with police forces and transphobic groups previously, should drop the false mask of the CNT-CIT for good and simply be expelled from any international confederation that advocates anarchist principles. At this historical moment we cannot let such undeniable and destructive inconsistencies pass, and therefore from now on people should no longer in any way think of the CNT-CIT as an anarcho-syndicalist group.

At the same time it is interesting to see how the CNT-AIT compañeras allow themselves to be involved in the state judicial system in order to defend themselves. Long gone are the days when anarcho-syndicalists flatly refused to recognise and accept not only the existence of the state judiciary, but actively participate in it. We think that in this case we should return to the practice of sabotage. Don't show up at the trials, don't obey the judgement, let alone be present in this capitalist circus we are living through. We know that the consequences of such a sabotage can be very serious, and at the same time we must think about the long-term signals we are giving.

(...)

We know that the consequences of not legitimising the process, the Audiencia Nacional or the fine can be serious. But here the third question arises: why is it not raised and made public that the process is not given validity and that nothing will be paid?

The consequences of attending the trial, of falling into this legal game is not only to endorse the action of CNT-CIT and endorse the court, it is to abandon the usual anarchist practices of sabotage and refusal to abide by the decisions of the state powers in similar situations. And this, to be fair, is not something only the CNT-AIT should be questioned for, it is a general tendency of all anarcho-syndicalists and part of the anarchist movement. The response to the conflict generated by the CNT-CIT from a neoliberal perspective is framed in a context of anarchist methods and proposals falling into oblivion in a serious international situation of ecocide, the rise of fascism and racism, transphobia, ableism, homophobia and machismo, as well as brutal neoliberalisation and normalisation of genocides. Are we willing to completely abandon our anarchist red lines that unite our principles, our ethics and our tools? So why do we talk about anarchism or that we carry a new world in our hearts when we do not build it by defending our principles with deeds?

(...)

A very concrete point of the CNT-CIT's denunciation of the CNT-AIT is to be able to own the buildings of the CNT-AIT headquarters. It would not be necessary to point out the contradiction of having a dispute over private property, since anyone with a minimal anti-capitalist perspective knows that private property is the main expression of everything we have been fighting against for centuries.

This denunciation is one of the points that have also remained without a forceful response, reflecting and publicly stating, not only from the CNT-AIT, but from international anarchist movements, that regardless of the ruling of the national court, the headquarters will be occupied if they are taken by state and police force. The question on this issue, then, is why we are waiting for an institutional body that we don't even believe in and that we actually want to abolish, to make a decision on this issue. Whatever happens at the Audiencia Nacional, we encourage the occupation, not only of the CNT-AIT headquarters, but all the places that are needed to be able to rebuild our movements and our anarchist unions.

If we take a historical look at anarchist movements, are physical spaces such a trigger for our struggles that they must be defended as private property? Anarchist struggles take place in whatever space is necessary, without the need to have them institutionally approved. We are aware that occupations have been persecuted by the media in recent years by demonising them. Part of the neoliberal propaganda is precisely to delegitimise certain collective practices in favour of so-called legal practices. This should not permeate within anarchist movements, rather we should continue to struggle and and organise popular education so that people understand that being able to have autonomous and free places to live, to organise, to meet and to maintain our communities is a right.

Do so many people really think that if the CNT-AIT is left without its heritage, anarcho-syndicalism would be lost? It is the people practising our anarchist principles and ideals who build and defend anarchist movements, not the walls, doors or furniture of a building. It would be important to rethink whether, apart from the pain of the loss of a historical testimony such as a headquarters building, anarchist struggles go far beyond private material properties which in reality are an invention of capitalism."

-Sonia Muñoz Llort and Mireia Redondo Prat, "Fire to the anarchist unions: chronicles of a death foretold" (October 25, 2024)

[useless-catalanfacts]

Was curious if you have any interesting information on L’Hospitalet de Llobregat?

I moved about a year ago, and I am about to sign up for my first Catalan class with the CNL soon. Since I do not speak Catalan yet and have limited Spanish, a lot of information I come across for my new home is not accessible to me.

Thank you in advance, and for you write on here in general. It is a great resource.

Thank you! And best wishes for the course with CNL, I hope you enjoy it!

L'Hospitalet de Llobregat is the 2nd most populated city in Catalonia and has the most densely-populated neighbourhood in all of Europe (Torrassa and Collblanc neighbourhoods). I'll shorten it to L'H from now on.

There's archaeological evidence of population in what nowadays in L'H since the Paleolithic (hunter-gatherer communities in the Prehistory), Ancient Iberian (the indigenous people who lived here before the Roman invasion), and the Roman era.

Ancient Roman head of Medusa known as "Medusa de Provençana", found in an excavation next to the Santa Eulàlia de Provençana church in L'H. Nowadays it's exhibited in the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Barcelona.

The origin of the city as we know it now dates back to the Middle Ages. It originated as two entities: the older Provençana (which we have written records of since around the year 900, and was found around Sta Eulàlia de Provençana) and the later Hospital de la Torre Blanca ("Hospital of the White Tower", from around the year 1100, what is now barri del Centre). The second one was a hospital not in our modern sense of a place to take care of the ill, it was a house for helping poor and homeless people, probably founded by the Knights Hospitaller. It grew in population and ended up becoming more important than Provençana, and eventually the name that designated the whole area was changed from Provençana to L'Hospitalet (meaning "The Little Hospital" in Catalan).

But throughout all of these centuries, L'H was a very rural town with a small population (as an example, it had about 900 inhabitants in the year 1815). The population grew when an irrigation canal was built that allowed the fields to be way more productive, reaching 5,000 inhabitants around the year 1900. But the population boom came in the 1960s and 1970s, during the Francoist dictatorship, when many immigrants from different rural parts of Spain moved to the big cities to work in the industry. That's when the areas around Barcelona were quickly built up in these massive apartment blocks to make the "bedroom cities" from where the newly-arrived workers commuted to work every day. The population boom was so huge that it explains why L'H is the 2nd biggest city in Catalonia and so densely populated.

Carrer de la Florida in 1956 vs 2024. (L'H city archive / Google Maps).

Carrer de la Renclusa, 84, in 1955 vs 2024. (L'H city archive / Google Maps).

Carrer de la Mina, 19, in 1956 vs 2024. (L'H city archive / Google Maps).

Avinguda del Torrent, 78, in 1956 vs 2024. (L'H city archive / Google Maps).

These "bedroom cities" had been built so quickly, that they didn't have any services. The inhabitants had to fight for all the services they have, which created a strong sense of pride that still continues nowadays.

As another note, one of the most famous maquis (anti-Francoism guerrilla fighters) was from L'H: Quico Sabaté. You can read about him on Wikipedia here. Another famous person from L'H is Ferran Adrià, one of the most famous chefs in the whole world.

I hope this was interesting, and I hope you can make the most of the Catalan classes, it will surely help you understand the country more and get better perspectives for a job.

[anarchotolkienist]

Does anyone know if there is evidence other than the claims of a South African Nazi who claims to have them for the idea that Tolkien was a lifelong subscriber to Candour, the anti-Semitic newspaper and organ of the League of Empire Loyalists? The one that is known is that he subscribed to the Blackshirt during the Spanish Civil War and was a passionate Franco-supporter (and I wouldn't be surprised if he remained a Francoist after the war), but he stopped after the Spanish Civil War and was opposed to Nazism and (at least) radical and racial anti-Semitism. This is known and there is a lot of evidence for it.

As for Candour however I've only heard this south African Nazi claim it - but if he were to support any political tendency to the right of Tories in his lifetime it'd be Chesterton's League, so in a way it wouldn't surprise me.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

I love how Zionists call all Nazis for being anti-genocidal, it's obvious they don't know shit about Nazis

"Nazism[2] (abbreviation from German: Nationalsozialismus[3], also national socialism, Nazism[a][2], nacissism[4]) - the ideology of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: NSDAP)[5][6] founded after World War I. It is a German and extreme version of fascism[7][8][9][10][11], classified as far right[12][13][14][15][16], which are characterized by:

anti-democratism in its totalitarian and dictatorial version; the demand for absolute obedience to the orders of the leader (German: Führer), who was identified with the state, called the principle of leadership[1]; German nationalism in its extremely chauvinistic version[17], known as Völkisch: calling the Germans a "master race"; hateful anti-Semitism[18], anti-Gypsyism, anti-Slavism and racism[19] in a pseudobiological version[20][21]; Social Darwinism[20]; eugenics; German imperialism: resurrection of the idea of ​​Greater Germany - the demand for the unification of Germany with Austria, German Anschluss[22][2][23]; expansionism - the postulate of colonizing new areas to provide Germans with living space, German Lebensraum[24]; anti-communism; homophobia[b][c][25]; ambivalent attitude towards religion: combating Judaism and Jehovah's witnesses; tolerance for the main branches of Christianity such as Catholicism and Protestantism, cooperation with them, but combined with their control, regulation [26] [27] and competition by promoting their own, new forms of religiosity[2] such as positive Christianity and the German Faith Movement. Nazism arose, among others, on the basis of Prussian militarism[28]; in 1920, the party organized a militia called Sturmabteilung (SA)[29]. In 1921, Adolf Hitler became the head of the NSDAP party, and he presented Nazi ideology in the book My Struggle (German: Mein Kampf) published for the first time in 1925–1927[30]. Under his leadership, the NSDAP"

Now that I have your attention:

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(I had to separate them because, unfortunately, the collections got lost in the thicket of text)

"apparatus of terror such as concentration camps and the secret police Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo); development of German eugenics, including introduction of the Nuremberg Laws; intensification of persecution for same-sex relations[25]; alliance with fascist Italy (Steel Pact) and Japan (Anti-Comintern Pact); the later Pact of Three between these countries formalized the Axis bloc; support of Francoists in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939)[38]; annexation of Austria in 1938; the enlarged state was called the Greater German Reich, German: Großdeutsches Reich[39]; mass murders exterminating "life unworthy of life": T4 action on sick and disabled people; genocides – holocaust and post-Rajmos. One of the tools of mass murder were the extermination camps established in the occupied areas to "finally solve the Jewish question"; outbreak of World War II in 1939 - attack on Poland and then other countries. After less than six years, in 1945, this war led to the fall of the Third Reich and the denazification of Europe. In 1945, in Germany and Austria it was forbidden to spread Nazi propaganda, e.g. the use of Nazi symbols such as the swastika, SS runes, the Totenkopf skull or the Nazi salute for purposes other than artistic and scientific purposes[40]. Similar bans were also introduced in other countries, including Poland[41]. Despite this, neo-Nazi movements continue to operate in the 21st century, usually using changed symbols, but not always (ANP and NSM). Some of the Nazi assumptions, postulates and symbols were taken over by other nationalist movements such as the National Democratic Party of Germany (German: NPD), Golden Dawn (Gr. XA) in Greece[42] and the National Bolshevik Party (Russian: NBP) in Russia.

Nazi ideologists, apart from Adolf Hitler, included: Alfred Rosenberg (The Myth of the Twentieth Century, German: Der Mythos des 20. Jahrhunderts) and Joseph Goebbels. Nazism was not a uniform movement - its characteristic elements appeared gradually, e.g. symbolism, some of the rhetoric and homophobia came under Hitler's leadership. In addition, Nazi activists had different views, e.g. on the economy and religion, as described below"

"National socialism is an extreme ideology created as a result of the development of mass society, based on chauvinistic and racist elements.

The rapid transformation of the world, industrialization, urbanization and the collapse of existing ties in the second half of the 19th century. 19th century prompted the search for new ideas, giving the lost masses of people a sense of meaning in existence. Liberal ideology preaching individualism could not apply to such concepts, because it was based on the negation of all previous certainties and the formation of opposition to traditional concepts and values, including religious ones. German society, torn out of old structures as a result of industrialization, looked for new normative systems in nationalism, especially popular after the unification of Germany (1870). This nationalism combined with the still strong rural mentality of most Germans, creating the ideology of the so-called volkism"

"Hitler's ideology proclaimed the superiority of the German nation, belonging to the "Aryan race" (derived from the Aryans - an ancient Indo-European people) in relation to other races and nations, in particular over Jews and Gypsies. This idea was combined with the vulgarized Nietzschean concept of the "superman" (Übermensch), morally superior, intellectually and spiritually in relation to "subhumans", and the right of the German nation to rule over other nations was derived from it.

The Nazis believed that the mixing of races (Rassenschande) caused their degeneration, so they introduced legislation prohibiting marriage and sexual relations between Germans and people of other races (Nuremberg Laws). The program of euthanasia and sterilization of biologically "defective" people was also intended to "improve" the race. Further projects in the spirit of eugenics were also implemented, including theft of children, support for reproduction according to racial criteria (Lebensborn centers), and the introduction of polygamy was considered. Racial views largely determined the occupation policy and led to the Holocaust.

The Nazis combined racism with German nationalism. Nations were considered to be organisms that fight for survival and expansion and have the right to use all available means in this fight. The plan was to obtain living space in the East (Lebensraum im Osten) for the German nation by conquering other nations. This policy was determined not only by national motives, but also by racial ones: a dismissive attitude towards the Slavs, who were allegedly deprived of the ability to rule. Geopolitical theories were also used to justify the need for territorial expansion.

The National Socialists also subordinated cultural policy to racial and biological criteria. Artists of Jewish origin were fought against, as well as - as a product of foreign races and a manifestation of degeneration - contemporary art and jazz. According to the National Socialist ideal, art should proclaim the greatness of the nation, the heroism of "supermen", the bond with nature, and traditional family values. The ideals of man's bond with nature and his native land were summarized in the slogan Blood and Earth (Blut und Boden).

Racism was associated with social Darwinism - the Nazis believed that a specific group of people, in this case, the Aryans, are better adapted to the prevailing conditions than other races. Due to their origin, Germans were entitled to special aristocratic rights[141]"

"A General Government was established in some Polish territories. Terror was used on a massive scale against the Polish population of the province. According to the Nazis, the role of Poles was slave labor. The Nazis' first goal was to destroy the national intelligentsia. Poland was to be only a source of raw materials and labor. Plans to murder entire social groups were created already during the September campaign. The Nazis called these plans "political clearing of the area." Those who were subject to immediate extermination were, among others, teachers, clergy, political, social and cultural activists and state administration employees. Poles were deported en masse from Gdańsk and West Prussia. A policy of displacement of entire youth communities was used, with the aim of denationalizing Poles[142].

The population of Silesia and Pomerania, as well as the Kashubians and highlanders, were Germanized. Poles were deported to Germany as forced laborers. Polish forced laborers wore special identification badges and were subordinated to the police[143].

Hitler planned to divide the conquered territories of the USSR into several areas, which was to prevent the reconstruction of the Russian state. It was planned to create five governorates. The first to enter were Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - these areas were to be Germanized, the Dutch and Danes were to be resettled there, and in the Baltic countries also Norwegians. According to the Nazis, in the future the Baltic countries were to be incorporated into the German Reich as completely Germanized areas. Ukraine was to become the second governorate, the third is the Caucasus, the fourth is Russia, and the fifth is the territory of Turkestan. The conquest of Eastern Europe was supposed to result in the acquisition of areas for the exploitation of labor force. The Nazis assumed that the Russian population would be resettled to Siberia and that the area of ​​Eastern Europe would be colonized by German settlers (lower races were to be eliminated). After a hypothetical victory over the USSR and the enslavement of the nations inhabiting the country, the highest social class in these areas was to be members of the NSDAP, the next caste was to be workers, and finally a layer of conquered foreign tribesmen, also known as the modern slave class[144]. The conquered nations of the USSR were to be deprived of the opportunity to learn the history of their countries, deprived of the ability to read and write, and in the villages information was to be transmitted only through propaganda loudspeakers[144].

Despite the support of the radical, fascist Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, The Nazis believed that Ukraine should become a colonization area dominated by Germany. The support of the OUN radicals was caused by the positive attitude of Ukrainian nationalists towards the Third Reich and Hitler's views. The OUN believed that the Nazis would support the Ukrainians in their fight against the Poles and the Soviets. Ukrainian nationalists supported the Third Reich in intelligence activities against the Second Polish Republic and the USSR. After Germany's aggression against the USSR, the OUN directly supported the Germans' fight against the Red Army. In exchange for supporting the Germans in the war, the nationalists counted on compensation from the Reich government. They established the Ukrainian National Council, and on the same day the Germans interned the initiators of this move. Then the Nazis banned all parties representing Ukrainians. The country was completely incorporated into German administration. The general Ukrainian society had a negative attitude towards the Germans. Ukrainians were tired of forced labor for Germany and benefits for the Wehrmacht. The Germans again tried to win part of the Ukrainian nation to their side after the defeats of 1943, this time without much response[145]"

(Yes, this is information for idiots who believe that Poles collaborated with the Nazis)

"The Nazis demanded that areas such as Austria, Alsace, Lorraine, the Czech Republic and the area known from 1919 as the Polish Corridor be incorporated into Germany. The main goal of the Nazis' policy was to obtain Lebensraum, i.e. living space for the German nation. The Nazis claimed that after World War I there was an overpopulation crisis in Germany, which meant that new territories had to be provided to the nation[146]. From 1920, the NSDAP publicly promoted Germany's expansion into the territories held by the USSR[147].

In 1921–1922, Hitler wanted to achieve Lebensraum by reducing the territory of Russia, This was said to have occurred as a result of the overthrow of the Bolshevik government by Russian anti-communists supported by Germany[147]. This attitude changed at the end of 1922, when Hitler proposed the creation of a German-British alliance and the joint destruction of Russia[147]. The policy of Lebensraum assumed massive expansion of the Germans eastwards to the Urals[148][149]. The surplus Russian population living west of the Urals was to be deported to the east[150]."

"Following the end of World War I, the Nazis were one of many nationalist and fascist political parties competing for leadership of the German anti-communist movement[footnote needed]. The Nazis claimed that communism was dangerous to the well-being of nations because of its intention to eliminate private property, support for the class struggle, atheism, hostility towards small entrepreneurs and the middle class[151].

Anti-communism was linked to anti-Semitism, Hitler considers communism and Marxism to be a Jewish conspiracy aimed at the destruction of the German nation-state and the entire Western civilization, in Mein Kampf he states: “If a Jew, with the help of his Marxist profession of faith, wins victory over the nations of this world (…) our planet will (…) circulate in the ether completely depopulated. I believe that I am acting in accordance with the intention of the all-powerful Creator; "By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of Our Lord"[152]. In numerous other statements, Hitler declares that his most important goal is "the destruction of Marxism." He believed that the complete elimination of Marxism was a condition for the "rebirth" of Germany, and by "Marxism" he understood all varieties of left-wing thought, including the social democratic party SPD, which was then moving away from its Marxist roots[153]. Democracy, pacifism and internationalism were considered the most important "transgressions" of Marxism[154].

Anti-communism resulted from the experiences of party members. The NSDAP was founded, among others, by Thule Society member Karl Harrer. The Society supported the Freikorps paramilitary government forces during the suppression of the communist uprising in Bavaria during the November Revolution (see Bavarian Soviet Republic). In addition to Harrer, other members of the Society included the co-author of the program[155], Gottfried Feder, and one of the most important ideologists, Alfred Rosenberg[156].

At the turn of the 1930s and 1940s . the Nazis established anti-communist regimes subordinated to them to some extent, including Vichy France. In countries such as France and Great Britain, anti-communist groups and activists were supported, including: right-wing organization Cliveden set, conservative Edward Wood (1st Earl of Halifax), The British Union of Fascists and associates of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. During the war, the Germans created new military units from anti-communist volunteers, one of them was the 33rd SS Grenadier Division (1st French) Charlemagne[157]"

""On April 11, 1933, the Nazis introduced a law defining Jews as persons of non-Aryan origin, thereby removing Jew"

On April 11, 1933, the Nazis introduced a law defining Jews as persons of non-Aryan origin, thereby removing Jews from offices[194].

On September 15, 1935, the Nuremberg Laws were introduced, depriving Jews of basic civil rights and separating them from the rest of German society. In the same year, twenty-seven decrees were introduced, according to which people applying for various positions had to present proof of Aryan origin in the case of, for example, an SS officer, and the candidate had to document Aryan genealogy from 1700. A new profession was created in Germany - Sippenforscher, which deals with searching for genealogical documents[195]. Since August, the Boycott Committee has been operating, forcing Jews to sell their businesses at minimum prices (members of the Committee organized, among others, kidnappings and murders)[196].

By the fall of 1938, over 200,000 Jews had fled the country, but the number of Jews in the country was equalized after the territories of Austria were incorporated into the Reich. Another pretext for intensified repression against Jews was the assassination attempt on November 9, 1938 by Herschel Grynszpan, who assassinated a Reich diplomat in Paris. In the country, the Nazis unleashed a series of anti-Semitic purges known as Kristallnacht. The government did not counteract the series of anti-Semitic demonstrations, but supported them and began the first mass deportations of Jews to concentration camps (20,000 people were then deported). Moreover, Jews were blamed for the riots and were ordered to pay billions in compensation (approximately $400 million)[197]. After Kristallnacht, a strict law was introduced prohibiting marriage and sexual relations between Jews and representatives of other nationalities. A Jew caught flirting with a German woman was immediately sent to a concentration camp. A German could also be sent back to the camp, who was sent there for three months of anti-Semitic re-education[196].

Racial segregation was introduced in waiting rooms, trains and restaurants, and Jews were expelled from schools.[198]"

By the way, doesn't this sound strangely familiar to you? I don't know… LIKE IZAREL WOULD FUCKING PERFORM THIS ON PALESTINIANS?

"Since Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, incidental and then increasingly frequent acts of Nazi crimes against political opponents, Jews and Poles began there[199]. The world rarely learned about, and even less often reacted to, human rights abuses and murders in Nazi Germany before World War II. On Palm Sunday, March 21, 1937, Pius XI's encyclical Mit brennender Sorge (German: "With burning concern") about the situation of the Church in the Third Reich was read in German churches. The document was dated March 14, 1937 and concerned the situation of the Church in the Third Reich. It contained a critique of the theological aspects of the policy pursued by Hitler's Germany.[200]

Among the few world leaders appealing through diplomacy to end human rights violations in Germany were Fiorello La Guardia[201], mayor of New York, who promoted the boycott of German goods in the USA and Swedish Prince Charles Bernadotte[202], who actively appealed to German President Paul von Hindenburg before World War II, and in the following years to the German Red Cross for the opportunity to jointly investigate "alleged atrocities" in German prisons and concentration camps. The Germans rejected the proposal of any inspections of Nazi concentration camps. However, the prince achieved success as chairman of the Swedish Red Cross at the end of World War II, when he managed, together with the Swedish diplomat Folke Bernadotte and the government of Denmark, to organize the so-called White buses that saved about 17,000 people from German death camps. In 1944, the German government attempted to deny its crimes, and therefore Holocaust denial, on the international arena by allowing an inspection of the Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czech Republic by international observers accompanied by the SS. mana and creating a completely false propaganda film about the good treatment of Jews in that camp[203]"

Why the fuck does this sound so familiar? Genocide denial, so familiar when you see Israel denying its own

'In 1940, in one night, the Germans murdered 1,700 Jews in Nasielsk. 600,000 Jews were expelled from the Polish territories incorporated into the Reich and ended up in the General Government.

The policy of genocide unleashed by the Germans in mid-1941 lasted approximately 40 months. The number of Jewish victims of the Holocaust is estimated at almost 6 million[207] . One third of this number, or approximately 2 million, were children. The number of Polish Jews among the victims of the Holocaust is estimated, according to various sources, from 2.6 million to 3.3 million people[208].

In October 1941, a separate labor code was introduced for Jews, according to which they were to work without any time limits (this applied to children as young as fourteen). The Jews were deprived of their protective clothing. In September, Jews were forced to wear a Star of David with the inscription "Jude".

During the war with the USSR in the east, all non-military train transports were suspended. In their place, special trains were built to transport Jews to death camps. The SS had trains transporting 5,000 Jews each day to the Treblinka extermination camp and 5,000 to Bełżec twice a week. Apart from the camps, the most famous site of genocide is the Babi Yar gorge near Kiev, where approximately 100,000 Jews were murdered in 1941, as well as Ponary near Vilnius, where the Nazis murdered almost 80,000 Jews[209].

The Third German Reich tried to hide the crimes it committed from the world, including the Holocaust and the genocide of Poles. It failed to achieve this, as evidenced by the action of Polish diplomat Jan Karski, who was the first to inform the British and US authorities about the ongoing crimes already in 1942 and appealed for a military response. In the summer and fall of 1944, the World Jewish Congress and the War Refugee Council appealed to the U.S. Department of War to immediately bomb the German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. However, these proposals were rejected[210]. The Allies' abandonment of bombing the railway tracks to the extermination camps has been considered by some historians as an "appalling moral failure".[211] Only on June 6, 1944, the Americans, British and Canadians landed in Normandy to liberate Europe from German occupation"

As you can see, the USA didn't help much… Who expected it?

How long will Palestine be left to its own devices? How long will the US help a genocide? How much longer will we accept genocide?

"In the USA in the 1930s, there were groups active, such as William Dudley Pelley's Silver Legion and Fritz Kuhn's German-American Bund. He expressed support for Nazism, among others: Father Charles Coughlin of Catholic Radio in Detroit, condemning the influence of godless capitalists, Jews, communists, international bankers and plutocrats on US foreign policy, or Charles Lindbergh, who in 1941 declared: The three most important groups pushing this country into war are the British, the Jews and the Roosevelt administration.[271] George Rockwell founded the marginal American Nazi Party, which in the following decades supported the white power movement and opposed the civil rights movement. In South Africa in 1938, the Afrikaans Ossewabrandwag and the Stormjaers militia were founded. The party was influenced by the NSDAP, and during World War II it opposed cooperation between South Africa and Great Britain. After terrorist attacks carried out by its members, some of its leaders were imprisoned, but the party was never officially banned. After 1945, several former members of the movement became part of the apartheid dictatorship. The group was absorbed by the National Party. A former militant of the Balthazar party, Johannes Vorster, served as Prime Minister of South Africa in 1966–1978[272].

Nazi groups even sprang up in Costa Rica. In the 1930s Nazi sympathizers coming mainly from the German community gathered in the German Club[273]"

"In Poland, National Socialist groups did not play a significant role. Some of them are: the National Socialist Workers' Party, the Radical Healing Movement of J. Kowal-Lipiński, the Polish National Socialist Party, the Polish National Socialist Party "Warta", the National Peasant-Worker Front[274][275]. Some historians see a similarity between Nazi ideology and the doctrines of the National Radical Camp[276][277][278] and the National Radical Movement[279][280]. The National Radical Organization, a collaborationist organization operating at the beginning of the German occupation of Poland, is sometimes associated with national socialism[281]"

Unfortunately, there are bad apples in every country… I'm not denying that there were no bad apples, but saying that Poles collaborated with the Nazis (erasing their being victims of the Holocaust) is problematic on many levels

"In 2009, in the resolution "Unifying a divided Europe", the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly equated the totalitarian systems of German Nazism and Soviet Stalinism. The resolution states that in the 20th century, European countries suffered at the hands of two totalitarian regimes, which resulted in crimes against humanity and genocide[309][310][311]. This equation raises objections from Russia. According to Kommersant's interlocutors, the comparison of Stalinism and fascism is inappropriate due to the fact that "it was the Stalinist USSR that suffered the greatest sacrifices and made the greatest contribution to freeing Europe from fascism." According to Moscow's position, this resolution is "offensive, anti-Russian action” and “rape of history”[312].

According to the authors of The Black Book of Communism, the difference between National Socialism and Soviet communism "is only that the Nazi racial and territorial division replaces the division into layers (classes)"[313]. In turn, Margaret Buber-Neumann, a former German communist, imprisoned from 1937 to 1940 in the Gulag, and then from 1940 to 1945 in Ravensbrück, in her memoirs published after the war she pointed to numerous similarities in the practices of both regimes, pointing primarily to the contempt for human life, the cult of violence, and the use of slave labor by both systems. . In her opinion, the ideas of Nazism were criminal from the beginning, while the communist idea as a theory could contain a fundamental error, or the ideals could be betrayed by Soviet practice under the rule of Joseph Stalin, which, in her opinion, turned the USSR into a form of fascism[314]. According to Adam Leszczyński, writing in the context of the Warsaw Uprising and the book Oblą '44, or how Poles gave Stalin a gift by causing the Warsaw Uprising by Piotr Zychowicz, there was a fundamental qualitative difference between the regime in the USSR and the Third Reich, according to him, the communists were guided by the noble goals of equality and justice, and the Nazis' goal was solely to exterminate the subhuman race[315]. Slavoj Žižek also claimed that while Stalinism was "the tragic dimension of a failed emancipatory project", Nazism was "an extremely successful anti-emancipatory project"[316]. Žižek also noted that that, contrary to the liberating potential of communism as an idea, Nazism was, even at the theoretical stage, a "perverse" enterprise: "it would be simply ridiculous to see the Holocaust as some kind of tragic perversion of the noble Nazi project - this project was straight up the Holocaust" [317]"

The problem with the USSR and the Third Reich is simply that Hitler and Nazism had a greater impact on the world and that is why it is terrifying, the fact that Hitler had fewer victims (fatalities) does not automatically mean that he was a lesser evil, he was a greater one because of the fact that that he influenced so many people and countries…

"Promoting the totalitarian methods and practices of Nazism is prohibited in Poland by law and is subject to criminal liability. This is regulated by:

Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Journal of Laws of 1997, No. 78, item 483):

Art. 13 The existence of political parties and other organizations that refer in their programs to the totalitarian methods and practices of Nazism, fascism and communism, as well as those whose programs or activities assume or allow racial and national hatred, is prohibited, the use of violence in order to gain power or influence state policy or provides for the secrecy of structures or membership. Act of June 6, 1997, Penal Code (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 1138, as amended):

Art. 256. § 1. Whoever publicly propagates Nazi, communist, a fascist or other totalitarian state system or inciting hatred based on national, ethnic, racial or religious differences or due to lack of religious denomination, shall be subject to the penalty of imprisonment for up to 3 years. § 1a. The same punishment applies to anyone who publicly propagates Nazi or communist ideology, fascist or an ideology that calls for the use of violence to influence political or social life. § 2. The penalty specified in § 1 shall be subject to, who, for the purpose of dissemination, produces, records or imports, purchases, sells, offers, stores, possesses, presents, transports or sends a print, recording or other item, containing the content specified in § 1 or 1a or being a carrier of Nazi, communist, fascist or other totalitarian symbols, used in a way to promote the content specified in § 1 or 1a.

Art. 257. Whoever publicly insults a group of people or an individual person because of their national, ethnic or racial affiliation , religious or because of his lack of religious denomination or for such reasons violates the bodily inviolability of another person, shall be subject to the penalty of deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years. Until July 2011, Article 256 of the Penal Code ended with the phrase "or being a carrier of fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbols." This provision was deleted by the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of July 19, 2011. The Tribunal found that the provision did not meet the criteria of specificity and, consequently, "the ruling on the unconstitutionality of Art. 256 § 2 in fine Penal Code means that Art. will have limited application. 256 § 4 of the Penal Code On its basis, the court will be able to order the forfeiture of items containing the content specified in Art. 256 § 1 of the Penal Code However, this will not be possible in relation to objects that are carriers of fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbols” [320] [321]"

If they fucking followed this constitution, there would be no fucking nationalists and parties like PiS and the fucking Confederation

But yes, read this Zionists, that's what fucking Nazism was, it was pro-genocide, not fucking anti-genocide

[speakingparts]

Tras el cristal 1986, Agustí Villaronga

[...] The story suggests the “changing of the guard” where the student takes over from the master. In this respect the film is reminiscent of the Stephen King novella “Apt Pupil,” adapted to the screen in 1998 by Bryan Singer, in which an adolescent discovers that an old man living in his neighborhood is a Nazi war criminal, and, rather than expose him, blackmails him into recounting his Nazi crimes in all their vivid detail.

[...] A second possible reading elaborates on the first by adding a reflexive element centered on the act of watching. In such films the act of murder is in one or several ways aligned with the pleasure of watching, scopophilia (pleasure in the act of voyeurism), and is directly inscribed in the text. [...] The third possible source of meaning in the film is figurative rather than literal, and involves placing it within the context of Spain’s social-cultural-political history. [...] During the Francoist era, the depiction of violence was repressed, as was the depiction of sex, sacrilege, and politics; this repression helps explain why eroticized violence could be used so effectively by the anti-Francoist opposition to speak a political discourse, that is, to expose the legacy of brutality and torture that lay hidden behind the surface beauty of the Fascist and neo-Catholic aesthetics. (Kinder, p. 138). [...] full

[ashleighneville]

Could you please explain what the Real Madrid / Barca situation is? I see everyone commenting on it but not saying what happened.

OK I'm really not an expert so anybody please correct me on anything but basically laporta (Barcelona president) accused Madrid of being the regime's club, ie the fascist Francoist regime. This is a point of huge debate and while Franco did say madrid was his favourite club there isn't really any [conclusive] evidence that they particulaly benefited from Franco [edit: this is a little too conclusive a summing up for what is an incredibly convuluted and debated topic of which there isn't an easy conclusive answer. This tifo video goes into a bit more detail.] and like everyone else they experienced their fair share of suffering. Laporta was very wrong to say this. It uses an awful period of history to try and get one up on madrid and is very disrespectful to the victims of Franco.

However instead of being the bigger club, Madrid decided to go one step further in the irresponsible and disrespectful use of history and make a video saying that it was Barcelona that benefited from Franco. It raises things like Franco laying the first stone of camp nou and receiving medals from barca but completely removes them from any and all historical context. This was a dictatorship. You worked within the regime or you were destroyed. This is particularly the case because of barca's association with Catalan nationalism and just catalan culture in general, which was very much actively surpressed by Franco. The video ends with a quote from Santiago bernabeu basically saying fuck anyone who says that real Madrid is regime's club but it also conveniently ignores the fact that bernabeu fought for Franco during the civil war.

I don't know enough about the topic to be able to properly discuss the ins and outs of both clubs during this period. But I am a history student and I am a little bit able to talk about this from a public history perspective and basically it's bad. It's really bad. It presents a narrative by removing the context that people will take at face value. It is incredibly damaging to any attempt to help either club and Spain itself acknowledge and come to terms with the Franco era, something that it is very important to do both to honour the victims of the regime and because of the rise in fascism across Europe. It also has implications in discussions of catalan culture and independence. Many many catalans will tell you how they have been insulted and told not to speak their language by Spaniards. An active real Madrid player has literally said to 'bomb catalan and basques' for booing the Spanish national anthem. It is very disrespectful and actively contributes to anti-catalanism to insinuate that the Francoist suppression of catalan wasn't that bad. And in general it is just incredibly disrespectful to the victims of the regime.

To be clear both clubs are behaving very badly hear in using franco to try and one up each other, but madrid just made everything 10x worse by releasing a widely accessible propaganda video

[footballandshit]

hi! saw your tags on a reblog about the real/barça video and wanted to explain the history for you, i’ll try to keep it as short as i can, but know that the history is extensive.

of course the main reason behind the conflict between the clubs is who they represent. historically barça has represented catalonia and real madrid has represented spain, spanish royalty, and the francoist regime.

franco was dictator in spain and sought to destroy all semblance of catalan culture, language, and political movements. the catalan language was banned under his regime and barça was made to remove the catalan flag from its crest after the spanish civil war (in which franco’s fascist side won). leftist political organizations were eliminated and franco responded with violence to any uprising that demanded democracy and independence for catalonia, bombing their cities multiple times.

probably the most damning thing for franco’s action against barça was when the president of fc barcelona was assassinated by his troops. suñol (barça pres.) was vocal about his support of left-wing politics and anti-fascism, and was unjustly killed one year after becoming president of barça.

it is beyond football. as neutral as the clubs try to be it has always been more than just football. so i hope you can understand how horrible that video is. to claim that franco was in favor of barça and that barça is the “regime club” is appalling after all that barcelona and catalonia had been through during the francoist dictatorship, and what they still continue to experience to this day.

hi anon! thank you for answering my call, and i really appreciate you taking your time to explain this to me quite comprehensively. i was initially so confused - as to why such a video was even posted in the first place, and why people were getting mad about it. thanks to your elaboration, i now understand the context, and why that video is a pretty fucked up thing to put out there. although i have been watching the spanish league from a young age, i was genuinely not aware of such deep political issues transcending the sport of football itself. i tried to do some reading on the matter, but it's quite obvious that some materials out there are biased and the stories kinda differ from one another.

so thank you, once again, for the insight! as you said, the history is extensive, so i'll definitely try to read up on this!

[docpiplup]

This Friday 28th April the pilot episode of Los Pacientes del Doctor García will be on Netflix, and on Thursday 26th episode 2 will be released

Episode 2: "Manuel"

The young diplomat Manuel Arroyo Benítez (Tamar Novas) works at the service of the Republic of Spain in London. Its mission: to favor the support of the democracies to the legitimate Government. There he is approached by a young American, Margaret 'Meg' Williams (Stephanie Cayo). Meg, very well connected, becomes his best ally and also his lover.

Manuel's efficiency awaits him a new destiny: to infiltrate besieged Madrid under a false identity to control the infighting on the Republican side. Meg and Manuel say goodbye thinking that they will never see each other again. In Madrid, Manuel dismantles an anti-government conspiracy. The fifth columnists who promote it attack him and abandon him.

Manuel recovers from his injuries at Guillermo's (Javier Rey) home. But Amparo (Verónica Echegui) doesn't trust Manuel and the feeling is mutual: they have good reasons.

In Portugalete, the Francoist soldier Adrián Gallardo (Jon Olivares) receives an unusual offer from his superior: to defend his battalion as a boxer in a crucial boxing match.

[lgbhistory]

Empar Pineda i Erdozia

• Empar is a Spanish feminist activist born in Hernani, Gipuzkoa in 1944.

• She was enrolled in a German nun's school, where she was required to learn English.

• As there was no public university in the Basque Country, she moved to Madrid, where her sister lived.

• She participated in the anti-Francoist student movement and was banned from enrolling at the Universities of Madrid and Barcelona. She ended up enrolling at the University of Salamanca in 1964, and a little later at the University of Oviedo, where she graduated in Romance philology.

• She returned to Madrid, where she began teaching Language and Literature while continuing her membership in left-wing organizations.

• An anti-Francoist militant, she was arrested by the authorities and spent some time in Martutene Prison.

•In the 1970s, during the transition to democracy, she moved to Barcelona. There she was the leader of the Communist Movement of Catalonia.

•In 1985 she was interviewed in the magazine Interviú with the headline "I am a lesbian just because ", to demand an end to the repression of homosexual women.

• In 1980 she was co-founder of the Lesbian Feminist Collective of Madrid and participated in the creation of the Right to Abortion Commission.

• In 2008 she received the Creu de Sant Jordi for "her dedication sustained for so many years in defense of women's rights, from the action – as an active member of various organizations – and reflection – as a co-author of several volumes, including 'El feminismo que existe'."

[useless-catalanfacts]

Law of Amnesty: not what it seems?

On May 30th 2024, the Spanish Government (after a long time of negotiating with Catalan parties) finally approved the Law of Amnesty which will allow some Catalan people who have been repressed for taking part in activism in favour of Catalonia's right to self-determination and referendum to be subjected to an amnesty (meaning they will be pardoned). However, it has been written to be as useless as possible.

Amnesty laws are not unusual around the world, neither in Spain. The most famous one was passed at the end of the fascist dictatorship (1977) to give amnesty to political dissidents who had been sentenced for fighting against the Francoist dictatorship. In the less than 100 years prior, Spain had approved at least 20 amnesties and 70 general pardons, even though some of these amnesties applied to all Spain but left Catalan people out (like General Berenguer's during the dictablanda). In the 2000s, the Spanish Government granted amnesties, most famously the PP party's government led by Aznar granted "hidden amnesties" through mass pardons to 5,948 people, most of which were convicted of corruption and tax evasion. Now, the PP and Aznar are criticizing and recurring the new amnesty for Catalan political prisoners, saying it's illegal and anti-Constitutional. (sources on the previous amnesties)

The new Amnesty Law has gone forward, fruit of a long negotiation process between the Spanish Government and Catalan parties. But the Spanish Governments has the last word on how the law is written, so they made sure to make it very restrictive. It may grant amnesty to those convicted for taking part in Catalonia's self-determination and independence process, but only for some of the crimes they're attributed.

Out of the 4,584 people who have been repressed by the Spanish judicial system for their participation in the Catalan independence movement between 2017 and 2024, the NGO Òmnium explains that only 1,616 of them are elegible for amnesty (source). And even then, amnesty means they have to go to trial again and have the judges agree that the amnesty can be applied to them. The same judges who sentenced them guilty, often twisting the law to do so, like saying that people who acted peacefully can be convicted of crimes that are defined using violence because the violence is metaphorical. And in case anyone still believed in the separation of powers, a group of judges has already created a guide on how to make the Amnesty Law not apply to anything and have sent it to more than 5,000 judges (source).

And, of course, an amnesty is only retroactive. Any "rebellious act" committed after the Law of Amnesty is approved will not be elegible for the amnesty. And, unsurprisingly, on the very day that this law was approved, a Catalan man was already imprisoned for being part of a counter-protest against the Spanish police's rally to homage the Spanish police who brutally beat up Catalan people who were peacefully trying to vote on October 1st 2017, being accused to watch out while another man pushed a policeman (all context here). He is first victim of the new wave of Spanish repression of Catalan people, a wave in a sea that never stops.

Don't get me wrong, the amnesty is good news. These 1,616 people don't deserve the repression they received. It's good that they can be freed from it. But it solves nothing because it doesn't solve the discrimination against Catalans and the fact that Catalans aren't allowed self-determination. We will continue being treated like second-class citizens by Spain, a culture to quietly or loudly exterminate (depending on if it comes from the Spanish "left" or the right, respectively), and we will fight back again. The Spanish Government is saying that this amnesty will put an end to Catalan independentism, but it will not, not until we are equal and free.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.15 (before 1980)

1066 – Following the death of Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, Edgar the Ætheling is proclaimed King of England by the Witan; he is never crowned, and concedes power to William the Conqueror two months later. 1211 – Battle of the Rhyndacus: The Latin emperor Henry of Flanders defeats the Nicaean emperor Theodore I Laskaris. 1529 – The Siege of Vienna ends when Austria routs the invading Ottoman forces, ending its European expansion. 1582 – Adoption of the Gregorian calendar begins, eventually leading to near-universal adoption. 1651 – Qing forces capture the island of Zhoushan. Zhu Yihai, Prince of Lu, resident of the island and regent of the Southern Ming, flees to Kinmen. 1781 – The Battle of Raft Swamp marks the last battle fought in North Carolina during the American Revolutionary War with a Patriot victory. It occurred four days before the British surrender at Yorktown. 1783 – The Montgolfier brothers' hot air balloon makes the first human ascent, piloted by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier. 1793 – Queen Marie Antoinette of France is tried and convicted of treason. 1815 – Napoleon begins his exile on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. 1864 – American Civil War: The Union garrison of Glasgow, Missouri surrenders to Confederate forces. 1878 – The Edison Electric Light Company begins operation. 1888 – The "From Hell" letter allegedly sent by Jack the Ripper is received by investigators. 1910 – Airship America is launched from New Jersey in the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by a powered aircraft. 1923 – The German Rentenmark is introduced in Germany to counter hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic. 1928 – The airship Graf Zeppelin completes its first trans-Atlantic flight, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, United States. 1932 – Tata Airlines (later to become Air India) makes its first flight. 1939 – The New York Municipal Airport (later renamed LaGuardia Airport) is dedicated. 1940 – President Lluís Companys of Catalonia is executed by the Francoist government. 1944 – World War II: Germany replaces the Hungarian government after Hungary announces an armistice with the Soviet Union. 1951 – Mexican chemist Luis E. Miramontes completes the synthesis of norethisterone, the basis of an early oral contraceptive. 1954 – Hurricane Hazel devastates the eastern seaboard of North America, killing 95 and causing massive floods as far north as Toronto. 1956 – FORTRAN, the first modern computer language, is first shared with the coding community. 1965 – Vietnam War: A draft card is burned during an anti-war rally by the Catholic Worker Movement, resulting in the first arrest under a new law. 1966 – The Black Panther Party is created by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. 1970 – During the construction of Australia's West Gate Bridge, a span of the bridge falls and kills 35 workers. The incident is the country's worst industrial accident to this day. 1979 – Supporters of the Malta Labour Party ransack and destroy the Times of Malta building and other locations associated with the Nationalist Party. 1979 – A coup d'état in El Salvador overthrows President Carlos Humberto Romero and begins the 12 year-long Salvadoran Civil War.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

I love how Zionists call everyone against genocide "Nazis", you don't look like idiots who don't know what the fuck Nazism was (Because you are one yourself lol)

Now that I have your attention:

----------------------------------

"

The effects of Nazi rule were:

apparatus of terror such as concentration camps and the secret police Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo); development of German eugenics, including introduction of the Nuremberg Laws; intensification of persecution for same-sex relations[25]; alliance with fascist Italy (Steel Pact) and Japan (Anti-Comintern Pact); the later Pact of Three between these countries formalized the Axis bloc; support of Francoists in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939 [38];annexation of Austria in 1938; the enlarged state was called the Greater German Reich, German: Großdeutsches Reich[39]; mass murders exterminating "life unworthy of life": T4 action on sick and disabled people; genocide - holocaust and post-Rajmos. One of the tools of mass murder were the extermination camps established in the occupied areas to "finally solve the Jewish question"; outbreak of World War II in 1939 - attack on Poland and then other countries"

Yes, many points fit with Zionism (Especially the point about "Life unworthy of life", yes, that's how you see Palestinians)

So yes, classic use of mirror propaganda, who could have expected it, right?

[lucienballard]

French 1974 anti-Francoist poster ....

"Tourist, there's no sun in the prisons of Spain".

[gottdeswill]

- ¿Por qué no me ha obedecido? le hubiera sido mucho mas fácil. - Sí, pero es que obedecer por obedecer, así sin pensar, solo lo puede hacer gente como usted, capitán.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

TERROR, PRISON AND EXILE “Yet the Barcelona story is only one side of the Spanish story. It is easy to fall into a mood of apathy and say, "Yes, the Spanish people are a great people. They will conquer this thing themselves."

There would be warrant enough for this feeling. The Spanish people have long since seen washed away that shining, World War II pledge of the Western powers to wipe out the last vestiges of fascism. They watched the victorious men gather in San Francisco to build the same United Nations coalition for peace that had proved so powerful in war. When that session ended, one of the first entries on the UN books was a condemnation of Franco "as a fascist regime, patterned on, and established largely as a result of aid received from Hitler's Nazi Germany and Mussolini's fascist Italy. That was in 1945, and a year later a diplomatic ban was imposed on Franco Spain. But this was the limit of righteous distaste President Truman would permit, and from which he has ever since retreated, Year by year, the deference to anti-fascist sentiment yielded to the design of the cold war. In 1948 the U.S. began campaigning for repeal of the ban. In 1949, to hasten the campaign, the U.S. delegation introduced the gentle art of "arm-twisting" into the General Assembly, and in November, 1950, the art bore fruit. The ban against Franco was lifted and Washington was the first of the major powers of the West to return an ambassador to Franco's Madrid.

The people of Spain were on their own, their bright hopes in the UN coalition gone. In Barcelona, 300,000 Spanish workers, made strong by their disillusion, began the march back.

But we live in a world today where no man and no country can exist as an island. The Spanish people struggle for all that is best and finest in our world, and against all that is vile and destructive. Do you imagine that the price of such a struggle is a small one?

Suppose we take the experiences of one month in a few areas of Spain simply in terms of peasant resistance. From Franco sources, published during the month of December, 1949, we learn that in Levante, seven peasants were arrested by civil guards. Two of them were assassinated in that time-honored fascist manner, "shot while trying to escape." We learn that in the first part of November, mass arrests were carried out. Dozens of peasants suffered brutal tortures. In the course of these tortures many were killed. The official reports include 12 who died in this manner.

We find that on October 15th, a peasant was killed by civil guards on the outskirts of Ejulve, We discover that during October, in Andalucia, a number of peasants were arrested, accused of aiding guerrillas. One of them was trans- shipped by train. He was murdered while "trying to escape." On November 13th, two peasants were killed while "trying to escape" near Villa del Rio. On November 17th, Francisco Lopez Pinto was killed, murdered by Franco's police. On the same day, also in Andalucia, Francisco Arroyo Aguilar was killed.

This is a very incomplete report. It deals with only a few areas of Spain, and it is gleaned from Franco sources. The full record makes one wonder how any people can be bled in this fashion and yet continue to resist For example, we have these statistics, from Franco sources, of anti-fascists murdered during a four-year period— shot either by order of military tribunals, or while "trying to escape": in 1945, 590; in 1946, 160; in 1947, 562; and in 1948, 300. In 1950 we had reliableinformation concerning 200,000 political prisoners held in prisons and in 16 concentration camps- Of this number, 22,000 were women, and in the camps were many thousands of children born in prison or concentration camp, who had reached the ages of six, seven and eight and had known no other life.

Such is the land of Franco, and such is the cross which the Spanish people bear. Such too is the ally, the "noble" ally, which our foreign policy has chosen to defend the American way of life and to help keep the peace throughout the world. We have allied ourselves with a regime which has driven into exile almost half a million workers, over 2,000 teachers, 350 doctors, 350 professors, 100 writers and poets, 50 scientists, composers, sculptors, artists, painters.

How often do we read in our press of the "free world" which we are defending! I have told you something about the part of the "free world" which exists under the enlightened rule of Francisco Franco. How would you like to live there? How would it feel? It has been said by many a whimpering German that he or she knew nothing of the death camps. But there is no human being in Spain who does not know the details of the hell on earth Francisco Franco, with the help of Hitler and Mussolini, has created and which now Truman and Acheson help perpetuate.

Of 3,700,000 farm workers and peasants in Spain, according to Franco's own statistics, only 500,000 are more or less steadily employed. The rest, seasonal workers employed a few months each year, live on roots and wild plants and whatever else they can find to fill their aching bellies. The 500,000 work for the two per cent of Spanish landlords who possess 60 per cent of all arable land. Most of the remaining arable land is controlled by the Catholic Church. Here is a land which has the highest infant mortality rate in Europe. Here is a land where 75 per cent of all children suffer from tuberculosis. In this land, on the outskirts of Madrid, 400,000 people live literally in caves and mud huts. In Barcelona almost 150,000 live in caves, and it is estimated that six million people have no place to live but the open fields, the streets or the bitter protection of archways and bridges.

The monsters who made this are now our ally. With this evil our government has joined forces, so that we may carry on a crusade against Communism, the same that Francisco Franco proclaimed in 1936.” - Howard Fast, Spain and Peace. New York, N.Y.: Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, 1952.