Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2001 18:24:30 +1000
From: "-AT-ndy" <andy-AT-xchange.anarki.net>
Subject: Re: AUT: Taliban apologetics


Hello.

Birgit Bock wrote:

> This text reminds me of Orwell during the Spanish civil war, where is constantly hanging with the
> trotskyist, and hating the dogmatic terms which appear to be missing the point, while at the same time
> putting his life on the line with those very "party people".

I'm almost certain that Orwell's participation in a POUM militia during the Spanish civil war was more a
question of luck than it was the result of a conscious decision on his part. As I understand it, Orwell was a
member of the ILP at the outbreak of the war, and the reason he joined the POUM was because of some kind of a
mix-up over his passport. Indeed, if all had gone 'well', he may have ended up fighting with a Communist
'militia'! Nevertheless, it's worth pointing out that at the (enforced) end of his first 'tour of duty',
Orwell himself expressed a desire to have been able to have fought with the anarchists, whose politics he felt
most closely aligned with his own (at that point in time).

-AT-ndy.



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