Date: Wed, 3 Jul 1996 22:40:36 +0100
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (hariette spierings)
Subject: GREAT ANTI-FASCIST RALLY IN LONDON - JULY 14, 1996


The following call has been received by our Committee Sol Peru. We have the
pleasure of endorsing this call from our comrades and friends from the
Association of Communist Workers (Supporters of the WMC), The Stalin
Society, and the Association of Indian Communists.  We would like to ask
like minded people to distribute this call as widely as possible in
Internet, particularly in those groups such as soc.culture.british (Usenet)
where people interested in attending it may be readers.

THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM
60th Anniversary of the
SPANISH CIVIL WAR
& BATTLE OF CABLE STREET

"NO PASARAN"!

RALLY

Sunday
July 14 2pm.
CONWAY HALL
RED LION SQUARE
LONDON WC1, UK.

Main Speakers: Maurice Levitas & James Maley (of the International Brigade)

Ticket available from organisers, or on the door, at =A32 (or =A31, unemployed,
etc).

Organised by

ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNIST WORKERS, ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN COMMUNISTS, STALIN
SOCIETY SOCIETY.

Text of the Call:

WE WILL NEVER FORGET THOSE WHO FOUGHT AND DIED WITH THE SPANISH PEOPLE
AGAINST FRANCO FASCISM


July 1990 marks 60 years since the Spanish generals launched their attack on
the young Spanish Republic and Popular Front Government of Communists,
Socialists and Left Republicans.  From around the world about 42,000
answered the call of the Communist International to join an International
Brigade of volunteers and take part in the revolutionary war to resist the
Franco Fascists.  Some 20,000 volunteers were killed or maimed.  Of the
2,000 or more that served in the British battalion, over 500 died.  Such
heroism and internationalism in deed as well as spirit has few parallels in
the history of the struggle of the working class and oppressed peoples.
This being the case it is not surprising that the bourgeoisie and their
supporters in a "left" garb (Trotskysts and the likes of George Orwell and
Ken Loach in his film "Land and Freedom") seek to obliterate from the
historical record the proud memory communists and progressive people have of
the International Brigades who were composed mainly of communists.


COMMUNISTS IN THE VANGUARD

The history of the Spanish Civil War is one of the Communist Party of Spain
being in the lead.  It was the communists who took the initiative in July
1936 in setting up in Madrid a regiment - the %th Regiment, which became the
model on which the People's Republican Army was based.  The fascist army
generals had the element of surprise and the vacillation and equivocation of
the non-communist members of the Popular Front Government acting in their
favour.  The example of the "5th" Regiment which was disciplined and well
organised inspired the people of Madrid into quickly swelling its ranks.
The people saw that it was the communists who were prepared and ready to
organise militarily in a professional way, and to train and arm its soldiers
properly.  The communists were disciplined, but it was a new type of
discipline - conscious and voluntary rather than imposed and for that reason
more effective.  The Communist Party recognised that the war being waged was
an anti-fascist war in defence of the Republic and therefore sought to unite
the vast masses of the people to defeat the generals who hated the Republic
and represented feudal reaction and the power of the Grandees.

THE SOVIET UNION

The Soviet Union headed by Joseph Stalin has a proud record of political and
material aid to save the Spanish Republic.  The technical and political
assistance given in organising the People's Army was invaluable.  The direct
military assistance included 15,113 machine guns, 500.000 rifles, 340
mortars, over 110,000 bombs, 3.400.000 shells, 862,000 rounds of ammunition
and 500.000 grenades.  For political and military reasons this assistance
needed to be organised secretly, not least of these being the ned to protect
the supply lines.  The assistance given by Nazi Germany and fascist Italy
had no such restrictions in a supposedly neutral "non-interventionist" but
in reality collaborationist Europe.

Republican Spain was overthrown by the combined forces of the feudal
reactionary Spanish military backed by Hitler and Mussolini fascism. But the
People's Army faced also the diversionist tactics of "The Party of Marxist
Unity" or POUM which opposed the united front against Franco fascism and
demanded only worker participation in the struggle.  POUM was thoroughly
infiltrated by Franco's spies and provocateurs who regarded POUM as the
generals 5th   coulumn in carrying out rearguard actions against the
People's Army.

The facts have been well documented.  But is in the nature of Western
"civilization" that bourgeois and anti-communist scribblers prevail.  The
rally called by the Stalin Society, Association of Communist Workers and
Association of Indian Communists is an important occasion for Communists,
anti-fascists and progressive people to remember those who fought and died
for Spain and the international struggle against fascism.  Don't allow the
cynicism and Trotskysm in the British "left" to rob us of our history.
Remember the heroes of the International Brigade and the great battles
against fascism in Britain like the battle of Cable Street which also has
its 60th Anniversary.  This is absolutely essential in the struggle against
present day fascism - domestic and abroad.


Stalin Society - Association of Communist Workers and Association of Indian
Communists  (To Contact the organisers - Tel/Fax: 0181 571 9723



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