The VOLUNTEER
FOR LIBERTY
Vol. N.o
THE BACKGROUND
One of the most outstanding
features of the Sino-Japanese
confiict in recent weeks has been
the growth and cOIl8Olidation of
the Chinese national front. And
this has not sprung up mushroolllJ-
fashion. For years Chiang Kai-
Shek's main efforts were spent in
a futile struggle to annihilate
Communism in China, the Chinese
Soviet areas, and the Chinese Red
Army. China's interests as a na-
tion were sacrificed right and left
in the pursuance of this aim. It is
only the pressure of the Chinese
people, the hard patient work of
the .real friends of China, and the
ever more blatant pressure of Ja-
panese aggression which have led
to a reversal in the policy of
Nanking.
Already in July 1936 the for-
mation of a National Defence
Council, with representatives of
the provincial governments, was
a tentative step in the direction
of national unity. At this time
Chiang Kai-Shek declared that the
hour for final sac.rifice would
come if an attempt were made to
TIII:,;~""HITE HORSE Oil which Franco W88 going to ride triumphantly into Madrid. But
tbat' W •• A year ogo. Meanwhile. look what's happened to the poor hor~e, which we fo-
und sr••11t! weakly in the fields when we took y Belcbite. Franco is still lat, however
18
force China to recognise the Ja-
panese puppet state of Manchu-
kuo, or if her territorial sovere-
ignty were again violated. This
was followed by an increasingly
firm attitude on the part of the
Chinese authorities to the various
Japanese provocations, but natio-
nal unity was still far from com-
plete, as was shown by the fact
that as Jate as February this year
the Central Executive Co=ittee
of the Koumintang published a
manifesto containing the statement
that the cardinal policy of the
central authorities should be to
root out the Communists by every
means at their disposal.
THE SIANFU INCIDENT
One of the key stones in the com-
plicated structure of Chinese uni-
ty was laid by the correct policy
of the Chinese Communist Party
and the Chinese Red Army in the
Sianfu incident, when Chiang
Kai-Shek was kidnapped by Chang
Hsueh Liang. It is certain that at
but Dot for Ions.
Madrid, September ?7 1937
OF CHINESE UNITY
A STRUGGLE AHEAD
SO MUCH THE BETTER
BY ALEXIS TOLSTOI
The days of sumptuous conferences. of elegant meetings of the
different Com'mittees, the days of France and England's ostrich
policy, of unparaUeHed meanness and cowardice-those c:.ays are
ended.
The Pirate Flag is hoisted openly in the Mediterranean. France
finds herself cut off from Northern _A~fric2., ?!1d EnglHnrl frnm
the Suez Canal. The Fascist programme haf' been published, The
second Roman Empire and the th.rd German Empire between
them are directing Europe, including. naturally, England-and old
Roman colony.
This is the ftnaJ announcement. The lion-tamer must now grasp
his whip and go into the jackals' cage. That is our proposal to
all the constitutional powers and Republics of Europe.
For our part. we have taken (:areful note of the fact that two
of our merchant vessels have been sunk by the Italian fascist
submarines. Ours is a serioU"s·minded people, and it considers
seriously its historic undertakings. We shall do what we have
decided to do, whatever may stand in our road.
We shall answer the news of the torpedoing of our ships in
such a manner that Mussolini will have no Hme to confess hiH
crimes. Our forcc-s and our means are inexhaustable. InexhauRt·
ably vast, Naturally it is more agreeable to devote ourselves to
building universities and sports stadiums than warship:.;. But
world fascism has forced us to build a great Soviet Navy, and
it shall be 'bunt. The Soviet Navy will be the strongest in the
world; and that is as true as the fact that in ten years. we ha\'e
caught up with European heavy industry. and passed it.
That is not the most wonderful side. The -wondErful thing b
that at the san1e time we shall go on building universities and
stadiums. We shall not divide our forces, 've shall double them.
Our task consists in forcing the ":orld to fl)llow a I'(}ad whieh
avoids imperialist war, an,.:) thif) is possible if we b(>come ~tronger
than the whole im.perialist world.
This task can be 1lccomplished, It lies in the realm of reaJitr
We are very near to accomplishing it. The idea must be drivf>n
like a nail into everyone's brain that we are living in a gl'f~at
and terrible epoch. It is and will have to be the duty of each
one of us to know how to organise our efforts, our ability, in
a Stakhanovite manner, to kno-vlr how to SUbordinate our life
and our creative activity.
The greatest happine-ss in life lies in feeling ones own stn:-ngi.h,
and ""e are masters of our own strength "rhe-n "every muscle j,,;
brought into play", when all our ll1(ntaJ euergy is dirccte.-i tu
achievements each day renewed.
Before us-the struggle, Then so much the bettEr!

WE VISIT A STEEL FOUNDRY IN MADRID
What attracted the attention of
oar dele&"atlon ot five from the In-
....aational Brigades all we filed
IMcI the ottice--reminiscent of
IIStAy factory offices in the Sta-
tU-was a red, yellow and purple
~cate on the grey wall, which
read in Spanish as f~llows :
Republica, Commercial de Hle-
l'!'Oe (Irons), incautado por el Es-
tIIdo en vlrtud del decreto de
acosto, 1936, (Taken over by the
8!.&te In virtue of the decree of
Auwuat 2, 1936) ,
'lbe President of the Factory
Committee, working at his desk
id blue overalls, was not expec-
bPIr vi8itors, but be welcomed us
cordially, At that moment a sud-
deD burst of machine gun fire, fol-
lowed by several grenade explo-
alona, came as abarp and clear as
the clang of the steel sledge ham-
m.rs being Wielded by workmen
11\ the mill yard, The President,
~.tchlDg our inquisitive look,
cUmbed out ot his swivel chair
aDcl .trolled to the window a few
teet away, Polntlflg southward he
laid, "See, comrades, that hou,e
between two lone trees on th~
IIrow of that hili? Well, that's
whera the fascists are! They can
lee \lao and we can see them,"
Before the civil war broke out
in July. 1936, this mlIl was in the
bands of the abeentee capita-
nsts who extracted their profi~
through representatives that COll-
ducted the operation of the facto-
ry, As soon as the war started,
the Government took over the
mm; the representatlve.!l didn't
IOfle time In .-cramming trom the
country. By driving out the fas-
cist-minded, the workers Vlere
able to start production oC war
matertu.
PRODUCING FOR WAR
However, up to this time the
mill had been used only tor the
production of lron-construction
matertaJa tor bulldlnp. Conse- factory committee and the men.
qlJenUy, tor it to be turned Into
" war factory required many cban-
::"11 In machinery and methode of
production wh1ch proved dltncult,
lJut were tiDally accomplished
wltb sldJfuI Ingenu\.ty. In Novem-
btlf, when the fascists were threa-
t enill,g toenter Madrid on the
'DOII'OW, all the workel'll of the
rnlll .. one man marched to the
front. It was Imposaible to work
In tM mW at the time becauae
,,' tbe heavy concentration of fire
THE VOLUWlEER FOR UBERTV
EVEN WOMEN SWING SLEDGE
HAMMERS TO FORGE BETTER
II F E FOR FUTURE
on It from the approaching inva-
ders. Airplane bombardments d~
rected against the plant was a
daUy teatlln,
Normally the mill employs 500
to 600 men. Now because m<»t ot
their young men have gone to the
tronts, there are only 3Z0 wC\Tkers,
moat of them above 40 years at
age, The workers are represented
by the U, G. T. and the C, N, T.
The Factory Committee, whose
function Is equivalent to that of aD
executive committee of any orga-
oIsation, is composed ot 11 men -
a president, secretary, and 9 dele-
gates - all elected by the wor-
kers ot tbe plant, Each mem~r
of the committee takes ,part in
tbe production as well as In the
admlnistration ot the plant. In
addition there is one representati-
ve, &Iso elected, trom each work-
ing unit throughout the mill who
serv.. as llaisoo man between the
He ~ be said to be his , Metion
political commisaar. The '.,ctory
has ID Its adminlBtraUve IIktt a
rovenune_ otficlaJ wDo ....ts In
coorcllDa&illl' the WOIrII ....een
the pemment and, t"~ory.
, ; . , . WAGI: INC.~"
~:~) ~
W~~ range from 14 pesete,~ a
da, ~ od ' up, accordln, to ' qUolll ;fi-
catloQ4; and an a hour day and
a 6 ' day week This I• • '0ptr-
cent Increaae In pay from that
which they received under the old
regime. Tbere ill 1'10 night work
because electric IIrhts would ma-
ke a perfect t&rIei for enemy ar-
tillery.
Ill' the eariy days of the war
they made armoured-cal'll and
tnachlne guns, to ' the surprise of
other steel niUIs In the vicinity
that immediately followed the
example . It is true that these
balloon tire annoured-cars they
made were unable to cope with
the powerful modern German and
STt:F.I. FACTORY Wc)IIKI':RK Dut to one of their earli_ p~...~[Ii
uf .. be h .. _tlh'-buJJt. armured CMrM uMd. by ollr .... my durtaa
uf the w ....
Italian tanks they facet! on lbe
battle-tront.
NEW INVENTIONS
Whereas under the old regime
the workers had none or very lit-
tle Incentive to improve the speed
of their work, that ie now chan-
ged. By Intensive ant! enthusiastic
application they have Invented
many devices that speed up pro-
duction, For Instance, during the
early days they used to fill ma-
chine gun belts with cartr i clg~s by
hand, otten' ripping the bt>lt. Now,
by having Invented a simple ma-
chine, they are able to insert as
many cartridges In a belt in ten
minutes as, formerly, It t ook two
hours to do. They have modeled a
machine-gun-rlfle disc that h ulds
more bullets and works better
than other types. Many of tht'
food ce.n.s which the comrades use
at the front to keev their food
hot were originated h~l'e, Another
interesting cont~apthm th"y've
Invented is a machin.~ that has
eliminated houl'll of usel c~s ]nhor.
Fonnerly, men hamm(:J'(" I a l l day
long stralghtcning uut Wif l' and
cutting required lengths },:. hand.
Now this can be dOli " h,v a uto-
matic machinery, stJ·al j<;h l('ning
and cutting the wire m Ill ,' accu-
rately and a 1000 p"rc,' II: f"ore
rapidly. 'lbese sam" " " " :,,·r- ;lii ve
al60 mad. a hugt! I"" "- i " l k ~ r.
which Is used at tht! frn, ,' : pro-
pagandlse 'the fallc ttil ' .
A collective kltd" I ,. " '''. ' " , : i1e
worke,. of the m dl , " I I. f.or
(C.... n1l .·.! .. ,I " .:,.•. ti . )
 'I'IIt; VOLUNTEER FOR LlBt;RTY 3

10,000 Babies In Madrid

Jose Colom - People/s Captain
Fr"m th,. Sl'ani.,h of '111nud Altolaguir,.
Less Than Year Old
t -Ddt"r )·. . ur "-Iu",, th .. win". art- "trvilit. Ther.. are ten thuusand babies Every m( inth the Madrid mo-
."ad t\ !tUna 01 ~rn for tht' t"BAt'", "',aln ill Madl'id touay under onc yc-ar therll are supplied with 40.000 Id-
You h ..".ar at ~on.r Nlr in tht' motor' " roar- of ag-p. Th(' mothers of these ehi!- lugrams of powdered milk. 6.000
".·ltr th .. LMo.ul. til" P~plt". fur Spain, fur SI,.'n !" dr~n arc unabh.' to f('<'(1 them n t of sugar, and 3.000 of flour.
o Ppe.pl,,'. ('DI,taln. leut' in th . . . ky.
the hr('ast. In the near future it Is hoped
l:.ur ~7e t. Wf't a'!6 yeu look. b.-to\\"-
Scorn",. of fflarl'll, yeo ,-lUt" th':"u .. h tfOnr" Even in normal Urnes in Madrid. to extend the service to babiea
OD 'he hUb you 1o"'",, Mad tht'l bind ~·uu knHW . ten percent of thp children born over one year a.!I well.
"'halt h.",f"St ." thfw In UI~ p.-IUIa.nt 's fteld"."- died before they w,' re a year old.
"'hat yif"ld of tlt"uth 'wtU"rt" the \'Inf":n&rd Ntnod~
St-i"! Trea,",on'" hand hal'6 ra,"JI,.... d th., lund.
If this was the average in peace
Tht" rI~t"r" 1&"" rN ",·ith lhf'" 1·,."t~I .. '" hluud: time. it is tragic to imagine what
o Juse (;ulom, look down . look duwn. might have .occurred In war. But
o ('loud-c'loakf'd eaptaJa. now mark you wfOll the slogan of the people of Ma-
Anthology of Poetry
Th,. m . . &er of R01ll21n . (joth and )Ioor.
The Coart of .Jud.~ . th~ Can.p of H ..II :
drid ha.. been "children first". by Volunteers
Ignorance of 8ci!'ntific methods
But turn, Jot.e, to tht" rl!dnK snn, brought about the high infant
Is Planned
rnbowed bflhold U!I for whom yOIi 'I)' :
mortality. Convinced that its du- Volunte<>rs are urged to
III \'aJe and , 'lllal''', 'rum t"'1nl Hltd tiIlM,," .
Tbf" People nI ,'l'tter with hannf"rM hleh.
4 ties towards the babies cannot b ~ send original poems, In Jo:n-
Thf" People, the Pf"ople :-thf"lr "uw Is !lillOkf'n. fulfilled simply by handing mo- gll"h, to the \'olunteer for
SpalJa I. DO& broken Dor bOWNt In 'rar- thers a little fresh or condensul
aelort' death claims 70U and hlt.tory names you, Uberty, both for UJle In the
The )·eople's &D.8wer, 0 ('aptaln, ht'ur!
milk, the Council has opened cen- magazine and Cor publicat-
ters for baby care all over Ma- Ion In an anthology of "er-
rodf"r your wln&'M ..the win lis ha,'f" 'aU .. d, drid . There every mother brings
Ha.lted by death 700 ·.. ere IiW." to «n . lie h~' Engllsh-"P<'aklng ('om-
Your 1,lane, yourself, ,,-erf" your only "·f"UIU.lls. her child. The child is weighed rade .. In Spain. Please write
\\'e ~,t.\\' l'OU ("rash aA you dU.Mhf"d th,. tOf". and examined at the center, and your own name and addreM
Ah 1·f"ople'5 Captalo. JOH~ ('ulom . a careful record made. A diet list
No sad DOl' .olemn dlrl'e lit mlnf"!
on e\,f'ry manuscript "ub-
is made Gut. the mother is given
Your DlUlle and fanle I fthis: "!'Ii
a Ha.rne
the exact formula for mixing the
mltted,
To summOD the brc.,'e to the flnne- lInp! Storleto, articles. lette ....
B:r the lI.rht or your d~edH ..... dill' .. ur trenchu, child's milk and all the necessary and ot·her contributions to
And ~.wear the ven&,eanot! that bo yeur du£,- instructions for looking after her
WheD the Moor Is dead and the Goth'. forgott~n, these pages lire alwaYII
baby. She is also supplied with
When tu Boman'. ftetJ and the traitor's rotten, welcoOK'. Addretl8: The Vo-
The People, the P'.ple, will ~Inl' uf you!
powdered milk, sugar, and other lunteer for Liberty, S, R. I .,
ne<:essities. If the infant f&lIB to
SH .~E:\IAS O'SHEEL 63E, Albaeete,
gain weight the formula is chan-
ged.

' ':' "

In the Rebel Zone

A recent radio talk by Quelpo
de Uano Is particularly interest-
ing. In his jests he continueB to
insist on the morality campaign
and the edicts of the governors on
this subject. He proposes, In his
clownish way, that men and wo-
men should be dressed In sacks
showing only their eyes, on which 'r
they should wear dark specta-
cles.

"A B C" de Seville, pronounced

an exhort ation apropos of the
"lack of re ~ p ec t " of the public
when they hear the "National
Hymn" .

Franco has announced that

every spent cartridge which Is
brought In to the civil governors,
staff headquarters or barracks,
ARAGON BATTLE SCENE: Our meD, e.t"'D~hed OD • hllItop, w."'h th .. IIlan~~ .......dt•• off
will be rewarded with one ceotlmo. - : r terral•.
4 'rUE VOLUNTEER FOR LIBERTY
AMERICAN HOSPITALS THROW A CHILDREN'S PARTY
They marched down the road
trom the American Hospital of
8aelice.s, by the ruins of the Con-
vent castle of Castillejo towards
the clearing in the woods, by the
creek.
More than 300 of them. Girls
first, boys after, singing the In-
ternational , shouting thc YOUDg
Guard, happy, untrammpl ed. The
Span ish girls working at th e Hos-
T>ital led the parade, the old folks
came at the' end. The day was
bright. They are always bright,
the days in Spain. But brighter
than the day were the thoughts.
f'ngeiider<,d by such a sight.
On that road, old, narrow and
!'tony, travE'lled for centuries by
insolent Ir.JOnks and men In armor,
the passing peasant was a mere
beast of burden only a few years
ago. In the building whIch houses
the American Hos pital, Maria
Cristina de Borbon reigned with
an iron hand. and stories are ot'ten
told of her avaric e, of h e r mean-
ness, of he r insolence. There is no
kindness or joy in the fa ce of th e
peasant w omen when they talk
of her. And now. with feu dalism
1I11".'ITAI. PH ' SIC SCENES, Th .. rhlldne Alii" •., . drlnk
H()"I'JT.~I. ( . 1\ I t ; t ·: II •. I"'ill;:
UUI'tC.' h , ~nllnlH"tI whll ... wat(Oh !nrr th~
' ... th·ltl... .
in all its brutality and ignorance
still a r ece nt experience in the
lives even !If the young ones, the
whole population of Saelices, all
thei r organizations, in a living
united front were holding a pic -
nic for th e children, in co-operat-
ion with th e American Hospital
staff, with an orchestra furnis-
I~rh., pl.~
hed by the Cuenca Branch of the
Soccorro Rojo Internacional,
which was represented at the piC-
nic by its president, Comrade Ju-
lian Lopez.
This picnic, not many miles
from the front, ill the midst of
war and .revolution, kept throwing
one's mind back years and gene-
rations. Everything conspired in
that direction. Not only the set-
ting. What was more evident was
the great enthusiasm among the
younge r generation in singing the
Joven Guardia, often greater than
in singing the International. And
why not? Why sing only
Arise ye prisoners ot starvation.
Arise ye wret c hed · ()f the ea rth.
when a whole nation IlIls arisen,
when for hundreds of kilometers
on a front from the Pyrenees to
the Mediterranean, through moun-
tain;; and deserted fields, hun-
dreds of thousands of peasants,
mulete ?rs, fact ory workers pro-
fessional people and even s tore-
keepers (Ire holding back and
pushing back the forces which
and I ....... tor our p .....e....h ....
... - . ...,.
.~
. ~
t
CLDIHING THE GRK~ ."t;D POLE.
ODe of Spanish kicl"4 ut th... picnic.
tau-kiln .. a new . irnportf"d sport.
would restore the power ot the
clergy, return th~ palace ot Ma-
ria Cristina to the royal house ...
How appropriate the Jines:
Som06 la J o ven Guardia
que \'8, [orja ndo e l porvenlJ·.
And the childrE'n of Saelices loot-
inctlvely knew It. The Internatio-
nal was a song learned and loved,
but the Joven Guardia was felt
and lived.
There wasn't thE"slightest doubt
among the boys. trying. not very
succesfully, to climb ~ he p o.l,' . that
the earth was theirs . V'o' hen from
a co.rner ot the field someone
started to. Sing their song, down
cane the human column which
was cooperatively trying to climb
the to.o damn-well greased pole.
and they all joined the chorus,
fists raised.
Nor did they sto.p at the end
ot the first verse. After the re-
frain :
Es 1& lucha. fina.l que C'omit~nzft
1& rev a n c ha de 109 que An~1an pH 11 ;
en la nwo)ur.lo n qu~ p ~ tA f"n OlJir ...·ha
los (\~cla\'os el triunfo ako:tn7.a.rAn.
sung with meaningful severity.
carrA! the second verse, remlnl-
nlscent and full )f promise:
Hila. d" Ia. mi ....r1a.
Mu ha.mbre no hem... de .utrl.
N~ ilia Ubrka..........

- Doctor Irving Busch, Comman-
J·.: ."~ :\~T ("HI .. pho'oaraph ..d
thC" hO!'tIJltal pknlr.
The woods we.re echoing their
strong and vibrant voice~ . In the
faces of the parent s W8.'l r eflec-
ted the joy over the victory
against f8.'lcism and feudalism,
but mingled with ~adness and bit-
terness evok ed 'by l~ses and past
sufferings. Not so for the chil-
dren, Th'eirs was the fie sta and
theirs the world. Th~y knew lhat :
~..ltnM. por tAJII 'c.Hlh 'Jo!
l1'II3B&.s r-'n tnunfo march" run ;
ante Ja Guardia Roja
Joe pod"...,...,. '"mblaran.
THE BACKGROUND
:I ;onlinuf"d Irnn. P." I.)
this time, had the Red Army &0
wished, It could have march~
through Shensni and considerably
increased its str~ngth, at the same
time settling variou8 old BcorM.
It I.s ~qually certain that Buch ac-
tion ," ould have plungt'd enina
into ' a sharp civil war which
would havt' been an immt'nse u -
st't to Japan. The Chinese Soviet
G<lve.mrr:ent and the Chine~e Red
.Army did not takt' the bait. On
the contrary. they played a lead-
ir.g part in s('curlng Chiang Kai-
SI :(·k·s r~lea~p . frW'trated the
plana of the .J".panese ai'ents, and
t.e'ped the Chine~ .. J>f'ople tn I't'a,
1I~(' more c learly wher.. ' om .. of
('ll1na's b<>~t friends wert' to i)('
f(·I.nd.
In conn~ c ti o n with Chiang 's re-
It'.8..... Chou F"..o-I..al, Vice Chair-
man of th e' JU-d Anny's Mllita.ry
Council , flew to Sianfu and from
thE're to Nanking.
NegoUations betwe!'n th~ Chi-
nese Soviet lead.. rs and tlK> Nank-
TIlE \'OLUSTEER FOR UBEHT\'
der of the American Hospita:S in
Spain, was 8.'1 pleas ~d and happy
as any of the children. The nur-
ses distributed toys lOne for eve-
ry child I the cakes, the sandwich-
es. Al Stone Poli:ical Commi~sar
of the base, busy as a brood hen
corraling ducklings, was everyw-
h ,"" , and when evening came and
Comrade Julian Lopez expressed
lhe wL<h tha t sUlh affairs be held
a'
-Tn.; \ ' " .- \R( · lIt:n dO"' n
'l ng Government began shortly
aw the Sianfu affair, and at
kHl-g last th ! Nanking Govenllllent
has .made the following otficlal
stat~ent:
"Chinn'" Got:ernment at Nnnk-
jnq aM the Commu"j,H Army
IwIve ocen Ilgh.ting lor ten year., .
1he IItruqg/.e ... nol.(· OI'1'r."
Previous to this, Mao Tile-tung,
Cha,rman of th,' Chlnt'~ Soviet
Gove."","l'nt, and Chuh-tt'h. Com -
mander In Chief of the Red Army •
had been in Nanking for dlllClIB-
sions wltll the Kuomlntang Mili-
tary Council.
The Chin .. "t' Red Anny has now
become th .. 8th Rout" Army of
the C .. ntral G< ,vpmml'nt Army (If
China . and Ch uh-t"h hae bE' .. n of-
fi~lally gaz ·' t!('d a" Its COmmRn-
d,'r , ifi-chlef. Th" A rmy is defend -
ing the key ."ctnrs or :-;ank,)\\'
and Ch&har on lhl' !"nrtht'rn
rront .
The C~ntrlll Chine!!' G<l",'.m -
mE'r.t has rE'll'a ... " hun!lrpd8 of po ,
Iilir al pM",.npr..
5
oilen an:.! regularly, it was amus-
ing tn watch the startled exprea-
~ion of Stone who had just wiped
lhe perspiration from, his fore-
h\!ad after shipping the lagt am-
I'ulance-load of children back to
Saelices,
After supper the nurses, the
whole hruopital staff, many of the
wounded, o:>w convalescing, the
d('legatlons of the the workers or-
1I()~n; 1\' .'Rn nl)l ' sn . IlId'no: the
bu·ro hom,.. aft"''' dB\' nf fun .
ganiza tiong of Saelic(,g and Cu~n­
ca, danced. In the library room
of th~ Infanta Maria Cristina (Ie
B orbon , with the old painting
still hanging, the room festooned
with colored pap .. r, joy I"f'igned.
And when the danct' came to an
end , and that only ~caug e of
exhausti on, Stont' fOUlld IUs way
to his room and undl'r the rich
woolen spread on wh i ch the in-
fanta had her n1lllle and crown
richly embroidered. 1'0 doubt
thought of bijZ'g..r and better pic-
nics for the chlldt"('n of Saellces.
fh .. r ... d. m .... Iltan _ of lh.... , .1 ... ln .. .. - H . A..
OF CHINESE UN I TV
In a war which ",;11 probably bas ultered a warning aa-aIn!It
be of a very mobile charactE'r. and "premature optimllDn" . Coming
In which the policy of the Chinese from the J&pBnE's.., authontiE'll,
forccs will be to avoid big deci- who at thE' b<>ginnlng of theIr
sive batles In the early at ageJ! , a nggre!Jion showed jU8t ~lIch pre-
war of Budden attacks followe-d mature opomi8m In tht'ir f'3tima-
by wIthdrawal, swift cone~ra, Unn of China ' ~ caparity for re-
tion and di'J>f'rsal. the Chine-lie .i~tancE'. FilCh a dt'cl&r&t i<'n CaD
Red Army, with Its long expe- on:y have onp mf'anlng .
.rk>nce of gu!'rilla warfare and ra- Ther(, i~ no doubt lhst lhll
pitl m"vement, with I~ romplpt .. growth of mUll unr",,: In J~ll&I1,
reliability foundf'd on the political coft"('spondtng 10 a difficult ('(·ono·
undt'rstanding of Its 80hlip.r •. will
mic lIituaUon. hu bet>n onf' " f th ..
be· of Inestimable value In China'.
"actors whkh .~I~ the mt1ita~'·
stnlggle against Japan.
fUCL>: I'UlinlC d;(~up. 10' laurrb
their nt· ..· "llack ~t th,. timp. 'n
th., h opE' of b8lanC'lr'K .1a;··. ."._
" .> \I'AS'8 DU",KTLTn:S I'connmy ""i'!) til,. (,,,tt " l ; Il l" t thf'
BF-HIS SIS(; ('attle t h .. m n ll l", and lh.· ••. ... 1 ,.l
thp 1\ . rt h<'m pr" \'in,.'(·• . Hut tht~
At thl' ~I\me timp a~ Chi"" i. " hjed ,.:ill _ ~ IL1'"ply ll>f' ..-.:urr-·t U'
Wilting all hpr fON'ell. th"re art' the war I. i>ro;'-n,. ~! . ......it II III,.
the tint Sill'TllI of milita.ry and ('nIUlPqu .. "t .train on J &po&JW'''
pollt'k-al diffkultle! f""lnR' Japan. f\.. ~'1urr~". an,1 th1 ~· i, ~Hl'('i" . ,
TbP Japan .. ~p Primp Mini.lf'r hu what .ppooau t ,. h< ' h"Pl"""""I
announcrd that thp ~I1\1I\t1on I~
ont' of "par1.icular grll,·,I)'" and A. • ~
 6 THE VOLUNTEER FOR UBERTY
GREAT BRITAIN AND THE FASCIST PIRATES
F'ascisIIlJ grows ever more des-
p.' rate.
When Ge.rman and Italian fas-
cism, with the aid, of the traitor
gcnerals, attacked the Spanish
people a year ago, it anti c ipated
that within a few we eks it w ould
be in control of the whole of the
Spanish p eninsu lar. And a n im-
partial observer, marking the cir-
cumstanc('s under which the in-
vas ion took place, m ight well be
f orgiven f o r agreeing with the
fascist esl1mate. But what fascism
had failed to take into account
was the indomitable courage of
the Spanish people and th e active
sympathy of the prog.ressive for-
ces of the whole world with the
Republic in its struggle.
When it became evident that the
easy victory it had anticipated
would not be achi eved , fascism
still thought that by reason of its
tremendously superior t echnical
equipment and trained f or ces, it
w ould achieve victory within a
\'car of the commencement of the
;var. And f or a time it also looked
as if this estimate mig ht te true.
The untrain ed mrllitia was being
forc eu back at every point, des-
pite the desperate courage it al-
ways displayed .
But a year has come and go ne .
Far from having achieved victo-
r\'. fa.~c ism has bee n fought to a
standstill and the g rowing po-
wer of the Spanllih People's Army,
with its in ncasingly better tech-
nical eqUipment. is ' steadily thro-
w ing back the fascist invaders.
PIRATICAL ATTACKS
In its utter despe.rati on , fa sc ism
resorts to ever more reckless me-
thods. On August 31gt, the British
destroyer, "Havock", wa s a ttac k ed
by an unknown submari nc. This
attack was the culmination of a
Inng s e ries of piratical attaclts on
Mediterranean shipping.
The piracy commen ced with the
sinking of Spanish and Russian
ships proc eedlllg t n aI' from Spain.
Encouraged b y the lack of con-
certed action by the Powers , it
gradually extended to all shipping,
;f whatt:v er nationality (excepting,
of coune. fascist ghipping), that
might be pass ing through the Mid-
' lie Sea. wh~ th e r its destination
!!lIght be loyalist Spain or not,
£panish, RuYsian, French, Greek,
D:mis h, Panaman and British ves-
, ·,'l ~ hav e all been a tt acked by
,, 'r" planes, submarines and des-
t "vyers.
The s urreptitiou s help and sup-
port that the British "National"
Government has been lending to
the designs of the fascists is being
r epaid with true fas cist recipro-
city. Not co ntent with the con-
trol it has achieved over the Im-
perial British trade r outes, fascism
insists on s /t()wing its control in
" rder to f orce furth er help.
MEDITERRANEAN PARLEY
With Jr.o'xed motives , the Bri-
tish Government, assented to the
calling of a conference of the Me-
diterranean Powers to d eal with
the qu estion of t h e pirate: , the
"unk nown pirates", as it called
them with delightful naivete.
It attended the confe rence wilh
three objects :
WE VISIT A STEEL FOUNDRY
1 p eseta 75 cen timos a day, is
located in what was formerly a
long blue-print office. War pos-
ters decorate the neatly painted
walls. A sign near the entrance
of the kitchen' says; "Comrades,
the state of this dinning-hall wi ll
indicate the degree of our culture.
Another sign, significantly displa-
y ed, ephasises: "Unity will bring
us Victory. Fascism is the culture
of barbarism."
They have their w a ll-paper, and
they issue an attractive monthly
magazine called "Hoy" (Tod·aYI .
Classes in the technical proces-
ses of production are conducted
after work hours. Recently 21 wo-
men atended these classes regu-
larly. These women are now rea-
dy and anxious to take the places
DIAN A . -Arte. GraIicas.-Larrn . 6, Madrio .
1. To attempt to uphold the
last traces of its prestige, which
its constant withdrawals before
fascist a ggressions have bro ught
lowe r than at any time in British
history.
2. T o protect that of its ship-
ping not engaged in transporting
food a nd supplies to loyalist
Spain.
3. And to do all in its power,
as far as it was consistent with
the f oregoing, to court fascist fa-
v our by giv ing it the particular
kind of assistance that only the
"Nation !!l" Government can give.
PLANS RUDELY GPSET
But during the conference its
plans were rudely upset. There
of the ir m en if th ese m en a re
called to the front. Yes, women
in the s tee l mills, swinging sledge
hamm ers to forge a better life for
the fu ture.
T o keep contact with the r ea r-
guard " EI Campesino" Divi sion
has adopted this factory. Festivrus
have a lready been held between
the two groups. The fighte rs of
t he "Campesino" Division have
visited the factory and in turn
the Mill workers have gone to the
Division to join them in their
sports events and other festiv-
ities.
The unity between the front
and the r~ar is the tremendous
horse-power that is propelling us
to ultimate victory against fasc-
Ism.
•J. T .
was at least one Power in Euro-
pe which was not at all disposed
to t olerate the fog of diplomatic
mumbo jumbo with Which it was
intended to surround the confe-
rence and cover a further betra-
yal of the fight against fascist
aggression in Europe.
The representative of the USSR,
did not bother to keep up the po-
lite fiction that no one knew who
the pirates were. To the horror
of the British delegation, he sta-
ted in unmistakable terms who
the pirates w ere and demanded
their suppression.
After a long fight, the British
plan, hy which it was intended
open the way to the giving of bel-
ligerent rights to Franco, was dis-
carded. The plan which was even-
tually adopted is by no m e ans a
p erfect instrument fo r the sup-
pression of the pirates, but it will
make their tas k considerably mo-
r e difficult.
It would be over -optimistic to
ex.pect the British Government to
fully implement the plan" yet the-
r e are signs that the antifascis t
forces (and even among t he G o-
ve rnments own supporters, there
are strong elements which disa-
gree radically fith ·its policy) are
gathering strength and will com-
pel a conducting of foreign affairs
very different from the past. A
I~tter to the "Times" by Mr. Wic-
kham Steed, a past editor of the
same paper, makes very intere-
sting reading. Here is a short ex-
tract.
"If our policy induc es a belief
among other peoples, which like
ourselves, hate war and love free-
dom, hat we shall not raise a fin-
ger to help them should they be
exposed to f oreign aggression. we
may foster this aggression and
help to bring on a major war. Or
our policy may drive these peoples
to make terms with p otential ag-
gressors and thus leave us in a
moral and political situation the
reverse of splendid."
It its reckless attempts t o ex-
tend war, fascism is opening the
eyes of more and more of the
British people as to what Is its
real significance, and we can vi-
sualise a time when the "Natio-
nal" Government will no longer be
able to maintain its precarious
balance and offer the aggressors
't he aid it has given them In the
past five years.
O. C. G .
 The VOLUNTEER
FOR LIBERTY
Yo I. I • N.' t1 Madrid, Oc ~ober 4 • 1137

SPANISH YOUTH MAPS ANTI-FASCIST FIGHT

"UD1te, ~C&te, aDd organi-
se the youth of Spain to win , .. ,,;..:.~ to be a government of the
Youth. "The minister ot to-
the war and be more usetul In ~~~"""'~:" :.~ day" he said "haa one duty,
the ReroluUon." With this ~Io­ and that Is to s e rve the needs
r~ 1
gaD, the NaUonllJ COIr..mlttee of ~ ,I
of the people in the mOBt be-
the Juventud Socialists Urufl- neficial m8JlDar."
cada (Unified Socialist Youth) On the s econd day Genera l
opened Its plenum in the Au- Mia ja, illustrious defender of
ditorium of the Rockefeller Madri d and great fri end of the
IIllJUtute of Madrid on Friday, yout h. g r eeted the pl~num .
Sept. 24-th. The sumptuol.l.lJ halJ, Francisco Anton, Inspector-
once the center tor indolent Commi88ar of the Army of the
children of the upper cla.sBeS. C ent~r also WB..!/ a gueat llpee.-
was uaed 'b y hundreds of re- k er .
preeentatlv~ of anti-fascist
C ARItlLLO SPEAJ{S
youth In a magnificent Natio-
nal Oong!'68S that lasted five T he brill ian t report by San·
days. t iag o Carrillo, Genetal Secret -
On the blue dr8lpe t hat hung a ry of the J . S. U ., made on
in folds from the 'p l&tform wall the s econd day, can be aald
I N SESSION, Dele8a1ee to the J. S. lI . Co ugre88 1 r~ce ntly h e ld i ll MAdri ll. 1i ", ' I'-
was a large picture of '!'emU to be the pivot around which
nlng to 00< 0 ( .. the r~por18.
Meabe, poet 8Jld founder of the the CongreSli revolved.
J . S. U . Also In the front of Some points he outlined In
on a ds.rk blue background, front, we re among the lUan y
the hall, above the stage draw- his t alk are :
was a quotation from Lenin delegates.
curtain, In bold white letters
which 9lgniftC8Jltly expresses The Congres.s opened wit h 11. (CODtlDU.d 0 0 p HS. 8. )
the genuine a.splratlons of the l!alut~ t o th~ glorious work o f
liberated YQuth of Spain. "The the Spa nish Rep~bllcan A~my.
youth", the quotation reads. H omage wa s paid to such n a·
"above all needs to have plea..q· tional figures a..~ Azafta. Pre-
ure, and vital s trength, soun d mie r N egrin . Companys of Ca·
g ymnastiC sports, s~;mlng. h i· t ). lonl8, and to the youth w ho
kes, and physical exe rcises of have fall en In the fi g ht fo r n a·
all kinds, a variety of intellec · tional independe nce.
tual interests, to Joearn, study, In the midst of prolonged
Investigate ; and th~y always ovation . JesUs He rnandez, Mi-
s hould do so collectively if pos. nis ter of Public Educa tion, waM
sibl e." Flags and banners be- he ralded by the Cong r ess. H e
longing to the different repre- greeted the Youth Congre88
sentative youth organizations and pointed out h o\': cl08ely
added to the gay unconquera· his governme ntal position
ble aplrit of tree determined brings him to the yout h .
youth. Among the many things he
told the delega tes, he mentio·
DELEGATES FROlU FRONT ned the diU'e ren ce betwee n a
m inlst~ r under the old r egime

n:sus: HERNAS[)EZ Young mllltary commande rs, and th~ minister of today un- S.O\:\T I.\GO C.\IIR1LW
~tiDb; ter nr Public Eductltinn, grc("h pollUca1 comm1B8B.r8, officials, der a P eople's Front Govern-
(;,' u fO ral S ec r E" ' tt r~' o f t h t' J. S. L: . ! ~ rlt· _
.... \ .01l,h Cong ........ and eold1el1l, dlrecUy trom the ment, which can be truly said I h' crjo8'~h iA~rrport (o.tbr ... c,uott re tllM'
 t TIlE VOLtJNTZER FOR UBERTY

TANKS.
ADlOIII' our comrad88 tanlul
IInjoy the reputation of being
fKrful Inferna, enginCII of mo-
dern warfare. When the tanks
~uddenly advance in our direct-
ion we feel the desire to ruD.
NevtrtheleSll that U! the most
dangerous thing we can do.
We have very f.requently wi-
theld the attacks of the fasc-
ist tanks with success. The his-
tory of the early days ' of the
war Is full of heroic incidents.
stories of comrades who went
to met't the enemy tanks with
a grenade In their hands. To-
day, however, we have other
methods at our disposal and it
is as well to remind ourselves
of them .
now T :\l\iKS OPERATE
Tanks advance about 200
yards in front of the infant-
ry, and their mission is to clear
the ground which the Infant-
ry will occupy. The tanks' visi-
bility is nil, so that there is no
p08&ibility of their making
night attacks or of being used
in very thickly wooded coun-
try. Our anti-tank bullets aTe
effective and have already gi-
ven .!Iatisfactory results. v,' e
shOUld therefore entrust our
best ma,rk sm cn with the anti-
tank buIJets 9Q that they
can fire together in the di·
rection of the driver of the
tank , while the light machine
bllnners, the machin e gunners
and the other comrades atop
th e enemy infantry by keeping
up a heavy fire. This will for-
ce the tanks to halt , since they
C&IKlOt dispense with the pro-
tection afforded them by their
own infantry. Our ' trenches,
constructed so &II to avoid the
danger of enfilading fire, will
protect our bombers.
Not all typ ~ s of ground are
suitable for an advance by the
tanks. As the tanks have to
s elect the rr.ost suitable route
to follow, It Is easy to prepa-
re very large deep traps which
must be carefully camouflaged.
In this way the routell which
the tanks would follow can be
blocked. Some of the best bom-
bers should be neaT these
points,
TANK OBSTACLES
A very wide ditch, with stcrp
s ides, constructed in fr ont of
the trenches, constitutes an
obstacle waich the tanks can-
not pass at a moment wheT'
they arc well within range of
our bombers. Low stone walls,
rulna, etc., are also usefUl 0 bs-
tacles which should be takeD.
into account. I shall be told
that all this is only pOs-
sible in a posit1on In which it
has been pOSSible to prepare a
good defense in advan~ . B ut
what is to be done when we
have just halted after an ad-
vance? The answer to this 4;
part of the infantryman's ABC.
We must dig individual holes
which later will becom e tren-
ches. We should remember too
that w e have at our disposa l
anti-tank guns and anti-tank
cars which are really effective.
We can quote some expe-
riences of the "Paris Commu~
ne " Battalion,
DeNmlber 16th, 1936, at Boa-
dilla del Monte, the 1st Com-
pany, thanks to rifle grenades
and a few comrades, succeeded
in stopping tbe..advance of the
tanks, while light machne gun,
machine gun and rifle fire wc-
re directoo against the fascist
columna,
January 4th, 1937, at Remi-
sa, the tanks' advance was
stopp~d, thanks to heavy fire
from the infantry.
February 16th, at Jarama,
the 3rd Company stopped an
a d vance of tanks through five
comrades, firing in the direct-
ion of the driver, while all the
rest of the Company fired on
the infantry.
F ebl'u,a lll 12th, the Fascist
cavalry deceived our tank8 by
muving a wing and concealing
th emselves behind a 'nound,
.Wareh 11th, several comra·
also be the most dangeroua
courl!tl he could take.
COMMANDER SAGNIER
11th Battalion,
14th Brigade.
Pro - Fascists Even Gyp
Franco
Only the pro-flUlCist money-
raising organization for Spain
back In the United States has
a shady record, financially, ac-
cording to State Department
flgurea, recently published, on
the amount of relief actually
scnt to Spain by bile various
agencies, and the I!IlIpplemen-
tary figures Issued by ·t he agen-
cies them8elves.
A prominent New York ma-
gaane comments on these figu-
res &8 follows:.
"It appears that all the
groups have commendable re-
cords except the American
Committee tor Spanish Relief,
a pro-rebel organization head-
ed by Ogden H. Hammond,
former ambassador to Spain .
This organlzation, which waR

~'j \~:~4.7!': . ties stopped th e Italian fascists

in front of Trijueque , in spite
of the tanks and their flame
t hrowers, on tw o succesgive
launched with a great splurge
at a Madison Square Garden
mass meeting, is shown to bave
~e nt not a penny to Spain o_ ut
..., oc casions by k eeping up an ef- of the $ 30,753 which it collect-
t ~ , ' ., ', '''1

f~:;i
~j~ .,~,;.":: .
' fec tive fire on the enemy in-
fantry.
Thes e examples prove that
\V h" n thc infantry know hew
to d ig th cllU' clves in. each man
mak ing a !'lx-hole, and digging
sui ta bl c trenches as soon as
1',)s:;i\)lo, th cy can withstand an
atta c k by the enemy tanks.
Consequ entl y we should never
th ink uf r unning fr om the fasc-
i- t lank s , Not only would such
conduct lJ e unworthy of a figh-
t('r for liht:' rty, hut it wou·ld
ed for war-sufferers, and to
have swallowed more than
$ 25,000 In 'expel18es',"
Among the pro-Ioyall8t aid
organizations, here are the re-
cords of funds sent to Spain:
North American Committee
to Aid Spanish Democracy,
and Confederated Spanish So-
cieties to Aid Spain, $ 633 ,147.
Medical Bureau to Aid Span-
ish Democracy. $ 119,353.
The Nation's Food Ship,
$ 25,560,

DEATH OF A SPANISH POET
EYE·WliNESS
TELLS Of MURDER
OF GARCIA LORCA
"'!'bat day I was on guard.
stepped aside to let pass a
very young looking man being
led by the CivU Guards. He
was pale. but walked serenely."
The Spanish lad recounted
his story. a.t tim reluctantly.
and then in a fluent. straight-
forward manner. A few months
CARCIA LORCA
beloved SpaD18h tolk~poet, nlurdered
at Craoad. by the Ra..,i.t••
&go he eecaped from fascist
territory and eame to our li-
nes on the Granada front . He
teld how Federico Garcia Lor-
ea. the famous Spanish poet.
met his death during the first
menths of the war. at the
hands of the fascist..oq.
"When ~ saw him". he con-
tinued solemnly. "I understood
the tragedy that encircled him.
Over his head hung the pall of
death for having written his
famous romance of 't he "Civil
Guards".
"Did you know Garcia Lor-
ca?" he was asked.
"No; I had read him a great
deal. however. I knew his
works and his life. I also know
of his death-the manner in
which his life WIIB ended I
shall never forget. It was so
monstrous. so criminal. that I
can never rub it out of my me-
mory".
The lad unfolded his story ;
"Garcia Lorca was located in
THE VOLUNTEER FOR JJBERTi" 3
I JACK SHIRAI
. lIap&11_-ADUlrlea.a VOIUDIee>'. JdJled at Vmanueva d. Ia
CaJiacla.-.July. 1981)
I h .... r that Comrade Shirai fell.
Who did 1I0t know him!
,1{18 funllY pidgin Engll.h.
HI. _Ung ey....
.... nd hla bra"e heart JACK SHIRAI.
~~a8e him "h'ed a. a brot .... r Hlle h .... a lau~bing hearl."
In the Abmluun L1n~oln Battalion.
Jack Shirai of Hakodate.
Son of Japanese _rth.
If.. went to AmerIca
the night. The Civils placed
Becanse at home there was no brp-&.tI;
Became a cook ID Frisco. themselves hehind the head-
HIs art tickled the palates lights. from where they could
Of the rlche Ht playboys of the city. not be seen.
In the summer 6f nineteen hundred thlrty·.h: .
A8 the newspaper wrote,
"Garcia Lorca walked firm-
In Europe, In Spain. ly with magnificent calm . Sud-
The Fa.cl.t wolf had come ollt to murder. denly in the middle of the
Jack Shirai packed his f.w thIngs road. he halted. He turned
And waH among the first
To come from AmerIca
swiftly and faced us, causing
Helpln&" the S panish peopl" in their fi,ht the insolent Lieutenant Medi-
For human rlJrht8. na, who was commanding the
When th" buliet8 whistled Ci vils. to gape in astonis hment.
And the t.ring 8hell. burot.
Then the boy. of the Lincoln Battalion
Watched JacJt ShIraI. LORCA SPEAKS
lie had a JauJrhlnJr heart!
Onf~ e (In June on th p .Jarama) "Garcia Lorca spoke. He did
He \Va. sent aa a cook not speak feebly. nor did hll
Behind the IIne8 f"" " ho.pltal. plead for his lite. His power-
They liked him there-the sick.
ful words were in defense of
The wounded. everybody.
.... nd the villa,· .. fanner. talked oft4r. the thing he always loved; Li-
Of the Japane8e who had come .0 lar lor them. beriy. He eulogized the cau~
But one day he ran away. of the people. a.nd condemned
Rack to the IIneo-to the front .
the barbarity of fascism .
In the North, when we cra.cked
The rlnJr aronnd Madrid. "Those fiery words. produ-
lie was there aa we stunned Brunete, ced a tremendous disturbance
And Villanueva de la Callada. among -the Civil Guards. Fm
As the. nIght wa. bright
me it wa.s like a penetrating
\\·ith the shine of the burnin: town.,
Torn by explodlnJr bomb. llght in my brain. The poet
An,1 the voIces of the I"reat gun •• continued talking... but his
Jac k Shirai fell. words were cut short. Lt. Me-
The Abraham Uncoln Battalion
dina. exploded with bls.'lphc-
or the' People' . Arvn,y ot ]<' reedon.,
And · the Japane." proletariat, m ous words and fired hi. pis-
Will not forget him: tol at the poet. Then he set th<>
Civil Guards a.gainst him.
LUDWIG D.
CLUBBED WITH RIFLES
u French lega.tioll. so I W8.'l that I figured among this "The spectacle was terrible.
t<,ld . By means of trickery he blood-thirsty group. 'I'hey threw themselves upon
was induced to come out. "The line of autos , like a si- him and struc~i him merciles-
When he did so, he was sei- nister convoy, pulled out onto sly with the butts of their ri-
zed . He was not tried by any the Pauul road. We were dri- fle..~ . Some of u.s remained sta.-
kind of tribunal. (For that mat- ven 18 kilometers f rom Grana- tionary. too horrified to do
ter. neither WIl.S anybody el.se da. R was 8 o'clock at . night allything. Garcia Lorca IW1
held by the fascists.) The night when "Ie finally get out of the and was followed by a rain Of
of that very same day he was autos. The automobile head- bullets. A hundred ya'Ns away
pulled out of the jail where the lights we re focused directly on h e keeled over. As the murde-
Civil Guard had him incarce- the man who was marching rers approached hin. with ill-
rated . Among a squad of to his death . The silhouette of tentions of finishing him . he
guards he was shoved tnto an Garcia Lorca cut an omnipre- raised his body. stre&ming
automobile. I am sorry to MY sent figure in the darkness of (CODliauecl ... i'Ar •.J
HOW CARL BRADLEY EARNED HIS THREE BARS
FIGHT AT QUINTO
AND BELCHITE
I S DESCRIBED
VALENCIA. - SpaniBh Sul-
diers and officers in the Twen-
ty-fourth Battalion of the FIf-
teenth Brlgade came wearily
out of the Aragon otfenaive
but ~OIit no time petitioning
their command to give the
three bars of ca.ptalncy to Carl
Bradley ot the States. They
Bent a. l1ttle note along tu
G. H . Q. in which the words
herolco and glorlosa figure a
number of Umes, and thereby
hangs a story, possibly one of
the most re'V'eallng In thJs war, -Point built the barricades that
of the close bOnds between the
International Brlgade and the
Spa.n1sh soldiers. It tells how
Carl Bradley, Local 88'4, Inter-
nationlill Longshoreman"s Asso-
Ciation, became Captain Bmd-
ley, of the Spanish Republican
Army.
The People's Army, hardened
by a. year of warfare Into sea-
Boned, disciplined troops who
.can take on the toughest of
.Black Arrows and make them
very homesick, had just cap- . neguns poked through them,
tured more ·than 1400 square
kilometers of territory in Ara-
gon. Fighting in the van with
GEN£Ro\L WALTER, Command.r 01 tbe Ntb Divl.lua. Above, at "'bt. anotber
. pboto 01 Gen. Walt.r, oa tbe " ....oa froat.
the SpaniardJI were the men of
the Fifteenth Brlga.de - ·Ias
Brigadas Internaclonalee-and
they did sterling worI!- at Bel-
chite and Quinto, winning the
high pmise of General POZM,
commander of the division.
HOW IT WAS DONE
Nobody can tell the story of
Belchite and Quinto better than
Captain Bradley who won his
stripes for his g ood work here.
Let me tell the story aimOBt
as he told it. If anybody knows
Belchite It Is Captain Bmdley
whose ~eo at Dead Man's
did such damage to the fas-
cists. Let.bim tell you of Quin-
to, tb8.t towering fortification
- "on the afternoon of the day other flve men were. We wen-
Into which the Gennan engi-
before the lut trench posWon ded our way ,b ack to where
neers put a year's work build-
of the fuclsts was ·t aken, our hundreds of our soldiers were
Ing what they thought would
command asked for volunteers standing on a }.1l11, enthuaed.
be lmpregnBible defenses.
for a bOmbing squad to wI.pe They had been watching us do
"At Quinto" Bradley says
out this nest. Ten men were thls job on the fascisf stron-
"the fascists held a large build..
needed aDd ten UMln immediate- ghold that had snuffed out the
tng, biggest in town, command-
ly volunteered. lives of 80 lD&Dy of their com-
Ing the entire pOSition. Walls
mdes. The building burned all
three feet thick; a regular for- night.
tress . .The windows had machl- ARMED WITH GLYOEIUN
Bradley then told how the
Bradley commanded the fighting went at iBelchite. Here
and It would be next to impos- group. "We went armed with the American boys ca.n1ed on
sible to take Quintt If this glycerin bOtUa, took a poalt- boldly but cleverly in street to
plo.ce wasn't taken. ion 26 feet from the wall of street fighting, infiltrating the
the buUdfng. We h¥l there and town and ,then going to work,
• waited till atter 25 sheila, well taking house atter hOU88.
directed, hit the place. The "We cha.lxed uphill some S50
walls were 80 thick they·did meters ·under enemy IDach1ne-
not demolish the buHdlng. The gun fire. We could seethe ta-
matn purpose of the shelling ces of the fasclltts. Three d.
wa.s to force the fascists Into our men were kfUed; 88ven
their h~es, away from the wOWlded out of 29. The Ame-
windows with.thelr machineg- ricans had to put up their ma-
uns and snipers. chinegun stand. The bullet.
"Out ot the tell, two were flM\' so thick we had to take
wounded as we snaked our wa.l our poDChoes, fill them with
tp the building. Three of the And, and under that bU of
gang had to carry them back. protection, llet up Uie guna.
'!'hat left five to carryon. We
took our bottles, filled with
this deadly explosive glycerin, WHERE REGAN DIJI'.D
picked windows, and threw
them in with well-directed pit- "We took a aUeet to a po1D.t
ches that came from good ba.- where Charita Regan wae !d-
seball arms. Tremendous fla- 11ed. . Charlie was one of the
mes exploded inside the build- bmvest men In Spain, a World·
hlg. We came back twice with war vet and a fighting Irtah-
the bottl8IJ and then rolled a man with pleasant blue Ir18h
big drum of gasoline lJIlto the eyes but with Ii etroD&' deter-
structure with a fuse attached ml.n.aUoo. Men looj(ed on him
to It It exploded 1na1de. &8 one who would go Jnto the
"This mJseion finished we re- jawa of death for thelU and
turned to find out how our they loved 'him. H. ha4 auch

bunllJIg b&tred at Fuc18m
&
he'd abip bJm.Mit at bJ.I akin
If It would betp. He was killed
~ptember ~.
"We called where he wu kI-
lled Dead lIa.n's Point. We ha\!
to go up the street and make
& perfect cle6ntng of houses.
Our men were hungry but they
didn't pick up a piece of bread
In the houJeli they cleaned up .
We went th1a way: tour m.eD
on the right hand side watch-
Ing the left side tor snipers
"\lid tour on the lett watching
we right band. Two more men
looking at the rear. Thus we
had perfect protection. Then
we came to a point 76 teet
trom the fasellts and could
hear theIr officeI'll. hollering
Viva Franco.
MOVE BARRIOADES ABEAD
"At Dead Man's Point where
the bullets were ricocheting. w e
built a b&rrlcade of bags of
grain taken from cellars of
a:bandoned houses, and gave
them hell fram behind It with
bombs and rifles . Then we de-
cided to move ,t he barricades
' " rward, a few feet at a time.
!to volunteers were needed
ilr this, two stepped forward
lromedJat.eJy. One of them was
Ephraim Bartlett, of Denver,
Col., a ruan with some Indian
blood, a miner who had been
a soldier in the United States
Cavalry and who saw a lot of
duty on the Mex.lcan front, a
man of 45. Back to the sides
ot the buIildlng, he took sack
by sack trom the barricade,
holding them in front of him
In direct fire of the enemy, he
plded them in the new position.
This way we brought the ba-
rricade torward under direct
enemy tire.
"Then we began to advance
through the buildings by, dig-
ging holes in those thick Spa-
nish wallB and here the mi-
ners were very ~flclent. We
got a commanding position
from two houses OD the right
and began to harass the ene-
my by sniping.
100 PRISONERS
"Same of the men heard voi-
ces in the cellar of the build-
Ing. Wo discovered there was
about 150 FasCist soldiers and
clvUIana downstaJrs. A Spanish
officer began to talk to them
throurh the cellar wtadDw. He
expl&ined why they ou,ht to
.lUrrende.r, told why we were
6gh~ and they aa1d they
would surrender. We took TOO
prlaDOers In three houses right
by our barricade.
"About three o'clock In the
morning, after a rigid guard
all night, the stUlness wu sud-
denly exploded Ilke a bolt ot
lightning. There was suddenly
running ,around In the streets,
noLaes, shots, the bursting of
grenades.
"There was a great tenSion
and you had a feeling tha.t now
here It comes. This Is the pa-
yoff - the two bodies were
going to collide right now.
LOUD-SPEAKER ARRIVES
"Everybody's Derves were
strained. Suddenly you heard all
over the city the playl.ng ot
the Spanish national anthem.
The loudspeaker had come up!
It was just like pouring oU on
troubled waters. Just as if by
agreement of both side.9, every-
body stopped to listen.
"Then there was a short
speech that had ·b een prepared
by Dave Doran, of the Uoited
States. It was translated Into
Spanish. A simple little speech
it was, but Its effect was dead-
ly. He told the Fascists how
fUtile their position ' was. He
told them what the Republi-
cans stood tor. He told of Mus-
sollnl WIld Hltle. and the in-
vaders. Then the National An-
them sounded again.
"Two minutes elapsed.. Silen-
ce. Then a few scattered shots.
W e afterward learned these
were some fascist officers being
killed by their own soldiers.
Suddenly we heard the sol-
diers, the fascist soldiers com-
rade, bust Into s inging the In-
ternationale! They started
Shouting Viva la Republica!
Then we knew victory was
ours. Then aU their soldiers
came over. They sur,rendered
and Belchite, t he Fascist
stronghold that Nap 0 leo n
couldn't tak e, was now in the
hands of the International Bri-
gadiers.
- AND SEVEN NUNS
"There was suddenly great
jubU&tion. Not because we beat
them, It wasn't only that, but
LOYAL GUERILLA BANDS MENACE
fRANCO'S REAR
V ALJIlNClA.-Guerllla war-
t&re ttl Franco's rear 18 &88Um-
Ing 86riOWI proportions, judg-
ing by reports reaching here at
frequent Interval.8.
In the mountains of. Huelva
Province, In the South, in the
northern Provinces of Galicia,
many thouean.da ot Republi-
cans are harraaaing the Faacist
garrison •.
HALF RETURNED
Three tho usa n d guerilla
tightel'll from Viana del Bolla,
Orenae, make life hectic tor
the Fascist headquarters at
Vigo and Pontavedra. A comp-
any of Moors and Phalanglsts
recently sent out to crush them
was almost amilllilated, barely
halt of them returning from
the expedition Into the moun-
tainII.
Another two thoUB&Ild repu-
at the fraternity when they
come over, happy, singing,
throwing their arms around
us.
Cal' tain Bradley ended his
story with this: "We come
across seven nuns w orking in
the Belchite fascist,. hospital, a
lot of wounded all around. The
fascist officers had escaped,
leaving them to their fate. The
nuns viewed us with awful sus-
picion, thinking torture was In
store for them. That's what the
fascists led them to believe.
They looked like they were re-
signed t o death. Then we came
forward and gave them milk,
I
bllcana are etJtabUll1ed iJ1 the
mount.alllA ot Bu&m&. Ko.t ot
them. are tugltlv_ trom Kala-
ga, RIo Tlnta and Seville. Tbey
are 88CW'e In the deep guUe:yll
and craggy mountalM, aDd re-
cently 8Uc~ulJy ambuabed
a torce sent out to de8troy
them.
CAPTURED DYNAMITE
In La CIana Prieta, In the
suburbs of. Ardalea, aDd neigh-
boring villages of Malaga Pr0-
vince, numeroWl band8 ot Span.
lards, who escaped trom Ma-
laga, have been peralBtently
attacking the -ln8Urgent garri-
son at Chorro del Agua.
Several times reinforcements
have had to be drafted Into the
area to support the local fase-
iBt forces.
One report ot an attack on
Ardales tell.8 how the raider.
carried of 20 cases of dynami-
te, 410 rifles and many hOrsM.
Fifty PhalanglBts and CivU
Guards were wounded in tIlJ3
fight.
AMERICANS BOO
MUSSOllNI'S SON
NEW YORK.- When Victo-
rio MU!l8OIIni, the son ot Italy's
dictator arrived here, he W8B
greeted by thousands of people
who shouted, "MuB80lbll Is a
murderer! ", "Expel ,hlB son
from the United States! " The3e
demonstrations continued with
greater enormity at the hotel
where he stayed.
eggs, b.read. The medical doc-
tor asked them which were the
most seriously wounded CBl8eS,
as he wanted to give them Im-
mediate attention. The. nurses
gladly showed them . Their fa-
ces registered a smile for the
first time, and as we helped
the sick', the nuns kept saying.
"Muy bien - , muy bien." That
means " Very good, very good."
We helped the nuns over the
barricade and took them to
safety."
That's the story of Belchite.
Captain Bradley said.
J. N .
6
THE FIFTH COLUMN
The discovery of a. vast net-
,.,Grk ot eepiooage and treason
In Ma.drid has given us a sharp
reminder of the work ot the
enemy in our .rear. It ill not
enough to teel .,!Glent Ind~a­
tion against these criminals. It
I",necessary to consider how
\,bey can be fought and over-
come. That their activities re-
present a real danger is shown
by previous experiences, and
pe.rUcula·rly by the events at
Santan4er...
"While we were trying to
find a boiLt the 'Fifth Column',
that ill to say, the internal ene-
my, had already come out on
the streets. The Fascists set
fire to the petroelum supplies
and began firing at the Govern-
ment aupply centres", says an
English witness, Commander
Pursey.
It wa1l work ot. this kind
which was being prepared by
tbeorganisation discovered in
Madrid.
FASCIST PLANS FOILED
Beture November 7th last
year, when General Mola was
aliked by a group of foreign
journalists which of the four
columns marching on Madrid
would take the city, he repUed:
"Madrid will be taken by the
I,'ifUT Column". In other words
the Fascists in Madrid would
hand over the city to the ene-
my. Mola made a mistake. The
p~ople took the hint, dealt his
allies a hard blow, and disor-
ganised the Fifth Column. But
it continued to exist.
It is interesting to note the
aims of this Madrid organisa-
tion which hasr'!cently been
brought to light.
It was engaged in recruit-
Ing men to caTry on the public
services when (and if) th~ Fas-
cist..9 entered Madrid. It was
collecting information and stu-
dying means of conveying It to
the enemy: in one premises
the authorities discovered a
plan of Belchite, an account of
our forces in that sector, a re-
purt .of the present position of
the El campesino (46th) Divi-
sion, and a note on the eva-
cuation of the Guadalajara hos-
pitals.
A section known as the Whi-
te Phalangi!ltl! WIUI organised
among the refugees in the va-
rious embassies, and particu-
larly in that of Chile, where it
is believed that the General
Staff of the whole organisat-
ion may be found, enjoying a
scandalous "diplomatic" immu-
nity. This section, regarded as
superior to the others, was to
play a leading part in the al-
location of posts when the flUl-
cists took o~er the municipal
services.
A militllirY section with wide
ramifications was entrusted
with recruiting soldiers to act
in conjunction with the rebel
forces in the next fascist at-
tack on Madrid. In particular,
they had the task of slezing
the main publiC buildings, the
central post, telegraph, trans-
port offices, etc.
A blacklist was being prepa-
red for use in the hypothetical
future .
GERMAN, ITALIAN POLICE
We must not forget that at
the head of the Fifth Column
are rtle Gestapo and the Ita-
lian police with their wide ex-
perience. The Gestapo had sent
its tentacles through Spain con-
siderably before July 18th, and
In fighting the Fifth Column
we are not fighting a hasty
overnight improvisation.
The spy, the provocateur, the
saboteur are the worst enemies
of the Spanish People's Revo-
lution. Only implacable and
perse,rvering effort, a watch-
fulne.u neither dulled by ex-
cessive confidence nor blinded
by undue suspicion, can deteat
them. The methods of fascism
in Spain - the killll1g of pr!.-
soners, the bombing of open
towns where the victiroa are
women aDd children -- these
things are sufficiently well
known. The methods of the
Fifth Column are no more
':crupulous or humane: &Ssas-
:,ination, blackmail, prostitut-
:" n, the launching of malicious
:t:ld defeatist rumors, profiteer-
: ng, the hoarding of foodstuffs,
etc., t.he securing of inform at-
:on by bribery or terror - all
Lhese methods are co-ordinated
in their plan of campaign. They
::an adapt themselves to cir-
cumstances.
NO HELP FROM US!
Sometimes we ourselves un-
wittingly assist the enemy. It
is all too tempting to come,
like Moses from the mountain,
to daZzle an astonished audien-
ce with brand new information.
But the price the Republican
cause pays for that momenta-
ry feeling of elation and self-
importance may h~ a heavy
one, and neither in Spanish nor
in English is it very hard to
say: "I don't know."
The fascist agents are not
stirring figures surrounded
with a mysterious and roman-
tic halo. They are not fit sub-
jects for a sentimental huma-
nitarianism. They would deny
liberty, progress, the possibili-
ty of a fuller and better life
to millions of people, and ins-
tead would substitute tyranny
and grinding poverty. Such
they are, and nE such they
should be judged.
These people do not work lJI
a vacuum. A traUor who Ia
completely lasoIated can gene-
rally do comparatively little
harm. But dlacord aDd jealuosy
between anU-tuctata and antl-
tlUlCist organla&tlon. are trea-
son's best breeding ground. In
such an atmoaphere It is rela-
tively easy to play one section
against another, to take sides,
to escape detection, or if detec-
ted to cry out agaiIlBt "pollti-
ca'! victlmisatioo", to make the
whole struggle against the
Fifth Culumn much more diffi-
cult and obscure by fomenting
striffe between sincere antifas-
cists.
The Spanish RepubliC'S su-
rest weapon agaIrutt the Fifth
Column is the complete unity
of action of all our forces, uni-
ty in the People's Front and in
support of the Government of
the People's Front, unity with
one aim: to work together at
the fronts sod in the rear for
the Victory over fascism and
the triumph of the People's
Revolution. All the anti-fascist
forces need each other - they
cannot IIght-heartedly dispen-
se with the co-operation of
this or that organisation. It
their whole strength is directed
to this aim, an improved si-
tuation In the rear will be re-
flected in greater and more de-
cisive victories at the front. A
store of energy will be relea-
sed which is at present dor-
mant or spent in all too embit-
tered controverSies, or in en-
deavoring to promote or safe-
gua.rd the interests of this or
that organisation. The work ~
the io'ifth Column will become
11 hundred times more difficult,
and t1ie task of the Republican
authorities in unmasking the
s pies aDd traitors and ,giving
them their deserts will hecome
a hundred times easier.
In our own Brigades every
action, whether conscious o.r
not, which tends to friction 01'
mdsunderstanding between the
Volunteers and the Spanish
comrades, or 'lietween soldiers
of different nationalities or dif-
ferent anti-fascist opinions, on-
ly helps Franco. Every action
which tends towards a better
understanding, a closer Peo-
ple's F.ront unity. is another
!lai! i~ the fascist Coffin.
A. M. E.
COMRADE BAEDEKER-A SPANISH FANTASY
The other morning a.a we left the days of decadent knigh-
t.he Hotel Alfonso on the Gran IN WHICH THE OLD TOURIST PULLS A RIP thood , of exccutioIl8, of auto-
Via (where you ' can get toOO- n:! fc." ('f hors e rac-es and bull-
l'8.bly pale coffee) the fascist VAN WINKLE IN MADRID, AND HITS THE fights, 1\..3 balconies could hold
artillery undertook its custo- HIGH SPOTS AT THE SAME TIME THE 00,000. Now all the pavement
mary trajectory of the city. had been torn up by Bhrapnel.
The 8peCtacle of a lone peasant
SHELLS DO but F'tIilip still was un tou-
frantically trying to quiet down forces of the proletariat and stn:am of water that Borne ched.
his burro in the middle of this peasantry whoac rich epiritual street cleaners were laying AB we approached the Pala-
highly modern avenue fascina- strength would ultimately crea- down on the hot pavement. ce, a large green vlIIta opened
ted u.s until a shell landed too te a new aod dynamic Spain. That WIUI .. thread of continui- up before us. Karl's eyes IIght-
cloae for poetic sentimentalis- We decided it would .be fun etup: "We can go for a nice
ing. We ducked into a booke- to take Rip Van Winkle Bae- cool walk'in the Casadel CalII-
tore which looked sate, for its deker out of his musty refuge po" , he- lIald, At which point
windows were banicaded aga- CD a tour of the tumultuous, he w&ll!ltartled by staeeato
inst shrapnel by ~k8 and . indomitable Madrid of today. nolae of a machine gun, excel-
stacks of PJatos, Geot.hes, Hu- El Seftor Baedekm- hlUl never lently grouped. An excited
gUe, in what, 'we BUppOlle, was quite gotten roWld to visiting Spanish guard waved to us.
the SpanlIh edition of the 140- Sovie~ RU093ia and we v:anted Where wu our ''SalvOOondUe-
dern Library. to guarantee against a llrimilar to" ? We pointed to Karl's
There was 11 musty cooln_ oversight of revolutionary "'tripes. Our guard looked du-
about the pla.ce, like a wine Spain. Don't get a misimpl'eS- bloU.II, but at that point our
cellar, and 110 we settled 00Wn sian : we hare a real affection friend Baedeker had lost 1I1s
comfortably in a chair to spend for Karl Baedeker. Among heart for further advance. He
a restful couple of houra. W8ZIt- tourist manuals bis is t~ most tould see, he said, eveD .from
lng to tind out why we had thoroUBb. accurate and concille, the distance, that the Palace
taken to capturing llheep, U and it he inclines to Bee citieli wall unharmed save for fascllt
well lUI taadata, on the Aragon in static tel"lU8 of museums; shells. _ He'd much rather . 'See
tront, we picked up a Baedeker statues, churches ,and palaoes, t.he Prado, he ,s aid. Nor 'Could
In the hope that lIe would give that 18 more the fault 'of his we persuade him to take a look
us aome clue to what in the Clientele; who like their history ty with the past. We noticed at the Almw:lena Cathedral to
~ background of eeep mummified. that he was attracbng attent- see that lUI much as 'bad been
Impelled them to Hne up with ion in his bourgeoia gannents built was Intact.
the fUcillta. But he pWi ua JU) of 1920, 80 we took him into
iIelp on this point, and' we at- a Bhop and bought him khaki
BAEDEKERBE~DEB£D
reedy Imew that sheep bad an So, when the ehe1lII began to panta and a khaki 8hirt. Out·
attintty tor aheep-b~. come more IIlowty we w-ent out. side we purc~ a Sam Aa we returaed toward tlle
It was like 1Vben a I'leavy ram Brown belt and enough etrlpes Puerta del Sol he a,ake<l WI
has let up for a mOIllent and 110 that he would rank lUI a what were the ieehou8es and
GOOb8Y1l ro ALL THAT
one can Btill hear the thunder commanMnte, which, with hie 8M waUe made out 01 lH'viag
Although we remained juat in the distance. People were distinguished Van Dyek, would stones .t hat he noted iB all the
. . muttonheaded about the turtively darting out of door- get ua by even a Garde streets Dear the city's extremi-
Aragon tront &8 balore, we ways and making 8. run for d'Asalte. ty. And we told him how ~­
tOUDd our 1920editton of Bae- their de8tirul.tiOIl8. A few more men, children and men llad
(Ie~ .. bighly absorbing do- hardy onee were inspecting the THE TOURS BEGINS abandoned enrything lR.IIt. Oc-
oumeJlt. U portrayed a Spain effects. WJtelt it appe$l'ed that tober to fortify their city, and
and Madrid not even of the the holocaust was over the We asked our ancient friend make it, if the flUlCista should
Republic (ante July 1936), but stJ'Cets IIOOn were crowded where he would want to go ever really penetrate into it,
of the monarchy. A Madrid of again and people were In tu- first. He hesitated between the literally the tomb 01 f!l.'!!cillm,
l"Mp1endent cat6s in which multuous and boisteroW! movc- Prado, aristocratic avenue of We went down the Calle de
lounged elegant, llrimpering ment, With Karl we wn.lkcd man.slon.'! and mUl!eUJnB, and a Alcala. Our dlatlnguUibed toIrr-
young men of aristocratic Ii- down the Calle Monter&.. A shell walk toward the western side 1st insillted on stopping iJ1 all
nca~, anrl ap\IJh businells men had hit the top story of an of the city where were the Ro- the old end tamotl.lcat6l. He
on the make; a Madrid of re- apartment house and disl odg- yal Palace, the A.lmudena Ca- noted how, dellPlte the t~.
pression and bureaucracy; a ed huge boulders intI; the thedral, ctc. Since he had not lence of the wa1". tllebPftsses
lietle80J H&drid stultitlcd by the street. Others still hung pre- seen the latter, we went there were scrupuloWlly polished, and
teuool IIOcial relationships that carioUflly on high. We made a first. We went along the Calle the upholatery carefully tn'fl-
.un ~; a Madrid of mu- wide detour, but on the ~econd Mayvr which took liS through ted by the ever-ch8Jli'lftg
IleUIl1.I! tilled with marvellous story a nonchalant MadrilefLa thp. Plaza de la Constitucion c r group.!! of 80Idiera that carne
palnUngtl that it had inherited was c1U1rt :n!~ the drbl1B off her Plaza Mayor, Karl t old us that In to quench their thil'8t. At
from the past, but whoec tr'l- balcony, this sq uare dated back to the Molinero's we tried the peach
dltlon.s the e?ti8ting ruling We desc~nded into the Pun · 16th century and that tbe Ice cream (helado) . Net ba4ly
cJU8M were impotent to cont- ta del Sol. Karl was quit~ in- equestrian 'e tatue of Philip III made, he aeJd, coneidering the
Inue, It portrayed a lazy in- timidated by the burly throngs which W&II in the center dated lack of milk. At Negreaco'. we
dolent 8p&In, and waa silent of soldiers although he Wll.!! so- back to 1613, The square bad sipped a Naranjada, a _eet
&bout the opprelllJed but vital mewhat reaasured by the been a theatre of tourney. In (CoaliDure on ...,./ ,.,~.)
8 TIIf.: VOLVNTEEa FOB Ll;BERTY
LETTERS
from
HOME
From An I~Epic" rn
.'
California
My dear friend J : I surely
appreciated seeing another let-
ter trom you in the Epic News
tlWI week, and I hope that your
wound is not too serious. 1!Iis
morning I recei'red a letter
from Mr. and Mrs. M , w!tich
contained a lette r from you
which I am enclosing...
All true lovers of democra-
cy . throughout America are
showing an intense inte rest in
the duly elected democratic
loyallst government of Spain.
Everyone seems to realize that
the faacist powers of Franco,
Germany and italy are .a threat
to real democracy throughout
the world. The enclosed clip-
ping from the Wilmington Dai-
ly Pre5S telLs of Ute nex t big
meeting to be held In Los An-
g eles. The San P edr o and Wil -
mington Spanish-American club
held a party lBBt Saturday
night in San Pedro to help rai-
Be funds f or the Loyalist cause.
I unOOrstand that about 300
were :preaent. They plan ano-
ther party September 12.
We h~d one meeting in Wit-
mingtOill Bowl in which I think
we raised close t o 500 dollars.
Our Wilmington Epic-Democra-
tic club is t onight g oing to lay
plans for getting together with
union labor and other progres-
sive ori'anizations here in the
harbor ~8trict to have the film
"The Spanish Earth", shown
here ; and the proCeeds will g o
toward providing medical care
&rid food for the. needy Loyalist
people of SpaIn.
I roali~ that you cannot
write many individual letters.
but I hope you will write of-
ten to the Epic NewB because
in that way thou~nds of peo-
ple 'read your letteni and leam
just wtlat is going on in Spain.
' With ' best w1.Bbee, your
friend B.
W1lm1ngton, C8lif. August '
26, 1937.
Another I. ~. A. Dis- COMRADER BAEDEKER
trict Goes C. I. O.
Dear Z: 'Ve reeeived you let-
ter and were certainly glad to
hear from you , 3.8" we heard a
rumor around here that you
had been killed. Well. your let-
ter IIBSured us that it was, af-
t e r all . only a rumor .. ,
The Local is still going
strong .. . P . D. is w orking out
of the hall again, and T ed is
out or ganizing for the A.F. of
L. and I'm s tilI p ounding> the
t ypewriter. That was a ve ry
init' resti ng letter you sent US,
so interesting in fact that the
Publicity ConunHtee p ut it on
the f ront page of our bulletin,
as you v.ill notice when you
rood the one I enclosE' ...
District 38 of the I .L.A . has
g one C.1.0, with a big bang.
We voted down he re in f'a vor
of it t oo. So, now the name of
the organization is: The Inter-
na tional Lon gshore men 's and
WarehouS€men's Union . no lon-
ger aftiliat<)(\ with J .P. Ryan
or the I.L.A, Now it is the
I.L.W.U. H ooray t or Harry
Bridges!
Your friend has been paying
your dues, Z .. 80 you need not
worry about that. \¥hen do you ·
think you'll be home again ?
Or do you intend to settle down
there and marry that little good
looking Spanish nurse you
WCl'e t elling us about (What do
you think my hea rt is m a de
of ? ? 1).
Write real soon and tell us
m ore news .
Best of luc k .
M. T.
HOW GARCIA lORCA
WENT TO HIS DEATH
(CODtiDued (rom page ) .)
with blood, and gazed at them.
Astounded the CiviLs climbed
into their autos. Only Lt . Me-
dina came closer. He struck
the poet ove r the head with
the butt of !tis pistol. This ti-
ine Garcia Lorca collapS€d to
the ground enriched by hifl
blood tor the lBBt time. Medi-
na discharged three barrel-
loads of bullets into the lifeless
body.
"There the poet remained
unburied-·in front of his Gra-
nada."
DIANA (U. G. T.).-Lura. t . Ka4ricI
-------
drink made out of saccharine
and syrup.
We sauntered down towards
the Prado. Our by now "com-
rade" WII8 amused to see the
statue of Cybeles in the Plaza
del Castelar encased in a brick
covering to protect it against
shrapnel. "La Linda Tapida",
the Covered Bf'auty, the Ma-
drlleft08 have recIuistened their
dear goddess. ApolIo and Nep-
tune further down the Prado
had similar enca sements.
Nothing quite so endearcu
proletarian Madrid to our an-
cient friend , as the care with
which the palms and shady oak
trees and the green walks of
the 'Prado had been k ept up.
With an effort, h e even suffe-
red the new name that the A ve -
nue had been given, "Avenue
of Proleta rian Unity" . And all
the m!IJns ions IIdld little pala-
ces - that had been taken over
by various organizatiOOB he
waa easily reconciled to :
"From what I have already,
seen, they will get bette,r care
and be placed to better us€s
n ow."
Finally we reached the ?vI u-
scum of t he Prado, one of the
m ost farrJOus in the world . The-
r e we were told that all the
va luable art treasures and a s
many aa could be saved from
the Duke of Alba's pala.ce,
which had been fired by faa-
cist incendiary bombs, had been
tra nsferred to safety, chiefly
in Valenc ia , where they were
b eing catalogued. "I must go
there" , the old man said. "Can
I get a train?" We told him
he'd travel much fMter in a
camion, e:\pecially if it was dri-
ven by an American from the
Auto Park.
We went up towards the
beautiful "-Re tlro Park". It is
bordered by what was the Ca-
qe de AlfollBo xm in 1920, the
Calle de Alcala. Zamora. In 1936,
and, toda y is Calle de R eforma
Agrarla . This tickled us al-
m ost aa much as the Calle de
Mllicias Marxistaa Unitlcadas,
which ran into It.
In the shady "Retiro" we sat
down on a bench. Everything
here seemed like old times to
Comrade Baedeker. An old man
waa sleepily reading tus news-
paper. A mother wu crochet-
Ung. Her baby was playing In
the dirt. Karl rela.xed and stret-
ched out IWI spindly legB. But
then the UI.5's began to mutter
in the distance. Karl looked at
us as If to say, "ShOUldn't we
get back to our bookstore re-
fuglo?" But our bench neigh-
bora put him to shame. "They
Bound far off", sald the mother
anI.! returned to he r knitting.
" They are less dange rous when
they hit the dirt, than when
they hit the paving stones",
said the old one from in his
newspaper.
Comrade Baedeker couln not
help but love this gal!ant Ma-
drid.
J. 1'. L.
SPANISH YOUTH MEETS
1. The J . S. U . dedicates it-
self to strengthening the Allan-
za de la Juventud. (This Is the
national organization made up
of diffe rent youth groupe. The
J. S. U., which Is the unifica-
tion between Socialist and
Communist youth, Is part of
this larger body.)
2. Culture Ls no longer the
privilege of the powerful few,
but a soct!ll! function open for
all youth. He explained how .0
institutions of learning were
closed down by the faacista ;
on the othe r band hundreds of
new schools have been opened
by Republican Spain. The sa-
laries In fascist te rritory have
been brutally cut, wh ereas in
loyal ist Spain wages have in-
creased.
3. Efforts must be made to
raise the cultural level of the
peasant youth, and aLso their
working conditions. Land must
be given to those peaaant fight-
ers who desire it. '
4. To wQl!'k for unity among
all youth at all times, perfonn-
ing constructive work that
tends to build harmony.
5. To w ipe away all coun-
ter-revolutionary fo!'C88 , that
try, to split the youth, espe-
ctally Trotskyites.
6. To intensity work In the
centers of production, raising
the cultural level of the youth -
in the factories.
7. Above all to organize the
youth In one organization of
combat against faac16m, in or-
der to - win the war.
I . T.
yol ••••• N.·... • SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY NUMBER • Madrid, October tt, t",

The VOLUNTEER
FOR LIBERTY
II

DCl88fR 14, 19Ji -19ll ~ Onl 'fHR of nllnHBlftJlOnftl8RI~ftO(S

 THE VOLUNTEER FOR' LIBERTY

A YEAR OF THE INTERNA TIONAl BRIGADES

"We make only one request- freedom that will enable us to our anniversary on January 5,1938. the long, seemingly-endless days
that we be sent to the posts of reap the fruits of victory towards AS'members of the Internatio- afterward when our comrades held
greatest danger." which our battles of today' are Eal Brigades, our anniversary is the lines, living in trenches for a
These were' the words of the leading. We can recall at this that of all our comrades-Octo- longer period than any army of
leaders of the first battalion of point the words of one of the ber 14, 1937. modern times.
International Volunteers, a full By our actions of today can we
year ago. For many months, from HONOR TO OUR DEAD do greatest honor to tile memories
the very beginning of the Franco of John Lenthier, Charles Edwards,
In celebrating the first anni-
rebellion, men of all lands who Paul Niepold, Rudolph Tieger, Joe
versary of the formation of the
bappened to' be in Spain at the Streisand, Carl Carlson; Julius
International Brigades, let us do
time had volunteered their servi- Rosenthal, the oldest, and William
honor to those comrades of all na-
ces in the government ranks. Brit- Pick, the youngest member'of the
tions who have given their lives
lIh and German and French and Lincoln Battallion-aH of whom
in our fight. Let us remember the
Austrian and Italian-men of all were killed in the February ltgh-
deaths of Ben Lel.der, American
nations, living in peace or in exi- ting.
aviator, shot down. by a fascist
le--{!ame of their own free will to By our actions of today can we
plane; Ralph Fox of England; Ge-
serve in .the People's Army of pay greatest homage to our dead
neral Lukacz of Hungary; Alfred
Freedom. At first they served of the July offensive outside of
Brugeres· of France; Doctor Heil-
lUIIong their Spanish brothers, Madrid; Oliver Law, Negro com-
brunn of Germany; Guido Picelli
.e.ming ihe Montana Barracks in mander of the Lincoln Ba.ttalion;
of Italy; Hans Beimler of Germa-
Madrid, thc well fortified arsenals Max Krauthamer; Paddy O'Neill
ny; John C~rnford of England;
• Barcelona, the strongholds in and Joe Armitage of Canada; John
D. E. Seacord of the United Sta-
Valencia-all the centers of fascist Muso and Charles Siebert of the
tes; John Scott of England, who
power and concentration in all of
had come here from America; United, States, Mike Kelly of Ire-
Spain. But later, as the war pro-
Bill Henry and James McCrotty land--all of the Lincaln Bataillon.
gressed, as the fascists we.re held
and Liam Tumilson of Ireland; And in the same offensive, we
back by this wall of vulnerable
Blagoye Parovitch of Yugoslavia; can recall the names of our dead
but inconquerable '-Iesh and spir-
Rodolfo de Armas and Pablo de la from the second American b8itta-
it, other men came from other
Torriente-Brau of Cuba; Jack ShL lion, the Washington Battalion,
lands.
rai of Japan, who fought with which receive1 its baptism of fire
MODEL FOR FUTURE the Lincoln Battalion; Alonso Wat- in July: Harry Hyne3, Sam Stone,
son, the first American Negro Morris Wickman, Rubin Schechter,
Converging on Albacete, they killed fighting for Spain. Ernest Arion, Malcolm Chisholm
formed, for the first time in his- FEBRUARY COMMANIlEII There are other names to be and a number of other comrades.
tory, the International Brigades Robert H. Merriman, Chiel . or Stull oC the
remembered, and other, events.
-an army which may well, 'a.s 15th B"igode, who commaaded [the Lin. The February days on the Jara- C"'EAT~ AN EPIC
one writer has put It, "form the eoln "a{~alion in its February action", on rna, when the first American bat-
model for the democratic armies '-,~he J.rama tront. And, in the ea.rty days of the
talion, composed of new and ra-
of the future." pidly-trained recruits, went over Aragon offensive by the Peoples
The concentration camps of Hit. greatest figures of our own cen- Army, the offensive which conque-
the top under the helli.sh fire of
ler were not strong enough to tury, who put down the pe.n before red Quao and Belchite for us -
the fascists, forCing the battle and
hold the German fighters who saw he had completed one of his great- thus halting the enemy's advance Peter Daly, con1lnander of the Bri-
in the Spanish struggle a mean.s est works with the following sim- in the JlI.rama River Valley. Let itsh Battalion; and Paul Block,
of fighting back against the
ple explanation: Daniel Hutner, Sam Le'll'enger,
us remember the days of Februa-
brown terror. No ocean was too "It is more... useful to go ry 2300 and 27th, of April 5th, and Sidney Sh08teck, all Americans ...
wl.de, no frontier too difficult for through the experience of the re-
these men----our comrades in bat- volution than to write about it."
tle.
OUR OWN ANNIVEHSARY
MAK"~RS OF HISTORY
What of our own English-speak-
The stories of the early days of ing comrades of the Internati9nal
the defeD8e of Madrid have been Brigades? The British were here
told and re-told a hundred times, ~rom the very start. A 'part of
and will be told again, many more their story is told elsewhere in
hundreds of time.s. As long as men this issue. For us, of the United
treasure their liberties as men, as States, an.d our brothers from Ca-
long as justice and truth and c'eu- nada, the journey was 1000ger. One
rage and self-abnegation are vir- . or two Americans came in the
tues in the eyes of humankind early weeks and months of the
-so long will the story of the war, but our first large conting-
International Brigades live in the ent of volunteers did not arrive
history of man's achievements. until the first days of this year-
But the time for the writing of two months after most of the
history has not yet arived. Perhaps European nations had begun to
it would be better to say thjJt the contribute their fighterS to the
final history of our activities in cause of Spanish democracy and
Spain must await the day when freedom.
we have won the leisure and the As Americans, we will celebrate I. B. ON PARADE: An early photo 01 tbe loternational Volunt~er8.
 TIlE VOLUNTEER FOR UBERT1!' :t
When the ~ory of the libera-
tion of Sp8iQ from fasciBm Is fi-
nally -#Titten, . these names and
thoee ~ many others, from all
countries, wUI be the pegs on
which are hung the many actions,
.lIII'ge and small, individual And
collective, which combined in a
great effort form the very heart
of history. The deeds which they
performed and which we continue
to perform here, have a1·r eady be-
come the ·g reat epic of our Urnes
an epic which we ourselves will
read and contemplate when the
tough fight is over.

FASCISM WEAKENING

And that tlli'3 fight is drawing

clc-'ler and closer to V1ictory is evi-
dent from everything that is hap-
pening, not only in Spain, but in
the entire world today. Everywhe-
re fascism Is diBcovering that its
cold----blooded murders and agres-
slens are being resisted. Japan ex-
pected an overnight victory in
China-but the Chinese ma.sseG,
united, have fought the Japanese
legions to a standstill; and n ow
Japan fears for the future, ·b ecau-
se it oounted on a rapid victory,
the only kind of victory possibl e.
Now the Japanese warlords fintl
their supplies dwindling, their re-
argua.rd wavering, their ecollvmy
3taggering under tJ> cost of the
extended war.
Italy and Germany too are fin-
ding that have bitten off m o l'~
than ·they can chew. Not only dL'
inte rnal d'ifficuJties increase ten-
fc!!.! each week in these fascisl
('" untries, but popular sentiment,
long sm ouldering, has begun at
last to burst into the flame of
cpen opposition. The new and ha-
rrassing activities of Ethiopia's ar-
mies will make it double difficult
Cor Italy to continue its past stn'-
am of aid to the -traitor Franco.
And Genna.ny's t ottering ~con () my
attacks its rear in the same ",,,n-
nel' as Italy'. d efeated but un ~ p -
que red NOf'" Africans.
Most br .flIl of all, the in! , ' 1'-
national scene seems finally t o b(
ope,rating in favor of the legally
conslituted government of Spain .
FI' anc~ fears to face th ~ poSSibi-
lity oC another enemy frontier to
the south ; and both France a ;l"
England have s tretched their pat-
ie:lce t o the pirates who have
st',nk their merchant vessels on
the Mediterranean. popular
mass opInion in both Fran-
c~ and England grow stronger
and stronger, and must soon for-
ce the hand of evcn the most Wti-
THEin L.A~T CUI) of coff.·c hefore lUlttl(' ) Purt of 1he '>'t'ry firs. groul. flf internatiunal \'ollltlteerK. JUN' before they Irn
ror th e Cront outside Madrid hiNt Ilutumn.
vering and double-dealing diplo- med men, we have further cause fronts have been the scenes of
mat to come out openly for the for rejoicing. victory after victory for us. Each
only side which ,p ossesses justice And when, in addition, we s ee day that w e hold out- let aIone
-, the legal P opular Front go- the efforts toward unity within advanc e, which we have been
v,z rnment of Spain. our oWn land--Spain- b earing al- doing---mak es victory more cer-
When we view all of these de- ways greater fruit- then we can tain.
velopments, when we hear of Pre- be sure that the firs t year of the It is in this sl>lrit t hat we wel-
sident Roosevelt's attack on the Inte rnational Brigades in Spain com'2 our anniversary- with pride
"gangster, aggressor nations", has been well spent. to'or it was in our role, \yith gratitude for our
when we hear of tile sUPP9rt we our examp:e which p.rorr.,ted m a- opportunity to take such a part
are gaining at home, W d can not ny of the lagging clem ents to in the history of our times, and
but becGme realistically optimisti c . speed, to effic iency, to courage with solidarity toward the Spanish
Ah;! when we couple a ll of and to vict ory, people, whose fight Is t he fight of
these events with the growth ami The first annive rsary occurs at a ll who hold freedom precious , and
emergence of Spain 's Popular Ar- a time when , for thl'ee months, we who!;e final victory will be a vic-
my, which SOOn will numb" r olle have taken over th e offe nsiVe in tory not only for Spain, but for
million well-trabed and wdl-ar- the war against fascism. The main all mankind. E II .
Dr. Negrin Visits
NO PASARAN! Wounded Men of
the I. B.
TO «PASIONARIA»
What fascist has been so idiotic 'a~ VALENCIA, Oct. 6.-· A v isit by
to have sheltered the obsence hop(> Dr. Juan N egrin to the wounded
of entering Madrid, tranquilly, comrades in the International Bri-
blazing his egoism on the march? gade hospital ye~terday was
greeted with heartfelt enthusiasm.
The traitol' Mola? Franco, the assas.~in? He first w en~ through the wards
C:abanellas, the filthy fool? where the most s eriOUS cases were
Or was it by chance the drunken impenitpnt confined, talki ng with men of all
ill Seville who druwns his fears in willI'S? nationalities. After giving the
wounded a short talk, he was in-
Let the traitors lose their hopes
of ever treading the Madrilenos with th(>ir hoofs! terviewed ·b y our English comra-
Impossible fruit of thei r illusions. de, Wintringham, author of the
Let the workers be alert book "The Next War", and by
fo rming a thick forest of rifles, Comrade Gus tave Regier, the Ger-
and a vallC'y of t('nacinus hcarts. man writer who was seriously .
wounded several nwnths ago.
J,' t : J.lX \'. II. \\!OS
Wintringham was wounded ' on the
Aragon front .
 THE VOLUNTED FOR UBERTY

ENRIQUE LISTER - AN EMIGRANT COMES HOME

F..-'III4,I\ ' E LISTER
.\ Oh'illlGe (;ummand;, 01 'hfl 51h Ann)'
C:"rp. ol"e Pt'nple. Army.
When the Civil War in' Qpaln
broke out, only four regimen.;, at
the regular army remairM!d loyal
to tbe government. ' All the rest
of the troops went over to the
side of the Fascist rebels. The
result WM that the Spanish peo-
ple had to create their own army,
and develop their own mUltary
"leaders: From squads of workers,
dlacovered in Havana that the ployer WU WIled. AIJ Pre~i&Dt 01 Now Jta c1t.Jzena teel UIat thetr
main use whlob America has t~r' lhl: union, Lleter wu ..-aui ' arrea- clly will never be taII.a1I.
foreigner. Is to ,make of them' a ted: an4 8eJlteDced to thirty year.
reserve of cheap Jabor .. do ttle In prf8Ol1.. He eeeaped and went U8Tr.a'8 &IXJO&D
hardest and dlrUest wor~ tor the , abroad, But '-be ocuJd IIOt keep out DurinI' the laet JUr, lbler and
lowest pay, So, very early In lite, of ' the JlrUi',ie &lid !4!rmeut for
his meA have pu8ed over half tbe
Lister learned ~e ~i{ference bet- democra.cy Ulat was t!aen _eep-
war-map of Spain: Jarama, Gus,-
ween those who have nothllig and Ing th~h a.Il Spain, 80 he retur- daiajara, GuabiLas, Tole<Jo, Val-
inUIt mork tor a living, and tho- ned to live IUe,aUy trom t.ow. to
demoro., fSrunete, Aragun. ADd
se who -have money and property town in h1a oWn countrY. When
Uster's name ilMlt bas become a
and can afford to hire others. the People'. Front. came to power
symbol of bravery and leademhip
Lister went to Cuba. as a chlld In February, 11136, he wu iii ~I .. -
in Spain..
of twelve with his father and ' hla drld, AIld wlWll In July the ~e­
When I Interviewed him, he . . .
brothers. He wu put to work u nerala abd bil indWltriallatll rWle in Valencia OIl hla way from ODe
grocery boy IJl Havana stoN. He up a,a1nst tila people'" J'overn-
Cront to anotber. He iI . a yOUD&'
worked fourteen hOUrS a day, ment and ordered U1eir IIOldiC!rs tu man, only thirty. Heavy Nt-
wrapping packages, cleaning lqI, tire from the Montana Barracks Strong determine:i face . A quick
delivering orders. He did not aD the cltisens of Madrid, Lisler
mind. A great memory for daUB
know hoW to read and write: was he the crowd that stormed and pla.cea. It was after ten
When he was fKleen years old be tbose barracks and took them OVI:I' o'clock at nigbt when Lister and
decided to learn: He .went to nigbt for the I'overnment. A few day~ biB aidea came into the bul1ding
ctasaesat the GaUclan Center. For later he wu in tbe Guadarrama where I had been waiting to in-
two hours el(ery nigbt, after his MounlailUl fighting against tbe terview hi..m.
long day's work, he studied spe- Fascist foes. But not only ,fight· ''Too late", I tboua-bt . "I'll me-
lling and grammar, and struggled inl'. Lister realized at once Spain's rely make IUl appointment tor
to form letters in a copy book . . neM (or dl8c1pUDed forces, and another Ume."
he began tm.medi&tely to help or- But wben I asked him wben 1
LEARN!,\ FATHER'S TRAlJE ganize what was to become the ml&,ht have an iIlte~w, Lister's
hew army of the republic. reply wu, "!liow!"
Beln, a strong boy,- he decided
Lo take up the trade of his fa- KOSE IN THE RANKS <l BBOTIIERH KILLED
ther and become a stone-cutter.
There WBJI a great deal of building From untrained men to discl- No bealtatiOll, DO pOlllponem~nt .

many of the~ without guns, who
went out from' Madrid in taxicabs
to stave off the enemy advlU:ce,
from such r.on-mllitary elements,
in fourteen months the govern-
ment has built up a .1I-organl-
zed and disciplined People's Ar-
my. ADd from the people them-
selves have come leaders to guide
and direct this army. ,And few of
them were military men a Yf<ar
and a half ago. Duran, for exam-
ple, was a musician writing ba-
lIet-seores for the danctr, Argen-
tiiia. Modesto was a carpenter. EI
. Campesino wcrked among thl' pea-
sants. And Enrique Li s ter, .of
whom I write, used tn be a gro-
cery boy and a stone-cutter in
Cuba..
TH ..; POT 0 ..' UOLD
No, Lister ill not a Cuban, but
he is one of the thousands of Spa-
niards who emigrated to Ihe Amt'-
rlcas looking for a pot of go!" al
the foot of a forl'ign rainbow . Lik('
thousal'ds of these thousands, L~·
t!'r did n()t find gold. In Cuba he
found only hard work, low pay,
and dreams that didn't come true.
Like the Spanish immigrants In
New York, or in the steel mms
oC Gary IUld Youngstown, Lister
going on in Havana in the 1920's.
Lister worked on various cons-
tructions then underway. But the
stone-cutters had no union. Tbey
needed one, so Uste r took part in
the issuing of the first call to
form a stone-cutter's union in
Cuba., and he became one of its
members. This was in 1925 when
he was eighteen years old. The
follOwing year, already experien-
ced In union organization, he went
back to Spain, to bls native Ga- ' regime!)t of the new loyalist ar-
IIcia. Here he was immediately
arrested as a dangerous character
with advanced idpas. For the next
three or four years, he was cont- ' mish with the enemy, he took se-
inually in and oul'of prison , and
always ,in great disfavor with the
ofticers of the Spanish monarchy.
who had no desire to 'ee Spanish
workers organized into !'ffective
unions.
BACK TO 8PAIN
When the ReJMtblic was decla-
red in 1931, and Lister was relea·
sed from a thirteen month's pri-
80n term, be was elected Presi-
dent of one of the most Important
uni ons or Coruna. ShorUy after h(
took office, there was a strike In
which ligbting broke out and. In
the struggle, a reactionary em-
pUned soldiers. From workers, And . . be talked, thl're was DO
many ot whom never handled a boaaUnc, no pompolLllDess. Quite
gun before, to the army which simply, be told me the story of
now efficiently defe!lds all loya- his Ufe, and at the dramatic inci-
list Spain. That ill an achievement dents of the war months. He spo-
in which LiBter haa played a great ke of four brothers Idl\ed by the
patL He himae1t rOBe rapidly in Fascists in the North, and of the
the ranks ot this army. In the bewilderment of his father Ilt s
early days ot tbe war, he was world In which SODS grew up only
made lIeuten1lnt. And with the to be \dUed.
formation of the now famous "We must end this war quickly"
Fiftb Regiment (really the first Lister Kld. "I do nOI doubt that
my) LIster was raised to captain
and given two companies of shock
troops to direct. In his first skir-
v~n priBoneTII and two machine
gun8 . Shortly tbereafter, he was
made a Commander. And lit the
early aulumn of last year, the
Fifth Regiment chose him as Com -
mander-in-Chief. Then the govern -
ment ordered him to organize the
first brigade of the People's Ar-
my, a job which meant making
soldiers of men with no previou~
experience in warfare. The 1'10-
rlOU8 history of this brigade anti
the way it took part in the de-
fence of Madrid during the dark
days of November, 1936, is now
nne of the naming epics of thp
Spanish Republic. Tbe FascisL. IA ,PASlON\RI ,\.
.11<1 nOl pass ! Madrid held 11M own.
 THE VOLUNTEER .·OR UBERTY

the victory is ours. We have a

million men in reserve. The enemy
lacks men. But what we must do
now is organize all our forces, mi-
lita ry and industrial, so a~ to en,]
this war soon."

WHAT USTER LEARNIW

He spoke like a man who does

not relish warfare and killing, but
who is a lover of work and life.
Someday, he says he would like
to go back to Cuba. He remembers
that it was there that he learned
to read and write, having b!'en
denied schooling as a child in
Spain. But he remembers, too,
that in Cuba he worked fourteen
hours a day .- and his employ,-,"
were Spaniards like himself, not
Cubans. What he learned from
that is tbat one's own people will
exploit you just as much as fo-
reigners will that it's m)t ra-
cial differences that count, but
class differences! So in Cuba,
Lister joined his first union, and
took his first steps toward the
defense of thc rights of the com-
mon working people. Today, in
Spain, he is one of the great com-
manders of the People's Army.
Enrique Lister -- the immigrant
boy who came home bringing not
a pot of gold from the foot of a
foreign rainbow, but instead a ETHIOPIA, STILL UNCONQUERED,
mind and a heart full of the
strength which people pour into
the channels of unionization and
CHALLENGES MUSSOlINI'S RULE
iE'io organized action for the creat- Ilalian>; to advance rapidly, bles, etc. to an Italian agency
JIBUTl. That upri.,ings and
ion of a democracy where I<'a~­ while he ordered hi" men to reo
organized fighting, in addition to that pays them a low price. Then
eism cannot exist. Lister is help- tire in such a way that a circle
guerilla warfare are going on theRe very same people are com·
ing Spain maintain and streng- pelled to buy back a p0I'tion of
between the Abyssinians and the w;]s formed around the advanc·
then such a democra2Y. L. II.
Italians, is now confirmed, in spi· ing Italians. Then the poorly clo- their products, but at a high~l
te of the fasci.,t.~ special mea,;!l' lhed and bfHlly armed J<:thiopiar.s rate than they receive,l for them.
res to prevent the news from attacked and completely routed This, they say, they can'nnt lin·
leaking out. The last fp,," wepl" the Italians who lost practically derBtand.
have witnessed a greater degree all of their men.
of unrest among the F:thiopian
'people, who are making it im·
ITALIANS .JI'I"n;IO'
possible for the Italians to rem 'lin
The Abyssinians have prot('stcd
there without fighting every inch
In Addi>; Ababa, the capital, Se· to the Italian Governor. that be-
of the way.
vere measure have teen taken by fore the Italians invaded their
Fighting ragt's on the north,
the Italian-controlled government. land, their women wpre never dis-
cast, and south. around Addis
F:vrrybody is oblidged to shut his honored by any man. even in the
Ababa. A regular fig-hting army
is being orgallizl'd by the ~~thi·)· doors at 6 'p. m. No one is per- at:<cnce of their husbands. Now
pians, in which already there arc mi tted to leave his house after the women are being mistr('ated,
thousands of volllntepr soldier" that hour. High barricades have they claim, and ferociously attac-
lInd"r the com-nRnd of Kanyaz- h'cn constructed at the city li· ked by the Italian Roldiers, n'"
mash Abeba Arragai Bobar.a. mils to slop the ~;thiopians who ganil('ss of whcthf'r their hlls-
This young- army, formed lInder want to ta ke back their capital. bands an' present or net. /\ nil
the one bannf'r of unit'!, :-::-'orr-r\ In SOllle places tht~ natives are husbands who rave dared to pro-
an important victory recently mecting the brutality of Italian tect their wives have been s'augh-
when it met the Italian troops fascism with passive resistance. tered like dogs.
and wiped them cut, in the pro- ).;F.pecially is this the case among While the EthicpiBn people are
vince of Morat. This was effected the Mahometanas tribes that form fighting for their "ational inde-
by a neatly executed strategy at 90 percent of an Ethiopian pro- pendence, as are the Spaniards,
IIAILIl SELASSIE a moment when the Italians ad· vince. These tribes are forced to European diplo!Ylats are planning
Em,'f'.ror or EthioJ,ia, whQ i!t dir~cti"g his vanced with an army of 5,000 take their livestock, "heep, cows, to recognize Mussclini's right of
"eople!'l' right a~ainloft !\fn~Rolini men. Kanyazmash permitted the goats, and their grains, vegeta- sovereignty over these people.

NEW TASKS FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BRIGADES
Th., ,"'v.' lopmclIt or t he Pc,,·
J>k 's Arm ~ ' and of thl' Int e rnati o·
nal Brig a ," 's Clm f,.()nl ~ us with
~omf' n('\': pr o bll'nl~ in ilur mili·
t ary an d " .. lI tkal v, o rk
Sine,> 1:1 t heir larK" ma jo rity
,J~! r Brt~.J .!t·~ fi!""t' lH / W ("umpus~d
not of v ol un tl.'t ',...... t,u t uf c'u n -
:iC rip t::. , the re an- ."onu' whl) douht
wheth("r I hey ('1I 1l ,.till t e lI~ e d as
real shock Brigiul;os,
This Is a bi g mistake ,
In thest' ' I"W draft s which ar"
now jo ining Ihe Army, we ha\',·
the Spanish p,'opi<" in all its !I~ '
pects, taking (;i; arm,. , \Vc ha\'e
the whole people ,: .• ing t o defend
Its liberty, Its ind"l ' ·nd,'nce. it ,;
future ,
Each day the fac t ~ ,,, .. 10\' tha l
this people is capablt' o j ,; ,'w i,.n1
In every shape a nd fo rm ,
In the last offerusive eve nt:
proved that the new cons "ripts
are capabl e of th.' h igh,,!'; t de('(ls ,
like their comrades, t he volun ·
teers who preceded th e p,'ople' "
Army.
AR.-\(iOS \'I('TOn ..;8
Th e ne ..... recru its, toget her with
t he e xperi enced 80ldk rs from the
trenches of Madrid , carried out
" kilfu l manouevre" and eonquer e J
Quint o and Selchit e,
In Aragon , together ..... ith the
Internati onal Vo lunteers, these
absolutcly ne ..... recruits storm ed
fo rts whi c h we re ve ry s trongly
defended by blockho uses of rein-
fo rced concre t e ,
All th l'se fac tS sh ow that the
ne ..... consc ripts can' be made into
splendid so ldi(' rs,
With th ,' m We ca l: not only ma-
i ntain our s hoc k B ri g;}df's, we can
~trength('n them s till further.
These new m ~ n ca~ be given en-
thusiaam and fighting l>-pirit of
th(' volunt ('c rs of'lh" ('arly da)'s ,
This d('pen d~ on ly on UH, th!'
,'xperie nced fig hlers . th .. military
and polili cal lea <ic-rs. who ha ve
gained SlI l' h va luab!,' ,' xpcr ienc,'
during thi s year of wa rfare,
The tasks which fac e us now
are Ii littl e mo re complex , In so-
me aspecLs they ar" a little more
diffIcult . But we ('an a!'! d mu s t
solve them .
\\'hl'n w e W ~ r< ' ,,, ',,Iing only
With voluntc(' rs !llr ~ ad~' ~ e l cc tcd
(or thpir lon g r('cord as Tc\·olutio·
nary fighter~, the t ask of the mi -
IitllTY a nd p"lilieal cOlllllland w as
fairly ~im pl" , ,\\ "n"'vo' r, lh,' c ha-
racte r of the w ar dllring the early
months of (Our fir st Brigadcs was
TH"~ VOLUNTEER FOR UBERTY
In.,H"c4or Cfon~r.'
s imple; it was a quesUon of re-
s is ting, of staying at one's post ,
uf not throwing do wn one's arms.
The revolutionary conscio us-
ness, the spirit of sac rifice of OUT
volunteers, was m ore than 8uffl-
ci('nt to make them acquit them -
s('lves gl orio usly in the defenc('
(Of :lfadrid, in the struggle in all
sect()rs.
But no w we are counterattack-
mg ; w e are taking the offens ive ;
W(' are advanci ng : we are rna·
noue ve rlOg; we must carry inte,
I'a t tic and on to victory greR t
masses of m en who arc still in-
suffici('ntly trained ,
It is t r u(' thal w a r , a n,1, a bo ·
\'e all , this war in Spair.', whic h
is so fund a mentally :1 war of t he
p<'oplE'. bt'ing a slrugg-I,' against
I:arbarism and f"reign invasion,
rapidl y draWl< into po litical life
mill io n ft and milli on s o f 'f\,e W
whoS(' politi<:al -pnse is fo rged in
balL e, It is the tas k of a ll th ('
pxpe ri e nce<i fig-hi t~ r~ iT (n Jr Bri-
ganes t o m a k" th('sp llll'n brave
LUIGI GALLO
01 tbe latel'D.tioael Bri.ad"-
and conscious soldiers of the Re-
public.
We are not only faced with a
problem of political propaganda
and enlightenment. We have also
a problem of organisation and mi-
litary training.
The more complicated tasks
which confront our Erigades in
the present stage of the war de-
mand a high level of military tra-
ining fro m ollr troops , The 8l'C-
tion, Company and Battalion
should bc able to manoeuvre dur-
ing the day and at night. with or
without cover; they should be
able to take full advantage of the
pOHsibiHties offered by the ground.
of all the elements In the situa-
tion'; thcy should know how to
conquer positions. how to take
fortresses regarde(1 as impregna-
ble. For the soidicrs of the Repu-
blic no pOSitions should be impre-
~nabl e.
men The time has g one by when we
could hi' satisfied if our men had
a thoro ugh understanding of the
rifles and machine guns entrusted
to them . Now they must advance
&lid m&llouevre. Tbelr military
knowled&"e mnat be at a hlp.. r
I(vel. The:! muat be able to take
hundreds und thouaanda of men
thrcu&,h difficult operations. Th~y
mnat be able to direct theae men
under the mOllt dIfficult condl-
t101Ul .
To do all that we need a traln-
tog and a dladpllne much hipr
then before.
There are those who believe
that durl~g rest perloos It Is acra-
vaUDg and Idiotic to carTy out
mHitary cxerciae.l.
They too lt1&ke a big mistake.
In the dartDI' &lid complicated
manouevn!ll with wh!cb we are
concerned now. succe8ll is imp08-
sible without the greatest dlaci-
pllne &lid the perfect execution
of movementa according to plan.
DIscipline and training are not
thinga Invented to make the sol-
diers' lives mlaerable, They are
the prll!!e necetl1lltJes of an army.
We ourselves. the soldleMl,
shou1d demand theae things, so
that we can make our units Into
invincible unlta which will auure
us of success and victory with
the minimum sacrifice,
ABILITY TO LEAD
Every individual !!Oldier, too.
should increase his military abili-
ties on his own Initiative. Each
ofticer, each commiasar, conscious
of the new and greater demands
made by the war, ahouhl profit
by the experience of the war to
Increase by practice and study
his ability to lead.
, It Is only WITH A CLOSE
UNITY BETWEEN SOLDIERS
AND LEADERS, between expe-
rienced IIOIdiers aDd new recruits,
between volunteeMi and conscripts
that we shall be able to put our
Brigade!!, our Anny i1I. a position
to solve briDlanUy and rapidly the
great tuks which lie before tlmn .
to win a speedy Victory over fa-
scLBm.
As alWaY8, the Volunteers of
the International Brigades, "hould
be entirely at the disposal of the
commanders of the Regular Spa-
nish Army to carry out theRC
tasks.
As always it should be our am-
bition to be able to rank among
the best fighters in Spain in tht'
fulfilment of the tasks assigned us,
) •• ' )(;1 (; .'LLO
Inspector General
of t.he International BrIgade •.

BRITONS
Anniversaries are tbe milesto-
nes along the road of History,
they IU'e tbe points which bring
sharply to our meD:ories the dis-
tance that we have travelled, and,
though we may not stop, we can
and do reflect on all the experien-
ces we have had, and we can
mend our pace according to the
d1atance we have yet to travel.
The tlrst anniversary of the first
International Briga.de will be a
day of rejoicing but not of rest,
we have not yet reached our goal,
we must learn from this year-
long eqlerience to hasten to Its
attainment.
It Is perhaps with a little justi-
fiable pride that we British com-
rades can reflect upon the assis-
tance which our countrymen ga-
ve towards the formation of the
first Brigade, Who can ever for-
get the almost legendary figures
who came from our Isles, who
fought and died beside their Spa-
nish brothers In the first flush ot
the revolt? Who among us who
had not yet aeen the necessity for
our lUlBistance here Itself, can
for~t the reports and dlspa.tches
of Frank Pitcairn, the first Bri -
tish journalist to make and keep
us aware of the heroic struggle.
and tbe dire need of assistance of
the Spanish people? Even yet, on
reflection, one can almost feel the
cold wind from the Gaudarramas
when he described our comrades
freezing there, one can 5e1l1le their
first bitterness at the monstrous
character of tbe revolt, one can
recall our own tlrat feeling of
pride at the description of their
selflessness and herol,m,
MAUUNI: CUI' cOMPANY I.. _
TIlE VOLUNTEER FOR LIBERTY
AND THE ANNIVERSARY
RALPH FOX
Uriti'" writer killed in SpniD.
Fortunately for the honour of
our country (when so much ha.&
been done by traitors a nd sta-
tes men to dishonour itl the first
days of the o utbreak found Bri-
tish comrades actually in Spain.
Their a ctions and their deaths do
not wipe out the gross treachery
of our Edens, tbe caJloU8ne_to '
use no harder word··· ·of our Ci·
trines and our Bevins, but they
were the highest expression of
the solidarity of the British de -
mocrats with their Spanish bro-
thers. We s hall remember them .
Then' came the steady fl ow from
all the co rne rs of the world t o
form the f ir st international co-
lumn. Here too . tte presence of
British comrades showed that the
British workers a!'d intellEctual"
had quickly grasped the s erious-
ness of the situation. Tha.t was
the explanation for the groups of
workers and students who made
vi lb. nNt 1,,1e... UunDl ...... h"" • .
their way to Spain from o ur s ho-
res, even befo re the t ime w hen
there were· s uffic ient intanatio-
nals to fe rm a brigade. In t h Jre
days one tal ked of groups. cen tu -
:·il:3. and the C clurri ~ .
HONOR ROU.
Who were th ose comrades w ho-
se bodies we r e the firs t ba rric-
ades to stem the fascis t advance?
Arnold Jeans, the mature working-
class fighter w ho died as he had
lived ; Martin Messe r , the young,
sincere rail way clerk who tried t o
prove to himself that he was wor-
thy of the cause- and did s o: Ja-
mes Kermode, communist organi-
ser from Milngavie: and Jimm y
Hynuman the G1as~ow youth who
would not be denied : these w er e
am ong the first who died. The r e
page c,ne of the Septe O'. oer 20th
" I (:-; 0. I 'H, showinl(' a &TOUP of
• nen w it h lev elJe<l rifles leading
. rin >.(·d ··"i :t., (), it has been called
JO/IN COR:'IIFORIl
En81i'h .Iudeont If'ad~r. klll,.d on hiM :!ht
hirthda y .
lant pc', ·" ners to the ir ex ecution."
were others too. J ohn Cornford,
the brilliant s tudent whose death
in December shoc ked w " rk inr
" lass and uni ve rsity circles alike .
had fought since the Sl')' lC !Tlb.~ r
days; Rnd To mmy Fly nr. Wh o.
Llied RS la te as April of t his yea r
had f ought con ti nu OlL~ ly .... ~ "1 N o-
vembt' r v,;ith thp ('rl~ rrn ' ~n comra ·
des wht) had p l ea, j(>~ .,ith him t.-
s tay w i th : •., . " ,,, n after th "
_"orroaf i:'!"" the Britis h Bat !? l
;! :n .
OUR MACHINE GUNS ..: RS
At that p c rio:! the words Hr i·
tlsh and Machine -gunn"r w ere
synonlmous. The Rritish comrad e
who turned lip among n group .}!
Internati ona ls WIIS always hanch- ,'
the ma chine gun The tlrst Br l·
tlsh comrades In Spain' hltd m ad"
"\_" b.
IUch a reputation u machine
gunne rs that all who came a fter
them from the same country we-
re jus t na tura lly r egarded as
being of the same capabiliti es.
N or ca n it be said that this re-
putation was ever impaired .
It is a yea r and O\' cr since
Mac k enzie and So mmerfield, Gil-
la n and Cunningham , Cohen and
Lesse r cam e as the vanguard of
the Bri tish de moc rats to Sp ain .
Afterwa r d we increased our' n um-
bers a nd in creased ou r effor ts.
The t ens became hundred.s, the
hundreds became th ousa nds . ""'('
made a nd m ain tained a Battalion :
we have m ad~ and main tained a
e:- - ~'d t ,., he lJ r"flud o f ,
British comrades preceded and
he lped t o form the f irst Interna-
tional Brigade. Britis h comrades
have fought continuousl y ever
.ince . Tha t is our r ecor d and t ha t
is th e e Xfcmple we have t o co"t i-
~l U (, . \V e have been her e from t he
~ i r s t , we s ha ll be here t o the la .- I.
~ his s h"u ld be (JUr slog a n : "From
the hitt,' r flr st. t o t he g!ori oll~
.- nd '"
.\. ".
CORRECTION
A pict ure wh ich app<. lred on
· S U t' I'f Til " Vo/u.ll rel' lor Liber-
.t h er, \\'hil" - ~ hir : .-:d figure.'! down
L L,ad. W ', : mi s captloned. The
f) o :~r aU.f·il " ,on , sh ou ld have read
:~ f O] l., w'·
" "'B.>('l·· ,; leadIng non-camba-
i,
. ~ -' '-; RIi M.\LRAlil
s ·t l":':- (i!-('" r' ,-: • • • • AI.", •••
8" ••• r •••
 The World Situation •
Unevenly, with interruptions {'orded in th esl' colulllns. the fa,,-
but yet month by month, the ten · ci't powers grow d "" pern te anti
sion of the world situation grows relOOrt to piracy in thl' M p tlit~rra­
The forces of pe'lce , gathering nean, a piracy directed not only
their strength under the fascist against the ships of the Spanish
threat of world war, race npcl< Republic, but against those 'If
and nec k with the forces of other powers too.
aggression. Th e Nyon conference, thanks t.
To the members of the Inter· th p (\l'termined and courage.",-'
national Brigades, aiding the ,tand of the representative of th,'
Spanish people in their struggle f' IJviN Union, took the tirst halt·
for independence, the outcom .. of ing st!'ps towards th(' rev ival of
the competition betwee n thl' f o r · collective security in Europ 0, alb·
ces of peace and war is of su· eit against the wishe.-. of some of
preme importance, for, as our pre· t hose present a t the conference .
sence in Spain indicates. thc It is certain that the fas cists will
struggle here is c!osely bouncl up not take tlii ~ blow without
atte mpting to extl'nu their agg-res·
sions in other directions. Alrea'.!y
it is reported tha t MURSolini has
"Ina nod" twe lve submarine" to
Franco, complet e with crews and O'\L 01 : J,\I'YVS ",hiI''' uf wur. fin\\, "II)!n~",1 in IlrujHll~ ,..h('lIill~ Ih(" ,On)\\ .",.1 \\u,·kf'r ..
officers, and has the inte ntion of .. ('rlion" of China'", ",("uhuunl t"itir)o\,
sending another army of 15 0,000
equ ipped Italian soldiers to Spain, :'olicitous 11 t ten tion.~ of intcrnatio- \\'ith hexogene. an Italian ('xpl,,·
the number n ? med by Franco as nal fascism. Rect'ntly two bombs ~iv e lIcensed f or manufa c ture il
being the very lewcst with which exploded in the h eadquarters of G(' rmany. My.'t e rious g~. ng" "r.
he ca n hope co wi!! the war. Great the Federation d Employers at operating on the Francr · .~ p : 'ni';.
Britain and France. disturbed by t'1 ~ Me tallurgical Industry in P a - frontier, and have org Illis,'J th",-
th e possibility of an Italy entren- ris. Two house" collapsed and two re a c )m :l 't·te system o~ aid t o)
ched on this side of the Pyrene"5. policem en wpre kill ed. Bombs ex - the Spanish f ascists. not hesitat·
h'lve a gain revived the qu es tion ploded in the Bordeaux-Ventimi-
ing t o bring down pass " ng,·' 1'1.1-
of the withdrawal of voluntee rs In III' express; at the ae rodromes of
f;pain, this time demanding a reply I'es of the Franco-Sp"ni .>.1 air
Villene uve and. Toussus; an Ita-
from the fasci s ts within fifteen lines by rebel German or ~ lalian
Ii~n. Uan ~ \' Ili, was discovered a t-
days . failin~ which th e Fn'nch warplanes and pilots. ;"asri<ot
tempting to blow up the Cerbe re
frontier is to be opened and the tunnel; scores of born bB having Agents alt ernpt to CR.pl '~r'2 th"
right to buy arms restored to the b ~ en d iscovered in various places ;
Spanish Gove rnment submarlr,e C:?
Spanish Government. and all the bombs are of the ~R.. in the harbour at Bn'sl.
Another Popular Front Gov('rn- me origin; they are loaded with A gang of Italia'l ~ail,),,'
ment is b'ing pursued by the over- talite, a German explosiv<,. and attempt a puniti\'(' cxpediton. ('nd·
!\tt-:'UTERnANF,,\1\: I"lflATE M .. " .. uljui .
drf'tlH'tI in ont" 0'
th,. "undr~ ' d~ tlf' u"irnrm ~
.. 0 IIIII('h in d("mand hy hint unrt hiM JI~~ dlU_
(lalhic. (;"rlllall rf"lu.h·... (;nf'rin,:::.

with circumstances in thc world

outside. An eX'lmin3.tion of the
position of various centres will
enable U8 t o draw some conclu·
slons.
Here In Spain, the popular for-
ces are continually improving
their position. The army, if it has
not already reached that numb er .
is very near a ",illion strong, and
although there are still in o,u fti-
clent arms to meet all our needs,
the arms in(\u~try is growing ra-
pidly Mth in the number of fac -
tMies bt'ing «evoted to ar loS pru-
duction and in the qllantitif's pro-
duced by each factory. A In'ady a
numb"r of successful o(f('II"iveH
have tak,' n pla{'c. At Hrune tl'.
I!\'lchite, Uppf'r Aragon. D;, n II ,··
!l llO, Poztlular.co, this gro\ving'
• t n' Jlgt h of tht' <trilled forl..·p~ (11
f he P eo plt:" is ),I·fll' etctt. In fa ct : 0''': OF TilE .F'I\'O\\" .... hlll.lriUl·M •• uu,,- "lki"~ ia. htll ur II"""" ...... n,,.rehllnl -hi I'.
in Ih." \tf' ... trrranf"••. 'n ... eft ... hu .... H:r,
of tllt'St,' :'; lIn:t'!'I."it'<':, a .... already fl', ill knu~ It to ht" IluliMn. ,,'h,.n thr. nlhrr.. an'! f'''po~,·d. "u~y teo .... ill b .. Cra('f'd. In .hr Itlacluthirl war ft., y.
 •
IS it Peace or War?
eithC'r because its gov('rnll1ent
yieldR throug-h fear or, as fl last
resort , by means of foreign 111·
tervention as in Spain . Thl'se aL-
lacks diUer only in d e gr~(; from
the attacks made on th ~ fran c
hy the City of Londnn . Whatever
the m"an" the end is the same.
"ut th,· French peopl e a rc awar<'
: hat th eir st"ndards of life, their
Ii b,'rty and peace will only be de-
fentlf'd hy a Peoples Gov0rnment.
ih"y will not forget th e introduc-
tion of the forty-hour week. paid
holidays , anti the sun!'ort gi v( n
IfHl\lL '.10\ 1-:11 I'll'" !,,'atT allil j"",'i,'" 1'",' them in their struggl e.~ for a
SIHlili antllh., ,'utiI'!' \11 t'url~ ' ph" .
\\01'111.
butter 35 ',; , m argarine 44 '/;, po- inst them . The AhY!"Hlnilll troop.'l
tatoes 22';, peas 52 ',;, bean~ clevcrly allowed t!-tis arr"y to ad-
32 'Ir. The price of c lothing TO".' vance until it w,'; isolated from
24 'Ir , of footw ear 17' ,; , of linl'n its lnse, and t1wn fell up on it.
H '/f , and of furni t ure 6 (It . Only fifty men cs~"'pe(1. On All -
In order to prevent any \\!llrkt'l'
from obt'lining highe'r wages, in
th e only way lpft to him no,v
that he has b('cn robbed of his
tradc unions, he is f or bidden to
leavt' his place of employment to
take a higher p'lid pOSition, and
ind ... e d, may not changl' his po·

11II'I'HI,h IIf \Id,illl I .il\illllff. SO\j,'j HII .... iu· ..

'·I·ltI'.· ."·lIllIli\l· ill
ing in mu ruPf Ht Tuni..;, And
higher stan(i'1rd of living a y"aT , ilion at all without t'XpH'''· tl'"
IIII' I "·; '!.;III' uf 'aliul!" ago. Th e le.",ons of th e cldcat of pC' rnlission of the N<17.i ;-( uthori·
the German and Italian people will ti(,s.
not be lost upon them. The hatred cf the Ge rman pe o-
nllt-

ny other inch.l0nts of a Jik t~ 11~1 -

ture show the hand of hscisJl1.
This terrori sm has very difinitc
c bjects. Fasci.m wants tu creat·..
unres t , a ["<'ling of insceuril;y. it
desire for " a strong
in the fascist sense; to split the
country and throw suspicion on
the Left; to provoke repri sa l.'J
which would creat e -m HC!1l ...·:phc·
re o[ civil war. It hopes to W C ll ·
I, e n the Fre nch people an:.! for t'"
it to accept fasci ~ t dominat ion.
NI'H~;lmHItG ItANTINGS
The Hn nual tom-tom meeting at
Nuremburg has com e and gone.
And th e r a ntings of th" "FUhre r"
against Bol s h e vis'TI an :1 tile pa ,--
governJll ~ nt"
Jjam ent ary countries "on the ver-
ge of Bolshevism" still pro\'" them-
selves inadequate substitutes f'if
the food th e German people lack.
A detailcd study of living condi-
tion,; in Germany shows a steady
decline in standards. The "Man-
cheste r Guardian" r epor t s th3 t
"Owing to the shortage of grain,
pl e for the Nazi r egime is inten-
si fi ed by fascist intt'lvt'ntion ;n
Spain . They fail to se,' any rea ·
son why Germ an !:'o ldi crs shoull !
sac rifi c e their Iiv('s, why many
million'; of mark ~ s hould be'
thrown away, whil e they the",-
selves are still hungry, to fast('n
on the Spanish people a regimt'
~ imil a r to that they h1.te.
The situation in Italy, with its ;\IU)I,'" IIITI ,I-;H. \\'ho~c anti.;.eonllnun.", ..
own p"rtieular di ffere nces is si- htf.~ a lIIi,uorHllwd g(,'th'~I ••1 ha"ifl:

coffee substitutes are ~o longer
being made of malt. New coffee
substitutes containing a subs titu-
te for malt are being re commen-
ded for use". So the fascist r egi -
me goes from triumph to triumph.
From "butter from coal" it pro-
ceeds to substitute substitutes. No
doubt the time will soon arrive
when we will be fac ed with yet
another accomplishment s uhstitu-
te substitute substitutes, an:! even
this does not exhaust all the po"-
sibilities.
mil ar to that in G(' rmany, with gu,t 16th a force of four thousand
the added difficulti es of the r~vi · Abyssinians attacked the railway
val of resistan ce in Ethiopia. A station at Mojo at night, causing
n ativ ~ nemy operating under the big casualties among the Italian
com mand of E pnY3.zmas!-t "Ieha force in o cc upation there, and
Gobana, attacke:! Italian ()ut]losb , then n'tired back to the hills.
and then retired 1.0 it ; mountain Apart fro'l1 these organised at-
f'1 g tn e~~<.:;es. An Itali an a rr1Y of fiv e' tacks. in the north, in the west.
thous9n d men was sent out a'r?-

RATIONING OF FAT

Another report from the same

paper of March 12th sayB "Th"
rationing of fat, introduced this
winter is to be extend ed into the
summ er months. An oflicial an-
nouncement issued today says
that shopkeepers must continup,
as at present, to keep lists of re-
gistered cus tomers who have ra-
tion cards for the three months
April to June. Hitherto the allQ/,·
wance had been half: a p()und 11'
':~~~~_; ....... :-:;.~.:::- - . -=-- "~ -:-~ -:-

F .\!'-oIIUf\ - I'I .. \TI-: ,\nlhuIlY EeI"II. "II""",

week".
The "Economist sallilath".t pri·
Cl'.'-J h a ve risen as fo~". bel'f,
~- -=--~ :..:-"~~7;",,:._"
lIalioll'!' I'Hlit·y i. lIIurt' fhan ully ulh"r'!'o
1)0\ ',; , pork 11 '/0, veal 40'; .'7·l'I1ut- t..;t·:n.\lAN \VAnSIIIP: It wat! u shill likl' tlli:"! which l'u.·ri('.1 Ollt Iht' unl',·('('('dt·ult"tlly h.·ul.iI
'·j· ... llOmdhlc fur lilt' ('ulltiUliation orullpllnis.
Iu-d ugreH~i()11 hy the piratt",_.fasciltt ~t8(elJ, ton 41 7- , eggs 31 '/;, milk 7 '/c, bombardment ut' AIIIH~rja.
 to
LETTERS
from
HOME
B. 1\1. T. Workers Solid
Behind Transport Union.
Dear S: Last night I witne"~l'd
one of the most exciting and ' tirr-
ing den:t:)nstrations of unity and
faith in my whole ... life. rve writ-
ten you of the t ough battle wc've
been having with the B. M. T.
Corp.. how only after threat of
strike did they consent t o a col-
lective bargaini'lg electi [)n, which
we won. We have been neg[)tia ting
for six weeks si nce the el ~c tion,
with continued stalling on the pa rt
of the company, an1 finally a flat
No to our demands for inc.reased
wages, etC., they using the cry of
poverty - .- that if they granted the
increased wages they would be in-
solvent in a year.
It is well known, beyond any
doubt, that the B. M. T. is the
richest of the transit companie>',
that its net profits for 1936 and
1937 havz been more than'ten mil-
lion dollars. They pay the lowest
wages in th.e city, and are noto-
riously anti-union.
Well , last night a meeting of
the day-shift employes was called
in Arcadia Hall, Brooklyn. Over
6,000 men and women (the B. M. T.
employs 11,000) jammed the pla-
ce - people who for years have
been members of the B. M. T.
cumpany union, and who at first
w,'re slow to join the Transport
Workers Uni on. Now they are al-
most all solidly in the union. The
cheering and ovations for the
union leaders, Quill, Santo, Hogan,
MacMahon (in charge of the B.
M. T. organization). Counsel Sa-
cher, were real and h2artfelt. The
workers were informed clearly
and plainly that they would face
the brutality and reaction of Wall
Street in this action - that the
fight would te hard -- tut when
the resolution authorizing th.e exe-
cutive board to call a strike if
necessary was put to a vote, there
was not one dissenting hand, not
one. The men .rose from their seats
in a wave and the annoS w ent up.
Th~y left the hail ready to wa:lk
out on five minutes' notice, and
they left militantly. with the ut-
most faith in the union, certain
of victory ...
... We have been receiving oc-
cR"ional copies of "The Volunteer"
TIlE VOLUNTEER FOR LIBERTY
THE SWORD AND THE PEN
Don Quixote, the famous.
Utters his meaningful words:
The 15th International Brigade,
Present!
With fists high , Spain's
Students salute you.
Sword and pen unite
In one fervent em brace;
Embrace from those who
Profoundly feel the mission .
The noble deetiny,
The incomparable greatness,
The stern, solemn honor
Of having in our land
The culture of the West.
Don Quixcte, the famous,
Utters hd~ meaningful words :
I nstitute of Lagasca
Of Madrid, toward thc North~ast:
Intensive course, vibrant
Notes, practical, laws.
The professor of Latin.
Softly, suavely:
H'l.Ve to get up early, boys!
At eight, which means seven.
The Institute presents
A brilliant flag
To the brave men of
The 15th Internllltional Brigade
Who defend our cause.
Don Quixote, the famolls ,
Speaks his meaningful words:
Flag, the splendor of your silk
Will continue to live:
What leafy move ment in you,
Rapi>i. noble, fierc e!
Interna tional hands
'ViII hold bright your honor forever!
What wea lth can buy,
What blood can heat YOll ?
Fifteenth Brigade, salud!
Accept this gift
Which to invinciblt- arms
Renders fervent pen
Don Quixote, the famous,
Ends his meaningful words.
A. MONTORO
Translated and Reprinted
"La Libertad".
they are much in demand, but your most welcome collective let-
pretty scarce around here ... ters, and the postcard picture of
the group is som.ething I shall
It. \\'. always treasure ...
Your organ of the Internacional
Brigades "The Volunteer" Is a ho-
About Big Doings
ney. Saturday I will take the co-
In the l\liddle West.
pies you sent around to the dif-
Dear I, M. W, Sand R and all ferent comrades, and let them
my Chicllf:'o comrades: Received (Cnntinued on
SPANISH
CORTES
CONVENES
After more than a year's ad-
journment, the Spanish Republi-
can Cortes (parliament) reopened
in Va:lencia on October 1, with
expressions of magnificent enthu-
siasm f,rom thousands of obser-
vers. Miilitary parades of sea, land
and air forces, plus many other
demonstrations, greeted govern-
ment officials on the reopening of
the Cortes.
The President of the body, Come
rade Diego Martinez Barrio, ope-
ned the session by paying homage
republican forces of land, sea and
to the to the mI'.
The head of our government,
Comrade Juan Negrin, after con-
tinued outbursts of ap.plause, de-
clared that he accepted the go-
vernmental position replacing
Largo CaDallero as a war service.
His first words were 8l general
account of the formation of the
new government. He outlined the-
se steps as follows:
1. Representation of all the
parties that figured in the pre-
vious government.
2_ Indirect representation of
tnose forces which took part in
the previous government and who
are not r~presented directly in the
new one. (Here he was referring
to the two largest trade unions of
Spain, the U. G. T. and the C. N.
T. When the new government was
formed the U . G. T ., then beaded
by Cabadlero, refused to enter it.
Consequently the C. N. T. followed
Buit.)
3. Primary attention to the
creation of a strong navy, and in
general to all war problems.
4. Concentration of the offioes
of the Cabinet Minister.
5. The right of the different
parties to designate their minis-
ters. The liberty of the govern-
ment to occupy the high .offices
to meet the exigencies of the war.
rrom With these points as a basis,
Negrin elaborated the discussion
on how the Government immedit-
tely set about the tasks of clean-
ing up the ree.rguard, maintaining
publiC morale against the inva-
ders, setting up a ministry of sea
and air, solving mllitaTY problems,
advancing the economic and cul-
tural staoclards of the people, and
dealing with international ques-
tions - all of these with the pri-
mary aim of winning the war and
p.~ 10.) preparing for peace.

"TO THE HEROIC INTERNATIONAL FIGHTERS"
The following messages and
statements have been forward ed
to the War Commissariat of the
Inte rnational Brigades on the an-
niversary of the arrival in Spain
of the first international co-
lumn's -- - a year ago, October
14th, 1936.
From the COnunit-tee
or the IUadrid l'nited
Federation ot' Trade Unioll"
"\Vhat can we say of our adm-
iration toward the men of other
countries who have forsaken the ir
homes to share the tragedy that
encompass ~ s our 'cou ntry, a nd who
have understood the importance .
in order that the human race shall
go forwar d, which our triumph
will represent?
"They know from pelsonal ex-
perienoe what fascism is : the fin al
bulwark of a system of exploitat-
ion a nd tyra nny that ie imposed
by the ferocity of capitalism. This
system has no reason for cont-
inuing its exist ence; it wishes to
grind under its military boot a ll
t hat is m ost nobl e, most sacred,
m ost proud in the huma n race; to
cru.sh our most precious posses-
sion , the very reason for the exis-
ten-ce of the human race : PRO-
GRESS.
"To these men from foreing
frontiers who generously came to
offe r their lives for liberty we
can pay no great er homage than
our fervent recognitjon, from thi s
sublime and heroic nation, which
with its blood is fertilizing the
furrows which shall give a new
seed to humanity, with which the-
re s hall be spread good-will and
well-being around the circumfe-
rence of the earth.
" Honor to these heroic fighte rs
of the International Brigade!
"Long live the commissars of
international antifascist solid a.-
rity!"
"'rom the Generlll
Secretary of the
Madrid Popular Front.
"A t present, for their aid in the
"t~gle we are engaged in aga-
:-.Ist reaction; an<! because in: the
future they will be the base of
the World Popular Front, capable
of smashing fascLsm Internationa-
lly, we extend to the International
Brigades all our friendship and
our profound admiration."
THE VOLUNTEER FOR UBERTY
SPANISH PEOPLE
GREET US
ON OUR FIRST ANNIVERSARY
From the General
Secretary of the
Sy ndicalist Youth.
"The soldi2r who came from the
far countries in order to help u s
m our struggle for independ ence
is t he true expression of the sen-
timent that animates the world .
"Today these men contribute
with indomitable courag·e in the
fight to destroy our enemies. To-
morrow, it shall be we ' who will
U. S. PROTESTANT PREACHERS
PROTEST FRANCO
NEW YORK, Oct. 6. - I n ans-
wer to t he propaganda being
spread by Spanish bishops in de-
fense of the fascist ring -leader ,
Franco, 150 Protestant preachers
have published an open letter con_
demning these actions.
The letter declares that the
att empt of the Spanish bishops to
justify the military rebellion
against the legitimate Spanish
Gcvernmen t constitutes an alar-
ming note of hostility agai nst any
popular government and against
liberty, which "we Americans lo-
ve 80 profoundly" .
It adds that the bishops have
made no mention of German and
Italian intervention , nor of the
enlistment of Moors to help Fran-
help to liberate the international
proletar iat from all its enemies.
This is the warm, fraternal feeling
we have for the heroic volunteers
('f t he International Brigades."
From the United
Socilliist youth
(J. S. U.) of Madrid.
"The International Brigades ha -
ve taught the youth precisely two
things:
PROPAGANDA
co. The letter points out that th e
conllict is a "struggle between the
forces of democracy on one side,
and the privileged classes a lli ed
with the fascists on the other
side".
Th e signers of the lett er expres£
indignation that "they ithe
priests) have joined the camp of
reac tion and fascism" . They con-
ciude by saying: "It is difficult
t c believe that the attitude of
the Catholic Church is in favor of
the invasion of Re publican Spain.
These prelates will not get any
sympathy in the United States,
a fter their arbitrary declarations.
and for condemnig the very prin-
ciples that constitute the meet
precious heritage of our people'·.
11
"One - - the true sentiment of
~ulida!"ity;and two - how unity
makes it possible for us t o ove r ·
come the most difficult obstacles.
"In salut ing th e valiant y outh
that compose these brigades, the
Juven tud Socialista Unificada
(Un ited Socialist Youth) assure ~
them that our own young gener·
ation will not deviate from the
path of unity in which it is mar·
ching. In this way, whe never our
solidarity is needed, it w ill be gi-
ven with the greatest efficiency .
"Honor to the youth of a ll COu n·
tries who have fallen on our
ide!
"Salud to t hose who are ready
to continue the path t o victory!'"
From the Exe.mth·"
Committee of "Federal
Left" of Mildrid.
"Izquierda Fede ral (Fede ral
Left) declares its homage to the
International Brigades for their
outstanding heroiEm on the ba ttle-
fields, where there is being waged
and forged a new moral; a nd also
for the ir aid in the creation of a
new spirit of justice which will
illuminate like a powerful beacon-
light the ancient and the modern
democracies. "
Catalonian Youth
Flay de Valera Stand
on Spain
,BARCELONA, Oct . 5. - The
youth of the F . A. L . C. have sent
a telegram t o President De Vale-
ra of Ireland, r eminding him that
when Ireland was fighting for its
independence. Catalonia was in
the vanguard of its defence.
The t elegram reads:
"Catalonia, Nhich gave Ireland
the title of "Sister Nation ", has
been deeply deceived and cruelly
betrayed, in this tragic hour when
it is giving its blood in the defen-
se of its 1il:3 rtie,3.
"The conduct of the President of
the Irish Free State in the League
of Nations has not been worthy 01
a people who have known OPPI"CIB-
slen and slavery.
" De Valera has n ot been libe-
raj, nor generous. Nor does lie ha-
ve a feeling of national indepen·
dence for hLs people. The youth of
the F. A. L. C. wish to see Ire-
land entirely free."
12
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT DENOUNCES WAR - MAKERS
NOTE: All quotations which
follow have been re-transldted
from the Spanish press.
An histo,i c ~peech on the pre-
sent international situation was
made by President R oosevelt last
week, at the c.pening of a new
monumental bridge in Chicago, in
which the President vigorously at-
tacked the belligerent nations that
were provoking war. He indicated
that the casting away of pacts
made between nations show that
we are in an epoch of barbarism,
terror and reaction. N eve r, he said,
have true democratic nations at-
tempted to impose their political
creeds on other nations by the
shedding of blood.
He continued by pointing out
that international illegality reigns.
"There has been begun an in-
terfel'ence on the part of some
countries into the inter"al af-
fairs of others, or with the in-
vasion of foreign territories the
.,crapping of tre'l.ties. This situa-
~ion has now become so grave as
to seriously threaten the very
f<;undations of civilization. Wit-
hout declaring war, nor having
jllstifia ble reasons , these countries
ha ve assassinated ci vilians. wo-
men and children. In peace time,
submarines have attacked and tor-
pedoed merchant ships without
reason and without previous war-
ning. There are nations that are
conspiring and partiCipating in the
civil war of a country that has
neVE'r prefonned any hostile act
tuward them" .
ATTACKS ,\GGRESSORS
H e pointed uut that nations that
claim their li berties deny those
very same p,inciples to others.
Their lack cf justice and feeling
f"r humanity have made them sa-
crifice peopl es and nations to sa-
ti,fy the;,' uc.sire for power and
[;lIpremacy.
H e exprC:'3ClJ his he pe for the
fllture in the following manner:
"W·e desire to have a world in
which we can breathe fre ely and
livc without fear. The nations that
love peace must in unison st"eng-
then themselves in order to rein-
forc ~ the laws and principle.'! that
cOrultitute the only basis that can
guarantee peace."
The President explained that
national morality was es"ential.
like individual mo.rality. 1-1 ', em-
TIfF: VOLUNTF.F.R FOR r.mERTY
ATTACKS AGGRESSOR NATIONS
WHICH MENACE WORLD PEACE
phasised the principles of interna-
t ional morality. In treating the
qu ,stion of national isolation, he
faid that there existed in the
world an interdependence that ma-
de it technically and morally im-
pcssible for one nation to isolate
itself completely from the econo-
nic and political ph ~ nomenon of
t he rest of the world, especially
,'[hen upheavals, instead of di-
minishing. appear to be extending
themse lves.
"It is a question of vital impo.r-
tance for the American peoph
that the ,aneness of treaties and
the e~tablishment of international
morality be returned to", he said.
90 PERCENT THREATI<~NED
The President stated that the
peace and liberty of 90 percent of
the world population is being
th reatened by the other 1'0 per-
cent, who disr ~gard international
principals. "This 90 percent who
want peace, can and must find the
means of realizing their desires."
The President further added that
it is unconceivable that in modern
times a nation shou.Jd I>~ so der-
anged and bestial as to dare to
throw it.self at the world in war.
invading territory of other weaker
nations, violating solemn treaties,
all without provocation. The peace
of the whole world is actually
th.reaten('d by this state of af-
fairs.
"UKE AN EPIDEMIC"
He compared th~ international
situation with that of an epidemic,
saying that the · community should
avoid allowing the community to
reach its dangerous stage.
He concluded his speech with
the following words: "War is con-
tagiolls ul'clared or lIndrcla-
r eu; it engulfs th e pzoples of all
Ilati()n~ in a theater of hostilities.
Athaugh w~ are ready to sepa.rate
ou rselves from it. we cannot avoi d
'I tS disast ro;JS effects, nor th e dan-
~'er of lJ ~ ing involved in th.' fight.
We must adopt meuiums to 1'0-
, luc~ th0 com plica ted possihilitie:;.
hut we can:1ot escape co mplet('ly
from a world ~ ngulfed in disord~r.
The principles of p!ace must be
restored for civilization to have
lif,'. and conOd ence arr o ng all na-
ticns restored. The desirc for pea-
C0 mllst be manifested in such a
form that nations be deterred
from violating agreements an ,l
t a ught to respect the rights of
('[hers. We mast establish positive
designs to >afeguard peace. Ame-
rica detests war and hopes for
peace. America, therefore, is com-
mitted to preserve peace."
The President said that 12,
cents out of every dollar is being
used for war preparation.
His speech was made to 50,000
people, and was also radioed to
all of America.
NEGJU!'.' COMMENTS
Doctor Juan Negrin made pu-
blic his opinion regarding Presi-
dent Roosevelt's speech. He Eaict:
"I agree ,entirely with the words
of the ilIustrous Presid 2nt of the
Unitel States. They come as a
reinforcement to the moral mo-
vement that is being produced in
the world against international
disloyalty and the methods of vio-
lence employed by the Totalita-
rian States. I believe they will
contribute to clear away the te'1-
cc and threatening atrrosphere
that encircl.e the activities of the
pacific countries. It is a shame
that these words were not soun-
,led before. when they could have
influenced the deliberations at Ge·
neva in .l'cspect to Spain."
FASCIST DISTORT WORDS
BERLIN. Here the Berlin
press published President Roose-
velt's speech in the most mutila-
ted form, suppressing many pa.ra-
graphs.
It is said in Berlin that, because
of the political experience with
_. former President Wilson, Germa-
ny must distrust the Initiative of
A mericans in th? international
field.

L IF E IN
The follollling message from a
Republican who remained behind
when the fascists occupied Bilbao
gives a first-hand picture of life
in that city at the present time.
On the day of the occupation
of Bilbao, the first Italian forces,
consisting of two columns of Black
Arrows, arrived at the centre
of the city singing "Giovenezza"
and shouting "Viva Italia". Du-
ring their passage through the
streets they fired at the windows
and balconies from which the
Republican and Basque naticnalist
flags were flying. As a result of
the firing eleven pee·ple were ki-
lled and twenty-three wounded.
A lieutenant colonel of Franco's
Army~ replying to an ironic re-
mark of a German officer on the
lack of enthusiasm shown by the
ci tizens said:
"I must address the people in
orner' to tell them that they are
under our power that they must
shGW their jubilation."
The idea was approved and as-
cending the balcony of one of the
largest public buildings in the ci-
ty, the lieutenant colonel cried :
"People of Bilbao! The glorious
nationalist Army has jUl:lt fr.eed
you from the <:laws of Red sepa-
ratism ... "
Not one balcony opened and not
a llingle person come to listen to
him. Enraged by the ridicule he
had put himselt to, the lieutenant
c:;\onel ordered a ntilitary proces-
sion to take plaoo in the early
afternoon and guaranteed on his
wonl of honour that "the people
C1f Bilbao would show due enthu-
siasm."
In Effect, during the march-paat
of the "nationalist" troope, the baI-
coDies on botb sides C1f the straet
were lined with people who ap-
plauded the soldiers with more or
1_ enthusia.wm.
This was due to the tact that
a large section ot the rebel troop.
were ordered to enter all the pri-
vate ho~ In groups of i3lx, with
fi:.<od bayonet., and oblige the in-
habitants to stand on the balconies
and IO.pplaud the conquerors u they
mlU'ched by. 81& men and two
women killed tor mUllin. to ap-
plaud.
on tbe followt~ day the mUlta-
ry autborttle., wtabw. to convey
aD Impr_lonof nannallt)' wbich
wtll a..er exl.t In Bilbao .a long
ult 1ft occupied by the fuclsts;pu-
bUllied a decree ordering all shop-
THE VOLUNTEER FOR LIBERTY
REBEL BILBAO TODAY
keepers and factory owners to
resume work as jn normal condi-
tions, threate'ning them with se-
vere measures if they refused. In
the same decree the priests were
orne red to return their parishes
in order to say mass as usual.
The decree was completely use-
less. Not one shc·.,-I(e~per, nor fac-
tory-owner, nor priest showed any
signs of life. This passive resis-
tance of the middle cla&·e,) against
fascism had a most depre3Sing ef-
fect on the military and civil au-
thorities, who had to go to other
towns in order to prc<:ure priest3
to offioiate in the ohurches and
by this means avoid the farcicaJ
spectacle of an army which to de-
fend religion, having no priests
willing to say mass for it.
Thus, during the first days d
fascist occupation in Bilbao, three.
priests as well as ninety-two shop-
keepers were shot without trial.
CITY PILLAGED
One morning a ffIIW days later
aU the shops in the centre of the
city had placard posted outside
them bearing the Falanl:'-'lt sym-
bol and the tollowin&, words:
' ''Spanish soldier tighting for
the Fatherland: If you need any
article in this shop, enter and
take it: It belongs to you. The
owner is an enemy at our sacred
CILU8e, who is attacking you in a
oowa:dly fashion."
There is little need to say that
the Italian and German troops,
obeying the ohier to the letter, de-
dicated themselves for several
hours to the pillage of Bilbao.
When the matter came to the
knowledge of the authorities, the
shopB had been despoiled of all
their goods.
BILBAO GERMAN OOLONY
At the present time Bilbao is
a German colony. In spite of the
fact that the Italians played ' by
tar the greatest part in Us con-
quest, all official organisms PM-
sed inmediataly into the hands of
the Germans. All private- compa-
nies are run by Germans. Germans
are in charge of the reconatruction
of the blast furnaces without
which Bilbao's iron cannot be smel-
.. •.
~~ .: ~ .
.."o>~
ted: they have control of the
trams and of the railways. as
well as the reconstruction of all the
bridges. The best hotels are oc-
cupied by Germans and to enter
them special passes have to be
produced.
The following story is signifi-
cant ot the attitude of the peo-
ple of Bilbao towards invaders :
One Sunday afternoon a num-
ber of upper clase inhabitants we-
re sitting in one of the most fas-
hionable cafes of the town. Sud-
denly the public realised that some
Italian solcUers had entered the es-
tablishment. Moved by a feeling
of hatred, everyone rose and began
leaving. The Italians, who instan-
tly understood what was going on,
began shouting insults II;t thepeo-
pIe.
A torrent of spoons, cups and
glasse.3 fell on the invaders as a
patriotic protest against tOOl' pro-
vocation. Overcome with rage, one
of the soliders drew rns pistol and
began firing on the c'ustomers, who
seized him and gave him a tho-
rough hiding. When calm had been
restored it WlU! discovered that the
sohots fired by the Italian solmer
had caused the follOwing victims:
One litte girl of five, wounded
in the arm; a wadter, wounded in
the shoulder; and a women, WOLn-
ded in the stomach and head ...
This is just one illustration' of
the insults the Basque people have
to . put up with at the hands of
their foreign conquerors.
14
THE U. G. T. MOVES TOWARD GREATER UNITY
Much concern was manifested
recently throughout Spain at the
news of the expulson of 14 natio-
nal industrial unions by the Exe-
cutive Committee of the U. G. T.
A t a time when the great eat pos-
sible unity was an absolute pre-
requisite for \-;:inning the war
against Fascism, the news of fur-
ther split and dissension was cle-
arly cause for alanIl. The Execu-
tive Committee of the U. G. T.,
dominated as it was by Caballero
and his followers, not having been
renewed during the last five years,
followed a course which was bound
to lead to disaster. Its actions,
such as failure to -support the pre-
sent government upon its forma-
tion in May, was rebuked and
over-ruled on several occasions by
the National Committee. It was
becoming quite clear that the Exe-
cwve Committee ceased to reflect
the actual sentiments of the
AFTER TilE ,\In ItAII), WUIU("tl .IlIld ('hiltlren
THE VOLUNTEER FOR LIBERTY
U. G. T . workers and was playing
a game which could help only the
enemies of the Spanish pe ople.
In order to wrest control of the
National Committe which was
scheduled to meet shortly, the
Executive Committee started a
campaign of expulsions. Using the
slim pretext that certain unions
were behind in their dues pay-
ments, a campaign was started to
expel preoisely those unions which
fought cons:iBtenUy for unity and
for unconditional support of the
Negrin government, which they
considered a government of vic-
tory over the fascist enemy. The
actual expulsions began and 14
national unions, including some of
the largest and most important
unions, such as the Asturian Min-
ers, Madrid Bakers, found them-
selvea excluded from the ranks of
the U. G. T.
At a time when the entire nat-
h~u\' ins their und.. r~round .n-rUllin••
ion was showing the greatest sym·
pathy and solidarity with the As-
turian miners, who are conduct-
ing such a heroic struggle against
the advancing fascist ho rdes and
who are shedding blood in defense
of their land and liberties, news
was received of their expUlsion
from the U. G. T. for alleged non-
payment cf dues. The leadere of
the Exc::utive Committee of the
U . G. T .. J:;usy with the work of
dividing the ranks of the workers,
steeped iil their hatred of the pre-
sent government, did nothing to
help the struggle against ·t he an-
vading fascist forces in the North-
but f ound time and a means of
notifying the Miners Union of As-
turias cf its expUlsion from the
U. G. T.
NATION INDIGNANT
During the month of September
the tr8(Je unionist of Spain show·
ed how they felt about this mat·
ter. A wave of unheard-of indignat·
ion spread throughout the ccun-
try. Union after union adopted re-
solutions calling fer a stop to this
disruption and splitting policy by'
the Executive Committee. In cit-
ies, towns and villages U. G. T. or-
ganizations were roused into act-
ion against misdeeds of the F:xec-
utive Committee. Finally on Sep·
~ember 27, in besieged Mlldrid. the
local executive committee met and
condemned unanimously the policy
of the national Executive Commit-
tee in expelling the 14 national
uniollB . A cry came forth every-
where f or a f~!ll meeting of the
National Committee to deal with
.he situation and -to bring about
'mity in the mnks of the U. G. T .
NEW COMMITTEE CHOSEN
On Oct. 1, tkc meeting of the
;\I'ational Committee VIas convened
-i n Valencia. The meeting fully re-
;)resented ·t he 30 national unions
affiliated with thc U. G. T. The
cneetdng considjlred that the Exec-
utive CDmmittee heretofDl'€ did
not repreeent the true will of the
membership of the U . G. T. and
had acieq, against their interests.
The meeting invalidated the ex·
pulsions of the 14 nationaJ uniolle
and finally elected a new Exec-
utive Committee._It retained onl:\<
one member of the farmer Exec-
utive Committee, one who had con·
sistently opposed the splitting tac-
tics of the old leadership. The
meeting named Ramon GonZalez
P ena, of the miners' union. as Pre-
sident; Edmundo Dominguez, vice-
president; Jose Rodriguez Vega,
g~ral se£retary, and Amaro Ro-
sal Diaz as assistant secretary.
Immediate action was taken to
notify the International Federat-
ion of Trade Unions of the change
of leadership of the U . G. T.
SOLID SUPPORT
The first step of the new Exec-
utive Committee was to visit
Dr. Juan Negrin and affirm the
uncon<HtionaJ support of the U.G.T.
of his g'overnment and pledge to
mobilize the broad membership 01
the U. G. T. in active work for
the execution of the tasks set to
them by the Peoples Front govern-
ment. The new leadership imme·
diately contacted the leadership of
the C. N. T. and l'ledged to main-
tain the closest co-operation bet-
ween the two great trade union
organizations and to work untir-
ingly for the organic unity of the
U i ·G . T. and the C . N. T. so that
in the very near future both bodies
could merge int0 a powerful, sin-
gle, united trade union movement
of Spaan-.
The latest developments in the
U . G. 'J' . are indeed heartening.
With change in the leadership 01
the Executive Committee, with the
great spirit of unity displayed at
the ~irst session of this body 011
Oct. 2nd, there is reason to believe
that the greatest possible unity of
the trade union movement wil1 be
welded. The trade union movement
will be able now to march with the
reet of the nation in the great anti-
fascist People's Front towards
victory over the foreign fascist
invaders and towards a. free, h~y
and prosperous Spain.
D. M.

THE WORLD SITUAT10N-
IS IT PEACE OR WAR?
(Cen&iaued Crom ."8e 9.:
and in the south, there Is const-
ant fighting. The situation has be-
come such that Italian. soldiers
are afraid to move outside their
garrIBons. It is certain that as
fascist Italy's difficulties Increase,
lhe . Abyssinian resistance will
grow.
THE FAR EAST
In the Far East, the struggle
tor Chinese independence conti-
nues. Japanese fascism, well-ar-
med, with its well laid plans for
the conquest of the north of Chi-
na, is met by an' unexpected re-
sistance. The growing unity of the
ChineSe people, which has its pa-
rlillels here in Spain, faces J~an
with serious problems. Its advan-
ce Is much slower, and is cosl-
m,g far more than it had antici-
patAtd, and It is already evident
that it !i.e ]In>ba:bly not Chinese in-
,d ependence wmch Is in danger, but
the -continued existence of Japane-
:lie ,fll:llCiam. T.heelghth Army not
itmC ago inf1icted a terrific defeat
me JO_
em the ..l~, Wiling or wound-
men. FOUT <lays later,
in the ~ (If/f ~-Cheu, a
thousIInd .Ja.pa2le8e troops were
surprUed and Captured.
It would befooliah to expect
'an early victory of the OhInese
people, for Japan baa JI. tenifi~
preponderance of 8ftJUI,. but ..Ja-
pan's internal situation, like timt
of Germany and Italy, i8 rapidly
deteriorating. The 1Ianchllf'ial
conquest has not provided the re-
sults expected, either in the way
of profits or of minerals. The ,p re,
paratlons for war have been a
great strain on the not too strong
Japanese economy; arid war It-
self, If not quic)dy ended, may
prove diS88troUB. During the past
six months, there have been mo-
re lItrikes than during the whole
history of the Japanese labour
movement.
PROGRESS IN ,U, S, S, R.
In 'striking contrast to the con-
ditions obtaining in the fascist
countries, Is the constant progress
of the people of the USSR. Wher-
eu, despite the enormous anna-
menta production, after eight
years the total production of the
c~ltallst countrieB stands more
or leu where It did, that of the
Soviet' Union has Increased seve-
ra! tImee over. Translated into
termB of human happiness, the
effect of thl. Increue In produc-
THE VOLmr.tSB FOR UBERTY
tion is enormous. Nor can any
limits be set to tbis growing prOB-
perlty of the RUSBian people. ;to
its relations with other states, the
USSR is recognised as the strong-
est and most consistent fighter for
collective peace, and It is against
this great people that the most
Vindictive spleen of the warma-
kers is directed, as being the
greatest obstacle to the realisa-
THE FUEHRER TALKS
tion of their plans of conquest.
At Geneva, Litvinov's speech
has revived hope among the pea-
ce forces in th.e League of Nations.
Clearly and simply he showed that
despite all that has happened to
weaken it, the League is stili ca-
pa-ble of holding the aggressors
in check and of stopping new ag-
gressions. Great Britain, despite
its strenuous denials of the past.,
has now been brought to the point
where it can no longer deny the
violation of the "non-interventio,,"
agreement. No steps are being
taken to end intervention in
Spain, but the recognition of the
fact of aggreSBion Is a step for-
ward from the previous position
BRITAIN REMAIINS KEY
It is evident that Britain reo
mains the key to the world si-
tuation. A few words of the right
kind from the British statesmen
could change the alignment of the
world forces In favor of peace.
But these words will never be
spoken by the "National" govern-
-nent of its own free wIll. Only
Ole com-bined pressure of the pro-
greaai'Wl pElo.ple can' compel a chan-
geol its pl'eBent lIne. It is tragic
that 1eadenof the Labour move-
ment, llUeh as Bevin and Cltrine,
can prevent, ev~ for It little ti-
me, the unit,. of the anti-fascist
and anti-war opinion, which now,
I~lng leadership and cohesion,
~ IllCffectual, could unitedly be-
come ~ch a force as would com-
pel Ita wishes to be carried out
History will look back with curio·
lIity upon t,b.ese few men, who ha-
ve, In eff«t,' the destiny of the
world In tb4lr hands for a short
space of tim" and It wIll wonder
at their bllndDUII and lItupidity.
But there are otbua In the Labour
movement who see wfth clarity
the danger which confronts the
world,
But will Unity arrive In time!
Events are moving quickly.
0, C. G,
15
AND TALKS AND TALKS
15 TH INTERNATIONAL BRIGADE
SALUTES MADRID STUDENTS,
ACCEPTING THEIR BANNER
TO THE -sTUDENTS OF THE LAGASCA INSTlTU"I'E
Dear Comrades,
Your , actloo in undertaking the patronage of our Brigade
adds anQtbet link in the already powerful bonds of interns-
' tional soll4lLr1ty between the people of Spain and those of
our Bev,e ral lands. Now in the fight for the cause of Spanish
dE'mocracy, which is the CaUBe of all humanity, we realize
the slgutficance of, and are proud to 8.GC~t,your pr9ferrt:<!
banner -tor the symbol of our mutual stru&,gle.
We haYewaoched the fast-growiltg student and youth 'mo-
v~ent of Spain. Everywhere we Bee the sigTl.3' of ' unity of
tl:l.erear~JNe a.r~ very happy to note that among the
leaders In this movement for unity are the students, In the
forefront Blands the youth of Spain' who have undergone 90
much and who still fight on in the vanguard of the Spanish
forces,
Among our ranks are many IItudents from n,any landa;
some of the best fighters in the Brigade sprang from the
student movemeot, where they learned the simple elements
of th,e struggle for civil and political liberties, political rights,
and often even economic subsi-stenr.e.
Weregre1 lMt' It was not possible for the Brigade to be
present at the tendering of the ba:nner to our unit. We were
occupied carving further records, further cause for you to
be proud of us-our roles in the captures of Quiuto and Bel-
chlte may well fill you with pride. Soon we hope to return
to the Center-tront where it will be possibile for us to make
a fact the desire now held by both of us: cement the bonlls
of comradeship and understanding between us. We hope ,to
be able to send delegations to villit you and become acquaint-
ed with the individuals who comprise your group. In the
8I!.me manner we hope that you will be able to send exprellS
our gratification . in your interest and assure you of simHltt"
sentiments on our part.
Vor the men of the Fifteenth Int~rnational Brigade w.'
selld to your group the wannest antifascist greetings.
V. COP\('
Commande, of Brlga.de
STIi:,\' lol NJo:LSON
Polltlral Commissar ,
R _ a T H. MXIUtl:WAY
Ohlef of St.&tf.
 THE VOUJNTEER .'OR L1mmTY

NEWS B R I EFS
MOSCOW
tht.' .suvit·t
F"r the next ye,lr
(~OVt'rnnlt'llt ha..··, put
16th
asidt' -t,200,OOO l'ubltlS fnl' the {,tlll- I"'rhaps today
stru('tion of a =--y;-;.lt'nl of I'ailwa.,:-> \'011 will r .. m"mh~r JUhn BrOWII,
in the l!kminian "'gion.
Juhn Brown
\\'ho took his gun,
Took twenty-one companion,.;
BERLIN,·- ·We get n e ws tha I White lind bl~k,
Hitler has accepted Mussolini', \\:,' nt to shoot yc.ur way to "re..dom
invitation to repay the lattl'r', rl'- "'h.. rtl two rivera m .."t,
('t'nt vi~it , by going t o H.OllH',
.>\nd the hills 01 the I.' .\11-:.\ 10111\'1
North
OLIVER LAW
And t he hills of the
t:omrnHlld"I· of Ih.' l.ill('ulu
South Uoiliuliull ill Ihe July
MA HSEILLE.- The attempt to
Look slow at Oil .. anothl'r orr"n",hr
ship 200 tons of sulphur to fascist And di .. d
Las Palmaa (Mallorca I sland sea- For ;roul' sake. Uit'd on tht" Fi,'I.1 ur n .. ul."
July HI, III;r:
port), last week, resulted in an
Su"' that ~:ou al'.~
effective refusal by the port ste-
;\Iany ,Ypanl I·r.... ,
\'edores to load the buaL The car- And Ih .. I'(,ho 01" thp Ch'il War
go ship "Medic" was forced to lias pa~sed awa~, LETTERS from HOME
sail without the sulphur. And Brown hillls,'lI"
at law,
Hal'! long been tri .. d
k eep On spreadit'lg lhem around ...
Hung by th .. ,w('k,
The sleel situation is now quiet.
MOSCOW , . More t han 1000 And hurled ill the Kround -
but the auto wo.rkers havc held
Shwe Harp"rs Ferry
Asturian c hildren between the their' convention. They hav ~ grown
Is alive with ghosb, todny,
ages of 15 and 16 have arrived in little more than a y ear from
Immortal raiders
35,000 to 350,000; and we will .see
here this week on board the two Come ag,\in to tOWII
the day soon, I beli.eve, when they
Stlv:et ships, "Cooperation" and will get old Henry Ford also lined
Perhaps
"Dzerjinski". The voyage along up ...
\' 011 will rl'('all
the Spanish coast waa perilous ly ,Juhn Bruwn. Your collective letters are fine .
made under direct rebel fire. 1.,'\ NGSTON 111 ' (; U.;S Keep'em up. Keep sending me
mall and m a ke your letters in-
In the Mancha Canal. the "e ,.
formative to the fullest extent, of
operation" encountered an Italian course together with e Ve,rything
ship. Whi'n the young \'oyrrgers
recognized the Italian ·fla~. they
RALPH FOX BATT ALION e lse you want to write . For we
can surely use th ese J.ett~r~ to get
let locse prolonged cries of con - Anothl" indication of the inler- of this rna" who won OW' lovr and additional and stronger ~"pp(lrt
national solidarity amo ng tht' dif- oll.I' admiration in the ~arly days fLr Loyalist Spain and fol' thl'
c\('m nation to the fa"dst shi p.
o f th,' wa .....
Int('l'Dational Brigades, ..
fe.rent national voluntre .. s in Spa- B , :\1.
in, not "nly with the S panish [H' O-

pie , but with each other, .'xists in

' '-''0
the f(H'm of .a complete balialion
of th(' 14th Internati(>nal (Franco-
BeIge I Brigade, This is th? ({alph
"'ox (12th I Baltalion. so namell as
far bac\{ a~ lagt Apl'il, in h 01l1l1' of
the n(J~l' d "~ngli5h novelist a nd
writer Wh() .~ l) death her ,' shorkpd
t he world ' .
•. "
"The battalion was lIam~d
; '
'Ralph I'"x' at a time wht'll th e re " 0,

w ,' ,'" .~ till a numhf'" of British vo-

~':~:... -
IlIlIte"I', in each cllm pany", Hays ~I.
-' ..
Ci.mman:kr Dumllllt of the 14th ~ .
Brigade, "These men w .. re after- .:.:.~
1.1", \\ I " ; ·.... E UEI·T(;IO . : .\ nHlllwt
1.. 41'- .. u.1I~iutl!'oly u~ lhf' .. k,,, It) ."1',' wlwl .... r ward transf('rr~d to tht' l;;th Bri-
ull tla .. 1,lallt' ''' ha,t" d"IIII"II·II. IJrl'uI"I' \1"lIlu- gade. but we felt th a t it woult! be'
"IIII.! 1111' ngltiu •• ·hilll i II II rill, iniu Iht, \ ((;11 ,,\'t: I-: I' TilE I·IFI.US: Thi"'llt·asulIl. ont" .. r (he .IIISIIIIJ.: h.'I'.II':-4 uf Ih., wur u!,!uill""
.. I n.'.o I ... most fit.t ing t.o relain lhe name rU ." I'ism. ~lIllrilillll uf Ihl' n .. liun·~ ,0nu.1 "1I1'pl~,

Yo I. N.· te
SPAIN s MINERAL WEALTH
The fame of the Spanish me-
tal mines has existed since the
most remote times of antiqui-
ty and there is no historian of
olden days who does not men-
lion. some of them at great
length and with very interNlt-
Ing facts . the mineral deposits
which were exploited in the
Iberian Peninsula.
A large proportion of the
foreign invasions of olden ti-
mea had lUI their principal
object the seizure of the riches.
principally precious metals.
which they supposed the Span-
ish soil contained. The Phoe-
nicians. Carthaginians and R o-
manI! mainly looked for lead.
~i1ver. copper and gold. and
t.races uf their e:or1l10itations.
a.bove all R o man. arc to be
found in abundance in the me-
tal mlnea of Spain.
More than I wenty centuriell
have passed and Spain now
Rees her soil trampled upon
once more by f0reign c rs pur-
suing an identical aim as i~
,:karly ~hown by their milita-
ry operations. their treatiCl!
with toc rebels and their sys-
tematic appropriation f)f th( '
urr which is exploit.ed in th ..
I.erritury they domillat" as w..]1
a!j by t.he manner ill whi(;h tllt!y
a.re diverting the trade In mi -
nerals to the countries in Cen ·
I rfl.l Eurupe to the c\e\.riment
.,f their natural mark"ts ill
Western Europe and Nqrlh
Aml'rica.
The principal mincrlll prfl-
ducts of Spain arp. a..~ f'Jlliow~:
UtilN
III the yeu 1910 a drtaile<1
.tudy "". made of the reser-
The VOLUNTEER
FOR LIBERTY
A Survey of Some of the Products
that Hitler and Mussolini are After
ves of iron ore in Spain which
tiave a total of 811 million
ton.';. In spite of the large
amo unt of iron ore which has
been exploited between 1910
and 1937, the new discoveries
made during the past few year~
allow it to be affirmed that
the present day reserves are
not less than 800 million tons.
The classic dept')sitB of Viz-
eaya, Santander and Gulpuz-
eoa in the North and those of
Seville, Huelva. Almeria and
Murcia in t.he South. especially
as far as better quality ore is
concerned, are nearly exhaus-
ted . On the other hand there
n.re large d~posits of unexploi-
tcd iron ore in the provinces
. ,Lo""
... .....
~
~ i
Madrid,. October
of Oviedo, Leon, Lugo, Teruel
and Guadalajara, but tts geo-
graphical location, far remo-
ved from the ports and its con-
tent of lese than 50 % render
its exploitation very difficult
and often uneconomic in pe-
riodB when the price of iron is
low.
FUELS
Spain has never been and
can never be an exporter of
fuels, yet she produces enough
coal for her own needs, except
for certain special varieties. On
the other hand she has no li-
quid fuels and every drop of
oil, petroleUm>, etc. hM to be
...
iii.
ta 1137
Imported: Four-fifths of the
coal produced In Spain CODles
from Asturl8:!l.
POTASSIUM SALTS
The deposits of potaMiwn
salta in Catalonia constitute
one of the greatest mlneral rio
chea of Spain at the present.
day. These deposits which were
discovered comparatively re-
cently, are now known to
stretch right acroas Northern
Aragon Into Navarre.
PYRITES
Spain ill the greatest produ-
cer and exporter of pyrite:! &,pd
she possesses 50 '1~ of the
world's reserves. The Spanish
pyrites, some of them iron and
others ferro-copper, are loca-
ted in.. a belt covering the pro-
vince of Huelva and part of
that of Seville.
COPPER
The principal depo..~jl9 of
copper in Spain are the ferrQ-
copper pyrites of the province
of Huelva, which contain from .
0.5 % to 2 '7c copper metal.
The reauvcs of ferro-copper
pyrites In thil! region are not
le811 .than 200 million tOIlIl. All
th~ copper produced In Spain
<'omes from Huelva a.nd in
, fl35 the total production of
Cflpper ore Willi 415.959 tOM.
LEAD
Spain waR for many y!'are
the greatest European prudu-
cer of lead, but at the present
timf'. her position ha.!1' changed,
2 THE VOLUNTEER "'OR LIBERTY
THE
The Pl'Ol'JWlllw ~e of the
world wUl lOOn oelebrat.e the
10th annivoe....ry of the Union
of Socialist Soviet Republics.
All the world has watched most
in~y bow the Soviet UnIon
battled lUI way during all the-
l'6 yt"ars spinel thl' stream,
aga.IMt hOl!ltlle II1rroundlngl'.
unUI It h~ grown to be one
of the most po\\'~rtul nation~
of the world. Surrounded by
e.nelllie.. on all .sides - - facing
economic blockade and forcipi
int'erventlon; total disruption pt
all aspects of economic life;
t'amlne and dlBCue -- the peo-
pIeR of the Soviet Union, over-
coming dift'iculty a.tter diffi-
culty, kept tht"lr steady on-
ward march to a new a.nd bet-
tt"f life.
During th4.':Je twenty long
yoears the progre.sslve-mlnded
people - workers, farmers, In-
tellectuals -- the world over
rallied to the cause of the So-
viet people. In the dark days
of twenty yea.rs ago, the Bri-
tish and .A.m.)rlca.n seamen re-
fulled to load ships with car-
goes of arms de~tlned for the
white armi4.'-s CJf intervention.
Frenc.h sa1Ior~ ill· the Black
Sea, led by Andre Marly, re-
volted agaIn.,t being IllICd to
dOWJl t~ caUSe of the Soviet
people. Material !lnd moral aid
came fl"Qln all llIJlds to the
tirl'at So,1et peopl e in their
hour of need. It wu with In-
ternational Solidarity that the
workers a.nd peasants ot the
Soviet UnIon were able to
triumph over all enemies -
MAY.DAY eel~b,.tlon 18
BIRTHDAY OF THE u.
intrrnal a.nd foreign . Today,
the U _ S. S. R . looks forward
to a .rand future of freedon
and prosperity for Its 170 mil-
lion people of hundreds of ra-
ce.s and nationalities.
A WNG WAY
During these twenty years
this mighty nation has travel-
led a long wily. From one of
the mORt backward countrie.!!,
kept in poverty and ignorance
a.nd u a result of years of
impPI'ialist and civil wat's ..-.
(ks"lated and ruined -- _. the
people with sacrifice and en-
thusiasm . unknown in the past.
pushpd forward wd re-con~­
lructed a nation which ata.nds
today among the foremo~t in
the \\'orld. Step by .3 tep the
V. S. S. R. went through the
stagE's of milllsl'Y communiam
to the New Economic Policy
(NEP) to the period of socia-
list cowtruct\on and planning
ami the brilliant fulfillment of
th e first and second 5 Yea r
Plans. It lifted Itself by Its own
bootstrap~ from a land lacking
indw::try and cult.ure to one of
the mORt technically developed
countlies. Today. with it.'! ma..."-'l
producUon Industries, sociali-
zed ag.rlculture, m()8l highly
developed culture and educa-
tion, wiUI ill! vast resources
used for the benefit of all the '
people, the Soviet Union con-
tinueR on the road to prospe-
rity and culture, surpassing the
expectations of all and reali-
1\10..,...·•• Red Slu.,e.
~il!g the !deus of the world"!!
greatest thtnkierll. It was vic-,
torious against Its foreign in-
vading enemy u well as the
last renments of the internal
foe- the TrotSkyite wreck erR
a.n<..\ spies - - because the peo-
,\NIJRt: M:\RTY
Pari,. Urput)', hero or Bleck !We rc-
\ olt. ,.lId indf'rllltl«able n"bt~r "S.irlsf
la'~i 6 m.
pIe were united and fought
with all their being for the
triumph of the Soviet cause.
WhIle dark forces of reac-
tion threaten the people of the
rest of the world, In the So-
viet Union the people are en-
joying the fruita of their strug-
gles and labors. The new So-
viet CoosUtution opens new and
g-reater vistas of democracy
and freedom - guaranteeing
the rights of all and safeguar-
ding the democratic uplra-
tiona of the millions of Soviet
peoples. How different Is the
situation in the rest of the
world? FuciBm the deadly ene-
my of progreSo! and democ.ra.>-
cy has engulfed many nations
during these twenty years. In
Italy, Germany, Japan, Austria
in the Baltic and Balkan coun-
tries - new tyrannies and des-
potlBIWI have been impo.~ed on
the people by their fascist ru-
lers. These fucist powera have
not only deprived their own
peoples of their freedom but
today are threatening the li-
berties of the rest of the world.
In 1936 the troops of MWIIlOlt-
ni started their unprovoked
aggressiQn against the Ethio-
pian people. By wholesale mur-
s. s. R.
dE'r and' brutality, the fascist
hordes 1mpOIIed their bloody ru-
le over the Ethiopian people.
In 1936, the troops of HIUer
and MUNOlInl, started a fresh
aggression when they invaded
the soil of Spam and in their
attempt to destroy the Peoples
Front government a.nd turn this
country into a col~ of Italo-
German fuciBDI . In 1937 the
Jap&ni!JM! wa.r-makcrs invade
ChiDa and deal death to the
innocent people 8Dd despite the
indignation of the entire civi-
lized wolid. are attcmpttng to
.steal the land and libc.rt;f'3 of
the vaet ChiDese people.
While the forces of humaa
progress and peace throughout
the world protest in ,awe aga-
inst the brutalities of the WIU'-
makers 8Dd offer their ald to
the people flghttng aptMl
the Invaders 8Dd aggreeeors.
the governments of Europe and
America conttnue to play with
the non-intervention game
the farce which only Berves to
encourage the fllBCt.st barba.-
rt&lll!!. One nation of all has ta-
ken the stde of 8W'e8t adVaD-
ce In the world confllct bet-
ween the forces of peace a.nd
progress aM war and reaIe-
tion, l. e. the Soviet Union .
The role pla}'ICd by the repre-
sentaUve.!! of the U. S. S. R.
in the cause of democracy a.nd
peace in Geneva needs littlc re-
petition. It tore the mask off
of the taaclst war-maker.; and
pointed Its accusing finger to
Italy, Germany and Japa.n &II
the bandits and those threa-
tening peace of the world. It
has championed the rights of
Ethiopia, Spain and China be-
fore the League of Nations a.nd
the world. It hu aided Spain
as no other nation. It is only
under the constant pressure of
'S ovlet diplOmacy that world
public opinion is crystaliztng
and in turn forcing action on
the part of the democratic and
pacific governments. The re-
cent speech of President F. D.
Roosevelt, the victories for
SpaiD at Nyon and Geneva, the
mild actiOIIIJ of Fnulce and
(Continued on pal" • .)

MADRID S HOUSE OF CULTURE
One of the liveliest art1atic
1.Dd intellectual centers In the
Norld at the moment, Is, wi-
thout doubt, the house of the
. >\J.tanza <le Intelectuales Anti-
~uciBtas in Madrid. (In Engl-
. sh, we would say the Alliance
of Antifa.'!C'ist Intellectuals.) It
IS a large house, in fact a pa-
lace, belonging to a former
gentleman of title and a des-
:endant of slave - traders by
the way - who fled from Spain
to devote his riches and his aid
to the cause of those who are
trying to overturn the govern-
ment and force the people back
into feudalism. The Marqu.IB,
tor that was his title, took with
him all the gold he could car-
ry, but he left his palace, his
Sorollas and El Greco, his
hand-carved furniture, and his
t'nonnollB library behind him.
Now his mansion has been ta-
ken ovel' by the State. And the
State has given it into the care
>f &rUsts and writers as the
~quarters and meeting pla-
ce of all those men and women
in Madrid who are devot1ng
lheir pens, paint brushes, and
talents to the Spanish Republic
and its weJfare.
SHELTERS ALL ~TS
The Alianza de Intelectuales
Antii8lS<:lBtas itself, as an or-
ganization, is an outgrowth of
Ule First International Writers
C'.,ongl'e88 held in ParIs in 1985.
Hut, in Spain, it has been en-
RAFAI!:L ALBERTI
.p....'D' ... tb. Me~oDd ID'~r .. atloDai
THE VOWNTEEB FOB I.J8EBTY
larged to include not only wri-
ters, but painters, acWptors,
com.posers, and all others who,
through the arts, are contri-
buting to a better and more
beautiful world. It now bas
centers, of attlliat.es, in Va-
lencia, Barcelona, and Alican-
teo When the fllBciBt rebellion
broke out, the Alianza imme-
diately alligned itself with the
government, and began to de-
vote all its resources to the
pl'eservation of the Republic-
for who could know better than
artists and writers what hap-
pens to creative efforts under
a Fascist regilne?
Many of the members of the
Alianza had experienced cen-
sorship and 8UppresBion of
thought under the monarchy
and the dictatorship of the late
Primo de Rivero. And all of
them know what happened to
books and theatres and 9Cience
in Germany and Italy. They do
nat want that to happen here.
MANY ON FRONTS
That lIJ why, lut November
when Fraflco and his Italians
and Moors were at the gates
of Madrid, tnany Spanish wri-
ters and artists and muslclans
died on the barricades defend-
ing their city against the bur-
ners of books and the asB8.8in.~
of cultul'e on the rebel side. At
present, many of the members
of the Alianza are at the front,
some as 801die1'8, some as tea-
Wrlten Co..,r....
chers in the campaign aga.inst
illiteracy, others as edltors of
brigade newspapers or as ma-
kers of posters, some reading
their poems to .the troop!!,
others play:ng their own mUSic
in the trenches .
Hete in Madrid, the house is
a hive of intense and varied tn-
telectual activities. Its presid-
ent lB Jose Bergamin, the Ca-
tholic writer. Its Exooutive Se-
cretary is the poet, Rafael Al-
berti.. (Alberti and his wire,
Maria Teresa Leon, writer of
short stories, are lmown in
New York and in Latin Arne-
rica, "havq ~ectured there a
few yea1'8 ago.) In and out of
this Madrid house, formerly s
palace for the idle rich, now
pour the best of the Spanish
writers and artists and thin-
kers, as well as the visiting·
foreigners resident in Spain or
here gathering material for ar·
ticles and books: famous fo-
reigners like Ernest Heming-
way, like Andl'e Malraux, like
Ludwig Renn, Egon Erwin
Kisch, Gustav Regier, Jef Last,
and Michael Koltsov.
MANY ARTISTS KILUm
Sometimes these writers
SpanJsh or foreign , leave the
hOUBe to continue their work
as fighters 01' artists at the
front, and they do nat come
back again. Pablo tie 1& Tol'-
riente, the CUban, went away a
few months ag'o, never to re-
turn. He was killed at MlI.jada
Honda. One of Spain's great
sculptors, Francisco Perez Ma-
teo, died in the defense of Ma-
drid. The poet, Federico Gar-
cia Lorca, W8B executed in re-
bel U,rrltory at Granada. And
in the battle of Brunete, that
excellent woman photographer,
Gerda Taro, was killed while
making .p ictures at the soldiers
of the People's Army for the
papera and magazines she re-
·preeented in Paris. You see,
the artists and writers who
frequent the Alianza in Madrid
are not of the ivory tower
school. In fact, there coUldn't
poss.ibly be an ivory tower In
Madrid. The Fasciat cannoDS
would bla8t it to plecea.
WHAT THEY DO
In time of W8.l', what can
writers and artists do that is
useful, entertaining, and ~u­
Uful in a liv:tng and vital way?
Here are some of the thlngii tile
Alianza did -- and does. At the
MARIA TERESA LEON
Short Story ,,'riter, aad first wnUl.
in Spain to dinet & playhoullc.
beginning of the War, many
members of the Alianza Wt:lIl
into the trenches and the villa -
ges near the front, explaining'
to the fighters the basic meall"
ing of this War, and why :t
group of ,indWltriallBts and mi -
litary men had chosen to rll:l.,
against the majority of the vo -
ters of Spain. They made po,,-
tel's, they gave speeches, they
read poems, they worked willi
and under the direction of th,
Ministry of Public Instructivll.
From Paris, the French writer"
sent them, as a present, a selw·
01 on wheels, a truck pqui-ppeJ
with a motion ,p ioture machine
and a printing pre-' iI, brought
to Spain by acomlllittee he..-
ded by Louis Aragon, fanwUt<
r>Ot't and novelist.
Last August, a year ago, th"
Alianza founded its paper, FJL
MONO AZUL, (Overalls), and
began to pUblish stories, pl)elli~ ,
and chronicals of the war.
When the People's Army WitS
formed, members of the Alian-
za helped to establish, alld S<'-
vera! of them still edit, the
Brigade new8ps.pers that 1U't'
(CoDtt~tled 00 l'08*" ft.)

"
H E A
The following lette~, from
one of the producers of the
film, "Heart of Spain", is per-
haps the most vivid and infor-
mative to reach us on the work
of the cinema in enlisting aid
for the victims of Fascist
agression. It is for this reason,
and because we al-e sU~'e that
the contents at this letter will
interest our own men, that we
reprint it herewith.
Two ambulances have been
purchased by a number of pro-
gressive film stars and dIrect-
ors and scenario - wl'iters for
Spain - and these ambulan-
ces are now tounng -the Uni-
ted States, showing the picture
"Heart of Spain" , On the siq,: !;
of the ambulances are painted
the names of such notable
Hollywood figures as BeUy
Furness, Fred Keating, Fran-
chot Tone, Lionel Stander, Guy
Endore, Ben Hee,h t, Humphrey
Cobb, flOrence Eldridge, Lewis
Mllestone, and many others.
And now for the letter:
"I haven't written you since
HEART OF SPAIN opened at
the Fifty-Fifth Street Theatre
last week. It's playing with
Jean Renoir's "The Lower
Depths", a very brilliant film ,
and turning them away as well
as knocking them over, It is a
very exciting thing, after you
have put your heart and feve-
rish intensity into a work, to
AMERICAN
Two well-known . Am erican
Congressmen arrived in Spain
8. week ago ~ Representative.
Jerry 0' Connell, Democrat
from the State of Montana.
and John '1' , Bernard, Minnes-
sota ~rmer-Laborite , The vi-
sit of two outstanding Ameri-
can political figur es is an im-
portant gesture of sympathy
on the part of the American'
people toward the Spanish Re-
publican cause. Both huve ta-
ken formida·ble parr. in the
movements in the United Sta -
tes that called for the detense
of the rights of, Loyaliat
Spain.
O'Connel, who champions
THE· "OLUNTEER FOR UBERTY
R T o F
How Film of Spain is Affecting Our
Countrymen Back in the U. S.
go into a theatre, see it thrown
up on the screen, and affect
the audience in just tire way
you had planned and desired.
"It's terrific experience to be
in the theatre when HEART
OF SPAIN is on People
around you gasp and sigh at
intervals; you feel a tightening
throughout the audience. The
other day, in the row behind
me, an old man kept trying to
muffle his sobs throughout the
latter half of the picture; but
the sound came right through
the hand over his mouth,
MANY I<'AINT
"Almost every day some one
or other faints at the shock 'of
the blood transfusions and the
cumulative emotion of the film.
For the first time people are
seeing a Spanish document that
maltes them .partic~pate vividly
in the horror of fascist invaR-
ion and the heroism of the 'p eo-
ple's fight. All of us have used
every bit of ingenUity to put
the shots, taken in Spain, into
the most effective sequence.
And the result must have some
of the shock, horror and heroic
determination that is the actual
CONGRESSMEN
the cause of miners, railroad,
steel and farm workers, is a
leader of the Democratic-Pro-
gressive group in the House of
Representative, He was one of
the few Representatives who
fought tooth and nail against
the so-called "Neutrality Law".
At the same time he figured
among the Legisl-ative -Delegat-
ion which visited Secretary of
State Hull to protest the poli-
tical neutrality orthe U. S, Go-
vernment. In addition, he was
one of the four signers of the
widely-publicised letter that
was sent to Secretary Hull fa-
vo.-lng Loyal Spain. At a great
mass meeting, held in New
York City on July 19, In cele·
s.p
experien'ce of the Spanish peo-
ple,
"One day I stood (lUtside the
theatre and stopped a woman
of apout the s ame age and fi
gure as X. I told her I was one
of the people who had worked
on the film and wanted to
know what her reactions were,
I then saw that her eyes were
rend and that she could hardly
speak. With difficulty she
said: "I felt it in my heart
very much... It is terrible and
also wonderful." The manager
of the theatre told us of his
experience with two other wo-
men. The first came out of the
house in a rage, asked for the
manager,and proceeded to ex-
plode that this was a commu-
nist picture: what the hell i:;
this theatre becoming anyhow,
she fumed, a communist hou-
se? .. , But immediately after-
VISIT
bration of the first anniversa-
ry of the Spanish War, O'Con-
nell presided and delivered a
speech for ·the loyal Spanish
people that resounded around
the world. Son at 8 miner who
was killed In an accident whi-
le working in a copper mine
belonging to the Anaconda
Copper Corporation, he ,a lso be-
came a miner at an early age.
After many saricfices he suc-
ceeded In obtaining his la-
wyers degree.
Bernard has carried on an
intensive campaign among mi·
ne, factory, and steel mill wor-
kers' organizations of the Unl·
ted States In favor of Loyalist
A I N
ward, a woman whom he des
cribed as an "aristocratic type"
asked for th~ manager; this
one 'proceeded to explode that
this was one of ,t he finest film~
she had ever seen, that every
American ought to see it. AmI
when he told her that another
woman had just com'Plaill~d
that HEART OF SPAIN was
communistic, she said that
that was DOllBense. It WIlS the
truth. And the management
ought to get the best writer In
America to write about the pic-
ture, so that every American
would want to see it.
"One of the most interesting
experiences I had was in con-
nection with the fainting of a
young actor who sat beside me.
About halfway through the
film, he started to waver a lit-
tle, turn away, turn back to
the screen. Finally he slid by
me, and sat down again in the
back of the house. At the end
ot the picture he went back
into the lobby for water, where
the usher saw him sagging and
helped him up to the office. I
came up later and saw him
sprawled out on a couch. He
was given smelling salts and
splri'ts of ammonia and finally
came to. The first words he
said were : "I'm going to send
all my friends to see this piC-
ture". Which I was rather sur-
SPAIN
Spain. His pro-l&bor acUons ill
the HoWIe of Representative
have gained for ,h im an envla4
ble reputation. He was ODe of
the 28 Representatives who de-
fended -the call for an embargl
of commodities againat !tal)
Germany and Portng&!. He L
Il man of coDBiderable culture,
and a veteran of the World
War.
O'Connell and Bernard will
vialt the fronts, and wlll be
guests of honor In special af-
fairs arrdJlg"ed for them by the
Government' in Valencia, Ma-
drid and Barcelona. Trade
Union and political organiJlat-
Ions areal90 making special
preparations in their honor.

Dr. Negrin CJarifies Status of the International Brigades
On the evening of Sunday,
October 10th, Dr. Negrin made
the following statement on be-
half of the Spanlah Govern-
ment to a meeting of foreign
j0urnallm:
- - I have laken the liberty of
asking you to be present h~re
In order to malte certain cor-
rectiolU! arising from Signor
Mussollni'll notc, the inaccura-
cies of which are a proof of the
confusion of the Italian Go-
vernment when replying to the
communique of the Govern-
menta of France and the Uni-
ted Kingdom.
THE SPANISH I. B.
The Italian docwr~t states
that our representatives at Ge-
neva expressed our Govern-
ment's oppoeltion to the with-
drawal of the volunteers who
are fighting In the Republican
ranu. This B8IIertlon is un-
true. The statement made by
Sr. Azc'rate, which our Go-
vernment~upports in Its enti-
rety, WIIi! lUI follows:
"Referen~ has been made,
and I do not want to pass this
over In silence, to the existence
pt the International Brigade
about which there is constant
talk In the press. Very well.
Allow me to draw '" clear dis-
tinction, or rather to repeat a
clear distinction which has
been drawn on different occa-
eions by the Spanish delegA-
tion: what Is known as the In-
ternatloDAl Brigade is formed
by foreigners who have come
lo Spain to defend an ideal.
But the International Brigade,
ItS a body, ItS an entity, is ab-
1!01utely Spanish and is absolu-
tely subordlnale to t.he Gov('rn-
ment of the Republic."
WITHDRAWAL OF FORE-
IGNERS
All you see, Sr. Azc8.rat e
only wished to point out that
those who fonn part of the Re-
publican Army s.s volunteers
are, in actual fact, volunteers
because they joined thc Army
pohmtarily, inspired by an
Ideal, whereas the ~rman and
It.&ltan forces are not volun-
teers, because they came t o
Spain involuntarily and are
in regul&r Corps ot occupa-
tiOD. Comequently the Repu-
THE VOLUNTEER 1"'08 U8J4;RTY
Dr. JU"~ NEGRIN
hf!ltd "r tbt" SI'.Dieh RepuhliC8U Go.
'·ernmenf.
bllcan volunteer forcee can
~ withdrawn from our coun-
try when the Government sees,
tit, and this will be the
ease on the day when we are
certain of reciprocity. Those of
you who have spent some time
in our country already, know
that the international forces
have a percentage of foreigners
which i.9 lower In many cases
than the percentage of Spa-
niards enrolled in their units.
The Gove.r.nment does not see
t he least obstacle in arranging
for the departure of thcse fo -
reigners fron Spain. The same
cannot be said of the rebel
Junta which will come up
against wills greal.€r than Its
own. But furth ermore the Go-
vernment of the R epublic, in its
note of Ma rch 4th, declared
solemnly : While considering
that it is not possible to est<'. ··
bli~h equality between those
who, convincc(1 of the justice
of t.he Republican cause, come
of th eir own frl'c will t o figh t
Hnc:(,r OUi' hann er !;, defending
at the ,~am(> time the freedom
and peace of F.urope, and those
who. belonging to military
units of the totalitarian states,
w ere sent, obeying definite or-
der~ from th~ir ,respective Go-
v-ernmenls . to uphold the mili-
tltry rcbdlion by armed force ,
the Government of the Repu-
bl!.; received resolutely the idea
of re-('mbarking all the toreig-
ners who are partlclpatlDg In
the present struggle on the
side of the Government and
the side of the rebels, an idea
to which the Foreign Ministers
of France and the United
Kingdom were clearly ,referr-
ing In tiJeir latellt speeches at
the French Senate and tho
House of COIXlDlons."
JUMBLING OF TEXTS
To sum up, the Government
of the Republic believes that it
has shown that it does not ~Ia­
ce the least difficuIQr in the
way of eliminating the factor
of ~he fo.reigners participating
in I)U'" struggle. On the o~her
hand SIgnor Mussolini has Ie-
course to a vulgar jumbling of
texts to cover up a new at·
tempt to secure a delay allow-
ing him to continue attacking
our people. The Spanish Go-
vernment has grounds for de-
nouncing the CalCt that Italy i.9
preparing a new determined
attack, for which she has been
accumulating war material and
men Signor Mussolini was
certainly relying on this offen-
sive to give him such advanta-
ges as would enable him to
continue hia tortuoU$ interna-
tional game. In face of this po-
Hcy of evasions and delays , the
Government of the Republic
wants to warn world opinion
that effor~s are being made to
give the l;lpanish conflict a
chronic and highly danger clls
character. The war continucs
to mal{e havoc in our country ;
but We have accustomed our-
selves to sacrifice and we are
l'c.oOlvNJ t o conquer. happen
~)......r. '.11."
....... -'
what may. Believe me , m ore-
over, when I say that the Go-
vernment is more concerned
by the consequences of our
struggle abroad than with the
struggle inside Spain. It the
.1)
campaign is prolongcd it will
lead to world war, and this
fearful problem weighs heavy
on our minds.
TRIBUTE TO VOLUNTE~~R'"
Lastly, the Government of
the Republic categorically re-
futes the fallacioUl! Interpreta-
tion of the statements of our
representatives at Geneva anti
declares itself ready to ,remove
the foreigners from its Army ;
but only in exchange for a
strict reCiprOCity.
I do not want to neglect this
opportunity of paying a tribute
to the men who came to our
country llU!pired with a gene-
rous ideal ot pace. Their beha-
viour contrasts with that of the
agressor army corps which
haVe come to taks up strategic
positions with a .vil'w to agrcs-
sion on a gigantic seale In the
near future.
The Government of the Re-
public will keep a deep senee
of gratitude for the help ot
these brave men , many of
whom have lost their lives for
our liberty and for the liberty
of Europe, and many of whom
will always be Invalids or crip-
ples as a result of their part in
the fight against the common
nggressor.
Thi.9 will give you an idea
t hat when the Spanish Govern-
ment declares that it has been.
a nd still is disposed to proceed
to the w ithdrawal of thc non-
Svanish comohattants who are
:1. ~ its side, thl' Govcrnment i ~
in a position t o be able to cR.rry
'''''. C b IW
out this withdrawal imml'dla-
tely --a1ways pnwiding that the
p rinciple of reciprocity is gua-
ranteed-,a,nd (arries Its res-
pect for loyalty ~o the point of
makin, llIe greatest _crUke.

House of Culture
(C.onth:U1("cI rn' 1l1 p";;i' :: .)
such an important pali. of the
cultural work cRnied on among
the men in camp und at the
Front. Thc AIinnza now ha!'! its
cwn publishing activites, too,
und has edited and printcd a
Humber of booles, including a
cnnclsc hlst or; cal recol'd r,f th e
'.\'~. 1' called THF. GENi<;RAL
CHRONICAL OF THE CIVIL
\VAR, and also a new and va-
luable anthology , POETS J!'j
LOYALIST SPAIN. There arc
Jl(IW in preparation tw o volu-
me, of short stOlies ab'JUt the
';';'n1', one to include the work
of Spani~h w riters , the other
the work c f foreign writers fa-
miliar with democrat.ic Spain.
5uch as Gustav Hegler, Andre
Malraux amd Kisch. In Valen-
cia, a· new " nd b(' utiful maga-
zine , nORA DE ESPAt'l'A, has
Jnany Alianza members on its
cditolial boa rd.
WRlTI<;ICS' CONGltESS
But. from every standp oint,
" IIC 0f thc most impol·tant
:J chi€vcmenls of the Alianza in
ncent months has been the
hringing' to Spain last July of
t !Ie Second Intel'llationa l Wri-
lor~ Congress which held ses-
s lum, in Madrid. Valencia , and
Barcelona, all citi es '.¥ith!n the
range of Fl'anco's shell fire or
the bombs of Fascist aviation .
This Congre,:;;f.. cCi·tainly of
g reat historic importance. bro-
ught togr th!'r morc than n
hundred men and women of let-
trl'S from all ow' r th" \vOl·ld .
ne all races and colo1's, mecting
at the very front line trenches
(or the defen se of world culture
ami the PI'{"'<"":atioll of tJ~e in-
t egrity of the arts ag-aim;t Fas·
20 TH B.irthday of
U. S. S. R.
(; .. eat Bl'itloin against the ill '
I ('l'v"ntionists, arC' tmt meage)'
), ~~ Illts achieved b)' the insis-
t ',"co c c of the Sov ie t Union thut
:: II dt'mr)cl'atic fOl'ces ul1it ~
;ogainst these . f01(.:es of OUI'
t'"mmon enemy th e fascist in-
\·'~ ndiaries.
ALL SI'AI!II GJ{F,F,TS USSR
Today. on th e occasion of
th e twentieth annive),sary of
I he ex~tanc(' of the Soviet
THE VOLUNTEER FOR .U BERTY
cist aggl·csllion. Thesc mcn and
women who eame to Madrid,
many uf them of world fame,
are of those who d6 not wish
t o wlitc books to be burned in
public squares by inte rnational
gangster~ , or blown to bits on
library shelves by bombs from
the air, or censored until all
~hCi.l' mClJ.ning is draincd away.
And so they came together in
Spain, famolls and busy peo-
ple. to shew their solidarity
with, and their faith in the
Sp?_n;sh workers and intellec-
tuals w ho are now battling
against those forces that would
Idll at'l culturc and scnd the
hum vn r!\ce back to the dark
ages.
CENTER FOR f\LI, ART
The Alliance of Anti-Fa.scist
[ntellectualil is Madrid's cente r
for such men and women. Jt iil
a center for every writer and
artist who opposes the rcturn
to barbarism . It is a place whe-
I'e creative miracles continually'
ha.pp cn. It is a place where
now, today, art becomes life and.
li fe is art, amI there ill no lon-
ger any necd of a brigde bet-
ween the artis t and the people
- for the thing created beco-
mes immediately a part of tho-
se for wl\,om, and from. whom,
it was created . The poem, the
picture, the song is only water
drawn from the well of the peo-
ple and given back to them in
a cup of beauty so that they
may drink -- and in dring'ing,
unde rstand themselves.
That is art today in Loyalist
Spain. And that is the function
of Madrid's Alianza, the Alio.n-
za de Intelectuales Antifascis-
tas.
LANGSTON HU(JHt:S
" .n i un . the peo ple of the world
11,,·,'(: C :lU "~ for l'egiCoing. The
soldiers of the Intemati onal
I3rigades know how our strug-
.t:;'le fur liberty here has be1!n
made casier by the aid of th,·
people of the U. S. S . R. We ,
together with the Spanish peo-
ple, and its Peoples Front go-
vernment, are glad and pro ud
of the part played by the So-
viet Union in helping u.s to de-
feat the forces of Io'ranco aDd
his foreign masters and on this
occasion hail the great peo-
ple of th€ U. S. S . R. We hail
the great leader of the Sovict
people, under whO.tle direction
the SOViet Union is marching
to greater triumphs - Comra-
de Stalin. We know that the
;,(lvict Union \vill continue to
he the beacon-light to the peo-
ple of the world in their fight
for peace and freedom .
Spain's Minerals
(eontinuf:d (rom flO!:,'" 1.)
because for a long tlIrul pro-
duction of this metal has been
in a state of decadency owing
to the exhaustion of the large
mines and owing to the fact
that during the PMt 30 years
scarcely no new deposits of im-
pnrtance hav€ been discove-
red. 'The low price of lead on
the international market has
been a further cause of the
restrietion of lead production
during the past decade. Ap-
proximately 80 ','c. of the pro-
duction of I€ad ore is in lo-
yalist t erritory.
ZINC
By fa.r the most important
zi nc deposit in Spain is that of
Rcocim in the province of San-
tander, which produces 90 %
of the total output of the na-
tion .
Sl.1 LPHUR
Sulphur is one of those mi -
nerals of which the production
hM increased during thc past
few years. This is due, not to
an increase in the explOitation
of the sulphur deposits, but t o
the fact that method~ have
been applied which permit one
to obtain sulphur as a by-pro -
duct uf the exploitation of py-
rite." .
)n Almaden Spain possesses
the g~eatest me.reury mine in
tilE' world, not only in reserve8,
but also in the high content of
the ore by virtue of which no
other mines CRn succesllfully
com pet\' with it. The total pro-
duction of mercury in 1934 wa~
uve r 1.000 tons.
OTH".'1t ~IINt::It ..\I.8
There are a.l60 smaH dep()-
sits of the foll owi ng mineralR
in various parts of Spain . ,,-
gold. pho~phorite, manga.nesc.
tripoli, wolfram , a1!phalt, bis-
muth, tin .
To sum up it may be said
that, apart from the plttinB of
Ca.~tlIle and the land along the
F.a.:;tern coa.~t, there is prac-
tically no region of Spain which
docs n :1t contain profitable mi-
nerals in its subsoil.
One can, however, establish
a distinction between the high-
priced metal s such as Joead, cop-
per and m!)rcury, which are
found p.rincipally in the Sou-
thern part of the ~ninsula,
a nd iron, the greatest reserves
of which are in the North West,
whe re fortunately for the in-
dustrial future of Spain the
m ost important coa:l basins are
also situated.
Apart f.rom these there arc
two mjnci'al~ whosc value is so
great that they can serxe as
the basis for the economic rc-
CC'l1struclion of Spain -- the fc-
rro-copper pyrites of Huelva
and the potassium salts of the
.region extending from Catalo-
nia to Navarre.
W. W . . A.
Heart of Spain
{ (:nntinu~d from pa:c 4.)
prised at. He then told us that
he had once eltperHmced the
breaking of an hypodermic
needle In his a.rm, and that
was what set him off. He was
due for a reading at a theR-
trical office; he thought he had
a good chance of getting a
part -- never had aoppeared on
Broadway oofore. He was still
quite shaky, so I accompanied
him downtown, feeling a ·l ittle
guilty because hI\. might lose
his oppm-tunit.y. But he assured
mf.' that he felt alright, and
that he would even read bettor
because of the Shook ..
"On the way down, he told
me, entirely unsolicited, tha.t he
had gone to colJoege and dra-
matic school and thILt "this
kind of thing" had always see·
med so far from him, SO dis-
tant, so remote. S.pain had ne-
Vf.'r seemed a par t. of his life.
"Yes, .t his pictu'r e S('ems to·
have the impa.ct that clln start
:to "changc " in people. It is so
·jmporta.nt. therefore. that it go
all over the country. You'll Se€
'hy 'the enclosurf' that some of
the Hollywood big-Shots are
sl'uding the picture with two
ambulanC'l'll on R tour acrORS
the country... Prelty "oon, I
hope, a prill t CIt the film will
go to Spain. so you can se"
it too."
SaJud!
x. Y. Z.

Yo I. N.o 10
AMERICAN CO.N-GRESSMEN PLEDGE TO
CARRY ON WO'RK FOR LOYAL · SPAI N
Two 'li~tjngui.1h('<l UnitEd
fltatcs (;onr.rc.o;.smcn. visiting
In Spain. J!'rry O 'Connell, Mon-
tana Democrat. and John T.
Bernard of the Minne~ota }o~ar­
mer-Labor Party in 8peaking
over Station F.AR in M4tdrld
Oct. '22nd. pll'dg<::d tn "any on
even a mON: vignrou.'> camp" i~n
for the t'''''.';'' t,f th e loyal,
Rp«nish 111)"1'11' I<'I1<'n they get
b~ ~ k 11011"'.
"',Vh('rcvcr ' \:r: h :lve gonc"1
()"Cnnncll said, " the story has
be" n the same. The Spanish
l' ~ople n ;'\'e shown a spirit 'l.nd
•i!'tc rmiIl'I tion that is absolu-
tely IIlJoca t ll hll'. In visiting tlle
front on t.he University City
~ccto r, we saw the famou.s
s.treet barricades that were
erected in thc carly day.9 of
the WAr. Thcy arc an example
of the superhuman effort of
which the Spanish people are
capable, Tht' hRrric",\(' s are
sturdy w".I1" of cemf'nt :md
brick On :;eCl I1g- t11 '~ 10 . I
thought they ha'l b"l'n built
()vt'r a l'"ri()(1 of months, not
only be c~. 'lse tJ' f' re Are s ') many
of them but. Iy cau ." " they Bn~
all !lplendid ,i(lhs of h ~(lXY ma-
SL)nry. Th~ [ :q: t b. hO'l: '~'\"~ r .
that they w<'re ill I built ,,'ithi.n
Ii p eriod Ilf 1":('11 1y-h u r hours.
T :<tlll do not s,,~ hul\' that. Wa H
hllma.llly J.w,," ihl~ . "
O'Con nell ~ ' Int in llCrl . "]I i. ~
precisel y thi H suve rhumll.1,l zeal
of the Spa.nillh people that ex-
plains w h y the Rebe18 and
Fascist Inva ders h ave never
taken Mad rid and, in my opi-
nion, n evt' r will. Th('y have had
lin admi tt ed slIpenority in a rm ~
and avi ation. which the Span -
The VOLUNTEER
FOR LIBERTY
Bernard and O'Connell Speak 0'; Madrid
Radio to America; Impressed by Spanish
People's Fight Against Big Odds.
JOHN T , Bt:RNARD
MiDDeeota Farmer... Laborite
i,<;h R epublic hn.., been
to pure hase b€-ea lise of
railed non,lnterventlon
ment. Th~y luwe even
~.1'llIy (If 1l ('~ rly 200 .0 00 It.:1.liallll
t ', )W))I I h ~lll. Rut tll; 5 supe·
riori ty in' ma ter i ,.; ~ tre ngth
caul' l i"lr Vf' r r(11la l tile g re a t
e01jq. I~' · " f \'.t1c Sr~·ni s h p eople.
I f1llly r eaJizI! that these (Ii).
lloTa lion-, h avc h'.'<:'n m~d e be·
fnre h~' io ::. n .v {,tl1 t'l"s. [l (I'...-cver,
"" "in;.: an d ,' xpcliencing N.a-
til'l'l ;'1 ;;0 imprc .'J.~i ,'e thii1 it
j" d iUiclI ll I n ta ll~ of anyt hing
r;~~ . .It bring,; hOI11", as noth ing
('l"'c does, h ow crv,'lIy hetrayed
:·jp a ni.sh D emocracy has be en
by th e oth r r democratic coun-
t.rir ~ , It brings hom e. loo, the
urgent n eed [or changing the
cause of that be trayal-.. th e so-
called n on-intervention policy
Ilf the dClll or ratic count;- ic':l.
" it i ': 1I , .\ .... Vh YIUl!S that t hi:;
Madrid. Oc tober 15
JIlRII Y O'CONNELL
DeDlocrat rrom the State of Mon't8Dft
unable
policy haB done but one thin;;.
the so- It he.'! permitted ~~aRcis~ Ger-
agrce- many and Italy to send unli-
had an mited '1uantltie.s of arm., am·
muniti on." aviation an,l I'ven
whole brigades to crush li be r-
ty and democracy in Spai n.
After 8 e ~iog the situat ion n t
first h a nd T. [ 01' one, do not
beli~vc that thi s on e-sided I{ind
of nOTl -Int.en-<" ' '.ion ':110 be r'r-
In i t.1.(d In ('ontiol l f". [t is a n
"P"ll iu\·il.il tioll l<> lJlP F o"('j,,t
aggre: isors tlJ })I" 0 ':nh,1" !'j o-cn ll ed
c1 \'lJ \': ars ~ pd then nlOv,~ in
wit.h the ir armed haU ~1ions 't o
C~.rl·Y FR Sci c,nl thl'uugilc.ut th e
v: IJrld . "
O'Conn eli '·'''H·I.loIr ,1 hy .~~y­
illg. "It i" timl' for thr ue-
Ill oc reci l'''. if tll ey arc to I'afe -
;:;ua rd lhe Iibc rty and indepe n -
dence of their people , to ex ert
t":l' l "y l ~;...;a l and eC ()l1 o ltlic
[ V l't 1,0 s t op tnc Fasci:;t ~gg'rc "
1937
sors. That Is the only way
that liberty and democracy,
not only here in Spain, hut
throughout the worM can he
l'rot!'cted. "
FEARS WORl.n \\. AR
Congr€'s:';man U(>rnarct told
hi s ra dio Iist!' lIf'rs how imprc3 -
!'.o:o d he was in s~e illg ~o!(l ir. r3
:; r r nding their " parr timr
lc,' rning to read 'Ind '·;rite.,
" There ;>.1'('. actu~11y ~c h 0rJl.:1 in
t!:(' front line trcn"hc ~ ". 11<'
~~j d .
",ve h H"f'I aJ~ 0 :::('Crt c hi l rlr ~ n
hnppy :)t. v:ot'k :ln d pl~\.y in I ~"" V
sc hoo ls, ·... f w hi<:h thpl'p is .9 til"
a gl'Cat .- llOrt:l gc. Tlw. new
,;c l\ools arc admirabl e and com·
pare m ost favorabl y with a.ny-
thing I hav'e seen ill the Uni-
t<'!d States,"
Speal<ing of the lights cle-
!lied to t he Rep'.lblic by world
p o\\'el'.1. he adde r:..... .we "il.ce-
)'('ly hope thaI. those ,l emocra-
tic nati ons t.hat have thul! far
r ('fuscrl to accord the kg-all y
<lnu democrati cally elected Go,
" CI'I1:nt'!\t t.he ri g'ht t o purchase
~ nn::; nnd (l~ n ln Hn Hi()p wi ll f;0{ln
r":1:1i ?,1"' thr.:t :~1H:h a p n l ic ,~, · t:h~
p 'r. t' ,\' :,i il': III ..' ;-l;:-gl''''::.",,:', r [ ,"qo .
I'C0!1tin 1 lr rl fp,J) l.J rr t il gran t
t ile H C[lul:lic jL~ 1'1''''-
~p".ni. s h
prr r q.:ht~ V\:i !1. ',,,Of' f ('~r. llas ~
teft U.t· (:P 1U illJ::- or ;t n.... w " 'orld.
"\'.· it:! ~ll C() : 1--;j~ qU p. nt
\\":\1'. It .";
d~lIgcr'l t·, Jiocrty and d CI1.10-
erney, a.:; Pl'<.'sidf' nl R fln:;(' Vpn
:; ( 1 \\'~II pointed ou t in hls Chi-
cf· r .'1frf) :-: p(' (-( · h.
 2 THE VOJ.UNTEER "-OR LlB!:BTY
BILL LAWRENCE, IN FAREWELL TO AMERICANS IN
SPAIN, INTRODUCES COMMISSAR JOHN GATES
BUI Law rence , popular and
hardworl<ing American PolJti-
cal COlll missar of the Interna-
tional Brigades Ba 'e, has left
Spain a fter a Ion&, p eriod of
lll1sUnting a nd fruitful activity
to take up impOitant w OI'k el-
Hi s place will be talecn by
.Ju h n Gates. who ho..5 spent m o-
l'"t.ha n a half yea r on the
Cordoba frollt, aa Adjutant Po-
liti cal C-ommis sar of th e 86th
Bril;lldc . C · 'mrade Gates , who
a n -j ved in Spain e.a dy i.n Fe-
hruary. reached thc Cordoba
1.I·Vllt (111 .'\p l'il 1. There lie W8~
~ llccos giv e ly II. company com-
Jllissar, thcn P olitical Commi R-
.' :1 r of the 20th Battalion, and
f inally the o.cting COmmlfXl31'
(If lhe entire Brig a de . l\ sta t e-
ment on his a ctivitics by Lic1J -
\ ('nalll-Colon!'1 Morandi , Com-
" "' ndor of th e 86th Brigadc , ill
printed c J:ocwhcrl' ill tili" is., ue .
MESS ,\GE TO lI1.1i:J\"
I. .. ma king his dcpa rill ),('
jmf)wll . Comrade Lawrence le f t
t.hc foliowing mcssage t o 11ll'
Amcll can comrades in evcr:.-
1. B. un it in Spain :
" J ar.1 :;OITY that I could 1I0t
!; :lY goodbye in p e r~on to all of
the men with whom 1 have hact
" c ~ a.sl on t o speak during the
many months we have been
1I" ,.c together. T o do this would
11.1. ,'0 mea nt my remaining h p-
re f or at least another month,
going from one unit to ano-
ther. Unf or t unately this was
impOSSible, as you will ell.,ily
un~r~ tand.
"In lea vi ng I have many
things t o say - but you alrea-
dy know what. they at'C. All of
us - .. all of us who h,we done
what we came here t o do, all
o f us who have held down our
various jobs a.nd held them
down weU ._- will kne w t hat
few word~ are needed . So I
will sltip the speeeheR and ma-
Itt' thiB farewoll short and t o
t.he point.
OUH llE()ORD HEItE
"Tho Am er icans have been
here for R.!lI1o.~t II. year. In that
tillle w e have C'I rncd the pralBfl
and the respect not only of the
Spanish peopl e. but of the Peo-
ple ' ~ Army uf Spain and its
tJrele ~s leaders. We have work-
cd with a ll of th e nationalities
Which eo mpo~ e the Intern~. ti o ­
nal Brigades , and the bes t t.es -
timony to our value here is
that wh ic h r efle cts w ell not
(, nly l'n us , but un the job which
a ll of us have done here --- thc
fact that after 16 months of
war R epublica n Spain and its
or~nil\e d army are 'p uslting
t he fight against the enemy in
" manner t hat would have been
impossible a half year a.go. We,
a s 'HI e small part of the 1'c,,-
pI es' Army, :;hould be p l'Oud
' ,f thill fact; w e sh ould bo mu-
re tha n e ver determined t o COII-
tlnue the fight to its only 10-
gieal conclu sion --- vi ct ory for
democ ratic Spain .
CARRY ON !
.. If -.vp catTY on as w e have
ct, ·" .· i ll the paRt , improving
Rurcly in all of our
~lu\" i :: ~,· !t
wOli; . , will be IlW t'C ihan 88-
THE RECORD OF JOHN GATES
A T THE FRONT, AS DESCRIBED
BY HIS BRIGADE COMMANDER
88 BRIG ADA MIXTA -- MANDO
The adJutant POlitical Commlssllr of the 88th Bri-
gade, Comrade JOHN GATES, was one of the organi-
zers ot the 20th international Battftlion that lett the
Base ftt Madrlgueras on March 20, 1937.
:S-aml'd PoUtical Commissar of the 2nd Company
(Anglo-American Company), he was the political and
orgnni7.atlonal spirit of the Company which in all of
fhe battles engaged in at the Pozoblanco front demons-
trated great tighting courage and 1\ truly antlfuclst
"pirlt. The good work ot Comrade GATES Incul<-ated
1\ high morale In the men.
In the Company's difficult moments, he wa~ given
II "pedal ml ...lon by the Military Command that he
ner.ompllshed ~1th brilHant I'Apaelty and a genuine spi-
rit of I18.crltice.
Subsequently, he exerted all of his energies In main-
taining the antlfaaclst and fighting 8plrit of the 20th
IlItemationai Ba$talIolI which totmd Itself tn difficult
I!\t!lations.
He took a leading part in the reconlltruction and rc-
organl7.atton of tile Battalion after 8uftering heavy 1011-
8611 In t.he manY' battles It engaged in. As a special
honor he was proposed as Brigade Political CommJl!lJllC.
While waiting for tile official appolntnrent, he was
dc,.lgnated Adjutant Political Comml88llr.
All of the missions fbat were Imposed upon hbn were
8"t1stactilrily barried out. He hall gained a high
reputa·tlon of not onJy among all of the constituent,
ot the 20th Batta.llon, but also In Brigade Headquar-
tl'r8 Ilnd In the Brigade Itself.
BIll tranllfer to more Important work Is felt very
keenly by the Brigade becaU1Ml we 10IIe In JOHN GA-
TFA'>, It. trut) comrade and an excellent Political Com-
missar In every aspect.
Brigade HeadquarteH, ValaequlJlo, October 19, 1987.
Comm .. nder ot the Brigade, Acting
C ommander of the Sector (SIgned ).
Lt . Colonel MORANDI, 86 Brigade.
ti~fie d . An d s u. I am surc, will Comra de Gatos. But he will
we all be. My lea vin g at. thil!! ~OOIl .see you and speak to you
Ilw ment wail R n ecc1;sary tltin g, for himself.
a nd it will cau ~ e no break in "Carry on just IllS you have
the w ork here - - my succc~sor
carried on, improving always,
cou\(] not have been better cho- together with our British and
sen than Comrade J ohn Gates, Canadian comrades, lIB well as
freRh f rom alm ost seven months
with all our otJ1'er natioIllllltl811
in the line",.
in the I. B., and with our Span-
"If you give him the coope-
ish f ellow-l:lghter/J.
m Uon wltich you have given
"Salud, comrades!"
me , I shall be more than 811.-
\illfi~ ; and 8 >1 I believe, will BILL L4WBB!o/CB

TO THE BRITISH BATTALION
Dear Coml'ldW.
A t~ days ago I travelled
to the front at QUinto In order
to explain to the Battalion the
l'eUonll for my recall to En-
gland. Although we succeeded
in &,ettlng to the trenches it
wae not possible In tile elr-
OWlUIta.nces to talk with all the
COllll'ades either collectlv.el,)' 01'
Indivl<lually. ~evel' we were
able to dlscuas the pOSition
with leading comrades and ex-
plain to them.
The fact i8 that in a few
weeks time there is to be the
bt-Ilnnual election of the South
Wales Minen Executive, and
It is considered necessary that
I return In time fo.r the elec-
tion. My stay and work here
in Spain has been Illade possi-
ble by the consent and appro-
val given by the aecutlve ot
which I am a Illember.
It is understood that the
South Wales M1nel'8'Federa-
Uon is now undoubtedly one ot
the most powerful forces within
the Labour Movement In Bri-
tain In the fight for Unity and
Aid for Spain. This being 80 It
Is very necessary that those
who fight for such a policy be
&gain returned to Its Executi-
ve Council. I therefore trust
that my depaTture to England
for this purpose will meet with
your whole hearted a.pproval.
I came to work In Spain 'a9t
April a.nd since that time there
have been very big changes
p4l'ticulary within our Batta-
lion. There is no doubt but that
the Battalion went through 80-
tne of its most difficult t1IXl1i!S
<luring these months. The pro-
bli!Dls we have hald to overco-
me have for us very important
lessons a.nd too much cannot be
sald at them.
I would therefore like to
draw attention to some mat-
ters that haVe been at coulde-
TH£ VOLUNTEER FOR UBERTY
wurthy of the principles and
A Message from Bill Paynter ailllli of the Popular Army.
On His Departure from Spain The Govel'llment force. are
now on the offenslvtl and thlll
ra.ble importance In these ted Ilnd heroic comrade~. Men
in it~elf beal's witnesil to the
months. like Blll Meredith, Charlie
tremendous gl'owth and deve-
There have been dlt'flcuJtles Goodfellow, Bob Elliot and
.opment of the Popular Army.
which are natural In the forma- others whose tireless energies
\Ve cannot pay too high a tri-
tio.n of an army such a~ aura. have given our Bl'ilil!h Batta-
I;ute to the people of Spain and
ObvloU8ly in an army that Is lion the proud record it now
th~ Popular Front Government,
being 'forged in the actual pro- holdll. Their names are Ijynony-
when we remember that thill
cess ot struggle. unavoidable mous with h.-roism an" self-
p<,wel'ful army has been forged
orgaDlsationat weaknesses arl- sacrifice as undying a~ the pre-
even while, with immense han-
~e. They arise because not only
~tig· t' and recor!t of British Vo- cI" 'apH, the Fal!clstll were being
are we building a new army
h.intet'.rs in Spain . kep t al bay. Only the profound
but we are 11:180 building an ar-
With their exam pie as the failh alld determination of a
my of an entirely new chal'ac-
guide our Rattalion cannot go democratic peopl" in t hI' can-
tH, one whIch is an expression
far wrong. It will he <IbdpIi- s,, they \\'('re fighting <lOuld
of the w1l1 of the people them-
ha\'~ 8('c0mplisht'ci thia. Suth
lI~d with that ~elf ,!iscipl!llt)
"elve.~ .
a ll (-:<a'f!ple lohould shar'pen our'
The goal is a cOn8ciOllS goal lhat was th, ·irs; it will ht> loyal
intelligence and better equip u;
and the army is tl- , · weapnn WIth a devotion thal even dE-ath
to par: iCiliate in the pl'Ogresl'Ii-
with which it will be attahh'll. call not <1e .', troy ; it will be cou-
V~ fllOVtlmcnts of OUI' o\\'-n co un-
There must be no false conc~p­ r ag·"ous but not foolhardy, and tri ..,;.
WillS about the r,~e llf the ur- c:lurlous but not cowardly; in 'rh is exp ~cienc:e ~ho\lld ~· jv,·
my, there must be no false con- a word it will be a Battalloll ' Coutluu,.d on V j t~ .. " )
ceptions about the duty and
lhe responslbllltie19 of ev e ry
soldIer. in Its .ranks.
In Ule political commiflSal'iat
the comrades have an Ol'gSIli-
sation through which criticism
aud suggestions may be made
and in this way there exists
the means whereby thtl eouaa-
des ('[tn give expre£slon to
their problems.
PEOPLE'S ARMY DIFFE-
RENT
These are the two main
points in which the Spanish
People's Army differs from an
iml*riallst anny. First, the aim
is one which expresses the will
of the people; Sc'Cond. the sol-
diers within its rank have the
pos8lbility of organised discus-
sion on the problems whlr.h
concern them.
In little else does It differ
from a.n imperIalist army. The
People's Army must be disci-
plined and efficient. Commands,
no mattel' how difficult at U-
rnes it may be to carry them
out, must be promptly obeyed
and wIthout question. Discipli-
ne must be strengthened and
there must be a political under-
standing ot the reasons why
absolute obedience to the Com-
manders is a vital necessity tor
victory.
During thi~ period we haV6
lost severlll of our most devo-
 .
AN OLD,
The Angl,,-lo'rench lion, which
at thl' N YOll Conference an<I ill
Bome !luDsl'qUE'nt roarings show-
ed si~ns o f an unaccustomed
vi!{our, has since had a sad re-
lapse. 'Clo .. b,'a.st W!l:i met amor-
phoSE'll int" a crnb and scuttl-
e(1 ba('k illL) th" cl'<:\'ices of
the N 0n-lnt<'n" 'ntldn Commit-
te,' . The uld tr"lIuk began R.;o
~O,' II a,; fo'ram'" alll.l B1"itain !.>e-
gan t u Illaj{~ conCt'SSi0ns to
Mu~s l>lilli UftCI' Ny ,o n. V/e al-
ready iu\(,\\' t, )(O w ,.11 the sort
of fl'uit lhat g l'v\\,';; till this tree
ut "c unciliati,,"" . increased
·H&lJllll intervclltiull in Spain ,
' I'lli ~ was aet;umpanied by an
olltil~ (; U."'; ,'a.ttl!llg li t' the Roman
ill the intE.'MlatiouailScab-
s\'.'()J'11
banI : the sending oi m ore Ita-
lian troops to Libya as a frieu-
,Ily reminder to Britain that
she has interests in Egypt;
MUSS0lilll's blatant solidarity
"': ith Japun ; the announce ment
n illt Haly w ill not participate
in (,ollver~ati () n.s, meetings or
confcrC'nces without the pre-
St'Ilt!C of, or Ii formal invitati on
to the thIrd member of the
tril101'.' inlte ag"-inst humanity ;
th ,. ~ e r!ill pro}Jhecy tpat "The
J<;uJ'upe of ttlmOl'l'OW will
j'"scist" - -- the propht't lias
doubtl 0ss inh cl'it c-tl hi~ gifts
from a g<'nUem :J..J1 who was
g oi ng t o e nter Madrid on a
"Ill itE.' horse many m onths a go
- and the Berlin threat : "When
wo rds d o not <su ffice it is l1e-
cc~sary to resort to arms."
The result of it all is that
th e Non -Intervention Commit-
. -': '- / B r it ish Bot/ali on bllt a/80 by thB Notts and D e, by
~ , ,
L ':_' ", . ~_. ~~:.:._:.. __."-'*'-.-01.....~~~?;3to.;........a...'-'-__..... ;~.....::;;.............a
OLD STORY
Ue is Ulct'Ullg once again, Ap-
parenUy it ha.. I1vt I.H::CII cOlllli-
(!{'red J1~cessa ry to re-christen
40 ,000 troops in Spaln·-havlng
in actual fad Q6lnshlerably mo-
l-e than twice thllt numbel'-
and although the problem of
a I'c -cluistelling' wuuld providt'
a magnificent. field of adion
[ul' II ncw sub-sub-co nlillittee ,
It is early to for,'cast the rc-
suIts r, l thi s meptillg·. Haly wlll
Germany un ' still bal'gaining
w ith the wilhdrawal (,f f oreig-n
truops as a weapon t o s ecure
beiligcNnt right.;, f or the "Cc-
ner,llissimo" As usual one voi-
ce lias sp olcell and will speal:
firmly anJ clearly ligGinst the
mllnucuvrt's ami th reats of the
fascists and the wRverings and
concessions of the democracjes
- the voice of the represen-
tative of the U . S. !': . R. Ono
thing is clear - so long as
ilritain and France fail to take
a fi 1'm stand against the ag-
gressors, s o long as they allow
international law and the rights
of the Spanish Republic and
the Chhlese ,p eople to be tramp 1-
00 underfoot in the .name of
a "'p eace" which is no peace
be and only a delay while the fa-
scist pack i,s gathering for the,
kill. so long will the shadow
of war hang' over Europe and.
the world .
But the waverings cannot last
forev er . The G<>vernmcnts of
France and B1i tain havc to rec-
kon with the people, and the
people of France and Britain
want to live in a world of pea-
ce lind progl't'>88, not In a va,~t States sldd: "The pea.ce, the
JltoWd"l' maga.a.ine, Honor and freedom and the lIeCUrity I)f
Wlg'Cl' at the crimInal barba- 90 % of the populaUon of the
!'ism of the faoclst attack on world i8 being jeopardised by
Spa in and ChIna i<l Hinking' de- the remaining 10 <;;, wllo are
ep into theIr hearts, and th e threatening Ii. breakdown of all
Edens and Co, wlll not always internaUonoJ. ol'der and law, su-
be able to hide in sub-colllmit- rely the 90 7. ... can arftJ mu~t
tees. filid some way to make Ul£'lr
will prevail."
III hi s speech on October 5th
the Pl'csi(lent c.f the Unite(l .... . E.
THE DEATHS OF COMRADES
FRY AND WHALLEY
'['I:e BlUish Ba,ttilliol! /W8 alliti-u Buffered th e 108s of
SOl/te of 'i ts fill est , "u ,nrrult-s ill the d ,'(lth uf Ha r old Fry,
Buttalion (.,'o mllla,/(kr ,wd Er-w IVluLIlr.! I, Ba.fttlNoil P o-
litical C01ll1l1issw',
Both eoml'acles If l:, ·,: killf'tl ""I Oct ulw i' ieJlh , lelUlilllj
til " BattaliolJ ill actio·u at Pu en tes de Ebl'o. III Ihe sume
action we also lost allother 1,m'y ,Qooo cOllll'ade, S(h'lIealit
flobill8On .
Harold Fry had (l eO'lIaistent Wild -i-llterestin,fJ nvolll-
No/wry )'ecord, He was a member vj tltl:J Com?ll u.'II i.~ t
Pi£1'Iy I>-ince 193j at ld al.so a 1l1embe'l' of tM Ed'illb1t'1'gh
Branch 'of the National Boot U-'fld Shoe Operatives, He
f""st cCLnlC to Spat'll in December 193 6 WIld tvas appai'n ted
Lieutemmt tn command ot th e Mach'i ne G1m Coompany ,
li e was capllLl'ed by the lasc'ists togethe;' with 28 of
~. j.s men at Jarama 0''11 Februa r y 13th. The trench they
oC<.'lIpied was cut ott by th e 11-1001"~ w ho 1/.sed th e subt-
erfuge of singing tM "l1lt l' maliomtl" and .crinowillY {"
0/11' lines with the. ,'ed fr o." t sa/ut t' yilliny th l' i'»l}l )·(O.').;,"'"'
that th ey wm'B comtng ovm' to UII ·r sidt',
The cqptured. comrooes we"e retained iii ;'e/Jd l el', ;-
t ory unt'il the etld of May, thd'/' liv es b/d ufj .saved by It
Oennan officer who recog llisell the value of B ri tish pd-
sOtlers aa hostage8, Despite that all the rO'l ,ll'ades 'u.'ere
tried alld F .,.V w as ,..,nten-c ed to dwth,,,,e trK!l beillg
conducted at Talat 'C/'a 'i,/I SPIHIi,<;h withuut a'll inter1Jt'etm·.
Th e local of/tc-ials l'efused to accep t the )'e~ponsjbility
/01' signing the d eath warrant WIld -it 'wa,~ se'llt to FHl1Ic o
f o)' raNfi ,'anO'lI. Th e sentcHces w e;'e 'I I eVe?' carried out
awl com ra d e F','Y and t wenty th'l'(;(; ...the,·s were e·l'eli-
tU<llly exc hanged fo,' fa8Cist p,.is01lC"~ "I the Governm ellt
t erl'i tOl'y (Hid th ey retu.rned to Bl'itahL on May 2li th ,
AlteT (L bl'ic! p" opaganda tcYltr c omrade FrJI rr: t w fl cd
to Spain in A1tgu ~t, He bc-e,wr.e t he c om·1i!.iI·ndel' of the
British Battalion after the B e/Chi t e offe1\,~i've . His deatlt
has robbed th e Battalion of all cxce l lf'lIt military C01l1:
m a'udc,' and uf a cO i/trade whvs e uo/, ole liifc hnd bee;;
(16 I'U i cd t o the a'lI l i- f asc;" t stnt!J!Jle.
El'ic Whalley , WilS /J. cOlIJ,rade 1I>h o i-n the ~ " Oi 't time
/!G 'WM hen! had S /JO W'II e:>:ct?//ent posb·ib-ilitie" u.s a poli-
t ical worker. J1e be<:ame Battalicm Com1l1issa;' at tlt e
...ame timB M F ry beca me th e Batta lion Commander
wrd they were an' excellent comb i·uation. fOT th e military _
political l eadership of th e B ,ttta'/ion.
Whalley' s p,·evWlI.'f histm'y in BritlLin w.a.~ of th o sat,re
II c t 'i ve political ehm·acter. PriO)' to becoming the Mall s-
ji eld O)'[/(UI'OsI'1' of the C o mmunist Pm·ty he had been a
1'er y (jeti'VE! mmnber of th e 1. L , p , mid had bee'll tlte
Na ti<nwll Chairnwll of til e Affiliatioll C ommithie l.C'I. ic h
1<:(1.8 fanned in- Ihe I. L . P . ill ""de" t o bl'ing aboll t the
at/iliat-lon of ti, e 1. L. P . to th e Cv);lm1l-11ist Party. It 1
odd'itio n to t his he was an active pro pagandist and h<1d
also been prolll illC'llt in rhe UllPmp /oyed M01'C71J ent, F or
t ll'O yI'CLr.~ hc !wd iJCE! 1/ till: Chni" ma·" vJ th e Nu ll s <l ,!d
D erby Dist ric t of the Natic>,wJ U lic' /llpwyed W orker"
M O'l.'lmr.e-n t .
H e ,",i! DC lI'O" ,.,!ed, n ot 0I1lJl by tit .. comrades in th e
workers 1,('ho knew h i m as an actil't! and »ltelligent
,'et'olutioiJal'Y wv)·klfT'.
A . D.

TOWARDS THE UNITED FRONT IN BRITAIN
The temper of the British
people 'ba.~ bf>en shown, It any
showing were needed, by the
reply it gave to Mosley, the
vicious little imitator ot the
Rome and Berlin assa&lins.
Half a million strong, on
Sunday, Octobe~ .th, It stop-
ped his gang of hirclings, ga-
thered trom over Britain, from
completing the provocative
mareh tlhrough Bermondsey,
despite the fh'ree bludgeonlngs
of the police.
Two nights later, ten thou-
sand people, drawn: from every
stratum of society, and includ-
ing even the ArchbishcJI) of
Call1brbury, met at the Albert
11:>.11 and strongly cOllClemned
the ,preilent savagery of Japa-
nese fascil>ln, calling upon the
Governnwnt to tll.ke the It)ati
in taking measures to stop it.
Yet in between the se two
eVi'nts, signs of the oVl'rwht' lm_
ing hath'it of tll<' people for
fascism. the La,bour Party Con-
Jerence wail !wlt! at Boume-
mouth anti di'cid~d by 1:"30,000
vott'!l til :H3.(illiJ against the
formation of a Unil,' .! A~ti­
fa.~clst Front,
NO DEF}i;AT
DOeS tills signify a deittlt
for the progressive forces In
the Laoour Movement? At
first sigbt It does, yet without
minimising the seT'lousness of
the position, an examination of
the result~ of the _Conference
as a whl)ll! show very definite
advanc,, :~ towards Unity, and
what 111 more important, laid
the basiJ for further advance,~
in the future,
On the first. day of Ull~ Con-
ference, all expeded trilunph
wa ,~ won when the policy oi
certain l'eutionary e!('menb
in the 'Drade Unioll Movement,
let! by Ernest Bevin, wa.s de-
cisively defeated. Bevin had
prepared 'p roposals, whh:h if
pas~ would han meant the
domination of the 1-'100111' Par-
ty Ex(:cuUve by Ule b!ocl, vote
of the T.raJe Union>! for uno ..
tlwr year at least. &vin was
anxious to opera(., trug poHcy,
because uf the evicteDt desire
of the eOl18lltucncy Labou I'
Parties to elect to the Execu-
tive certain leaders of the
"Lett". Thill desire is shown by
'l'U VOLUN'l'EER FOR ,Un£RTY
the ,results of the Executive
election.~ Immediately after the
defeat of Bevin's proposals,
when a 18ll'ger numbe.r of the
"Left" were chosen than ever
before. Stafford Cripps and
Harold Laski, threatened by
the Executive with expulsion'
for their Unity efforts, were
chosen as representatives of
the rank and file, '/VAile George
Strauss came very near "to
election, Others who have
f ough t In the past and still are
fi~hting for Unity, both in the
Constituency Section and in
~T,\FFOI\f) CIIIPI'S
l'upuht.t Ito"dcr of th~ Uuilt'd FrHlli
nW\'tUlent in llrihliu
the Women-'s Section, were aJRII
elected,
Thl;; advance was the first
fruit of the democratisation of
the Labour Party,
CAU~E8 NO UF.JEC'l'IOS
'rhe tldeat of the United·
Front . motion, by a greate/'
majol'ity than tile I'f'jcctioll of
Communist Party affiliatioll
h!lt year, ha!! caused no de-
j,'cti,m -amongs t the f1ghter~
for Unity because it i:l borne
in mind that th" lVIitH'l's' Fe,
t!('ration', which last year threw
itA W"ight on the side of Uni-
ty, this year votot\ against.
'rhi.~ was due to !ltlIlIc' doubtful
meilJu!'<'s adopted loy the j.'e-
(Ieratlt",\l le:llicrshil) at the !Ln-
illiG! conference hdd in July,
WIH'1l 259,000 voleH were cast
for Unity and 280,000 agail18t,
to swing over the small vote
of the Derbyshire miners
against Unity. If this hact not
bet-II done, a amllll majority
would have been registered for
Unity, and the 500,000 miners'
votes would have brought the
vote at the Labour Party Con-
ference up to 800,000. 'It is ge-
nerally acknowledged that the
vote registered did not tally
wiLh the reaJ feeling of lhe
Conference,
In reporting on the Confe-
rence, William Mellor makes
the following comments,
HALL PACKED
"To say that there Is no des·,
pondency or sense of defeat In
the minds of the "Left" is me-
rely to underline a fact. No Olle
who wa>! pre~ellt at the Unity
meeting in the Bournemouth
Town Hall on Tuesday nigha
could f'H' one moment think
that the Bournemouth Confe-
r~ncp was the eclipse of the
"Left". Th e Hall was ,packed
t(J cnpuc: ity. Th(! audien ce wa"
not m~rdy enlhusiasUc, but
quidly e,mv,uu'd of the right-
neH,; of the ('ase, And it liste-
nt'ri to ;-; p L'e.:'ih~!-:I that \vere wor-
thy of th l' occa~ion, .-\bovt! all,
to a sl'l'~ e h from Aneurin Be-
vin, lh;tl not t~ven the €:neniit"!i
of the Un tty Oampaigl1 cou"l
fOl'ebear to cheer."
The Boul-nemouth Conferen-
('.0 has opened to those who
support the Unity Campaign
opportun-lties which will not be
thrown away. Within the La-
boru Party the fight which the
Unity Campaign ha~ urged
1lpon the rank and file and
leaderShip will be strengthc:Y,<,d
ail!1 sU3tll ill ed.
0 , ( '.
IHROI.Il 1.,\11)(1
pl'Hr"b~or "ull duuupiou of unU"d a('
ttuJl "IlWOt{ ~ urkph' tU'!U;'Uil'.lj""l
..)
W.P.A. TEACHERS
FIRMLY SUPPORT
LOYALIST SPAIN
Dear Brother Editor:
I wish It were possible for
you to be in our Union hall
when . the announcement is
made that the bundle of "VOl-
unteers" has arrived, There ill
a rush for them that speak~
more than a million words can
of the solidarity felt by our
members for the calise of the
Spanish peeple. The article
"Trotskyist Trat'ors" in the
Sept. 13th issue aroused great
interest. For in our Union
these dJ&eiples of Trotzky have
carried on their dlsmptlve taco
tics to the point where mem-
bership meetings instead of
being occasions for dJSCUSSiOll
of plans for safegual'ding and
ntalning our jobs were turned
ill to demogogic haranguing!!
and petty wrangllngs on theil'
pmt, But the member:! finally
got wise to them !llld 1I0W they
trt'ad softly,
Eag-ernes..~ to read the "Vol-
unt~r" is nl)t our only display
of solidarity, We have given
the following concrete aJd:
1, Fifty-thl'ee membel'll went
over to fight, Some have al-
ready glVt)ll their liv('s. Others
lilu~ L , L, who has just " been
made a. cCllllnanc\er in the J. n.
sti\l fight on.
2. TWIl Thousand Dolla.r9
has been rah:eLl, Part of It ie
being used to purchase an am-
bulw!ce In honor of Joe Strels-
and anti we hope to send It iII
(~,
the early fall" The rest of the
mOlh.-Y ha.'i g"Ol1l" int(J tht! dg'!U°-
('llc' unl! comfort fund,
" On f·kptemL~( 9th, a
3pccinl Spain i~su(\ 1)( (,Uf Unhlll
publkaticoll was pI'inte.i,
4, On Sept. 24U1, a Spain
redly W:JS ht'ltl at which tim"
0111' lOemh<, .. "hlp turned out III
lull force , A nil what a S\lcces"
iI wa>! , FOI' a,. one mcmbu
{'xl'tl'll!lOed hlfl\!lelt, "I ffolt IIkt'
packing up anti 1:"lng rlg"lll
over Ulere".
W<l won't .!Itop at the above.
Fol' we hav.~ It'amed that your
fight I.~ OUt' fight too, And until
F'a9CI~1ll Is driven out of Spain
our udlvlUes will not relUe,
\, ",
 'i'HE VOLUNTEER FOR LIBERTY

THE ART TREASURES OF MADRID

The front line -trenches can ings before they evacuated cuate all objects simultaneous- in the cleaning the dirt and
be seen ~rom any tall build- towns and to send them to ly. The immediate problem superimposed varnish disap-
ing in Madrid. It takes 15 mi- Madrid for safe keeping. Peas- was to move the mOBt famous peared with the mold. Paint-
nutes to walk from the Hotol ants I\.nd workers knew that painti~s, particularly from ings took on their Original
Victoria in the middle of the all art work must b~ preser- the Prado and other important lif.;) and color, a.s though they
city to the Casa del Campo, ved for future enjoyment and had been created yesterday.
and another ten minutes to instruction when Spain again The rescue work by experts
reach the trench that look. won peac e. had taught·· the commission
ll.crol'S 60 feet of sloping, scrub- The commission in charge of and art connoisseurs every
salvaging artistic works had where n ew values in the paint-
an immense task , Not only ings they had so long admired
muat paiptings and other art and studied. A13 a result, at
pil'ces be stored in safe places, present before paintings are
but they must first be catalo- stored, tbey are carefully clea-
gued, often e1eaned , and then ned. A legacy of the, war will
\ til "'(; ~IILITI'-\MA ." dusting ad
carefully packed, fl i eu,"ft be the complete cataloguing
The work began and hall of Spanish art, the cleaning'
been carried on with Madrid collections, Paintings by EI and revivifying of valuable
under siege. The director and Greco, Titian; Velazquez, Go- paintings, and lhe rescuing of
his staff are all expel-t'l, for- ya, TinlOl'etto and many others them from what W!l8 often thc
mer professors of art and of- were c nr~fully boxed in fire- ignorant abuse of private own-
ten artists themselves. The di- proofed material, slowly' and <'rs or the cle rgy.
rector said to UR, "Sometimes labOljously moved to Valencia. In addi Uon. new art treasu-
r hunger to return to my own H.,re they wcre placed in strong r es have been discovered, A
painting. But this work is so building:< in which the tempe- wealthy dilettante had hidden
important that now I mllst rature Gould be carefully re- a line painting of the !c'lemlsh
sacrifice my own work to the g ulated , For a brief time, s o- ar tist, Quentin Massys, in his
far larger problem of preserv- me paintings were stored in hOllse, for his sole enjoyment
ing Spanish art." In the Museo the v Hults of the Bank of : and the possible increaae in
:\IJL.lTI;\ .\it::~ ce.rrylng tut work. lu ... A''queol6gico Nac!onal, the vast Spain in Madrid to keep them market value) , Another collec-
-.urf' p .... ce btlore r.tlJel.t .helllj or exhibition rooms have been from h a rm during the bom- tor had falsely labelled a paint-
buulb" find tllt"ir mMrk
reinforced with beams to pre- bardmcnts !'.nd until they could ing by the German, Lucius
vent the ce iling falling if the be taken from the city. The C ranach , as an Albrecht Du-
,',al( fi eld at the earthworks of
building is hit by Ii. shell, On d!lmp vaults quickly caused re,', and had k ept the pictu"i!
thi! Moors. F.ach day the fas-
sturdy shelves, almost as wi- mold to :1tta.ck the paintings. iu his house where no one could
(;l.llts shell Madrid, and eac h
de and long as the "OOIns, are The F.l Grecos and other ca n- s ee it ex cept his few g·uests ,
day a few die as a result of Y l~~ C' :; , h a d to b e ~ le anc (l ,-and But of e ven greater significan -
ranged thou.sands of vaillable
the shelling. But life in the
treasures - furniture and chi-
city continues, a little more
na, gilt clocks and row upon
tense, a little more difficult ,
row of saints, censures , vest-
yet buoyantly, hopefully.
ments, crosses, images, all of
Madrileflos are proud of their
which formerly adol'ned Catho-
c ity, proud of its history, proud
lic churches. The most valua-
of its art treasures. When air-
ble are packed in sand to prc-
planes firlit began methodically
vent shatte ring. Each object
to smash sections ot Madl'id,
is carefully inventoried and
whe n sh ells fh's t began to
Il;'bellerl , ew;n the tiny statuet-
:-IlalightE'f p ~ople in the str~ e ts .
tes that formerly cte eorated a
Matll'l!ei\o ~ thought of tWII
mantle in somc manufacturer's
thiugs - , barricades , so tha t
hom e. And 5tiII the treas ure5
Ow fa3cists could n eve r ~llt e r
pOllr in, n ew books are found
Mildrid, a1l(1 protl'ction f,o)' th e
that lO,mt be wrapped and
:\rt trf.l asu r".~ of Spain ,
crated, peasants ride fifty and
one hundre{\ J{ilUf,lcters in
l' ..\INTINOS S\J.VAO)<;ll
Uw ir donk ey ca rts to deliv(, I'
T11e Junta Cent ra l del '1\ '."' - " s mall a rticle, becau.se "it is
I'll Al·tistico Naciou a l WaS for- f',"'l the hou.'le of a big land-
1I1(,d to sav e pain ti ng'J. " culp - "", ll P r wh(> left a t the b egi nn -

t!!!'e , fi!le furnitur e, potte ry ing of the invas io n and it iCJok, ,!

':.~..? ~'!:
,,,,d "hurc h ornaments tha t. '. lI liS ill OllI' vill a ge to havp
"
'H C: the pride of Ma(h 'i,1 a nd \'a in e and beauty, though !of "';

Spa in . EV I\n a s ti l!' tI:lt. cai n e<l {'(I Ul'cl l" W t'\ know nothing of
():
L 'uuP:-I fell baclr fl 'o ln Tul r· . . :o th c s ~ things," :"'"
it: the b loody first cl ". y.~ " j' U'e.'
\\.' ttl" , , k :.;pt·fHt l o n1t '11 l'ou nd U- ~ <l
.Vla dri d is adlllitth.lly npt a
f(> place fol' sw ~ h t n' a :i UI'I., ,~ ,
':~:1::~l~~)~~·_ '~l.'
:Ut' t.t ! ' t' II: U \' ,! VClltl ~ lbl : ' pa:!!t · Rut it \\'H.~ inlp ()'. ~lbi" te> " V .l 11,'1 \1 . \IILI'I'I \\lI-:'\' hdpi,, ~ w li ~ 1 alld jOu b!li:';u,' t.i l'aiu· . . 1'111111111., pHiutiur::!>

]

,i ,__~~~~-~~f"':
::~~~cMi"' :~: " . ~. _, '.h.:_ . ."1
ce was the discovery of a lost
and extremely valuable El Gre-
co that had hung on the walls
of a local court hoU!~e . This
8maU canvas, repr~entlng thc
Shepherds Worshipping the
Christ Child, had been consi-
dered Irreparably 10Rt. It Is an
example of the greatest Span-
leh painter's work during EI
Greco's finest period.
FASCIST SLANDERS
CHECKED
The fascistB of cours~ have
realfzed that the government's
Intense campaign to preserve
the art of Spain Is apt to win
8ympathy from the outBide
world. To offs~t this sympathy,
the fascists have lipread stories
that the government soug ht
to attract aerial bombardment
by placing artille ry on the roof
nl the Prado ; that the govern-
ment sacked churches and des-
troyed religious art; that the
government looted the houses
t)f the wealthy who had r1e.'i<"r-
t'!d tt) the fascist linell and
destroy cd the tre a~llrcs. But
such pr" paganda is deJiberate-
ly and r1 e mon~tratahly fa J.~e .
It was the fasciJItB who destro -
yed the valuable collection c,f
the Duke of Alba by bomh-
ing the palace. No artillery
cver was placed on the Prado
roof or even near it ' . by looli-
mony of every a rt love r in
ITALIAN CASUAL TI ES
Alhough the Italian fa!'ICistB
have tried to keep it a secret,
it III calculated that of th OSe
.repstrialed to t heir nall ve iand
trom rebel Spain recSllly, 7,000
had been wounded ; an oth <'T
7.000 went hom e on acc()unt (Jf
Illn_.
TIlE VOLlJNTEI';R FOR LIBERTY
Madrid and by written deposi-
tion of thc Prado's director.
R('ligious art haa been collec-
ted and stored with Bpedal
care.
While thp struggle for exis-
tence gOL'!! on, th e 'trt nf Sp .Lin
is lovingly and meticulously
guarded. While fascist shells
daily explode and kill in th e
city streets, the careful, spee-
dy, Intelligent care of Spani"b
culture has become the prima-
ry concern of th~ peopl () who
nre suffering and dying in or-
. y--
TillS j .. Ih~ wily _\1nllrilp lW"
"rto Tlu (anum" "iatutOur Cibclf> f' in UIII"
o
of !\1Hdrid"" moin ~ rl U It r f" E' protectt'd
wlfh tt thicL. w a ll or hrick "nil cnn-
III .-r .. i8t hnmhanfmrnh, .
("fet l! rRHi l't
der t l) prc-~c rvc their !;l;Pl'ty
and their cultural heritage. T hr
strllgglc behind th e Iin~.. i5 no
less intense, no les.'l etu clenL ,
no less important to ~ il " p."l'u-
hli ca n governm()'1~ tha ll Ih!'
struggle to press t " wa rd l11ili-
tary victory. B . .\1 .
The official flgilres
H" I n" illdir;:lte tha t until Sep ~
I ember , tl're l'(, have hern 1,226
Itali a n fa~ c i8ts ldlll'd here .
Th e real fi gu res, It is known,
a re considerably highe r.
T he Ttanan p,'opir' are learn-
illg t he c"Rl or M Ui;.~olini'fI
aim .~.
For mat ion 0 fAn t i-Fa sci st
People's Front
A very significant event In
the c"urse of politics and the
war is the formation of a ge-
nerAl an-embracing Antifascist
Pecop lc's Front in Valencia. This
ha!; been preceded by SImilar
set-ups in Aragon, Lerida, and
Alicante and it is to be ho-
ped that it will be fonowed by
more all over loyal Spain. It
w ill be remembered that not
long ago an antifascist youth
alliance was f ormed to which
all the youth ul'g'a nizations sub-
:-;cribed. This is paving tbe
way f or tbat complete unity
of all antifascist forces so ne-
cessary for winning the war.
The Antifascist People's Front
ill Valencia was formed at a
meeting 0 Octoher 7th and ab-
s,,!utely all parties and organ-
izations sub!'ICribed to its re!,o-
luti ons to support and coope-
rate with the Government \vi-
th 0Ut reserve and avoid all di-
vi.3ions in itB ranks.
The representatives of tho
.... ..
syndical organizations and po-
litical palties - ·U. G. T .-C.N.T .
(the two big trade uaions) ,
SYlldicalist Party, Communist
Party, Union Republican s, Va-
i<'llci a n de Esqucrra and Val(,ll-
cianista de Esquerra (both re-
gi c.nalist republican parties),
S"cialist Party, F . A. T. (Ana r-
chi :;ls! . and Left Repul.llican
i 'arly · with th e object of co-
" d"' ''l rtJ~ OJ
';l'dinalillg thcir ac tivities f or
lIl!' w~r and socia l ad \'ance-
""; lIt, met alld ilgT(' C'd upon th e
following :
1st. · :to end campaigns on
l he part of speakers or tho
press which might prejudice
antifascist unity or att&s Oil
.~yn dical organizalion..~ or poli-
tical parti ('s which compose the
Popular Ani ifa·'icist Front.
2nd . To respect and help
till' work ()f eco nomic-industrial
tl'ansiormati 'Jll effected by the
wo rl(ers and t hei r Ryndicates
0 1' collective", within the ru Jc."
fram which are fix ed for this pUl-pO-
:·;e by the Govemment.
31'd. - To hegin a campaign
on the pm of speake rs and
t he press to keep up the m ora-
le in the rear and make sure
that Ule sufferinge of the an -
tifa!lCi st .people in consequence
of Lh<: war sball not be a fi eld
to be profited by tbe agents
of Fascism.
4lh.-To cooperate for the
greater efficacy of the policy
of prices and food supplies be-
gun by the Government.
5th.- To purify the syndical
and political organizations, ex-
pelling or refusing admlflslon to
any individual wbo has not
thoroughly proved his fidelity
t o the antifasciBt cauMe, whlcl>.
we are all defending.
6tb.-To 'e ncourage the en-
largement of the People's Ar-
my, for the exclusive service of
the antifascist cause.
7th.- To study the numerical
proportions of such local . or-
ganization. as might be for~ed,
by a combination of syndical
organizations and political par.
ties, composing the Popular
Antifascist Front,~uggC8ting
this proposal to the necessary
organizatiolUJ.
Bth.-To cooperate for the
!;'reater efficacy of the g'o\'ern-
mentB of the Populal' Antifas-
cist Front.
In the cOll5titution of the
Popular Antifascist Front, WO
reaffirm our unshakeable ad·
herence to the legitimate Go-
vernment of lh e Repuulic, gi-
villti a fraternal greeting to all
the comrades who arc fighting
on the battlifield for the liber ..
ty and indEpend,!ncc of Spain ,
as also a t eifdel' remembranco
for II II those fallen for the an-
tifMc ist cau se .
" T" ...... i. lonk. tik,' .he HI'III"" fo-
"l' igft Pulley. '
8 THE VOLUNTEm FOR URER'l'Y

Congressmen Pledge TO TH E B-RITISH

Support to Spain
(CO"tiUUt~' 'tom 11f'1:~
"On ,,"r return tu th!' lllli-
led Stat£, WI' shall do ('vcry-
thing within I}1I1- puwer, to in-
{orin 011r ('ungr{'ssi<)naJ
£1l~~ and thp Amcrican p(,0ple
uf the urgcnt nec~,\gity fur
granting t" tht' Spani~h pe·,ple
the all! they arc justly entitled
to by intenla.tiunal l~w. This
can be done sill1pl~' by (Ii~tin·
;''11i~hillg- betw('cn til<' abgTes-
~or ami the victim. To do
is nut neutra.lity.'·
LAt'DS REJ'l'BLK
"The SpaniBb Guwrnmcnt".
he pOinted out. is also dtling
DISTINGUISHING
BATTALION IN MEMORIAM
•. ) UNIFORM SIGNS
l Continued from p8g~ :'.)
FOR COMMISSARS
For some
.- linh'
_.-
\Ian'
th~r('
liS confidence for the future.
Even close.r rclationshlps must
('(lllea~
I)('('n Commis~Rr" who ha\'c he devel0peu ht't\"f'en th~ Bri-
been wearing- inslg'nia as Cnm- tish in the Battalion and Ow
miRsarB of War which do not. Spanish coml'a~lcs. In training.
correllpond to thooe fixed hy in I'c_~('rv('. "n rC'~t. in batt k.
the Government. thcre must he no ;<cparaUolI by
In all circum"tan .. p, and at nati,malities. We must see the
all time~ O\.lr ('cHnJni~hars fight a.'< <'Il<' of It {wopl!' for
shoul!J he an ('x~mrlc (If cli~­ \VhnUll national hnrrien, llo Ilf,t
lNlS
cipline. They "hould nl'ither exist.
,,'('ar nl.~r Clll0\\' nth('rf; to ,veRr \\'ithoul this do,!, cllh.',';OIl
of all s(,c(IPn"l, companiC':;. tIll'
HallallOli ('allnnt he ~n efferti-
\'~ flghtillg- lInit. We h~\'e the-

marvellous wOI'k In the mat· refor.' t n remove had hal)itR (If

ter of prescn1ng art treasures.
Betore coming- here. r had read
mll.lly stories about the deRtruc-
ti(>n of art works. That some
art work!! have been destro-
~d cannot. be denic(L But cer-
tainly the Spani~h Republic
was not I'caponslble. It was
the bomtM and sheUa of the
Rebels. There is the best pro-
of, on the contrary, that the
('rllvernment and the Spanish
pel'ple are duing everythillg
possible to protect and preser-
ve all those art treasuries th'll
have not already been de5tl'U-
yeti by Reb\'! bombing. Only
thl3 afternoon I spent cunside-
rable time going through one of
the storehollses where the Go-
vernment Is carefUlly stoIina
a.ud indexing WOl'ka of art. He-
re In the city of Madrid l:Iand-
bags and other proteetioJ18 ha-
ve been placed around the sta-
tues in the public pa.rkll to prc-
vent their destruction by born-
binI; ·01' shC"llinG'.
"I muat l!&y Ulat I have bcen
droply Impr~d by all this. It
i.~ an inspiring sight to aec all
heroic people building I:Ichools
Md· homes and' taking care 01
its art tl'casU!'e3 while fighting
ag&inst a brutal fascist Inva-
sion. I have seen with my own
"yes that the Spanish Republic
detennined to prevent the dcs-
truction of the indl'pendencc
al\d c1cmocra.cy of the Spanish
pcople by Franco, HItler and
Mussollni. And it is so confi-
dent of winning that it ia going
ahead building a better Spain
for the day whcn peace and
dem()cra.cy herc will be once
again secure."
insignia distinct frol1l th .. ,,,'
recognized by thc Govf'rIIlTIPnt.
These insignia al'{' the fol-
lowing:
A nvc-pointed slar in :l cir-
cle, as thc dlstingui~hing mark
of a Commissar. 1 Tnder this
should be worn:
A red stripe ftlr a CplJ1l'any
ConnnlsRar.
TWl) fCct ~tril'c<' for a Rat:!l-
ion Commis;'fl.r.
Three rf'.;\ ~trlp(,5 for ~ Bri-
gade Commissar.
One gold strli-.e fur a Divi:;·
ion Commll58ar.
GALU)
Commi"'llr-lnApec,tor of th"
Int0rnJ.tional Brignde •.
TUE SOVIET UNtO;\; doe!!! nOl want war, hut thesc 8aliors are nail, to IltCend
their land or SocialisDl agaiol'it auy .mp~rialist threat. .
Ihe P'1<;\ and attain a more ill-
I imatl< l"wwlcdg<' and .rciatir>n-
"hip with (IIII' Spanish comra·
des. With 8u('h unity in the
command amI throughout the
Battalioll every oruer and com-
mand will be responded to by
a united an!1 powerful Batta-
lion.
Our Battalion has cnrned a
name on the battlefronts of
Spain of which we. can be justly
proud. We have talten part in
the mOllt decisive battles in the
war. and contributed much 10-
\vanl l'foducin;; th<' pres('nt fR-
vl)rable position for the (~,,­
vernment forces. 1'\1(' mn"t de·
cisive battlcs arc j\lst aht'ad.
It is our duty here and at ho-
me to continue tu URsist our
spanish comrades in cvery pos-
JOE DALLET
l·oJitiral Comn:aiNar pC fhe
MA(;KENZIE - PAPINEAU
BAlTALION
Killed la aelloa at Flieat••
de Ebro.
UC,TOBER - \3 - 1931
sible way lwl il filla.! victory
has been won.
V\'ith this R, Olll' aim WI!
Rhall be allie to continue and
acc0l11pli.~11 our historic tasks
he.re in Spain, and at the 8ame
time inspire the people of Bri·
tain into decisive action along.
side the p •.'opll's of the world
to crush Fasci~rr.1 and reaction
wherever it raises its head.
C"mrad~s, I am proud to ha·
vc n.Rsociat ... ,1 \~ith the m('l1 of
'lUr Battalion. Their example
will long. be my inspiration in
my revulutionary work whe.re-
ver it leads me. 1 dJll proud to
have contributed a liUle, to its
aehievenJ('nt:; and plcdge to do
my utmost in the same cause
at all tim"s and wherever ne-
cessary.
Salud.
BILL PAYNTER
DIAN .... (U. G. T.) - Llnl, e. - MADRID