Australians gave their support to the cause as well! [FONT=arial, helvetica, sans serif]PLAQUE NO. [/FONT][FONT=arial, helvetica, sans serif]75 ... Spanish Civil War[/FONT] View attachment 2027 Spanish Civil War Plaque is located on the shores of Lake Burly-Griffin, Canberra behind the Hilton Hotel. The memorial commemorates all those Australians who gave support to the armies involved in the Spanish Civil War. The plaque was unveiled by the last living Australian survivor of the war in 1993. Text from Plaque This monument honours the seventy Australian men and women who went to Spain during the Spanish civil war of 1936-39 to defend the cause of the Spanish republic. A republican government was elected in Spain in 1931 and a democratic constitution promulgated. In July 1936 a group of generals led by Francisco Franco staged a military uprising against the popular front government precipitating a bloody civil war. When the conflict ended in 1939 general Franco's nationalist forces controlled the country. During the civil war some 50,000 supporters from fifty-three countries went to Spain to defend the republic. For them the Spanish civil war represented the first battle in a larger war against fascism. The Australian writer Nettie Palmer who was in Barcelona when the uprising occurred said of those who supported the Spanish republic - though they were few in number and not powerful and seemed often to be shouting against the wind theirs was truly a brave chapter in Australia's history. This monument erected by the Australians in Spain memorial committee was dedicated on 11 December 1993 by Lloyd Edmond's, international brigade veteran.
I know very, very little about the Spanish Civil War and did not know about the Australian involvement, Spidge. Thanks. A brave, very determined man. RIP.
Whatever you think about his politics, he was a man of principle who fought, physically and morally, for what he thought was right. His later years, teaching children with learning difficulties, would not have been a fashionable or high-status career at the time (even less than now). I'm surprised he was allowed to serve in the British Forces in WW2 - I thought ex-International Brigade members were not allowed to. There can't be many of them still around - is Jack Jones still alive?
Bernard McKenna, a lifelong socialist, anti-fascist and former member of the International Brigades, died on 31 July, aged 92. Sixty six brave Manchester men and women volunteered to go to Spain to fight against General Franco and his fascists in the 1936-9 Civil War and Bernard was one of 48 who survived. In old age he became the last surviving Manchester veteran. He was born in Manchester into a desperately poor Irish-English family. The seventh child, he was the first to survive infancy. For most of his childhood his father was unemployed whilst his mother worked as a cleaner. He was the first boy from his school, St Wilfrids, to win a scholarship to St Gregory's grammar school in Ardwick. At 14, Bernard became a textile-mill clerk. In 1934 he joined the Labour League of Youth, and then, at 17, the Young Communist League. He felt that the communists were the only organisation which saw the danger of fascism and unlike Labour, it discussed capitalism and how to bring about socialism. Bernard became an anti-fascist fighter. He disrupted meetings of Britain’s fascists. When fascist leader Oswald Mosley visited Hulme Town Hall, thousands of anti-fascists surrounded it and pushed a tram over. Mosely had to sneak out through the back door. This opened Bernard’s eyes to the power of protest, then came Spain. In July 1936, Franco organised a fascist uprising in Spain. Bernard helped organise medical aid and food for the Republicans. Meetings were held to raise money and handcarts went out collecting “Aid for Spain” at weekends. In February 1937 Bernard joined the International Brigade and went to Spain to fight. After signals training, Bernard was wounded on his first day of action at Brunete in July 1937. Then, on the Aragon front, he was wounded by shrapnel, and then shell-shocked. He almost died in hospital but recovered, and fought again. In spring 1938, he was captured by fascists on the river Ebro and taken to an infamous camp in Burgos. There he was interrogated by the Nazi Gestapo and taken to the town's outskirts, where he expected to be executed. "That was the fate of most International Brigaders caught by the fascists," he recalled. "It was the worst moment of my life." Then, randomly selected for prisoner exchange, he spent time in an Italian prisoner of war camp before being released in October 1938. He retained, and never paid, his £4 Foreign Office bill for "repatriation". When the Second World War broke out he joined the RAF and as in the International Brigades, Bernard worked in signals. He wanted, he said, another go at the fascists. He spent six and half years in in north Africa, the Middle East and Italy. He remained a member of the Communist Party until just after the war, when Joseph Stalin denounced Yugoslavia’s Marshal Tito as a fascist for resisting Russia’s interference in his country. Along with others, Bernard left the Communist Party and joined Labour. He later became a secondary school teacher, supporting children with special needs. He was convinced that education was the lever to bring social justice. He specialised in the educationally disadvantaged, teaching hundreds, if not thousands, of children to read. In retirement he continued to talk to young people in schools and colleges and remained active in the International Brigade veteran’s movement and proudly received honorary Spanish citizenship for his role in the Civil War. According to his son Neil he never tired of telling people that,"I am buoyed up by the thought that I have outlasted that f****** Franco." After a few years of Tony Blair’s New Labour he left the Labour Party in disgust. He joined the SWP in 1998, attended Chorlton branch meetings and participated in political activity until his health finally got the better of him. Bernard McKenna 1915-2008 remained committed to socialism to the day he died and he will be sorely missed. He is survived by his five children.
