On the trail of Rosa Roja…

Over Christmas 2019, I went to visit family living in Asturias, northern Spain. After spending a few days in Madrid, visiting art galleries, including the Reina Sofia, where Picasso’s Guernica resides, an exhibition about Spanish exiles in 1939 at the Laqueria at Nuevos Ministerios and the obligatory trip to the Venencia sherry bar, we made our way to the capital Asturias, Oviedo by train. The four-hour train journey was interesting and took us over the plains of Castille stopping at Segovia, Valladolid and Palencia. However, the scenery completely changed after Leon when the mountains of the north stood in between us and the Cantabrian Sea.

In this area, the architecture changed quickly from typical white washed Spanish houses and Medieval walled cities to stone buildings stuck in small shadowy mountain valleys, while the water of winding rivers tip-toed over pebbles. When the train went up into the mountains there were wonderful views of the rocky outcrops where the very highest peaks were dusted with snow. Soon though, we were down the other side of the mountains and into the small Cathedral city of Oviedo where we stayed over-night. As a historian, I like to sniff out some of the local, myths, legends and important historical sites in the places where I stay and the next day we went to find some.

         Church and Monument to Rosa Roja

Rosa Roja

Somebody had told me about local heroine Aida de la Fuente (aka Rosa Roja) so the next morning after a café breakfast, we decided to go and find her memorial. The day started with climbing the 101 steps from the upper-station plaza to the church of San Pedro de Los Arcos, a small, square church built with bricks that had a slight pink tinge to them.

We only got to see the outside of the church, however, there were clear signs of damage to the structure, bullet holes and gashes in the stone suggesting shrapnel damage. The key to what happened at this place came in the form of the memorial stone dedicated to Rosa Roja, who died nearby on 13 October 1934. At that time, the Asturias Miners uprising was underway. A precursor to the Spanish Civil War (SCW), Miners rose up against the government starting with a general strike and took Oviedo, the region’s capital. Franco and his Moroccan troops were sent to put the rising down.

Aida, came from a politically aware family. Her father designed posters for and decorated the Theatre at Oviedo and he also assisted in establishing the Communist Party Branch in Oviedo. Influenced by him, Aida, helped to set up street kitchens for the miner’s militias during the uprising and she was near the church when Franco’s troops attacked.

She held off the troops with a machine gun – but only for so long. Biographers say that she was found dead with fellow fighters wearing “a powder stained dress.”  She was buried in a mass grave next to the church alongside other militia fighters. Aida was only 19 when she died and was later given the nickname, the red rose.

El Cuetu Bunker

The Bunker

Later in the day, we went on another trip heading south of Oviedo to Lugones to visit the fortified bunker at El Cuetu. It was quite hard to find and after several drives around, there was only one thing left to do – to follow the sign pointing to Ministerios and up the steep slope, through the open gates. This was the correct course of action to take.

The bunker fortifications were immediately obvious, a grey concrete structure built into the hillside and attached to that a ruined three-story building and access to the bunker was through the basement of the building. It was a windy day and the sound of the breeze tore around the graffiti sprayed walls of the abandoned building. Insulation flapped in the breeze from unsealed ceilings and unsecured windows rattled. It was quite atmospheric however it was a relief to take the staircase down towards the entrance of the bunker.

The bunker dating from the era of the Spanish Civil War was only in use for a year, presumably either in 1937 when the battle of Asturias between Spanish Republicans and Nationalists took place. We took a few steps down into the bunker and into a maze of dark corridors. I was able to comfortably into the tunnel at a height of 5ft 2” but anyone much taller would have to stoop and it was certainly only for one-person width ways. Along the corridor from time to time were holes in the walls where defenders could watch for the enemy coming into the plateau surrounding the bunker however, it was only when an outdoor gun emplacement with a shallow wall gave us an idea of the vantage point the bunker’s defenders had over the land. It was situated high up on a small plain which was surrounded by mountains. There were similar gun emplacements at all corners giving the defenders a 360-degree view.

Also in the bunker were a few small rooms which were used for resting and medical attention. It was a very interesting place but there would have been dangers for the defenders inside. The lookout holes were big enough to have a small grenade deposited inside. The bunker is only open on Sunday’s with two guided tours during the day and once we were done, we left in convoy to Colloto, a ten-minute drive away where we could access a private museum containing items from the SCW era.

The museum was set in the basement garage of an unassuming apartment block. There were models of armoured vehicles (during the SCW vehicles would be seized and fitted with armoured plates creating makeshift tanks). These were great, lots of small ones covered in anti-fascist slogans and two real sized models. There were also lots of guns (from various eras not just the SCW), flags, ammunition (including CNT TNT), photographs and posters among other things. A fascinating place, very worthwhile visiting along with the bunker to get an impression of what was used during SCW.Spain is now opening up about the recent past.

On a previous trip to Asturias, I visited the coastal bunkers at La Isla and in the coming summer I shall be joining an archaeological dig in Belchite in Aragón I and look forward to blogging from there.  **Edit, the trip was cancelled due to Cornovirus.**

If you are wondering what this has to do with trade union history, well the Spanish Civil War is an important part of British Labour history due to the amount of Trade Unionists who went out to fight against the Nationalists in the International Brigades. I have not found anyone in my research who went yet but would be very interested if anyone from Peterborough (UK) went.

Bit and pieces from the museum at Colloto

Lady Gladys Benstead

I have written an article on Lady Gladys Benstead, who was Mayor of Peterborough in 1955. She has caught my interest, because she came from a working class family who were played a major part in the local labour movement in the first few decades of the 1900s. I wrote the article for a collection of short pieces for Women’s History Month, published on The Lassicist blog. Here is the link:

https://thelassicist.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/gladys-benstead/

Peterborough Women’s Festival 2019

Federation of Women Workers Banner, at the Black Country History Museum (photo by Hazel Perry)

This is an article that I wrote in 2019. I posted it on my other blog, but am slowly moving the pieces over to my original site. I can’t quite get the look I want on that the new blog. 2019 was the last Women’s Festival that I took the lead in organising.

As a delegate to Peterborough Trades Union Council, I am involved in organising PWF2019, the fourth of these festivals to take place in Peterborough to coincide with the week of International Women’s Day.

This year we have chosen for our symbol, a photo of the banner of the National Federation of Women Workers (NFWW). The banner currently resides in the rebuilt Workers’ Institute at the Black Country History Museum in Wolverhampton. The Workers Institute, is a building that contains a cafe downstairs and upstairs, the re-imagined offices of the Federation, that was run by Mary Mcarthur, who founded the trade union body in 1906.

Mary Mcarthur fought for Women’s Suffrage and locally to us, attended a debate in Peterborough on the subject, arranged by the local Liberal Party in the early 1910s. However, she was known nationally, for being the Trades Unionist who led the women chain-makers strike in nearby Cradley Heath in 1910. During this stint of industrial action, women chain-makers who were low paid and had to take their children to work with them (babies would be kept under the anvil as it was the safest place for them), laid down their tools and fought for and gained, double their wages and made the national minimum wage a reality.

Slide from presentation by Nan Sloane, Unison Women’s Conference, Bournemouth 2019 (Photo by Hazel Perry)

As part of PWF2019, Townsend Theatre Productions bring their latest show, Rouse, Ye Women, which charts the story of Mary Mcarthur and the women chainmakers. This “folk ballard opera” will be performed on Monday 4th March at the Undercroft in Hampton. Tickets can be purchased from the Eastern Angles Theatre website for £5.00, or on the door for the same price.

The following weekend, the flagship event for PWF2019, Town Hall Day, takes place. It is on Saturday 9 March at Peterborough Town Hall from 11am to 3pm. This event comprises campaign stalls, such as the Red Box Project, which seeks to get free sanitary wear for girls in schools to wipe of period poverty (donations welcome on the day); Usborne Books (for children); Peterborough Rape Crisis Group; Soroptomists; Peterborough Pride; Jailbirds and many, many more. There will also be a poetry corner (poems on the subject of Women and related matters welcome) and Peterborough Poet Laureate, Claire Currie will be our poet in residence.

There will also be speakers on the day:

i. Saorsa Tweedale from the PCS Union’s PROUDE Committee will be coming to speak about the work they do.

ii. Poet and Trades Unionist, Janine Booth will be speaking about the subject of her new book, Minnie Lansbury (see photo below)

iii. I will be speaking as Trades Unionist and Historian about the 1928 Celta Artificial Silk Mill Strike (see photo below from the Peterborough Images website)

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There will be other events throughout the week before and after, and I shall list these at the end of the article. However, first let me tell you a bit about the aims and objectives of the festival. It was first set up as part of PTUCs (now defunct) fundraising committee. For the fundraising committee, the idea was to raise a bit of money through a raffle and selling food on the day of the Town Hall event (the money raised then goes on to pay speakers expenses). But, there was much more to it than that.

There was also the desire to get further out there into the community, and to show the local people that a trade union body is not just about striking for higher wages and better conditions, but also about bringing people together. Through this, we have been able to share a room with people that we would never usually do, and they can see what we as trades unionists do and we can see how other charities and organisations work.

And what better time to bring all this together, than during Women’s History month and close to International Women’s Day, a yearly celebration which has been going on in one form or another for over 100 years? I hope to see my Peterborough friends (men are welcome too) celebrating the important work that women do, or more at these events.

Events

27th February – Peterborough’s Feminist Book Club will be discussing Virginia Woolf’s Liberty, at 7.30pm, Chauffeurs Cottage. See the Peterborough Feminist Book Club Facebook Page for more information.

29th February – Rebellious Sisterhood, in conjunction with UNISON, 7.30pm at the John Clare Theatre http://broadhorizonstheatre.co.uk/event/rebellious-sisterhood-votes-for-women-2/

4th March – Rouse, Ye Women, 7pm, at the Undercroft in Hampton, Peterborough. https://easternangles.co.uk/event/rouse-ye-women

9th March – Town Hall Day, 11am – 3pm at Peterborough Town Hall. See Peterborough Women’s Festival 2019 Facebook Page for more information.

9th March – Eclectic Ballroom presents Disco Divas at the Lightbox from 9pm. See Eclectic Ballroom’s Facebook Page for more info.

14th March – Cine-sister, show short films at 7.30pm, Chauffeurs Cottage. See Cine-sister Facebook Page for more information.

Peterborough Women’s Festival 2017, Maria Ferguson, Hazel Perry, Charley Genever at the Stoneworks (photo by Tim Cox)

Live Music Review, 2018

A Folky Winter… 

In June 2016, legendary folk fiddler, Dave Swarbrick died at the age of 75. In January, here was a musical tribute held to him in the St. Paul’s Church, Cambridge. This featured guest musicians Martin Carthy, John Kirkpatrick and Simon Swarbrick on fiddle. I have seen the Mcarthy and Swabrick  perform together many times, it is sad to see the former without his sparring partner. Martin Carthy and daughter Eliza, folk royalty played at the Peterborough, Key Theatre. It’s great to be able to walk to gigs and the Carthy’s never disappoint.

Graham Fellowes, aka, Jilted John (punk alter-ego) and John Shuttleworth (funny old man who plays the organ alter-ego) was on stage at the Stamford Arts Theatre in February.   Fellowes has given up playing his other two characters, but he does include their material in his showing, including the Jilted John classic, Gordon is a Moron.

We saw God is My Co-Pilot at the Cafe Otto in Dalston in March. I remember really enjoying the gig, but what I remember the most is that it snowed all the way home. We usually get the train to gigs, especially in London, but for some reason, this time, T had driven.

Rowan Godel played at the Ostrich Inn in Peterborough as part of Peterborough Women’s Festival. She very kindly agreed to step in for the booked singer who had cancelled due to losing her voice the day before. Voice of an angel, and one of the British folk scenes best kept secrets. Highly recommended.

Another of my favourite folkies, The Young ‘Uns played at the Leicester Guild Hall in March. I don’t know why, but I just find the harmonies of the voices when they sing together so pleasing. The show was a concept performance based on the real-life story of Johnny Longstaff and his experiences leading up to and fighting in the Spanish Civil War. Using classic songs from the time such as Ay Carmella and Jarama Valley, songs they had written and voice recordings from interviews with Johnny. It was very emotional. The album is out now (BUY IT!). http://www.theyounguns.co.uk/johnnylongstaff

When we were in Belfast at the beginning of April, the BBC2 Folk Awards were taking place at the Waterfront arena. Unfortunately, tickets had been sold out for some time. However, after putting a call out on Twitter, somebody very kindly offered us their two tickets. They put the tickets on a bus, and we picked them up at Belfast Coach Station. The show was worth the trouble though.  Lankum, an authentic Irish band, playing old songs sung from the streets of Dublin with a modern twist, played much to my delight. Eliza Carthy and the Wayward Band also played. See more about it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/em6v9r

A Rocking Spring and Summer… 

Japanese all-girl punk band, Shonen Knife, played the Portland Arms in Cambridge. The venue was rammed and we all love the Ramones, so what’s not to like?

In the spring, Classic 70s punk band, The Members, played at Peterborough’s Met Lounge. Not many people there, but we got drunk and jumped around to the song Sounds of the Suburbs. Other Members songs are available. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsHGnw1txLY

Later in the month, another classic punk, TV Smith of the Adverts played the Hand and Heart, a back street pub in Peterborough. Playing all the classics, such as No Time to be 21, Tomahawk Cruise and Generation Y. This was the second year he had played the pub, in the same number of years, so hopefully he’ll be back again in 2019. http://www.tvsmith.com/

Frank Ifield, yes, that’s 60s crooner Frank Ifield, played at the Ivy Leaf Club in Whittlesey. Whittlesey is small Fenland Market Town, and the great and the good of Whittlesey pensioners had come out to see him perform. The cheesy organist playing Viva Espana and Danny Boy, etc., looked in his element while the compere had the attitude of the 1960s, with some of the comments he made towards members of the audience, when going up to select their raffle items! Frank Ifield made it all worthwhile though.

I’m not a massive fan of Jools Holland, however, his big band were pretty good when they came to Peterborough’s Broadway Theatre. It was all very… well, blusey, pretty as much expected. I had seen them before at Glastonbury on one of the few years I went. It was the last time I saw anything at the Theatre for the rest of the year, because less than a year after the 1930s art deco theatre re-opened, they got into debt and closed down again.

T and I saw Patty Smith and Nick Cave at Victoria Park, London, at the end of June. They were of course, amazing, especially Patty Smith. We didn’t stay for all of Nick Cave, who was headlining.

Later in the month they showed the England footy match at the Nottingham’s Rescue Rooms, before Belly came on. They did of course play Feed the Tree. Belly are still very good.

I just love The Ex, they are just such a cool band. They started off as an Anarcho-Punk band, which explains why they were playing in the tiny back room of the ‘alternative’ Co-operative bar Wharf Chambers, in Leeds. I was rocking away right at the front of a packed venue. Formed in Amsterdam, The Ex played a few songs from their new album 27 Passports, as well as some older one’s. A contender for gig of the year. https://www.theex.nl/info.html

In September we went to Bradford for the weekend and were walking past the castle pub, when we saw a sign for an accoustic folk gig. It turned out to be a great evening, involving people from the notorious Topic Folk Club.

I spotted the poster for Marky Ramone in Granada’s main square when we arrived for a trip in early October. The gig was a little way out of town. T and I got on a bus a little early expecting to go and have dinner, but when we got off the bus, we found ourselves in an industrial estate the wrong side of the Granada ring-road. There was a small shopping mall but everywhere seemed to be closing up. All of a sudden, just as we had given up on the thought of food, a shutter went up and a small café with half a vegan restaurant opened up. We had poor man’s potatoes and vegan burgers. Later on, Marky Ramone was utterly amazing. The venue was in an old industrial unit, a great space inside and pretty much every Ramone’s song was sung. T and I drank beer and danced on the shelf we had been sitting on before the band took to the stage. Another contender for gig of the year.

Towards the end of our stay in Granada, The Salmon’s of Granada were due to play and we like to see bands in different countries when we visit. The Salmon’s looked like a cheesy 70s band. The venue was in a basement venue and music was good, quite rocking, but we felt like we had gate-crashed someone’s party – people kept getting up on stage and singing their songs with them, knowing all the words. A very fun night.

Eddie and the Hot Rods were playing for the last time this year and we saw them at the Leicester Musician. They were an excellent pub-rock band as usual, playing the angsty Do Anything You Wanna Do and ending in the massive sing-along, G-L-O-R-IIIIIIIIII (Gloria). I hear now though, that Eddie and the Hot Roads are continuing to play gigs…

Obviously, I love Stick in the Wheel, but I’m not sure anyone else, that I know does (apart from T of course). But how could you not love Stick? Stick write their own folk songs on modern subjects, such as car boot sales and lorry drivers, however, they are also magical at reinterpreting old toons such as Seven Gypsies and Four Loom Weaver. I have seen them loads but in November, we were sitting down to see them at the Junction 2, in Cambridge, red wine in hand and it felt like winter was fast approaching.

I played the album, The It Girl, to death in the 1990s, so it was great to see Sleeper were out and about on tour. I went to see them in November, at the Junction in Cambridge. It wasn’t quite sold out, but there were a lot of people there. Louise Werner was as cool as you like strutting about the stage. Their songs were still catchy. Loved it. Although it was the only gig I have ever been too when I have asked a tall man to shift, that they answered back. I blame Brexit.

Tom Holliston, American Punk Legend, from band No Means No, played an acoustic gig in our favourite local Peterborough Pub, the Ostrich.  Perfect.

 

We were now into December. It can only be Christmas if the Albion Christmas Band are playing. WE have seen them before at the Stamford Arts Centre. The show was at the Peterborough key Theatre this time, and included stories as well as songs. Their tribute to the soldiers of WWI in a story about both sides coming together from the trenches to sing carols, was very moving.

Stanley Brinks (previously of Herman Dune), Freschard (who once drew the amount of glasses of wine she had consumed on the night, on a CD T purchased), are an absolute joy. I have no idea how to describe them, but tonight, at Arch Rivals in London’s E7, they played as The Fox and had animals featuring in all their songs. The Burning Hand, who headlined, a Canadian band, are my new favourites due to their song with the chorus that goes: Pass the wine, fuck the Government, I love you (I bought a badge with these words on from the merch stall).

And then, there was Misty’s Big Adventure’s Christmas Party at the Albion Brewery, in Northampton. In the old Phipps Brewery, Misty’s Big Adventure were everything I expected them to be. Silly, grumpy, a little bit political (Grandmaster Gareth limited the band to three political statements and these came alongside songs about biscuits, mince pies and I forget the last one). The band-mate who usually dons the blue rubber gloves and pretends to be a clock, was not there – off on paternity leave. Twins. Boys, since the crowd asked and I’m sure you will too. Misty’s topped off a brilliant evening with Wombling Merry Christmas. Now that will be stuck in my head forever…

“All day long, we will be Wombling through the snow

We wish you a Wombling Merry Christmas…”

 

Other Artists seen this year but not reviewed are: Roger McGough (at Stamford Arts Centre); Kiran Leonard (in Cambridge); Lucy Farrell (in a pub in Cambridge); Monochrome Set (at the Portland Arms, Cambridge); Robin Hitchcock (in Cambridge Church); Gwenifer Raymond (at The Blue Moon, Cambridge); Lexie Green (St. Johns Church Peterborough).

Dealing with the ‘B’ Word

I woke up this morning, put on radio 5 Live and once again there was a Brexit phone in – again. I’m really confused about Brexit – everyone has an opinion, and they are all different. So here is mine.

I would probably not have bothered voting at all in referendum, if it had not been for the fact that my Parents live in the north of Spain and I don’t want anything to affect them adversely. I’ve only ever known Britain being in the EU. We elect MEPs who have a say in making the decisions, just a bigger version of the Houses of Parliament. Winston Churchill was right about it securing peace in the countries who have taken part in the European Project. So, job done, right?

I’ve studied Nation States as modules for history degrees, which includes a lot about borders and boundaries. It is clear to me that the borders have been constructed by powerful elites to control the people who provide them with wealth. Because of this, I have concluded that the fewer borders we have, the better and as climate change takes hold and the prospect of conflict over resources and refugees becomes a reality, I have a great belief that if we help each other, we might just survive. The current refugee crisis, with people in need being turned away at European borders and facing brick walls has broken my heart. For people who complain we have lost our sovereignty, it is countries within the Schengen zone who have been making it so difficult for people to move to somewhere safe. Stopping people’s free movement is perhaps the ultimate expression of sovereignty which goes to prove that we still have it.

Speaking of ending the free movement of people, I don’t know about anyone else, but this just makes me feel slightly defeated. The very thought of this makes me feel trapped and we need to understand that it won’t just be people coming into Britain who have that right taken away from them (unless they are wealthy and skilled of course, but that won’t help the working classes), it will also apply to us. I live in one of the fastest growing cities in the country. It is a City which has known immigration for the last 200 years at least. People moving in to the city to work on the railways and in engineering; Italian born people to work in the Brick Pits, people from Bangladesh and Pakistan in the 1960s, Ugandan Asians in need of sanctuary. My family came to live here when the New Town was developed (from about 70 miles away). Now we have a city which includes Kurdish, Latvian, Portuguese and Polish communities, as well as those I have already mentioned,  and I think it’s amazing to have so many different cultures around me.

There are some who say it is immigration which has put a strain on the resources of the country, and that is why they want to end immigration. However, these people work and pay their taxes which means they are welcome to access the resources of the NHS and to claim welfare benefits if they do end up out of work. With regards to lack of money and investment into services, the real culprits are the Government and their austerity agenda which was put in place after the 2010 banking crisis. We need to ask the Government why they continue to cut budgets in schools, in the environmental sector and in local Government. We have lost so much through this ideological drive to unnecessarily “tighten our belts,” that we’re looking at the wrong solution. And now, we’re handing over power to the very same people who have done this to us. While arguing about Brexit, we’re ignoring the foodbanks and the homeless and the absolute mess that young people are in because of the lack of social housing and the gig economy.  There is no Government who can fix the social crisis we are in or the looming damage that Brexit may do – and I haven’t even mentioned climate change yet.

We don’t need Brexit to improve our lives – we need a brand new way of organising our lives, both socially and politically. We to smash the system.

The Trenches of La Isla

It is Boxing Day 2017 and I am standing on a cliff face, looking out to sea. The grey / blue waters of the Bay of Biscay, aka, the Cantabrian Sea, are unusually calm. Daisies are scattered across the soft green grass, while Goldfinches and Black Redstarts hop from rock to rock on the cliff edge. The sun is warm. It’s hard to imagine that it is late December, it feels more like spring. And it is incredibly peaceful up on the cliffs, which are positioned to the north west of the beach. We are at La Isla in Asturias, Spain, on one side of a wide crescent shaped bay.

All of a sudden, I stumble across a feature in the landscape that disturbs the peace. The ultimate symbol of C20 warfare – a small, but perfectly formed, military trench system. At this moment in time, it is impossible to imagine this peaceful cliff top being anything other than how it is today. In fact, Asturias itself is a peaceful place, an autonomous region of Spain famous for, Horreos (stilted grain barns), a beautiful, rugged coastline and the snowy peaks of the Picos de Europa. It is largely untouched by tourism, at least compared to the other costas to the east and south of the country. Asturian  culture is predominantly Celtic – all bagpipes, cider and ancient hillforts. And it rains a lot too. It has a largely rural economy now, although it has been an important mining area in the past. It hardly figures in the histories of the Spanish Civil War, you have to really dig deep to find many lines about it in the history books, but here I am, facing a Civil War era trench.

The first thing I notice about the trench is the strange layout. We are used to seeing trenches in a linear form. Think the long lines of muddy trenches in the Somme. But these were placed in a radial arrangement, described as a ‘hedgehog’ shape on the site’s information board. In the middle of the trench system, a large tree provides shade with long branches. Is it an original feature? The unique layout, suggests the terrain was difficult to structure, so the trenches were dug to fit rather, than following a traditional plan.

 

These particular trenches were at the rear of the battlefield in Asturias. The war did not reach the area administered by the Council of Colunga until October 1937, Asturias having first been attacked by Nationalist armies on 1 September that year. The Council of Colunga,  declared for the Spanish Republic when the Nationalists first attempted a coup in July 1936. The trenches at La Isla are from the Republican side and far away from the military front. The nearby village was not likely to be a specific target for the Nationalist army. However, there was an aerodrome nearby and the location also made it vulnerable to Navy patrols off the coast. Because of this, the Asturian military set about reorganising coastal defences and it is to this strategy that these trenches belong to.

The reorganisation was part of a national strategy put in place by the Republican Army, who set about strategising the service, surveillance and defence of the northern coastline in the summer of 1937. Until this time, it had been in the hands of local commanders, but with Franco’s troops approaching Asturias, the Republican Army had organised careful observation of the coastline, by means of a surveillance network linked by posts, with day and night patrols, studying vulnerable sections and building defensive works to obstruct the enemy.

The Asturian coast was divided into two sectors: Unquera, in the east of Asturias, to Villaviciosa and the second continuing to San Juan de la Arena in the West. Troops took control of the defence with permanent forces stationed at the larger towns of Gijon and Aviles, who were joined by the newly formed Marine Infantry Brigade. The latter had one battalion based at Ribadesella. The network of surveillance posts were organised to support a new artillery regiment on the coast with units located in nine places.

During the summer of 1937, Franco’s Nationalist army occupied the region east of Asturias, Cantabria. It took them just fifteen days to secure that region. They entered Asturias from the Cantabrian border, taking Panes and Pimiango, then penetrating further west. However, the people and the XVII Guerrilla Army of Asturias resisted the Navarra Army advance, and as a result, it was not until September that the enemy reached the deep cut river Sella, between Ariondas and the coastal town of Ribadesella. The Nationalists could have launched an attack from the sea, landing behind Republican lines, however, the suitable beaches were well defended.

The Republican line at the Sella eventually collapsed and the First Brigade of the Navarra Army occupied  Ariondas on 13 October. But to move on, they had to ascend the Sierra del Sueve, up to the Fitou mirrador and then descend the northern slope towards Caravia. This they did on 17 October. The First brigade joined the Fourth who had crossed the Sella without resistance the same day. Together, they continued to Colunga, but here they were met with resistance, both sides using tanks, guns and aeroplanes to defend or attack. consequently, it is said that, “the taking of Colunga, was as fast and violent as a cyclone.” Four days later the fighting was over, and the Nationalists, under General Franco, took control of Asturias.

But what happened at the trenches of La Isla? Well, there are pictures on the information board with men smiling from the trenches, and well they might. Because the closest this trench system came to war was on 30 September, when the Nationalist Cruiser Ships, Admiral Cervera and Jupiter, shelled the coastal road between Berbes  and the point at Los Carreras, 6km east of La Isla. Had they come under attack, the defenders of the trench would have had at their disposal, two machine guns (probably Hotchkiss 1914, given the height of the parapets), and some machine gun rifles to repel the enemy with.

The function of this particular trench was varied – a mixture of observation and active defence of the beach. It has only been cleaned up and acknowledged in such a public way, during the last year. But why is it so important now? Presumably, the site was acknowledged in commemoration of the 80 Anniversary, of the battle for Asturias. And it shows that, the ‘pact of forgetting’ is slowly eroding. Perhaps Spain is finally coming to terms with the recent past, and not before time, because when the 90 Anniversary comes around, there may be nobody left alive who witnessed this important part of Spain’s C20 history.

**Please note much of this information has been come from a translation of the info board at the site of the trenches at La Isla**

 

 

 

The Balham Group and the World Anti-War Congress of 1932

A friend of mine asked me to look at some historical documents from the inter-war period she had inherited on the subjects of trade unions and opposition to war. These were documents linked to the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and belonged to my friends Great Aunt’s Ex-Husband (whom we shall call PW). With it being the centenary of the October Revolution which established Bolshevik rule and the Soviet Union this year, I thought it would be a good time to write about my findings.

The first document that I have is headed, “To our comrades in the Communist Party from the ‘Liquidated’ Balham Group.” This document is interesting because it details the issues around the split between Communists in Britain, during the early years of the 1930s. The Balham Group were the first Trotskyist group in Britain, set up by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1932. They were expelled in 1933, setting up the Communist League of Great Britain. They were expelled due to their attitude towards the World Anti-War Congress when they complained they were not allowed to discuss it.

Many of the papers in this collection are related to the World Anti-War Congress (also known as the World Congress against War) which was held on the European mainland in August 1932. The earliest document in the Congress collection was a typed report of the South-West London Anti-War District Committee meeting. There were also hand-written notes in preparation. The meeting took place in July at the Independent Labour Party (ILP) Hall, Bedford Road, Clapham and was attended by 40 – 50 people. The main speaker was the Earl of Listow, who was described in the notes as an, “unfortunate… whose social status antagonised the meeting.” His speech was described as “academic” and “historical rather than practical.” According to the Earl’s obituary in the Independent newspaper, the peer had “turned to socialism in the early 1920s [after] experiencing a profound shock on discovering how poor children lived in a slum near his parents home in London.” Back at the meeting, the Earl of Listow castigated the League of Nations as being ineffectual at bringing peace. This was not the first time I would find such criticisms levelled amoung the documents. Back to the meeting, once the speaker had finished, it turned to other business. A discussion was had about the Anti-War Congress. The event had originally been planned to take place in Geneva but that had been cancelled and so a new venue in Paris was arranged for the Congress to meet at, on 28 August. Delegates at the meeting were asked for nominations which were to be received by the committee no later than 6 August.

Comrade PW was sent a letter, dated 23 July 1932 from the local Secretaries of the Amalgamated Engineers Union (AEU) in Clapham, asking him to attend a meeting of AEU Engineers to find a nominee to send the to the Anti-War Congress on behalf of the South-West London Anti-War Committee. Vauxhall and Wandsworth Branch members would also be included for nominations. PW was the chosen candidate and he received a letter from the South West London Anti-War Committee on 13 August 1932 confirming that he would be their delegate for the Congress. In this letter, Amsterdam is the location for the event rather than Paris, as the venue was changed again. There was also a mention of a demonstration taking place on Clapham Common on 21 August where PW was invited to speak on the menace of war. After the demonstration, a march was planned from Clapham Common to Wandsworth prison in an attempt to:

Cheer up one of our comrades who has taken up temporary residence there.

Further letters followed to PW – one on 15 August with details of arrangements for the Congress. Travel to Amsterdam was to cost £3-18-0 including sleeping berths and a questionnaire was sent out asking for delegates requirements. The Congress was to be opened by Henri Barbusse (a French Novelist and Communist Party member who had married a Russian Woman and joined the Bolshevik Party but consequently left), on Saturday 27 August at 11am. PW received a further letter on 17 August asking him to make sure his passport was up to date and also included names and addresses of five other delegates to Congress who lived nearby. There was a suggestion that they might want to meet up and travel together.

Other documents received included:

• Receipt for £8-16-0 from the World War Congress on August 23
• List of people on a blank letter-head detailing the British delegation, backing the Congress including: Fenner Brockway, G D H Cole, J F Horrabin, E Pethick-Lawrence, Tom Mann, Ethel Mannin, H Pollitt, Ellen Wilkinson, Virginia Wolf.
• Ticket book for second class train travel from London Liverpool Street Station – Amsterdam – via the Hook of Holland and Flushing, with the L&NE Railway Company
• Congress delegate card
• Receipt for coffee on 27 August 1932 at Amsterdam’s Central Station

Many of the actual Congress documents are in Dutch, so I am unable to translate them but they do include a Congress bulletin and arrangements for the fringe meetings. One document mentions speakers including Henri Barbusse, Romain Rolland and Klara Zetkin (the German delegate). However, I have been able to extract more information from a document titled “United Front against War.” This pamphlet, written in English, contained the report and manifesto for the Congress which represented 2,196 delegates from 27 countries representing 30,000 organisations and 30,000,000 people. The report named Henri Barbusse as the originator of the Congress who spoke from the Rostrom with Muzenberg of Germany, Cachin of France and Tom Mann of the UK behind. Also named as attending were Mrs Wright of the Scottsboro Case; Patel, a supporter of Ghandi’s non-violent methods who represented the Indian National Congress Party and Mrs Despard of Ireland. Einstein (the Scientist) and Romain Rolland were noted as missing due to illness. The whole Russian delegate which was supposed to be led by Maxim Gorky, and as such details were kept quiet until the last minute, were also missing as they were denied entrance to Holland. However, the report said,

The Congress rose to cheer the red banner which the Russians sent as a token of their intended presence. 

People also attended from Japan, China, the Balkans, South America and the USA. The hall was decorated with streamers and banners. German and Italian delegates spoke of liberty and the fascist terror and the French, of solidarity with German workers. Cachin spoke on the disillusionment with the League of Nations. And The British delegation told the story of Invergordon, where the previous year 1,000 Sailors in the British Atlantic Fleet staged a three day ‘mutiny.’

The aims of the Congress were listed in a manifesto. The idea was to organise a vast movement of mass resistance to war which was creeping ever closer, at the insistence of Barbusse and Rolland. The document noted that scientists and writers heeded the call joined but the workers of the world through Trade Unions and in Britain, the Co-op Guilds, ILP, Labour Party members and communists who had organised within three months. The manifesto denounced:

• Existing wars, world wide and imperialist
• War propaganda and the distortion of truth
• Imperialist rivalries, the cause of economic crisis and wars
• Capitalist breakdown, which caused food poverty
• The Versailles Treaty, causing economic problems
• Futile pacifism
• The League of Nations and its hypocrisy
• The Second international, which had been hostile towards the Congress

It was also suggested that Congress swear a pledge which would be anti-fascist, anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist.

In the back of the pamphlet the make-up of the British delegation is listed as being:

• 4 miners
• 12 metal workers
• 4 Railway men
• 4 Dockers / Seamen
• 10 Co-operators
• 30 delegates made up of ex-servicemen
• 14 Women

The final piece of documentation regarding the Anti-War Congress which formed part of PW’s archive was a letter dated 3 September 1932 and contained reports from the International Medical Conference which took place in Amsterdam as part of the Anti-War Congress. People attending the medical conference represented most of Europe, the Far East and many delegates were Doctors. The report, “Appeal of the Doctors against the War” noted that 10 million men died in the war, 17 million were wounded and a further 28 million people died from disease and starvation. Cases of TB rose from 13.7 in 10,000 a year to 23 in 10,000 in Prussia. In England it rose from 13.5 to 17.6, Italy from 14.9 to 20.9 and Holland from 14.2 to 21.2. Bad medical conditions had been inflicted on women and children from the War resulting a re-introduction of rickets, vitamin deficiencies, small-pox and typhus epidemics. Women, working in the munitions factories, were undernourished and anaemic which affected the health of their children. They claimed there was evidence that post-war diseases were increasing, as were signs of mental deficiency in the war generation. A British delegate quoted the Ministry of Health’s findings that

No data of any ill effects of the war on public health existed in England.

 Meanwhile, a Czech Doctor spoke of the stress of the economic crisis and increasing abortion rates while the Austrian’s worried that there was no way of protecting workers from gas attacks and that a wave of nationalism was coming. A German Doctor spoke of the need for collaboration regarding health matters between doctors, workers and Labour organisations.   The conference made the decision to carry out education on the medical evils of war and create an International Medical Bureau to ascertain public health facts.

Back to the Balham Group, and their criticisms towards the Congress as voiced in “To Our Comrades in the Communist Party from the ‘Liquidated’ Balham Group.” Criticising the Congress organisers and their followers the Balham Group said that:

This anti-war congress has been convened by Barbusse, the advocate of fusion between Amsterdam and the Comintern, and Rolland, the devotee of Ghandi. Around these two have gathered intellectuals, pacifists and left socialists, the parlour defenders of the USSR. To seek allies among the most sincere and courageous of the petty bourgeoisie pacifists is one thing. To entrust them the leadership of the struggle against war, it quite another… while this oriminal farce at Amsterdam is described as a fight against war, the actual danger of war grows greater. The growth of Fascism in Germany menaces the existence of the party and the workers organisations and brings Germany near to the anti-Soviet block. Whatever happens in Germany will decide for years ahead the fate of the European workers.

Did the Balham Group have a point? The following year, Hitler came to power with the National Socialists and following the 1932 Congress the World Committee against War and Fascism was formed. However, these documents show an interesting period in twentieth century history. They remind us of the evil of war and their consequences. They show the reaction of ordinary trade unionists who fought to avoid further conflict and fight for a better world along with the importance of solidarity rather than factionalisation. In 1932 Europe was standing on a precipice. Those seeking a different way of organising politics were in disarray. The rest is history.

Book Review: “The Village against the World,” by Dan Hancox

I first heard of Marinaleda, a Pueblo in Southern Spain, during the world-wide economic recession early 2010s. I read in the paper about the Robin Hood Mayor of a village is Spain who expropriated goods from the local Supermarket to stock up the food banks for the Andalusian poor and i was inspired.  In the press the village has attracted many labels, from Utopian to Communist however, in his 1980 book Andaluces, Levantaos, Mayor Juan Manuel Shanchez Gordillo, insists the ideas that influence him are more anarchistic and come from a wide range of political and economic philosophers, from Jesus Christ to Lenin – he has never been a Communist in the Soviet sense.

 

Marinaleda is a fascinating experiment in utopian living. In “The Village against the World,” author Dan Hancox, lets the villagers tell their own story and carefully balances the opinions of those who have positive views of Marinaleda, with those of a more critical nature. There is a whole chapter on opposition in the second half of the book. However, early on, Hancox effectively sets the historical scene explaining the desperate poverty and unemployment of the Andalusian people, and the need for them to take economic and political matters into their own hands. This is exactly what happened in Marinaleda. Through a series of protests, hunger strikes, pickets, marches and occupations of land, in the post-Franco landscape of the early 1980s, the people managed to expropriate some of the surrounding land which belonged to a large land-owner. It was 1991 when the fight was won and the Marinaledos managed to secure 1,200 hectares of land. By doing this, the people gained land to grow vegetables and had olive groves giving the people in Marinaleda work. They worked in the fields and in the newly built canning factory and produced olive oil for their company El Humoso, a workers Cooperative.

 

In a similar fashion, the town is run through decision making at regular assemblies of Marinaleda’s inhabitants. The decisions are then implemented by the 11 villagers elected onto the Council, headed by Gordillo. But despite the murals adorning walls of the town featuring Che Guevera and commemorations of the expropriation of the land featuring slogans such as, ‘freedom is not begged for,’ the town seems like any other sleepy town in the hot, dry landscape of southern Spain. People sat outside bars, old men playing cards, barking dogs; there are schools, concert halls and social centers. There are traditional fiestas held throughout the year too. Houses are self-built, with the Andalusian Government providing basic materials and architectural advice. The houses belong to the Co-operative and, Hancox is told, nobody has the opportunity to accumulate capital on their housing which leads to a more equal society.

 

But not everybody is happy in this utopia. Hancox explains that the older villagers, who fought so hard to build up this alternative community, worry that younger people will move out of the village in a quest for something more than working in the factory or on the land and the fight for a free Marinaleda will be lost. And not everybody is a fan of the Mayor. For example, Hancox speaks to one of the two POSE Councillors on the village Council (the remaining nine belong to Sanchez Gordillo’s IU party) who tells him that Marinaleda is more divided than it appears to be at first – there is too much propaganda put about by the Mayor on the local TV station and in the press, and if you don’t agree with him, you are labelled as the enemy. The POSE Councillor, from the mainstream Socialist party in Spain, claimed he wanted people to be able to think for themselves again and also wanted to change the way El Humoso was run. To counteract that though, in the late 1980s when the POSE first opened offices in the village they were met with some hostility from a number of villagers who caused damage to their cars. They were clearly not welcome back then. Other people have also been quick to describe Marinaleda as a ‘Communist theme park’ and others to accuse Gordillo as being a ‘cult’ leader.

 

Hancox weighs up the pros and cons of Marinaleda’s existence – it is far from a perfect society. However, the author approaches his analysis with intelligence and sensitivity and produces the story of an alternative community which has fought for their livelihoods and won concessions. It produces an optimistic outlook for anyone looking for a different way of organising society, politics and economies.

Old Belchite

                               

A town within an arid scrub-land  

Among the olive groves and dust

When war came along

And through your gate

Belchite, who could predict your fate?

 

Shots rang out from the tower

Where the bell once tolled the time

When innocents went

About their day

Just for that, a price they’ll pay

 

Besieged, retreated

Militia beaten

Executed in the square

Bodies dumped in the well

Belchite, you bare the scars of hell

 

A town afflicted with battle wounds

From hand to hand fighting in the streets

Screaming overhead

The Condor Legion

We can only guess, for what the reason

 

Then a new town built

By the red defenders

Without a heart

Without a soul

While old Belchite

Eerie, silent, stands

A reminder in the arid scrub-lands

You are probably wondering what this poem is about? Well, on my recent trip to Zaragoza in Spain, I realised the town of Belchite was not so far away. I had heard about it a few years ago when I saw an advertisement for people to go and join an archaeological dig out there. But this wasn’t to dig up dinosaurs or Roman ruins, it was connected to the much more recent history of the Spanish Civil War.

While Zaragoza, the regional capital of Argaon, fell quickly to Franco’s fascist army in the late 1930s, other parts of Aragon were still under Republican control. Belchite is a small town built in the dry scrub-land of the Aragon plains and it has an old town, and a new town. The old town was fought over quite viciously at this time. My understanding is that the Republican Army decided on an offensive in Aragon in 1937, with the intention to capture the city of Zaragoza, just a few miles behind enemy lines. This was partly to distract Franco and his troops from waging war in Northern Spain and was also strategically waged to put a stop to the Anarchist communes that were rife throughout Republican held Aragon. I have written about the communes on my blog before, in my review of a book written by Sam Dolgoff.

Belchite was placed in the 100km zone where the Republican Army attempted to break through nationalist lines during the summer months. The town came under Republican control in September 1937 due to the thinly spread Nationalist defenders. The Republicans managed to push forward 10km, but got no further than that and did not achieve their objective. The Nationalists re-grouped and launched a counter offensive and the town was viciously fought over. The Francoists won the town back after street to street fighting and a final assault from the air, however, the entire town was left obliterated. Franco ordered Republican Prisoners of War to build a new town based on traditional architecture and arranged along grid-lines while ordering the ruins of the old town to be left as a visible reminder for “propaganda” purposes.

I didn’t go on the archaeological dig due to work commitments so, while I was staying in the region this year, I felt I had to visit Belchite. We took the bus from the main Zaragoza bus station (Plaza Delicious) and arrived in the hot and sleepy new town just under one hour later. The town consisted of a neat looking uniformed grid of white two storey houses with tree lined streets. It was very, very quiet. The people at the tourist information were very helpful though and sold us tickets for the 12 noon tour (there are two tours a day, the next one being at 4pm).  We stopped for a drink, as we had a bit of time to spare and nowhere else to go, and while sitting outside one of the few cafes I noticed a man riding a bike dressed in Kahki with what looked like a rifle on his back. I wondered if that was our tour guide. It wasn’t, as it turned out, as we next saw him standing at the gated entrance to the old town. He was dressed as a Republican solider and you could have photos taken with him for tips. He had an array of military hats and an International Brigades arm band which people could borrow for the photos. This is what we looked like:

At 12 o’clock the tour guide, a young woman, opened the gates and the six visitors to the site entered the old town of Belchite. We were on the main street, perfectly recognisable in structure but ragged and battle scarred. Houses lined the streets in partial ruin. Some of them you could see the old tiles on the walls inside and some balconies remained in tact. There were half-destroyed churches, the main square where anti-Francoists had been executed, and the well where the bodies had been dumped. There was an old bell tower, the doctors house and in the old ruined convent, some quite magnificent wall paintings. Plants grew in the rubble including red poppies, especially poignant, and swallows raced around over head, screeching, and dive bombing like they were a min Condor Legion. It was not as eerie as I had been lead to believe from reviews I have read, but a really powerful place with tales to tell and a real heart. In contrast, the new town seems a little soulless and constructed by force and left me feeling, quite frankly, cold. Maybe it’s the lack of an old central plaza of any note, a place that usually forms the beating heart of so many other Spanish towns, which is missing.

In 1937 the last of the anti-fascists to leave old Belchite were the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. First in, were the Spanish Anarchist militas. And despite the devastation, people remained behind, living in the ruins of the town until the 1960s. Graffiti, both fascists and anarchists, lay testament to its continual use and draw as an object of fascination and historical interest.

 

Old Belchite, town of the dead. New Belchite, town of the living.

But it felt like the other way round to me.

Photos: Hazel Perry, Phil Perry

Poem: Hazel Perry 19.05.17

 

Roman Zaragoza

I have recently returned from a trip to Zaragoza in the region of Aragon in Spain which has some pretty good Roman ruins. Zaragoza is the only city in Spain to retain a derivation of its original Roman name (Caesar-Augusta) and it has several Roman sites that can be visited in the centre. It was museums week when I went so it was free to visit the Roman Museums.

 

• The Roman Theatre

The first site we stumbled on quite by accident while walking around in the city streets in the evening. The Roman Theatre can be viewed from the surrounding streets. There are iron railings surrounding it and an impressive canopy to shelter the site from the elements. This site was not discovered until the 1970s when a modern building was demolished and the amphitheatre was found underneath and excavated, now available for all to see and surrounded on three sides by apartment buildings. Entrance to the site itself is through a modern museum building displaying and bits and pieces found on the site and explaining the workings of the theatre including the impressive canopy roof which was made out of textiles and wood.

 

The theatre was found just one block from the modern theatre in the centre of Zaragoza. An audio-visual film shown in the museums cinema suggested that the area has always been a centre for play-writes and actors, etc., even when people were unaware of the presence of the 2000 year old Roman theatre. I like the idea that people with these interests were drawn to that area without knowing that it had long been established as an area known for such performance art. Discoveries like this are one of the things that makes archaeology so interesting to me, how such a structure was lost and then found again.

• The Roman Forum

The Roman Forum Museum is located in the central plaza of Zaragoza, which runs parallel to the river Ebro and contains many civic and religious buildings and the impressive tiled basilica. The modern museum building is set underneath the plaza exposing the foundations of the old civic square. This includes part of the sewer structure which you can walk through. It also contains a temple, the political areas and other drainage systems all carefully dug out and explained. There are also other explanation boards and models of the buildings. The audio-visual aspect of this museum is very good. There are statues that talk to you during the presentation which is really good fun. .

 

• The Port

The forum was attached to the port area and a visit to the Roman Port Museum, situated on a square to the right of the Roman Forum and Cathedral building, acknowledges what an important place Zaragoza was while it was the port-town of Caesar-Augusta. The port along the river Ebro was accompanied by a large warehouse building backing onto the forum square. Inside the museum (again situated underground exposing the foundations of the buildings) is a replica of the warehouse build of wood and showing the store rooms for bundles of textiles, amphora containing wine, olive oil and other liquids  and other goods which would be bought down the navigable river Ebro from other parts of the Roman Empire and into central Spain. The foundations exposed are of the archways which formed the entrance to the warehouse and the steps which led up to the forum square. Another great interactive audio-visual display brings the Roman’s to life in this area. “…I have bought you the copy of Ovid’s Metamorphis from Rome that you asked for,” said one of the talking statues arriving on a boat into the Port.

 

• The Roman Baths

This is a tiny museum close to the Theatre. The most interesting bit about this museum is the 19 latrines that were excavated for the use of the Roman bathers.

 

• The City Walls

The Roman walls can be seen at the opposite end of the Plaza to the Forum Museum. They are not in a museum but are situated by the large iron work market place and there are tram lines running alongside.

 

I greatly enjoyed my time in Zaragoza although it turned out to be a bit of a “busman’s holiday” considering I work with explaining Roman life but I recognised and learnt a lot of new things too. It’s a good job that I approach my holidays with an attitude where I am going to learn things and explore the world, not to lie on a beach all day and eating all day English breakfasts! Anyway, Zaragoza is a small city interesting to explore with a great history and the river bank provides nice walks too, especially on the other side of the river to where the main sites are. This can be accessed by an old stone bridge over the Ebro and there is a lot of interesting birdlife to see too.  My next blog entry will contain what we did when we ventured outside of Zaragoza…