The Spanish Civil War: Fighting For Freedom
By Will Barber Taylor
The Spanish Civil War ended just over eighty years ago. Its ending seemed, with the enthronement of Francisco Franco as Dictator, the prelude to a greater battle for the very fabric of Europe — one which would begin only later that year.
As George Orwell commented in Homage to Catalonia, his account of the war; “”The Revolution has struck off our chains,” the notice said. I felt like telling the barbers that their chains would soon be back on again if they didn’t look out.” Though it was a war that was fought throughout the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish Civil War sent shock waves across Europe.
It encapsulated the battle that was creeping across a continent — one between authoritarian dictatorships and freedom. Orwell, who tried his best to supress any romantic notions of war or ideology captured the mood of Spain during this period perfectly in the same way that Picasso’s Guernica would seer itself into the consciousnesses of everyone who saw it in the same way that the result of the war would. Franco, who’s dictatorial shadow still looms large over Spain and Spanish politics, is still as part of the fabric of politics now as he was then.
Attempts to tear down vulgar memorials to the despot are still met with outrage from some quarters and this is rooted in the result of the Spanish Civil War which is still tangible for many Spanish people. Franco may have died forty-four years ago but there is still strong support for his brand of politics in Spain, though luckily, they do not represent the opinion of the majority of Spanish people. Indeed, the Spanish government led by Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez who is planning to make the glorification of Franco illegal and remove the remains of his opponents from mass graves for re internment in more dignified surroundings.
Sanchez is doing the only truly moral thing — to react decisively against monuments to a regime that terrorised the people of Spain and who caused a trauma that is still deeply embedded in the psyche of the population.
Yet we must also remember that the same cause that drove the Nationalist in Spain in the 1930s is one that is not dead. It still lives across Europe, a pestilential and destructive disease that cannot be allowed to manifest itself in the body politic of our great continent. The third largest party in Spain, Vox, has voiced disapproval at Sanchez’s rectification of the record. We may no longer be a part of the European Union but this should not diminish our solidarity with those who are fighting against the rising tide of extremism in it. Only by remembering the events of the Spanish Civil War and learning from it and understanding how to effectively combat the hate that was at its heart can we ensure our success. This must be our mission as socialists and it is one that we will, one day, accomplish.
