The Spanish Civil War and the British Left: Political Activism and the Popular Front

2010 ◽  
Vol CXXV (513) ◽  
pp. 492-493
Author(s):  
T. Buchanan
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Popular Front

Thyra Edwards’s Spanish Civil War Scrapbook

2019 ◽  
pp. 101-122
Author(s):  
Anne Donlon
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Historical Record ◽  
Black History ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Black Feminist ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Feminist History ◽  
History Of

This essay examines the life of African American social worker Thyra Edwards, who traveled to Spain during its civil war, and returned home to fund-raise and organize. She created a scrapbook, a public-facing record of African American women’s efforts on behalf of Republican Spain, made up of photographs prepared for publication and articles about her efforts circulated in newspapers. This feminist perspective of the “folks at home” is a crucial addendum to black history of the war in Spain. Edwards’s scrapbook is a multifaceted document: a kind of autobiography that is self-conscious in its historical record-keeping, an account of a very broad black Popular Front, and a black feminist history of the Spanish Civil War.

scholarly journals Unrecovered objects: Narratives of dispossession, slow violence and survival in the investigation of mass graves from the Spanish Civil War

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 428-446
Author(s):  
Layla Renshaw
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Mass Grave ◽  
Mass Graves ◽  
Pressure Groups ◽  
Slow Violence ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Impact

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was triggered by a military uprising against the democratically elected Popular Front government. Away from the battlefield, this war was characterized by the politically-motivated murder of thousands of civilians, many of whom were buried in clandestine graves throughout Spain. Following Franco’s victory and subsequent dictatorship, there were strong prohibitions on commemorating the Republican dead. A radical rupture in Spain’s memory politics occurred from 2000 onwards with the founding of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory and other similar pressure groups that have organized the exhumation and reburial of the Republican dead. This article is based on fieldwork conducted in communities in Castile and León, and Extremadura as they underwent mass grave investigations. It examines the experience of theft and dispossession that occurred as part of the Francoist repression of Republicans. Accounts of these episodes focus on stolen and looted objects robbed from the dead during the killings, from the graves’ post-mortem, or from surviving relatives as part of the systematic dispossession of Republican households that occurred during the war and immediate post-war period. These narratives surface with frequency during the investigation and exhumation of mass graves. Despite the fact that many are lost forever, these stolen possessions can function as powerful mnemonic objects with a strong affective and imaginative hold. The narratives of dispossession explore themes of survival, the experiences of women and children, and the impact of slow violence. By invoking theft and stolen objects, these stories highlight forms of trauma and forms of memory that may not be represented fully by the dominant investigative paradigm of the mass grave exhumation with its inherent focus on death, cataclysmic violence and the tangible, physical traces of the past.

Argentine Neutrality, Mediation, and Asylum During the Spanish Civil War

1963 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 383-403
Author(s):  
Joe Robert Juárez
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Francisco Franco ◽  
Constituent Assembly ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Church

Civil War broke out in Spain in 1936. Following eight years of dictatorship by General Primo de Rivera, who had acted with the approval of King Alfonso XIII, elections were held in June, 1931, for a constituent assembly. The election returns brought in a republican-socialist majority, which forbade the king’s return, confiscated his property, and proclaimed Spain a republic. The republic had enemies on both the right and the left. The large landholders, the army, and the Church had vested interests which the republic proceeded to attack. On the left, the anarchists and socialists became more /radical, competing for the loyalty of the Spanish workers. The republic’s problems were compounded by the traditional separatist movements of Catalans, Basques, and Gallegans. Power shifted from the left in 1931 to the right in 1933, and, finally, in February, 1936, to a “popular front “government. The Popular Front, however, proved to be a coalition for election purposes only. Largo Caballero, the leader of the left wing of the socialists, declined to serve in the moderate Azaña cabinet. In July, 1936, army, monarchist, clerical, and Carlist groups joined with the Falange to bring about a counter-revolutionary coup under the leadership of General Francisco Franco. The Civil War had started. It was to last for three brutality-filled years.

scholarly journals Kocbekovo Premišljevanje o Španiji

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-79
Author(s):  
Peter Kovačič Peršin
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Common Goal ◽  
The Right ◽  
Political Groups ◽  
West European

EDVARD KOCBEK'S 'REFLECTION' ON SPAINDue to the Spanish Civil War, the ideological conflicts in the Catholic circles became more distinct. The clerical part, particularly the Slovenecdaily, which published biased articles on the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and 1937 with a special emphasis on condemning the rise of the popular front, understood the publication of Edvard Kocbek's essay as an attack on its views. Kocbek's purpose behind the Ponderingwas, however, to present a more balanced picture of the Spanish tragedy that was based on the reports by West European writers who favoured the Spanish republic.The Ponderingwas the central crystallising point that led to the final split in the Catholic circles, while at the same time stirring the left-wing political groups to start fighting for a common goal. But the main reason that it became the central crystallising point was the militant response by the right-wing Catholic group; the essay in itself would have otherwise been only considered a balanced representation of the situation in Spain, which were presented one-sidedly by the clerical press. This shows that political tensions on the territory of today's Slovenia had already reached their climax as early as a few years before the war, thus rendering a dialogue and a democratic compromise that could unite the Slovenians in a national defensive attitude impossible.

scholarly journals Slovenski učbeniki zgodovine o španski državljanski vojni

2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 90-107
Author(s):  
Branko Šuštar
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
World War ◽  
Social Reforms ◽  
Political Differences ◽  
The Impact

SPANISH CIVIL WAR IN SLOVENIAN HISTORY TEXTBOOKSThe article examines the image of the 1936–1939 Spanish civil war as presented in Slovenian history textbooks for primary and secondary schools 75 years after the war. In textbooks, this topic is important for presenting the period before World War II in Europe as well as the social and political differences present in Europe at that time. The Spanish civil war raises questions of democracy, fascism, communism, social reforms, violence and revolution in Europe. Initially, the textbook authors briefly discussed the Popular front, democracy and elections, communists and revolution, as well as the support of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to Franco’s Nationalist faction and the support of Soviet Union to the Republican faction. After 1980, textbooks included a more detailed presentation of the broader social situation, the attitude of artists towards the Spanish civil war, and the impact of war on political divisions in Slovenia during World War II. The first textbooks generally mentioned that a number of Yugoslavs were fighting for the Republican faction, whereas later authors provided more information in accordance with research studies, i.e. that 500 Slovenians participated in the International Brigades.

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