The Greatest Generation, then and now

June 15, 2013
By
The Greatest Generation, then and now

Filmmaker Oliver Stone offered a moving encomium to the volunteers of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in his keynote speech at the 77th annual reunion held at Pace University in New York on May 5, where United We Dream received the annual ALBA / Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism (video | pictures).
Read more »

Posted in News

ALBA roundtable on immigration reform: What can be done

June 15, 2013
By
ALBA roundtable on immigration reform: What can be done

Courage and fear, hope and despair: those were the recurring emotions expressed by five panelists who spoke about immigration reform at a round-table discussion organized by ALBA in New York on May 5. Speaking from the trenches, they confirmed that much has been achieved....
Read more »

Posted in News

Stone and Ratner speak of courage and activism

June 20, 2013
By
Stone and Ratner speak of courage and activism

Michael Ratner, President Emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights, and filmmaker Oliver Stone spoke at ALBA’s event in New York, highlighting the connection between the courage of the Lincoln Brigade’s internationalist activism and the courage of the activists of United We Dream. See...
Read more »

Posted in News

HR COLUMN Obama’s illegal, unwise drones

June 20, 2013
By
<em>HR COLUMN</em> Obama’s illegal, unwise drones

President Barack Obama has escalated the Bush administration’s use of targeted killing with drones and other methods. Drones, which avoid U.S. casualties, are more palatable to the American people...
Read more »

Posted in Features

ALBA Institute New Jersey teachers on track

June 20, 2013
By
<em>ALBA Institute</em> New Jersey teachers on track

Hurricane Sandy swamped the schools of Bergen County, New Jersey last November, forcing postponement of ALBA’s teaching institute, but the spring term brought an exciting revival as 22 Spanish...
Read more »

Posted in News, Education

Missing Migrants Seeking truth on the border

June 20, 2013
By
<em>Missing Migrants</em> Seeking truth on the border

Several hundred undocumented migrants die each year of heatstroke or at the hands of organized crime as they attempt to cross the deserts of Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. Law...
Read more »

Posted in Features

The man who can’t say no: Preston is working harder than ever

June 7, 2013
By
<em>The man who can’t say no</em>: Preston is working harder than ever

Paul Preston is impossible to avoid. Author of twelve books, editor of several more, and director of an important series on the subject, he towers mile-high in the landscape of Spanish Civil War scholarship. And yet in person he can be quite elusive. A previously arranged meeting for an interview in London first had...
Read more »

Posted in Features, Interviews

Tourism in Franco’s Spain

June 20, 2013
By
Tourism in Franco’s Spain

Among many other Spanish Civil War commemorations this year, it may be interesting to note that July 2013 marks the 75th anniversary of one of the conflict’s most bizarre episodes. In December 2005, Professor Sandie Holguín of the University of Oklahoma published a piece...
Read more »

Posted in Features

Franco, Nazi Collaborator

Franco, Nazi Collaborator

Francisco Franco, who ruled Spain until 1975, was obsessed with the notion of a powerful international conspiracy—led by Jews, Masons, Communists, and other “reds”— against the “new” Spain that emerged from his victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. He referred to this...
Read more »

Posted in Features

British allies: Keeping history alive

June 20, 2013
By
British allies: Keeping history alive

There were mixed feelings at the end of last year among those of us dedicated to preserving the memory of the 2,500 International Brigade volunteers from Britain and Ireland....
Read more »

Posted in News

Réquiem por la última imagen

June 20, 2013
By
Réquiem por la última imagen

“This is the most photogenic war anyone ever has seen.”* Estas palabras transcritas por Claud Cockburn carecían, en plena guerra civil, de perspectiva, mas no de perspicacia. Cierta magia...
Read more »

Posted in Features

Poetry and moral imagination: Luis García Montero

June 20, 2013
By
Poetry and moral imagination: Luis García Montero

Luis García Montero is one of Spain’s most prominent public intellectuals. A successful poet and frequent political columnist for the progressive online paper Público, he is also a leading...
Read more »

Posted in Interviews

George Sossenko (1918-2013)

June 20, 2013
By
George Sossenko (1918-2013)

George Sossenko, who joined the fight in Spain at the young age of 16 and remained active in the fight for social justice until the end of his life,...
Read more »

Posted in Memory's Roster

Remembering Marcus Billings

June 20, 2013
By
Remembering Marcus Billings

Marcus Judson Billings was born on June 10, 1914 in Redlands, California to O. S. Billings, a printer and the former Francis Devore, a housewife. He grew up...
Read more »

Posted in Memory's Roster

Review: The British in Spain

June 20, 2013
By
Review: The British in Spain

Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle against Fascism. By Richard Baxell. (London, Aurum, 2012).
Read more »

Posted in Reviews

Review: War Comes to Andalusia

June 20, 2013
By
Review: War Comes to Andalusia

Skeletons in the Closet, Skeletons in the Ground: Repression, Victimization and Humiliation in a Small Andalusian Town. By Richard Barker. (London: Sussex Academic Press, 2012).
Read more »

Posted in Reviews

Looking for my grandfather, Arturo Martín

June 20, 2013
By
Looking for my grandfather, Arturo Martín

As a child growing up in Madrid, I frequently used to ask my mom, María Luisa Jerez Marín, about her parents, whom I had never met. My grandmother, Modesta...
Read more »

Posted in Features

Ralph Fasanella: A More Perfect Union

June 19, 2013
By
Ralph Fasanella: A More Perfect Union

Ralph Fasanella’s first gallery retrospective celebrates New York City’s bridges, skylines, and tenements; your neighbors, my neighbors, our memories and our aspirations.   These pictures draw you in to conversations. ...
Read more »

Posted in Reviews, Blog

Amnesty: Spain abets impunity

June 18, 2013
By
Amnesty: Spain abets impunity

The Spanish authorities are not investigating crimes under international law committed during the Civil War and Franco period, sending the message that impunity for human rights abuses is allowed,...
Read more »

Posted in Blog

Canadian War Museum Features Exhibit on Mac Paps

June 2, 2013
By
Canadian War Museum Features Exhibit on Mac Paps

The Canadian War Museum has just opened a new exhibit featuring the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, a group of Canadians volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
Read more »

Posted in Blog