Author Archive for Chris Brooks

Waiting, by Alvah C. Bessie

January 12, 2019
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Waiting, by Alvah C. Bessie

The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 31, September 5, 1938   We moved down off the hill in single file, the taste of breakfast still in our mouths –coffee, chocolate, ham and sardines, bread, marmalade and plums. There was a comfortable weight inside us., and there was, too, the inevitable nervousness, the pre-action...
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Two Poems by Miles Tomlin

January 4, 2019
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Two Poems by Miles Tomlin

Two Poems by Miles Tomalin The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, No. 35, November 7, 1938 TO ENGLAND From the English Dead We, who were English once had eyes and saw The savage greed of those who made this war Tear up from earth, like a hog loose in flowers So many lives as young...
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One Who Came Back by Joseph Rehill

December 28, 2018
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One Who Came Back by Joseph Rehill

One Who Came Back by Joseph Rehill The Volunteer for Liberty, v. II, no. 29, August 13, 1938 I have been asked time and again “What made you boys come back to Spain?” Some comrades. I am sure must think that we had committed a crime and came back as fugitives from justice. I...
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Fighting Men from a Fighting Union by Archie Brown, Political Commissar, Co. 1, Battalion 58

December 21, 2018
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Fighting Men from a Fighting Union by Archie Brown, Political Commissar, Co. 1, Battalion 58

Fighting Men from a Fighting Union by Archie Brown, Political Commissar, Co. 1, Battalion 58 The Volunteer for Liberty, V. 2, No. 32, September 17, 1938. The nights were cold enough for picketing but in the bargain, there were the cops and the strike breakers. Broken heads and even killings were common. On July...
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George Redlich, Volunteer and Artist

December 14, 2018
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George Redlich, Volunteer and Artist

  George F. Redlich was born on March 22, 1919, in Stillwater, Oklahoma to German immigrants Frederick Wilhelm Redlich and Bertol (Eckold) Redlich. When George was about twelve-years old, his father moved the family from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Chicago, Illinois. The move was prompted by his father’s job loss and the hope that he...
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“We Couldn’t Believe It…” by George Kaye, Machine gun Co. 58th Battalion

December 8, 2018
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“We Couldn’t Believe It…” by George Kaye, Machine gun Co. 58th Battalion

                        “We Couldn’t Believe It…” by George Kaye, Machine gun Co. 58th Battalion The Volunteer for Liberty v. 2, No. 33, October 6, 1938. Hill 666 means several things to us of the Lincolns –eight hours of unadulterated hell, for one thing. As...
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Jack Shirai, (Japanese-American Volunteer, Killed at Villanueva de la Cañada –July 1937) By Ludwig D.

November 30, 2018
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Jack Shirai, (Japanese-American Volunteer, Killed at Villanueva de la Cañada –July 1937) By Ludwig D.

                      Jack Shirai, (Japanese-American Volunteer, killed at Villanueva de la Cañada –July 1937) By Ludwig D. The Volunteer for Liberty, V.1, No. 17, October 4, 1937.   I hear that Comrade Shirai fell. Who did not know him? His funny pidgin English, His smiling...
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The History of the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion by Frank Rogers

November 17, 2018
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The History of the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion by Frank Rogers

                                The Volunteer for Liberty, V2, No. 35, November 7, 1938 The Canadian Mac-Paps, one of the hardest fighting units in the International Brigades have blazed a trail of important military achievements since Oct. 13th, 1937 – the day...
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Commoners in Spain: Students, Faculty, and Alumni of Commonwealth College in the Spanish Civil War

November 12, 2018
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Commoners in Spain: Students, Faculty, and Alumni of Commonwealth College in the Spanish Civil War

k-Indicates killed or missing in action k –(Canadian) Arvid Carlson (also known as Arthur) was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania around 1909.  His family was of either Finnish or Swedish background.  Carlson likely attended Commonwealth College at some point in the 1930s. He joined the Canadian Communist Party in 1932. Carlson was single and living...
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Commonwealth College and the Spanish Civil War

November 9, 2018
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Members of the New Llano Cooperative Colony in Louisiana formed Commonwealth College in 1923 Commonwealth was envisioned as a Labor College “… a college specifically aimed at the leadership of what they designated as a new social class, the industrial worker. The school moved to site thirteen miles outside of Mena, in Polk County,...
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