January 1938, Teruel, Spain. It’s cold as hell and the noise from the lethally accurate Nazi artillery is “unbelievable. Under fresh débris of rub- ‘ble and sandbags 28-year old Ross Rus- Sell is slowly regaining his senses after the machine gun nest he and his com- Tades were manning sustained a direct hit from overhead shrapnel. Pieces of that “fine steel’’ will stay in his back for the Test of his life. It’s a hell of a long way back to Montreal. : 2 * * * On Aug. 26, 1979, Russell and a group Of 45 other veterans and friends of the ckenzie-Papineau Battalion, sur- Vivors of the Canadian contingent that Voluntéered to fight in defence of the elected government of Spain between 1936 and 38, left Toronto International ‘4irport for Madrid and a heroes’ wel- Come by the grateful people of Spain. fascist dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, the people of Spain are finally able to offer belated gratitude to the thousands of young people around the World who volunteered to fight with them inthe 15th International Brigade, against co and his backers, Hitler and Mus- Solini. ; “We have reason to believe that we Will be meeting people of considerable Importance in Spain’’, Russell said be- fore the group left Canada. ‘‘We hope to learn what they’re doing, how progres- Sive, how democratic the government S become, and what the people are pain.’’ : “Forgotten Soldiers” _Long regarded as the ‘‘Forgotten Sol- diers”’, the veterans from Spain believe that with the new government in Spain, and the revived interest in their story about what went on during the Spanish _ Civil war and Canada’s part in the fight against fascism, that the time is ripe for demanding recognition from the 80vernment as veterans. “We feel very strongly that we are €ntitled as a minimum, the same recogni- tion as other soldiers who fought for Canada,”’ Russell said. ‘What we're Seeking is recognition:as people who _ Were in the forefront of the: struggle s} 88ainst fascism. || ‘We want recognition by the govern- !} Ment to give our people status in vete- : A Le _ Tans’ organizations and secondly that our | hospitalization, and for pensions if there Were wounds. ___.. That’s pretty small potatoes in terms | dollars because there aré so few of ae Immediately upon arriving to Spain, | the group plans to contact the Canadian “Mbassy to inform them the veterans | -SVe arrived and to ask them to com- | Municate with the Canadian Govern- _ Ment that the veterans plan to petition federal government for recognition Upon return. ' To Fight Fascism _ Democracy. Spain in 1936, despite ___ What the Roman Catholic Church or the | tig business governments and media in __ ,.- 80-called Western democracies main- Tained, attracted young people to its because the spectre of fascism . spreading outside of Germany and Italy, . the atrocities it committed against People, was sickeningly visible. ., BY the time the international brigades hae being organized to defend the Popu- Front government elected by the teva people July 16, 1936, the world me much about the suffering and tor- inflicted on humanity by fascism. ,Secution of Jews, all-out war against and r movement, and progressive xv democratic political parties and now oe army under Franco was being ePatish Morocco on the ships of the fas- {Italian navy. Yep 2NCo’s army of ruthless foreign fina naires, and sadistic Moors was ke Ced to the hilt, and armed to the by Mussolini and Hitler’s Nazis. With the unlamented passing of the. ening toward in terms of democracy in - | . People be covered in the same way that _ Veterans from other wars are covered for ; €d across the Mediterranean from Ross Russell holds photo of himself as a young man in Spain. TOUR LAUNCHES FIGHT FOR RECOGNITION Mac-Paps back in Spain The Italian army was added to Franco’s rebel force, while the Nazis deployed the. Condor Legion, its planes and tanks. The Spanish Republic with one ' thousand million gold pesetas, and one thousand million silver pesetas in its treasury couldn’t buy weapons and supplies anywhere. Spineless Shape The capitalist countries of Europe supported by Canada and the U.S. hid under cover of ‘‘non-intervention’’. Fr- ance and Britain organized a ‘‘Non-Intervention Committee’’ to see to it that no country traded arms with Spain. Capitulation and appeasement to fascism’s voracious appetite was begin- ning to take its spineless shape. Spain was being isolated. Only the Soviet Union did what it could in sending arms, ammunition and supplies. But tons of equipment never got inside Spain with the Mediterranean guarded by Italian submarines, and the French border with Spain sealed by the social democratic - government of Leon Blum. “Tt became clear to me and many © others that we had a role to play”, Rus- sell recalled, ‘‘and that in my view if Hitler’s Nazi group and Mussolini’s fas- - cists were successful in establishing a fascist dictatorship in Spain — were able to overthrow the democratically-elected government there — then the second world war seemed to me to be inevitable. “It was clear that they would try to overthrow any and all forms of democ- racy wherever they might exist in the world. That in a nutshell is why I decided to play my small part.” Getting To Spain =a Doing your bit to help the Spanish people and stop World War II from get- ting off the ground, however was no easy task. The Liberal government of Mackenzie-King supported the ‘‘non-intervention’’ policy of giving the fascists a free hand in strangling the people’s republic. In 1937 parliament passed the Foreign Enlistment Act which barred anyone from participating in any foreign army or helping to recruit Canadians to do so. To get the message across more vividly, Canadian passports issued at the time were stamped: Not valid for Spain, the ‘Canary Islands or any Spanish posses- sion. Despite the threat of heavy fines and jail terms, the Canadian people still re- sporided to the plight of the Spanish people and Spanish solidarity com- mittees were springing up across the country. . In the forefront of organizing relief and support for the Spanish republic was the Communist Party of Canada. ‘*There were 4 lot of people in Canada who were opposed ‘to what the fascists ‘ were trying to do in Spain,”’ Russell re- membered. ‘‘Some of these people were clergymen, some were prominent poli- tical people like Tommy Douglas, at that time of the CCF, who spoke in opposi- tion. ‘ **But as far as I know, and I’m pretty certain of this, the only political party in Canada that took a forthright position and did something about the war in Spain was the Communist Party. The only or- ganized assistance to Spain by a political party in Canada was done by the Com- munity Party. : “Actually, if one wanted to ‘go to Spain, as I did; one had to go to the Communist Party office, as I did; and, tell them that you wanted to go. In Montreal I did this, as they did in Toron- to, Vancouver, Winnipeg .and other centres across the country.”’ Of the more than 1,200 Canadian vol- unteers in Spain, about 600 returned. They were heartily welcomed by the people of Canada on their return. Train stations in Montreal and Toronto were packed with welcoming committees. But the government would have preferred they remain in Spain. : Two. things contributed most to the defeat of the Spanish Republic. ‘The first was the world-wide cam- TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS . paign against it by the Roman Catholic Church spreading horror stories about a _ supposedly communist government murdering nuns and priests. In fact the Popular Front government was a coali- tion which included communists, socialists. farmers, and other parties united around a program of democratic reform. It was, as Russell describes it, ‘‘a bourgeois republic,’’ not too much farther left than the Liberal government in Canada, at that time. The decisive factor that guaranteed the defeat of the republic was the open hand given by the western capitalist countries to Franco’s fascist backers. Right-wing Plan sae ‘ “People of the type of Chamberlain \(Britain) and Daladier (France) thought along similar lines as other right-wingers at that time. They thought they could succeed in having the powerful forces of Nazi armed strength turned against the Soviet Union. : - ‘As we know, things didn’t work out that way. These people weren’t opposed to a second world war as long as it went the way they wanted it to go.” Spain, eventually completely isolated by ‘‘non-intervention’’ became the “‘pariah’’ state of the world — no one ~ would deal with her. Franco took Spain . with his fascist army and the best Nazi weaponry available. : - The bitterness for Russell is still there. “I appreciate the fact that the Tory government in Britain was probably more responsible than any other government in the world for the defeat of the Spanish Republic.”’ But, the social democratic govern- * ment of Leon Blum, which had in it its power to help Spain but instead sealed its borders, stopping military equipment from the Soviet Union destined for the republicans, must share a heavy burden of guilt. : Millions of dollars worth of war mate- rial, held at the border by the Blum government because of “‘non-intervention”, with the: Mediter- ranean blocked by the Fascist Navy, Fr- ance was the only way the Soviets could get the material through. : “It was only a matter of eight or nine months [ater that the Nazis captured all of that equipment when they took France:”’ War Averted? The Canadian volunteers believe their contribution could have averted World War II. ‘‘Had Nazism suffered a defeat in Spain, you could have had a com- pletely different political situation in a country like France. “‘Hitler wouldn’t have known in ad- vance that countries like Britain and Fr- ance would capitulate so easily. Whether a war could have been averted for all time is hard to say. That would have depended on other political develop- ments, but I’m sure war wouldn’t have broken out in 1939. _ “Victory in Spain would have encour- aged the people of Britain and France to pressure their government not to capitu- late to the Fascists.” There are valuable lessons to learn from the civil war in Spain. The story of sacrifice by Spaniards in trying to pre- vent a brutal fascist regime from coming to power has to be told, Russell believes. Russell and the volunteers don’t see the war in Spain as lost. ‘‘Sure, the Spanish people were defeated, but the lesson is there for the world to see. Peoples in democracies must very care- fully examine what their governments are doing. They must take an interest to see that their democratic rights, whether in their own country or in any country are upheld. And, wherever they are threatened, where democracy is threatened against fascism, then the people have got to speak out and take action. ‘*The threat of fascism is never dead. Democrats of all persuasions must find a common basis to act, as we did. When you get down to the nitty gritty, in Spain there were people of all political persua- sions, but we fought shoulder to shoulder against fascism.” PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 7, 1979— Page 5