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FEATURES

50 years ago this week |

Civil war in

By WILLIAM KARDASH

On July 18, 1936 General Franco led a
revolt to overthrow the Republican
Popular Front Government of President
Azana, elected to office in February of
that year. Plans for the revolt by the
Spanish Generals and the Falangists (fas-

cist party in Spain) were approved by
Hitler’s high command in Berlin and
Mussolini in Rome. They pledged full
support of weapons and regular military
forces to Franco.

The uprising was brought quickly
under control in Madrid, Barcelona and
other centres. Franco’s generals, using
the Foreign Legion and Moors stationed
in Spanish Morocco, invaded Spain from
the south together with thousands of Ita-
lian troops supported by air and tank
forces. What was to have been a short-
lived revolt developed into a full scale
war lasting for 33 months.

The battle in Spain was part of Hitler’s
plan for the conquest of Europe. That
became more evident as the war con-

’ tinued. Hitler had dismembered Czecho-

slovakia, seized Austria, and was making
demands upon Poland by the end of the
Spanish conflict.

For the Spanish people it was a fight
for democracy and liberty, for progress
and national independence.

The reactionary Tory government of
Great Britain through the so-called Non-
intervention Committee, consisting of
Britain, France, Italy and Germany, de-
nied the sale of arms to the Spanish
Government, thus aiding the fascists in
their efforts to conquer Spain: Had the
Spanish Government, a member of the
League of Nations, been able to: pur-
chase arms, the fascist uprising would
have been brought under control in short
time. Hundreds of thousands of lives
would have been saved.

Hitler’s plan of a world war would
have received a serious setback if not a
total defeat.

The United States and Canada sided in
with the non-intervention farce. Only the

|
Soviet Union came to the aid of the Re-
publican Government of Spain. Initially
joining the Non-Intervention committee |

‘it withdrew when the hypocritical role of
Britain and France became clear.

The heroic anti-fascist struggle of the .
Spanish people received wide support
among the peoples of many countries.
Never before has history witnessed such
a broad and massive response.
Thousands of volunteers poured ‘into
Spain to fight against fascism. Estimates
of 35 to 50 thousand volunteers from
over 35 countries have been used by
many sources as fighting in the Inter-
national Brigades alongside the Spanish
Republican Army. They were of many
trades and professions, but all with one
purpose — to help defeat fascism and
save democracy. Many risked their lives
in making their way into Spain, especial-
ly those from countries whose govern-
ments were on the side of Hitler and
Franco.

Contrary to the wishes of the King
Government and his policy of appease-
ment to fascism, over 1,250 Canadians
went to Spain and fought heroically side
by side with other volunteers in the
International Brigades and their heroic
Spanish brothers and sisters. They
fought in the battles of Jarama, Brunete,
Belchite, Fuentes de Ebro, Teruel, and
Ebro. At Fuentes de Ebro on October 13,
1937 they fought as a Canadian unit —
the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion.

Half of them lie in the blood-soaked:
soil of that heroic country. More than
half of those that returned were wound-
ed, some badly crippled. Many of the
physically fit, soon enlisted for service
overseas to complete the job of fighting
fascism.

Both the actions and valor of the vet-
erans of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battal-
ion were belatedly acknowledged in De-
cember 1980 in the House of Commons
by John Campbell, parliamentary secret-
ary to the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

“One can certainly congratulate those |

men who went to Spain and waged war on

the fascists. One can applaud their bravery -

in the face of a better manned and better
equipped enemy. As soldiers they were
superb, and Canadians in general regard the
performance of the Mackenzie-Papineau
Brigade AS HEROIC... .. They fought in the
company of a man calléd Norman Bethune
whose concern for humanity went beyond
geographical boundaries. Certainly the
exploits of the International Brigade will live
on in literature long after all the members of
that gallant group have passed away. His-
tory has proven them right. They were
among the first to take on fascism.”

Despite these fine words the request of

the Mac-Paps for full recognition was
turned down by Mr. Campbell. This
shameful, indefensible injustice must be
expunged from the pages of Canada’s
history by granting them such recogni-
tion. This must be done now so the less
than a hundred of the “‘gallant group”’
can be live witnesses to the Act.

During the Spanish war, Canadians re-

sponded generously by sending parcels
of clothing and food as well as funds.
Committees to Aid Spanish Democracy
_were established in many cities and smal-
ler localities. Prominent people from all

walks of life — lent their names, Tim
Buck, A.A. MacLeod and other leading
communists urged their members to give
full support and take an active part in the
movement to aid Spain. W. Kashtan
went to Spain to learn first hand of bor
best to provide such aid.

Thousands of international volunteers aided Spain.

17 years.

Today we pay homage to all ye
teers who took part in the fight W
International Brigades and to et 60
people of Spain. But the task is not
pleted. Reagan plans to dominate.
earth from outer space through
Wars’’. He trains, arms, and
terrorist gangs in Nicaragua,
tan, Angola; and other countries:
poses any sanctions against the *
barbarous apartheid Botha ree
which brutally murders thousal
Blacks.

Through the CIA he support th Ko
terrorist regimes of Chile, South
Pakistan. He resorts to lawless, !@
bombing of Libya, seizes little
militarily. He has violated arms ©
agreements and intensifies nucleat
‘testing. He is escalating the nucleat® 0st
race, expending thousands of
dollars while children are dying of hu!
and disease. He is reviving Base
duction of chemical materials for

- Only the widest forms of unity @ oe
peoples and nations can save #
from this mad rush to a nucle
caust. Spain showed that appe
was the record to disaster ae
spelled victory.

William Kardash is a veteran of
MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion me
severely wounded during fighting:

elected as a Communist member to te ne
jtoba Legislature in 1941, where he 8

Canada is about to take a giant leap
into the Star Wars era with the selection
by the Canadian military of three north-
ern sites at Yellowknife, Frobisher Bay
and Fort Chimo to host modern inter-
ceptor bases. From these locations will
fly Canadian F-18’s and U.S. Airforce
F-106 and F-15 fighter aircraft under
NORAD command — their purpose to
intercept Soviet bombers and Cruise
missiles trying to underfly the Star
Wars network.

Why should this be objectionable?
There is, after all, nothing wrong with
defending Canadian airspace. The
problem is that without any national
debate, indeed, without any say in the
matter whatsoever, we are being drag-
ged into a made-in-Washington plan for
continental defence that will, within a
few years, transform Canada into a
major theatre of nuclear war-fighting
operations.

One of the big flaws in SDI — the Star
Wars concept which the U.S. seems
thoroughly sold on — is that space
weapons designed to destroy Soviet
ICBM’s can be circumvented by low-
flying missiles and bombers.

This means that a massive air de-
fence system will have to be con-

_ structed in tandem with the Star Wars
| network.

News

x Analysis | |

Fred Weir

The U.S. has already decided to go
ahead with this major program to build
the ground-based companion to Star
Wars — the Air Defence Initiative
(ADI). According to the authoritative
magazine, Defence Week, ADI will be
‘‘the most complete air defence system
ever deployed,’ comprising ‘“‘untold
numbers of planes armed with new air-
to-air missiles, sophisticated radars and
sensors and ground- based anti-aircraft
batteries.”

And, notes Defence Week,
“geography requires that many of the
projected ADI installations would have
to be in Canada.”’

In the new era of U.S. strategy,
Canada is seen as ‘‘the open doors and
windows”’ of SDI. Thus, by uncriti-
cally agreeing to close these ‘gaps’ we
are, whether we know it or not, buying
heavily into Ronald Reagan’s Star
Wars future.

Canada will be ‘nuclear no-man’s land’

Successive Canadian governments
have collaborated with the U.S. in
creating this situation. In doing so, they
have ignored the arms control alterna-
tive, which might have effectively pro-
vided for Canadian security without a

massive arms build-up.
During the late 1970s, for instance,

there was a window of opportunity to
ban Cruise missiles in the SALT II
negotiations. The U.S., which was
ahead in Cruise technology, refused
this option. Canada failed to speak up,
failed to pressure our ally to accept

- what can now-be seen to have been

valuable Soviet proposals in this area.
Instead, we became junior partners in
the development of the air-launched
version of the Cruise.

Today we are paying the price of our
short-sighted and slavish deference to
U.S. military policies. Having collabo-
rated in the production of this weapon,

participation i in Star Wars. Now 18.
“into the Pentagon’s deadly embr?

_ control and political detente — the ©

with the promise that it would ent
our security, a senior ‘Americal nu
force officer now tells us: ‘the
missile is the threat of the future- 1e
Because of it, we are now eX :
to build a vast and exorbitantly ee
sive line of radars and electroni¢
sors across our territory — the
Warning Line. And we will soo?
asked to become wholehearted
ticipants in the Air Defence Initiat!
fighter bases, ‘missile batteries feo" |
command bunkers will be standard?" |
tures of our northern scenery. Jeol
It is not too late to get off this nue
roller-coaster. Cruise missiles ¢@% ~
be banned — there is a standing
proposal to this effect. A nuclear?”
and. a comprehensive test ban © Ga
would prevent the emergence of : oot
Wars and other new veanon: aa
that make up the Pentagon’s menu
future atomic war. h
The three new airfields ©,
constructed in our north by N
are a down payment on Canada’: s :

time to reject this path, to halt ov! 7

and begin working as a nation for ?

measures that can provide secunly
nuclear-armed world.

- 6 PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 16, 1986