The Empty Tomb Of Fascism »

The Spanish Civil War contains important lessons for modern societies and particularly for understanding the significance of political anarchism.
in 1917, US Senator Hiram Johnson noted that “the first casualty of war is the truth”. Few periods of world history have borne this out as remarkably as the Spanish Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War commenced on July 17, 1936. Spain had been under a Republican government for only a short time, having abandoned the monarchy in 1931. At that time, 67% of the land was owned by only 2% of the population. The poverty was dire and most peasants subsisted by sharecropping. There was a 40% illiteracy rate and the Catholic Church both supported the landowners and controlled public education. The Republican government had imprisoned 30,000 political dissidents in only five years. The Anarchist trade union – Confederacion Nacional de Trabajo (CNT) – had grown to two million members.

In 1936, the Popular Front government was elected – a left-wing assembly of Socialists, Communists, and Anarchists. A right-wing rebellion ensued, led by fascist Francisco Franco. The rebels received aid from Mussolini, Hitler, and Salazar while Britain and France declared an arms embargo and non-intervention policy with regards to Spain. The British and American upper classes sympathized with Franco. Mexico and the Soviet Union backed the Popular Front government, largely because they didn’t want civil unrest to interfere with trade.

Franco’s forces organized four columns that moved across Spain and systematically killed supporters of the Popular Front. Government forces were able to protect Madrid from the Four Columns and banners hung in the streets of the capital city, declaring Madrid to be “the tomb of fascism."

At this time, a Brit by the name of Eric Blair went to Spain as a journalist. He was born in India in 1903 and sent to England for schooling. He graduated from Eton in 1921 and served in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma until 1927. He then spent a year among the homeless, which prompted him to publish the book Down and Out in Paris and London in 1933 under the name for which he is known – George Orwell.... see the article!

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