No Spanish Holocaust Humour: Siempre Chufla!

'Don't worry Senora, he won't be needing a coat where he's going!'

YESTERDAY in the Spanish Supreme Court the voices of the victims of Franco were heard for the first time from those who were children in 1936 relating their accounts of what happened to their parents in the Spanish Civil War.  Pino Sosa, now 75-years-old from the Canary Islands, said:  'On the 19th, March 1937, a group of Falangistas came at 6 a.m. for my father. My mother went to get him a coat and the Falangist said:  "Don't worry Senora, where he is going he won't be needing it and he won't be coming back".'  

Siempre chufla los Espanoles: The Spaniards always can be counted on to crack jokes even in the most dire situations like when they are committing assassinations.  It is one of their many virtues; one could hardly imagine 'Comrade Spiky Mike' from Chorton' or 'Knight Rider' from Oldham or the randy secret police agent, Mark Kennedy, coming up with such a turn of phrase before they pulled the trigger now could you: too much of the English stiff upper lip!  (The humour has that extra bite to a Catholic killing an anarchist or socialist; because whatever the weather outside is doing in the 'infieno' [HELL] a coat is the last thing one needs.)

About the same time 75 years ago in 1937, the International Herald Tribune reports: '1937 Demonstration in Moscow - One of the mightiest demonstrations in Russian history was held here today [Jan. 30] when more than a million persons massed in Red Square and in surrounding streets to express approval of the verdict in the treason trial concluded at midnight.  Thirteen of the 17 defendants charged with conspiring against the state had been sentenced to death... Addressing the group, Nikita Khrushchev, secretary of the committee, said: "We declare that by whatever means the enemy may try to check our advance toward a Communist society we shall crush the attempt." Astonished silence greeted the announcement of the sentences last night in the courtroom.'  I wonder if Comrade Stalin and the Russian Communists were as good, in 1937, at droll 'Chufla' as the Spanish Falangists?

Never-the-less, one must grant our local fellow-travellers and one-time admirers of Stalin and Mother Russia a certain banal dark humour; for in 2006 they also held an inquiry at Salford Quays presided over by Alec McFadden, the TUC JCC North West representative, into whether or not it was appropriate to call someone a 'Holocaust denier' for failing to recognise that Spain had suffered a form of genocide during and after the Spanish Civil War under Franco.  One witness at the inquiry, John Howard then Chair of the Greater Manchester County Association of Trade Union Councils, even said at this hearing: 'I've never heard of the Spanish Holocaust!'.  Since then, of course, the historian Paul Preston, himself a sympathiser of the Communist Party, has published a book entitled 'The Spanish Holocaust', and today Judge Garzon is facing the Spanish Supreme Tribunal on the charge of ulta vires [acting beyond his powers] for investigating the 'crimes of the Francoists' for a 'systemic plan' to eliminate its detractors. In trying to raise these very matters in 2006 at the time of the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, the Secretary of Tameside TUC was suspended for one year on the recommendation of Alec McFadden: this followed a complaint from Oldham TUC, its then secretary, Martin Gleason and Treasurer, Mike Luft. In the end after contacting Brendan Barber and the TUC, it turned out that Alec McFadden himself had acted 'ultra vires' and beyond his powers in proposing this suspension.

I only wish I was a Spaniard and could come up with some piece of 'Chufla' to capture the spirit of silliness of the occasion at Salford Quays.

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Listening to Judge Garzón: Escuchando al juez Garzón

SHOWING on Wednesday night at the Cornerhouse cinema in Manchester, as part of the ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Film Festival, is a screening of an interview with the Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón. Judge Garzón is perhaps the most famous living Judge because of the part he played in 1998 in the detention in this country of the Chilean dictator General Pinochet after issuing an international arrest warrant on him for the torture of Spanish citizens. The Chilean Truth Commission (1990–91) report was the basis for the warrant, marking an unprecedented use of universal jurisdiction to attempt to try a former dictator for an international crime. Garzón's request for the extradition of Pinochet to Spain was later rejected by the then British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, on health grounds.

Garzón also filed charges of genocide against Argentine military officers on the disappearance of Spanish citizens during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. Eventually Adolfo Scilingo and Miguel Angel Cavallo were prosecuted in separate cases. Scilingo was convicted and sentenced to over 1000 years incarceration for his crimes.

In October 2008, Garzón opened a controversial inquiry into alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Nationalist government during the Spanish Civil War and the years that followed the war. This action was controversial because the offenses were nearly 70 years old, previous to the concept of crimes against humanity, and a 1977 general amnesty act barred any investigations related to criminal offenses with a political aim previous to 1976. In 2008 the inquiry was suspended. In September 2009, a trade union called "Manos Limpias" (Clean Hands) filed a lawsuit against Garzón alleging that Garzón had abused his judicial authority by opening the inquiry. Garzón denied any wrongdoing.

In April 2010, Garzón was indicted by the Spanish Supreme Court for prevarication for arbitrarily changing his juridical criteria to engineer the case in order to bypass the law limiting his jurisdiction. If convicted, he could be barred from his duties for 20 years. Garzón's indictment has been highly divisive within Spain and controversial abroad. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned the indictment, and The New York Times published an editorial supporting him, whereas The Wall Street Journal condemned Garzón's proceedings in an editorial supporting the rule of law. There were public protests in Spain from left wing organizations supporting Garzón.

Wednesday night's black and white screening will take place at 8.40pm at the Cornerhouse cinema on Oxford Street, Manchester.

Spanish Protests for Garzon & Victims of Franco

LAST SATURDAY, tens of thousands of protesters turned out on the streets of 21 Spanish towns and cities in support of Judge Baltasar Garzon, who faces suspension from the Spanish bench for having called for the opening of more than a dozen graves of people who were presumed to be Franco's victims, and for demanding the investigation of the 'crimes' of the Franco regime. By breaching the terms of a 1977 amnesty created during the transition to democracy, some magistrates argue that he overstepped his judicial mandate: in English law this would mean he acted ultra vires - beyond his powers.

Garzon's supporters claim he is being pursued by a right-wing gang, including member of the 'Fascist' Falange party and 'Manos Limpias' - a pseudo-sindicato (trade union), that have taken out writs against him. It was Garzon who, some years ago, forced the British Home Secretary, Jack Straw, to act against Pinochet in this country. His actions on behalf of the victims of Franco has divided the Spaniards. The Spanish judges are highly political, and Garzon is no exception. Last Saturday, many of the demonstrators were calling for 'Mas juces como Garzon' ('More Judges like Garzon') and 'Garzon amigo, Espanaesta contigo!' (Garzon old mate, Spain is with you!').

Famous actors and actresses, like Juan Diego Botto, Jose Sacristan, Pilar Bardem and Charo Lopez, world famous film director Pedro Almodovar, and singer, Miguel Rios, backed the protest.

This is happening at a time when the Tameside Arts & Events Department in Greater Manchester, has recently 'deferred indefinitely' an application from Tameside Trade Union Council for a commemoration for James Keogh, a local youth who was killed in Spain by Italian troops supporting General Franco over 70 years ago, while fighting in the International brigade for freedom and democracy for the Spanish people [see Northern Voices 11]. This week, the English Judge, Lord Bingham said on Radio 4's 'Start the Week' that, in his view, the best judges are those that are unknown to the public. This shows us the difference between the Spanish mentality and that of the English: the Spaniard generally is more forthright, blunter and more open than his English counterpart; the English are more reserved, hypocritical and more restrained in the way they go about things. This thought possibly encouraged Christopher Caldwell in the FT to write: 'For all its impressive progress over the past three decades, Spain remains a country with an unsettled - and, by western standards of non-partisanship and impartiality, unimpressive - judicial tradition.' And referring to Garzon, he writes: 'It is no gain for international peace when a freelancer operating in such a system is permitted to make foreign policy for a dozen European countries, all of which have a better human rights record than Spain's over the last 60 years, as Garzon was permitted to do in the Pinochet case.'