by Brian Bamford (Sec. of Taneside TUC)
IN
SPAIN on this day 80 years ago, the Republican defenders of Madrid
raised the white flag over the city, bringing to an end the bloody
three-year Spanish conflict entitled the Spanish Civil War
(30th, March 1939).
In
his reflective commemoration of this event Tom Sibley in the Morning Star
(Thursday, March 21, 2019) wrote: ‘Until the end of February
1939 Prime Minister Juan Negrin and his only reliable allies, the
Communists, were determined to fight on despite a series of crushing
military defeats in Catalonia.’
Tom Sibley entitles his column 'The betrayal of Madrid & the triumph of fascism in Spain' but much of his argument seems to be rooted in an earlier article by Paul Preston attacking Orwell's Homage to Catalonia as 'bad history' published in The Observer (7th, May 2017).
Yet what are we to make of the Spanish Prime Minister Negrin, who while urging the Spanish republicans to stand firm, moves to live close to the port of Alicante and make preparations for evacuation and exile? No wonder people were puzzled, and even his generals were not convinced complaining of the lack of arms and supplies, and with Admiral Buiza, commander of the fleet, suggesting that without an immediate solution the fleet would have to abandon Spanish waters.
Yet what are we to make of the Spanish Prime Minister Negrin, who while urging the Spanish republicans to stand firm, moves to live close to the port of Alicante and make preparations for evacuation and exile? No wonder people were puzzled, and even his generals were not convinced complaining of the lack of arms and supplies, and with Admiral Buiza, commander of the fleet, suggesting that without an immediate solution the fleet would have to abandon Spanish waters.
The
distinguished military historian, Antony Beevor, in his book The
Battle for Spain [2006] wrote: ‘Despite his calls for
resistance, Negrin did not install his government in either Madrid or
Valencia. He went to live in a villa near Elda, close to the port of
Alicante, guarded by 300 communist commandos from XIV Corps. From
there, by telephone and teleprinter, he sent a frenetic series of
instructions, on the one hand attempting to invigorate the defence of
the republican zone, and on the other making preparations for
evacuation and exile.’
The
International Brigades had already been removed from Spain in October
1938; although the International Brigades are often presented by some
as a kind of cavalry saving the Spaniards from Fascism, by September 1938 only 7,102 foreigners
were left in the International Brigades.
Antony Beevor in his observation of this decision to withdraw writes: 'It [the withdrawal] was an astute propaganda move, because both the Republic and the nationalists had greatly
exaggerated their role'.
All this will have escaped Tom Sibley's attention because in his Morning Star diatribe he is all too anxious to deploy his scatter-gun approach to target George Orwell and his book Homage to Catalonia claiming Orwell 'knowingly misleads his readers to this day'.
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3 comments:
Prof. Paul Preston in his efforts to present himself as the great authority on Spain has cheapened himself by his selective use of evidence from Orwell's essays and letters. He makes great play of Orwell's plan to join the International Brigades
On May 7, 2017 in The Obsever Preston wrote: 'he [Orwell] admitted that, prior to the May events, he was trying to transfer from the Poum to the International Brigades. That meant that he sympathised with the view of socialists, liberal republicans and communists that an effective war effort required state control of the economy and the mass mobilisation of a modern army.'
Really! How does Prof. Preston square this with Orwell's letter to a friend in which he later wrote that had he understood the Spanish situation better he would have joined the anarchist CNT?
Thanks for sending me a copy of your comments on Tom Sibley's recent article in the Morning Star. Sibley's article was reproduced in the last IBMT online circular. A couple of years back Sibley had a similar anti Orwell/POUM rant in the IBMT magazine that Nick Moreno and I responded to. I questioned why Jim Jump [ed. of IB mag] seemed more than willing to give Sibley space to re run for the umpteenth time the same old Stalinist nonsense...
Although I still belong to the IBMT I'm no longer active one of my reasons being that the organisation is one of the last refuges for Stalinist apologists who try to salvage some sort of credibility for him and the USSR by citing Soviet support for the Spanish Republic. Sibley and his ilk will never come to terms with the fact that long after the works by Preston and "historians" sympathetic to the Stalin/USSR are forgotten Orwell's writing will continue to be widely read. I think Preston's acceptance of a knighthood speaks volumes about his integrity.
Well written,best greetings for you and your wife in election's day,extreme right coming to parliament again....
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