During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), 2,800 American volunteers took up arms to defend the Spanish Republic against a military rebellion led by General Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. To the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, which fought from 1937 through 1938, the defense of the Republic represented the last hope of stopping the spread of international fascism. (For a general overview of the Spanish revolution, click here.) The Lincolns fought alongside approximately 35,000 anti-fascists from fifty-two countries who, like themselves, were organized under the aegis of the Comintern, and who also sought to "make Madrid the tomb of fascism." In keeping with Popular Front culture, the Americans named their units the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the George Washington Battalion, and the John Brown Battery. Together with the British, Irish, Canadian, and other nationals they formed the Fifteenth In- ternational Brigade. ("Lincoln Brigade" is a misnomer originating with an American support organization, Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.) One hundred twenty-five American men and women also served with the American Medical Bureau as nurses, doctors, technicians, and ambulance drivers.
The conviction that made volunteering for a war against fascism possible was born from the economic calamity and political turmoil of the 1930s. Like many during the Great Depression, the young volunteers had an experience of deprivation and injustice that led them to join the burgeoning student, unemployed, union, and cultural movements that were influenced by the Communist Party (CP) and other Left organizations. Involvement in these groups exposed them to a Marxist and internationalist perspective and, with their successes in galvanizing people to conscious, political action, gave rise to a revolutionary elan.
American radicalism was spurred by the appearance of profascist groups like the Liberty League, and the expansion of fascism abroad. With Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, Hitler's ascendance in 1933, and Italy's assault on Ethiopia in 1934--all accomplished without hindrance from the governments of the West--the CP responded with the coalition-building strategy of the Popular Front, attracting thousands of aroused citizens directly into its ranks or into "front" organiza- tions. When four right-wing Spanish generals, with German and Italian support, attacked the legally elected government on July 19, 1936, a desire to confront fascism in Spain swept through the progressive communities in Europe and the Americas. Within weeks, militant German, French, and Italian anti-fascists were fighting in Madrid. By January 1937, despite a State Department prohibition against travel to Spain, Americans were crossing the Pyrenees.
The Lincolns came from all walks of life, all regions of the country,
and included seamen, students, the unemployed, miners, fur workers,
lumberjacks, teachers, salesmen, athletes, dancers, and artists. They
established the first racially integrated military unit in U.S.
history and were the first to be led by a black commander. At least 60
percent were members of the Young Communist League or CP.
"Wobblies"
(members of the Industrial Workers of the World or "IWW"),
socialists, and the unaffiliated also joined. The Socialists formed
their own [Eugene] Debs Column for Spain, but open recruitment brought
on government suppression.
The reaction of Western governments to the war was ambivalent and
duplicitous. They agreed to a nonintervention pact and the United
States embargoed aid to the Spanish belligerents, policies intended to
de-escalate the war but whose selective enforcement undermined the
Republic. While Germany and Italy supplied Franco with troops, tanks,
submarines, and a modernized air force (the first to bomb open cities,
most notably Guernica), the nonintervention policy only prevented arms
from reaching the Republic. General Motors, Texaco, and other American
corporations further assisted Franco with trucks and fuel. The Soviet
Union and Mexico were the only governments to sell armaments to the
Republic, although much of them were impounded at the French border.
Throughout the war, a vociferous political and cultural movement in
America rallied to the Republic by raising money for medical aid and
demanding an end to the embargo. Such participants as Albert Einstein,
Dorothy Parker, Gene Kelly, Paul Robeson, Helen Keller, A. Philip
Randolph, and Gypsy Rose Lee reflected the wide base of support for
the Republican cause.
Self-motivated and ideological, the Lincolns attempted to create an
egalitarian "people's army"; officers were distinguished only by small
bars on their berets and in some cases rank-and-file soldiers elected
their own officers. Traditional military protocol was shunned,
although not always successfully. A political commissar explained the
politics of the war to the volunteers and tended to their needs and
morale. The Lincoln Brigade helped ease the pressure on Madrid, giving
the Republic time to train and organize its own popular army. The
subject of respectful news reports by such writers as Ernest
Hemingway, Herbert Matthews,
Martha Gellhorn,
and Lillian Hellman, the
brigade helped strengthen anti-fascist opinion in the United States.
Yet the Lincolns and the Republican military, fighting with inadequate
weaponry, could not withstand the forces allied against them. By the
end, the Lincolns had lost nearly 750 men and sustained a casualty
rate higher than that suffered by Americans in World War II. Few
escaped injury. In November 1938, as a last attempt to pressure Hitler
and Mussolini into repatriating their troops, Spanish prime minister
Juan Negrin ordered the withdrawal of the International Brigades. The
Axis coalition refused to follow suit and Madrid fell in March
1939.
The Lincolns returned home as heroes of the anti-fascist cause but
enjoyed no official recognition of their deed. Many Lincolns soon
aroused bitterness within sectors of the Left when, with the signing
of the Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact in 1939, they supported the
CP's call for the United States to stay out of WWII. Once the United
States and the Soviet Union entered the war, however, many of the
veterans enlisted in the armed forces or served with the merchant
marine. In a foreshadowing of the McCarthy period, the armed forces
designated the Lincolns "premature antifascists" and confined them to
their bases. Many successfully protested and were allowed to see
action. Among the core agents of the Office of Strategic Services were
Lincoln veterans whose contacts with the European partisans, forged in
Spain, were key to OSS missions.
In the 1950s most veterans, whether Communist or not, were harassed or
forced out of their jobs by the FBI. Communist Lincolns in particular
were hit hard by the repressive Subversive Activities Control Board,
the Smith Act, and state sedition laws, although over time all but a
few convictions were overturned. In the 1950s and 1960s the majority
of Lincoln veterans quit the CP but continued to be active on the
Left. Notwithstanding its exclusion from American textbooks, the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade commands attention as a unique example of
prescient, radical, and selfless action in the cause of international
freedom.
--written by Sam Sills
Document URL: http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/abe-brigade.htmlREFERENCES
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Last modified: Saturday, 05-Jun-2021 08:38:09 EDT