SSP's Wullie Cunningham pays tribute to the Scots who faught in the Spanish Civil War.
 |
| International Brigade members captured after the battle of Jarama. |
Friday 27th of
January marked the 78th anniversary of the end of the Battle of
Jarama. For almost a month, the forces of Republican Spain held the route to
the Madrid-Valencia road the Nationalists sought to capture, though they were
unable to stop the fascists from crossing the river the battle is named after.
Among those fighting were 549
Scottish volunteers (proporitonally more than any other nation who had men join
the International Brigades) who were posted alongside the rest of the British
Battalion. The International Brigades were used as shock troops fighting the
brunt of the Nationalist advance. The Scots were among those to take and hold a
hill, named “Suicide Hill” due to the sheer number of losses felt by those
fighting there.
Among their numbers were men
from North Lanarkshire, most notably Jock Cunningham, a miner from Coatbridge,
who along with Frank Ryan, a founder of the Irish Republican Congress, rallied
the remaining members of the British Battalion to hold the line against
Franco's troops. In all, 11 men from North Lanarkshire laid down their lives in
the fight against fascism.
It is important that we never
forget these men in a world today where fascism is once again on the rise. Its
normalisation in many nations, including the rapid growth of UKIP (who while
not outright fascist, have attracted the support of many in the far right and
have some quasi-fascist policies) in the UK, would sicken those who fought over
seventy years ago to stop the same thing. As long as there is one fascist left
on Earth, we must stay vigilant against them and never allow another like
Franco, Hitler or Mussolini to rise.
As Woody Guthrie sang, we
must all remember the valley Jarama and the men who fought to protect democracy
in it, and continue their legacy in the fight to end fascism and
totalitarianism.
By Wullie Cunningham