At the International Brigade Memorial in London’s Waterloo area, the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) arranged a commemoration of the Socialist and Communist inspired International Brigades that went to the aid of Republican Span in its just battle against the Hitler-supported fascism of General Franco – the only ally of Nazi Germany to have retained his rightwing rule for decades following the end of WWII and the crushing of Nazism in Germany and Western Europe. Thousands upon thousands of men and women across the world (including Germans who hated Hitler’s regime) – motivated by a keen sense of selfless ‘Internationalism’ – heeded for call to arms and volunteered with no expectation of reward, travelled to Spain in an attempt to hold back the flood of advancing fascism. Despite the sacrifice of thousands of these selfless people – the war was eventually lost – but it set the stage for WWII and the ultimate crushing of Nazism. Prominent speakers at the commemoration talked today of the upsurge in far-right activity in Eastern Europe – referring to the UK and USA-backed neo-Nazi regime in Eastern Ukraine and elsewhere. In these tainted countries – memorials to the International Brigades are being destroyed, and monuments to Nazi war criminals raised in their place. This is the ‘new’ fascism that all like minded people must come together and oppose.
