ERNEST HEMINGWAY
"On the American Dead in Spain"
(1939)
The dead sleep cold in Spain tonight. Snow blows through the olive groves, sifting against the
tree roots. Snow drifts over the mounds with small headboards. (When there was time for
headboards.) The olive trees are thin in the cold wind because their lower branches were once cut
to cover tanks, and the dead sleep cold in the small hills above the Jarama River. It was cold that
February when they died there and since then the dead have not noticed the changes of the
seasons.
It is two years now since the Lincoln Battalion held for four and a half months along the heights
of the Jarama, and the first American dead have been a part of the earth of Spain for a long time
now.
The dead sleep cold in Spain tonight and they will sleep cold all this winter as the earth sleeps
with them. But in the spring the rain will come to make the earth kind again. The wind will blow
soft over the hills from the south. The black trees will come to life with small green leaves, and
there will be blossoms on the apple trees along the Jarama River. This spring the dead will feel
the earth beginning to live again.
For our dead are a part of the earth of Spain now and the earth of Spain can never die. Each
winter it will seem to die and each spring it will come alive again. Our dead will live with it
forever.
Just as the earth can never die, neither will those who have ever been free return to slavery. The
peasants who work the earth where our dead lie know what these dead died for. There was time
during the war for them to learn these things, and there is forever for them to remember them in.
Our dead live in the hearts and the minds of the Spanish peasants, of the Spanish workers, of all
the good simple honest people who believed in and fought for the Spanish republic. And as long
as our dead live in the Spanish earth, and they will live as long as the earth lives, no system of
tyranny will ever prevail in Spain.
The fascists may spread over the land, blasting their way with weight of metal brought from other
countries. They may advance aided by traitors and by cowards. They may destroy cities and
villages and try to hold the people in slavery. But you cannot hold any people in slavery.
The Spanish people will rise again as they have always risen before against tyranny.
The dead do not need to rise. They are a part of the earth now and the earth can never be
conquered. For the earth endureth forever. It will outlive all systems of tyranny.
Those who have entered it honorably, and no men ever entered earth more honorably than those
who died in Spain, already have achieved immortality.
Letter from Spain
by Langston Hughes
Addressed to Alabama
Lincoln Battalion,
International Brigades,
November Something, 1937.
Dear Brother at home:
We captured a wounded Moor today.
He was just as dark as me.
I said, Boy, what you been doin' here
Fightin' against the free?
He answered something in a language
I couldn't understand.
But somebody told me he was sayin'
They nabbed him in his land
And made him join the fascist army
And come across to Spain.
And he said he had a feelin'
He'd never get back home again.
He said he had a feelin'
This whole thing wasn't right.
He said he didn't know
The folks he had to fight.
And as he lay there dying
In a village we had taken,
I looked across to Africa
And seed foundations shakin'.
Cause if a free Spain wins this war,
The colonies, too, are free —
Then something wonderful'll happen
To them Moors as dark as me.
I said, I guess that's why old England
And I reckon Italy, too,
Is afraid to let a workers' Spain
Be too good to me and you —
Cause they got slaves in Africa —
And they don't want 'em to be free.
Listen, Moorish prisoner, hell!
Here, shake hands with me!
I knelt down there beside him,
And I took his hand —
But the wounded Moor was dyin'
And he didn't understand.
Salud,
Johnny
Postcard from Spain
by Langston Hughes
Addressed to Alabama
Lincoln-Washington Battalion,
April, 1938
Dear Folks at home:
I went out this mornin'
Old shells was a-fallin'
Whistlin' and a-fallin'
When I went out this mornin'.
I'm way over here
A long ways from home,
Over here in Spanish country
But I don't feel alone.
Folks over here don't treat me
Like white folks used to do.
When I was home they treated me
Just like they treatin' you.
I don't think things'll ever
Be like that again:
I done met up with folks
Who'll fight for me now
Like I'm fightin' now for Spain.
Salud,
Johnny
Song of Spain
by Langston Hughes
Come now, all you who are singers,
And sing me the song of Spain.
Sing it very simply that I might understand.
What is the song of Spain?
Flamenco is the song of Spain:
Gypsies, guitars, dancing
Death and love and heartbreak
To a heel tap and a swirl of fingers
On three strings.
Flamenco is the song of Spain.
I do not understand.
Toros are the song of Spain:
The bellowing bull, the red cape,
A sword thrust, a horn tip,
The torn suit of satin and gold,
Blood on the sand
Is the song of Spain.
I do not understand.
Pintura is the song of Spain:
Goya, Velasquez, Murillo,
Splash of color on canvass,
Whirl of cherub-faces.
La Maja Desnuda's
The song of Spain.
What's that?
Don Quixote! Espana!
Aquel rincon de la Mancha de
Cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme. . . .
That's the song of Spain.
You wouldn't kid me, would you?
A bombing plane's
The song of Spain.
Bullets like rain's
The song of Spain.
Poison gas is Spain.
A knife in the back
And its terror and pain is Spain.
Toros, flamenco , paintings, books —
Not Spain.
The people are Spain:
The people beneath that bombing plane
With its wings of gold for which I pay —
I, a worker, letting my labor pile
Up millions for bombs to kill a child —
I bought those bombs for Spain!
Workers made those bombs for a Fascist Spain!
Will I make them again, and yet again?
Storm clouds move fast,
Our sky is gray.
The white devils of the terror
Await their day
When bombs'll fall not only on Spain —
But on me and you!
Workers, make no bombs again!
Workers, mine no gold again!
Workers, lift no hand again
To build up profits for the rape of Spain!
Workers, see yourselves as Spain!
Workers, know that we too can cry.
Lift arms in vain, run, hide, die:
Too late!
The bombing plane!
Workers, make no bombs again
Except that they be made for us
To hold and guard
Lest some Franco steal into our backyard
Under the guise of a patriot
Waving a flag and mouthing rot
And dropping bombs from a Christian steeple
On the people.
I made those bombs for Spain.
I must not do it again.
I made those bombing planes.
I must not do it again.
I made rich the grandees and lords
Who hire Franco to lead his gang-hordes
Against Spain.
I must never do that again.
I must drive the bombers out of Spain!
I must drive the bombers out of the world!
I must take the world for my own again —
A workers' world
Is the song of Spain.
Fourteen Defining
Characteristics Of Fascism
By Dr. Lawrence Britt
Source Free Inquiry.co
5-28-3
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini
(Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt
found 14 defining characteristics common to each:
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of
patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen
everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the
need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be
ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even
approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners,
etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into
a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe:
racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government
funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are
glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively
male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid.
Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the
ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government,
but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or
sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is
very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the
government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use
the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious
rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major
tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist
nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually
beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real
threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely
suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate
open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and
other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is
openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given
almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police
abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national
police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by
groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use
governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not
uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated
or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham.
Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination
of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district
boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their
judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.
From Liberty Forum