Canada & The Spanish Civil War - 70 Years Later
The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion & The International Brigades
Jan 8, 2009
The beginning of 2009 will mark the 70th anniversary of the disbanding of the International Brigades who had been voluntarily helping Spanish Republicans of all stripes to fight the Fascist National forces of General Francisco Franco. Michael Petrou of Oxford University and Maclean's wrote his book, Renegades, Canadians in the Spanish Civil War (UBC Press, 2008) as a timely commemoration to the event. There had only been 3 books previously written about the Canadians' Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion but this one is arguably the best for several reasons:
- he interviewed a dozen survivors who fought in Spain
- had access to de-classified documents from the Communist International in Moscow
- gained access to RCMP freedom-of-information material
Almost 1700 Canadians volunteered when the Communist Party International (Comintern) began recruiting International Brigades for the Spanish Civil War outbreak in 1936, and more than 400 died, according to Petrou (p. 3).
At the time, the U.S.S.R. was the only nation to offer aid to the democratically elected Popular Front. Other nations, including Canada, offered no assistance and in fact enacted laws forbidding it; namely the Non-Intervention Agreement and the Foreign Enlistment Act. Meanwhile Hitler and Mussolini were sending men and materiel to help Franco. It was a messy affair physically and politically.
Physical Conditions
Getting to Spain involved a march from France over the Pyrenees in street shoes or rope-soled alpargatas. Training was minimal, usually a few days including shooting 5 rounds at a hill, before entering the front lines. Battles were brutal; trenches were dug with dinner plates; food, clothing and medical supplies were ragtag (Norman Bethune's Red Cross started mobile blood transfusion units in this war). There were atrocities on both sides, like the bombing of Guernica, made famous by Picasso, and firing-squad executions of prisoners and deserters alike.
There were a few victories and ultimate defeat, including a massive retreat in 1938, enough tarnishing of idealism to make one Mac-Pap ask to be buried face down so that the whole bunch could kiss his backside.
Political Conditions
Many of the Canadian volunteers were left-leaning, veterans of the Depression-era Relief Camps, and influenced by the Canadian Communist Party. "Approximately 76% of the Canadians in Spain were communist...." (p. 28). In fact, it was the CP that funded the transportation costs, passport applications, and clothing. Each battalion in the Brigades had commissars to help with communist and economic education and the men called each other "comrade".
But the Popular Front was a motley collection of anarchists, unionists, socialists and liberal democrats too. Stalin used his aid leverage to prevent those who weren't communist from officer positions. Indeed the Mac Paps had American communist officers until 1938 when Canadian communist Edward Cecil-Smith became commander.
For most, the depth of Communist ideology was as thin as the Spanish soil though. When Stalin signed a pact with the Nazis in August 1939 and forbade Communists from fighting Hitler, many Mac Pap vets ignored him and enlisted, including Cecil-Smith.
Legacy
In September 1938, the International Brigades were effectively emasculated. Ordered from the front, the Spanish Premier naively hoped to get Hitler and Mussolini to withdraw National Front aid if he stopped Popular Front aid. Starting in January 1939, the Canadians left Spain.
Most of those men were principled, wanting to fight fascism. Although Spain itself was a lost cause many Mac-Paps could have said to Europe's leaders, "We told you so." Instead they fought again and their password from Madrid, "No Paseran" (they will not pass), was a worthy rallying cry for people who say, "enough is enough".
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