Tag: International Brigades

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn – 2004

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn: On Saturday 17th July 2004 I did rather a lot of travelling around London, beginning in Trafalgar Square with a shoe pyramid against cluster bombs, then going to Acton to look at a project London Arts Café had helped with (I think I was its treasurer at the time) which took me rather longer than expected so I didn’t stay long to make sure I was back on the South Bank for the Spanish Civil War commemoration. Then out to Kilburn for a festival in Grange Park.

But I took few photographs except at the Spanish Civil War event, which was attended by at least nine of those who had gone to Spain as well as many from the families of those no longer living.

The rich and wealthy elites outside Spain feared the rebellion against the church, landowners and bosses by the peasants and working classes supporting the elected Spanish government against the fascist armies might give their those they were exploiting ideas,, Workers and intellectuals here and elsewhere saw clearly what was happening and many “went because their open eyes could see no other way.” Over 30,000 volunteers went to fight in the International Brigades, including more than 2,500 from Britain, although our government tried to prevent them. Probably around five thousand of the volunteers died in Spain and many, many more were injured.

Here is what I wrote on My London Diary back then, with the usual corrections and a few pictures, with links to rather more still on My London Diary.

Handicap International

Pyramid of Shoes, Trafalgar Square

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004

Saturday saw a repeat of last year’s shoe pyramid in Trafalgar Square, Handicap International campaigning against the use of cluster bombs, weapons that largely maim innocent women and children, which governments, including our own, are continuing to insist to use. So our taxes are now still killing and disabling innocent kids in Iraq from the invasion last year.

A few more pictures

Public Art in Acton

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004
Artist Mamily Sheiban with his screen in Churchfield Road, Acton

In Acton it was carnival day, but I didn’t have time to watch. I did manage to go and see the screen which Mohamed (Mamily) Sheibani has designed to screen off the waste area at the rear of the Oaks Shopping Centre in Churchfield Road. This was a project carried out by Acton Action with the help of Acton Arts And Media, the London Arts Café, the Churchfield Road Community Association and the shopping centre. Not a big thing, but the kind of small local project that makes an impact – we just need a few thousand more like it in London.

A few more pictures

Spanish Civil War International Brigades Memorial Event

Jubilee Gardens, Waterloo,

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004
Moe Fishman, veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of Americans
who fought in the Spanish Civil war

The Spanish Civil War started in 1936, and while governments including ours made the wrong decisions [in part] based on incorrect intelligence, as over Iraq. The rights and wrongs of the matter were clear to most of those who took an interest, especially on the left.

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004
Spanish Civil War veteran Jack Jones speaks to the assembled crowd

2,600 British men had the courage to go and join the International Brigade in the fight against fascism, and today we were again paying tribute to them. There are still a few living, and those who turned up were remarkably fit and alert considering their age.

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004
Laying a wreath to honour dead comrades, both the over 500 who died in Spain and those who have died since

Veteran Jack Jones chaired the event, and Ana Perez from the Madrid Amigos spoke movingly.

Cluster Bombs, Acton, Spain & Kilburn - 2004
A new banner to replace the original which was getting faded and worn.
Moe Fishman in front of the memorial text
YET FREEDOM! YET THY BANNER
TORN, BUT FLYING, STREAMS
LIKE THE THUNDER-STORM
AGAINST THE WIND

Veteran Moe Fishman from Manhattan, still a peace activist, brought greetings from the peace movement in America and praise for the strength of the British people in demonstrating against the invasion of Iraq – a movement now carried from the streets to the ballot box.

Jack Jones and the memorial: “TTHEY WENT BECAUSE THEIR OPEN EYES COULD SEE NO OTHER WAY”

More pictures

Kilburn Festival

Grange Park, Kilburn

Kilburn State – now a bingo hall. Kilburn High Rd

Kilburn High Road is one of the more interesting high streets of London. Too poor to have been swamped by the chains, it retains its own character and wide range of shops of various types. Perhaps more a place to look and stroll (as I did) rather than photograph.

The Kilburn Mural project is to provide a mural at the tube station

They were having a festival in grange park, which included some of the artists who are to create a mural by the tube station demonstrating their skills and giving the local people a chance to influence the mural design.

A few more pictures.

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Spain & Pride – 2009

Spain & Pride: A few days ago I watched online what was apparently the first full UK showing of Basilio Martín Patino’s 1974 film ‘Caudillo‘, produced in secret in Spain while Franco was still in power.

It’s a powerful documentary on the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9 and the rise of Franco, not surprisingly rather ragged around the edges, with some poor sound and seriously deficient subtitles but with an incredible amount of contemporary footage from both sides of the war.

It made me aware again of the terrible failure of Britain along with the other non-fascist powers to support the Spanish government and of the bravery of many thousands of individuals on the left here and elsewhere defy their governments and go to fight for freedom. Until 31st July 2026 you can still watch the Sands Films presentation of Caudillo here. There are some short sections from the over two hour-long film on You Tube.

Back on 4th July 2009 I attended the annual International Brigade Commemoration at Jubilee Gardens in London, rushing away from Pride London to so.

International Brigade Commemoration

Jubilee Gardens

Spain & Pride - 2009
In 2009 there where are still a few alive who had gone to Spain – Lou Kenton, now 101, was an ambulance driver.

This month, July 2026, is the 100th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War and this commemoration in 2009 was 70 years after it ended. As I commented, “Every year there are fewer and fewer of those who went to Spain to fight or work in the medical services, all now in their 90s or older. And every year a list of those who have died in the past year. “

Spain & Pride - 2009

Sam Lesser remembers Jack Jones, one of the great men of the twentieth century who had died in the previous year.

Spain & Pride - 2009

Wreaths came from the Spanish Ambassador, the Catalonian representative and others

Spain & Pride - 2009

There were women who went as well as men. While our politicians stood to one side and let Germany and Italy join the fight against the elected government of Spain and much of the Spanish people, many ordinary working people supported the Republic, particularly the communists and anarchists. Over 40,000 went to fight, mainly in the International Brigades and a further 10,000 as civilians, mainly as nurses and other medical staff.

Spain & Pride - 2009

The only two nations to support the Republican cause were Mexico and the Soviet Union, with Stalin sending large amounts of weapons – though many promised failed to arrive and others were antiquated.

But it was Stalin and the communists his advisers controlled who scuppered the chances of a Republican victory by attacking, imprisoning and disbanding the other groups successfully opposing Franco’s forces, freeing the poor to take over the land. A real revolution was anathema to Stalin who feared it might give his peasants ideas.

The consequence of losing the war were dire for the Spanish people (except the Catholic Church and the wealthy) with many years of repression and dictatorship – and for much of the world as it led to the Second World War.

More at International Brigade Commemoration.

Pride London 2009

Baker St to Trafalgar Square

Spain & Pride - 2009
HM Prison Service: “Banged to Rights”

Earlier in the day I had photographed the 2009 Pride London March. I commented “Things have changed pretty dramatically over those 15 or more years [since I first attended], and Pride is largely a very different event, much more of a corporate than a personal or political one. Of course the LGBT community being what it is there is still plenty of room for the unusual, the eccentric,the flamboyant, the spectacle. And even, though perhaps rather more at the edges, the political.”

Outrage protest the ban on gay marriage – Sarah Brown was on the march

Here I’ll post a few of the more political, but I think the pictures on My London Diary cover the whole range described above.

Stonewall
Amnesty International
International Union of Sex Workers

And there was the usual small group of Christian bigots who had come to share their carefully selected texts

The United Protestant Council “annual witness against New Sodom, parading its shame on the streets of London.”

Many more pictures on My London Diary: Pride London.

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All photographs on this page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to buy prints or licence to reproduce.