Fife marks Brigade's 75th anniversary

Wreaths were laid at the memorial erected in 1987 in memory of the 46 Fife volunteers.

Fife Trades Union Council chairman Ian Waddell spoke of the need for continuing vigilance in defence of democracy.

"The ideas that divide working people in the interests of the capitalist class are still around and must never be ignored," he said.

And Councillor Willie Clarke described the volunteers as working-class heroes: "The soldiers and nurses who travelled from the towns and pit villages of Fife knew that fascism did not stop at national boundaries.

"The war that started with Franco's rebellion in 1936 continued till the defeat of Hitler in 1945.

"The government of the Spanish Republic was not socialist or communist. It simply sought to give land to the people and democratic rights to the regions of Spain. But this was too much for Spain's ruling class.

"The lesson for us today is that working people will always have to struggle for their rights and the most precious right is democracy."

Daniel Gray, author of Homage to Caledonia, described the lives of the 549 volunteers from Scotland - a quarter of whom never returned.

"They reflected all the struggles faced by working people in Scotland at the time: unemployment, industrial victimisation, poverty. But they also reflected the determination of working people to organise and to fight for a better life," he stated.

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