Remembering Spain - Essays, Memoirs and Poems on the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War
Edited by Joshua Newmark, The Clapton Press, £17

BETWEEN 1936 and 1939 approximately 2,500 men and women from Britain and Northern Ireland served in the International Brigades, a force made up of anti-fascist volunteers who fought for the Spanish Second Republic during the Spanish Civil War, in an expression of international solidarity with the Spanish people’s struggle and a supreme effort to stop the spread of fascism. 

The majority of British volunteers came from working-class backgrounds and had taken part in hunger marches, protests like the Kinder Scout Trespass, and activities aimed at bringing about political and social change. This was a Britain where for many the living conditions were grim, poverty rampant, and unemployment the norm. 

The Brigade was truly international, with 35,000 volunteers heading for Spain from 52 countries. With Hitler and Mussolini already in power in Germany and Italy, they feared the fall of Spain would threaten the future of democracy in Europe and lead to another world war.