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Article written by Steve Richardson


At school, during history lessons, I was taught the hundred years war, the war of the Austrian succession and the war of Jenkins' ear. Today, I unable to tell why the Norman Barons decided to have a punch-up upon the sod in France or why Robert Jenkins' ear ended up pickled in a jar, but what I can tell you is that at a very early age, it became apparent to me, that the history being taught in English schools was not my history and it was not my story; what did I have in common with Lord Clive of India, General Wolfe, the Duke of Cumberland or King this and Queen that?


The history curriculum has changed since the 1970s. Today pupils are informed of subjects such as the industrial revolution and its effects on society (particularly the British working class) and the rise of Nazi Germany. At a recent GCSE options evening, I asked my daughter's history teacher whether the rise of fascism in general was included within the GCSE course? Pupils are being taught about how Fascism had gained terrible momentum under Hitler but were they being told how the march had started with Mussolini and how General Franco had carried it forward in Spain? Miss (being not a bad judge of character) looked at me as if I was some kind of nutcase however my question was a valid one; in order to comprehend the rise of Nazi Germany and the events that led to the start of the second world war, we must understand how fascism works and how it was given license to flourish during the 1930s.


Fascism will never go away. Britain has witnessed the demise of Mosley's Blackshirts, the National Front, the BNP and the EDL, but it will always re-emerge. Today a fascist organisation named Britain First has surfaced using Islam as a tool to drive a wedge straight through the heart of our communities. By appealing to people's patriotism and stirring up prejudice, their aim is to seize power by dividing Britain's working class. They are using social media to great effect, so much so that it has become apparent that the most principled amongst us are innocently sharing their propaganda and subsequently promoting their fascist agenda.


Fascist parties oppose organisations that seek to represent and defend working people. Such a party would imprison prominent trade union figures and outlaw trade union membership; there would be no more ASLEF. It is with this in mind that in 2007, the Waterloo Nine Elms branch resolved to affiliate to the International Brigade Memorial Trust. The IBMT keeps alive the spirit of the men and women from Britain, Ireland and elsewhere that volunteered to defend democracy and fight fascism in Spain from 1936-1939.


In July 1936 General Franco overthrew the democratically elected republican government of Spain. To aid in this, fascist Italy and Nazi Germany sent assistance to help their fellow fascist Franco (although it is worth a mention that Italians and Germans made up eight times the number of British and Irish volunteers who fought against the Fascists). The Spanish Republic government appealed to the European democracies for assistance but this fell on deaf ears. Britain and France, fearing a wider European conflict, signed an act of appeasement with Italy and Germany but it soon become apparent that Mussolini and Hitler were sending military hardware to aid in Franco's war effort.


Between 1936-1939 more than 2,300 men and women, who were political enough to realise the implications of a fascist Europe on the labour movement, left Britain and Ireland to join the International Brigades in Spain (536 never returned). They were from overwhelmingly working class backgrounds (although all we seem to hear about is Orwell, Hemingway and young poets) and most were trade unionists. They came from the coal mines, the shipyards and the steelworks and they were from Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin and the dockyards of London; not the House of Lancaster or the House of York.


One of the aims of the IBMT is to educate the public in the history of the men and women who fought in the International Brigades and in the medical and other support services in the Spanish Civil War, a subject that will not feature in Michael Gove's new history curriculum for schools in England.