Fash bastards

OK, two bits of fash news.

First, from Spain - today's Guardian reports that a monument to British International Brigaders has been stolen by the Falange, read about it here.

A monument to the British dead at one of the bloodiest encounters of the Spanish civil war has been torn down and carried away by rightwing extremists.
The monument is a huge stone plaque to 90 British volunteers in the International Brigades who were killed during the Battle of the Ebro.

And in foreign parts, the fash have managed to close a regular political venue in Manchester, see here - the Hare and hounds has been a regular haunt of SPGB Manchester branch for many years, but as a result of an Anarchist meeting being threatened by the fascists, the owners have discontinued holding political meetings. This is a bad turn, and it symbolises more that politics is seen as an irrelevence, rather than the strength of the Manchester fascists.

Holliday reading

Well, I spent Easter reading a genuinely fascist novel. No, not a term of abuse, a genuine novel with fascistic sympathies from 1938. Dennis Wheatley's The Golden Spaniard.

It was worth the read - although it is mentioned on his Wikipedia article as having divided his core band of "modern musketeer" characters - that was in fact merely a device to implicate and demolish liberal sympathy for the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War.

Louis Althusser thought that through fiction ideology could stand revealed - a rather soulless perspective on literature if you ask me - but this novel does illustrate a fantasy fiction world of a British fascist (although Wheatley assisted the British war effort, I don't think that dints his pre-war flirtation with the ideology).

It was fascinating to see how the ideology of fascis dovetailed neatly with the typical adventure story - and the absolute ruthlessness the author presumed his readers would find acceptable (as well as the sheer double standards of atrocity calling).

I can't, of course, condemn a writer for being partisan, after all, I read partisan leftist literature, but it is interesting to see the other side's point of view and how they construct their case. Both sides justified violence and atrocity by referrence to the threat from the other - the only thing that divided them, after the means, was the end.

The book stands as an interesting peice of literary archaeology that helps parse the debates over such things as Israel today. It is not that the study of literature reveals ideology concretised, but it reveals the working of rhetoric, an essential tool for intellectual self-defence.

There's a place in Spain...

...called Jarama - and 70 years ago this week it saw serious action by the International Brigades against franco's fascists. The Tom Mann Battalion - the British contingent - saw action at what was soon to be named Suicide Hill, taking a feaerful pounding and losing 375 of their 600 strength. They held, though, for over a day under that hail of death.

Non Pasaran! and all that.

The blame in Spain falls mainly on many people - the British for strangling the republic of arms, Blum for joining the British instead of helping the Spanish (at least the british have the excuse of a Tory government).

The actions of the Communist Party and international Stalinism in Spain are unforgettable and unforgiveable.

But all that aside, the sheer human bravery of men to go and fight and be slaughtered for democracy, for ideals stands in stark contrast to today's armchair warriors cheering on world wide reaction as anti-imperialist.