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BACK
TO SPAIN
This
beautiful poster by artist, Parrilla, was created
as a tribute to the International Brigades. The
words on the poster read, "The Popular Front
of Madrid to the Popular Front of the World. Homage
to the International Brigades." The work
was commissioned and distributed by the International
Brigades as a way of popularizing and promoting
their cause.
Parrilla's poster portrays an anti-fascist volunteer
from the Brigades standing in front of Liberty herself.
The three pointed star worn on the soldier's chest
was the symbol of the Brigades.
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The
west had an official policy of "neutrality"
when it came to the war against fascism in Spain.
All of the European countries (Germany and Italy
excepted), signed a "nonintervention pact"
that cut military aid to the Spanish republic.
President Roosevelt introduced legislation to
stop the private supply of arms to republican
Spain, and American oil companies, chiefly Texaco,
supplied Franco's army with the oil vital to
it's war making abilities. Nothing
was done to bar Nazi Germany or fascist Italy
from extending military aid to General Franco's
fascist army. Tens of thousands of volunteers
from western countries who
were eager to fight fascism, defied the west's
phony 'neutrality' and joined the International
Brigades, amongst them, Ernest Hemingway and
George Orwell. The American Abraham Lincoln
Brigade fought fascist troops on Spanish soil,
but when they returned home to the States they
were accused of being communists and "premature
anti-fascists." They suffered harassment
and persecution during the McCarthy anti-communist
witch hunts.
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