THEIR SPIRIT MUST LIVE ON

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2013 :: RMTnews 20 This year is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Ebro, the last great battle of the Spanish Civil War – and one that some historians have called the first battle of the Second World War. Pitched into the front line during the first two months of combat from July 1938 was the British Battalion of the International Brigades. More than 90 volunteers from Britain were killed in that epic battle. The Second World War had yet to be declared. But anti- fascists from around the world – 2,500 had come from the British Isles – were already fighting troops and warplanes sent by Hitler and Mussolini to help General Franco’s 1936 army coup against Spain’s elected government. Only one of these remarkable British volunteers is still known to be alive. He is a former merchant seaman who jumped ship to join the anti-fascist fight in Spain. His name is Stan Hilton and he lives in Australia, having emigrated there in the 1960s. Sadly last year saw the death of the last three volunteers in Britain: Thomas Watters, who was working as a bus-driver in Glasgow when he decided to go to Spain, Lou Kenton, a Fleet Street print worker, and David Lomon, a Manchester-born garment worker. Their passing marks the close of a proud chapter in British working-class history – but definitely not the end of the story. Just as we remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Chartists and suffragettes, so we must also preserve the legacy and values of those who joined the International Brigades. Why? Because they were the first Britons to confront the rise of modern fascism, which, though its hateful creed mutates with each generation (first they hated Jews, later THEIR SPIRIT MUST LIVE ON As we bid farewell to the last of the legendary International Brigades, their values of anti- fascism and international solidarity must be kept alive to inspire future generations, writes International Brigade Memorial Trust secretary Jim Jump British anti-tank battery in Spain in 1937.