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ToolsSmith, Phyll (2018) ‘Lessons from Red Spain’: Tom Wintringham, George Orwell and the anti-fascist legacy of the International Brigade. In: International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM Conference, 2018-10-12 - 2018-10-14, St Mary’s Church, Lowgate, Hull, HU1 1EJ..
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
A keynote paper given as the Guest Lecture of the International Brigade Memorial Trust AGM Conference, Hull 12 - 14 October 2018. Given on Friday 12th October at St Mary’s Church, Lowgate, Hull, HU1 1EJ. Tom Wintringham was at the center of a group of individuals who had served in or campaigned for the Spanish Republic which sought to define WWII not as a resistance to national invasion, but as the continuation of a single anti-fascist conflict which had begun with the rebellion in Spain. In a coordinated cross-media campaign, along with George Orwell, Thorold Dickenson, Ivor Montagu, Sidney Cole, Ivan Moffat and Roy Boulting, Wintringham fronted, was involved, invoked or implicated, in a series of books, articles, radio broadcasts, newsreels, documentaries which promoted this vision of the war as anti-fascist revolution, of British troops (particularly the home guard) as the successors of the International Brigade as anti-fascist troops, needing anti fascist and Anti Blitzkrieg tactics, and of the Spanish War as unfinished anti-fascist business which needed completing before the end of hostilities with Germany. Central to this are newspaper and magazine articles, radio broadcasts and films foregrounding the role of International Brigaders and Spanish Army and militia veterans in teaching British soldiers and civilians resistance tactics at Wintringham's Osterley Park Training School. These films, both of guerrilla training techniques for Home Guards (Civil Defense, Moffat-1941) but also advising civilians techniques for active resistance (Miss Grant Goes to the Door, Dickenson-1940) broader political statements (Inside Fascist Spain, Pagès-1943) and combinations of the two (Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Powell-1943; Battle of Britain, Capra-1943), utilized the experience and status of SCW veterans both as soldiers, tacticians and medics and as filmmakers, photographers, polemicists. This paper seeks to outline the centrality of cross partisan work by International Brigade and Militia veterans, of CPGB, ILP, Labour Party, Commonwealth and dissident figures, in the promotion and exploitation of Spanish anti-fascism as the way to win the war and in framing WWII and a continuation of that conflict, and of the official government resistance to this narrative before, during and after the war.
| Item Type: | Conference or Workshop Item (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | sdg 16 - peace, justice and strong institutions ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/peace_justice_and_strong_institutions |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Media, Language and Communication Studies |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Film, Television and Media |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Oct 2025 11:30 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Oct 2025 11:30 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100748 |
| DOI: |
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