George Orwell travelled to Barcelona in 1936 to report on a civil war. When he arrived, he decided the best way to help would be fight for the cause. He enlisted and was sent to the front. A 100 days later, he was wanted as a fascist spy and pursued out of the country by the communists. This remarkable story is the subject of 1984 and the Spanish Civil War - narrated and written by Paul Read, What steps should we take to initiate real change and is it even possible? Orwell asked back in 1937, his croaking and bullet damaged voice echoes still unanswered from the past. "Is it even possible," he said - "to ever create fundamental changes by democratic methods alone?” When George Orwell set out for Barcelona at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil war he did so as a simple reporter. Yet when he arrived, he found himself to be a soldier. He spent just seven days training in Barcelona, before moving to the Aragón front, from December 1936 until June 1937. There, Orwell found himself in the trenches alongside the militia known as the POUM: Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista. THE POUM was a small party, with not much influence outside Catalonia, but it contained a high proportion of politically conscious members. Over the next 115 days Orwell would experience rather than just report on the tragedy of war. Unlike other correspondents he would become politicised not though theory but through action. Yet his reports were largely ignored by the English Press, and would remain so for most of his life. Orwell was eventually shot in the throat and it was during his recuperation that he found himself away from the battle lines and in Barcelona as the Stalinist led Communist party provoked an all out assault on the POUM headquarters, arresting its leaders, holding show trials against those that had given their lives and their last breath to aiding the Spanish Republican Government. On 13 July 1937 a deposition was presented to the Tribunal for Espionage & High Treason, Valencia, charging Orwell and his wife with 'rabid Trotskyism' and being agents of the POUM. An order went our for their arrest. FOLDED LIES Such a betrayal by the left against the left was only possible in Orwell's view because of the nature of what he called “the ‘folded’ lies - lies that clever people would tell themselves to safeguard their points of view. “One of the dreariest effects of this war has been to teach me that the Left-wing press is every bit as spurious and dishonest as that of the Right” Mini Orwell Slide-showHe was therefore to dedicate the rest of his life to exposing the “intellectual dishonesty of the left” in 3 majorly important fields: Imperialism, Fascism and Stalinism. BACK WHITE His work thereafter would be to try and dismantle the Folded lies of the the Stalinist left. His experience of watching a party one day be firing alongside you, and the next day be firing at you, left him bitter memories, but fuelled his writings and finally was to feature strongly in his later work. One day the POUM is your ally, the next your enemy. Truth is whatever the authorities say it is. 'Blackwhite was the term Orwell would later use: the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary.' This tendency was reinforced by his observation of the left wing press in England to create battles that had never existed, create heroes from soldiers that had never fought and create fictional victims - to justify an attitude or short term lie. These Folded Lies would find their way into his later work of Animal Farm and 1984. HOMAGE TO CATALONIA Orwells account of this Revolutionary energy at the beginning of the civil war in Barcelona and its ultimate Betrayal are depicted in precise detail in Homage to Catalonia and despite its global popularity today…only 1500 copies were printed in his lifetime, of which perhaps only about 900 sold before he died. It was a book condemned by the intellectual dishonesty of the time. The slavery to Stalinism and the hostility of the left wing press to criticism from another left perspective - traits that still plight the democratic left - effectively banished the book for decades. Victor Gollancz, who had published Orwell’s first five books, rejected Homage to Catalonia, believing, as did many people on the Left, that 'everything should be sacrificed in order to preserve a common front against the rise of Fascism.' The book was finally published on 25 April 1938 but sales were poor. A second edition was printed for the Uniform Edition in February 1951. But it would not be published in the United States until February 1952.” SPAIN But what of Spain, what had Orwell to say of the country he fought for, the country he had to flee from and the country he had to witness fall beneath the boot of fascism. “The Spaniards are good at many things, but not at making war. All foreigners alike are appalled by their inefficiency, above all their maddening unpunctuality” It is a laughable stereotype were it not for the grave circumstances in which it arose. But Orwell was not just an observer of people, he befreiended many and was touched by those he fought alongside… “I have the most evil memories of Spain, - he said - but I have very few bad memories of Spaniards. I only twice remember even being seriously angry with a Spaniard, and on each occasion, when I look back, I believe I was in the wrong myself. They have, there is no doubt, a generosity, a species of nobility, that do not really belong to the twentieth century” His writing will be remembered for this persepective, this honesty whereby his devotion to truth was too important to put aside, even under the pressure of war. It has been often quoted that - 'In the long run a harmful truth is better than a useful lie'. - Perhaps the Spain we live in today would do well to remember this as exposures of corruption and lies clash with the claims of honesty and transparency by political leaders. Orwell matters today because he alone amongst the commentators on the civil war - through circumstance and honesty - witnessed the underlying struggles that defeated the Spanish revolution. Not the Civil war, nor the defence of a fragile democracy, but the Spanish revolution. Men will fight without arms and without resources for a cause that they carry in their hearts. But if they are called to merely defend the privileges of the existing classes, they will soon lose spirt and hope. READ THE FULL STORY
Miguel has sold his truck and bought a mule. Everyone in the village believes he is crazy, but Miguel follows a wisdom far greater than those that mock him. Miguel's dog, his neighbours and the stranger with the burnt trees are about to learn the benefits of going slow and living the change you wish to see in the world. The Slow Route Home is FREE right now. Tell everyone to get a copy now. It will shortly be available on Amazon Kindle, Apple iBooks, Nook, Kobo, etc in the meantime grab your FREE epub copy. (Or pick another format from here). Oh...and you won´t want to miss the intro video? Catch it below....
Granada Hoy interview What do Granadinos know of the wave of British Immigrants into their province over the last 20 years? When a reporter from the newspaper Granada Hoy came to Loja this week in search of answers, she met up with the AAPL and a small selection of individuals, (including the Gazpachomonk) who spoke about their origins, their aims and their goals. If you want to try out your Spanish, follow this link to read the The Interview on line. If you can´t make head or tail out of it, and would like a translation, then let me know and I´ll see what I can do.
Yesterday an iconic figure in contemporary Spanish history passed away. Santiago Carillo was a young 21 years of age when the Civil War broke out. He was the elected leader of the Socialist Youth movement in Madrid and had just served two years in gaol for his participation in the Asturias Revolution in 1934. Santiago had seen it all: The Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera in the 1920´s and the expulsion of Alfonso XIII. He had lived through the Republic, the Civil War, and then had fled Spain, where he remained in exile until the death of Franco. When the political left was finally legalised, Santiago returned to participate in the transition and to help bring about the first elections in the late 1970´s and early 1980´s. I remember when Santiago Carillo came to my town about 5 years back. He came to talk about the Law of Historical Memory that was finally being pushed through parliament. Even in this small town, with its socialist council (back then) and its history of left wing activism, Santaigo was still jeered by hecklers for his controversial role in Madrid during the opening moments of the Civil War. His talk that evening of of 'La Ley' seemed to be part of a new atmosphere in Spain. Suddenly there was public interest again in Spain's Second Republic, the unspoken injustices of the dictatorship and the whereabouts of its thousands upon thousands of victims. After so many years of silence, people were at last finding the courage to speak. It was a fascinating moment to see history come alive once more, and to feel on the streets an openness and pride in the valiant struggles of the opposition to that 40 year dictatorship. When I listened to his arguments: They were persuasive and his ideas sharp and well articulated. For a man in his 90's his mind was exceptionally clear. There are not many left that continue to live a life of principle. There are not many left that believe in ideology and its capacity to change society for the better. In these times of market hegemony and instantaneous gratification, figures such as Carillo will always stand out to remind us of a more grounded and enduring approach. Descanse en paz Santaigo. "A country without a memory is a country of madmen" is an exceprt from the book on Spanish history and culture: Inside the Tortilla.
In memory of Gregorio Peces Barba As part of my language learning activities, I sit in the local bar once a week and scour the local papers for news and photos of politicians I might recognise. This process of gradual familiarity with local faces, names and places in the news sets up future reference points for conversations. Yet, if I am honest, regular fluency in this language is still on the far distant horizon. True, there were days in which I slide euphorically along the motorway of fluency, and then there were days when I stagger drunkenly into the side-lane of incomprehensibility. Try as I may to work out the why´s and wherefores, the more I analyse, the less I learn. So I tell myself I must read more, talk more, listen more, study more...setting unachievable goals and ever extending to-do lists. For that is the way of languages: There is no end, there is no arrival point. Although there are moments when word order and conjugation appear fleetingly to have been embraced. One such moment was the day Mr. Fish Beard came to town. ACCENTS AND THE LOCAL FLAVOUR OF LANGUAGE One of the 'Seven Fathers' of the Spanish Constitution visited my town a few years back. He came to receive the Ibn al-Jatib annual award for cultural and social services to the country. Gregorio Peces Barba (or Gregory Fish-Beard in English) was an important lawyer and defender of many civil rights cases in Spain after the prolonged death of the Great Tortilla Dictator. At times arrested, other times simply forbidden to practise law, Gregorio was eventually recruited by the new fledgling state to participate in the creation of the new Constitution during the traumatic post-Franco period. Later, he was asked to be a minister in the Felipe González government of the early 1980´s, but he declined and instead took the role as President of the Congress of Deputies (Leader of the House). In 2004, Peces Barba was named as the High Commissioner for the support of terrorist victims during which he received much criticism from the conservative Partido Popular (PP) who portrayed him as someone partial towards the Governments (PSOE) view and not that of the victims. This arose after he refused to join a demonstration against the government (a demonstration organised by a group that had aligned themselves with the Partido Popular). In short, Fish-Beard was a heavyweight: A man of great depth, courage, opinion and foresight. So when he rolled into town, I was there to listen to his speech. First on stage though came another speaker: Carlos Derqui del Rosall. DR HOUSE AND THE EXTRA SET OF EARS Carlos Derqui del Rosall was a local doctor who gave a long and anecdotal story of his life, told in a deep and (to me) unintelligible Granadino accent. I tried to enjoy his contribution to the evening, but experiencing one of my frequent fits of audible incompetence, it was as though I was watching a Chinese film and someone had selected the wrong subtitles. I understood nothing. I found myself drifting off into a fantasy world where I would be conversing not with Dr Rosall, but instead with Dr House. We discussed the pros and cons of surgical help and Dr House told me nothing short of an ear donation from a native speaker will overcome my difficulties with this local accent. I nodded in agreement and fondled my ears, wondering where exactly he would place the extra set. Suddenly, I was shaken from my reverie by the real Doctor staggering back into his chair and old Fish-Beard himself rising to his feet. He staggers over to the microphone and I listen to his story in detail, before realising I´m understanding almost every word. Instinctively I reach out a hand in search of an extra ear, but find only my old and faithful set As Gregorio spoke of his background in Madrid, I realised that my listening difficulties are partially related to the idiosyncrasies of this local drawl, and my geographical choice of town has played, and continues to play, more than a minor part in this eternal struggle with the Iberian tongue. Then suddenly he is finished, and I find myself applauding Gregory not so much for the content of his life but rather the manner of his speech. I wondered what it would be like to live amongst people who spoke that way all the time. Gregorio Peces Barba died July 24th 2012. (This is an abridged version of the Chapter on language leaning approaches in the book Inside the Tortilla.) |