Veteran of Spanish Civil War dies
international |
anti-capitalism |
news report 
Wednesday April 11, 2007 13:18
by KBranno
kevinbrannigan at hotmail dot com
One of the last Scottish veterans of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War has died, aged 99.
James Maley, a life-long communist, went to Spain in 1936 to fight for the Republican government against the insurgence by fascists under Franco.
He left with a party of Glaswegians who travelled to London before embarking on a boat train to Paris and then Spain.
Mr Maley, who fought at the Battle of Jarama, the defence of Madrid in February 1937, died on Monday 09th /April/2007.
During the Battle of Jarama, Mr Maley and his machine gun company were left in no-man's land, low on ammunition.
Returned home
They hid among the olive trees for two days before being captured by nationalist troops.
News of his capture reached home in an astonishing way.
For several months, Mr Maley's mother in the Calton district of Glasgow had heard nothing - but then she saw her son paraded with other prisoners on a newsreel shown at the local cinema.
It was the last showing of the film which was then being sent to Paisley.
Mrs Maley travelled there and persuaded the projectionist to clip out a frame which she was able to keep as a memento until her son was returned home later in 1937.
Eleven years ago, Mr Maley returned to Spain for the first time since his deportation, to take part in a BBC radio documentary.
Comments (11 of 11)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11R.I.P James- a true hero.
Rest in Peace brave soldier. If only the world has produced more like you James. We are all poorer for your passing, yet fortified through the contribution you made while here on this earth.
Celia S.
Goodbye comrade- antifa go brach!
Jimmy Maley was a great supporter of Irish freedom and was detained in the early 1980s under the PTA in Hamilton for selling a pro Republican newspaper called Ireland's War.
We salute him for his commitment to socialist republican principles, internationalism and the working class.
The Irish Republican Movement will be fittingly represented at his funeral on Saturday by members of the Francis Hughes Cumann, Sinn Fein Poblachtach, Glasgow
RIP comrade! The fight continues
A short obituary, from the (Scottish edition) of the Daily Mirror and notes about him can be got here,
http://www.geocities.com/irelandscw/obit-Maley.htm
Salud.
"In its short life it brought hope, inspiration, creative solutions, the values of fraternity, liberty, equality to countless people who had lived in near feudal conditions through dictatorship.
It's "firsts" were many- free education, free health care, over 50% of the arable land organised in autonomous collectives, the first parliamentary representation by anarchists, the first political radio broadcasts, the first Catalan & Basque republics were declared as an associate component within it's state architecture. All too quickly it fell, as the first victim of European fascism. We may never forget this Republic & it ought inspire every Republican today. The first state whose cities' civilians were daily bombarded by the Italian airforce for Mussolini and by the germans for Hitler. The first towns which were dive bombed by Hitler. The first scene of the War between fascism/nazi-ism and Stalinism-marxism. The first democratically elected leaders of states to be executed. The first camps of "prisoners of a civil war" who were used as slave labour. Even today Franco lies in a tomb behind Madrid hollowed out of the mountain by our ideological forebears. The 2nd republic was an ideal for many not just in the peninsula but globally. It brought hope to libertarian socialists who had become disheartened by the emergence of Stalinism and the beginning of totalitarianism and exiles from Russia. It brought activists, intellectuals, artists, from the USA to Russia from France to assist its birth and the ambition of its project. And all too often only the soldiers who came to delay her death to a coup d'etat are remembered... Let us remember the inspiration which began 71 years ago this year and not just the war which followed.
Thus is the heritage of millions of ordinary Spaniards and Catalans and Basques who's forebears proudly built, sustained and fought for the Republic - in times of peace and war. And accordingly there are many who yearly still celebrate the 14th of April and look forward to the establishment of the 3rd Republic. And fair play to them. & all honour & nobility. The values of Fraternity - Equality - Liberty of ethical governance, of autonomy, of PEACE do not spring up out of the ground. Indeed Democracy does not spring up out of the ground. The rights to equal suffrage regardless of socio-economic class, gender, or creed in a secret ballot are European rights. They are rooted in the arguments of Greek sycophants and intellectuals, who never allowed their wives, concubines, slaves or migrants the same rights. They have roots in the declaration of the rights of man of the French Revolution. They share roots with the constitution of the USA & its bill of rights. They have some roots in the equal decision making traditions of the Calvinist and Presbytarian and other dissenting christian faiths. They have their roots in the collectives of the first humans who sitting around their cave fires found common purpose and expression in the first co-operation. They owe more than ever will be given its fitting memorial to those men and women of the First International and those of the 2nd Republic who yet again called for - The Universal right to participate in your society and the decisions which effect it, without prejudice or hindrance on grounds of Race, Gender, Creed, Socio-Economic Class, Ownership of Property, and _in secret_. Again and again, those rights and those who profess them have found themselves in conflict with the interest groups of power, be they hereditary, class based, military, police, and more recently commercial media or corporate financial." [ iosaf mac diarmada ]
But.....
it's not that simple, neat, cute, wonderful, inspiring or great. Men like the dead volunteer above did not just fight for a bourgois republic. 88 years and 2 days ago the Irish city of Limerick declared its soviet, printed its money and sent a Scottish regiment of soldiers into mutiny. But we do not mark their memory and celebrate their cause today. That I suggest was the real social and revolutionary backdrop to men such as James Maley above.
http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/sinners/LimerickSovi...t.htm
Exactly 70 years ago the group Friends of Durrutti which had formed from those members of the CNT who couldn't accept its participation in the Republic's government issued their manifesto (April 14th) calling for "issued a Manifesto in which it set its face against the bourgeois commemoration of the anniversary of the proclamation of the Republic, on the grounds that it was merely a pretext for reinforcing bourgeois institutions and the counterrevolution."
http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/spain/sp001780/chap5.html
& maybe they were right & maybe they were wrong. But it's all over for them now. True democracy & freedom do not spring from the ground as autochthonous ideas, they are not part of a divinely uttered logos but in less than 100 years and generally only 70 years they return to the ground. The cheaper the coffin the sooner those ideas will bear fruit & flower in some other way.
Rest in Peace & Know your Torch is Passed
.:.
I just wish we knew what to do with it.
14 iv 1936 - she was born of innocence & brave men now dead didn't think they would have to save her from rape. The rapists remain. The rapine rules.
At yesterdays Scottisch Cup Semi Final.
RIP James, yoo stood up to fight the hegemony of tyranny and oppression that facism posed in Europe and for that no one will forget. No Pasaran!
The struggle against fascism in Spain is not over, - the fascists still hold power torturing leftists of all hues, holding prisoners beyond their release date, banning newspapers, democratic parties and youth groups (SEGi). They will never crush anti-fascism despite their bans and torturers. No Pasaran!
Communism having killed more innocents than Fascism over the decades, I shant mourn the Passing of an avowed "Life-Long Communist" I find them as Morally repugnant as Fascist's, good riddance to both
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