“Why We Fought, Why We Fight”

[Music] my father steve nelson served with 2 800 other americans in the abraham lincoln brigade he also headed the veterans of the abraham lincoln brigade organization for over 50 years recently the brigade archives alba received a wonderful gift a collection of letters written by american volunteers in spain they had been asked to answer a simple question why they fought my father wrote i went to spain because i realized as did thousands of other members of the international brigades that spain could not be left alone in the face of hitler and mussolini's intervention you are now about to hear children and grandchildren of lincoln veterans read from these extraordinary testimonials the idealism and spirit of resistance in these letters inspire us in our fight for human rights and against new threats of fascism today my name is penny demas my father was nick demas this is what he wrote on january 20th 1938. i was born on the island of cyprus which is a british colony my parents were peasants and their living conditions were terrible and although the island is very rich i as well as many others had to leave the country and try and make a living in foreign lands i have lived many years in egypt and then i came to the us always trying to make good but the odds were always against me though i was an able electrical mechanic i could not succeed i was getting conscious of the labor struggle every day more and more and when the spanish militarists and traders tried to take away from the spanish people their hard-won liberties i felt it was my duty as a conscious worker of democratic background and leanings to go there and to do as much as i could to stop the barbarians thank you daddy abe oshraf my papa two years ago many americans already realized that what was being fought in spain was not a civil war but a war of fascist foreign invasion which menaced the peace of the entire world a few thousands saw fit to take their place by the sight of the heroic spanish people i was among them today the majority of the american people understand the necessity for lifting the embargo on democratic spain if our only contribution was to bring about this understanding then we have no regrets [Music] hi wallach my father i volunteered to fight against fascism in spain for all the peoples of the world as well as for the united states stopping the advance of fascism was the most important task of the times many fear we are so needed here you cannot imagine even if i wanted to come home doubt if i could and ida i don't want to come home everything i have learned i can use here imagine working and knowing every step one takes is helping these men who are fighting our fight against fascism it no longer is work it is a rare opportunity discomforts matter not and when one had comfort for a night or a few hours one enjoys it more intensely just gave out my last lousy spanish cigarette these are not ordinary soldiers dying but going into the struggle against fascism for you and me for the spanish people and the whole world i could weep when any of them go out before my eyes the struggle is not 4 000 miles away but affects everyone [Music] edward luchelle mcdaniel adjutant commander veterans of the abraham lincoln brigade i was 19 months in spain 12 months on the front with the lincoln brigade i was in officers training school and i was in charge of machine gunners groups and instruction i went to spain to fight against the fascist invasion because i have had to suffer for the lack of freedom all my life as an american principally from my miserable downtrodden existence i was born in the south i went to spain because these are some of the same sources that have not only deprived me of my freedom but have enslaved the entire working class i went to spain because the reign of terror in fascist rural countries has only resulted in raising more racial discrimination more killing and more wholesale slaughter using every kind of tactic to divide and split working people this is a throwback for civilization [Music] dozens of other brigade vets also wrote powerful letters that are now part of the alba archives my father's letter was printed in the june 2020 edition of the volunteer the alba magazine over 80 years later the abraham lincoln brigade archives is still fighting the good fight drawing on the example and progressive tradition of the volunteers who went to spain we conduct teaching institutes for hundreds of middle and high school teachers so that young people will continue to learn about the legacy of those who went to spain and we celebrate and support struggles for human rights today the veterans of the abraham lincoln brigade survived on small collections literally passing the hat to support their work now alba is asking this generation to continue the tradition we hope you will consider supporting alba's work

Channel: Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

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Length: 7min 12sec (432 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 28 2020