Dolores Ibarruri 1948
Written: By Dolores Ibarruri, 1948;
Source: For a Lasting Peace, for a People's Democracy! Vol. 2, no. 9; May 1, 1948;
Transcribed: David Adams, March 2022.
Nine years have passed since Franco entered Madrid in March 1939 with the support of Hitler arms and the aid of the “non- intervention policy of the so-called democratic governments, and last, but not least, following the ignominious capitulation of Colonel Casado.
The Republican General Staff gave the order to cease military operations. The fronts were opened and the sanguinary avalanche of phalangists assassins poured through the breach. The contemptible Casado tried to justify his crime by averring that he wanted to put an end to the sufferings of the people by concluding an “honourable peace”.
Casado lied. For he executed the will of Chamberlain and Daladier, Blum and Spaak and hence, the will of Hitler and Mussolini, the will of international fascism. Fascism had to end the war in Spain in order to launch the assault of Europe and the world.
Never before did the two words “honourable peace” reek with such duplicity and infamy. The “honourable peace” signed by Casado spelt the betrayal of our people, of the heroic Republican fighters and placed them at the mercy of the brutal and vindictive Spanish fascist dictator.
Casado had his accomplices among the anarchists and in the Spanish Socialist Party, one of whose leaders, the fascist- minded Professor Bisteiro, proclaimed in his political testament (today regarded as the Bible of the Right Socialists) that “Spain must learn from Hitler Germany ... “
Then, as now, anti-Communism was the element that linked the traitors. They all justified their part in the betrayal by referring to the alleged intention of the Communists to stage a coup d’état to seize power.
What monstrous calumny! In 1937 the Communists enjoyed a prestige won by the heroism of their members that enabled them to influence the greater part of the army on all fronts.
The Communists criticised the tactics of many high-ranking army chiefs, including the traitor Casado, tactics which aimed to sabotage resistance, to undermine the morale of the rear, to organise military operations which were so “secret” that idlers discussed in public the chances of success of these operations and just how effective they would be while the enemy, forewarned, annihilated Republican troops in the very first phase of the attack. This is precisely what Casado and his accomplices were out to prove, namely that the Republican Army could not stand up to the fascist divisions.
In an effort to avert treachery the Communists demanded from the Defence Minister a purge of Army Headquarters, which included agents of the enemy such as, for instance, Colonels Muedra and Garijo who were in contact with Franco's staff. The Communists didn't want our people to be doomed, they did not want the terrible sacrifice of nearly three years of bitter struggle to be in vain. The Communists wanted to organise resistance, which was possible and urgent in view of the extreme tension in Europe. And the Communists were right! The moment the Republican Government began to take the necessary security measures to preserve the high morale of the rear and to supply the front with everything necessary, the betrayal prepared long in advance in General Headquarters, in the leadership of the anarchist movement and in certain groups of Socialists was effected—the resistance of the Republic was crushed and Spain sold to fascism.
It was then that the people, experiencing the full horror of Franco repressions, realised how terrible was the disaster caused by the Madrid Junta, and the real meaning of Casado's “honourable peace”.
Out of this was born the resistance movement. In the days that followed the defeat of the Republic the Communist Party began to rally the forces dispersed as a result of the treachery of the capitulators. Contrary to the demoralising assertion of the Socialist leaders who, like Indalecio Prieto, declared that there were no possibilities for resistance and that Spain was faced with 50 years of fascism, the Communist Party proclaimed that the Franco victory was a temporary thing and that the struggle would be continued.
Hundreds of Communists, together with many honest anti- fascists, hounded by Franco's police and fascists, took to the mountains of Galicia, Andalusia, Estremadura and Toledo.
This was the beginning of the guerrilla movement. The guerrillas descended into the valleys and towns not only to procure means of subsistence, which they had thanks to the solidarity of the peasants, but also in order to protect the peasants against the plunder of the phalangists, to organise peasant resistance, to mete out justice to the hangmen, and to maintain the confidence of the people in a future free Spain.
The representatives of the “Socialist” and “democratic” governments which helped defeat the Spanish Republic were well aware of the resistance movement that developed in all mountains of Spain. It should not be forgotten that Blum was at the head of the French Government during the greater part of the war in Spain.
But the “Socialists” and “democrats” refused to recognise the existence of this movement for it meant acknowledging their responsibility—for some, responsibility as leaders of democratic governments, for others as “Socialists”. This would have meant openly admitting that they had criminally abandoned a people who had sacrificed more than a million heroes in the struggle against fascism.
The struggle and activity of the Communist Party, which sustained the hope and confidence of the people in their own forces and in a future free Spain, was the obstacle which foiled the manoeuvres of Spanish reaction, the representatives of Anglo-Saxon imperialism and its agents—the Spanish Right Socialists and anarchists.
The victory of the democratic countries over Hitlerism gave a powerful stimulus to popular resistance throughout the country. Spurning the fascist trade unions, the workers, illegally of course, restored their democratic trade unions. The representatives of the anti-fascist intelligentsia united in the underground organisation the “Union of the Free Intelligentsia”. In the large towns the Republican fighters formed their “Union of Armed Forces of the Spanish Republic”. The women formed their national organisation “Anti Fascist Women”. The united Socialist youth joined the struggle against Franco together with the people. The guerrilla movement in Andalusia, Aragon, Levant, and Galicia spread far and wide.
The Communist Party, which during the war came forward as the major political force, as the organiser of the struggle and resistance in conditions of illegality and brutal repressions, is known to the people as the only force combating the Franco regime, the party which believes in the people and defends them, the organiser of the workers and peasants in the struggle against Franco.
The Communist Party bears the full brunt of the repressions against the resistance movement. Eighty percent of the prisoners in Spanish jails are Communists; the majority of those executed for anti-government activities following 1939 were also Communists.
The growing sympathy for the Communist Party of all those who hate Franco tyranny has alarmed the representatives of those States which pursued the “non-intervention” policy. They assumed that the mass shooting of Communists in 1939 by the Madrid Junta of capitulators, the barbarous executions by Franco “justice” and the monstrous smear campaign against the Communist Party had put an end to Communism in Spain. When they became convinced of the contrary these gentlemen once again started talking about the Communist danger. Once more they are trying to set up an anti-communist front.
The first violin in this projected anti-Communist front is being played by the Right Socialist group under Indalecio Prieto and by the anarchists who, starting out as provocateurs and trusted men of the Franco police are now aspiring to become loyal courtiers in the future court of Don Juan III.
It goes without saying that whereas the behaviour of the Right Socialists in all countries reveals them as the servants of imperialism, in Spain their readiness to serve reaction is unparalleled. This is not only true of the Right leaders but of certain so-called Left Socialists.
Prieto openly boasts that he is a greater enemy of the Communists than Franco and offers his services and the services of his group to the Americans. And seeking to curry favour with the imperialists connected with Prieto Negrin has declared that he, too, supports the inclusion of Franco Spain into the Marshall Plan.
Negrin the politician forgets a “mere” detail, namely, the existence of fascism in Spain. He makes such statements at the moment when American congressmen are making a reverse move with regard to including Spain in the Marshall Plan, fully aware of the negative effect such a decision would create throughout the world!
However, neither Spanish reaction, nor the American imperialists who are interested in maintaining a fascist Spain, will succeed in their object, despite the fact that they are banking on assistance from the imperialist hirelings—the Socialists and anarchists.
The fact that Franco is forced to use against the guerrillas all kinds of measures, including aircraft and artillery, that the Franco Government is laying waste to entire regions in Aragon, Levant and Andalusia, cutting down woods, burning fields, driving the peasants from their villages, desolating valleys, lest the peasants help the guerrillas-these facts prove that neither the treachery of the Socialist and anarchist leaders, nor the dollars and sterling paid for this treachery can subdue a people striving for a democratic order and freedom.
The Spanish people who have known freedom will not relinquish it. And those who are scheming to substitute fascism by a feudal reactionary monarchy, based on the Vatican and the American imperialists, will feel the will of the Spanish people. In the course of the national liberation war against fascism the people of Spain laid the foundations of a democratic republic of a new type. Recollection of this equips the guerrillas with a powerful weapon, inspires the resistance movement and sows among our workers and peasants the seeds of freedom and justice, makes of every guerrilla a hero and of every resistance fighter a soldier, fighting for the most sacred cause—for freedom, national sovereignty, and the independence of Spain. Manoeuvres by the imperialists and reactionaries, treachery by the Socialists and anarchists may delay but never will prevent the liberation of our people.