The Working Class Movement Library (WCML)

[Christopher]

The Working Class Movement Library (WCML) which is located at 51 The Crescent, Salford, U.K. M5 4WX
is a collection of English language books, periodicals, pamphlets, archives and artefacts, concerned with the activities, expression and enquiries of the labour movement, its allies and its enemies, since the late 1700s.

The Library holds an extensive Spanish Civil War archive which includes an impressive collection of letters written by men from the Greater Manchester area, some of whom, sadly, lost their lives in what is regarded
by many as the first battle of the Second World War.

It also holds the records of the National Amalgamated Union of Labour which was recently deposited by The General Municipal Boilermakers.

[RAB]

Can you say for what reasons people from Britain and why Manchester in particular, chose to fight in the Spanish Civil War ?

.......in what sort of Brigade or Army unit would they be present and what was the result of their involvement ?

Sorry to ask these questions, but I have never even heard of this involvement until you posted this information !! 

[RAB]

...sorry !!

I have just read the link you provided which gives some more information
Still not sure how the Manchester men were recruited and what drove them to fight on foreign soil for a cause they did not need to know about or whether they were really hoodwinked into fighting and by whom ?


http://www.wcml.org.uk/internat/spainarch.htm

[arthurchappell]

...sorry !!

I have just read the link you provided which gives some more information
Still not sure how the Manchester men were recruited and what drove them to fight on foreign soil for a cause they did not need to know about or whether they were really hoodwinked into fighting and by whom ?


http://www.wcml.org.uk/internat/spainarch.htm

I don't know the specifics on Manchester fighters in the Spanish Civil War though many men in Europe and the UK were recruited through Socialist and Communist groups to fight in the International Brigades, the most famous participant being George Orwell, who's non-fiction book Homage To Catalonia is one of the best histories of the collapse of the valient first real stance against fascism which was made without support from the British Government

[Christopher]

Ernest Hemingway was another well known literary person who was involved with the Spanish Civil War. He advocated international support for the Popular Front Government. He went to Spain in 1937 nd reported on the war in the Madrid area. He spent most of his time with the International Brigades. He also helped the Dutch film maker Joris Ivens make The Spanish Earth.

[arthurchappell]

Ernest Hemingway was another well known literary person who was involved with the Spanish Civil War. He advocated international support for the Popular Front Government. He went to Spain in 1937 nd reported on the war in the Madrid area. He spent most of his time with the International Brigades. He also helped the Dutch film maker Joris Ivens make The Spanish Earth.

yes - Hemmingway's novel For Whom The Bell Tolls is one of the best novels about the spanish Civil War and one of my favourite books of all time