It
is well-known that FDR’s Democratic administration by 1936 had absorbed
many American communists; soon many sailed for Spain in a brigade named
for a previous American revolutionary in the White House. The communist
international’s (Comintern) goal was exporting revolution and
undermining capitalism, today the US government exports this revolution
to all regions of the globe. Bernhard Thuersam
Lincoln’s Underground Railroad Brigade
“in
1936 . . . the Spanish Civil War catalyzed the battle against fascism
worldwide, many in the (American Communist] Party [CPUSA] decided that
more was required of them than just raising money, picketing consulates
or, as in the case of communist seamen, smuggling literature into
fascist countries. Steve Nelson, who left the Pennsylvania anthracite
fields to become political commissar of the XV Brigade, recalled in his
memoirs:
“When
Franco, Hitler and Mussolini attacked Spain, the die was cast. No
longer could our campaigns be confined to agitation. Many in the United
States knew we had to move beyond passing resolutions that urged our
government to aid Spain.”
In
the late fall of 1936, the CPUSA began its own recruiting drive for the
International Brigades. The first organized group of volunteers from
the United States sailed from New York on the Normandie on Christmas
Day, 1936. There was a high percentage of communists among them (in
higher command positions), but the Brigade’s variety of ideologies
demonstrated how pervasive anti-fascism had become. Most of the
Americans volunteers were in their early twenties.
Because
of the extension of the Neutrality law to the Spanish war, they
traveled as tourists or students on their way to Europe, not declaring
their real destination. Once in France, an underground railroad took
them to Spain.
In
the Jarama Valley in February 1937, the Lincoln’s, as they were soon
called, underwent their trial of fire . . . Out of 450 that went into
battle, 120 were killed and 175 were wounded. The Lincoln’s, who [were]
disparagingly referred to as “premature anti-fascists,” paid a very
heavy price for their commitment . . . fewer than half of all the
Americans who had gone to Spain [survived].”
(The Communist Party of the United States, Fraser M. Ottanelli, Rutgers University Press, 1991, pp. 175-177)
