In 2007-2008 I, in vain,
attempted to put some energy into analyzing the blossoming American presidential
campaign since it was to be, as advertised at least, a watershed election, for
women, blacks, old white anglos, latinos, youth, etc. In the event I had to abandon
the efforts in about May of 2008 when it became obvious, in my face obvious,
that the election would be a watershed only for those who really believed that
it would be a watershed election. The four years of the Obama presidency, the
2012 American presidential election campaign, and world politics have only
confirmed in my eyes that that abandonment was essentially the right decision
at the right time. In short, let the well- paid bourgeois commentators go on and
on with their twitter. I, we, had (have) better things to do like fighting against
the permanent wars, the permanent war economies, the struggle for more and better
jobs, and for a workers party that fights for a workers government . More than
enough to do, right? Still a look back at some of the stuff I wrote then does not
a bad feel to it. Read on if you like
************THE OTHER SIDE IN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR- ROME HONORS FRANCO’S ‘MARTYRS’
COMMENTARY
Under ordinary circumstances
I do not give a tinker’s damn about the internal ceremonies of the Roman
Catholic Church, or for that matter, any church but a recent news item hit me
square in the eye. On Sunday October 28, 2007 at Vatican City some 498 priest
and nuns killed just prior to or during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 were
given a mass of beatification. Apparently beatification is a direct step in the
process to sainthood- the Catholic Hall of Fame. Unfortunately the article did
not give a list of reasons why these ‘martyrs’ were chosen other than the fact
that they had been killed, presumably by forces that supported the lawfully
designated Republican government, in the Civil War.
But wait a minute- this is
Spain, this is the Spanish Civil War-what the hell- these are General Franco’s
agents who fell all over themselves to aid his rebellion and ultimately led to
forty years of hell. Those are the kinds of people that the Roman church is
giving its blessing to. Let us further set the historical record straight - these
were agents of that Romish church that owned significant lands and assumed all
the prerogatives of feudal landlords in relationship to their peasant tenants.
This, I might add, is the church of the Inquisition; the church that oppressed
the poor, downtrodden and other wise confused people of Spain for centuries.
Yes, there seems to be some symbolic ‘justice’ here as Mother Church honors her
most trusted agents.
Popular anti-clericalism had a long tradition
in Spain, justifiably so from any fair reading of the history of that benighted
land. Many times during social turmoil ignited by the fed up peasantry and the
plebes in the smaller cities prior to the Civil War the first plebian act was
to go lay waste to the local church and scatter or otherwise harm the clergy. The period of the Spanish Civil
War was no different in that sense. Except that by that time the anti-clerics
had also taken on an anarchist or anarcho-syndicalist coloration. In fact during
this period they made church vandalism into an art form. Thus this batch of ‘martyred’
clergy were likely the victims of that tradition, although a stray irate
republican, insolent socialist or undisciplined communist may have gotten
caught up in it depending on the furies of the local population. Ernest
Hemingway in his Spanish Civil War novel For
Whom the Bells Toll has one of his characters narrate a very graphic
description of what anti-clerical (and anti-central government) revenge was
like in one locale.
Historically attacks on
churches are an elemental first reaction by the plebian masses in a
revolutionary period. In the English Revolution the yeomen of the Oliver
Cromwell’s New Model Army made a regular practice of reducing churches (for
their silverware to be used as ammunition as well as an expression of rage). In
the French Revolution the same thing occurred although on a less disciplined
basis. Thus Civil War Spain is hardly an exception to that general trend.
However socialists, especially Marxist socialists, have always drawn the line
on the question how to deal with religion differently. We stand in solidarity
with such elemental acts against the oppressions brought by religion however
that is not our program. We recognize
that we must change the whole material basis of society in order to get rid of
the ‘need’ for religion as solace for an unjust and chaotic world. Hey, we are
the “religion is the opiate of the people” guys, remember? Thus we spill no tears
over the fate of these Popish ‘martyrs’ but neither do we advocate such action to
create social change. We go after the big guns- the capitalists.
While we are on the question
of honoring those who died in the Spanish Civil War we have our own heroes to
recognize. Like those who fought under the banner of the Central Committee of
the Anti-Fascist Militias and saved the republic, in the short haul, as
Franco’s rebellion reared its ugly head. Or those far- flung legions of
‘pre-mature” anti-fascists who came from all over Europe and the Americas and formed
the International Brigades that did valiant service on the Ebro, the Jarama and
elsewhere. Or those who defended Madrid in its hour of need so that Franco
should not pass. And the anarchist Friends of Durritti (to speak nothing of
Durritti himself) and the rank and file fighters of the Party of Marxist
Unification (POUM) who were ready to give their all in the last ditch effort to
save the revolution in the May Days in Barcelona in 1937. Yes, those are OUR kindred spirits. They
stand in no need of beatification. However, in the end the best way to honor
their efforts is to fight for socialism. Then we can put religions in the
museums as historical curiosities
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