However, unlike the book,
which contains researched facts and useful information, the programme was
merely a ‘hatchet job’ on the Spanish Communist Party and the
Republic in general. It appeared to aim for some spurious ‘evenhandedness’
between the Republic and the Fascist side. For example, at least a hundred
and seventy Welsh workers made their way secretly to Spain to fight for the
Republic (mostly in the Communist-led International Brigades) and apparently
one Welshman fought for Franco. The programme gave equal weight to this one
– a mercenary who went for the ‘excitement’ of war and deserted
when the going got tough- and to Lance Rogers, a pacifist who felt it his
duty to go to fight, and spent the rest of his life after Spain in the working
class movement in South Wales.
In the name of ‘objectivity’, Stradling employed Anna Marti a
young Spanish researcher as a foil to bounce his ideas off. Although not fluent
in English, she gave as good as she got and remained firmly of the view that
whatever the arguments Stradling put up, that the Republican cause was the
right one and worth fighting for.
The bias in the programme was evident to anyone who knows anything about the
war. Stradling repeated with relish (several times) many true stories of burning
of churches and killing of priests. But he was completely silent on the atrocities
committed by the Fascist side, the torture and mass murder of hundreds of
thousands of supporters of the republic both during and after the war. His
aim was clearly to equate the two sides, with the argument that while ‘of
course’, the International Brigaders were idealists fighting for a cause,
so also were the fascists and clericalists on Franco’s side (an argument
which could be applied just as well to the soldiers of the German Waffen SS).
And any 'equation' of atrocities goes out of the window. The more objective
historian Antony Beevor estimates that 38,000 non combatants were killed in
the 'Red terror'. But on the fascist side, he estimates the victims of the
'White terror' as around 200,000!
The sense of bias was evident throughout. During the war, some hundreds of
children from the Basque country were evacuated to Wales. A few weeks ago,
the BBC showed an excellent, honest and evenhanded documentary on these children.
But Stradling described them sneeringly as ‘ostensibly refugees from
fascism’ and implied that their welcome in Wales was some sort of Communist
publicity stunt.
It is true that
the Communist Party under the control of Stalin exercised a malign influence
on the Republican side. It is also true that the Republican Government was
weak, vacillating and incompetent. It is also true that the many divisions
between Anarchists, Communists, and independent Marxists weakened the republican
side. But when it comes down to it, there is no argument and no spurious ‘evenhandedness’.
Franco’s side was the side of military dictatorship repression and horror
– symbolised by the fascist slogan ‘Down with intelligence. Hurrah
for death!’. All socialists would see the cause of the republic as worth
fighting for.
As an antidote to the programme, to wash the taste from your mouth, and as
a much clearer picture of what the war in Spain was about, get the DVD of
Ken Loach’s film ‘Land and Freedom
(A review of ‘Wales and the Spanish Civil War : The Dragon's Dearest Cause.’ will appear shortly on this page.)
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