“The definitive online source”

Posted by Brendan Loy on Friday, April 7, 2006 at 8:05 pm

Categories: Website News

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6 Comments on ““The definitive online source””

1. Brendan Loy Says:
   April 8th, 2006 at 12:43:51 am

   Thanks for the comment, Dan! I made a copy of your comment over on the 9/11 anthem post (God bless MySQL!), and responded to it there.

2. Sean Vivier Says:
   April 8th, 2006 at 7:30:13 am

   The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was an American Brigade out to fight beside the republicans in the Spanish Civil War. Maybe Franco called them Communists (wouldn’t surprise me), but that wasn’t their purpose. Then again, who knows? Maybe some of them were Communists. There were so many disparate leftist elements against Franco, they actually fought against each other. Like when the anarchists removed all traces of government in Barcelona, and the republicans, not Franco’s men, conquered them.

3. Joe Loy Says:
   April 8th, 2006 at 6:43:04 pm

   Congratulations again on the nomination, Brendan ~ and on that Writeup. Very Good. / I wonder whether Judge Wonkette was at the DC awards ceremony in addition to contestant Malkin, oh my! :>

   “…Maybe Franco called them Communists (wouldn’t surprise me)…”

   Very likely he did, Sean, and if so the execrable Generalissimo was quite Correct but he’s Still Dead so who cares. :>

   “…but that wasn’t their purpose. Then again, who knows? Maybe some of them were Communists.”

   Purpose or no, yeah Maybe So. :) Wikipedia:

   …The name “brigade” is something of a misnomer, as there were several American battalions organized under the Fifteenth International Brigade of the Spanish Republican army. This brigade was loosely organized by the Comintern and was made up of volunteers from nations around the globe…

   …Most of the people making up the Abraham Lincoln Brigade were official members of the Communist Party USA or affiliated with other socialist organizations. The IWW, or “Wobblies”, were lightly represented. However, the brigade was made up of volunteers from all walks of American life, and from all socio-economic classes…

   …The Brigade was a cause celebre in the United States, however. Liberal and socialist groups organized fund-raising activities and supply drives to keep the Brigade afloat. News of the Brigade’s high casualty rate and bravery in battle made them romantic figures to an America concerned about the rise of Fascism around the world.

   …The legacy of the Lincoln Brigade has been a romantic vision of idealistic volunteers fighting for justice and freedom in a nation far from their own.

   In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, however, members of the Brigade were castigated as supporters of the Soviet Union. Following World War II, at the height of the “Red Scare”, former members of the Brigade were considered security risks, and branded “premature anti-fascists”….

   Thus since the Luftwaffe had Franco’s back, his Nazi-supported Falangist rebellion against the Spanish Republic (albeit nonMarxists themselves) became sort of an Exhibition game of Fascists vs Communists. (I served with the legendary James Connolly Battalion meself ye know. ;> Green Reds out o’ Dublin. / No No No :)

   Here’s the Saul Wellman Collection at MSU:

   Special Collections Division, American Radicalism Collection ~ Saul Wellman Collection

   Named in honor of its donor, Saul Wellman, long time Communist Party member, Spanish Civil War veteran and political commissar in the International Brigades, this collection contains materials collected by Wellman over a thirty year period in which he was first a party organizer in the Detroit auto plants, and later an active participant in many New Left political organizations and movements. Publications and documents of the communist Party, USA, especially from the 50’s, the nearly complete transcript of Wellman’s 1953-54 Smith Act trial, and extensive materials documenting a wide range of 60’s-70’s Detroit groups and events are included.

   And here’s a great roster (appropriately background-Hued :) of pertinent Links.

4. Meredith Says:
   April 11th, 2006 at 2:22:27 pm

   Send me your mailing address & I’ll mail you a photocopy of The Week’s Blog of the Year section. I’d send you the original, but I’ve already given it to the Dean of the USC Annenberg School. We’re going to print blurbs about you & your blog in our alumni e-newsletter next week, and in the Annenberg Agenda early this summer. Congrats!

5. kat Says:
   March 28th, 2007 at 10:21:20 pm

   so I was showing “when the levees broke” for my lecture on environmental sociology in an intro to soc class when YOUR FACE came on the screen! I had to pause the video to tell them “HEY! that’s brendan loy! I went to high school with him!” — rock on, brendan..

   Kat

6. DC Says:
   April 15th, 2007 at 9:34:31 pm

   That’s awesome, Brendan. I know it sounds stupid that I am inspired to keep writing in my blog because of what you’ve done with yours, but it’s definitely something that motivates me to keep posting. Keep doing great stuff, Brendan.

   Who knows what will happen once we’re both done with school and finally have a minute to focus!

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