part 1- George Sossenko and Moe Fishman part 1

George fought in the Spanish Civil War with the Sabastein Faure Century of the Durruti Colume and in the the International Brigades, later with the Free French.
Moe fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and with the Merechant Marines in WWII. Both having been working for social justice for mor than 70 years in many struggles and causes

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[djvdz66]

Stupid Jews fought for nothing other than their Communist beliefs. Viva Franco!

[britchey11]

actually, after 5 years of taping these vets i discovered that my father and his best friend fought w/ them. neither were jewish, both from small villages in the usa, but always ant-fascist, always leftists. there was a global depression then as now, and the fascists then and now always fought for the rich. usually against there own best interests. it was true with many ib'ers that i interviewed, they felt that fascism equaled more hard times for the working people.

[colombian18]

I know, I bet there is so many sad stories which will never be known from that war. Most ppl who fought in that war were fighting against fascism, they didnt want to get involved in the horrible splits in the left. I think that war however showed that anarchism is a possibility to authoritarian socialists and many probly turned anti authoritarian and into anarchists. thanks for the upload.

[britchey11]

yes, but the anarchists were often brutal and authoritarian and I was surprised to find places where there were once anarchists but now communists. I didn't walk around the country making surveys but i noticed that things changed from village to village and and often in surprising ways. I think that many people who fought against the fascists didn't know about the factions of the left until they got to spain. what i have learned from it is not to fight another revolutionary.

[Sefardisafran]

My father fought under the flag of the FAI (Fuerzas Anarquistas Ibericas), he was always very proud of his participation fightin against Franco, Hitler and Mussolini!

Sefardisafran

[machnochina]

praise the men who fought fashism and kapitalism, they lost, but they are our heroes

german resistance

[grummeper]

5 *****

[britchey11]

I don't know of a world -wide effort to organize by the POUM. It seems to me that people didn't decide exactly which faction they wanted to be in from thousands of miles away and manage to get there and join those people but rather they tried to find someone or group who would help them get there. There were probably many Spanish speaking people from the Americas who just showed up and joined whatever fighting force was nearest the port that they arrived at but there numbers are not recorded.

[britchey11]

I believe that most of POUM was Catalonian based locals and some people from other countries who found their way there alone or in small groups. . I think that many natives didn't know much about what was happening 200 miles away and there are plenty of stories about people who had to fight for the left until they could escape to the right and verso. Even to this day there are people you don't know that the main front was in Madrid or that there were anarchists in the south

[colombian18]

wat about the POUM though? im sure alot joined that.

[britchey11]

There is a good piece about the communist make-up of the Lincolns on my page-Moe Fishman about pt. 4 and 5. I will be posting interviews by other vets who have interesting stories about trying to get into Spain to fight.

[britchey11]

the ib was organized by the cominturn and supported by the ussr, one of only 2 countries that would sell arms to the republic. the individual brigades from each country were made up of a liberal-left demographic that matched the population of that country. and for non-spanish speaking volunteers the IB was the only way to get to Spain and join the Spanish Republican army. So yes, they were Stalinist but not in the way that many people think. continued below