NOVANEWS
By Austin Clavane
Deelores Ibarruri was an inspirational leader, a revolutionary fighter and an influential speaker who was heavily involved in the resistance against General Franco’s fascist coup which led to the Spanish Civil War.
Delores was born in Gallarta, Spain on the 9th December 1895 in to a family of miners. She experienced horrendous poverty as a child and her dream of becoming a teacher was never met due to her parents lack of money to finance her education. Instead, she became a seamstress. Her Husband, an active trade unionist, was imprisoned later in her life for leading a strike in 1934 against the fascist rule of CEDA , and as a consequence her financial situation deteriorated. She then began reading Karl Marx and his works led her to joining the Communist Party of Spain (PCE).
In 1920, Delores was elected into the provincial committee of the Communist Party in Basque and ten years later was elected on to the Central Committee of the PCE. She was a regular writer for the party's publication, Mundo Obrero, and used it as a platform to campaign against the unfair treatment of women in the country and to improve it through socialist revolution.
However, as the social democrats, republicans and communists were uniting and had, as an outcome, contested in the 1936 general election and won, the fascists became infuriated with anger and rich with Hitler's and Mussolini's financial and military aid. They led a coup d’état under the leadership of General Franco against the new progressive government.However, at a time when fascism, a system of slavery, backwardness, war, discrimination, fear, etc ,was on the rise and spreading throughout Europe, the Western Media was publicising propaganda against, no, not Germany, Italy or Spain, but against the Soviet Union. The Collectivisation Famine lie was published in 1935 by the Hearst Press at a time when socialism was the only solution for the worsening capitalist crisis and the defeat of the rise of fascism. Instead of hailing the achievements of the Industrialisation and Collectivisation programme in Russia under Stalin, the capitalists would rather demonise it and consequently give rise to fascism. In addition to that, the British, French and Americans were purposely hesitant in defending Spain against Franco by issuing a 'non intervention' agreement with each other. This did not help Delores and the revolutionaries in Spain in defending their nation against the fascists. However, with a little help from their friends, namely the Soviet Union, thePeople's Army (the resistance movement formed by the anti-fascists in Spain) were supported by the International Brigade, a call sent by the Soviet Union to the Workers of Europe to fight with their brothers and sisters in Spain against Fascism. The Soviet Union also helped directly by sending tanks and weaponry to the resistance forces, even though they were busy building for the biggest and most catastrophic war the world had ever seen.
Throughout the Civil War, Delores was extremely active. She was the ChiefPropagandist for the Republicans and in July 1936 she ended a radio speech with the famous slogan "THE FASCISTS SHALL NOT PASS! NO PASARAN!". This slogan eventually became the battle cry for the Republican Army. Also, at a meeting directed at the women of Spain, she stated "It is better to be the widows of heroes than the wives of cowards!" And in 1936, at rallies in both France and Belgium to gain support for the Republican Army, she cried "The Spanish people would rather die on its feet than live on its knees!" She was also very active in the committee which transferred funds from the Comintern (The Communist International) which was set up in March 1919 by leading members of the Bolshevik party in Russia, to the Republican Army.
However, the Republican Army could not hold off the might of Franco's Army, which was financed heavily by Germany and Italy, and they eventually lost the civil war. At the end of the war, Delores fled to the Soviet Union where she lived a happy life. Her son fought for the Red Army but sadly died at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Delores still remained active within the PCE and became Secretary General in May 1944. She lived in Moscow for many years and in 1964, she received the Lenin Peace Prize and in 1965 she won the Order of Lenin Prize. However, after been hailed as a hero by the new revisionist government in Russia, Delores stuck to her guns and did not succumb and attacked the government's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968.
When General Franco died, Delores moved back to Spain and in 1977 she became deputy to the Cortes (Spanish parliament). At the age of 93, on the 12th November 1989, Delores Ibarruri past away from Pneumonia.
Deelores shall be remembered as a woman who never capitulated to fascism, who fought for basic rights for women and a revolutionary fighter, activist, writer and speaker. She is an inspiration to us all and will never be forgotten.
