N ORMAN B ETHUNE IN S PAIN
N ORMAN B ETHUNE
IN S PAIN
Commitment, Crisis, and Conspiracy
DAVID LETHBRIDGE
Copyright David Lethbridge, 2013.
Published in the Sussex Academic e-Library, 2019.
SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS
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Contents
The Caada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies
Foreword by Linda Palfreeman
Authors Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
P ART O NE Wounded
A Rotten Childhood
Nothing He Would Not Do
Last Night Rose Low and Wild and Red
P ART T WO Capitalism Breeds Fascism the Way a Fly Breeds Maggots
The Double Pyramid
Men of Iron, Men of Gold
The Frankenstein Project
Imperialism Prefers Fascism
The Butchers Revolt
Imperialist Betrayal
They Killed My Soul
P ART T HREE Lifes Blood
The Plan
Based on Blood: A New Type of Human Relationship
I Would Not Be Anywhere Else
Slaughter of the Innocents
Every Minute is Beautiful
The Blood of the Dead
I Killed My Own Son
The Conspiracy
They Are In Me, They Have Changed Me
P ART F OUR In Defense of the Republic
A Tumultuous Welcome
Sharply Raising the Question of Class Struggle
You See Now Why I Must Go
People Let Me Tell You, Now Is the Time to Wake Up
Will You Come?
P ART F IVE Aubade
A Dream of Himself
Notes
Index
About the Author
The Caada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies
In the 1960s, the most important initiative in the cultural and academic relations between Spain and the United Kingdom was launched by a Valencian fruit importer in London. The creation by Vicente Caada Blanch of the Anglo-Spanish Cultural Foundation has subsequently benefited large numbers of Spanish and British scholars at various levels. Thanks to the generosity of Vicente Caada Blanch, thousands of Spanish schoolchildren have been educated at the secondary school in West London that bears his name. At the same time, many British and Spanish university students have benefited from the exchange scholarships which fostered cultural and scientific exchanges between the two countries. Some of the most important historical, artistic and literary work on Spanish topics to be produced in Great Britain was initially made possible by Caada Blanch scholarships.
Vicente Caada Blanch was, by inclination, a conservative. When his Foundation was created, the Franco regime was still in the plenitude of its power. Nevertheless, the keynote of the Foundations activities was always a complete open-mindedness on political issues. This was reflected in the diversity of research projects supported by the Foundation, many of which, in Francoist Spain, would have been regarded as subversive. When the Dictator died, Don Vicente was in his seventy-fifth year. In the two decades following the death of the Dictator, although apparently indestructible, Don Vicente was obliged to husband his energies. Increasingly, the work of the Foundation was carried forward by Miguel Dols whose tireless and imaginative work in London was matched in Spain by that of Jos Mara Coll Comn. They were united in the Foundations spirit of open-minded commitment to fostering research of high quality in pursuit of better Anglo-Spanish cultural relations. Throughout the 1990s, thanks to them, the role of the Foundation grew considerably.
In 1994, in collaboration with the London School of Economics, the Foundation established the Prncipe de Asturias Chair of Contemporary Spanish History and the Caada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies. It is the particular task of the Caada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies to promote the understanding of twentieth-century Spain through research and teaching of contemporary Spanish history, politics, economy, sociology and culture. The Centre possesses a valuable library and archival centre for specialists in contemporary Spain. This work is carried on through the publications of the doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at the Centre itself and through the many seminars and lectures held at the London School of Economics. While the seminars are the province of the researchers, the lecture cycles have been the forum in which Spanish politicians have been able to address audiences in the United Kingdom.
Since 1998, the Caada Blanch Centre has published a substantial number of books in collaboration with several different publishers on the subject of contemporary Spanish history and politics. A fruitful partnership with Sussex Academic Press began in 2004 with the publication of Christina Palomaress fascinating work on the origins of the Partido Popular in Spain, The Quest for Survival after Franco: Moderate Francoism and the Slow Journey to the Polls, 19641977. This was followed in 2007 by Soledad Foxs deeply moving biography of one of the most intriguing women of 1930s Spain, Constancia de la Mora in War and Exile: International Voice for the Spanish Republic and Isabel Rohrs path-breaking study of antisemitism in Spain, The Spanish Right and the Jews, 18981945: Antisemitism and Opportunism. 2008 saw the publication of a revised edition of Richard Wiggs penetrating study of Anglo-Spanish relations during the Second World War, Churchill and Spain: The Survival of the Franco Regime, 19401945 together with Triumph at Midnight of the Century: A Critical Biography of Arturo Barea, Michael Eaudes fascinating revaluation of the great Spanish author of The Forging of a Rebel.
Our collaboration in 2009 was inaugurated by Gareth Stockeys incisive account of another crucial element in Anglo-Spanish relations, Gibraltar. A Dagger in the Spine of Spain. We were especially proud that it was continued by the most distinguished American historian of the Spanish Civil War, Gabriel Jackson. His pioneering work The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, first published 1965 and still in print, quickly became a classic. The Sussex Academic Press/Caada Blanch series was greatly privileged to be associated with Professor Jacksons biography of the great Republican war leader, Juan Negrn.
2011 took the series to new heights. Two remarkable and complementary works, Olivia Muoz Rojas, Ashes and Granite: Destruction and Reconstruction in the Spanish Civil War and its Aftermath and Dacia Viejo-Rose,
