A Palestinian flag flies near the Peace Tower during a march for Gaza rally on Parliament Hill in November 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
Unions speaking out on issues as contentious as Israel-Palestine is nothing new. They have a long history of staking international positions on everything from apartheid to the Vietnam War.
From left to right: Dutch director Joris Ivens, Ernest Hemingway and Ludwig Renn, chief of staff in the International Brigades, in a photo taken at the beginning of 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.
Cassowary Colorizations/Wikimedia Commons
Well known foreign correspondents often put their own ideological spin on the Spanish Civil War.
Children cared for in the Auxilio Social canteens (1937-1938).
Biblioteca Nacional de España
The worst years of the Spanish post-war constituted a veritable famine during which the purchasing power of the population fell drastically and thousands of deaths from starvation were recorded.
A woman hugs a Polish volunteer before he crosses the border to go and fight against Russian forces.
AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu
According to some reports, thousands of people from around the world are signing up to fight on behalf of Ukraine. But comparisons to the Spanish Civil War’s International Brigades are misguided.
The new tower stands completed, to the left, with its summit star in place.
Petr Tran | Shutterstock
Barcelona’s fabled basilica recently celebrated the completion of its first tower with a giant star. But as at every stage in its history, not everyone is pleased.
George Orwell’s writings have left a lasting imprint on American thought and culture.
ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” was an instant success when it was first published. His writings on totalitarianism and socialism continue to be relevant today.
The liberation of Yugoslavs and Jews from an Italian concentration camp on the Adriatic island of Rab, 8 Sept 1943.
Elvira Kohn/Croatian History Museum
Good Europeans are not always where you expect to find them.
La Llorona.
La Casa de Producción
Latin American filmmakers wanting to alert the world to human rights abuses are turning to the supernatural to tell compelling stories
EPA/JUAN CARLOS HIDALGO
Spanish dictator Francisco Franco no longer has a place in the Valley of the Fallen.
The ruins of a church in Belchite, Zaragoza, which was devastated during the Spanish Civil War.
Shutterstock/gonzalovidania
Failure to deal with the wounds of the conflict has permeated society and culture in Spain.
Wikipedia
New prime minister Pedro Sánchez wants to move the remains from a national memorial site. But not everyone agrees.
Sunderland AFC playing Spain in 1934.
Journal La Educacion Fisica
Losing to Sunderland in 1934 forced Spanish writers and commentators to look beyond football for answers.
Melita Jurisic as the mother who confines her four daughters to their house for eight weeks of mourning.
Jeff Busby
Federico Garcia Lorca’s shocking civil war play is successfully transferred to the Australian desert by the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Still from Human Flow, directed by Ai Weiwei.
IMDB/Amazon Studios
Artists have long tackled global issues, from war to human rights. While Picasso’s celebrated Guernica may not have stopped the Spanish Civil War (or any war), art still holds value, as witness and as truth teller.
A young girl wearing the Spanish flag (right) walks with another young girl wearing an ‘estelada,’ or independence flag.
AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
An expert explains why the EU is ill-equipped to handle a problem like Catalonia.
A worker removes graffiti reading ‘Gora ETA’ (Long live ETA) in support of the Basque terrorist group in Pamplona.
EPA Images
While politicians remain at loggerheads, the arts bring resolution to the Basque Country’s long history of violence.
Basque children, refugees from the Spanish Civil War, Aldridge Lodge, 1937.
(C) Walsall Local History Centre
During the Spanish Civil War, 4,000 Basque child refugees arrived in Britain – here’s the story of the women who helped rescue them.
www.shutterstock.com
Spain has specific laws on protecting historical memory, and yet some would rather forget about them altogether.
Basque children fleeing the Spanish Civil War arriving in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1937.
Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums
There were mixed reactions to refugees from the Spanish Civil War and the Nazis by the British press.
Orwell (tallest, centre) in Huesca, Spain in 1937.
Hoover Institution Archives/Harry Milton Papers
Comparisons of foreign volunteers in Syria to the International Brigades of Spain are apt, but not for the reasons you think.