The Resonance of History 119

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As Catalonia today fights for its freedom, it should not be forgotten that the current government of Spain are the direct political heirs of Franco and that many of their ministers have personal and family connections to his rule. Rajoy, Spain’s current Prime Minister, started his political career in 1981 by joining the People’s Alliance, a party founded in 1979 and led by 7 of Franco’s ministers to carry on the Francoist legacy. The People’s Alliance became the major component in the now governing People’s Party.

That is the essential background to the extreme Spanish nationalist dislike of freedom for Catalonia, and far right nationalist moves to declare the Catalan referendum illegal.

This is a good day to think of Euan MacColl’s updating of Jamie Foyers, to remember those Scots who fought alongside the Catalans against fascism at the Battle of the Ebro.

Faur distant, faur distant, lies Foyers the brave
Nae tombstone memorial shall hallow his grave
For his bones they lie scattered on the rude soil o Spain
An young Jamie Foyers in battle wis slain

He’s gane frae the shipyaird that stauns on the Clyde
His haimmer lies idle, his tools laid aside
Tae the wide Ebro river young Foyers has gane
Tae fight by the side o the people o Spain

Thair wisnae his equal at wark or at play
He wis strang in the Union till his dying day
He wis grand at the fitbaa, at the dance he wis braw
Young Jamie Foyers wis the flouer o thaim aa

He cam hame frae the shipyaird, took aff his warkin claes
O, A mind the time weill in the lang simmer’s days
He said, “Thinknae lang, lassie, A’ll come back again”
But young Jamie Foyers in battle was slain

In the fight for Belcite, he was aye tae the fore
An he focht at Gandesa till he couldnae fight more
For he lay owre his machine gun wi a bullet in his brain
An young Jamie Foyers in battle was slain

Faur distant, faur distant, lies Foyers the brave
Nae tombstone memorial shall hallow his grave
For his bones they lie scattered on the rude soil o Spain
An young Jamie Foyers in battle was slain

When the BBC was smugly quoting the current Francoist government of Spain as the bar to Scotland’s entry into the EU, I was longing for somebody to give just a little of this historic perspective. But of course, the mainstream media never did.

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119 thoughts on “The Resonance of History”

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  • Tony_0pmoc

    Phil, you just made me laugh..”Fuck me. Just seen Craig is running for parliament again.

    Remind me, what is the SNPs position on NATO and the monarchy?”

    Well I don’t effin know..but it would be funny wouldn’t it…I reckon he’s in with a Good Chance..He can stay in Ramsgate..when he’s in Westminster…and can use the Expenses (providing they do it properly) to fly back to Scotland..which I guess is his spiritual home..even though he was born and grew up in Norfolk…so I am kind of agreeing with him in a non tribal way…that it does..and it does not matter..you see..we are all a bit tribal…we are bound to be…they are our family and friends..and it is hard to move away..

    The World is Not as The Psychopaths Currently in Power are Trying To Describe…

    Maybe Craig is a Part of the Fight Back…

    He would be even Better Than Galloway in Parliament…

    Seriously…Go For it Mate..I think You would be Great.

    Tony

  • John Goss

    This is the best version I can find for two reasons. First of all these boys come from Leith (the home of golf). Secondly Ewan MacColl did a great Scottish accent even though he came from Salford (Dirty Old Town as it was then.) This can be understood by almost anybody anywhere in Europe with reasonable English.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRdKk9wbiHg

    Ewan MacColl was one of the great singer-songwriters of the working-class movement. He covered everything from fisherman to gypsies and believed in freedom. He was a Labour supporter at a time when Labour had some worth. But it is the poetry which endears me to him. Spare a minute to listen to this classic of his “The First Time ever I saw your face”. I have heard many stories about who the subject of the song was but the one I like best is refering to the birth of one of his children. It has been performed by Roberta Flack and many others. This is Johnny Cash’s interpretation.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdSIlVZhsDw

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Craig Murray can even stay at our house, if he misses the last train home….We do not charge. Never have and we Never will..if you are staying here..you are staying as our guest. If you pay…then we can’t chuck you out…I have never met the bloke. I might not even like him..I don’t know…but until and if I do..he is welcome to stay the night in our home..My wife and I have learnt these things by travelling the world together …and finding the most incredible generosity, welcome and love from people we have never met before…It’s not just a Lancashire thing.

    Tony

  • John Goss

    Tony, I know what you say. Lancashire folk are ‘gradely folk’ as are most folk. I’ve lived in Lancashire. Like you I’ve travelled. When I got out of Turkey into Georgia I spent some time trying to find somewhere to camp to cut down on costs. Most people, though they are not rich, are protective of their property but I did find one site where I lit a fire, consumed a bottle of probably the best homw-made wine (apart from my mother’s) I had ever tasted, and settled down for the night. It was sub-zero. My ex-partner had given me her down-padded sleeping-bag and I was never-ever cold. Out of kindness shortly after I fell asleep (Ah, the virtues of wine) I was awakened by the owner of the land. Lovely man. He wanted me to come to his home. But I knew we would be talking into the early hours (the vice of wine) and begged forgiveness in the best way I could with my inadequate Russian. It was one example of many.

  • Rehmat

    Both Spanish king and regime in Madrid has very close relations with Tel Aviv mainly based on their hatred toward Muslims which ruled Spain for nearly 850 year. Dr. Bernard Lewis, an Islamophobe, even admitted that Muslim Spain became the “Golden Age” of Jewish people.

    A decade ago, King Carlos apologized to world Jewry on behalf of his ancestors for killing nearly 130,000 Spanish Jews. However, he and his government still refuses to apologize to 1.7 billion Muslims for the genocide of over 4 million Muslims in Spain in the 15th century by crusaders.

    http://rehmat1.com/2011/10/08/spain-jewish-history-without-muslims/

  • Ben-9260th dojo katana

    ” still refuses to apologize to 1.7 billion Muslims for the genocide of over 4 million Muslims in Spain in the 15th century by crusaders.”

    The Moors were the invaders donchaknow?

  • Tony_0pmoc

    John Goss,

    I don’t mean to be that critical..but I have just had a quick look at the first video you posted above…

    Yes the sound quality is awesome..and so is the video quality…what kit did you use..did you use and Independent ZOOM Mike…Yes they are exceedingly Good Quality…

    Try a Clapper Board Next Time…or one of the effin programs I am sure someone has written by now…

    Look you are in video edit…Everything is Great apart from the Sound Synch

    You click the button…I don’t know which button but surely someone must have written it…

    It matches the sound waves (the graphical signature…they won’t be identical..but they will be very similar in form to your Independent microphone(s) which if placed well…will really get the best quality and TIMED with the sound from your in-camera mike…and just produce the best quality sound and video…Have you done 3D yet..I fuckin love it..though no one can see it..well unless they know how to switch their Telly to 3D and put on these silly specs…

    But its great playing with tech toys..even at my age.

    They can’t do it now…Most of the latest stuff is stripped down crap…all the interesting features removed..cos the plebs could never work out how to use them….same price New Model Number (+1)..Made of Shite will last 5 minutes..if you are lucky…Its like swapping your wife for a blow up doll….

    I buy mainly second hand…less than half the price and 3 times the quality..if its crap you can send it back.

    Does that make me a conservative?

    Tony

  • BrianFujisan

    Thanks for this Craig

    Beautifully Written Poem / Lyric…and MY river gets a mention…

    Much Better than ‘ The Windhover ‘ by Gerard Manley Hopkins’s… Which i was trying to Analyze Last night With a Lady Friend….COMPLEX !!!

    I hear Catalonia voted over 80% for independence. Yes.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    Yeh, well I didn’t start until really late…I just sailed (well I had 9 months out after university) in a most fantastic job at the age of 19…and I was doing fine…and we were doing fine…until Margeret Thatcher got elected and closed down…almost it seemed to me..The entire North of England.So many of us got made redundant at the same time..that we would bump in to each other from the train from Manchester to London..Did they get you or did they tell you to Fuck Off..

    So I was on the dole…I had now lost Two Girls I was Completely in Love With So Much…that they could easily have been my wife…

    Then I met this Girl..and She Knew I was about to lose my job and did…About 8 months later ( I played it really cool..though I fell in love with her the moment I saw her)…She says to me..I am going to Stonehenge Free Festival with My Friends…I burst into Tears…You Mean I am not invited????

    So we borrowed her little sister’s play tent…it was 1982…This is 1984….we kept going (though I tried to keep it quiet..a bit politically incorrect you see)

    yeh..We are probably On Here as Well…We were Certainly There..

    “stonehenge free music festival”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTQTXbxOEeA

    Oh and by the way..I was just asking..if you know how to do that..it can’t be that hard…but I was never really in to editing…The real pleasure is live…Some other bugger can edit it. I’m just the bleedin camera man.

    The ENID did that..and Yes I did buy it.

    Tony

  • kathy

    Ben-9260th dojo katana

    “The Moors were the invaders”

    There was no real indigenous people in Andalucia when the Moors brought their civilization to Spain, only German Visigoth tribes. Hardly an invasion.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    I don’t know how I got away with it..I would may be trying to match the latest photography from The SKY at Night..and trying to write a computer game whilst out of my head on alcohol, cannabis and LSD on a Sunday night…and Turn up All Suited and Booted..on Monday Morning…Yet I did…well I think they kind of noticed when the plane hit..and I told them the Truth…

    No Tony…You Have Gone Mad…

    I Never went Mad…

    Its You who are as Mad as a Fish..sure I got stoned…sure I had an out of body experience..and sure I painted electronically in 3D…and I do Brilliant Photography…

    But that was not my job…

    In My job..I was Totally Professional

    Tony

  • Peacewisher

    Catalonia vote: 80% back independence, say organisers

    The Spanish government, almost sounding like Poroshenko, “… considers this to be a day of political propaganda organised by pro-independence forces and devoid of any kind of democratic validity,” he said in a statement.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-29982960

  • Kempe

    ” However, he and his government still refuses to apologize to 1.7 billion Muslims for the genocide of over 4 million Muslims in Spain in the 15th century by crusaders. ”

    Probably because it’s complete rubbish. There were never more than 500,000 muslims in Spain at that time out of a total population of around 5 million.

  • Mary

    Catalonia Overwhelmingly Votes for Independence From Spain in Straw Poll
    NOV. 9, 2014
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/world/europe/catalans-vote-in-straw-poll-on-independence-from-spain.html?_r=0

    ‘The poll, as expected, resulted in an overwhelming secessionist victory, with 80.7 percent of votes cast in favor of independence, according to the preliminary results released by the regional government of Catalonia early Monday. The results were based on 88 percent of votes counted. The government also forecast the final turnout figure would be 2.25 million voters. However, Spain’s justice minister, Rafael Catalá, told reporters on Sunday evening that the vote had been a “useless and sterile” act of political propaganda orchestrated by the regional government of Artur Mas.’

    ‘The Catalan secessionist standoff comes after Scotland voted in September not to break away from Britain. That referendum, however, was authorized by the British government in London. The fight over Catalonia’s future is proving far more contentious and has turned into the biggest political challenge for Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy since he took office in late 2011.’

  • Jives

    Habbabkuk,

    Oh do go away you bothersome ball-sucking child of any eejit purporting authority.

    You’re such a wee troll sockpuppet hasbara slave Habba.

    I pity you,your servile yet bullish lack of grace,dignity,honesty and nuance.

    Run along now Habbs…you’re a feckin’ pitiful amateur.

  • Mary

    Catalonians head to polls to vote in a referendum that has now been outlawed

    Tom Shields
    Sunday 9 November 2014

    As a Yes campaigner, a footsoldier ­knocking on doors in ­Maryhill, I confess to being angry still at the depths of mendacity which the machinery of the British state mined to prevent Scottish independence.

    This ­weekend I am involved as a voter in a similar process in Catalonia and find that the Spanish government has chosen an even simpler route than Westminster. They have banned any ballot on the issue of Catalan independence.

    /..
    http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/catalonians-head-to-polls-to-vote-in-a-referendum-that-has-now-been-outlawed.25814450

  • BrianFujisan

    Jives Lol

    Mary ta for the D. Snow Thuggery piece… What else can one call it – High caliber professionalism –

    ” For the soldiers who fought it was in some ways better than previous conflicts, and in some ways worse.”

    Folks surely this is a Must watch… O.T but Check this out From Chunky Mark –

    Iraq is a Game

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeG95iGL–Q

  • Peacewisher

    @Mary: so what do the Spanish government do now? Well if they are to follow the US/EU new democracy model – first exercised in Ukraine against Donbass – they’ll call the Catalonians ter’rists.

    Somehow, I don’t think that will happen… thankfully, the Catalonians made sure they had a sympathetic media before they embarked on this process…

  • Peacewisher

    @Brian: I remember Iraqi ex-patriots coming onto the BBC in the early months of 2003, to tell us that Saddam Hussein must be overthrown. They had lost loved ones, and were still hurting, like this man. They should have been more careful what they wished for.

    Those of us who saw Brian Haw’s display outside parliament know that he was showing the truth (massively deformed babies) of the results of deleted uranium munions… already known from the 1991 conflict… but still, it seems, the Iraqi ex-patriots supported invasion.

    An even greater tragedy is that deleted uranium munions haven’t been outlawed and are still used today. It wouldn’t surprise me if they haven’t been used in Ukraine. What kind of crazy UN turns a blind eye?

    Excellent blog consisting of many peoples’ reflections on the Iraq war 10 years on, and how wrong they were to support it. All from March 2013:

    http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/threads/the-iraq-invasion-ten-years-later/

  • Damian John Brown

    am I the only one among you who needs a calculator to do the algebraic ‘defeat spam’? 😉

    Good Luck Catalonia… just been reading some of the references to it in ‘Vanished Kingdoms – The History of Half-Forgotten Europe’ by Norman Davies

    Nostradamus has quite a bit to say about Perpignan and Barcelona…

  • BrianFujisan

    Cheers Peacewisher…

    i was taken on by his talk on the Now of it all…Every sentence True….D.U.. Deformities .. Murder, Theft.. ECT Ect Ect. Total catastrophe… And Same with Libya… and noo Syria…. Sickening…Heartbreaking, And its not going to Stop – Iran –

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    Jives

    “Habbabkuk,

    Oh do go away you bothersome ball-sucking child of any eejit purporting authority.

    You’re such a wee troll sockpuppet hasbara slave Habba.

    I pity you,your servile yet bullish lack of grace,dignity,honesty and nuance.

    Run along now Habbs…you’re a feckin’ pitiful amateur.”
    ____________________

    Thank you for that thoughtful and considered post, Jonathan.

    I suppose that most of us are “amateurs” about many of the things we comment on? Just as a matter of interest, what are the subjects you are expert in?

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