Abe Osheroff - Lincoln Brigade Hero

[Havoc345]

Abraham Osheroff (October 24, 1915 – April 6, 2008) was an American social activist, carpenter, war veteran, documentary filmmaker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film), and lecturer

Born into a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn, New York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn,_New_York), he spoke Yiddish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish) and "a good smattering of Russian"[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Osheroff#cite_note-raven-0) before English.
In the early 1930s, he began political work. In 1931, during the Great Depression (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression), the police arrested him for moving the furniture of evicted families back into their houses. A policeman, who was a member of the American Nazi Bund (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-American_Bund), beat up Osheroff while he was incarcerated and called him a "Goddamn Jew." Around this time, he joined the Communist Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_USA). In 1935, aged 20, he was organizing miners' unions on behalf of the party and raising aid for striking workers.
When the Spanish Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War) came in 1936, Abe felt no real compulsion to go and fight, until he saw the bombing of Guernica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica) by the Luftwaffe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffe). This convinced him to fight, as he believed no one should be allowed to inflict such suffering on others and get away with it. He joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Brigade) and was wounded at the Battle Of Belchite (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Belchite_(1937)) (1937).
When World War II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II) broke out, he enlisted in the US Army (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army) to fight the Nazis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany) in Europe.
After the war, he taught at the Jefferson School Of Social Science (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jefferson_School_Of_Social_Science&action=edit&redlink=1) in New York, a Marxist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist) adult school with ties to the Communist Party. He left in 1951, under persecution from the House Committee on Un-American Activities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Committee_on_Un-American_Activities).
He left the Communist Party in 1956, in response to the revelation of Stalin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin)'s purges (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purges). After splitting from many of his best friends in the party, he threw his efforts into the Civil Rights Movement (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement_(1955%E2%80%931968)) building a community center in 1965, in Holmes County (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_County), Mississippi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi), where he was threatened by the police because he was working with African Americans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans). (The police were allied with Ku Klux Klan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan) elements.)
In the late fifties, Abe married Noel Osheroff. They had three children, Nick, Dov, and Sara, and lived in Venice, California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venice,_California) until they divorced. Abe and his children were key in the struggle to save the Venice Canals from development and to stop authorities from driving out the poor families, like theirs, that dominated the area. Abe worked as a carpenter and taught his two sons the trade.
In 1974 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_in_film) he completed the documentary Dreams and Nightmares, on the Spanish military bases sold to Franco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco)'s dictatorship by Nixon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon), which shocked many, as at the time Nixon was still a popular president. Dreams & Nightmares won the top award at a documentary film festival in Leipzig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leipzig), then in East Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany).
In 1985, he organised a village building brigade in America to travel to Nicaragua (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua) to aid the Sandinistas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinistas). Later, he was highly active in movements opposing the Gulf War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War) and Iraq War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War), and he drove the Peace Mobile.
In March 2008, Osheroff traveled with his wife and friends from his Seattle home to San Francisco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco) for the unveiling of the United States's first monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. He was determined to go, and it took great effort to get him there. But Osheroff was the guest of honor, one of the 20 or so last survivors of the Brigade. Osheroff used to say, "I have one foot in the grave but the other keeps dancing." After more than seven decades of deep involvement with what he called "radical humanism," Osheroff died on April 6, 2008, a few days after returning to Seattle.

Video of him dedicating a Lincoln Brigade monument in San Francisco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7F4pzNOD8I

[Ordie]

Rip

no pasaran!

[Bombtrack]

RIP to a true working-class hero. No Pasaran.

[Hollis]

What a history that man has.

[khaz]

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[Havoc345]

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[zad]

There's a valley in Spain called Jarama
It's a place that we all know so well;
It was there that we gave of our manhood
Where so many of our brave comrades fell.

We are proud of the Lincoln Battalion
And the fight for Madrid that it made,
There we fought like true sons of the people
As part of the Fifteenth Brigade.

Now we're far from that valley of sorrow,
But its memory we'll never forget,
So before we continue this reunion,
Let us stand to our glorious dead.

There's a valley in Spain called Jarama
It's a place that we all know so well;
It was there that we gave of our manhood
Where so many of our brave comrades fell.


Hasta la vista camarada.

[Bombtrack]

http://ca.youtube.com/watch/v/HuCNxlAHP5E

[boreal]

http://www2.uah.es/jmc/puertalcala.jpg

Ahhh the freedom fighters...

[Havoc345]

http://www2.uah.es/jmc/puertalcala.jpg

Ahhh the freedom fighters...

Yeah Franco was great, he practically turned Spain into a "hermit kingdom".

[Ordie]

I have a lot of respect for the Internationals. They volunteered and fought against Fascism and for a better world.

Rival Marxist and Anarchist militias were victims of Stalin's purges within Spain. (No love lost between Spanish Republicans and Stalin)

Many of the Internationals enlisted in the armed forces during WW2, however because of thier leftist backgrounds, they were never trusted.

There was a story that a group of former Republicans (interned in france as work crews) would pick up weapons from the retreating French Army and headed towards the Nazis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ8DhXgPjfg&feature=related

[LineDoggie]

Yeah Franco was great, he practically turned Spain into a "hermit kingdom".
Really? thats funny, as My Grandmother had no problems going to Spain since 1950 at all. She said it was very peaceful, every year she would go for the summer or on sabbaticals.

[Havoc345]

Really? thats funny, as My Grandmother had no problems going to Spain since 1950 at all. She said it was very peaceful, every year she would go for the summer or on sabbaticals.

What I mean't is that Franco turned Spain into a Fascist, Isolationalist country that held little sway in world or even regional affairs. Of course this would have been different if Hitler/Mussolini would have won WW2.

[Bombtrack]

Really? thats funny, as My Grandmother had no problems going to Spain since 1950 at all. She said it was very peaceful, every year she would go for the summer or on sabbaticals.

Yes. Fascists can make trains run on time. Hurray.

[zad]

There was a story that a group of former Republicans (interned in france as work crews) would pick up weapons from the retreating French Army and headed towards the Nazis.


Following their defeat in the Spanish Civil War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Civil_War) in early 1939, around 500,000 Republicans fled to France to escape imprisonment and execution.[101] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Republican_refugees-100) On the other side of the Pyrenees (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrenees), refugees were confined in internment camps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camps_in_France) such as Camp Gurs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Gurs) or Camp Vernet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Vernet).[102] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-French_internment_camps-101)[101] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Republican_refugees-100) Although over half of the refugees had been repatriated by the time Pétain proclaimed the Vichy Regime,[103] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Crowdy-102) the 120,000 to 150,000 who remained[104] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Republicans-103) became political prisoners, and the foreign equivalent to Compulsory Labour Service, the Compagnies de Travailleurs Etrangers or CTE, was begun.[105] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-CTE-104) The CTE permitted prisoners to leave the interment camps if they would go to work in factories in Germany,[106] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Maquis_avoiding_labour_service-105) and as many as 60,000 Republicans who were recruited to the labour service managed to escape and instead join the resistance.[103] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Crowdy-102) Thousands of suspected anti-fascist Republicans were also deported to concentration camps in Germany;[107] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-30.2C000-106) most were sent to Mauthausen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauthausen_concentration_camp), where of the 10,000 Spaniards registered, only 2,000 survived the war.[108] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Spaniards_at_Mauthausen-107)
Many Spanish escapees joined French resistance groups, while others formed autonomous groups. In April 1942, Spanish communists formed the XIV Corps, an armed guerrilla movement, which had a force of about 3,400 combatants by June 1944.[104] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Republicans-103) Although the group at first worked closely with the Franc Tireurs et Partisans (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franc_Tireurs_Partisans#World_War_II), it re-formed as the Agrupación de Guerrilleros Españoles (Group of Spanish Guerrillas, AGE) in May 1944[109] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Agrupaci.C3.B3n_de_Guerrilleros_Espa.C3.B1oles-108) to convey the group's composition of Spanish soldiers, who were ultimately advocating the fall of General Francisco Franco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Franco).[104] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#cite_note-Republicans-103) The Spanish maquis returned their focus to Spain after the German army was driven from France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Resistance#Communists

French article about the role of spanish partisans in the french resistance
http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2004/08/FERNANDEZ_RECATALA/11465

[boreal]

Yeah Franco was great, he practically turned Spain into a "hermit kingdom".

In one side Franco with his friends Mussolini and Adolf, in the another side the Comintern boys with Uncle Joe.

A very democratic war, for sure.

[Ordie]

^^^
I would say it was a war from feudalism directly into modernism. (With all the "isms" in between.)

What is amazing is how Franco re-invented himself and how his 'groomed' successor, King Juan Carlos, became a "revolutionary" bringing about democracy.

Spain was no hermit kingdom by any means. During Franco times it built up its tourist industry and hosted the US Air Force and Navy at Moron and Rota respectively. (Long before Spain joined NATO).

[Havoc345]

In one side Franco with his friends Mussolini and Adolf, in the another side the Comintern boys with Uncle Joe.

A very democratic war, for sure.

I hope you know that many Americans of the Lincoln Brigade eventually left the Communist Party due to people like Uncle Joe and Mao. It had stopped being a party of the people and had become as oppressive as the Fascism they fought against in Spain.

[LineDoggie]

Yes. Fascists can make trains run on time. Hurray.

Whereas Communists just execute the Engineers, Conductors, the Passengers, their families, their Friends, their Neighbors, etc. all in the Name of the People.

Lets all sing the Internationale......:roll: Bunch a Murdering thugs just like the Fascists, but with better PR to hide their crimes

[Ordie]

The Right gave us Hitler.
The Left gave us Stalin.

and Spain was thier playground.

The majority of Communist and Anarchist militias such as POUM were independant from Stalin's Comintern. In the end they had it bad being targeted by Franco and Stalin at the same time.

[11 Bravo]

The Right gave us Hitler.
The Left gave us Stalin.

and Spain was thier playground.

The majority of Communist and Anarchist militias such as POUM were independant from Stalin's Comintern. In the end they had it bad being targeted by Franco and Stalin at the same time.

What... Jeez louise Adolf and Stalin were both LEFT !!. They were both Socialist , they were both oppressive ****-taters !. What the hell makes you think Adolf was "right" ?. All adolf did was the same thing Leftnutzis did/do to gain absolute power , although he killed fewer people in his climb than Joe or mao... and come to think of it the german nutzi killed way less overall than either Joe or Mao. They were all socialist , communist or facist is the same dang brand , both left turns !.
If you don't think spain in the overall picture wound up better off as a nation and it's people with Franco at the helm your nutz !. It was the communist groups in spain that started the shooting war when they got the keys to the armories and started handing out rifles willy nilly to their joe loving communist groups whom in short order turned their newfound power of armed suppression on any enemy of the left and each other.

[Ordie]

^^^
Actually it was Franco that rebelled against the Republican Government.

[Havoc345]

What... Jeez louise Adolf and Stalin were both LEFT !!. They were both Socialist , they were both oppressive ****-taters !. What the hell makes you think Adolf was "right" ?. All adolf did was the same thing Leftnutzis did/do to gain absolute power , although he killed fewer people in his climb than Joe or mao... and come to think of it the german nutzi killed way less overall than either Joe or Mao. They were all socialist , communist or facist is the same dang brand , both left turns !.
If you don't think spain in the overall picture wound up better off as a nation and it's people with Franco at the helm your nutz !. It was the communist groups in spain that started the shooting war when they got the keys to the armories and started handing out rifles willy nilly to their joe loving communist groups whom in short order turned their newfound power of armed suppression on any enemy of the left and each other.

The Spanish Fascists were rebelling against the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Spanish Republican Government. War is never a case of good and evil, most would agree that the Socialist/Communist militias would have been a better alternative than Franco. Especially if the Fascists had been successful during WW2

[CPL Trevoga]

No pasaran!

[boreal]

The Spanish Fascists were rebelling against the DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED Spanish Republican Government. War is never a case of good and evil, most would agree that the Socialist/Communist militias would have been a better alternative than Franco. Especially if the Fascists had been successful during WW2


And the socialist and communist rebelled against another democratically elected in 1934 revolution casusing major destructions in Asturias for example. In 1936 we had Falange militias, Requeté militias, Anarchist militias, Socialist militias, Communist militias etc etc and was only a question of time.

When the police forces of the democratically ellected government, kidnapped the leader of the opposition party, and shoot him started a civil war.

[boreal]

The Right gave us Hitler.
The Left gave us Stalin.

and Spain was thier playground.

The majority of Communist and Anarchist militias such as POUM were independant from Stalin's Comintern. In the end they had it bad being targeted by Franco and Stalin at the same time.


For that reason the POUM fighters were wiped out by the commies, and his leader Andreu Nin was tortured and killed by the republican army secret service, controlled by the commies.

[zad]

In every thread about second republic or spanish civil war boreal comes always with the same. In short, according to him Franco was the good guy. Don´t lose your time arguing with him. He has read too many Pio Moa books.

[boreal]

In every thread about second republic or spanish civil war boreal comes always with the same. In short, according to him Franco was the good guy. Don´t lose your time arguing with him. He has read too many Pio Moa books.

Thus spoke the comrade.

[Ordie]

Franco was a canny survivor.

He reigned in his own radical allies (Carlist and Falangeist) during the war. He was pressured by Hitler to join the Axis but refused. Instead he allowed his former radical allies (The Falange) to join the Blue Division on the Eastern Front to placate Hitler and get rid of potential rivals.

At the same time he erased any evidence of torture camps and the US washed its hands after WW2 on the premise of getting an anti-Soviet ally.

[Gunge]

No pasaran!

can you guys fill us in to what this saying means
thx in advance

i dont like hitler or stalin but always thought the internationals were very idealistic and had the best of intentions to help the spanish people
but like almost everything, things get re-directed and others take control

but i appreciate the history lesson and discussion

[zad]

can you guys fill us in to what this saying means
thx in advance

i dont like hitler or stalin but always thought the internationals were very idealistic and had the best of intentions to help the spanish people
but like almost everything, things get re-directed and others take control

but i appreciate the history lesson and discussion

No Pasaran means literally "They shall not pass" (the fascist will not pass), it was taken from a speech of Dolores Ibarruri and it was the republican motto during the defence of Madrid and the spanish civil war. It is still used as a motto by leftist in Spain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Pasar%C3%A1n

[Ordie]

^^^
It was later adopted by Latin American leftist revolutionaries including the Sandinistas.

[berberman]

¡No pasarán!