Montana labor news., 1936-10-29
Time For Worlds
Workers To Speak,
As Spain Fights
BY PIERRE VAN PAASSEN
Federated Press
(Bv Air to Paris)

iR14 illliiS III dNitS dRRAA A
of endurance, heroism and s~elf-sac-
rifice and is now cheered to new
heights of determination by the
formation of a cabinet, headed by
Largo Caballero, fighting Socialist
and trade union leader, in which
working class groups play a domin-
ating role.
But the third month of civil war
in anguished Spain finds the Fascist
dictators of Rome and Berlin still
pouring in war material for the
rebels, while the worlds markets re-
main closed to the constitutionally-
elected government of Madrid, even
when it offers to pay in gold. In
the name of a neutrality pact which
is just another scrap of paper to
the Fascist interventionists, France
and England are, in effect, applying
against the democratic Spanish gov
eminent the sanctions they dared
not apply to Italy, which was desig-
mated an aggressor nation in the
Ethiopian affair by unanimous vote
of the nations at Geneva.
Irun fell, opening the gates to
San Sebastian. It is Mussolini's
bombing planes and Hitler's Junkers
whose precision in dropping aerial
torpedoes brought Irun to a fall
this is the unanimous verdict of
foreign observers. Without the help
of Rome and Berlin, Gen. Franco
and his fellow bigtime gangsters
would present no problem to the
republic. Without the steady stream
of tanks, planes, armored cars and
artillery coming in from Portugal,
the Fascist rebellion would have
been crushed weeks ago. Yet the
blockade against the Spanish gov
rnment continuesl
They fought to the last cartridge,
the men of Irun. When they had no
more ammunition, they hurled
packets of dynamite. When dynamite
was gone, they rushed forward bare
handed and tackled each their man,
while the go times stronger enemy
butchered them with bayonets. A
girl held two armored cars at bay
for half an hour by hurting glycer-
inc bombs. Then the Moroccans
stormed the barricade of which she
was the last living defender and
tore her to pieces. The men of Ft.
Martial held 300 foreign legionnaires
at a distance for half a day by roll
ing rocks down the hill on which
the old fort is perched. When the
fort was taken, the c%onquerors
found II corpses.
At the moment of writing, the
professional killers of the foreign
legion from Africa have shed their
uniforms and are running like wild
beasts through the streets of Irun,
Sitting the Threats of men and
women, violating the smallest chill
dren, pillaging, numbering, wading
in the blood of workers. This is Fas-
cism which proclaims that it has
come to restore respect for God,
property and the family!
Because France, England and
other democratic nations are afraid
of causing the slightest worry to the
Fascist bonzos of Italy and Ger
many, the Spanish workers are
handed over to brutes who kill for
the Joy of killing. Nearly 100000
non-combatants have been slain so
far. Two billion dollars worth of
property has been destroyed. In
S%aragossa, occupied by IL rebel regi-
ments and besieged by the Catalan
militia, the general strike continues,
despite the sentence of death by
slow torture inflicted on known
leaders.
And still the workers hold their
own. And still they advance. They
have the cream of the Fascist army
locked up in Saragossa. They are
encircling Cordoba. They are per-
forming prodigies of valor at Tala-
vera de la Reina, crucial point of
the war to date, where 1000 legion
naires have paid with their lives for
the lust to power of monarchist Of
ficers, grandees and proprietors of
the great landed estates. Asturian
miners have bombed their way into
Oviedo to the cry of "Viva la dina
mita." Huesca is occupied, Jaca
menaced. Toledo is in the hands of
the militia in overalls.
The decisive hour is drawing near.
Franco has m more chance: with
the aid of tanks, bombing planes
and 10000 cylinders of poison gas
he will try to overwhelm the militia
stationed in the valley Of the Sierra
de Gredos. He is promising his
Moors 1000 pesetas per man and
three days free looting, killing and
violation in working class districts
of the capital if they reach Madrid
before October l. Badajoz and Irun
fell because their defenders had not
sufficient arms. Imperialist and
bourgeois governments have refused
to send arms for love or money. 1t
seems to me that the workers of the
world should speak a word.