Spanish State – Revolutionary Committees: On the Anniversary of the International Brigades
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Revolutionary Committees on September 17.
Statement on the 90th Anniversary of the Founding of the International Brigades
“We read with emotion of the International Volunteers organized by people from every land, and we are glad that there are Chinese and Japanese in their ranks. Many comrades of the Chinese Red Army also wish to go to Spain to join you. . . Were it not that we are face to face with the Japanese enemy, we would join you and take our place in your front ranks.”
(Mao Tsetung, Letter to the Spanish people, May 15 1937)
On September 18 it will have been 90 years since the Communist International impulsed the creation of the International Brigades. The communists of the world assumed the task with the audacity and energy characteristic of revolutionaries, moving heaven and earth to sent the biggest number possible of volunteers to the National-Revolutionary War that the Spanish people were unfolding against international fascism. More than 50,000 volunteers (from 53 different countries from the five continents) took to the front to reinforce the Brigades.
With nothing but their will of duty, the “volunteers of freedom” crossed rivers, mountains and oceans to get to Spain where they took up rifles. When the war was over, many refused to give up their weapons and continued their activities in the Anti-Franco guerrillas (maquis) or in the antifascist resistances all over Europe. There were even brigade members that ended up in China in the War of Resistance against Japan or in the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. Many fell in combat, becoming martyrs of the antifascist struggle.
Their names will remain in the history books. Under the flag of antifascist unity and of proletarian internationalism fought: Hans Beimler (Germany), Norman Bethune (Canada), Ali Abduljadil (Palestine), Victor García (Brazil), André Marty (France), Olga Bancic (Romania), Maria Luisa Lafita (Cuba), Oliver Law (United States), Jack Shirai (Japan), Charles Donnelly (Ireland), Aileen Palmer (Australia), Aking Chang (China), Jorge Campillo (Chile), David Alvaro Siqueiros (Mexico), Carlos Willis (Peru) and Todor Angelov (Bulgaria), among many others. The combatants of the International Brigades are examples of heroism and sacrifice, of bravery and will and, especially, are a living image of proletarian internationalism.
The Brigades are children of the VII Congress of the Communist International (1935), an important congress that discussed how to confront the threat of international fascism and the upcoming imperialist aggression. The VII Congress adopted the tactic of the worldwide Antifascist United Front, a tactic whose application advanced the world proletarian revolution and obtained two grand achievements: The soviet victory in the Second World War and the Chinese Revolution. To raise the banner of the International Brigades is to raise the red banner of the VII Congress, because it is an extraordinary application of the tactic of the Antifascist United Front under the leadership of the proletariat. In their ranks there were workers, peasants, petit bourgeoisie and intellectuals. There were also communists, social-democrats, anarchists and even liberal democrats.
Today, 90 years after their founding, it is more needed than ever to retake the spirit of the International Brigades to face the threats of today.
Facing the militarization of the State and the reactionarization of all institutions of bourgeois democracy, facing the racist terrorism against migrant masses, facing the fascist impunity and that of the enemies of the people, facing Spanish imperialism and its collaboration with Yankee imperialism, facing social democracy that betrays the people and promises false illusions, facing a world that is falling into pieces, let us construct the united front of the proletariat, of the popular classes and of all nationalities against the imperialist Spanish State. Let us work for the unity in action of all anti-imperialist, anti-fascist and anti-repressive forces. Let us throw out sectarianism and let us search for the points of unity against reaction.
Today as yesterday, under the banner of antifascism and of proletarian internationalism!
Long live the heroic International Brigades!
Revolutionary Committees
September 17 2026
