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Title: Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell, Samuel West ISBN: 0140862595 Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks Pub. Date: June, 1997 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 2 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.76
Rating: 5
Summary: It's political philosophy AND man to man combat!
Comment: "The danger was quite simple and intelligible. It was the antagonism between those who wished the revolution to go forward and those who wished to check or prevent it - ultimately, between Anarchists and Communists.... Given this alignment of forces there was bound to be trouble." Such is Orwell's succinct analysis of the problems facing those who would resist Franco's right wing coup in Spain in 1936.
Opposed to the Franco-led Fascists (supported by Germany and Italy) was the Popular Front, "in essential an alliance of enemies". Further complicating the mix was the emerging fact that in Spain, "on the Government [ie, anti-fascist] side the Communists stood not upon the extreme Left, but upon the extreme Right. " Orwell justifies this counter-intuitive claim with a detailed discussion, summarized by noting that the International Communist movement at this time had forsaken the goal of world revolution to chase the chimera of the completion of a revolution in the USSR. This Stalinist position (including alliances with capitalist democracies at the expense of workers and unions) caused Trotsky and others to seek other venues. Recently, the formerly Maoist (nee 'Trotskyite') rulers of China similarly shifted from totalitarian extreme left to authoritarian right (socialist ideals sacrificed to entrepreneurial capitalism, without significant political liberty.) [cf China Wakes -The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power - Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn]
The Communists focused on winning the war no matter what --without collectivization that would alienate the peasants, or worker control of industry that would push the middle classes into Franco's arms. Their stated goal was parliamentary democracy, with strong central government, and a fully militarized government under central, unified command. The POUM position was that such talk was just another name for capitalism, and ultimately the same as fascism. Their alternative was worker control, with workers militias and police forces "If the workers do not control the armed forces, the armed forces will control the workers". The Anarchists (actually a multitude of parties) had comprised in even considering this alliance, but insisted on direct `control over industry by workers, "government by local committees and resistance to all forms of centralized authoritarianism" Orwell's summary of this bewildering political situation is "Communist emphasis is always on centralism and efficiency, the Anarchist's on liberty and equality". Combining forces seemed like a reasonable solution for the duration, "But in the early period, when the revolutionary parties seemed to have the game in their hands, this was impossible. Between the Anarchists and the Socialists there were ancient jealousies, the POUM, as Marxists, were sceptical of Anarchism, while from the pure Anarchist standpoint, the 'Trotskyism' of the POUM was not much preferable to the 'Stalinism' of the Communists."
One example of how these rivalries frustrated an effective opposition to the Fascists:
".. the Russian arms were supplied via the Communist Party, and the parties allied to them, who saw to it that as few as possible got to their political opponents. ...by proclaiming a non-revolutionary policy the Communists were able to gather in all those whom the extremists h ad scared. It was easy, for instance, to rally the wealthier peasants against the collectivization policy of the Anarchists. ... The war was essentially a triangular struggle. The fight against Franco had to continue, but the simultaneous aim of the Government was to recover such power as remained in the hands of the trade unions. It was done by .. a policy of pin pricks...There was no general and obvious counterrevolutionary move.. The workers could always be brought to heel by an argument that is almost too obvious to need stating: 'Unless you do this, that and the other we shall lose the war'."
Modern parallels, from the arguments made during the cold war to modern appeals by the Democratic party to its leftward elements and other progressives-- 'work with us or get something worse'. Or, in his descriptions of the Communist crack down on the other Leftist factions after the 1937 Barcelona street fighting, a comparison of the broad and unchecked abuses of a police force which has no worries about habeas corpus -- why worry about producing evidence at a trial when it can merely arrest or 'disappear' opponents without any legal representation or outside communication.
But this book is also a very personal one, written less than a year after these events took place, Orwell paints indelible images of life in the muddy trenches, and even the moment when he is shot in the throat:
"Roughly speaking it was the sensation of being at the centre of an explosion. There seemed to be a loud bang and a blinding flash of light all round me, and I felt a tremendous shock, such as you get from an electric terminal; with it a sense of utter weakness, a feeling of being stricken and shrivelled up to nothing. The sand-bags in front of me receded into the immense distance... I knew immediately that I was hit, but because of the seeming bang and flash I thought it was a rifle nearby that had gone off accidentally and shot me. All this happened in a space much less than a second. The next moment my knees crumpled up and I was falling, my head hitting the ground with a violent bang, which, to my relief, did not hurt. I had a numb, dazed feeling, a consciousness of being very badly hurt, but no pain in the ordinary sense."
Rating: 5
Summary: Lionel Trilling's homage to George Orwell
Comment: There is Lionel Trilling's introduction written in 1952. Standing alone the introduction is historic and of consequence. It appears in the Beacon Press edition of the work. At any rate, Trilling finds that the moral tone of Orwell's book is uniquely simple and true. Orwell was a virtuous man. He had an old fashioned temperament. Orwell's experience of being declasse , of being down and out after service in Burma, had significant implications for his writing. Orwell thought the intelligentsia refused to consider the conditional nature of life. Orwell could never believe that intellectual life would be a political idyll.
When Orwell went to Spain he went to write newspaper articles but joined a militia almost immediately. In Barcelona revolutionary posters were everywhere. In the P.O.U.M. militia the shortage of rifles was desperate. Therefore, there was no weapon training, just marching, drills. Orwell described the smells of war. Rifles were finally received three miles from the front line. Orwell noted that in trench warfare five things were important, firewood, food, tobacco, candles, and the enemy. Orwell said he actually saw very little fighting. He was in hand to hand combat once, and he reported once was too much.
There was equality in the militias. Military failure could not be attributed to the system of equality. Failure resulted from the newness, the lack of material, the lack of training, and the age of the recruits. He found that revolutionary discipline depended on political consciousness, an understanding of why orders must be obeyed. (What Orwell described is termed the learning curve in other kinds of discourse.) The militias held the line and there were few desertions. There was a lack of firewood. Warfare had made the bare mountainous region even more bare of vegetation. The English and Spanish always got on well together. When more Englishmen arrived, Orwell was shifted over to that group. They were now somewhat closer to the enemy. Aragon peasants treated their mules well but their donkeys abominably. In late February 1937 they left Monte Oscuro and were sent with all of the P.O.U.M. troops in the sector to make a part of the army besieging Huesca. Until late March nothing happened.
Initially Orwell ignored the political side of the war. Spain seemed to be suffering from a plague of initials and the matter was confusing. Orwell thought all of the government forces were Socialists, anti-fascists. In the beginning Franco's real opponent was not so much the government as the trade unions. A revolution had started in Spain but its progress and significance varied by region. By October-November 1936 there was a swing to the Right. Power passed from the Anarchists to the Communists. The Communist leadership sought to suppress the revolution because it was believed to be premature. Only Mexico and Russia came to the assistance of the government and only Russia was big enough to dictate terms.
The Communist Party moved first against the P.O.U.M. and then against the Anarchists. The war was essentially a triangular struggle. The P.O.U.M. was a dissident Communist party. The unions were not necessarily Anarchists in the pure sense and yet they were tinged with the philosophy and made up a huge portion of the forces opposing Franco. They aimed at worker control and not parliamentary democracy. They had uncompromising hostility to the bourgeoisie and the Church.
At the time Orwell preferred the Communists because they had a definite policy. Press censorship was mainly under Communist control. One of the worst aspects of war is war propaganda. The Communists and the P.O.U.M. came to write more bitterly against each other than against the fascists. Orwell was isolated among the most revolutionary section of the working class. On paper the Communist case was a good one. Orwell drew back at their actual behavior. Communists seemed to be not working to postpone the revolution but to make sure it never happened at all.
In spring the peasants plowed the fields. The landowners had left. Orwell never did learn if the land had been collectivized or if the arrangements were informal. The farming implements were antiquated. Orwell was surprised that no one crossed himself, even as a gesture. To the people of Catalonia and Aragon the Church was evidently a racket. When he went on leave, he had been on the line for one hundred fifteen days and felt that it was the most useless period of his life. The time did form a kind of interregnum. The prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. The Spanish militias, while they lasted, were sort of a microcosm of a classless society.
Barcelona had changed in the three months and there was general indifference to war. It was no longer fashionable to be in the militia. Enlistments had sunk. The Popular Army was replacing the militias in theory, but in fact it was still training in the rear. Now there was open contrast of wealth and poverty. Middle class people no longer wore worker clothing.
A civil disturbance broke out in Barcelona as the government and Communist forces sought to defeat the Anarchists and the P.O.U.M. It was all very confusing to Orwell. There developed a food shortage. The Popular Army as a body stayed away from the fray. The Barcelona fighting had given the Valencia government the excuse to assume fuller control of Catalonia.
Three days after the fighting in Barcelona ended Orwell's group returned to the front. On routine duty he felt himself being the center of an explosion. He was taken to Barbastro and then to Lerida. Eight or nine days after being wounded his wound was finally examined at Tarragona. Sinister rumors of all kinds flew around Barcelona. It was hard to convey the atmosphere he claimed because in England political intolerance was not taken for granted.
At this point Orwell hoped to just get out of Spain and return to England. He had been certified medically unfit, but he needed to obtain a discharge. He had to repeat the circuit of field hospitals and intermediate stations in order to have his papers signed. Returning to the hotel in Barcelona he discovered the P.O.U.M. had been declared an illegal organization and that he might be subject to arrest. Andres Nin was taken and killed. The manner of leaving the country makes exciting reading. The experience in Spain clearly foreshadowed ANIMAL FARM and 1984.
Rating: 4
Summary: Engagingly Readable and Essential
Comment: Between the World Wars of the 20th century, there was another devastating conflict on European soil that attracted participants from all over. It was the Spanish Civil War, and while internal dissatisfaction and agitation were breaking out around the country, Spain also became a proving ground for broader political ideologies. In 1937, George Orwell went as a journalist but the socialist siren song of the promise of bringing about a classless society drove him, as well as others from abroad, to enlist. He signed up with P.O.U.M., the party for Marxist unification but quickly learned that there were many similar political parties and labor unions, each with their own woefully unprepared militia, and none were working together against the threat of Franco's military coup and Fascism. He also found the Communists arriving, not to assist revolution but to thwart it.
With a clear eye that catches remarkably prophetic insights into the Spanish future, Orwell manages to sort out the chaos of who's who, and the nuances of war that are sometimes awful, sometimes fertile ground for wry humor. Although the voice of the narrative is in memoir form, Orwell was writing only from a distance of 5 or 6 months after he escaped. The book is remarkable for the immediate eye-witness account of the turn of fortunes in Barcelona and the objective sorting out of events that were not being accurately recorded in the media. Orwell expresses deep respect for the native Spanish character, even when some of its inefficient tendencies produce frustration.
My edition, which I purchased here last year, but which looks different from the cover above, offers an introduction by critic Lionel Trilling written in 1952, two years after Orwell's death from TB. It, too, is also a historical document now, preserving the sense of the ruling emotions of the era.
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Title: The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell ISBN: 0156767503 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: September, 1973 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Essays by George Orwell, John Carey ISBN: 0375415033 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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