Last night, our class saw The Good Fight, a documentary on the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. One of the parts of the documentary that stayed with me most was the part where one of the veterans asked "Is it possible to win 'The Good Fight'?" He argues that the defeat in Spain can symbolize the tragedy of the human condition- the defeat of the romantic and ideal. It was a tragedy which none of the veterans seemed to ever get over, even though fascism was eventually defeated and democracy prevailed. At the very end of the movie, a young boy in the 1970's says to one of the veterans in a parade: "I hope my generation has as much courage as your generation had." I began wondering why my generation isn't as politicalized, and even as aware, as the youth of the 1930's. I know that I have not yet been very politicized myself, even though oppression of liberty still occurs throughout the world, such as in Darfur, and threats to American democracy and safety occur, most prominently Al Qaeda and 9/11. It is probably because although these things still exist, the Great Depression has been overcome, and I feel like I can afford to ignore world, and even national issues of safety and politics. In many ways, "the Good Fight" has won. Democracy defeated a terrible streak of fascism and genocide in Europe in the 1940's. If the people could be inspired to force the national government to be more socially responsible and active in other countries, it seems possible that "the Good Fight" could be won. However, if the apathy of today's youth continues (including myself) it is possible that "The Good Fight" of tomorrow could be lost.

Today in the archives, I found Edward K. Barsky's unpublished manuscript and read the first few chapters on his personal accounts of Spain. I really enjoyed reading the novel and wish I had more time to sit down and read the entire thing this afternoon. Since I am currently considering applying to Medical school and becoming a doctor, his story was even more interesting to me. He writes beautifully on the art of medicine, beginning in the forword when he says: " The suffering of other human beings has come so near to us that we can no longer be indifferent; we must put our souls in their soul’s stead.” In Chapter One, he reflects on his response to seeing a man with his entails falling out, recalling " I felt blinding anger against creation; this man ought to have been unconscious, instead he was so sensitized that he read my soul.”

At one point in Chapter One, Dr. Barsky writes about his reasons for going to Spain. He remembers he was moved by the Spanish Republic's desire for a "modest liberty," modest in that it was a democracy won by legal means. This he contrasts with the rather brazen and immodest American revolution, which called for radical changes in the meaning of liberty. This comment leads me to believe that Dr. Barsky wasn't a radical Communist, although he was a member of the Communist Party of America. He was more of a moderate, American Communist who joined the party as a resort for desperately needed social assistance during the Great Depression, not because he fervently believed in a revolution of the social class structure. He wanted to fight for a more "modest liberty."

When I read Barsky's comment further on in Chapter One that the International Brigade men spoke so many different languages, I thought again about the meaning of this integration of different nationalities, in New York, in America, in the International Brigades, and in the world at large as we entered an international modern age of diplomacy, cooperation, and conflict. Can the seemingly perfect balance between nationalism and internationalism demonstrated by the International Brigades be attainable world-wide? If this balance is attained, will there be peace? How does this balance shape an American national identity? How do the American International Brigade volunteers contribute to this national identity?

I just started on Chapter Four, "A Soldier's Story," in which Barksy relates the story of one of the Spanish Republican soldiers. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the manuscript. So far I have found many moving passages. I have also gotten a better understanding of the perspective of a moderate Communist in Spain, which can be useful in my research on the Communist Party of America.

Before I began my archival work yesterday, I thought about what was most interesting me in the archives and what I want to research for my final project. I am most interested in what it meant to be a Communist in America in the 1930's and how this movement influenced the lives of the citizens of New York City. Perhaps I could do a case study of a soldier in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, such as Bill Bailey, and come to some conclusions about the the New York City left culture from his story. Furthermore, I would be able to come to some conclusions about the place of leftist ideology in modern American; how new ideas have roots in fundamental American tenets and also how new ideas change America in the modern age.

In the archives yesterday, I continued to explore different stories, in search of a case study for this research. I opened the files of Doctor Edward K. Barsky, the famous New York City doctor who volunteered in Spain. In the first folder, however, I didn't find many things pertaining to the Doctor and his own personal story. Instead, there were many interesting government documents of war relief committees in World War II. The first document was a report on the President's termination of the War Relief Control Board and the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid in its place. This committee, which still exists today, shows proactive governmental support of war volunteerism, a little too late for the Spanish cause. The document records the net income of the committee and how much of that income is sent overseas and shows that about $90,000 is not sent each year. This begs the question, did the establishment of governmental regulation of volunteered money through this committee decrease the efficiency of monetary aid? What were the benefits of this committee? Did they outweigh the drawbacks?

The next file I looked at contained papers from the International Committee of Coordination and Information to Aid Republican Spain. There was a booklet entitled All Free Men of the World for Republican Spain. The booklet outlines in detail how people internationally can best help Republican Spain, including "Aid to Children," "Aid to Refugees," "Aid to the Civil Population," "Aid to the Combatants," and finally "Medical Aid." There is a strong emphasis throughout the booklet on children and the destruction of the next generation. Second most prevalent is the destruction of women, elders, and the innocent civilian population. There is also a clear attempt in the booklet to make Spain seem like a modernized and capable nation. It says that "For 120 pesetas a month, or 5 dollar, the life of a child is assured in these Colonies where the most modern education is provided.” Also, “It is not through lack of organization that the Spanish Government meets with difficulties in providing for all these people, but only because of the painful conditions foced on it for the import of these products of prime necessity." The Spanish strategies to gain international support that were described in Peter Carol and Heather Grahams' books are clearly present in this book.

Therefore, I found many interesting documents of Spanish propaganda and U.S. Governmental actions during WWII, but very little about Edward Barksy's own story and little of what I want to research in the future. I hope to have more luck next time.

I finished listening to Bill Bailey's in depth interview in the archives yesterday. The majority of the tapes consisted of his war time experiences. He recalls witnessing many tragic deaths that obviously have stayed with him for the rest of his life. For example, he remembers the mayor of some Spanish city in a field trying to run back to fascist lines and Republican soldiers taking their time, waiting until the mayor was "about 100 yards away" and then shooting him down in the back with a machine gun Bill remembers the death of his friend Arie, a fellow seaman and "a really great guy." H remembers sending Arie's personal belongings back to his sister and the entire account is cloaked in a solemn tone. He remembers that the three guys in his battalion who had fought in World War I "were killed right off the bat- boom." He uses a lot of onomatopoeia in his descriptions, like "boom!' and "bang!" and it is clear that these war images are still extremely vivid in his mind. He describes "the worst shelling I've ever seen in my life," recalling all of the sensations associated with shelling, including "the sound of it-'whoof!'"

The most interesting tape i listened to was the final tape, in which Bill commented on the current political situation of the 1980s and reflected on how his political ideology and affiliation changed his life. Commenting on the new conservative political surge, Bill says "there must be something wrong with the people" for them to have voted for Reagan. He predicts (correctly) that "we're gunna go through a stage before liberals can get a hold again." He asserts that liberals "hands are tied" at the moment (1988).

When Gerassi asks Bill if Spain was the biggest part of his life, he gives a more complicated answer than "yes" or "no". He believes that Spain was one of the major accomplishments of his life, but that the "biggest part" of his life would have to be his dedication to the Communist party. His dedication to this ideology changed not only his thoughts, but his actions, and therefore shaped his entire life. He has always rejected material things and in his rejection of materialism, he rejected a settled, comfortable American life. Instead of settling down with a woman, getting a decent job, working, paying bills, buying a house, and raising a family, Bill lives by himself in a rented apartment, always with an anxiety that his landlord will kick him out at any moment. Sometimes he worries that he made a mistake and should've done some things differently in order to "get more material things." However, he, Gerassi, and I know that Bill Bailey was a product of his time and place and could not have done things differently. Even when he is talking about his mistakes, there is an underlying pride for his Communist ideological convictions and lifetime commitment to the causes that drove him to Spain in 1936 and led him to his solitary apartment life as an old man.

Today, I finished the second tape of Bill Bailey's interview, which contains an hour long account of his participation in the Bremen demonstration.
Listening to Bill Bailey speak is quite delightful. He is a very well-meaning, blunt, energetic old man. In a rough voice he repeats phrases like "Dem Nazi bastards" and "Dem sons o' bitches." I found myself smiling at his vivaciousness, which remained strong even 50 years after his service in Spain. I want to clarify that although Bill Bailey lacked a formal education, he was very intelligent and was able to learn quite a deal through his life experiences. Listening to him narrate the Bremen story, he uses large words like "belligerent" and refers to things like "Murphey's law." He generates great metaphors; for example, when describing being arrested at the Bremen story, he says "Police tripping on their own big feet." I could see this sensitivity and intelligence in Bailey's letters to Marjorie Polon as well. As I noted in an earlier post, some of the passages in those letters are quite beautiful, despite occasional spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
I listened to a very descriptive account of Bailey's Bremen experience, feeling almost like I wa s there myself. From his narration, I realized that despite his gruffness and passion, Bailey was quite shy and sensitive. He recalls feeling almost "stage-fright" when he was on top of the ladder holding the Nazi flag in front of hundreds of people. He also recalls resentfully that their entire operation was rather brazen and arrogant, a "Hollywood production." It is interesting that despite inherent qualities in Bailey's personality, such as shyness and sensitivity, he becomes a part of this brazen and dangerous demonstration against the Nazis and in fact the central figure of the entire operation. It shows once more how forces of the community and life experiences impact a person, sometimes despite that person's inherent personal characteristics and inclinations.

I am still not sure what I want to research or even in which direction my research is going. However, I am interested in the questions of posed in my last post concerning the societal forces that led to New Yorkers to volunteer to fight in Spain. Today, I searched through the online ALBA archives and found an extensive oral history collection of interviews with veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade created by the journalist and scholar John Gerassi in 1980. Gerassi was the son of a Republican General and after the war, the his family emigrated to New York City, where Gerassi attended Columbia University.

The interviews are a few hours long and therefore, I chose to focus primarily on Bill Bailey's interview. I have already read his letters to Marjorie Polon and find him to be a fascinating character. When I saw his name in the list of interviews, I was extremely excited. I hoped to get a better sense of his personality by listening to him speak. I also hoped to learn his own story and identify any forces that led him to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigadge.

The first thing I noticed when the tape began rolling was Bailey's thick New York accent. This combined with terrible grammar made him sound very uneducated. I could somewhat tell that he was uneducated from the many spelling mistakes in his letters. Nevertheless, it was still odd to match a voice to the words of a man I had already constructed in my imagination. Bill Bailey was definitely different from what I had imagined. I could feel his presence with a better sense of reality than I had by reading his letters. I think that I might have romanticized Bill Bailey slightly when I read his letters. Listening to the audio tapes was a great way to sharpen my image of Bill Bailey, although it by no means makes his character or history entirely clear.

In my time at the library, I managed to listen to only one and a half of the five tapes of Bill Bailey's interview. In the first tape, he describes his parents and siblings. His father was English and his mother was Irish. Bill was born in Jersey City in 1910. He was the second youngest child. Seven of his siblings died before the age of one. The remaining six children consisted of three boys and three girls. Bill tells us about his oldest brother, who joined the navy, in part because "they gave him three meals a day." Similarly, Bill thinks the only reason his father went to political meetings was because politicians "bought you left and right." The families poverty is emphasized even more by the story of Bill's younger brother, who stole milk and bread from stores and in this way "kept the family going for quite some time." Bill recalls bitterly that his brother was eventually caught, arrested, and put into juvenile reform school from the age of 14 to the age of 20. When his brother got out of this institution, he was completely illiterate.

Bill himself was school only through the fifth grade. Then, his mother took him out of school to work for the family. He remembers his first job at the boxing factory, which he hated, and then the job at the waterfront. He remembered that out of the 21-or-so dollars that he earned each month, his mother would allow him to keep only 52 cents. Bill bitterly laughed at this and said "man, that was hard to take!" At this job on the waterfront, Bill acquired an interest in sailing and built his own boat.

In the next chapter of Bill Bailey's life, he travels around the United States, recalling many struggles caused by poverty that continued to build up his strong left political polarization and lead to his volunteerism in Spain.

For example, as a stowaway on a ship to Florida, Bailey was arrested and sent to jail for thirty days. He remembers how unfair the entire situation was and how difficult prison was, describing the claustrophobic bunk beds, the crummy food, and the hard labor. Once he got out of jail, he took a box car to San Francisco, where he found it to be "just as bad" as New York. There was just as much unemployment, poverty, and suffering. On a trip in to London, Bill recalls the sad story of an Indian man who was not allowed to travel back to Indian to see his dying mother because of his lack of identification. Bill says he wrote about this story in a leftist magazine when he got back to the states.

It is clear that there were many forces and experiences in Bill Bailey's early life that shaped his personality and developed his Leftist political ideology- particularly poverty during the Great Depression. I think that the relationships that Bill Bailey developed as he grew up with both his family and his friends were extremely important to his political development because their suffering evoked a human compassion stronger than any selfish sufferings could evoke. Once again, the community becomes most important to the development of personal and political ideologies. I hope to learn even more about these forces from listening to the rest of the tapes.