Marko
31st July 2007, 21:12
The soldiers of Spain's Army of Africa were the elite troops of Fascists rebels in the People's War in Spain. The army was transported to Spain in Junkers airplanes sent by Hitler.
The African troops fought fanatically but also committed heinous war crimes. For example, the Africans raped thousands of Spanish women when the Fascists captured Barcelona.
And the Republicans used this fact that in racist propaganda!
What the Communists Did Wrong--Racism
Throughout the war, Franco relied on troops recruited and conscripted in Spanish (and French) Morocco. Perhaps 100,000 Moors fought for the Fascists.(89) The Fascists encouraged every sort of atrocity on the part of the Moors, playing on the racism of the Republicans with great success. Fascist General Quiepo de Llano broadcast revolting descriptions of the rapes to be committed by Moorish troops should they capture Madrid.(90) Republican propaganda repeated and embroidered this racist trash. Posters in Madrid depicted Moorish soldiers as "thick-lipped, hideously grinning, powerful turbaned figures attacking defenseless white women and bayoneting white children."(91)
Republican Minister of Foreign Affairs Alvarez del Vayo characterized Moors as "immune from all political propaganda of a democratic nature."(92) The facts are the exact opposite. Representatives of the Riffs of Morocco, who had fought a long war for independence in the teens and twenties, offered to organize against Franco in return for independence from Spain. The Republican government turned them down flat, fearing French reaction to an independence movement adjoining their own colonies in Africa, and hoping to use Morocco for bargaining with other capitalist powers. A Catalan delegation of Communists and Anarchists supported the Moroccan request, but got nowhere.(93)
The PCE never made a public fight over this crucial issue, which should not only have been a matter of principle, but which could have produced a powerful and proven ally in the struggle against Franco. Nor did the PCE combat racism in any other way. Instead, they promoted it! La Pasionaria repeated the filth of Radio Seville, accusing the Fascists of lack of patriotism for urging the Moors to rape Spanish women:
“Peasant girls violated by legionaries, mercenaries, and Moors, who have been tempted from their African villages by the promise of a "good time," bear witness to this "patriotism" of the fascist murderers.(94)
PCE promotion of racism was far more than a lost opportunity for militant allies in Morocco (and the Spanish mainland); it was an error that contributed to all sorts of weaknesses of line and strategic failures. French bosses were right to fear that an independent Spanish Morocco would ignite independence struggles in the neighboring French colonies. This would have been an excellent development for the Republic, drawing off French and British aid to Franco. A determined struggle against racism would have dealt a major blow to the many nationalist divisions in the Republic. These divisions constituted an enormously important weakness, contributing to Anarchist predominance in Catalonia, where the war was finally lost.
The development of a class understanding of racism and capitalism's need for it might have force the communist movement world-wide to abandon their wrong line on the nature of Fascism and capitalist rule. In other words, understanding the role of racism under capitalism leads to understanding the necessity for workers' power; as well as making it possible to fight for it. A key strategy for organizing the struggle for socialism is to unite with and rely on the most oppressed--and the most militant--working people. In the long colonial wars, the Moors had shown themselves to be just that.
Finally, fighting racism in Spain could have helped develop a better line in other countries when their volunteers returned. As it was, the Internationals absorbed the prevailing racist atmosphere and took that home. British volunteers actually called the Moors "niggers."(95)
http://www.plp.org/pl_magazine/pws.html
The African troops fought fanatically but also committed heinous war crimes. For example, the Africans raped thousands of Spanish women when the Fascists captured Barcelona.
And the Republicans used this fact that in racist propaganda!
What the Communists Did Wrong--Racism
Throughout the war, Franco relied on troops recruited and conscripted in Spanish (and French) Morocco. Perhaps 100,000 Moors fought for the Fascists.(89) The Fascists encouraged every sort of atrocity on the part of the Moors, playing on the racism of the Republicans with great success. Fascist General Quiepo de Llano broadcast revolting descriptions of the rapes to be committed by Moorish troops should they capture Madrid.(90) Republican propaganda repeated and embroidered this racist trash. Posters in Madrid depicted Moorish soldiers as "thick-lipped, hideously grinning, powerful turbaned figures attacking defenseless white women and bayoneting white children."(91)
Republican Minister of Foreign Affairs Alvarez del Vayo characterized Moors as "immune from all political propaganda of a democratic nature."(92) The facts are the exact opposite. Representatives of the Riffs of Morocco, who had fought a long war for independence in the teens and twenties, offered to organize against Franco in return for independence from Spain. The Republican government turned them down flat, fearing French reaction to an independence movement adjoining their own colonies in Africa, and hoping to use Morocco for bargaining with other capitalist powers. A Catalan delegation of Communists and Anarchists supported the Moroccan request, but got nowhere.(93)
The PCE never made a public fight over this crucial issue, which should not only have been a matter of principle, but which could have produced a powerful and proven ally in the struggle against Franco. Nor did the PCE combat racism in any other way. Instead, they promoted it! La Pasionaria repeated the filth of Radio Seville, accusing the Fascists of lack of patriotism for urging the Moors to rape Spanish women:
“Peasant girls violated by legionaries, mercenaries, and Moors, who have been tempted from their African villages by the promise of a "good time," bear witness to this "patriotism" of the fascist murderers.(94)
PCE promotion of racism was far more than a lost opportunity for militant allies in Morocco (and the Spanish mainland); it was an error that contributed to all sorts of weaknesses of line and strategic failures. French bosses were right to fear that an independent Spanish Morocco would ignite independence struggles in the neighboring French colonies. This would have been an excellent development for the Republic, drawing off French and British aid to Franco. A determined struggle against racism would have dealt a major blow to the many nationalist divisions in the Republic. These divisions constituted an enormously important weakness, contributing to Anarchist predominance in Catalonia, where the war was finally lost.
The development of a class understanding of racism and capitalism's need for it might have force the communist movement world-wide to abandon their wrong line on the nature of Fascism and capitalist rule. In other words, understanding the role of racism under capitalism leads to understanding the necessity for workers' power; as well as making it possible to fight for it. A key strategy for organizing the struggle for socialism is to unite with and rely on the most oppressed--and the most militant--working people. In the long colonial wars, the Moors had shown themselves to be just that.
Finally, fighting racism in Spain could have helped develop a better line in other countries when their volunteers returned. As it was, the Internationals absorbed the prevailing racist atmosphere and took that home. British volunteers actually called the Moors "niggers."(95)
http://www.plp.org/pl_magazine/pws.html