Work in Progress Extra

Fur flew at Marx House in London’s Clerkenwell Green on 20 May when International Brigader and Communist Party stalwart Bill Alexander and Revolutionary History Editor Al Richardson held a debate on the Spanish Civil War after a showing of Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom. Alexander rubbished the film, and praised the Soviet Union’s rôle in the war, whilst Richardson demolished the myths upon which the Stalinists’ conceptions of the war have stood. The event was well attended, and the discussion was quite animated, with many members of the audience siding with one or the other of the speakers. The Spanish Civil War may have ended nearly 60 years ago, but the debate about it rages on.