Civil War veteran recalls fight as Trotskyist in Spain

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- International volunteers at headquarters of POUMist 29th Division in When Harry Milton came back from Spain in August 1937, the U.S. Communist Party (CP) put out a leaflet accusing him of having "betrayed the heroic struggles of the people of Republican Spain by plots, sabotage and counterrevolution, and selling out to Franco."

Milton, who in 1929 was expelled from the CP for refusing to repudiate the so-called "counterrevolutionary" politics of Leon Trotsky, had gone to Spain in January 1937 as part of the Eugene V. Debs column of the Socialist Party (SP). He was a supporter of the Trotskyist group in the SP and was, in fact, the only American Trotskyist to fight in the Spanish Civil War.

In a recent interview with Socialist Action, Milton, who is 81, denounced this accusation by the CP as a Stalinist slander. "I went to Spain to fight totali -tarianism," Milton said. "I joined the British contingent, Centuria A, 3rd Regiment of the 29th militia Division. And for this activity, Stalin's G.P.U. [secret police] arrested me together with hundreds of other anti-fascist fighters. I was imprisoned and barely escaped with my life."

Fought alongside George Orwell Milton arrived in Spain in early 1937 through the French border. "I had a letter from Carlo Tresca [editor of the New York- based Anarchist paper Il Martello] and a picture of Leon Trotsky," Milton said. "When the guards saw this, they kissed me and pulled me right through."

Upon reaching Barcelona, Milton went directly to the barracks of the POUM's [the Workers Party of Marxist Unification] 29th Division. There he was assigned to the British contingent, which was sponsored by the British Independent Labour Party.

"There I met George Orwell," Milton said. "Orwell had gone to Spain to write and fight."

In his book "Homage to Catalonia," Orwell refers to Milton frequently, identifying him only as the "American." "Yes," Milton said, "every reference to the American in 'Homage to Catalonia' is to me. I was the only American in the contingent."

Orwell, according to Milton, was very naive po -litically. "He had no political orientation," Milton said.

But the May Days in 1937, during which the Popular Front Catalan government opened fire on the Anarchists and POUM militia members, made a deep impact on Orwell. "These events woke him up," Milton said.

"We were on furlough in Barcelona in May," Milton continued. "Suddenly Orwell found himself dodging bullets in the street, but not enemy bullets."

The Stalinist-controlled Civil Guard, Milton explained, had attempted to take control of the Telephone Exchange, which had been occupied by the Anarchists since the fascist uprising. Milton and Orwell were staying at the Continental Hotel, which was next door to the POUM headquarters, and came under fire from Civil Guards who had occupied a cafe across the street.

When they returned to the Huesca front overlooking Zaragoza, Orwell wanted an explanation of the fighting ...Spain cont'd (continued from page 7: “The Spanish Revolution”)

their more militant followers, and the barricades were abandoned in the face of the government's attack.

Agrarian revolution

In the countryside, the People's Front government sought to restrain the struggle against the landed property owners. Vicente Uribe, the communist minister of agriculture, had issued a decree in October 1936 giving legal status to land expropriations carried out earlier.

The decree, however, exempted from confiscation property belonging to landowners who had not identified with the fascist military rebellion. Many owners who had been forced to accept collectivization now demanded and got restitution of their land.

In addition, as Bolloten noted, "to the anguish of both anarcho-syndicalists and left-wing socialists, the communists used the decree to encourage tenant farmers and sharecroppers, who before the war had been in conflict with rural wage workers but who had been swept up involuntarily by the collective farm movement, to recover their former parcels.

"After the defeat of the anarchists in Barcelona, 10 SOCIALIST ACTION in Barcelona. He naturally turned to Milton, who in April had been unanimously elected director of political education of the regiment.

"Orwell listened to me because I had anticipated the May events," Milton said. "I had told him that the Popular Front government would disarm the militias and wouldn't let us exist."

One morning before sunrise, during one of these political discussions, Orwell was shot in the neck by an enemy sniper. "I heard the crisp sound of a high-velocity shot and Orwell toppled over. He landed on his back," Milton said.

In "Homage to Catalonia," Orwell pays tribute to the American who saved his life. "I simply stopped the bleeding," Milton said. "I raised him slightly and held him in my arms while waiting for the stretcher bearers."

After being shot, Orwell could have been discharged, but he decided to stay on in Spain and fight. "Orwell wasn't class conscious in any real sense," Milton continued, "but he believed in justice and had an iron determination. He was a wonderful man."

While in Spain, Harry Milton wrote a number of letters which sharply pointed to the dangers of the Spanish Popular Front government.

In a letter to the National Committee of the Socialist Party dated April 5, 1937, Milton wrote the following:

"Both the Madrid-Valencia and Catalan governments are capitalist and anti-revolutionary. Every day both governments become increasingly reactionary. They are preparing to destroy the institutions of the working class by armed force.

"The POUM and its institutions have been destroyed, its headquarters closed, its radio stations silenced, its paper suspended and its membership persecuted and arrested.

"These are conscious and organized counter -revolutionary incidents and the policy of the Popular, attempts were made to dissolve some of the collectives, but this met with such resistance that it endangered the harvest and these actions were called off and support was pledged to the collective farms."

Bolloten explained further: "But no sooner had the crops been gathered than the government dissolved the anarchist-controlled Defense Council of Aragon...and appointed as Governor General of the region, Jose Ignacio Mantecon, a member of the Left Republican Party, but a communist supporter. Using the Eleventh Division, commanded by the communist Enrique Lister...Mantecon also broke up the collective farms."

One result of this action was that in March 1938 when General Franco's forces launched their biggest offensive of the war on the Aragon front, the resistance was demoralized and crumbled immediately. The Franco forces reached the coast on April 15, splitting the Republican territory in two.

The People's Front government was intent on demonstrating to Britain, France, and the liberal capitalists in Spain that its goal was a "respectable" democratic revolution. To that end, it tried to suppress the "radical" actions of the workers and peasants, rather than put forward a bold social program to end capitalist exploitation of the workers and distribute land to the peasants.

The People's Front government also maintained Spain's imperialist claim to the colony of Spanish Morocco, which was Franco's rear base. By refusing to by the PSUC, the Stalinist Party of Spain.

"The political situation is dark indeed. Almost nothing is left of what the workers won since the revolution."

Imprisoned by Stalinists

Milton had been a Trotskyist since 1929—and was known as such while in Spain. "The Stalinist intelligence knew exactly who I was," Milton said. "Every foreigner not a Stalinist was suspect. Scores and scores of revolutionists were arrested and killed."

"The Communist Party, which controlled the police force, was concocting a giant frame-up," Milton continued. "All those arrested were being charged with criminal political conspiracy with the German and Italian fascists. I myself was running around like a hunted rat."

Milton was picked up by the Stalinist police in early June 1937 while attempting to escape from Spain. He was in uniform and easily identifiable. He was inter -rogated and beaten repeatedly.

"I anticipated I would be killed," Milton said. "The Trotskyists, Anarchists, and POUMists were being arrested and killed. We were told they had died of 'appendicitis.' I thought I too would die of 'appendicitis."

Three months later he was released from jail as the result of a telegram campaign waged in the United States by the Socialist Party.

Upon his return to the United States, Milton toured the country to explain the lessons of the Spanish revolution. The tour was organized by Socialist Appeal newspaper, which supported the views of the Trotskyist group in the Socialist Party.

Today, 50 years after Franco's army rose up against the Republican government, Harry Milton is proud of the role he played in the Spanish revolution. Although he left the Trotskyist movement in the mid-1940s, Milton still considers himself a fighter for the interests of working people and all the oppressed.

With a great deal of pride, Milton pulled out a letter Trotsky had written him on Oct. 4, 1937. The letter stated, "I have read virtually all your letters from Spain and about Spain and enjoyed very much your clarity and firm position together with your militant mood."

At a time when attention is being focused once again on the Spanish revolution, it is not only worthwhile-but necessary—to tell the story of Harry Milton.

Barcelona

support self-determination for this brutally oppressed colony, the Republican government ensured Franco a stable rear base for supplies and recruits. Stalin did nüt want to alarm the ruling class of Britain and France because they possessed vast colonies in Africa.

Leon Trotsky explained toward the end of the Civil War that only the workers "could have rallied the oppressed masses, above all, the Spanish peas -antry....[who would] direct all their forces to smashing fascism only if, at the same time, they are able to realize new and better conditions of existence."

For Trotsky, the success of this perspec -tive-establishing a workers' government and socialist power—was reduced, in the last analysis, to the necessity of constructing a revolutionary party that could lead such a revolution. That, however, was the missing ingredient in Spain Burnett Bolloten's "The Spanish Revolution" provides precise documentation, as historian Raymond Carr notes in his foreward to the book, of the "''spontaneous revolution' that swept over much of Spain-especially Catalonia and the Levante-in the first weeks of the Civil War as a proletarian response to the military rising."

With impressive thoroughness Bolloten details how the Republican government, guided by the Communist Party, fought to turn back the achievements of this social revolution, often by quite violent methods. It is a book well worth reading.

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