The White House incumbent’s repeated refusals this week to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election and an alarming report about his party laying the groundwork to effectively steal it, coupled with the police who killed Breonna Taylor in Louisville getting what amounts to a free pass, have made for a dispiriting few days, to say the least. That makes it all the more important to fight on, perhaps drawing inspiration from historical parallels. The fight against fascism during the Spanish Civil War is a good place to turn.
There, in 1936, a military uprising sought to overthrow the progressive, democratically elected government of the Second Republic in favor of fascist-leaning authoritarianism. The resulting civil war lasted until 1939, and led to the deaths of around 500,000 people, both combatants and civilians, Spaniards and extranjeros who came from around the world to fight against encroaching fascism.
For a number of reasons, the Republic lost, but the idealism, resolve and commitment of its adherents to their cause have continued to resonate. They also had way better songs than the fascists. One of them, “A las Barricadas” (“To the Barricades”), was considered an anthem of Spanish anarchism. Set to the tune of the Polish revolutionary song “Whirlwinds of Danger," by Józef Pławiński, the Spanish lyrics by the labor organizer and anarcho-syndicalist Valeriano Orobón Fernández extol the righteousness of the fight against fascism.
Various acts have covered the song over the years, including the Andalusian anarcho-punk group Los Muertos de Cristo, who made “A las Barricadas” the title track of their debut album in 1995. Their version sounds a bit like a cross between the Clash and Dropkick Murphys, with a crisp, propulsive beat, gnashing guitars and what sounds like uillean pipes that come in toward the end. Los Muertos de Cristo charge through the song in less than a minutes and a half, and they leave out some of the lyrics from the 1936 version. Yet they included some of the most important ones, which translate as, “The most precious good is freedom / It must be defended with faith and courage.”
That’s a sentiment worth keeping in mind as we barrel toward Nov. 3. You can check on your registration status, and find your polling place (if you’re planning to vote in person), right here.