By Kurt Johnson
HISTORY
Anti-Fascists: Jim McNeill and his mates in the Spanish Civil War
Michael Samaras
Connor Court Publishing, $39.95
Doubtless European leaders today use the Spanish Civil War as a lesson to harden resolve against Vladimir Putin and Russia. Like Ukraine, the Spanish War came to represent a global struggle against authoritarianism. The Western democracies’ milquetoast non-intervention response deteriorated into appeasing Adolf Hitler, failing utterly to check fascism’s advance early, leading to the far bloodier war later.
Yet some foreigners understood that fascism could not be simply “niced away” and considered the Spanish Republic and democracy worth defending, enlisting regardless of their country’s official stance. Many had escaped fascism at home, but some came from Western democracies such as Australia. Anti-Fascists: Jim McNeill and his mates in the Spanish Civil War is about one group of Australians whose principles and conviction took them to a faraway battleground.
Anti-Fascists was knocked back by a dozen publishers before finding a home with Connor Court, a boutique publisher with climate change denial in their back catalogue. Author Michael Samaras had already proved his research mettle in 2022 when he made headlines for discovering Wollongong Art Gallery had a benefactor who had been an intelligence agent in the Lithuanian SS. You would think a well-researched history of Australian anti-fascists would easily land a mainstream publisher.
Joe Carter, seen here in his 70s in 1983, was one of the Australians who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
The book revolves around Balmain-born Jim McNeill but branches into the stories of “his mates”, giving Anti-fascists an episodic quality. The other major figure is renowned English firebrand Ted Dickinson whom McNeill meets when he joins the International Workers of the World (IWW). The pair work together promoting the “Wobblies” with Dickinson often speechifying in recognisable forums such as Sydney’s Domain.
Like McNeill, his mates are mostly working class, some from very difficult backgrounds. They experience political awakenings through the labour movement which imbues them with a sense of justice and international solidarity.
Their convictions are tested on the streets. Depression Australia was preceded by labour violence such as the Port Adelaide waterfront strike, in which the union took on 1000 newly appointed “constables” armed with rifles and bayonets. Once the Great Depression struck proper, battles took on ideological lines. Australia’s The New Guard was a far-right paramilitary group that took cues directly from Hitler and Mussolini and bragged of a Sydney membership of 36,000. Their toughs disrupted speeches which often led to all-in brawls and sometimes worse.
This background is important because it shows what drove McNeill and company to take an immense risk to travel to Spain. Most had never left the country, and the dangers began before they set sail. Foreign enlistment was actively discouraged in Australia as it threatened the claim of neutrality. Passage was also difficult – almost all of Samaras’ anti-fascists stowed away on Europe-bound ships, some transiting through the UK where foreign enlistment was a crime for all British subjects, Aussies included. From there they were smuggled through France and across the Pyrenees to Spain.
The conditions they reached match other accounts from International Brigadiers. They lacked proper supplies, training and equipment and had to make do with determination and courage. McNeill and co’s firsthand accounts deal with the poverty they found, the locals’ gratitude to foreign anti-fascists and their determination for victory. All made the final defeat more heartbreaking.
Battles such as Jarama and Ebro were lost despite their pluck. Made clear is how the artillery and planes provided by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany were decisive in Franco’s victory while Western non-intervention amounted to abandonment of a fellow democratic republic. Australian prime minister Menzies emerges particularly lily-livered.
Australian anti-fascists returned as heroes, especially to the labour movement. Particularly interesting was how the Australian Communist Party marched in lockstep with Soviet foreign policy. When news of the Soviet-Nazi Non-Aggression Pact arrived, Australian communists had to suddenly pronounce that Britain and Nazi Germany were engaged in a purely imperialist war of no interest. The ideological whiplash was acute. McNeill, driven by principles first and party discipline second, enlisted immediately.
There’s still no official Australian War Memorial for the 65 Australian men and women who fought for Republican Spain. One erected in 1993 remains out of sight of the War Memorial, which only recognises official service.
Samaras’ chronicle is excellent but lopsided; some loose threads dangle and the end drags. But none of this detracts from Anti-fascists being a timely reminder of how some Australians will instinctively respond to tyranny wherever it happens, and such men and women of principle should be honoured as an example for when history is repeated.
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