Our annual Volunteers for Liberty event, dedicated to remembering volunteers from Teesside who fought fascism in Spain, will be bigger than ever this year.
For the past Six years men from Teesside who volunteered to fight fascism and defended democracy during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 have been remembered at a special event, thirty Two Teesside volunteers served in the International Brigade in Spain, of these ten lost their lives. This year the Volunteers for Liberty memorial event will be held in Billingham for the first time.
As part of its 2020 centenary the Communist Party of Britain worked with the Communist Party of Spain and the International Brigade Memorial Trust to host a series of wreath laying events across the country in honour of the Volunteers for Liberty who died fighting fascism in Spain, these events were held on the anniversary of the International Brigade’s Farwell parade that had taken place on 28th October 1938.
In the North East of England we have worked with the Communist Party of Britain and the Communist Party of Spain to host annual events held simultaneously in Middlesbrough and Newcastle in 2020, 2021 and 2022. In 2023 we held the Teesside event in Stockton and last year at the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool -
https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2024-10-27/they-were-heroes-the-teesside-volunteers-who-fought-in-the-spanish-civil-war
We will meet at Cresent Avenue, Billingham (TS23 1HU ) and then process to St Cuthbert's Church (TS23 1BW) where the commemoration ceremony will be held. What makes these events very special is that we are joined by relatives of some of the Volunteers and relatives of some of the Basque refugee children who were evacuated to our area following the bombing of Guernica in 1937, this year will be no exception.
We will especially remember the ten Teesside volunteers who lost their lives in Spain and this year we will also speak about nine Stockton men who volunteered for the International Brigade, especially Ron Dennison, the Billingham town councillor who left his home in Crescent Avenue, Billingham to fight Fascism in Spain and tragically lost his life.
Speaking at the commemoration will be representatives from Billingham Town Council, both the Communist Parties of Britain and of Spain, members of the North East Volunteers for Liberty, Solidarity Sunderland and Friends of St Cuthbert's Church. We will also hear from the Association of the UK Basque children, the Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia and the GMB union. Dr Bob Beagrie, who first read at the 2020 event and has read at all subsequent events has agreed to join us once again in 2025.
We will be joined by The Prince Bishops Wargames Group, who will have a display of Spanish Civil War figures and will be hosting a participation Spanish Civil Wargame.
We will have poetry readings from Dr Bob Beagrie and Harry Gallagher.
We are especially please to announce that Rob MacDonald will be joining us, Rob is the inspiration behind Solidarity Park -
https://solidaritypark.com/about/ the memorial to those who lost their lives during the sinking of the Ciudad de Barcelona by an Italian submarine in May 1937.
Refreshments will be available provided by the Friends of St. Cuthberts (
https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfStCuthberts )
On the evening we will host a social event in Billingham Social Club (TS23 1DX)
Project Lono,(
https://www.facebook.com/Projectlononortheast) an experimental collaborative collective of musicians and poets who produce live and recorded immersive soundscapes will perform some of their soundscapes, developed with Bob Beagrie and based on his recently published collection: Romanceros: poems inspired by the Spanish Civil War (
https://www.drunkmusepress.com/.../harvest-moon-cup-5fc72...)
Mark Boden,(
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561546427212) studied Flamenco in a school in Seville, Spain. He now performs his interpretations of Flamenco pieces and composes Flamenco music with modern elements in it fusing Latin American, Jazz, Indian, Classical, Cuban, Blues and Rock. He was recently a featured artist at Middlesbrough’s Sonic Arts festival. After performing a solo set he will be accompanying his friend and comrade Dr Bob Beagrie.
Bob read a recently composed poem for the very first Volunteers for Liberty event in 2020, he continued to write pieces until, in April this year, Drunk Muse Press published his collection of forty poems as Romanceros: poems inspired by the Spanish Civil War. Bob will be reading solo, accompanied by Mark and supported by Project Lono member Stewart Forth.
Sara performed at the dedication of the Stockton international Brigade memorial in April 2023 and at the VFL event last year, once again she will be singing for us; she tells me she has developed something very special for this Volunteers for Liberty commemoration.
We are pleased that The Che Men will be joining us, they are from our area and also Scotland, members have played in a number of bands over the years from the ska bands - The Restrictors & The G-Men, punk bands Last Rough Cause & Major Accident, powerpop band Afterglow and mod/garage band Thee Strawberry Mynde.
The events are free, but we ask that visitors to St Cuthbert's Church take refreshment provided by the Friends of St Cuthberts and that in the evening people might like to donate to the fund for a memorial to Ron Dennison in Billingham -
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Ron-Dennison-Memorial
Enquiries to
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