Ho appena finito di leggere "Omaggio alla Catalogna" di George Orwell , un libro bellissimo in cui l'autore narra le sue esperienze di miliziano durante la guerra civile in Spagna.
Orwell era andato in Spagna con l'intenzione di scrivere articoli sulla guerra, ma non potè fare a meno di prendervi parte attivamente, schierandosi con entusiasmo con i repubblicani nella milizia del POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificaciòn Marxista) .
La guerra civile scoppiò quando i militari guidati da Franco insorsero contro la repubblica, dopo che i partiti della sinistra avevano guadagnato la maggioranza nelle elezioni politiche del 1936.
Quando Orwell arrivò a Barcellona trovò una città in cui era in corso a social revolution. Factories and shops had been collectivized, formal expressions as "Don" and "Usted" abolished. Even in the military hierarchy had been abolished: all military paid the same wages, and who called the superior "Señor" was criticized. Despite appearances, this system seemed to work. We hear Orwell:
"The kind of discipline 'revolutionary' and democracy is more reliable than you might expect. In a workers 'army discipline is voluntary. E' class-based society, whereas in a bourgeois army of conscripts is based on fear. The militia bullying and insults on a regular regular army would not be tolerated even for a moment. "
In any case, the efficiency of the militia was not certain that the British army. One of the first words you learn from Orwell" mañana "(tomorrow) so it felt to respond to any request .
was also common to hear among the enemy lines a mutual exchange of shouts and insults. A friend of Orwell, very good at these verbal skirmishes, to demoralize the opposition cried: "Bread toasted with butter! This is the breakfast of the soldiers of the republic. "Butter, of course, not even the shadow ...
This mode of warfare was astonished Orwell:
" A method of this kind is at odds with the concept of war that the British. I admit that I was shocked and horrified when I saw it applied. What an idea: try to convert the opponent, rather than shoot him !..."
After a few months before, Orwell returned to Barcelona on leave, but the atmosphere has now changed. Italians, Germans and Russians come powerfully on stage.
Fascist Italy bombed the city of Barcelona from ships offshore. The Germans make a heavy use of aviation, as in the case of the infamous town of Guernica.
Among Republican ranks, however, the Communist Party tries to take over and to limit the influence of extremist formations, such as the POUM. In effect, under indication of Moscow becomes the action of the Communists counter.
In this situation, the atmosphere becomes very tense in Catalonia. They even ban the celebrations of May, for fear that the militia of the POUM and the PCE pulling together would end up shooting him.
few days after starting the fights themselves. The POUM leader Andres Nin, was arrested and subsequently murdered on the direct orders of Stalin, who was committed to eliminate its opponents Trotskyites, or assumed. The 4 and 5 May 2007 the Foundation Nin commemorate the 70 years since the riots of May in Barcelona.
At the end of the fighting, reached an apparent calm, Orwell is returned to the front, where time is seriously wounded, one by a sniper's shot passes through the throat, but miraculously survives. After a wander around hospitals, Orwell returned to Barcelona with a disability leave, and went in the hotel where his wife resided.
The scene of the encounter is dramatic:
"... I found my wife sitting in the lobby. He got up and came towards me with a hit to me for his chance, and I clasped my neck with one arm and body a beautiful smile because everyone in the room would see him, I whispered in his ear:
- Get out ! -
-Eh -
-fired now, go away! -
-Ma ...-"
Meanwhile, in fact, the government declared the POUM was outlawed and anyone who had fought in his troops risked immediate arrest. Orwell becomes a wanted man, and tries to organize an expatriate in France. Many of his friends are imprisoned and killed, while the Communist press, is now undisputed, shows the members of the POUM as Trotskyist in the pay of Fascists.
latter accusation, it seems absolutely incredible and unfounded. Orwell says:
"I have to add something about the accusation that the POUM was an organization Fascist secret [...] This accusation has been repeated endlessly on the Communist press, especially from 1937 onwards. It was part of a worldwide campaign that the Communist Party official was continuing against Trotskyism, the representative alleged that the POUM in Spain was ... "
" All the leaders of the POUM had a history of revolutionary ... [The POUM] was one of the first columns of parties to recruit fighters, both in Catalonia in Madrid. It seems almost impossible to explain these actions as actions of a party in the pay of the fascists. "
With discharge papers and the inefficiency of the English army, Orwell and his wife are able to take refuge in France and England, taking in heart, however, Spain.
The rest is written in history books. The division of the Republican front lead to the victory of Franco, who will establish a dictatorship that lasted until 1975, the indifference of the great European democracies, which thinks, not for long, you can keep the peace in Europe.
The last sentence of the book seem prophetic in this regard. Upon arrival at home Orwell observes:
"Earthquakes in Japan, famines in China, revolutions in Mexico? Do not worry: the milk bottle is in front of the house tomorrow and the New Statesman will come out on Friday."
"[...] the gentlemen in bowler hats, the pigeons in Trafalgar Square, the red buses, the cops in blue - all asleep in the deep, deep sleep English, which sometimes I fear there never wake up until we will be torn suddenly from the roar of bombs
Paradoxically, the real name is George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair . Today, seventy years later, the leadership of England is being left by a Labour prime minister who bears his surname, after dominating the political scene for ten years. There is only say, times have really changed ...
I can only say
"Visca Catalunya!"
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