On this day, 21 January 1950, George Orwell, celebrated British author and socialist who fought against the fascists in the Spanish civil war and revolution, died aged 46.
Orwell fought with the anti-Stalinist, socialist POUM militia, and was shot in the neck by the fascists, while many Western journalists and authors just hung out in Barcelona hotels.
He vividly described the atmosphere in revolutionary Barcelona in his excellent account of the conflict, Homage to Catalonia:
“The Anarchists were still in virtual control of Catalonia and the revolution was still in full swing… It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle…
Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said ‘Senor’ or ‘Don’ or even 'Usted’; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade’ and 'Thou,’ and said 'Salud!’ instead of 'Buenas Dias.'… Yet so far as one could judge the people were contented and hopeful. There was no unemployment, and the price of living was still extremely low…
Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom.
Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine. In the barbers’ shops were Anarchist notices (the barbers were mostly Anarchists) solemnly explaining that barbers were no longer slaves.”
In this podcast episode we tell the story of the Spanish civil war: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/07/29/spanish-civil-war-podcast/
Pictured: Orwell, the tall man at the back, with his wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy and his militia unit https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1329873453864468/?type=3
Hi I worked in banking for 5 years and bank-fans in the notes can shut the fuck up
You know perfectly well the whole edifice is immoral. I know that you know because *I* know. Some of you have sat where I have sat, two weeks before Christmas, trying to explain to a crying account holder that we cannot return over $300 in fees, even though the bank does not need that money
The bank didn’t have that money before
the bank didn’t have any expectation of that money, because getting it was total happenstance (with a side of intentionally arranging order-of-clearance to fuck people over as much as possible)
The money was earmarked arbitrarily and TAKEN, and if it was given back, nothing would significantly change for the bank, because giving the money back would only return the bank to the state of affairs before it earmarked and took the money
but it would change EVERYTHING for the human being currently crying their eyes out at your desk
.
A kangaroo and joey are seen in a burnt forest on Kangaroo Island, south west of Adelaide. Australia’s continuing bushfire crisis has taken anenormous toll on wildlife, with huge numbers of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects and other species killed. #Wild #Nature #Wildlife #Animals #kangaroo #Australia #Wildeyesa #Earthcapture #Kangaroosland #SouthWestAdelaide Photograph: Jo-Anne McArthur https://www.instagram.com/p/B7lBRWEgY-V/?igshid=927cesegfpih
In case you aren’t familiar, Michael Scott Moore and David Rohde are both journalists. Moore was held by Somali pirates for 977 days. Rohde was held captive by the Taliban for 7 months after being abducted in Afghanistan.
