Hungarian National Defense Association exercise in the meadow next to Hármashatárhegyi airfield, 1965. From the Budapest Municipal Photography Company archive.
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Bacillus - From Voyeur to Victim
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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 socialist POUM militia, and was wounded by being shot in the neck, while many Western journalists and authors just hung out in Barcelona hotels.
While right-wingers are often fond of quoting Orwell to try to defend providing a platform for fascists, Orwell himself was not such a fan, as he described in his account of the Spanish civil war, Homage to Catalonia: “When I joined the militia I had promised myself to kill one Fascist — after all, if each of us killed one they would soon be extinct”.
He also vividly described the atmosphere in revolutionary Barcelona: “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 'Buenos 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.”
Learn more about the conflict in our podcast episodes 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/
Pic: Orwell, the tall man, his wife Eileen O'Shaughnessy and his unit in Spain https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2191150257736779/?type=3
The Household Staff in an English Medieval Castle
An English medieval castle, if a large one, could have a household staff of at least 50 people, which included all manner of specialised and skilled workers such as cooks, grooms, carpenters, masons, falconers, and musicians, as well as a compliment of knights, bowmen, and crossbow operators. Most staff were paid by the day, and job security was often precarious, especially for the lowest servants who were dismissed when a castle lord travelled away from the castle. More skilled workers such as the castle chaplain, the steward or general manager, and the marshal, who supervised the men-at-arms and stables, were paid by the year and might receive money and land in return for loyal service. A microcosm of the medieval world, the household staff worked as a team to meet the castle’s often extensive needs of nourishment, defence, and entertainment.
