workingclasshistory:

On this day, 24 February 1909, Ethel Macdonald was born in Motherwell, Scotland. She later moved to Glasgow, worked in retail, and became a socialist. When the Spanish civil war began in 1936 she travelled to revolutionary Barcelona and wrote for Scottish newspapers. She described how factories and villages were collectivised and how churches were turned into hospitals, libraries, and schools.
Her writings also contain interesting details that help us to picture life at the time: British volunteers tended to get drunk upon arriving in Spain “perhaps… because they are unaccustomed to wine”; men and women soldiers were indistinguishable in dress, except that “all the girls had beautifully permed hair and were strikingly made up.” She also achieved fame as the English language voice of the CNT union radio station. Her reports were listened to around the world and her Scottish accent proved especially popular in the US.
In May 1937 the Communist Party began to purge the anti-fascist movement of revolutionaries who didn’t agree with the Moscow line. In Barcelona, Ethel helped anarchists defend the barricades against CP troops, and later she smuggled food and letters to imprisoned comrades. She helped foreign anti-fascists escape Spain and the UK press dubbed her the “Scots Scarlet Pimpernel.” Soon she too was imprisoned by the CP, and upon her release she went into hiding, moving from house to house as she sheltered among Barcelona’s anarchists until she managed to get to France, and from there back to Glasgow.
After the outbreak of WWII she received call up papers for Women’s National Service. She returned them with the words “Get Lost.” When she received further papers, she wrote back, “Come and get me.” Authorities decided against chasing the Scots’ Scarlet Pimpernel. She remained active in the radical movement until her death.
Learn more about the civil war in our podcast eps 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1928265624025245/?type=3