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For the past week or so I haven’t been able to get Christy Moore’s Viva la Quinta Brigada out of my head, but I think these guys have come up with the perfect replacement!
I’m not entirely clear what funds will be used for, but fair play to them.
The Clash have given their blessing to a new version of their song London Calling by a Ukrainian punk band called Beton. Kyiv Calling, recorded near the frontline, has lyrics that call upon the rest of the world to support the defence of the country from Russian invaders.
All proceeds of what is now billed as a “war anthem” will go to the Free Ukraine Resistance Movement (FURM) to help fund a shared communications system that will alert the population to threats and lobby for international support.
We’ve been in contact with my OH’s student tonight after having nothing for around three days, and received a few pics on WhatsApp of where her, her family and others are sheltering. They didn’t make pleasant viewing and simply reinforced the frustration of being unable to do shit, other than send money. It just doesn’t feel enough.
FYI, Elon Musk donated Starlink ground terminals and is still donating more to keep internet service up when Russians bomb or tear out Ukraine’s fiber optic network.
Every time I walk over to a bar in a neighbouring barrio, I have to pass where there’s been excavations of graves from the civil war here.
I’d always thought this region was pretty much pro Franco, but the more I read, the more I’ve come to realise that there were a lot of folks killed simply because they weren’t pro Franco.
It’s still a bit of a touchy subject for a lot of folks here, so not one for a casual conversation in the bar!
Hearing the term “International Brigade” being used in respect of Ukraine, just keeps making me think of the original, way back in 1936.
There are several memorials in Scotland commemorating those that travelled to Spain, simply because they felt it was the right thing to do. My father knew a couple from, at that time, our small town. Neither returned.
It got me thinking, when all this shit is over, will communities do the same for the thousands of folks who’ve gone to the Ukraine?
Anyway, all that rambling just so I could add this:
Christy did a great show here when he toured Alaska.
One of the very fit elders who was the sparkplug for our local Parks & Rec Wednesday hikes was a retired union carpenter who was well known for his commitment to the peace movement. Since he was born in 1919, I thought he would be a WWII vet, but he said that he wasn’t, that he did alternate service during WWII after having served in the International Brigade in Spain.
Most people my age would have missed it, but I was an avid history reader and had a civics teacher who played Pacifica Radio tapes about the Army-McCarthy hearings and 1950s blacklists, so I knew what he meant.
Right after he retired, during the Brezhnev regime, he took a Trans-Siberian Railway trip, and gave a great talk about birds in the Russian Arctic at our local Audubon Society chapter. A couple of years later he mentioned that he had been on the Kolyma Peninsula, an area where foreigners weren’t typically allowed. I could put 2+2 together.
The day after Gus Hall, longtime president of the US Communist Party, died, I saw him at the supermarket. “My condolences on the death of Gus Hall”, I said, and with a twinkle in his eye he smiled and thanked me.
I previously reported on support bookings to get cash in accounts of hosts, both Ukrainian hosts and Polish hosts who were listed as welcoming refugees.
It seems the Airbnb resolution center mechanism is functional well past booking dates (maybe a security hole that should be plugged but useful in this case). I used it to send additional modest funds to the Polish host I had previously booked, and she updated me on her Ukrainian refugee guests:
“Now they living in rented flat in Zamosc. I bouht some meat for them for this money and cosmetics they asked for. I alreday brought all to their place and said that the moeny is from You.
Thanks a lot.
Best regards Krystyna”
This allows me to imagine that, somewhere in Poland, a group of women who have had their lives completely uprooted are feeling normal for a few moments, doing their nails and having a nice supper.
