Britain’s Mainstream Left Stops Short of All-Out Support for Spanish Republicans
Thursday 28th
August 1936
The three pillars of the
mainstream left – the Parliamentary Labour Party, the National executive of the
Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress - in Britain met at Transport House
to discuss the appropriate response to the Spanish Civil War. These bodies had
just sent a formal deputation to the Foreign Secretary. The discussions were
secret and only a communique was issued afterwards.
The statement was long on wordy
condemnation of the threat posed by Fascism, the wickedness of the rebels and
the unlawfulness of Italy and Germany in supplying the rebels with arms. The
conference expressed regret – but no more - that it had been found necessary to
impose a general arms embargo by the European powers. Clearly wholehearted
support for the Republic was not in the offing. If nothing else the instinctive
pacifism of the left stood in the way of advocating a military solution.
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