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Interview: Abraham Lincoln Brigade Vet

By Dave Curry

VVAW was not the only group of veterans celebrating an anniversary in 1987. While we were celebrating our twentieth anniversary, the veterans of Abraham Lincoln Brigade joined with their comrades from all over the world to celebrate their fiftieth anniversary. The experiences of these survivors of the brutal Spanish Civil War hold a special significance for veterans of the Vietnam War who have chosen to join movements for peace and justice. A generously given interview by Milt Cohen, Spanish Civil War veteran and lifetime activist, provides an opportunity to address this significance in living practice.

The role of U.S. volunteers in the Spanish Civil War is given little mention in most history books. Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls or its movie version with Gary Cooper are as close as many get to a glimpse of the Spanish Civil War. As Vietnam is to young people today, so was the Spanish Civil War a puzzle to me as a student. My understanding was that enemies of the U.S. in World War II, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, ere the enemies of those who supported democracy in Spain. The enemy of the U.S. in the Cold War, the Soviet Union, supported those who fought for democracy in Spain. Some American had joined the fight for democracy against the Fascists in Spain. The United States had been officially neutral in Spain. Under Generalissimo Francisco Franco, The Fascists were victorious in Spain. General Franco became an important ally of the United States. The Americans who had fought for democracy in Spain were not allowed to fight in World War II. They were labelled "premature anti-fascists". As recorded in the encyclopedias, Spain had experienced a series of unstable republics between 1931 and 1936. That year Spain's colonial army in Morocco under the leadership of General Franco revolted against the Republic. In the following days a Fascist rebellion composed of police and military units swept the Spanish nation. Almost every other faction in Spain including moderate republicans, liberal democrats, socialists, communists, and anarchists opposed this rising of the extreme right. Generally lacking in formal military training, the Republican forces pitted numbers, commitment to democratic traditions, and ideological determination against General Franco's Fascist rebels. The outcome of the Spanish Civil War was, however, an international matter. Well before his rising, Franco had assured himself of massive material and personnel support from Hitler and Mussolini. In reaction to the Nazi and Fascist involvement, the Soviet Union and volunteers from all over the world rushed to the aid of the Republicans. France, England, and the United States joined 24 other nations in a "non-intervention" committee. In the United States, assistance and travel to Spain were made illegal. Essential to the struggle of the Republicans were the International Brigades. From the United States came the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.

A twenty-two-year-old undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Milt Cohen was a student activist. He with others believes that the growth of Fascism would lead to a world war of devastating proportion. For him, stopping Fascism was a synonymous with stopping war. At an anti-war meeting where speakers on a tour of college campuses described the situation in Spain, Milt decided that the conclusion of his college career would have to await the outcome of the events in Spain. Within a month, Milt Cohen, student activist became a "premature anti-fascist." The first step on the trip to Spain was to Chicago to obtain a passport by giving false information. At that time, passports bore the warning that travel to Spain was illegal. Milt's story was that he was on his way to England to continue his studies. A long bus ride and a few days of physical (non-military) training in upstate New York preceded a trans-Atlantic crossing on an English liner with a small group of fellow brigade members. Most of Milt's companion were tough working class men from New York's waterfront. Even traveling third class, Milt notes that the liner trip exposed him to the most luxurious conditions that he had experienced in his life. After moving across France in small groups, the brigade members assembled clandestinely in a hotel near Marseilles. Two hundred and fifty in number these men from several nations boarded a Spanish tanker named "The City of Barcelona" for the trip into war-torn Spain. The schizophrenia of Europe in the face of Fascism is manifested in Milt's memory that a liner from Italy (which under Mussolini was supporting the Fascists in Spain) was anchored alongside in the French port.

In many ways, the war experience of Vietnam vets and the Abraham Lincoln vets dramatically differ. For most Vietnam vets, a war tour consisted of varying lengths of boredom or drudgery punctuated by bursts of intensity and danger. Not so the tour of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade veterans. Living symbols of the international character of the struggle against Fascism, the international Brigade including Milt Cohen participated in every major battle of the Spanish Civil War. They were either in fatiguing movement or heated battle. Milt's arrive in Spain serves as prototype for his year and a half in Spain. Late in the afternoon of its overnight voyage, the deck of "The City of Barcelona" began to fill with its secret cargo of internationals eager to enjoy the Mediterranean air. A Midwesterner, who didn't know how to swim, Milt noticed a something coming toward the ship in the water. The torpedo's direct hit was marked by a "tremendous jar" as the ship began to split in half. Milt ran to his cabin, grabbed his passport and toothbrush, and barely managed to make the leap to a lifeboat that was luckily close to where he had re-emerged onto the disintegrating deck. Milt was more lucky than he knew. The nearest lifeboat was the only lifeboat. He and the others who had made it aboard vainly tried to save as many of their less fortunate comrades as possible before the rapidly sinking " The City of Barcelona" sucked them beneath the waves. The villagers of nearby Montenegro, who had witnessed the sinking, were already trying to rescue the drowning sailors and internationals. Thanks to the efforts of the villagers about fifty of the internationals out of the original 250 served the sinking. Late that night, the survivors were in the real city of Barcelona ready to be immediately dispatched into battle.

For eighteen months, Milt with the other Internationalists was moved from crucial battle to crucial battle. The losses in lives Milt experienced around him in his arrival took place again and again. Milt will only say, " I was very lucky." Miraculously, he was only wounded once (a head wound) in those months. Finally, after eighteen months, Republican Spain, strangled by the "neutrality" of the U.S. and the other "non-interventionist" nations and responding to an appeal to the League of Nations, negotiated the removal of the International Brigade. While Milt Cohen and his comrades shared a train ride to France, doomed Republican Spain continued its sincere efforts as a peaceful settlement in the face of the advancing Fascists still fully supported by their own unrelenting German and Italian allies. In one final testament to the political confusion of pre-World War II Europe, the Internationalists' train continued all the way across France without stopping. The Democratic Socialist government of Leon Blum, in the midst of a general strike, did not want the presence of these symbols of anti-Fascism to disrupt the "stability" of France.

At the age of 72, Milt Cohen is easier to find at meetings and demonstrations than relaxing at home. Milt's service in the Spanish Civil War has served as a strong foundation for a long career of activism. While some Spanish Civil War veterans attempted unsuccessfully to extend their fight against Fascism by serving with the allies in World War II, Milt decided that his future battles would be of a more political and localized nature. As a community organizer, Milt has considered his goal the building of unity among the people who reside in the diverse neighborhoods of Chicago. For many years, the Communist Party served as the major vehicle for his work. Identification as a communist in addition to the premature antifascist label earned Milt the scrutiny and harassment of the powerful political forces that have since come to be labeled MacCarthyism.

Milt's wife Sue (herself a career activist) tells the story of how a staff member at an elementary school called to inform her that the FBI had come to the school to obtain copies of Milt's signature from their children's report cards. Sue confides with amusement that she always signed the sometimes absent-minded Milt's name on the children's cards.. So it was, that the FBI came to possess copies of Milt's wife's forged versions of his signature.

Milt himself speaks without humor about the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). "That committee had to be stopped. HUAC's goal was the destruction of all First Amendment rights." When the Committee brought its hearing to Chicago, Milt Cohen did not flinch in his refusal to testify. In fact, he led other Chicagoans in challenging HUAC's legitimacy. MacCarthy fell. HUAC was no more. Khrushchev exposed Stalin. Milt with many of his comrades left what had until then been the Party. Opposition to the war in Vietnam came and went as a central issue. All the while Milt continued his organizing work. A staff member of the Committee to Reelect Mayor Washington, Milt Cohen can be found working daily at the Illinois Public Action Council. He remains very active in the Democratic Socialists of America and other groups.

Milt's soft-spoken, attentive, well-informed, and reasoned manner of interacting with others that has so often impressed me in meetings belies the intensity of the political conflict that initiated his career of activism. His tolerance for political mistakes by others is best illustrated by his answer to a question asked of him following one of his rare personal presentations, how does he feel about the Fascist soldiers he fought in Spain. His answer focused on the fact that, for the most part, Fascist soldiers were born into the regions of Spain that were controlled at an early stage by General Franco's forces. They were conscripted into the Fascist army. Other than fighting for their lives Fascist soldiers knew no other political reality. "When I made my decision about going to Spain, I already knew a great deal about world history. My decision was a conscious and a correct one, and an easy one to make. The decisions since then have also been easy ones for me to make."

Milt Cohen's dream remains the unity of the working people of Chicago built upon their shared interests. He knows that civil rights has to be such a shared interest. Alliances between Chicago's Black and Hispanic communities are especially to the advantage of both. Tenants rights likewise benefits all working people. Milt Cohen's input to Chicago's Tenants Bill of Rights has been significant. Well before he first entered the race for mayor, the late Harold Washington received Milt's enthusiastic encouragement. When Milt is asked to select the single most important victory in his long career as a community organizer, he is unhesitant in his choice of Mayor Harold Washington's election and reelection.

For fifty years, the veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade have functioned as vital sources of information and powerful role models for those of us who have tried to be activists. After twenty years, Vietnam Veterans Against the War increasingly feels what it's like to be a part of leftist history. For me, Milt Cohen and the other veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade provide living examples of going beyond the war with which we gained our veteran's status. What does Milt Cohen most want to say the member of VVAW? "Keep up the fight. The future has great possibilities!"