In Defense of Historical Truth and International Solidarity

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia warns of the increasingly present anti-communist hysteria and the systematic falsification of history aimed at relativizing the struggle of peoples for freedom and erasing revolutionary heritage from collective memory.

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was not merely an internal conflict of one country, but the first major frontline between fascism and the forces of freedom, democracy, and social justice. At that historical moment, thousands of volunteers from all over the world responded to the call to defend the Republic, guided by the idea of international solidarity and the fight against the fascist menace.

According to the data available to us, there were 1,996 volunteers from Yugoslavia in the International Brigades in Spain and other units of the Republican Army. These fighters—workers, students, intellectuals, and peasants—left their homes to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Spanish people, aware that the fate of freedom is not defended only within the borders of a single country. Their sacrifice and courage represent one of the brightest examples of proletarian internationalism in history.

Today, as we witness attempts to equate victims and perpetrators, to portray anti-fascism as “extremism,” and to depict communists as carriers of “totalitarianism,” it is the duty of all progressive forces to firmly stand in defense of historical truth. Anti-communist propaganda is nothing but an attempt to rehabilitate ideologies that brought unprecedented destruction and suffering to humanity.

The New Communist Party of Yugoslavia rejects such attempts and reminds that it was precisely communists and the workers’ movement who stood in the front lines of the struggle against fascism—both in Spain and later across Europe, including in the national liberation struggle in Yugoslavia.

The legacy of the Spanish fighters and the International Brigades obliges us today to continue defending the ideals of freedom, equality, and solidarity. In a world facing new forms of injustice, exploitation, and rising authoritarianism, the message from Spain remains clear: the struggle for freedom is international, and solidarity among peoples is the only force capable of stopping new forms of fascism.

Therefore, 90 years later, we proudly pay tribute to all Yugoslav volunteers in Spain and continue their struggle—for truth, for justice, and for a society free from the exploitation of human beings by other human beings.