HUNDREDS of anti-fascists will head from Britain to Spain next month, ready to march through the valley of Jarama, in honour of International Brigaders who fought the vile regime of Francisco Franco.

Comrades from England, Scotland and Wales are joined each year by those from Ireland, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, the US, Canada, Scandinavia, Mexico, Cuba, South America, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. This year, contingents from Canada will commemorate the MacPaps, the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, three-quarters of whom were members of the country’s communist party or its Young Communist League, along with American supporters marking the part played by the Lincoln Battalion volunteers.

Those of us who make this annual journey to the valley, less than an hour by road from the Spanish capital, march in the footsteps of the bravest and best of their generation. At Jarama, these true internationalists faced one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.