Spain and the World

Spain and the World

Front page on December 11th 1936
Type	Fortnightly journal
Founded	11 December 1936 (1936-12-11)
Political alignment	Anti-fascist
Ceased publication	23 December 1938 (1938-12-23)
Headquarters	Clerkenwell
City	London
Country	United Kingdom
Media of the United Kingdom List of newspapers

Spain and the World was a fortnighly anti-fascist journal which was launched in London in December 1936 by Francesco Galasso, an Italian physician ^[1] , and Vernon Richards (originally Vero Benvenuto Costantino Recchioni), a student ^[2] who was to become a trained civil engineer ^[3] . Galasso and Richards launched the journal to counteract the political biases of the News Chronicle and the New Statesman , both of which supported Soviet policy during the Spanish Civil War. ^[4]

The local context for the launch of Spain and the World was a diaspora of Italian anti-fascists in London in which Galasso was prominent. ^[5] He had welcomed Emma Goldman, who was a friend of Enrico Malatesta, into his house and had edited Il Comento (1922-1924), a weekly satirical magazine which 'was one of the few explicitly anti-Fascist periodicals in London' ^[6] . The group used to meet up with other anti-fascist Italians in and outside London at the delicatessen of Emilio Recchioni, the satirically-named King Bomba, in Old Compton Street, Soho. Recchioni was an anarchist friend of Malatesta ^[7] and Richards' father.

Richards was to become the editor of Spain and the World. ^[8] However, before the first issue was published it had a forerunner - a 32-page pamphlet on Spain, The struggle for liberty in Spain 1840-1936, that was published by the Narod Press in Whitechapel, in East London, which was owned by Israel Narodiczky. When Spain and the World was published, the first twelve issues were printed by V.W.H. Printers Ltd, which printed a number of provincial weeklies in Faringdon (then in Berkshire). ^[9]

The proprietor of V.W.H. Printers Ltd was Robert Henriques, who was later to become Colonel R.D.Q. Henriques, a much-decorated soldier, and a successful author, novelist and biographer. VR (1986) recounted that for the first issue Henriques personally took the galley proofs to the editor's home, where he pasted them up, after which he felt that he should past them up. ^[10]

V.W.H. Printers Ltd had a London office in 207 Goswell Road, Faringdon, which served two essential functions. It served as the journal's temporary mailing address, from which members of the public could buy copies of The struggle for liberty in Spain 1840-1936. And it served as a collection point for donations to the Spanish Medical Aid Unit, which was run by the Spanish Medical Aid Committee. ^[11]

Spain and the World was printed by three firms: V.W.H. Printers Ltd, Narod Press, with which it had an on-off relationship, and Wyndham Printers, which was in Hackney, East London. ^[12]

In 1939, after the victory of the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, for six issues Spain and the World was renamed Revolt! Incorporating Spain and the World. Then Revolt! Incorporating Spain and the World was renamed War Commentary . ^[13]

Notes

1. Rampello 2015.
2. Goodway 2019, p. 4.
3. Ward in Ward and Goodway 2014, p. 37.
4. Ward 2002.
5. Rampello 2019.
6. Rampello 2015.
7. Woodcock 1982, p. 246.
8. Goodway 2019, p.4.
9. VR 1986.
10. VR 1986.
11. For a contemporaneous account, see Jeger and Peakcock 1937. For retrospective accounts, see Fryth 1976 and Buchanan 2024.
12. VR 1986.
13. VR 1986.

References

• Buchanan, Tom (2024). “Spain Mad”: British Engagement with the Spanish Civil War. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN   1802074554.
• Fryth, Jim (1976). The signal was Spain The Aid Spain movement in Britain, 1936-1939. London: Lawrence and Wishart. ISBN   9780853156437.
• Goodway, David. 2019. 'Introduction'. In Richards, Vernon (2019). Lessons of the Spanish Revolution. Oakland, California: PM Press. ISBN   978-1-62963-647-4.
• Jeger, George; Peacock, W. Arthur (1937). Medical Aid for Spain The work of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee. Spanish Medical Aid Committee. Retrieved 18 July 2025.
• Rampello, Stefania (2015). "Italian anti-Fascism in London, 1922–1934" (PDF). Modern Italy. 20 (4): 351-363. doi:10.1080/13532944.2015.1086734 . Retrieved 19 July 2025.
• Rampello, Stefania (2019). "Italian Anti-Fascist in London between the Thirties and the Forties". Nuova Revista Storica. 103 (2): 708-740. ISSN   0029-6236 . Retrieved 18 July 2025.
• VR (1986). "Printers we have known : 1936-1986". A hundred years October 1886 to October 1986. London: Freedom. ISBN   0 900384 35 2.
• Ward, Colin (4 February 2002). "Obituary: Vernon Richards". The Guardian. London.
• Ward, Colin; Goodway, David (2014). Talking anarchy. Oakland, California: PM Press. ISBN   978-1-60486-812-8.
• Woodcock, George (1982). Letter to the past. Ontario, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside. ISBN   0-88902-715-3.

Further reading

• Becker, Heiner (1986). Freedom: a Hundred Years, October 1886 to October 1986. London: Freedom Press. ISBN   0-900384-35-2.
• Ferguson, Kathy E. (2023). Letterpress Revolution: The Politics of Anarchist Print Culture. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press Books. ISBN   1478016590.
• VR, ed. (1990). Spain 1936-1939 Social revolution and counter-revolution Selections from the anarchist fortnightly Spain & the World (Freedom Press Centenary Series Volume 2 ed.). London: Freedom Press. ISBN   0 900384 54 9.

Archives

• Spain and the World
• Revolt! Incorporating Spain and the World