Day of Victory in the Great Patriotic War: Chronicle of the march in Madrid
On Sunday May 5th 2019 in Madrid and for the fourth consecutive year the popular march IMMORTAL REGIMENT was held. More than a thousand people gathered in Madrid to celebrate Victory Day in World War II and commemorate all those who participated in the struggle to liberate the world from fascism.
The march was called on Sunday May 5th at 12:00 and passed through the main streets of Madrid. Before the march the volunteers handed out St. George’s tapes and information leaflets.
Paco, a member of the Madrid Anti-imperialist Front (FAI) also came to support the march. He marched with the portrait of Rubén Ibarruri: “I found it impressive,” he said, “and very comforting with the Russians in Madrid in the commemoration of the Victory against Fascism. We have been working for several years trying to unite forces against imperialism in all parts of the world, and today Ukraine is one of the fronts”.
Young people in Red Army uniforms of the Spanish Association “Red October” carried in front of the column the flag of victory, three meters. People came with portraits of their relatives and acquaintances who fought in the Great Patriotic War and in the resistance to fascism during the Spanish Civil War, and who after the civil war joined the Red Army to fight against the Nazis, such as Rubén Ibarruri (fallen in Stalingrad), Enrique Líster or María Pardina Ramos.
Students of Russian language also came. People from other provinces of Spain who came to Madrid to participate in the Immortal Regiment.
Members of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Madrid and the Russian Centre also attended with their families and carried portraits of their relatives. Russian Federation Ambassador Yuri Petrovich Korchagin said “Every year I come with the portrait of my father, Piotr Afanasievich Korchagin, who was called to join the Red Army while studying at Moscow State University in 1941, after a brief preparation he was sent to the front line. In the war he was wounded but survived. Unfortunately he is no longer with us, but I am proud of my father. That is why we – my wife and I – have been part of this march that is already being held for the fourth consecutive year in Madrid; it is organized by our compatriots, a group of volunteers. They invite the whole Russian-speaking community to participate, all those who share ideas of the Russian-speaking world, and they invite us as well. And I can say that most of our diplomats today also participated in this march with portraits of their grandparents.
In a personal capacity, representatives of embassies in Madrid from several countries, such as Venezuela, came to support the celebration. Rosario Pacheco of the Venezuelan embassy said that “she came to support this activity because of the role of the Red Army in the defeat of fascism and Nazism. It’s what they want to hide, but here today and in many parts of the world you see the truth of those who are with peace.
People from many countries of the former Soviet Union have joined the march with flags of their republics. A family from Kazakhstan with a flag of their country and a portrait of their uncle “We live here in Madrid and participated in the march for the second year. For us it is a sacred day, May 9th is a sacred day for all of us. In my family I fight my uncle Saupaev Serzhan Saupaevich, here is his portrait. He spent all the way from the war, I also fight in Europe. We pay tribute in memory of these great people, thanks to whom we can enjoy heaven in peace.
In the march there were Ukrainian flags of people who still feeling Ukrainian support peace and antifascism, who opt for a different Ukraine, twinned and not at enmity with Russia. Their parents also fought in the Great Patriotic War against the Nazis and now more than ever it hurts them to see how the collaborators who fought on the other side, on the side of Stepan Bandera, who massacred their own compatriots, came to power.
A Belarusian girl, Eugenia Lutskova, born in Brest, who lives in Madrid, said, “This year will be the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belarus in the Great Patriotic War. I come to participate in this march for the third consecutive year, every year I come without fail. For me this is an indispensable part of the celebration and I am very grateful to the organizers”.
Immortal Regiment in Madrid in 2018
The Madrid Immortal Regiment has been organized since 2016.
Act in Madrid: For the right to return! Jerusalem, capital of Palestine
Convened by the Anti-Imperialist Internationalist Front within the Global Campaign for the Return to Palestine, several dozen militants and sympathizers of the Palestinian cause gathered in front of the entrance of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid on Wednesday, May 15 at noon.
Displaying Palestinian flags and carrying kufiyas, the attendees posed with posters alluding to the acts of violence perpetrated by Zionist forces against the resistant population of Gaza, which is enduring more than a year of violent repression and with a toll of more than 270 demonstrators dead and 30,000 injured in a constant genocidal drip. The event was taken by numerous cameras, which will contribute to the testimonies gathered around the world, as proposed in the action “Raise the Palestinian flag”.
Several slogans were chanted highlighting the terrorist character of the Zionist state, its systematic mockery of human rights, the apartheid regime it upholds and calling for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest and attempts to whitewash its image through cultural and sporting actions.
Act in Murcia: Palestine, to exist is to resist
Within the Global Campaign for Return and on the occasion of Al Nakba Day, called by the Murcia Committee of the Anti-Imperialist Internationalist Front, the Collective in Solidarity with the Palestinian People and the local branch of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Murcia, a rally was held last May 15 in the Plaza de Santo Domingo.
Several dozens of people participated and a photographic exhibition was shown about the victims of Zionist repression, who now total almost 300 dead and more than 30,000 injured since the “Great March for Return” was called in March last year, demanding the right to return to their lands of the Palestinians who were forcibly expelled on the day of Al Nakba in 1948.
The communiqué issued by the FAI on the occasion of this campaign was read in the act.
Event in Barcelona: Venezuela, Syria and Nicaragua: The same struggle, the same anti-imperialist cause
The Anti-imperialist Committee of Catalonia (federated in the Anti-Imperialist Internationalist Front), the Artistic Brigade Tina Modotti and the European Committee of Solidarity with the Sandinista Popular Revolution (Catalonia Section), celebrated this internationalist act in Barcelona last May 18, in which it was exposed how the aggression of the USA against Venezuela has identical motivations as the one developed against Syria and is framed in the imperialist offensive against nations and peoples that seek their own autonomy, as is also the case of Nicaragua.
With the intervention of:
Dr. Manibal Sarkis, representing the Syrian Community in Barcelona
Mario Isea, Ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Carlos Midence, Ambassador of the Republic of Nicaragua
And presented by Carlos Gulías, Vice-President of the Anti-imperialist Committee of Catalonia.
The FAI of Murcia, against imperialist aggression in Venezuela
Summoned by the FAI of Murcia, during the May 1st march a large group of people demonstrated against the interference of the United States in Venezuela.
Statements
- Letter from the FAI to the President of the Government regarding the hosting of the embassy to Leopoldo López
- FAI Statement in Commemoration of Al-Nakba Day
- FAI STATEMENT ON THE ACTIONS OF THE EMBASSY OF THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN IN CARACAS ON APRIL 30TH, 2019
- Declaration of the Anti-Imperialist Internationalist Front on the campaign against the International Defence Fair (FEINDEF)
