THE statue of La Pasionaria, the Republican hero of the Spanish Civil War, took her place at Glasgow’s Customs House Quay in December 1979, but she had proved deeply controversial.
In the words of Bailie Jean McFadden, leader of the Labour group on Glasgow District Council, some “extremists” on the council were “passionately opposed” to La Pasionaria - Dolores Ibárruri, a Spanish Communist deputy who had coined the famous slogan “¡No Pasarán!” (“They shall not pass!”)
One Conservative councillor described Ibárruri as a “notorious Communist war criminal” and a “poisonous old brute” and suggested the statue be returned to the International Brigade Association in Scotland, which had spent £3000 in commissioning it. A Labour member said a second Tory “was falling into” the category of Fascist for his remarks.
A council committee voted against the proposal to site the statue at Customs House Quay, but the authority overturned that decision. After the new vote, a Tory councillor predicted: “This statue won’t last 10 minutes before it is pushed into the river. There are too many people against it”.
In February 1980, leading city Tories warned that the bronze sculpture might not have a permanent home on the quay. Said one: “We don’t want her. This lady is a Communist, who spent years in Russia. There are a lot of other figures, such as Winston Churchill, I would rather see there”. He was speaking a day or two after the official unveiling of the statue (main image), which was attended by many veterans of the International Brigade, and by numerous political and trade union figures.
A few weeks later, Ibárruri herself sent a telegram of thanks to Glasgow, saying she was deeply honoured by the erection of a statue in honour of the Scottish volunteers of the International Brigade.
Harry McShane, the veteran Red Clydesider, wrote a letter to the Herald, defending the statue.
“I am a critic of the Communist Party”, he wrote, “but it cannot be denied that La Pasionaria was the colourful figure in the first real battle against Fascism in Europe.
“The defeat of the Spanish democrats was followed by flirtations with Hitler by both Chamberlain and Stalin, and this made war inevitable. Fascism was defeated but it has friends here in Britain”.
Read more: Herald Diary
Ibárruri died in November 1989, aged 93, having outlived her bitter foe, General Franco, by just eight days short of 14 years. The Spanish Communist Party described her as “the flower of the twentieth century”.
In London, Bill Alexander, secretary of the International Brigade Association, said: “To us and the free world she was a living example of heroism and intelligence. She had the ability to see into the future and lived to see Spain free again. If it hadn’t been for La Pasionaria the three dictators, as we call them - Franco, Hitler and Mussolini - would have captured Madrid in days. But it was to take them years, thanks to Dolores. She inspired all”.
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