Eurocommunism and the Spanish Communists
This article attempts to place the PCE in the generally‐held views of Eurocommunism and explore the current orientation of the party. Focusing on the ideology and the political practice of the PCE, the thesis is that the PCE is a ‘Eurocommunist’ party in the mould of the French and Italian parties but with obvious differences arising from nearly forty years of underground existence under Franco. The perspectives attached to Eurocommunism in many ways do not represent a sharp departure from the past history of the PCE. The major strength of the PCE today is not in the electoral arena where it receives only about 10 per cent of the vote, but rather in the trade union movement where it enjoys a hegemonic position in the largest trade union federation, the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO).
The revolution and the civil war in Spain
First published in France in 1961 as "La Revolution et la guerre d'Espagne, " this book explains the major issues of the Spanish Civil War in a remarkably clear and comprehensive fashion. The authors focus on the internal affairs of the Republic and the Anarchist collective experiments in particular. For further description, the book is best served by its critics: "The Broue-Temime work is the best general interpretation available concerning both the revolution of 1936 and the war. It is especially valuable for analysis of the CNT, the POUM, and the anarchists in both the industrial and rural areas of Catalonia. It contains rich chapters on the first days of the war in the large cities and on the May, 1937, struggle in the streets of Barcelona."--Gabriel Jackson, "Hispanic American Historical Review""This, by contrast (with the work of Hugh Thomas), is what gives weight to the fine works of Pierre Broue the effort by which he constructs a Spanish war where events, parties, and man, the motives that guided them, the difficulties they encountered, their feelings, debates, ideas, and sacrifices are arranged and told in order to make them comprehensible."--Jean-Pierre Peter, "Annales: Economies, Societes, Civilisations""Broue has prepared the first half [of the book], dealing with the Spanish background, the revolution, and the first year of the war... [He] gives a particularly good treatment of the origins of the Spanish Communist party."In the second half of this composite work, Temime has presented a clear, concise, and perceptive account of the military events in the last two years of the war and of the construction of Franco's authoritarian state."--Stanley G. Payne, "Journal of Modern History"
Some Experiences with a Parachute Surgical Unit
THE format~n of Parachute Surgical Units has been the logical development of the present surgical policy of the Royal Army Medical Corps in which surgical units, work in the forward areas; and in fact the surgeon is brought to the patient as opposed to the patient being evacuated to the surgeon. Thus the long-establi,shed principle that early surgery prevents infection and accelerates ultimate-recovery has been applied to modern warand even to parachute units. ' Our unit, in addition to being the first parachute surgical unit, was also the first to go into action; and so we have been fortunate in having an unique experience, particularly from a surgical standpoint. The·unit, which included a surgeon and anresthetist, is attached to a parachute field ambulance. The eqUipment, all of which was dropped by parachute with the unit, includes an operating table, instruments, dressings, plaster of Paris, blood plasma, sterilizer, anresthetic equipment, drugs, medical comforts and even a bedpan. It was found sufficient to perform 145 surgical operations and about 100 dressings with a margin to spare; such equipment as a building, transport, beds, blankets, etc., was obtained locally after dropping. ' The operations performed were 136 on allied troops or priSfmers, with, a mortality of 2·9 per cent, and 9 on civilians. The civilians were impossible to follow up and so only troops are inc~uded in the following table. Of the civilians two died before evacuation which occurred at an average time of three days ,after admission. Conservative treatment fVVas carried out on 28 troops and 65 civilians. Of these, three from the troops and eight civilians were moribund on admission and did not recover sufficiently for surgery, so the total number of admissions to the Dressing Station was 238, of which a total of 17, or 7·2 per cent, died. ,Ofthe moribund many were admitted within a few minutes of injury and their wounds were very severe. The following table illustrates the type of injury, and the immediate results of treatment amongst the troops, the cases being followed up for six weeks.