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      The disgrace of this sitiuation was depressing not only for those involved, but for the onlookers--some of whom were writers. One reaction was ironic despair. Anne Marriott's documentary poem "The Wind Our Enemy" is the classic example, one that aroused great concern when it was published as a chapbook by Lorne Pierce of The Ryerson Press. Another reaction
      amongst writers and artists was uch more positive: a determination to fight for change, a desire to build a new world where there would be justice
      and a good living for all. The marxist magazine Masses (available now
      only on microfilm) printed many example of of poetry, fiction and agit-
      prop" playlets hich illustrate this trend. Across the country the Workers' Theatre and the Progressive Arts Clubs flourished. In union halls and at unemployed rallies the well-known IWW ballads were sung, and those of Joe Hill, and those of the Canadian Joe Wallace.More often songs were impro-
      vised to suit the xocasion:
      I worked fifteen years for a banker,
      I did everything I was told,
      He said I was loyal and faithful Then threw me out in the cold.
         S-O-U-P S-O-U-P
      They gave me a bowl of soup.
      ---
      Once I built a railroad, Made it run,
      Made it run against time--Once built a railroad, Now it's done--Buddy, can you spare a dime?
      For Canadians conscious of this situation the moment of decision came dramatically when in July, 1936, Spain's democratically elected govern-
      ment was attacked in ilitary onslaught by the mutinous General ranco,
      in collusion with invading German and Italian planes (based in orocco)
      and ships bringing arms. The rest of Europe, meantime, lifted not a finger to intervene. Canadians reacted to these event with varying degrees of understanding. Amongst the deprived, the effect on the single unempliyed men as electric They read of the international brigades that were formi g
      , rallying volunteers to ve the Spanish epublic from fascism. Although
      it was illegal for a Canadian to serve in a foreign cause, 1200 young men
      and some young women managed to get visa to France and from there joined a freedom trek across the Alpxs . But in uebed the reverse happened: the Catholic church called for volunteers to aid Franco, and got them.