The Lincoln Battalion 

On Christmas-Day 1936, ninety-six men boarded a ship in New York. 
Very few people knew of these ninety-six men. There was not a word 
in any newspaper. Nobody saw them off. On the ship they kept away 
from each other, gave no sign to mark them apart as a group. Some 
were young, some middle-aged; some workers, some professionals, writ- 
ers and artists; some college boys and some teachers; some native born 
Americans for a dozen generations whose ancestors fought in the Amer- 
ican Revolution of 1776, others born in various parts of Europe or Latin 
America — just an average group of Americans. They were the first 
organized group of American volunteers to fight Fascism in Spain. They 
left without publicity, did not seek publicity. 
Their purpose would have been defeated by publicity. The Amer- 
ican people at that time were not clear on the issues of the war in Spain. 
Reactionary newspapers were in strong sympathy with Franco and 
stormed against the democratic Government of Spain, misrepresenting 
it as “red”. A few days after the first volunteers left, Congress passed 
an emergency “Neutrality Act” prohibiting American aid to Spain. Few 
would have believed that before a year was over President Roosevelt 
who had demanded the passage of the Neutrality Act was to denounce 
its provisions. 
The volunteers from America had to organize their groups in secret, 
but they continued to come, groups of men from every part of the 
country quietly boarding ships in New York. They were proud of their 
American traditions of freedom and democracy. They showed their 
pride in the best traditions of their country by naming their Battalion 
after Abraham Lincoln. 

The Canadian Volunteers 

In Canada, at the outbreak of the rebellion, the reaction immediately 
sided with Franco. The powerful Catholic church of French Canada 
began a campaign against the Loyalist Government proclaiming Franco 
and the Moors the “heavenly liberators” of Christianity. The Quebec 
liberal press followed the lead of the Catholic Church. But the progres- 
sive forces saw through the manouver and decided on action. 
In the early days of September organized labor through its powerful 

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