Description

AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTA tribute to Spain on the 18th anniversary of the Republic [April 1949].

"It is not a platonic tribute that we would like to pay this evening to Spain by commemorating the 18th anniversary of the Republic. The current world situation gives all the revolutionary struggle that the Spanish people have supported and continue to support a meaning that we must never forget. It shows us, more present than ever, the need to fight.
Before us, Spain experienced the barbarity of dictatorships. It saw the tomb of Guernica open in the ground, foreshadowing that of Oradour. And since that showdown, the war has been festering in hot spots, ready to take over the whole world in the most appalling ways. If Spain, with its authoritarian regime, appears to the war-mongers as the keystone of the defence of the West, it appears to us, with its revolutionary permanence, through the courage of its best children, as the keystone of our hope for freedom, harmony, justice and peace.
Yes, we know, Franco is crouching in the anteroom of the signatories of the Atlantic Pact. Franco, who set an example of the cruellest repression, is astonished that he has not yet been admitted to these democracies which are not democracies. How is it that he, who has been preserved, literally preserved, as an authentic representative of what Nazism and Fascism were, has not yet officially taken his place in the ranks of the powers of aggression? It is demanding this place more and more loudly, it is impatient, it is demanding. Well, we too are growing impatient; we too are intensifying our struggle. And everywhere the awareness is growing that victory has not been won, that peace has not been won, as long as Franco is in power. The courage of our Guerrilla comrades assures us of world peace. "

Numerous legible erasures and indentations, especially in the conclusion.