STANLEY JONES

My name is Stanley Jones I am a Turner

But I know what is wrong and what is right

We’re going down to Spain in brigade strength

We’re going down to Spain to join the fight

Europe in the 30’s war was coming

The signs were there to see on every side

Someone has to take a stand somewhere

Someone has to dam the (Fascist) tide

And we were young and things they seemed so clear cut

And the morning light was shining in our eyes

Comrade which side do you fight for

Will you listen to the truth or to the lies?

We came from every country in Europe

To join the international brigade

And from the US came the lads of Lincoln

And the rifles in our hands were Soviet made

We’d all been to the meetings and the rallies

We knew that there would be no turning back

For a time we believed in Comrade Stalin

But Comrade Stalin shot us in the back

I can see my comrades still they march beside me

Along that dusty road in northern Spain

I hear the cries of men charging forward

I hear the screams of men who fall in pain

And we were young and things were very different

Through tears - the goodbye to my ‘mam

I said I’m going to Spain to fight the fascists I’m going to stick my bloody finger in the dam

There was Manny from the East End there was Jocky

who built the ships that sailed out from the Clyde

And Jonesy from the mines down in South Wales

These were the boys who bloody tried

And Johnny was the man who came from college (or ‘Oxford’?)

With a voice who spoke so lah di dah

But you should have heard the silence round the campfire

as he read his poems underneath the stars

In my care home now I sit and stare here

My buried thoughts are turning once again

To the sounds and the smell and the pictures

of that fight we had down in sunny Spain

My granddaughter will open up the suitcase

with the red flag and the earth of dusty Spain

I hope she knows the side she is taking

And never has to do the same again


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