read. Barcelona 2026

 

Ingrid Ferrer (@ingridfh1 in Instagram)

  

For this week's blog post I have decided against talking about the Greek volunteers of the International Brigades. Instead I would like to talk about a recent trip of mine.

 

Last week I flew to Barcelona to help at the READ Convention organised by the Radical Books Coop. For three days, international publishers descended on the Catalonian capital. Most of the mornings were taken up either in B2B meetings in the Capella (MACBA) or in assemblies in the Pati Manning. On my morning commute to the Pati I could not help remember one of my old stomping grounds. The Universitat de Barcelona, which stands opposite the former convent.

 

After some to eat and a little rest, we were on the move again. First to the Sala Paral·lel, followed by consecutive evenings at the Plaça de la Gardunya which, for those of you who have never been to Barcelona, sits right behind the famous Mercat de la Boqueria.

 

Once all the meetings were over we could finally sit down and listen to key thinkers of our time go head-to-head over issues affecting contemporary politics, culture and society.

 

Thank you READ for providing a space for radical publishers and thinkers to meet and discuss some of the most pressing issues we face today. When I provided participants with their registration, I was taken aback by how far away some of them had come from. Some participants had managed to make it from the Middle East. When they asked me my name and I responded (telling them Ali) we almost immediately found common ground.

 

Over the course of READ, I met some of the most fantastic people leading the way in radical publishing. Despite the monopoly of power of the largest publishers, everybody I met in Barcelona remained confident of the future of progressive publishers. Why not though? We live in difficult times. People are growing increasingly frustrated with the information coming from our conventional media outlets. Among those based in the United States, the situation is even more precarious: for say the wrong word about Donald Trump and that might just be the end of your career. Some other participants had it even worse but I shall not divulge too much for fear of putting them in danger.

 

On the flight back to Leeds I gazed outside the window upon the landscape of the Iberian Peninsula. It was a relatively clear day - the clouds had gone walkabout - and I could see everything from mountain paths to a Formula 1 racetrack. As the plane flew other France and onwards to Britain the clouds had not yet come back from their wherever they had gone off to. All of a sudden the landscape changed. Lush green landscapes replaced the arid plains of the Mediterranean. I felt at home. But, this time, grateful to all the people that I had met and the things that I had learned.

 

Last week was like no other. Thank you all the team that helped make READ happen. Now, more than ever, the world requires collective action and solidarity to combat the forces of reactionism.

A Greek heroine of the French resistance

 

Not every phone call ends with a goodbye. Last year, a friend of mine called me to tell me about a Greek female resistance fighter in the Second World War. Elli Vallianou (or Heleni Vagliano) went to school in Britain but sometime after her wealthy shipowner of a father moved the family to Cannes in France where she stayed until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

 

It is still open to debate whether Elli ever volunteered in the International Brigades. My friend on the phone never mentioned it. All she said was that an archive in Otley (West Yorkshire) possessed a dossier about her life. When I asked the archivist how it was that they happened on her manuscripts, all they told me was that it had been donated by a friend of the Vallianou family.

 

Most of the dossier covers Vallianou's involvement in the French resistance in the Second World War. Elli often fed intelligence to the Allied forces. She also helped resistance fighters escape Spain into France after the Spanish Civil War.

 

Just days before the Allied landing and the liberation of Cannes, one of Elli's collaborators betrayed her. Elli was subsequently captured by the Nazi Gestapo. Throughout her interrogation, Elli remained steadfast and did not disclose either the names nor the addresses of other members of the resistance. According to her cellmate, Elli thought only about her work with the resistance. Yet, on the morning of the 15 August 1944, her jailors escorted her out of prison to a place where twenty other people were standing with their faces against a wall. The Gestapo shot them all.

 

After her death, Elli's mother Danae sent a letter to her friend Mr. Andrews telling him about how the French General De Gaulle had written a wonderful statement about Elli. For her work in the resistance, De Gaulle awarded her the cross of the Legion d'Honneur and La Croix de Guerre avec palmes - an award seldom handed to women at the time. The residents of Cannes subsequently got together on 3 October 1944 to commemorate her life. Many speeches recounting her life and work were given.

 

The following year, the President of the Special Delegation of Cannes City Hall reported to one Captain Basin that residents had agreed to name a street after Elli. They did not stop there because apparently a monument was even erected in the city to honour her life. An article in the Daily Sketch from 10 April 1945 called her the Maquis Leader, Second Joan of Arc. In this assessment they were absolutely right.

 

Never did I expect that a phone call would lead me to solve a mystery. As I delved deeper into Elli's life I discovered that a lot had been written about her in France. Outside of France, very few people know about her. Yes, this blog is technically dedicated to the Greeks that volunteered in the International Brigades. However, antifascists like Elli deserve just as much recognition.

 

An internationalist till I die

 

Hercules Arnaoutis grew up in a rather poor family in the Laconian village of Mani. In the early twentieth century, many families emphasised upward social mobility to escape the rocky barrenness of the region. After graduating from radio telegraphist school, Arnaoutis went to work as a radio telegraphist on Greek ships navigating the Aegean Sea. He played a leading role in the foundation of the Greek Radio Telegraphist Union but when the erstwhile Greek government banned his union he skipped ships and emigrated to the United States.

In 1933, Hercules joined the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA). He also boasted a membership with the Spartacus club: an organisation extremely popular among leftwing members of the Greek diaspora. Hercules also wrote articles for the Greek diaspora newspaper Empros. Together, these activities stood him in good stead for the International Brigades. 

Hercules did not actually have a ticket to board the Georgic, which he used to get to Spain on 6 January 1937. His daughter Dolores told me that because he was an illegal immigrant at the time, he had to travel to Spain as a stowaway. Italian Americans also found it difficult to get to Spain. Many of them were in a precarious situation because of their status as deserters in Italy and illegal immigrants in the United States. Together, they risked it all to prevent the spread of fascism in Spain.

By the time he arrived in Spain, some of the Greek volunteers had already grouped together in the Balkan Battalion. Rumour had it that a lot of bickering occurred between the Greek volunteers. Therefore, Hercules remained in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade instead of joining them.

Hercules held some important roles in the Brigades. He served as the sergeant and radio operator of his battalion. He also acted as liaison between the volunteers and their families back in the United States. 

Not long after the official withdrawal of the Brigades, Hercules boarded the Vito to return to the United States. When the Second World War erupted he joined the U.S. Navy. Although his ship did not see any action in the Mediterranean Sea, Hercules closely followed the situation in Nazi occupied Greece. In many occupied countries former Nazi collaborators faced lengthy jail sentences. However, Hercules did not hide his anger when former collaborators claimed positions of power after the liberation of Greece.

When the Greek Civil War commenced in 1946, Hercules started recruiting members for the communist resistance from his very own home. He was a member of the board of the Federation of Greek Maritime Unions (OENO) - aligned with the KKE. When the Greek government discovered what he was doing, they stripped him of his Greek citizenship and sentenced him to death in absentia.

Despite the precarious situation, Hercules still managed to travel to major Eastern coast ports to organise sailors disembarking Greek ships. In an interview his daughter revealed that occasionally thugs attacked him. A lot of Greek shipowners conspired with the Greek government against members of the Greek Sailors' Union. To make matters worse, the CIA prescribed veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to the list of anti-American activities.

Hercules eventually decided that it would be too dangerous for his wife and daughter to remain in the United States. In 1953, he sent them to live in Poland with all the other Greek refugees temporarily living there after the Greek Civil War. At first, his wife did not agree. But Hercules finally managed to convince her.

Then, in 1967, Hercules packed his bags and travelled to Poland to reunite with the rest of his family. He applied to work as a Navy officer but he quickly learned the that most of the Greek refugees had to make do with whatever job was readily available. Conditions within the community and intraparty strife also left him feeling somewhat disenchanted.

 

It did not take long for Hercules to decide upon moving back to the United States. When the Greek military junta seized power in 1967, the American Committee for Democracy and Freedom in Greece was formed. Hercules was very active in its activities. One activist told his daughter Dolores that 'we recognised the old timers from the [International] Brigades. If one of them did not show up at the demonstration we knew he was probably dead'. 

 

In the meantime, Hercules had left his wife and daughter behind in Poland; partly because his daughter still had to sort out her passport with the American authorities. Unfortunately for Dolores, Hercules fell sick and died before they could reunite. 

 

Not once in his life did Hercules renounce the internationalism that initially spurred him to join the International Brigades. The fight against fascism did not end with the withdrawal of the Brigades from Spain in September 1938. Rather it informed his view of the world up until the very end.