Second International Conference of Writers for the Defence of Culture

The First International Congress of Writers for the Defence of Culture took place in the Mutuality Palace ion Paris between June 21 and 25, 1935. One of the resolutions passed there was to create an International Association of Writers for the Defence of Culture (AIDC), and a Spanish branch was created soon afterwards. The AIDC’s international secretariat met in London in June 1936. Those present included André Malraux, George Sadoul, Ernst Toller, Derek Kahn and Ilya Ehrenburg, as well as two Spaniards: Ricardo Baeza and José Bergamín. They agreed that a second congress should be held in Madrid, but the transfer of the Republican government to Valencia in November 1936 meant that it was held there with Prime Minister Juan Negrín as presiding.  

More than one hundred intellectuals from across Europe and beyond took part, among them Rafael Alberti, Corpus Barga, María Teresa León, Antonio Machado and Ramón J. Sender from Spain, André Malraux and Julien Benda from France, Bertolt Brecht from Germany, Octavio Paz from Mexico, Pablo Neruda from Chile, Alejo Carpentier and Nicolás Guillén from Cuba, and Malcolm Cowley from the United States.  

The defence of culture from fascism was a theme that permeated all the sessions, and was a mark of identity against destruction and barbarism in a moment that was producing such horrific events as the murder of Federico García Lorca or the bombing of Guernica. 

The Congress was widely publicized in Spain. Hora de España devoted an entire issue to it that included the collective statement of the Spanish writers. The magazine Nueva Cultura did the same, in a long report with an introduction by Juan Renau, The Intelligence of the World is with Spain (La inteligencia del mundo con España). The congress opened with a production of García Lorca’s play Mariana Pineda, which is advertised in the newspaper clipping shown here.  It was far from a coincidence that the Italian air force provided its own special welcome to that “intelligence” by bombing Valencia early that morning.