A Passion Flower's Lament

The Tenementals are a group of artists, academics and musicians who have been recording a series of songs which explore the radical history of Glasgow. ‘A Passion Flower's Lament’, which appears on their debut album, Glasgow: A History (Volume I of VI), is written from the perspective of the statue of Dolores Ibárruri (La Pasionaria), which commemorates the men from Glasgow who died fighting with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The statue sits on the banks of the river Clyde and is an iconic part of Glasgow’s cityscape and a common gathering point for activists and radical groups. 

Ibárruri is credited with coining the classic anti-fascist phrase "No pasarán!" (They Shall Not Pass) during the Siege of Madrid when right-wing military forces were attempting to overthrow the democratically elected leftist Republican government. 

The song’s opening words, sung by Jen Cunnion, describe the statue:

I stand here eternal, bronze arms outstretched

As reaching for green leaves, red brick, red heavens

The statue converses with those who come to celebrate her past as she reflects on the thornier side of the conflict. As she puts it in the chorus:

For what should you know?

And what should you care?

Of a past far more complex

As forward we stare?

Once more the jackboot

Seeks to recruit

Pass they shall not

Pass they shall not

The statue rightly celebrates the courageous men who travelled to Spain to fight fascism with the International Brigades. The city is right to hold a special place in its heart for the memory of these men. 

The Tenementals, though, are not interested in black-and-white histories; we’re interested in the complexity of the past. 

It is not well known, but some members of the International Brigades, dissidents and deserters, were held in a make-shift prison in the town of Castelldefels, near Barcelona. There were also wider conflicts on the Republican left. 

The song asks us to consider what we might do with these troubling aspects of the Spanish Civil War at a time when fascism once more rears its head. 

We dedicated the song to Bob Smillie, a University of Glasgow student who left behind his studies in chemistry and travelled to Spain. He fought alongside George Orwell on the Aragon Front, and was subsequently involved in an internal conflict which led to him being imprisoned by his own forces and perhaps even to his death. 

But we are not focused on this period as one of defeat. We focus on a moment of revolutionary possibility when, as Orwell put it, ‘the working class was in the saddle.’ If it happened once, it can happen again.

David Archibald