On the facade of the French Communist Party headquarters in Paris, a plaque reminds the thousands of French and foreigners “volunteers of freedom” who passed through there to enlist in the International Brigades "with the purpose of helping the Spanish Republic, victim of a coup of general Franco, sustained by Hitler and Mussolini". This was "the first act of resistance against international fascism".

This year, in October, are 80 years since the creation of the International Brigades and the PCF paid tribute at its headquarters last 2 April. After a floral offering, the National Secretary of the PCF and president of the Party of the European Left (EL), Pierre Laurent, encouraged to "continue the political work from generation to generation", recalling how hard it was to obtain the recognition of the International Brigade members, to restore the truth of their combats and to remember them in the history. In the fifties they were prohibited from exercising public functions".

He explained that the brigades had to fight to ensure the legitimate defence of a constitutional Government, something that the States were unable to do. And he also recalled the words of Dolores Ibárruri when she arrived in Paris, with a delegation from the Spanish Government, to ask the French people to help them to change the decision of the French Government that refused to sell the weapons the Spanish Government needed to defend the Republic.

The fate of the freedom of all people was going to be decided in Spain

Pierre Laurent rescued the part of the speech in which Pasionaria warned that the fate of the freedom of all people was going to be decided in Spain and the danger of dropping the Spanish people "revealing the truth of what it was going to happen in Europe very soon".

He recalled those historic words of Dolores Ibárruri: "Today are we, but if you leave that the Spanish people are crushed, it will be all over Europe the ones which will be forced to confront the aggression and war". (…) "Help us to prevent a defeat of the democracy, because the consequence of this defeat would be a new world war, that we are all interested in prevent and whose first bouts are fought already in our country".

As the homage was taking for motto The international commitment yesterday and today, the leader of the PCF connected it with the actuality: "Today we also live through a democratic and political crisis with the proliferation of the nationalistic and xenophobic forces in the crisis of the ultra-capitalism (…) and again there is a big danger for Europe: either we obtain a force that is capable of finding a new way of social progress or something extremely dangerous can happen in the whole Europe. There is too much silence and complicity, for example with the refugee crisis and with speeches very disturbing by certain parts of political leaders defending the financial interests".

Maite Mola, vice president of the EL and attached to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Spain was the voice that expressed the gratitude of the Spanish Republicans to the brigadistas and the pride of the PCE to participate in this tribute. "The international brigades have been the most important thing that has happened against fascism". And she explained that these were not only the communist, also the anarchists and socialists fought against fascism "regardless of the political differences, giving the example of how to build the internationalist struggle".

She argued that the struggle against fascism continues, and identified today´s internationalist struggle with the Palestinian, Sahrawi and Kurds, among others. Just as internationalist, she added, is to fight the TTIP, the struggle for human rights, especially with the refugee crisis, and the struggle for the emancipation of women.

If the internationalist struggle has traditionally been anti-imperialist, today has to be also a struggle against capitalism since it has globalized and have forged its own “capitalist international”. She also talked about how the Party of the European Left is trying to build a broader and different internationalism to end with unemployment, to build a better world… "We're going to build something really important to put an end to this situation".