On 5 July 2025, hundreds gathered at the International Brigade memorial in London’s Jubilee Gardens for the annual commemoration, honoring the 2,500 volunteers from Britain and Ireland who fought fascism in Spain from 1936–39. The event, set beside the iconic sculpture by Ian Walters, brought together speakers, music, and wreath-laying to remember the Brigaders’ courage and legacy.
Speakers included Gawain Little, General Secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions, and Meirian Jump, Director of the Marx Memorial Library in London – and a granddaughter of one the British volunteers.
Jim Jump, Chair of International Brigades Memorial Trust, said the story of the men and women who travelled to Spain to fight ‘is one of anti-fascism, of international solidarity and of men and women whose blood, in the words of Spanish poet Rafael Alberti, could sing across frontiers.’
Wreaths were laid by organisations and individuals including the Spanish embassy, the Basque Children’s Association UK, IB Cymru, Oxford International Brigade Memorial Committee, train drivers’ union Aslef, Marx Memorial Library, Communist Party of Britain and the London branch of the PCE Spanish Communist Party. Music was provided by Maddy Carty. The gathering closed with a collective singing of The Internationale, reaffirming the enduring spirit of anti-fascism and international solidarity.
For more information on the International Brigade Memorial Trust and the memorial sculpture in Jubilee Gardens click here.
