Homage to Catalonia
An fascinating account of Orwell's time in Barcelona and on the front line in the Spanish Civil war. Mainly about the futility of his stay there (he may or may not have killed a fascist), life on the front line, the organisational problems and the internecine in fighting between the various government left wind anti Franco forces. He gives us a flavour of this breaking out into open conflict in Barcelona and how the Russian backed communist forces then repressed the more radical anarchist forces. Interesting as he wrote this before the start of WWII and before the end of the Spanish conflict with Franco's victory. Ultimately fairly depressing as he would have expected us to move on a lot further towards socialist societies than we have done with the prescient statement that if Spain and others didn't defeat fascism (I guess we did that to an extent) and revolutionise society then we would descend into semi-slavery (which we have for a lot of the world). Still at least Spain and Catalonia showed what is possible with collectives set up and hierarchies demolished, at least until the "communists" went back to the old status quo. Makes me want to read his two great novels.
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