Dear Comrades,

For some inexplicable reason, my preface to Hugo Oehler's 'Barricades in Barcelona, the report of the events leading up to the 'Barricades', and the actual report followed by the addendum of the CNT to Souchy's pamphlet which were all intended by me to be published as a sequence, have been separated and distributed through the pages of the journal as though having no connection, thus diminishing their effect.

Six items and four and a half pages separate Negrete's report of the events leading up to May the Second, page 34, from where they should have been, before Oehler's 'Barricades', page 23.

Eight items and six pages separate the Manifesto of the National Committee of the CNT page 36, from where it should have been at the end of Oehler's 'Barricades', page 29. I had specifically referred to this Addendum as being reproduced below and it was intended to serve as evidence of CP connections with right wing parties and also the attitude of CNT leaders to the Republican Government.

The notes say Russell Blackwell was twice released from the Spanish police through the intervention of the US authorities. This though 'technically' correct is not entirely true. It was easier for a US or British citizen to obtain release from Spanish jails at that time. If you were a left winger from Fascist or Stalinist territory you had little chance of escape. (Blackwell pointed this out at his first meeting after arriving back in New York). Nevertheless it was necessary to form a Defence Committee and conduct a wide campaign in order to get Blackwell out of the Spanish jail. It was precisely this ability of the left in the USA and Britain to campaign on behalf of the victims that made the Republican Government more responsive to protest.

The Negrete-Blackwell Defence Committee, set up in New York, was composed of members of the Revolutionary Workers League, Socialist Workers Party (Trotskyists), Independent Labor League (Lovestoneites), Social Democratic Federation, Challenge (Anarchists), Canadian League for a Revolutionary Workers Party, and other groups and individuals. Meetings and picketing of the State Department and the Spanish Embassy were carried out. A report states:

'....Olay, representative of the CNT in the US, received a letter ... from Secretary Inigo of the Juridico Social section of the CNT in Barcelona, saying they have made an investigation into Blackwell's case at Olay's request and have been informed by the Military Investigation Service (controlled by the Stalinists) that Blackwell is a Trotskyist, author of Trotskyist books, former secretary to Trotsky and a spy sent to Spain by the American authorities, and they are suspending further efforts on Blackwell's behalf pending assurances that these things are not so. Olay and Carlo Tresca promptly cabled the CNT denying the charges.'

Trotsky wrote to the American and Spanish Consulates in Mexico City, denying that Blackwell was connected with him and added: 'I do not know whether the other accusations against Mr Blackwell are of the same kind'.

Norman Thomas, John Dewey, John Dos Passos and other wired the US State Department urging efforts to secure Blackwell's safe release.

In the light of all this to say that the US authorities secured Blackwell's release is hardly a fair summary, and must appear somewhat churlish to those of that time, who exerted themselves on his behalf.

Yours fraternally

Ernest Rogers