Activist

Abstract

This chapter considers how the Spanish Civil War radicalized Seldes and how as a member of the Popular Front he came to adopt a non-critical attitude to communism because he believed the Soviets were the only ones defending the fledgling Spanish democratic Republic. Seldes documented the brutality and excesses of the conflict and he came to see the war as not just a struggle between the democratic Republicans and fascist Nationalists but an assault on civilization and democracy. He was so deeply moved by the thousands of young people who flooded the country to fight for what they thought was democratic freedom that his faith in humankind was restored. The ability of the public to see the truth even when fed lies by the daily press was to provide the impetus for his work with Ken magazine and his social activism.