Mosess "Moe" Fishman (September 28, 1915, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

– August 6, 2007) fought with the

Abraham Lincoln Brigade The Abraham Lincoln Brigade ( es, Brigada Abraham Lincoln), officially the XV International Brigade (''XV Brigada Internacional''), was a mixed brigade that fought for the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War as a part of the Internation ...

and was wounded during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

. He was general secretary of the

Veterans' Association.

Early life

He was born on September 28, 1915 in Astoria, New York. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School at the age of 16 and entered college for one semester. He had to leave college for lack of funds and went to work in his father's commercial laundry. He joined the

Young Communist League The Young Communist League (YCL) is the name used by the youth wing of various Communist parties around the world. The name YCL of XXX (name of country) originates from the precedent established by the Communist Youth International. Examples of Y ...

. He helped organize a large laundry business whose employees thereupon got a weekly pay increase from $12 to $14 in their first contract.

Spanish Civil War

Fishman volunteered in

but was rejected for lack of military experience. He then applied again as a truck driver and was accepted provided that he recruit ten other volunteers. He did but none of them actually showed up, but he was accepted anyway. Fishman arrived in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in April 1937 and began serving as a soldier in the George Washington Battalion. On July 5, 1937 during the

Battle of Brunete The Battle of Brunete (6–25 July 1937), fought west of Madrid, was a Republican attempt to alleviate the pressure exerted by the Nationalists on the capital and on the north during the Spanish Civil War. Although initially successful, the R ...

near the village of

Villanueva de la Cañada Villanueva de la Cañada is a municipality in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Located 30 km north-west from Madrid, the municipality covers an area of 34.92 km2. Geographically, it sits on a large plain, in which there are several promo ...

a sniper shot Fishman in the thigh, leaving 32 pieces of bone and metal. He spent a year in Spain recovering from his wound and was then evacuated back to New York, where he spent another two years in hospitals. He had a lifelong limp from his injury. While he recuperated back in New York he worked with humanitarian organizations giving aid to civilian refugees of the war. He got a job in the warehouse of the

Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee (JAFRC) was a nonprofit organization to provide humanitarian aid to refugees of the Spanish Civil War. History In 1941, the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee was formed by Lincoln Battalion veterans of ...

. At the same time he studied to become a licensed

radio operator A radio operator (also, formerly, wireless operator in British and Commonwealth English) is a person who is responsible for the operations of a radio system. The profession of radio operator has become largely obsolete with the automation of ra ...

. This qualified him to join the Merchant Marine when the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

After World War II

The

House Committee on Un-American Activities The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

targeted him for alleged subversive activities. He also remained active in the Veterans of the

(VALB). According to Peter Carroll's biographical sketch of Fishman, Fishman and Wolff led the defense campaign of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB) before the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB) in 1954. When defeated, they pursued an appeal that was eventually successful in the 1970s in having the Attorney General's list and the SACB's rulings declared unconstitutional. After their victory Fishman expressed the opinion that it might be time to

do something subversive and get back on it otherwise the public we are trying to reach, especially the youth constituency, will look askance at these 'revisionists' who have stopped being subversive and have a U.S. Court of Appeals that agrees we are not.

Fishman and Wolff took up the cause of a Spaniard who had worked with them in the 1940s and was then in a

Franco Franco may refer to: Name * Franco (name) * Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975 * Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître" Prefix * Franco, a prefix used when ref ...

prison. This became a campaign to support all political prisoners in Franco's Spain, one that continued until the dictator died in 1975. In 1957 Fishman and Wolff organized the first reunion of the VALB since the 1940s. Though the organization VALB is no more these reunions still continue under the auspices of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. More and more veterans returned to the VALB beginning in the 1970s, freed by retirement from fear of firings and by legal victory from fear of overt harassment by the U.S. government. Fishman's organizing activities took him all over the United States, to a great many meetings and speaking engagements, especially in High Schools and colleges. Fishman became, for many, the public face of the VALB. He was a handsome, lean, well-dressed figure who spoke well and was happy to represent the organizations. Each year at the reunion it was Fishman who read out the roll of names of the surviving veterans and announced the deaths of those who had died since the previous year.

Later life

Fishman remained active in a number of progressive organizations, including

Veterans For Peace Veterans for Peace is an organization founded in 1985. Initially made up of US military veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, and as well as peacetime veterans and ...

New York City Chapter 34, the

(JAFRC), and

United for Peace and Justice United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) is a coalition of more than 1,300
,

. During the 1980s Fishman, together with many other Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, protested U.S. aid to the Nicaraguan Contras. The VALB raised money for ambulances to be sent to the Nicaraguan government to aid those wounded by the American-funded Contras. He also participated in protesting the U.S. Navy's use of

Vieques Vieques (; ), officially Isla de Vieques, is an island and municipality of Puerto Rico, in the northeastern Caribbean, part of an island grouping sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. Vieques is part of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, ...

, an island off

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

as a bombing range until 2003. In August 2004 Fishman helped carry a Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade banner in a protest at Madison Square Garden against the

2004 Republican National Convention The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...

. In 2003 and 2006, together with other VALB members and supporters he marched in demonstrations opposing the U.S.

invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including 26 ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. He lived in the

Penn South Penn South, officially known as Mutual Redevelopment Houses and formerly Penn Station South, is a limited-equity
on the ...

co-op in the

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

section of Manhattan. Mosess Fishman died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

aged 92 on August 6, 2007, from pancreatic cancer.

References

External links

Abraham Lincoln Brigade ArchivesMosess (Moe) Fishman Papers
at Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University {{DEFAULTSORT:Fishman, Mosess 1915 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American Jews Abraham Lincoln Brigade members Deaths from pancreatic cancer Activists from New York City Stuyvesant High School alumni Deaths from cancer in New York (state) People from Chelsea, Manhattan 21st-century American Jews Members of the Communist Party USA American communists Jewish socialists Jewish anti-fascists