Lea la traducción al español aqui.
I knew little about Juan José Ibañez Esnal, the man behind the Spanish translation of Jim Higgins’ book, Fighting for Democracy, A Canadian Activist in Spain’s Civil War. I set out to learn more about his family but more importantly, I wanted to know why he did it. His reasons are somewhat surprising.
Continue readingLea la traducción al español aquí.
I’m still rubbing my eyes in disbelief — I have in hand a full Spanish translation of Fighting for Democracy by Jim Higgins. Si, el libro Luchando por la Democracia de Jimmy Higgins, ha sido traducido al translado al espagñol!
It’s all because of a man named Juan José Ibañez Esnal who lives in San Sebastián, a port city in Basque Country in northern Spain near the French border. Here’s how it all went down.
Continue readingMoving. Gripping. Inspiring. These are just some of the descriptors I’ve heard from strangers who’ve read “Fighting for Democracy.” Friends have jumped in, too; some of whom wouldn’t normally read a book like this.
Continue readingI remember it well. It was a sunny day, thirty-eight years ago today, and much hotter than usual for late September. I was sweltering in my red wool sweater and pleated plaid skirt, and standing with my siblings and a few others in Peterborough’s Little Lake cemetery where my father, Jim Higgins, was to be buried beside our mother. There was one person I didn’t know—a young woman—and it’s only in recent years that I’ve come to know who she was and why she was there.
Continue ReadingJim Higgins (1907-1982) lived the history of Canadian labour, so it’s fitting that his book, Fighting for Democracy, should launch this Labour Day Weekend, 2020.
Jim came to Canada from England in 1928 at age twenty-one. It didn’t take long for him to experience his first lesson in collective action. He’d arrived with others under the Canadian government’s wheat harvest scheme and while waiting to be assigned to wheat farms across Canada, they stood up to officials who wanted them to stop smoking. (It was a different time!)
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