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New Zealand's involvement with the Spanish Civil War will be examined in a seminar hosted by the Trade Union History Project, in Wellington, NZ on the weekend of 4-5 November 2006.(Venue- Turnbull House, 11 Bowen St, Wellington, NZ). Topics covered will include the NZ Governments foreign policy regarding Spain, New Zealanders in the International Brigade and the medical services, the role of the Spanish Medical Aid Commitee, NZ trade unions'support for the Spanish workers, the Civil War and historical memory, the literary response to the War, and the approaches of the Communist Party, the Labour Party, the Catholic Church, and the Quakers. Among the speakers will be Professor Judith Keene of the University of Sydney, Australian researcher Amirah Inglis, and the principal New Zealand researchers on the Spanish Civil War; Susan Skudder and Michael O'Shaughnessy.
The seminar is supported by the History Department of Victoria University of Wellington. Asociated events include the NZ Film Archive running a concurrent festival of films on the civil war, both locally made and international; a performing arts concert of related materialon the evening of 4 November; and the launch of a reprint of NZ journalist Geoffrey Cox's classic eyewitness account The Defence of Madrid, first published for the Left Book Club in 1937.
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