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Sergio Uribe
CULTURAL STUDIES AND MODERN LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
WEEK 1: SLOGANS Start date: current week
Gloria Visintini (Lead Educator)
Welcome to the course 'Cultural Studies and Modern Languages: an
Introduction'
Before we get started on our first week on slogans, please view the welcome
video below and read how to use the FutureLearn website in order to familiarise
yourself with the course format.
1.1
WELCOME FROM GLORIA VIDEO
1.2
HOW TO USE FUTURELEARN ARTICLE
Slogan 1: La libert terapeutica
SLOGAN 1: Freedom is therapeutic (1960s)
by Franco Basaglia, Italy
1.3
'FREEDOM IS THERAPEUTIC' WITH PROF JOHN FOOT VIDEO
1.4
MORE ABOUT THE SLOGAN ARTICLE
1.5
A PAPER BY FRANCO BASAGLIA ARTICLE
1.6
HOW HAS THE PERCEPTION OF MENTAL ILLNESS CHANGED? DISCUSSION
1.7
REVIEW YOUR UNDERSTANDING QUIZ
Slogan 2: No pasarn!

SLOGAN 2: They shall not pass! (1936)

by Dolores Ibrruri, Spain
1.8
'THEY SHALL NOT PASS!' WITH DR SALLY-ANN KITTS VIDEO
1.9
MORE ABOUT THE SLOGAN ARTICLE
1.10
A SPEECH BY DOLORES IBRRURI ARTICLE
1.11
IN WHICH OTHER CONTEXTS HAS THE SLOGAN 'THEY SHALL NOT PASS!' BEEN
USED? DISCUSSION
1.12
REVIEW YOUR UNDERSTANDING QUIZ
Slogan 3: Arbeiter aller Lnder, vereinigt euch!
SLOGAN 3: Workers of the world, unite! (1848)
by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Germany
1.13
'WORKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE!' WITH DR MARK ALLINSON VIDEO
1.14
MORE ABOUT THE SLOGAN ARTICLE
1.15
'THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO' BY KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS
ARTICLE
1.16
IS 'THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO' STILL RELEVANT TODAY? DISCUSSION
1.17
REVIEW YOUR UNDERSTANDING QUIZ

End-of-Week Activities
Congratulations on completing week 1
1.18
FINAL EXERCISE ON SLOGANS DISCUSSION
1.19

A paper by Franco Basaglia

Please see the pink links below for some additional key reading

In 1964 Franco Basaglia attended the First International Congress of Social

Psychiatry in London where he presented The Destruction of the Mental
Hospital as a Place of Institutionalisation. In this paper (also published in Italian
as La distruzione dellospedale psichiatrico come luogo di
istituzionalizzazione), Basaglia describes some of the ideas he implemented in
the Psychiatric Hospital in Gorizia where he had been the Director for three
years at the time of the conference.

Please note that you do not have to read the whole paper to complete this
step. You can simply focus on page 4 where Basaglia briefly lists some of the
initiatives he introduced in Gorizia.

You might spot some occasional typographical errors in the original text.
Unfortunately they could not be corrected due to the format of the text.

(After you explore the additional key reading and click the pink box mark as
complete, move on to the next step and complete the independent study
activity.)

1.6
How has the perception of mental illness changed?

Here are some questions for independent study. Explore any of these. Post your
answers in the discussion below for other learners to read. If there are some
posts that resonate with you, reply to them or like them. If you dont get a
reply, thats OK. Youll still have learnt to describe your ideas by posting, and to
engage with other views by reading other posts.

Having heard and read a little about the slogan freedom is therapeutic, now
reflect on any of these questions:

How are people with mental illnesses viewed in your community? How might
they have been viewed 10, 20, 50 years ago? How might they be viewed in the
future? (Think, for example, of disorders that are no longer seen as such, e.g.
homosexuality and new disorders such as ADHD)?
What would you say the three most important things are for a mentally ill
patient? Is freedom one of them? Is freedom a right, that can be taken away?
If so, on what grounds? If it is taken away, how do you regain that right? Do you
have to earn it?
Does it surprise you that this and movement originated in Italy? What does
it tell you about Italy?
(After you complete the activity and click the pink box mark as complete,
move on to the next step, where you can test what you have learnt so far by
taking a short quiz.)

1.9
More about the slogan

Here is some additional information on the slogan you heard about in the video
and the country it emerged from.

The slogan They shall not pass! (in Spanish, No pasarn!) became well-known
as a slogan of resistance when it was taken up by those Spanish people who
fought to defend the legitimately-elected left-wing coalition government of
Spain (Republicans) against the illegal up-risings of right-wing fascist forces
(Nationalists).

In the 1930s, Spain was still a very deeply divided country, with huge numbers
of working class people living in conditions of extreme poverty while power,
land and money remained in the hands of a small elite. People like Dolores
Ibrruri would often find themselves imprisoned simply for speaking out to
defend the rights of poor people to have a living wage and decent working and
living conditions. La Pasionaria, Dolores Ibrruri, was herself imprisoned four
times between September 1931 and February 1936, once for over eight
months, yet each time charges were dropped through lack of evidence.

When war broke out in July 1936, Republican forces were composed of many
diverse social and political groupings and the slogan No pasarn! quickly
struck a chord with people and served to unite them in the fight against the
Nationalist fascists. It was a fight that was unequal from the beginning, as the
fascist leaders of Germany and Italy, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, actively
supported the Nationalists with arms, personnel and aircraft, whereas European
elected governments, the USA and even, initially, the Communist Soviet Union,
followed a policy of non-intervention in the Spanish conflict, leaving the
Republicans with little more than the support of the untrained (but socially and
politically committed) volunteers that were to form the International Brigades.

This inequality meant that motivational speeches, such as those given by

Dolores Ibrruri during which she repeatedly used the slogan No pasarn!,
were very important in keeping up the morale of those fighting for the just
cause of democracy and freedom from oppression.

The Republicans lost the war to the Nationalists in March 1939 and fascism
triumphed in Spain with the dictatorship of Francisco Franco which was to last
for almost 40 years. Because she had been a leading figure amongst those
fighting for the Spanish Republic, Ibrruri would have been executed had she
not fled Spain into exile. Thousands of Republican supporters went into exile
after the war was lost, while many thousands more who were unable to escape
were imprisoned in terrible conditions, subjected to violence and brutality and
frequently murdered.

The slogan No pasarn! was very quickly taken up by others fighting fascism:
Professor Bill Fishman, a boy of 15 during what became known as the Battle of
Cable Street in the East End of London on 4 October 1936, recounts it being
used by those who, like him, were protesting against the march of Sir Oswald
Mosleys British Union of Fascists, or Blackshirts.

It is perhaps its simplicity, its brevity and also the poignancy of the tragic
failure of those it united in their just cause for democracy in Spain that has
turned this phrase into such a widely used and recognised slogan. A quick
search of the web reveals the extent to which it is understood and used today,
repeated in newspaper articles and blogs, on T-shirts and placards, as a byword for resistance against anti-democratic forces of oppression, against those
who continue to try to impose their beliefs through the use of violence and
hatred.

(After you read the article and click the pink box mark as complete, move on
to the next step and read some additional key reading.)

A speech by Dolores Ibrruri

Please see the pink links below for some additional key reading

Dolores Ibrruri delivered several speeches, some of them broadcast on radio

from Madrid. In the speech Danger! To arms! (known in Spanish as the speech
titled No pasarn!) broadcast on July 19, 1936, Dolores Ibrruri said They shall
not pass! a few times to instigate Spanish people to fight against fascist
powers.

To see and hear Dolores Ibrruri you can watch this short speech filmed by
Soviet filmmakers Roman Karmen and Boris Makaseev in Madrid in September
1936.

(After you explore the additional key reading and click the pink box mark as
complete, move on to the next step and complete the independent study
activity.)

Dolores Ibrruri

Danger! To Arms!

Radio Broadcast, Madrid, July 19, 19361

Date: July 19, 1936

Source: Speeches and Articles pp. 7-8, Foreign Languages Publishing House,
1938
First Published: Three Speeches by Pasionaria Madrid-Barcelona, 1936
Transciption/HTML Markup: Mike B. for MIA, April 2007
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2007). You may freely copy,
distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
commercial works. Please credit Marxists Internet Archive as your source.

Workers, anti-fascists, and labouring people!

Rise as one man! Prepare to defend the Republic, national freedom and the
democratic liberties won by the people!

Everybody now knows from the communications of the government and of the
People's Front how serious the situation is. The workers, together with the
troops which have remained loyal to the Republic, are manfully and
enthusiastically carrying on the struggle in Morocco and the Canary Islands.

Under the slogan, "Fascism shall not pass, the October butchers shall not
pass!" communists, socialists, anarchists and republicans, soldiers and all the
forces loyal to the will of the people, are routing the traitorous rebels, who have
trampled in the mud and betrayed their vaunted military honour.

The whole country is shocked by the actions of these villains. They want with
fire and sword to turn democratic Spain, the Spain of the people, into a hell of
terrorism and torture. But they shall not pass!

All Spain has risen to the struggle. In Madrid the people have come out into the
streets, lending strength to the government by their determination and fighting
spirit, so that it may utterly exterminate the reactionary fascist rebels.

Young men and women, sound the alarm! Rise and join the battle!

Women, heroic women of the people! Remember the heroism of the Asturian
women! And you, too, fight side by side with your menfolk, together with them
defend the bread and tranquility of your children whose lives are in danger!
Soldiers, sons of the people! Stand steadfastly as one man on the side of the
government, on the side of the working people, on the side of the People's
Front, on the side of your fathers, brothers and comrades! March with then to
victory! Fight for the Spain of February 16!

Working people of all political trends! The government has placed valuable
means of defence into our hands in order that we may perform our duty with
honour, in order that we may save Spain from the disgrace that would be
brought upon her by a victory of the bloodthirsty October butchers. Not one of
you must hesitate for a single moment, and tomorrow we shall be able to
celebrate our victory. Be prepared for action! Every worker, every anti-fascist,
must regard himself as a mobilized soldier!

People of Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia, and all Spaniards! Rise in
the defence of the democratic republic, rise to consolidate the victory won by
the people on February 16! The Communist Party calls upon all of you to join
the struggle. It calls upon all working people to take their place in the struggle
in order [to completely] smash the enemies of the republic and of the freedom
of the people.

Long live the People's Front!

Long live the alliance of all anti-fascists!

Long live the People's Republic!

1.11
In which other contexts has the slogan 'They shall not Pass!' been used?

Here is a research activity for independent study.

As you have heard and read, Dolores Ibrruri was not the only person using the
slogan No pasarn!. Over the years, it has become a universal slogan of
resistance against oppression of all types.

Now, find an example of another situation/context in which this slogan (or

variation thereof) has been used. It is OK to explore examples from popular
culture or fiction. Your analysis should answer questions like: how was the
slogan used? why? in which country? by whom? to what effect?

At the end of your research, please summarise your findings in a short

paragraph and post it in the discussion below for other learners to read. If
there are some posts that resonate with you, reply to them or like them. If you
dont get a reply, thats OK. Youll still have learnt to describe your ideas by
posting, and to engage with other views by reading other posts.

(After you complete the activity and click the pink box mark as complete,
move on to the next step where you can test what you have learnt so far by
taking a short quiz.)

'Workers of the world, unite!' with Dr Mark Allinson

This video will tell you about the slogan Workers of the world, unite!.

Its OK to pause the video or to watch it as many times as you like. The video
subtitles do not show the accented characters, unfortunately. To see them you
might like to refer to the transcript that is available below in the section
downloads - click English Transcript pdf.

(After you watch the video and click the pink mark as complete, move on to
the next step and read the article More about the slogan.)

More about the slogan

Here is some additional information on the slogan you heard about in the video
and the country it emerged from.

The slogan Workers of the world, unite! (in German, Proletarier aller Lnder,
vereinigt euch!) emerged from within a social and political movement in the
mid-19th century. It has been variously called the working class movement, the
socialist movement, and the communist movement. The key founding
document of the movement was the Communist Manifesto of 1848, written by
the German intellectuals Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The document finishes
with the rallying cry: Proletarier aller Lnder, vereinigt euch!

Marx and Engels believed that the key factor in determining political and
economic realities was class, not nationality. In this analysis, French workers
had far more in common with German and English workers than they did with
the French capitalist class which, Marx and Engels argued, exploited French
workers in the interests of profit. In an age of growing nationalisms, a trend
which deepened as the 19th century continued, Marx and Engels aimed to
create an international movement of workers solidarity to throw off the chains
imposed on workers by the old aristocracies and by greedy capitalists in the
industrial revolution.

Marx and Engels themselves were intellectuals rather than ordinary workers,
and worked in collaboration with other thinkers in small international
organisations - often in exile, because their own governments considered them
dangerous revolutionaries. So, for Marx and Engels the international context
was the norm. Since Germany itself was not yet a united country in 1848, they
were also calling for workers to look beyond the borders of the small
principalities which ruled them and to think of themselves as a far larger
international movement which transcended language and dynastic or other
local allegiances.

The Communist Manifesto was not immediately important in 1848, but as the
industrial revolution spread and workers flocked to the cities it was eagerly
taken up as the basis for political parties in the European countries and
beyond. Eventually it was translated into every major language. And so the
slogan travelled. These workers parties created an umbrella organisation to
coordinate their policies, the International, firmly established by 1889. In
particular, they vowed that workers in different countries would unite and so

never go to war against one another to fight for capitalists interests. However,
the International also highlighted the differences between the parties in
different countries. When war came in 1914, nationalist and patriotic interests
triumphed over the internationalist ideal of the slogan, and the International
itself collapsed.

After the First World War, the slogan and eventually Marxism itself, became the
preserve of the communist movement. After the Second World War, communist
rule spread out from Russia and the Soviet Union across eastern Europe, China
and south-east Asia, with strong communist parties in most of the rest of the
world. Every Marxist party adopted the slogan as its own, and it regularly
appeared in the masthead of party newspapers across the world. But, as
before, the slogan was increasingly an empty vessel: there were deep splits
between the communist-ruled countries and as the Soviet Union collapsed,
international workers solidarity was clearly at an end.

(After you read the article and click the pink box mark as complete, move on
to the next step and read some additional key reading.)

1.15
'The Communist Manifesto' by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Please see the pink links below for some additional key reading

The key founding document of the movement from which the slogan Workers
of the world, unite! emerged is the Communist Manifesto written in 1848 by
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Originally published in German (as Manifest der
kommunistischen Partei), the Manifesto has been recognised as one of the
worlds most influential political manuscripts.

You do not have to read the entire Communist Manifesto to complete this step.
You can simply focus on this short extract, in which Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels set out their analysis of the ills of contemporary society and their
certainty that the industrial working class the proletariat will rise up to take
power. As you will see, the text ends with the slogan Working men of all
countries, unite!

Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on
the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to oppress a
class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, at least,
continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised himself
to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of
the feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. The modern
labourer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the process of industry, sinks
deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He
becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and
wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie[1] is unfit any longer
to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon
society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to
assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help
letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed
by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its
existence is no longer compatible with society.

The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois
class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is
wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the
labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the
bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the
revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern
Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the
bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie
therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory
of the proletariat[2] are equally inevitable.

[]

The Communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against

the existing social and political order of things. In all these movements, they
bring to the front, as the leading question in each, the property question, no
matter what its degree of development at the time.

Finally, they labour everywhere for the union and agreement of the democratic
parties of all countries.

The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims. They openly declare
that their ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing
social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution.
The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to
win.

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!*

Notes

[1] By bourgeoisie [is meant] the class of modern capitalists, owners of the
means of social production and employers of wage labour. [Engels, 1888
English translation of the Communist Manifesto]

[2] By proletariat [is meant] the class of modern wage labourers who, having
no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power
in order to live. [Engels, 1888 English translation of the Communist Manifesto]

(After you explore the additional key reading and click the pink box mark as
complete, move on to the next step and complete the independent study
activity.)

1.16
Is 'The Communist Manifesto' still relevant today?

Here is a research activity for independent study.

Do you know what the Occupy Movement is? If not, why dont you investigate
it a little?

Then, read the extract from the Communist Manifesto again (from the previous
step) and discuss whether, on the basis of your investigation, the 1848
Manifesto extract feels relevant today.

Does it seem clearer? Do you consider it to be still a powerful and persuasive

text? Or is it logically flawed in any way? How applicable are the arguments
regarding inequality and capital of Marx and Engels in the modern world of the
early 21st century? And how applicable or inapplicable might they be in
your own country today?

Explore any of the questions above and post your answers in the discussion
below for other learners to read. If there are some posts that resonate with you,
reply to them or like them. If you dont get a reply, thats OK. Youll still have
learnt to describe your ideas by posting, and to engage with other views by
reading other posts.

1.18
Final exercise on slogans

Having analysed three slogans, now share a slogan with us that has inspired
you or has simply stuck in your mind.

It doesnt have to be a political slogan. It can be a commercial catchphrase

(e.g. every little helps or a diamond is forever) or a slogan taken from a book
or a film (e.g. Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what youre
gonna get, Forrest Gump, 1994).

Explain: why you chose this particular slogan, who said it, what country it is
from, to what extent it is translatable into other languages, etc.

Post your answers in the Discussion below.