Back on line after a fox chewed through a coax cable here at work.  Too bad it wasn't a 4160 V line, the little bastard!

One of the Reddish foreign units fighting alongside the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War was American, named the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.  Lincoln would seem to be a hero of the Nationalists instead.

Why would a bunch of Red volunteers look at Lincoln for inspiration?  It seems to me that other than being idealogically correct on slavery he would seem to be a Red Antichrist.

Well, not really much difference between him and Uncle Adolf...

Scott

File that under "the end justifies the means."  Communists did not look to Lincoln for inspiration (Lenin & Stalin for that) but for respectability.  To much of the world, Abraham Lincoln evokes the image of a great statesman who fought slavery and mended the Union.  If, by adopting his name, Communism could cloak murder and mayhem and appear respectable in the eyes of the world, do it.  It's the same bait-and-switch tactic as Sarah Brady saying "handgun safety" while meaning "confiscate all guns."

Like "Log Cabin" Republicans

The Republicans in the 19th Century were much more pro-workers rights than the Democrats of the time.
Some political theorists believe Lincoln would have been a Red if the Civil War hadn't started.

I believe there was also a George Washington brigade. One would expect that 'ol George would be even less a Red hero.

As for Lincoln, he was definitly a central government dude, which puts him on the same page as the Reds, at least in a general sense.

Also, there was a fairly wide range of parties that were on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.  The communists ended up being the strongest, and gaining control on the republican side, but that was not always certain.  There is some merit to the idea that if the Republican side had managed to agree for longer, they could have beat Franco.  Although the question of if the internation community would ahve allowed this to happen remains open.  The communist party was also likely taking its orders from Moscow, and it was not in the best intrests of Moscow to see Spain become an independent, truly communist country.

My opinions, based on limited knowledge of the situation, and mostly on reading "Homage to Catalonia" by Orwell.  This is an excellent and very readable personal account of the war and politics on the Republican side.

do