"A spanner in the works..." International action of US unionism in Spain, 1945-1975

La derrota republicana en la guerra civil española generó una especie de «sentimiento de culpabilidad» en buena parte de la izquierda europea y estadounidense. Durante la II Guerra Mundial el interés del sindicalismo internacional por España no desapareció, pero quedó en un segundo plano. Tras la derrota de Hitler, el sindicalismo estadounidense impulsó numerosas campañas de ayuda a quienes luchaban contra la dictadura franquista, considerada vestigio del fascismo derrotado. Pero tal solidaridad trasatlántica se produjo en un contexto desfavorable. La politizada atmósfera de la guerra fría cercenó la acción exterior de los sindicatos estadounidenses. Algo que no siempre comprendieron sus homólogos europeos. Pese a ello, aquella ayuda del otro lado del Atlántico contribuyó a la supervivencia del sindicalismo antifranquista; fue importante para denunciar la represión franquista en distintos foros internacionales. En las páginas siguientes intento explicar los pormenores de lo sucedido en el período 1945-1975, contrastando documentación inédita de archivos estadounidenses con fuentes españolas.The Republican defeat in the Spanish Civil War generated a kind of “feeling of remorse” across much of the European and American left. During World War II, international unionism did not lose interest in Spain, but it was relegated in importance. After the defeat of Hitler, American unionism promoted numerous aid campaigns to support those who fought against the Franco dictatorship, which was considered a remaining vestige after the defeat of fascism elsewhere. But this Transatlantic solidarity took place in an adverse context. The politicized atmosphere of the Cold War hindered the foreign action of US unions, a circumstance which their European counterparts sometimes failed to understand. Nevertheless, support from the other side of the Atlantic contributed to the survival of anti-Franco trade unionism and was important in denouncing the repression exercised by the Franco regime in a number of international forums. The following pages seek to clarify what happened during the 1945-1975 period, comparing unpublished documentation from US archives with Spanish sources.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España). Proyecto HAR2013-44849-P (I+D+i)peerReviewe

Interlocutions with passive revolution

© The Author(s) 2018. This article critically engages with debates on uneven and combined development and particularly the lack of attention given in this literature to accounts of spatial diversity in capitalism’s outward expansion as well as issues of Eurocentrism. Through interlocutions with Antonio Gramsci on his theorising of state formation and capitalist modernity and the notion of passive revolution, we draw out the internal relationship between the structuring condition of uneven and combined development and the class agency of passive revolution. Interlocuting with passive revolution places Antonio Gramsci firmly within a stream of classic social theory shaping considerations of capitalist modernity. As a result, by building on cognate theorising elsewhere, passive revolution can then be established as a lateral field of causality that necessarily grasps spatio-temporal dynamics linked to both state and subaltern class practices of transformation in social property relations, situated within the structuring conditions of uneven and combined development

The impact of immediate breast reconstruction on the time to delivery of adjuvant therapy: the iBRA-2 study

Background: Immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) is routinely offered to improve quality-of-life for women requiring mastectomy, but there are concerns that more complex surgery may delay adjuvant oncological treatments and compromise long-term outcomes. High-quality evidence is lacking. The iBRA-2 study aimed to investigate the impact of IBR on time to adjuvant therapy. Methods: Consecutive women undergoing mastectomy ± IBR for breast cancer July–December, 2016 were included. Patient demographics, operative, oncological and complication data were collected. Time from last definitive cancer surgery to first adjuvant treatment for patients undergoing mastectomy ± IBR were compared and risk factors associated with delays explored. Results: A total of 2540 patients were recruited from 76 centres; 1008 (39.7%) underwent IBR (implant-only [n = 675, 26.6%]; pedicled flaps [n = 105,4.1%] and free-flaps [n = 228, 8.9%]). Complications requiring re-admission or re-operation were significantly more common in patients undergoing IBR than those receiving mastectomy. Adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy was required by 1235 (48.6%) patients. No clinically significant differences were seen in time to adjuvant therapy between patient groups but major complications irrespective of surgery received were significantly associated with treatment delays. Conclusions: IBR does not result in clinically significant delays to adjuvant therapy, but post-operative complications are associated with treatment delays. Strategies to minimise complications, including careful patient selection, are required to improve outcomes for patients