On this day, 7 August 1936, revolutionaries in Spain conducted a ceremonial "execution" of the huge Catholic Monument of the Sacred Heart near Madrid, in a location considered the exact centre of Spain. The statue was shot by a firing squad of working-class people who had risen up against a right-wing and fascist military rebellion, and launched a social revolution. The Catholic Church, which for many years had been a brutal and oppressive force in Spain, supported the fascists in their campaign of mass murder and terror against workers and peasants. Catholic officials described the fascist rebellion as a “crusade”, and supported mass executions of tens of thousands of people. Catholic officials like Cardinal Isidre Gomà even supported Franco’s mass executions of anti-fascist Catholic priests, for example in the Basque country. Learn more about the Spanish civil war and working-class anti-clericalism in our podcast episodes 39-40: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/ * If you appreciate our work, please consider supporting us on patreon: https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory