Hemkommen från Spanien fortsatte Orwell återhämtningen efter skottskadan i maj. Samtidigt ökade han takten i vad gäller opinionsarbete om spanska inbördeskriget. Hans ståndpunkt var att Folkfronten och ”försvaret av demokratin” var ett lurendrejeri: att det syftade till att bakvägen införa fascism i namn av att bekämpa den, eller att fascism och borgerlig demokrati egentligen var som ”Tweedledum and Tweedledee”, och slutligen att det hela var ett sätt att lura det brittiska folket in i ett nytt krig med Tyskland. Folkfronten var en ohelig allians av liberaler och kommunister. Dess offer blev P.O.U.M. och andra som kritiserade alliansen. I Spanien betalades deras kritik med stämpeln Trotsky-fascist och därmed med fängelsevistelse eller värre. I England genom att böcker refuserades: Orwells ordinarie förläggare Victor Gollancz kunde inte tänka sig att publicera Homage to Catalonia eftersom det enligt honom skulle skada kampen mot fascismen. Kring båda dessa saker – skottskadan och åsikterna – skriver Orwell i ett brev till Rayner Heppenstall den 31 juli 1937:
My wound was not much, but it was a miracle it did not kill me. The bullet went clean through my neck but missed everything except one vocal cord, or rather the nerve governing it, which is paralysed. At first I had no voice at all, but now the other vocal cord is compensating and the damaged one may or may not recover. My voice is practically normal but I can’t shout to any extent. I also can’t sing, but people tell me this doesn’t matter.
I am rather glad to have been hit by a bullet because I think it will happen to us all in the near future and I am glad to know that it doesn’t hurt to speak of. What I saw in Spain did not make me cynical but it does make me think that the future is pretty grim. It is evident that people can be deceived by the anti-Fascist stuff exactly as they were deceived by the gallant little Belgium stuff, and when war comes they will walk straight into it. I don’t, however, agree with the pacifist attitude, as I believe you do. I still think one must fight for Socialism and against Fascism, I mean fight physically with weapons, only it is as well to discover which is which. I want to meet Holdaway and see what he thinks about the Spanish business. He is the only more or less orthodox Communist I have met whom I could respect. It will disgust me if I find he is spouting the same defence of democracy and Trotsky-Fascist stuff as the others.
George Orwell (1998), Facing Unpleasant Facts, ed. Peter Davison (The Complete Works of George Orwell, vol. XI (1937-1939); London: Secker & Warburg), s. 54.
Björn Östbring 