COMMENT Willy Maley The Spanish Civil War, an international conflict in which the forces of fascism met with resistance from workers, artists and intellectuals across the world, was also a war in which a disproportionate number of Scots put their lives on the front line for their beliefs. Those who went to Spain did not go for money or medals, for king or queen and country, for anyone's castle. They did not go to fight for empire, to invade or occupy or bomb civilians from a great height, or place cities under siege. They fought not for oil or gold but for that most precious of commodities - freedom.

Seventy-three years ago my father, James Maley, Glasgow-born son of an Irish navvy, went to Spain, aged 28. He was one of over 500 Scots who went to Spain. Many never came back. James Maley was a member of the Communist Party and came from a strong socialist republican tradition. Hearing another communist, Dolores Ibarruri, the Basque firebrand known as La Pasionaria, on the radio inspired him. Her cry, "No Pasaran!" ("They shall not pass!"), was a call to arms for all anti-fascists.

Like many young men and women from Glasgow's east end, James Maley left his family and friends to fight fascism in a distant land. He left from George Square in a bus and six weeks later he was captured at the Battle of Jarama in February 1937.

At Jarama, many of my father's comrades were killed, wounded or executed in what was one of the costliest encounters of the war. Few escaped unscathed. James Maley was sentenced to 20 years - he "celebrated" his 29th birthday with a new haircut that he never asked for. It was very short. James was eventually released as part of a prisoner swap for fascist POWs (Italian Black Arrows captured at Guadalajara).

A volunteer for liberty in 1936, James Maley retained a lifelong commitment, passionately interested in what was happening today, never given to nostalgia.

When my father died in 2007 there was the feeling of a cord being cut, and when Steve Fullarton, the last of the Scottish International Brigaders, died last year there was a real sense of a generation passing out of history, too late to touch their sleeves as they brushed past.

Scotland has been involved in world politics in many ways. Spain is one of the most fascinating and vital examples of the Scottish commitment to internationalism.

The offer of honorary Spanish citizenship, under the Law for the Historical Memory in Spain, though too late for James Maley to take up, is timely too. I never knew my father spoke Spanish until, in 2004, Mark Fisher, interviewing him, asked him if he did, and my father said a few words picked up from his Spanish cellmates. If he were alive today I'm sure he'd say "Muchas gracias", and repeat the battlecry: "No Pasaran!" Willy Maley is professor of English at Glasgow University