"They shall not pass" (French: Ils ne passeront pas; Romanian: Pe aici nu se trece; Spanish: No pasarán) is a slogan, notably used by France in World War I, to express a determination to defend a position against an enemy. It was also used during the Spanish Civil War by the Republican faction.
Later during the First World War, the slogan was also used by Romanian Army soldiers during the Battle of Mărășești, with the Romanian translation of the phrase being "Pe aici nu se trece", translating as "One does not pass through here."
"¡No pasarán!" was used by British anti-fascists during the October 1936 Battle of Cable Street, and is still used in this context in some political circles. It was often accompanied by the words ¡Nosotros pasaremos! (we will pass) to indicate that communists rather than fascists will be the ones to seize state power.[5]
The phrase was brought to the public consciousness again following action in December 1943 by French-Canadian officer Paul Triquet of the Royal 22e Regiment; his action included his use of Nivelle's phrase "to win a key objective at Ortona, Italy, in the face of overwhelming German opposition."[6]
In the 1980s, the phrase ¡No pasarán! was a theme in the Central American crisis, particularly in the Nicaraguan Revolution.[7]Nicaragua no pasarán is also the title of a 1984 documentary by David Bradbury about the events in Nicaragua that led to the overthrow of Somoza's dictatorship.[8][9][10]