PAIN THE REFERENDUM THAT NEVER WAS by M. SAURA FISCEN
(PSOE - Spanish Socialist Workers party, the Social Democracy) affirmed only a few days ago that he would refuse all such contact so long as four leaders of the Coordinación Democrática (Democratic Coordination) remained in prison; but just today Enrique Múgica, number two man in the PSOE and top representative of its right wing, told the press that if a proposal for an audience with the king was forthcoming, "the PSOE, for its part, would not shun this contact, just as it would not shun any other contact. " It may be said that this political operation does not suffer from lack of intelligence. In an editorial in the May 5 Mundo Obrero significantly entitled "Juan Carlos's Responsibility, * Santiago Carrillo, head of the Communist party, summed up his sentiments in an elegant Formula: "Either the king makes a courageous gesture and breaks with the bunker (the hard-line Francoists) from the inside, or else he continues to be part of it, and in that case he runs the risk of suffering the same fate." This "blank check" to the king, translated into formally threatening language, is the best possible summary of the "negotiated break" (ruptura pactada). It is said that the king asked Gil Robles whether the Communist party would be inclined to accept a "negofiated" government in which the CP itself would not be present. If is also said that Gil Robles replied that the CP would accept it but that he himself would not, It is possible that this conversation is fictitious, but it would not be extraordinary if it were genuine. The bourgeoisie's need to "anticipate" the action of the mass movement; the political capitulation of the "democratic" bourgeoisie and the reformist workers porties; the explosive character of the situation in the country when every day brings the threat of new "Vitorios" (Montejurra, Aranjuez*); the growing tension within the Francoist apparatus, which has undoubtedly been aggravated by the government's ban on the "homage to Franco" demonstration projected by the bunker; the paralysis of the government, the final product of which is precisely the referendum; and finally, above all, the growing activity of the masses as demonstrated by the May 1 actions, by the recent demonstration in Bilbao for amnesty, by the metalworkers struggles in Madrid and Barcelona, by the chemical workers struggle in Madrid, by the struggles arising in the telephone system, health, and education, and by the huge turnout for cultural events laden with political content, such as the 60,000 people at the recital of the Iberian people in Madrid, the 15,000 at the Lluis Llach recital in Barcelona -all these things add up to an intolerable situation. The bourgeoisie cannot and does not hope to maintain the entire workers movement in conditions of illegality. Its only hope is to tightly control the so-called transition. And Santiago Carrillo still speaks of "courageous gestures"! The courage is in the factories, the workshops, and the streets, The political projects of the bourgeoisie and its reformist allies are acts of fear. *An assembly of 7,000 members of neighborhood associations was repressed by the rifle butts of the Guardia Civil; 200 were hurt, about 40 arrested, 18
What is requested of the king is that he assume this fear, that he act like those who fear the mass movement more than they fear the bunker. Those are the ones who will guarantee the "transition." Crystal democracy And they are certainly inclined to guarantee it. In a colloquium on "the economic alternatives of the opposition" José Sandoval, spokesman of the Communist party, said things like this: "For the Communist party it is necessary to aid, very tactfully, in the stage of transition that would be opened with a provisional government during a constituent period, During this period the CP rejects any sort of nationalization, for the important thing is the consolidation of democracy and the averting of the imbalances of a premature structural change. During the initial stages of the consolidation of democracy we must not reach objectives that are unacceptable to the democratic right. Without a political pact there con be no talk of a social pact. In an atmosphere of social pact, which this government is not helping to create, there would be a vay out of the crisis. Without the participation of big capital it would be very difficult to guarantee the climate of transition." At least it cannot be said that the CP is concealing its objectives. And it is not only the CP that wants to work sensitively, in a "non-extremist" manner, toward "tronsition." (In the current language of the opposition, this word is used in place of rupture pactada, which some consider an excessively radical formula.) Thus, the secretary general of the Movimiento Comunisto (MC - Communist Movement) - a Maoist group which in the course of its latest lurch to the right has initiated a maneuver aimed at getting closer to the Federation of Socialist Parties, a "modernist" Socialist current one of whose components, the Socialist Convergence of Catalonia, has some political influence - declared several weeks ago: "The way things are going, and as long as there is no pressure "from below' forcing it, I doubt very much that there will be a fiscal reform of any coherence and daring during the transitonal period, which will last several months, and 1 think it will be difficult, unless we achieve a very large increase in resources, for the state's economic policy to be substantially different from the present one. This is the Impression 1 get when I look at the political forces of the Junta and the Convergencia" (the two bodies that have now fused into the Coordinación Democrática). And finally, the Partido del Trabajo (Labor party) declared: "In an initial phase nationalizations can represent an erroneous criterion. It would first be necessary to know the nature of the state in order thus to delimit the political implications of nationalization. As long as the regime does not correspond to a democratic will, these nationalizations must be postponed. In face of the transition, there is no sense in talking about nafionalizations. The "pessimism" with which these organizations approach the "transition" in the realm of economics has a coher-
Comrade Mandel S