SPAIN bourgeois maneuvers and the mass movement by JUAN FERNANDEZ The "law on political reform" adopted by the Spanish Cortes on November 18, 1976, is the provisional outcome of all the efforts to "reform Francoism" undertaken since the death of the dictator. To the applause of Spanish and international finance capital and with the benevolent support of the entire European bourgeoisie, the Suárez government will submit a project for new political institutions in the Spanish state to the vote of a referendum, scheduled for December 15. The new political institutions called for include the following points:
*A bicameral system in which the Senate will have the same powers as the Chamber of Deputies, although the Senate will contain some non-elected members appointed by the king;
* Maintenance of institutions of the dictatorship such as the Council of the Realm;
*An unclear electoral system, but one which will certainly exclude proportional representation and will be based on some variety of majority vote by province, probably with a stipulation of the minimum number of votes needed nationally for representation in parliament;
* Maintenance of the illegal status of the Communist party, the organizations of the for left, the Basque nafionalist organizations, and the major trade-union formations which represent the majority of the presently organized workers;
* Monopoly of access to the mass media for the postFrancoist political organizations, with even the "respectable" opposition still banned from radio and television;
* Maintenance of the entire repressive apparatus of Francoism, continued detention in prison of hundreds of polifical prisoners, and complete immunity for the fascist para-police gangs like the "Guerrillas of Christ the King, "which continue to carry out terrorist attacks against the militants of the opposition movements, continue to attack bookstores in which leftist literature is sold, and continue to threaten and intimidate the families of political prisoners. Given the gravity of the economic situation and the rise of workers and people's struggles, the historic project for surmounting the dangers that threaten the survival of Spanish capitalism in the era of the death agony of the institutions of the dictatorship remains that of a "social pact" which requires that the reformist workers parties, the CP and the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers party) be associated with the government (which requires that they be legal) and also requires that the leaderships of the trade-union organizations recognized by the workers be integrated into this "social poct.
What, then, is the point of a "political reform" that falls well short of what is needed to set the political project of the Spanish bourgeoisie on the rails? It represents a political and social maneuver aimed at shifting the relationship of forces in favor of big capital in order that the fundamental political project may gain greater chance of success. In fact, the bourgeoisie fears that in the wake of the rise of struggles, the radicalization and politicization of an increasingly broad workers vanguard, and the modification of the relationship of forces within the working class and the workers movement, the "social pact" could be disregarded by a significant portion of the workers. The threat of the reformist leaderships being outflanked increases as a function of the scope and dynamism of the mass movement. For the bourgeoisie the point of the "political reform" is to try to Timit this scope and break this dynamism before the liquidation of the institutions of the dictatorship is completed. To this end it is necessary to:
*Divide the "democratic" opposition and integrate its moderate wing (the Christian Democrats and the right: wing of the Social Democracy) into the operation of the Suárez government;
*Seok to isolate the Communist party (and the far left), or at least to use the blackmail of isolation with the aim of accentuating the "moderation" of the reformist leaderships with a view toward fragmenting and demobilizing struggles;
* Accentuate the repression against the far-left organizations and the entire advanced wing of the mass movement;
*Try to use the economic crisis to strike at the unity of the proletarian front, particularly through massive layoffs, factory closures, and lockouts, and by using threats and fear of unemployment as a means by which to blackmail the combative layers of the working class;
*Accentuate the trends toward trade-union division and fragmentation and postpone as long as possible the legalization of the Workers Commissions as trade-union organizations. This is intended to permit the Social Democratic and Christian Democratic bureaucrats to catch up to the CP in the organization of a brood mass base in the factories;
*"Legitimize" the post-Francoist bourgeois political formations by using the referendum to obtain a plebescite vote among the petty bourgeoisie and the less politicized layen of the toiling masses. This demagogic maneuver consists of identifying any rejection of the "political reform" with maintenance of the status quo and of thus obtaining a vote in favor of the "reform" from all those who are opposed to the dictatorship but whose political opinions are not sufficiently firm or whose links with the great organizations of the workers movement are not sufficiently consolidated;
*Give the bourgeoisie time to organize structured political formations and select a representative political personnel, which is manifestly not the case with politicians left over from the Franco era, such as Fraga, minister of the interior in the previous government. In the final analysis, all this means one thing: gain time. The "reform" is only provisional, like everything
On Saturday, November 20, the Guardia Civil, machine guns and pistols in hand, broke into the
Aranzazu Sanctuary in the Basque province of Guipüzcoa. They hod come to arrest the participants in an assembly of the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria/Euzkadi ta Askatasuno-VI (LCR/ETA-VI -
Revolutionary Communist League/Basque Nation and Freedom-Sixth Assembly), a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International. The assembly was about to conclude when the Guardia
All of the 154 people present were arrested; among them were fraternal delegates of other workers organizations of the Basque country as well as several national leaders of the LCR. Some of them were beaten and even tortured. The Spanish police were attempting to deal a heavy blow against the revolutionary Marxists of Euzkadi and the entire Spanish state. But the affair turned against the regime. If ended in a manner totally unforeseen by the tinpot Gestapo, which has proven incopable of understanding the change in the relationship of forces that has occurred in Spain.
News of the arrest of our comrades spread like wildfire throughout the provinces of Euzkodi. The response of the toiling masses was immediate. Five metal foctories in Pamplona, the capital of the province of Navarra, closed down, the workers going on strike to protest the arrests. In
Vizcaya the colleges of Deuste and Gerona, as well as the college of economic sciences, went on strike. In the big industrial center of Bilbao, on both banks of the Nervion, all the neighborhood associations convened a street demonstration, In Alava general assemblies were held in the major factories, which also happened in the province of Guipizco.
Within twenty-four hours, united slogans signed by the Communist party, the Socialist party, the KAS (nationalist), and all the organizations of the for left demanding the immediate release of our comrades appeared on the walls of cities and villages throughout Guipúzcoa. After a united meeting held Morday, November 22, all the workers organizations and revolutionary nationalist forces of the four provinces of Euzkodi concluded an agreement to wage an intensive common campaign around the following four points: release of the militants arrested af
Aranzazu; immediate and total amnesty for political prisoners; freedom of organization and
SPAIN else that has been done in the Spanish state since the death of the dictator. But time is important, especially in a country in which unemployment is on the rise (there are more than half a million actually unemployed, although official statistics speak of 300,000 jobless), in which the rate of profit is collapsing, in which the inflation rate is more than 20% a year, and in which the flight of capital amounts to something like 20-25% of capital in circulation, namely 100,000-125, 000 million pesetas (more than S2, 000 million) . Will this maneuver be successful in the short term? The fact that the "democratic opposition, " Including the CP, has put its finger into the machinery of the "negotiated break" with the upholders of the Francoist monarchy incontestably facilitates the game being played by the Suárez government. The first response of the CP and the PSOE was to say "No" to the project of politIcal reform and to call for "active abstention" on the referendum. But the Christian Democrats are already negotiating with the government, and the Social Democrats of the Popular Socialist party of Tierne Galván are hesitating. The threat of a two-stage capitulation is real. If Suárez were to make a few minor concessions - for example, keep the CP illegal but allow CP candidates to run for election on "front" lists - the reformists might accept de facto the fake elections of next year, withouf the workers movement first gaining legal status,
Civil entered the monastery. assembly, boycott of the constitutional referendum of December 15.
without the real reestablishment of democratic rights, without a real dismantling of the institutions and repressive apparatus of the dictatorship, without the release of political prisoners, and without institutions genuinely founded on universal suffrage. More than ever, the response to this question remains linked to the trends and dynamic of mass struggles, in a twofold sense. Will the hesitant attitude and vacillations of the "democratic opposition" be able to disorient, frogment, and thereby curb the mass movement? Can the continuation of the impetuous rise of this moss movement compel the Francoist monarchy to retreat on questions of repression? Will it be able to "break" the maneuver of November 18 and compel the "respectable opposition" to harden its opposition and engage in a resolute battle to actively boycott the referendum, which would incontestably contribute to unifying and politicizing the mass movement itself? Lessons of November 12 In this regard, the analysis of the general strike of November 12, 1976, enables some data to be accumulated which allows the general trends of the mass movement to be judged. November 12 was undoubtedly the greatest strike movement in the Spanish state since the establishment of the