of killing a policeman.
Garmendia and Otaegui, in the deatn cells.
The trial of the five FRAP members - two others were sentenced to 30 and 25 years in jail - followed a well-worn pattern of black farce. All five retracted their 'confessions when they appeared before the military tribunal, claiming that they had been extracted under torture. But the tribunal overruled all defence accusations of irregularities.
EXPLOSION
It also refused to hear any of the 28 defence witnesses, including some who claimed to have seen the shooting. The murder pistol was not presented as evidence, nor were ballistic or fingerprint reports allowed.
It appears, however, that the regime may now be manoeuvring to extricate itself from the tight corner in which it finds itself -faced on the one hand with the hard-line capitalists baying for blood, and on the other with the dangers of an explosion inside the workers movement if the death sentences are actually carried out. This impression is strengthened by the decision of the Supreme Council of Military Justice to review the trial of Garmendia and Otaegui before the case goes to final appeal.
This may well mean that the regime is hoping to murder the FRAP militants first - relying on the organisation's comparative lack of implantation in the broad workers movement to mute the response and then commute the sentences on Garmendia and Otaegui to life The Franco regime in Spain is out for blood. Three more militants - members of the Patriotic Anti-fascist Revolutionary Front (FRAP) - nave been sentenced to execution on charges They join the two Basque militants imprisonment. Such a manoeuvre must be vigorously resisted by the international workers movement. There must be not a single further victim of Franco's executioners!
Already a number of international actions have taken place in protest at the FRAP sentences. in Geneva, demonstrators immediately occupied the St Pierre Cathedral and hung a 35-ft high banner with the words 'No to death sentences' from the north tower. In London nunarcas or peopic jomeu a protest demonstration on Saturday. In Strasbourg, scuffles erupted in the cathedral after anti-Franco demonstrators unfurled a banner denouncing the Catholic Church for doing nothing to stop the trials. In Marseilles, groups of militants disrupted traffic and burned an effigy of General Franco.
ATTENTION
Such actions are important in focussing attention on the present wave of terror in Spain, But they are not enough. of the broad workers mnovement must be brought to bear on the Franco regime.
It was mass action that saved the Basque militants from death in 1970 It can have the same effect today. But if it is not strenuously mobilised, we can be sure of one thing: the FRAP militants will not be the last to die under the screws of Franco's garotte. Otaegui. has been equally sparse. Last week 19 socialists were arrested and charged with "conspiracy to trespass' for occupying the offices of Iberia Airlines in London in protest against the death sentences passed on Basque militants Garmendia and Despite the seriousness of the charge - it was the "conspiracy' catch that got Des Warren three years -and its similarity with the charge of conspiracy levelled against 21 Iranians for occupying their own embassy earlier this year, the capitalist press has seen fit not to report the case. Its coverage of recent events in Spain What is even more unacceptable is that this conspiracy of silence has been aided by the Morning Star, the JAIR LINES OF SPAIN SAUD ARABIAN AIRLINES on Spain last Saturday.
organisations are invited to send representatives.
SAIT paper of the Communist Party. The Star has printed nothing on the occupation and resulting charges at the time of writing, although it ran a front-page lead In order to build a broad-based campaign to demand the release of Spanish political prisoners it is vital to defend British militants when they take action against the hated Franco regime. This Friday, 19 September, a meeting starting at 7pm is being held at the St. Bride Institute, Bride Lane, London EC4 to discuss a detence campaign for the arrested militants. All working class Meanwhile, we print below the press statement issued by the 'Iberian 19' after they had been released on bail:
FRANCO