Something old...(Above) Franco takes the salute at the 1960 parade celebrating the fascist victory in the Civil War Something blue?... (Below) Greeting Carrero Blanco in December 1973 just before the latter flew over a church....in his car tion, however Front And what does this imprisoned.
3 Encourage the self-organisation in ruins.
still alive. The advent of the Second Republic in 1931, following the downfall of General Rivera's monarchist dictatorship, put on the agenda the reforms characteristic of the bourgeois-democratic revolution.
The Spanish bourgeoisie, because of its political and economic backwardness, had not managed to carry these reforms out. In 1931, under the pressure of the popular movement spurred on by the world slump, the dictatorship disintegrated. The ruling class quickly dropped both Kivera and King Alfonso XIII (the grandfather of Prince Juan Carlos) and opted for a Repubuc. The Kepublic was supposed to incorporate the interests of all the toiling masses and carry out the much needed reforms - an improved standard of living, agrarian reform, separation of Church and State, reform of the Army, and rights for national minorities - in an orderly manner (i.e. one which didn't disturb capitalism).
But to these demands a strongly anti-capitalist element was soon added 1934 saw the heroic Asturian Commune, which rose to the slogan of "unite proletarian brothers' and marked the beginning of an offensive of the working class against capital. The Commune was brutally crushed by the Republican Army, headed by none other than General Franco.
The first Left Republican Government was followed by two years of a 'strong government. general assault against the working class. Under the pressure of mass acing class now decided to play the card of reforms through The ruling class hoped to arrest the growing tide of revolution with empty promises of democracy and socialism ruling class - the landed aristocracy, the big industrialists, and army off icers aspiring to be 'caudillos' - were not content to sit and watch the outcome of the experiment.
On 18 July 1936, they rebelled under the leadership of General Franco. outcome of the experiment.
Though demoralised by the Republic, and betrayed and disoriented by the working class parties (Communist Party, Socialist Party, and Anarchists) the response of the Spanish working class was rapid and effective. Raiding barracks and armouries to organise anti-fascist militias, they turned what was to be a swift coup d'etat into a long-drawn three year Civil War. But in 1939 the war ended, Franco became the Generalissimo of a country whose people had lost more than one million dead, 500,000 exiled, and 250,000 As in Chile after the coup, the civil war was followed by the systematic annihilation of working class organisations. These were the years of absolute immunity for the police, the paseos (walks) at dawn of men to executed, the use of bestial tortures.
CLOSER LINKS WITH IMPERIALISM The 1950s open a new era for both the bourgeoisie and the working class. The dictatorship moved from its previous isolationist outlook, realising that its future lay in industrialisation, and it was helped along this road by the end of the international boycott imposed on Spain after the Second World War. The investment for this industrialisation had to come from foreign sources - principally US imperialism - and from the capital generated through extreme exploitation of the working class. this period the only organisations the working class had to defend itself were the Catholic and fascist trade unions. By the end of the 1950s the need for independent working class organisations was evident, and from the strike committees of this period there began to emerge semi-per manent Workers' Commissions.
After a temporaty lull, the world economic crisis in the late 1960s and the manifest inability of the dictatorship to deal with it led to a regeneration of the workers' movement. In 1970 the Workers' Commissions played a leading role in building the massive struggle to save seven members of the Basque nationalist to death by the Burgos military tribunal. The dictatorship was forced to retreat and commute the death sentences the labour movement out of its traditional localism and raised its political level. The Workers' Commissions were faced with the need for a perman ent structure, co-ordinated on a national basis.
The same events also forced the ruling class to consider whether a military dictatorship was really the best way to manage its political affairs a dilemma it has yet to solve. The dictatorship is a real barrier to capitalist plans for industrial development, which would require closer links with the EEC and the development of a political structure more akin to those of the European 'democracies'. tion would be sure to spark off struggles by the workers" movement whose demands would go further than the rigid concessions the bourgeoisie is willing to grant. The apparatus of a dictatorship would be vital to smash this rising tide of revolution.
On 20 December 1973, Carrero Blanco -sor - was justly executed by militants of ETA (V) in retaliation for the murder of nine of its members. Carrero Blanco was the only figure in the dictatorship who could play the role of strong man and mediator within the regime, and his death accelerated the crisis of both the regime and the succession to Franco.
LIBERALISATION' IN RUINS Following Carrero Blanco's death, the regime appointed Arias Navarro to head a government whose specific aim was to crush the organisations and parties of the working class, thus opening the road for an unobstruc ted transition from a dictatorial form of government to a modern democracy. But apart from the fact that the general trend throughout the capitalist world is in the other direction, attempts by the Arias Navarro administration to 'liberalise' the structure of the regime were quickly responded to by the working class, which sought to take these rigid and meagre con'cessions much further than the regime had envisaged. The dictatorship then had to use its traditional violence. gency in the Basque country, the mass detentions, the execution of Salvador Puig last year and five other anti-fascists this year, along with all the other murders in broad daylight, the regime's proposed "liberalisation' lies Franco is on his deathbed as we go to press.
This poses vital tasks for revolutionaries. of these is the formation of a United Workers Front, incorporating all the parties and organisations of the working class, which can set in motion a Revolutionary General Strike to bring down the dictatorship London group, LCR-ETA (VI) This 'Black Biennium' marked the beginning of a especially strikes - the 'Black Biennium' fell, and the rul the Popular But certain sections of the During organisation ETA (V) who had been condemned This tremendous victory took On the other hand, any moves in this direcFranco's chosen succesToday, after the State of Emer But the dictatorship is The most important