decomposition of the Spain dictatorship recent developments of the situation in Spain. QUESTION. What have been the outstanding features of the mass movement during the past several weeks? ANSWER. The major events of the workers struggle have been the strike of construction workers in Barcelona in mid-April, which was followed by a construction strike in Valladolid, which in turn served to trigger off the strike of the workers of the FASARenault auto factory in the same city. That strike represented the highest point in the development of the workers struggle in the Spanish state since the Pamplona general strike. On the eve of May Day there were calls for general strikes in Grenada and Córdoba. These were not crowned with success, but they nonetheless led to significant demonstrations. Later I will come back to what happened on May 1 in other centers of the Spanish state. On May 7 there was a two-hour work stoppage in the six largest metal factories of Madrid; 30, 000 workers were involved. The Madrid metalworkers
•.,an inter view with a leader of the LCR ETA-VI threatened to launch a general strike if their demands were not met during the negotiations now going on over the renewal of collective labor contracts. In the past period the most important features of the mass struggle outside the working class properly so called have been generalized movements of the population against the reactionary municipal administrations in Bilbao (demanding the resignation of the mayor) and Barcelona. Thirty thousand signatures were collected against the municipal councillors of the latter city, who are opposed to the municipality's using the Catalan language. The student movement has experienced a new upsurge in conjunction with a mobilization of teachers in several cities. For example, an assembly of 1,000 teachers in Madrid projected a general strike of all teachers in order to force the government to reopen the University of Valladolid, which has been closed since the beginning of 1975. Since the beginning of January 1975, according to official statistics, two-thirds of all course hours have been lost in all
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Spanish universities as a result of various sorts of agitation. We should also mention the movement of the actors of the Madrid theater, which has again moved to the fore and has led to some confrontations with the police.
QUESTION. Why do you characterize the Valladolid strike as a high point in the struggle of the working class in the Spanish state?
ANSWER. The April strikes in Vallodolid were characterized by two remarkable features:
1. The strike of the construction workers was launched on April 16 around the following demands: 1,000 peseta weekly wage increases for all (about US$2.00);
450 peseta daily bonuses for work outside the workers' cities of residence; rehiring of workers arrested or fired during the previous struggles. On April 17 it became a general strike. During this strike, general assemblies were held at all the work sites; in these assemblies delegates were elected to a central assembly. Out of this central assembly, in which members of the workers commissions and of various organizations of the workers movement also parficipated, there emerged an elected "committee of ten." This Functioned as a strike committee for the whole city under the control of the central assembly of delegates, which met on numerous occasions. 2. The strike of the workers of the FASA-Renault factory, the largest single factory in the territory of the Spanish state, began on April 21 as a protest against a plan by the employers to extend the work-day by ten minutes as well as to demand the rehiring of the workers fired during the strikes of 1974. Meeting in general assembly, the workers elected "representative commissions" to direct the struggle and negotiate with the employers. The employers responded with a lockout. By April 23, some 12,000 autoworkers were on strike. The workers decided to force open the gates of the closed factory and to occupy it. Two workshops were occupied for thirtynine hours, the longest factory occupation since the beginning of the Francoist dictatorship in Spain. QUESTION. Was a general strike possible in Valladolid? ANSWER. Incontestably. The workers had prepared for it, and they hoped enthusiastically for a general strike in Valladolid on May Day. If this hope was frustrated, it was essentially for two reasons: First of all, the Communist party, which had hegemony in the assembly of delegates in construction, shamefully betrayed the desire for unity felt by the working class of Valladolid, calling for a return to 14 work just at the moment when the FASA-Renault strike was reaching its highest point. The mass desire for unity was particularly expressed by a common call by the construction workers and the FASA-
Renault strikers to the entire population of Valladolid asking the people to support the strike with a generalized boycott of the movies, theaters, buses, and newsstands of the city and with a general withdrawal of deposits from banks and savings accounts.
It was also expressed by many demonstrations of solidarity with the FASA-Renault strikers - for example, enormous donations of food were raised for the workers who were occupying the factory.
Second, the nucleus of combative workers that was playing a preponderant role in the FASA-Renault strike (grouped around the Plataformas Anticapitalistas) reacted with a sectarian attitude to the opportunism of the CP: They rejected any unity in action with the workers commissions led by the CP, for instance. Incontestably, this sectarian attitude facilitated the betrayal by the CP, which otherwise would have had to pay a very heavy price for its rejection of a united general strike on May DayQUESTION. What has been the regime's reaction to this continuous rise of mass struggle? ANSWER. The regime is continuing its efforts to make it look as though a change is in the wind, holding out the sham of "reforms. " For example, it has just "legalized" strikes, but under such conditions that this "concession" is in reality aggravating the repression and the sanctions against strikes, which have become very common during the past period. (The conditions are that 60 percent of the workers must vote for the strike in a secret ballot, that ten days' advance notice has to be given before the strike, that no compensation, even unemployment compensation, can be paid during the strike, and 50 on.) Likewise, the possibility of a rapid transfer of power to Prince Juan Carlos is being raised. Some people are even asserting that this may happen in coming weeks. Ex-minister Fraga, a "liberal" Francoist, has spread around the rumor that when the chief of state is changed there will be a "national regroupment" around Arias, former chief of staff Diaz, and Fraga himself. At the same time, a general amnesty for palitical offenses would supposedly be proclaimed; three "political associations" - those of the liberals" around Fraga, the Christian Democrats around Ruiz Jimenez, and the Social Democrats of PSOE (Partido Socialista Obero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers party) - would be legalized.
All these rumors have to be considered with great caution, although the Spanish bourgeoisie, with its back to the wall, is obviously seeking to go beyond the caricature of the absolutely inept and inoperative "reforms" of the Arias government. But even concessions of the type suggested by Fraga would in no way be able to halt the emergence of a prerevolutionary situation. They could only precipitate it. QUESTION. Under these conditions, what is the situation with repression? ANSWER. The repression is continuing full steam and is even intensifying. It continues to be much more real than the famous "reforms. " For example, many workers are still fired during each strike (seventy during the FASA-Renault strike). Heavy fines are imposed on protesters: two vicars in Grenada who went on hunger strike to protest unemployment were sentenced to pay fines of half a million pesetas each (about US$1, 000). During the past three or four months a whole series of cultural events, conferences, presentations of books, and so on have been banned everywhere, except in Barcelona. The headquarters of even as harmless an organization as the Friends of UNESCO, which has been functioning for years, has been closed. Opposition liberal weeklies are continually seized, such as the weeklies Posible and Cambio 16, whose circulation had risen from 20,000 to 250,000 because of its oppositional (even though very cautious) attitude. QUESTION. The state of emergency declared in the Basque country was undoubtedly the sharpest expression of this policy of repression? ANSWER. Yes. It was proclaimed on April 25 in face of the intensity of the offensive of the ETA-V, about which the dictatorship was probably growing concerned. But the fundamental targets of the state of emergency were not only the militants of the ETA-V, but those of the whole of the mass movement in the Basque country, which has been going through an upsurge since the general strike of December 11, 1974. Many arrests were made in all the Basque provinces on the very eve of the publication of the decree on the state of emergency. Many of those arrested were
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SPAIN tortured. One militant of the ETA-V was murdered right on the street. The ETA-V responded to this by executing two policemen, and that touched off an offensive by the fascist gangs. These gangs moved forces into the Basque provinces from all over the Spanish state. They carried out armed attacks on a lawyer who defends the political prisoners of the ETA-V and burned down private houses and commercial establishments belonging to members of the families of ETA-V militants. At the same time, there was a new wave of arrests throughout the country, in the course of which many acts of brutality and torture were committed by the cops. In Grenada, for instance, two prisoners had to be taken to the hospital in serious condition after the tortures they were subjected to. The repression has not been all that effective. It has not at all suceeded in demobilizing the mass movement, especially in Euzkadi (the Basque country). We cannot even exclude the possibility of a massive response, as in 1969 or during the December 11, 1974, general strike. Moreover, there have been demonstrations of solidarity with Euzkadi in several places, especially in Barcelona. The Basque contry is already being hit with a maximum of repression. Under these conditions, the state of emergency proclaimed there takes on the aspect of a political test. If the mass movement continues to grow, a political turn becomes possible. At this point, some sections of big capital are questioning the effectiveness of repression in slowing down the mass movement. They are seeking to get rid of the Francoist apparatus under the best possible conditions, because that apparatus is no longer useful to them since it has not managed to slow down the broader and broader mobilizations of the masses. But at the same time, they are afraid that any political concession to these mobilizations would touch off a real revolutionary crisis. The big bourgeoisie would like to make some minimal concessions that could avert this explosion. But this project has no chance of success. Any political concession will be considered by the mass movement as an encouragement to continue to fight until the complete fall of the dictatorship and to continue the attack against capitalism itself. QUESTION. What is the attitude of the CP in face of the bourgeois project of accelerating Franco's succession by Juan Carlos? ANSWER. The whole policy of the CP consists in making a never-ending effort to persuade the big bourgeoisie that it should not at all be afraid of getting rid of the Francoist dictatorship. It does this by aiming at systematically demobilizing and dividing the movement during workers struggles, by 16 rejecting a general strike, and so on. The "Manifesto of National Reconciliation" issued by the Junta Democratica (Democratic Council), in which the CP participates, is being put forward these days in meetings nearly everywhere in Europe; it asserts that the movement must be limited to demonstrations of "convergence of all citizens, without social danger and without challenging either the unity of Spain or private property. " A fine perspecfive, especially for the people of Euzkadi and for the anticapita list workers! This policy is not only traitorous, it is also unrealistic, because it pretends not to understand that for the big bourgeoisie, the project of getting rid of Franco is tightly linked to an analysis of what would be convenient for it from the standpoint of its class interests. The Spanish big bourgeoisie is perfectly conscious of the anticapitalist potential of the current mass mobilizations. It is not going to be convinced otherwise by any profession of faith from the Junta Democratica. For this reason, the major task of revolutionary Marxists is more than ever to struggle for class independence with a dynamic of struggle that is more offensive each time, for the extension of the generalization of struggles and of the forces of self-organization and self-defense of the toiling masses. QUESTION. Did the May Day demonstrations this year have any particular political aspect? ANSWER. The demonstrations were vigorously repressed. In Galicia a worker was killed by the police during the May Day demonstration; in Barcelona two people were wounded; there were also wounded in other areas. But the most striking political feature of May Day 1975 in the Spanish state was the first public appearance of the PSOE, the old Socialist party. In Madrid it tried to organize a silent demonstration in a cemetery in front of the grave of the great au thor Pablo Iglesias, founder of the PSOE. The police had closed the gates of the cemetery. Several thousand people assembled in front of the cemetery and were attacked by the police and by the fascist gangs of the group called Guerrillas of Christ the King. Sixty were arrested and several were hurt. It is significant that this repression took place just at the moment when the Francoist press was speaking openly about the project of "legalizing" the PSOE and was publishing reports of press conferences and statements by its presumed general secretary. Nothing better illustrates the political dilemma of the Spanish bourgeoisie and the irresistible decomposition of the dictatorship. •