difficult phase
One year ago, there were real indications that the Francoist regime was facing imminent collapse: The colossal impact of the events in Portugal, Franco's critical illness, and the political offensive launched by the Spanish Communist party through the creation of the Junto Democratica* all pointed in that direction. If looked like the oldest dictatorship in Europe would come to o quick end. Today, the Portuguese revolution is marking time and is in danger of going under, despite the decisive progress it has made in a remarkably short fime; Franco has generally taken hold of the reigns of power once again and is infusing new life into the fascistic for right; the * The Junta Democratica (Democratic Council), which was created in August 1974 on the initiative of the CP, included sectors of the Christian Democracy, the Carlist party (which has since leff), and two Maoist organizations of the far left, Bandera Roja and the Partido del Trabajo. Bandera Roja has since fused with the CP.
spain: by PACO ROBS Junta Democratica is facing competition from the "Democratic Convergence" set up by the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers party, the Spanish Social Democracy), both coalitions vainly seeking to precipitate a peaceful transition to liberal bourgeois democracy by organizing corridor combinations. Although it stands on the threshold of its death agony, the dictatorship seems to have gained a second wind by unleashing a repression whose violence and ferocity have been rarely equalled in recent years. The reasons for the present hardening of the regime must be sought in a powerful rise of the class struggle, of which the Basque country represents the most advanced point (see the statement of the LCR/ETA-VI on the general strike in the Basque country, and in the intensificotion of the crisis of the dictatorship, just at the moment when fissures in the army itself are seeing the light of day. This also indicates how dangerous this hardening is, ephemeral as it may be
ESTADO-EXCEPCION CONTRA EL During the summer there were many arrests of mili fants of the ETA-V, the FRAP (Frente Revolucionario Antifascista y Patriotica - Patriotic and Antifascist Revolutionary Front), and the UPG (Union del Pueblo de Galicia - Union of the People of Galicia, an autonomist organization linked to the ETA-V). "Wilson," one of the major leaders of the ETA-V, was captured by the police, who consider him the organizer of the attack on Carrero Blanco. There is little doubt that he will be sentenced to death; the death sentence has also been demanded against five FRAP militants who are accused of killing a policeman in Madrid. In addition, during a recent meeting of the Council of Ministers, Franco got a decree-law adopted suspending two articles of the constitution that guarantee the inviolability of private households and limit to seventy-two hours the length of time that a person can be held by the police without being charged; thus, a de facto state of exception for all Spain for a period of two years was enacted. The for right is again gaining strength within the state apparatus. But the regime will find no way out through this resort to terror. The army, last resort of the dictatorship, has also been affected by the general crisis. Even if the affair now seems to have been squelched, the arrest of nine officers at the beginning of August revealed the existence of a structured current within the army opposed to the Francoist regime, the Democratic Military Union. This organization, which seems not to have been unconnected with the work of the CP, is reported to include nearly 1,000 officers. Although a list of 300 of them is said to have fallen into the hands of the police, the regime was unable to take any action against them. The very last props of the regime have been undermined. The Portuguese revolution The events in Portugal have direct repercussions in Spain. A powerful accelerator of the crisis of the Francoist dietatorship during its first phase, the Portuguese revolution weighs on the present Spanish situation through both its conquests and its uncertainties. At first, the Spanish reformist parties; the CP in the first place, considered the Portuguese revolution a striking confirmation of their policies: It was possible to move peacefully from a decadent dictatorship to a regime of bourgeois democracy without touching off a revolutionary process that would directly challenge private property in the means of production or the state apparatus. But since the events of March 11 in Portugal and the sharp acceleration of the pace of the Portuguese revolution, Spanish candidates for Spfnola's role have become increasingly scarce and the bourgeois liberals willing, to accept an alliance with the workers parties have become much more discreet. The Junta Democratica is trying to gain a second wind. The CP is attempting to convince the bourgeoisie that they have every interest in quickly replacing the dictatorship; otherwise they will have to do so under much more difficult circumstances later on, in face of a much more powerful mass movement. But the bourgeoisie is exhibiting an elementary class instinct, retreating before the already present threat of a working class that has recently given every evidence of its strength, combativity, and maturity. Moreover, the deep division of the workers movement in Portugal also rebounds on the Spanish situation. The PSOE, which had refused to join the Junta Democratica, has just created the Democratic Convergence around a program of class collaboration quite similar to that of the Junta Democratica. The Democratic Convergence has the support of certain sections of the Christian Democracy, the Carlist party, and two Maoist organizations, the MCE and the ORT (Organización Revolucionaria de los Trabajadores - Revolutionary Workers Organization). The presence of these two revolutionary sion or the far, organizations, which are among the strongest of the far left (especially in Euzkadi, where they lead the workers commissions), provides the PSOE with a left cover and an influence among the workers vanguard that is rather greater than the PSOE had expected. The powerful stimulus that was provided by the beginning of the Portuguese revolution has lost much of its force because of the division of the workers movement and because of the policy of class collaboration that nearly all the workers organizations are following, whether in the Junto Democratica or the Democratic Convergence. By seeking to limit the mass movement to putting pressure on the bourgeoisie, and by refusing to mobilize the mass movement in a direct generalized assault against the dictatorship, the reformist leaderships of the CP and the PSOE are giving the Francoist regime an unexpected reprieve. How many more times will the executioner's axe fall while this reprieve lasts? September 3, 1975
The following statement was released on August 31 by the Political Bureau of the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria/Euzkadi. ta Askatasuna-VI (Revolutionary Communist League/Basque Notion and Freedom-Sixth Congress), sympathizing organization of the Fourth International in
Spain. More than ever, every minute counts! Follow the example of Euzkadi: Everyone in struggle, everyone on strike, everyone in the streets! The dictotorship's aggression is brutal and hard. If is determined to murder Garmendia and Otaegui. The farce trial - during which witnesses did not even recognize Garmendia; and in spite of that he was condemned to death - could not have been more scandalous. What the dictatorship wants above all is a political act of clear significance: to show the workers movement what fate is suffered by those who struggle to overthrow it. Every minute counts. Next Wednesday (September 10), the murder of the two militants of the ETA-V may be corried out. Only the broadest and most determined mobilization of the workers and all the people will be capable of preventing this.