FORWARD TO THE OVERTHROW
The following declaration was issued March 11, 1976, by the Polffical Bureau of the Liga Comunista (Communist Loague), a sympathizing organization of the Fourth International in Spain.
Since January 9, the workers of Forjas Alavesas, Mevosa, and many other factories of Vitoria have been waging a tough and exemplary strike for their just demands. Among these demands, along with the demand for wage increases, the basic points are readmission of the comrades who have been laid off, release of those imprisoned, and the imposition of direct negotiations with the employers conducted by genuine representatives of the workers, representatives elected in assemblies, revocable by these assemblies, and completely separated from the rotten CNS (the state vertical "trade union"). The workers of Vitoria, consciously breaking with the vertical union, renounced the enlaces and jurados (delegates and functionaries of the CNS) of Forjas, Mevosa, and Areito, held factory assemblies to elect committees, and coordinated these committees. In this way they formed their Central Strike Committee, their Assembly of Representatives, which, along with the workers commissions and the students, led the struggle. In face of the hardening of the employers and the authorities, the Assembly of Representatives called on the people of Vitoria to launch a general strike on March 3. The working class and the population of Vitoria responded to this call as one man, paralyzing production and organizing massive demonstrations from the factories and neighborhoods toward the center of the city. The response of Fraga's police (Fraga is the minister of the interior) was to commit a massacre, killing four comrades and wounding some 150 with gunshots. But Vitoria was not intimidated. It responded with courage, engaging in a heroic general strike in open confrontation with the repressive forces. Shoulder to shoulder with the people of Alava, all Euzkadi was "on afrike, " raking to the sfreets on March 8 in a general strike, valiantly confronting police brutality. Throughout the country there were work stoppages and demonstrations, of uneven intensity, sometimes outstanding ones, as in Tarragon. Repression claimed new victims in the course of these mobilizations. Two more comrades were shot dead and many others were wounded, some very gravely. The chain of murders was lengthened by the worker killed in Eldo and the construction worker who died in Barcelona.
OF THE DICTATORSHIP! After these crimes, there is no more room for the demagogic "democratizers." The government cannot continue to wear its criminal mask much longer. For if the speeches and declarations of the Ariases, the Fragas, and the Areilzas are not enough, the economic measures, the militarization of striking workers, the savage repression, and the recent murders leave no room for doubt. But these murders and the powerful response of the masses will only sharpen the rifts in the government even more gravely and will decisively accelerate the crisis of a dictatorship splattered with blood and marked by death. The shaking of the CNS by workers struggles, the outflanking of the repressive apparatus by the direct action of the workers and the oppressed, the beginning of crisis within this apparatus and even within the army, the increase in explosive tensions among the various cliques of the regime - all these factors mark a culminating point in the bankruptcy of the Francoist monarchy. But it is not only the government that is being unmasked before the workers. The bourgeois "democratic opposition, " the Ruiz Gimenezes, the Tierno Galvans, the Pujols, who are "making their nest" in the Junto Democrática, the Plataforma de Convergencia Democrática, and other such bodies, are also revealing their true face, In face of the offensive of the workers and the oppressed, they called on the workers to "stop putting pressure on the government through strikes, " and "not to trouble the waters. " Even after Arias presented his government's program to the Cortes (parliament), they continued to speak of the "democratizing will of the Fragas. Time and time again they repeated their calls for reconciliation and applauded the police, the watchdogs of capital. And now, terrified by the advance of the workers and people's mobilization, they are joining the chorus of the government, the capitalists, and their press, launching a foul campaign against the direct action methods of the workers, against the flying squads and the self-defense of the masses against the police.
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SPAIN Reaching a peak of cynicism and shamelessness, the Assemblea de Catalunya (Assembly of Catalonia) openly opposed the mobilization after the murder of a worker in Tarragon. The Assembly called on the workers and people of Tarragon not to participate in the general strike that had been called, and told the people who attended the funeral not to gather together to hold any demonstration after the funeral ceremony, but instead to go directly back to work or to their homes. The Assembly argued that it was necessary "not to provoke greater disturbance." In doing all this, these bourgeois "oppositionists" are revealing the real essence of the "democratic breakthrough" they propose. A "breakthrough" that is no more than a desperate attempt to maintain the Fundamental features of the Francoist dictatorship so as not to endanger the property of the bankers and monopolists. But the primary problem is not what this or that person may have done or said, for these people have no influence in the workers and people's movement. The main problem is that the parties of the working class with which they are allied, instead of exposing Their maneuvers, are in fact becoming the spokesmen for their attitude within the workers movement. The Communist party, for example, opposed pressing ahead with a decisive mobilization against the latest crimes, and instead of promoting strikes and demonstrations called for "moments of silence, " or at most "symbolic" work stoppages, Instead of forcefully combatting the reactionary crusade against methods of direct action, the CP was the most vigorous defender of that crusade. Thus, in a declaration of its Executive Committee, the PSUC (United Socialist party of Catalonia, the Catalan branch of the Communist party), using the unsavory excuse of "the destruction of some telephone booths, " openly opposed the hard struggle of the construction workers of Barcelona, criminally and traitorously denouncing the workers' pickets as "groups of fascists or provocateurs foreign to the workers movement. " The same attitude was adopted in a communiqué published by the National Workers Commissions of Catalonia, which is under the control of the PSUC. But in spite of everything, what has been made clear by the latest events is that every extra day in the life of the dictatorship represents a painful and intolerable burden for the working class and the people. We have been shown in blood that the only way forward against the continuation of the Juan Carlos monarchy is the overthrow of the dictatorship by the general strike. That the supposed "democratic breakthrough" is only a fraud aimed at deceiving the workers and paralyzing their struggle, an obstacle in this road. And today the weakness of the dictatorship, along with the fact that all the exploited and oppressed are conscious of this weakness and of their own strength, makes it more than ever possible to advance decisively toward the general strike. This requires that all the parties and organizations of the working class abandon such positions as those mentioned above and unite their forces for the general strike, strengthening the present offensive of the masses and incorporating the precious lessons of the most recent mobilizations. FOR THE ROAD OF VITORIA AND EUZKADI! For the most basic demands of the workers and in the first place against the Francoist crimes and in solidarity with the people of Vitoria. For the annuling of disciplinary measures and layoffs and for the release of those imprisoned. For the dissolution of the repressive bodies. For the extraction of responsibility for the Francoist crimes by tribunals freely elected by the people. We must take the road traced out by the gains we have already managed to win. Hold factory and branch assemblies. Elect strike committees as centers of organization and leadership of the struggle. Build central strike committees like the Assembly of Representatives of Vitoria. Force direct negotiation with the employers. Make the enlaces and jurados of the "united candidacies" resign, for in any case, they must not place attachment to their posts above the tasks posed by the struggle, above the demands they must respond to as fighters in whom the workers have placed their trust. Hold street demonstrations. Defend these demonstrations and all acfions against repression through pickets organized by the workers commissions and strike committees. Throw the greatest possible forces into stimulating the present powerful movement for the rebuilding of the workers commissions. Force free assemblies in the headquarters of the CNS. In order to follow this road, we must begin working for the preparation of a General Day of Struggle throughout the entire state, pressing for general actions by branch and sector, centralizing these actions on the local level and extending them on the level of each nationality. Holding this day of action would shake the government, would be fundamental in winning the demands and would represent a giant step toward the general strike that will bring down the hated dictatorship once and for all. The plan we propose here is opposed from top to bottom by all the bourgeois and capitalist elements of the Junta, the Convergencia, and the Council. These elements, terrified by the advance of the workers, are waging a desperate battle to contain and paralyze that advance. In the name of the present demands of the workers movement, the CP, the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers party, the Social Democracy), the workers commissions, and the rest of the parties and organizations of the working class must break with these bourgeois elements. Moreover, that is how we will be able to heal the divisions that are created by these bodies of collaboration with capital and to achieve the unity of the workers movement. l