THE BOURGEOISIE
The following interview with a member of the Central Committee of the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria/Euzkadi ta Askatasuna-VI (LCR/ETA-VI — Revolutionary Communist League/Basque •
JAD ONTHE RUN Nation and Freedom-Sixth Congress) was taken on April 22. Question. What are the most important changes that have occurred in the political situation in Spain since the murders in Vitoria and the general strike of 500,000 workers of Euzkadi (the Basque country) in response to those murders? Answer. The most important thing is that the masses have become conscious of the failure of the political project of reforming Francoism and not only of the failure of the Arias government. From this flows the understanding by the masses of the necessity not only of getting rid of the dictatorship but also of destroying all its bases. This is shown, for example, by the spread of slogans like "Dissolution of the repressive corps of Francoism, " "Trials of those responsible for the crimes of the dictatorship, " and so on. These have been raised both during demonstrations and in the platforms of demands of important workers strikes. So you can say that from this point on, the dominant political orientation within the bourgeoisie concedes that the short-term legalization of the whole of the workers movement is inevitable. As far as the conquest of democratic rights is concerned, the mass movement feels its victory approaching with giant steps. This is giving an impetus not only to united action by the mass movement, but also to the outflanking of the demobilizing actions of sectors of the opposifion, as was recently the case with the attempts to cancel the April 8 demonstrations in Madrid for amnesty and the demonstrations around Averri Eguna, the Basque nafional holiday. In all, about 30,000 or 40,000 people participated in the Madrid demonstrations and about 4,000 to 5,000 assembled for Averri Eguna in Pamplona, despite the declared state of siege. So the political situation is more and more tending toward a decisive turn.
SPAIN The general strike for the overthrow of the dictatorship has become an immediate objective for broad masses. What is the function of the constitutional referendum the government is preparing for June 1976, according to the Spanish press? AThe referendum is the instrument of the Francoist monarchy and the government for responding to the overal! crisis of the regime and the state apparatus. Probably there will be three questions in the referendum. The first will relate to formal points about the succession to the throne. Obviously, this implies an indirect plebiscite for the monarchy. The second will relate to the modification of the Cortes, the pseudo-parliament created by the dictatorship. This institution will be divided into two Assemblies: a Senate with a corporatist composition, made up of members directly designated by the king, who has committed himself to including the forty Francoist "lifetime assessors" who now sit in the Cortes; and a "Congress of Deputies" elected by universal suffrage. These two Assemblies will have an aproximately equal number of members and — this is the catch - practically Identical spheres of competence. This is a good reflection of the political projects and intentions of the present government. The Senate is the "gift" to the old Francoists. The Congress of Deputies is seen as a "giff" to the bourgeois and Social Democratic opposition. The one should pretty much neutralize the other. The third question of the referendum is the most surprising of all. It will solicit approval of the government's right to issue simple decrees to alter the "fundamental
SPAIN laws of the kingdom, " which were always considered immutable and eternal by traditional Francoist ideology. So the meaning of the referendum is clear on two levels. On the one hand, the point is to break up the logjam the Francoist far right had established to block the projects of reforming the regime. On the other hand, the second point is to sketch out a sort of agreement with sectors of the "democratic" bourgeoisie, or, in any case, to establish rules of the political game that are as favorable as possible to the projects of the Francoist monarchy. This implies that the monarchy is trying, particularly through the vehicle of the third question of the referendum, to obtain the possibility of assuring a "legal" transition without any apparent discontinuity (once forced to by the action of the masses) from governments of the "reform of Francoism" variety to a government that would legalize the whole workers movement, like, for example, a government headed by the Christian Democratic chief Rufz Jiménez, This shows to what extent the bourgeoisie today considers its major political objective to be depriving the mass movement of its role as protagonist of the overthrow of the dictotorship. In this situation, the Francoist far right is deepening its attitude of active resistance not only within the Francoist institutions but also in the streets, preparing itself to intervene politically as an independent force after the overthrow of the dictatorship, while still pursuing its policy of radically obstructing any project of instifutional change, no matter how modest. It appears likely that this far right will call for a "no" vote, at least on the third question of the referendum. The "democratic" sectors of the bourgeoisie and the Social Democracy have expressed their opposition to the referendum as a whole so long as the present political conditions persist. Even though the government may be able to obtain a formal success for the "yes" vote by resorting fo maneuvers and fraud, the pofitical operation represented by this referendum is condemned to failure in advance, as are all the other government projects. The referendum is nothing but a new manifestation of the "flight forward" that characterizes the Francoist monarchy. Incapable of resolving the problems, it is simply trying to postpone things. But every postponement makes the solution to these problems more difficult from the standpoint of the interests of the bourgeoisie, because of the amplification of the mass mobilizations it provokes. What is the meaning of the fusion of the Junta Democrática (Democratic Council) and the Plataforma de Convergencia Democrática (Platform of Democratic Convergence) into the "'Coordinación Democrática" (Democratic Coordination)? (See INPRECOR, No.49, April 15, for the text of the Coordinación's found ing communiqué.) AThis war the first of a series of similar events, such as the joint communiqué of the Democratic Council of Catalonia and the president of the Generalidad of Catalonia in exile, Josep Tarradellas, as well as the fusion into a single body of the Junta Democrática and the Democratic Council of Valencia. As we have already pointed out in the communiqué of our organization on the constitution of the Coordinación Democrática (see INPRECOR, No. 49, April 15), the basic objective of this fusion is the "negotiated break" (ruptura pactada) with the reformers of Francoism. The point is to push the orientation of peaceful transition from dictatorship to "democracy" to its ultimate logic. Not only is the monarchy not challenged, but the king appears as the principal protagonist of the "democratization" of the country. Thus, to give just one example, the most recent version of this "peaceful transition, " as it was presented a few days ago in a document of the Christian Democracy, consists of the convocation by the king of legislative elections (not even a Constituent Assembly!) within six months. Since the creation of the Coordinación Democrática, two important events have occurred in this context. The party of Gil Robles (butcher of the Asturias insurrection of October 1934), a Catholic bourgeois politician, ultraconservative and fiercely anticommumist, has joined the Coordinación. At the same time, Ruíz Jiménez has posed os a condition for his presence in the Coordinación the stipulation that the statutes must require that all decisions have to be taken unanimously. He explained this demand in the following way: "Under the conditions of social crisis the country is now living through, we must avoid any imprudent affitude in political declarations and above all in street demonstrations." The meaning is clear, In practice, the CP, the PSOE, the MCE, and the PT* have accepted this demand, hitching their "front" to the wagon of the bourgeois conservatives. Gil Robles and Rufz Jiménez have thus acquired veto power over all the activities of the Coordinación Democrática. The Function of the Coordinación Democrática as an instrument for creating a pact between the bourgeoisie and reformist opposition (supported by two important Mao-centrist groups) and the Francoist monarchy has been completely confirmed by these events. The function of the traditional workers parties within this body is in fact limited to acting as watchdogs over the mass movement, trying to hold this movement within bounds compatible with the veto rights of Masrs. Gil Robles and Rufz Jiménez, It is these two traditional workers parties that must also guarantee the future Social Pact, which they have promised big capital as compensation for the conversion to "democracy." Also, we ought to stress the meaning of the accord between the Council of Catalonia and Tarradellas, as well as the relaunching of the Euzkadi government-in-exile. In both cases, it is a matter of utilizing "historic" bourgeois nationalism as a means of channeling the aspirations of the oppressed masses to obtain their right of self*PSOE: Partido Socialista Obrero Español - Spanish Socialist Workers party (the Social Democracy); MCE: Movimiento Comunista de España — Communist Movement of Spain; PT: Partido del Trabajo — Labor party. The latter two are Mao-centrist formations.
P TROTS - KISTAS.
M.C. determination for two nationalities for whom the problem of national oppression takes on special importance. We can conclude that everything is now being prepared for the so-called constitutional period. In the course of this period, a "provisional government of broad coa-
" within which the hegemony of the bourgeois forces will be absolute, is supposed to assure total control of the political situation in the name of the "establishment of democracy, "that is, the reconstitution of the Spanish bourgeois state. It is significant that some members of the Junta Democrática, the entrepreneur Laroque for example, have openly asserted that one of the main objectives of this "constitutional period" would consist of reassuring investors by guaranteeing social peace in the country. This shows how important it is to raise the slogan of immediate elections to a Constituent Assembly in order to reject the legitimacy of any provisional government imposed on the peoples of the Spanish state and as an instrument for sweeping away the whole Francoist political and institutional apparatus. This slogan must be articulated along with that of the no less immediate convocation of sovereign national assemblies of the oppressed nationalities so that they may freely exercise their own right to self-determination. To these two key demands of the present stage we must add the entirety of democratic slogans, the totality of which expresses the necessity, deeply felt by the mass movement, of completely destroying the Francoist regime. How should the "tolerated" congress of the UGT be interpreted? (UGT: Unión General de Trabajadores -General Workers Union). AThe authorization of the UGT congress and the holding of this congress synthetically express the contradictions of the political situation in the Spanish state. (Some of these contradictions reach the point of absurdity: The government officially called the UGT congress "days of trade-union studies. ") This authorization was inevitable even in the framework of the "reform of Francoism, "becouse as we know, this reform implied the legalization of the historic Social Democracy. But the congress, which was held over Easter week, immediately turned against the government, going beyond what was desired by the UGT bureaucracy itself. In fact, you have to take account of what forty years of dictatorship means in order to understand the enormous symbolic value acquired in the eyes of the workers of the whole country by the fact that a congress of an organization linked to the very birth of the Spanish workers movement was able to be held. During the course of this congress hundreds of people sang the Internafional, with their fists raised, and there was no repression at all. The workers did not consider the holding of this congress as a concession from the government, but as a victory of the working class itself. The fact that it was a UGT congress was less important than the fact that it was a congress of a workers organization. The holding of this congress not only gave new impetus to the big debate about the creation of a class trade union that is now going on within the Spanish workers mo vement. It also stimulated preparation of other congresses of other workers currents, like those being prepared by the USO, the CNT," and the Vorkers Commissions. Concretaly, the UGT congress ended in a victory for the right wing of the UGT, which had already held control of the apparatus. The fundamental thesis of this sector is summed up in the slogan "Unity in liberty, " the real meaning of which is to center on building the UGT as such rather than any project of a trade union based on closs unity. It is symptomatic that the congress responded with stony silence, if not murmurs of disapproval, to the appeal of Julian Ariza, well-known leader of the Workers Commissions, for a congress to form a united trade union. But alongside this rightist majority, a significant leftist minority crystallized, represented essentially by the Madrid and Segovia federations, which put forward a motion calling for inviting representatives of all the working-class trade-union currents to the final session of the congress. This mation was the only one presented by the minority that received a majority of the votes. The general positions faken by the UGT seem tough and radical. They talk of "class trade unionism" and of "revolutionary unionism. " This expresses the bureaucracy's need to take account of the impetuous rise of the mass movement. The official figure on UGT membership is barely 7, 000. Several far-left political organizations in Spain already have more members than that. And it is a figure that is much lower than that of the Workers Commissions. But it is incontestable that the UGT will go through a rapid expansion now that it enjoys the tolerance of the authorities and can draw new and less politicized layers into action. * USO: Unión Sindical Obrera-Workers Trade Union Federation; CNT: Confederación Nacional de los Trabajadores- National Confederation of Workers.
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Where is the mass movement at right now? AThe state of the mass movement has been substantially modified by the struggles that came after the Vitoria murders. Big workers struggles have gone on, especially in the metals sector of Barcelona and among the telephone workers of the whole country; a new rise of struggle by the construction workers is also possible now. Dozens of factories have seen important struggles. Some very significant victories have been won. At the SEAT automobile factory in Barcelona a large number of workers who had been laid off for going on strike were rehired. The same thing happened at Hunosa (the coal mines in Asturias). The workers are continuing to wage their struggles in a combined manner, both through the legal vehicle of the enlaces y jurados (the legally elected delegates of the official vertical union, the CNS) and through various types of representative bodies such as workshop assemblies and factory assemblies. The point that has been attained by the mass movement implies the necessity for a basic qualitative leap toward centralization in order to broach the problem of the final overthrow of the dictatorship. In this situation, both the various united May 1 initiatives now being prepared in dozens of cities around the country (in fact, the majority of the important cities) and the capacity to go beyond conciliatory and reformist positions which was manifested during Averri Eguna in Euzkadi create good conditions for taking this qualitative leap soon. What are the latest developments within the far left? Alt's not easy to answer this, because the situation is very fluid; continuous recomposition is going on. As for the traditional workers organizations, the most significant new fact is the development of internal tensions in the CP, caused by the demobilizing attitude to which its policy of alliance with the bourgeoisie leads, especially during mass street demonstrations. The two biggest Maoist organizations, PT and ORT (Organización Revolucionaria de los Trabajadores - Revolutionary Workers Organization), have initiated a unification process, but it is running into many difficulties. For example, ORT did not agree to join the Coordinación Democrática, in which both the CP and the PT participate. But it did ask for observer status. The two organizations have been exhibiting greater independence of the CP in the past few weeks, unlike their attitude during preceding months. The MCE is now sketching out a right turn which seems to have no limits. For example, it asked to be incorporated into the Basque government-in-exile, which is led by bourgeois nationalists. On the other hand, Bandera Roja is now engaged in a rather far-reaching left turn, which has enabled them 6 to reach important practical convergences with our organization in struggles like that of the construction workers in Barcelona. The OIC (Organización Internac ionalista ComunistaInternationalist Communist Organization, an ultraleft group), which has been going through a big crisis since the beginning of the year, recently held a congress during which it worked out a turn away from some of its traditional positions, while maintaining both its sectarian positions on the Workers Commissions and its lack of understanding of the essential problem of the workers trade union in the Spanish state today. The politico-military ETA (Euzkadi to Askatasuna - Basque Nation and Freedom) is now going through one of the most serious crises of its history, after the monumental error committed with the killing of Berazodi and other erroneous military actions. As for the LCR/ETA-VI, we are continuing to grow in terms of clarity, political influence, and organizational consistency, which has enabled us to double our strength in the past four months. But we remain weaker than the strongest Maoist organizations. If is therefore necessary to accentuate our efforts to expand our implantation in the working class and to prepare ourselves, the vanguard, and the mass movement for the decisive tasks they will confront in the stage immediately before us. As for the Liga Comunista (Communist League), with which the Central Committee of our organization has decided to propose the opening of a fusion process, we believe that it has initiated on important practical evolution, which appears positive to us and which has been manifested in its present intervention into the metalworkers struggles in Barcelona. Oso, to sum up? AWe are already living through the process of the overthrow of the dictatorship. There have been sharp changes in the situation, and we will see others. Repressive attacks by the government, even bloody ones, remain possible and even inevitable. But the process is now under way and nothing will stop it. Within this process we non y to rely fact ten dire from notin- forcefully reaffirm our basic strategic line: to resolutely drive forward the independent action of the mass moveitively. We reaffirm that the overthrow of the dictatorship, whatever concrete form it may take, will open a preevolutionary situation in our country. Our task is to make this advance to a revolutionary situation. This strategy supplies all the meaning of our present orientation toward the centralization of mass action for the general strike against the dictatorship. This is also what gives full meaning to our battle for a united trade-union congress, to our slogan for immediate elections. to a Constituent Assembly, to our propaganda for a workers government, and to our constant struggle for the workers united front against the dictatorship and capitalism.O