peaks in Madrid
At the invitation of the economics and sociology departments of the Universidad Complutense de
Madrid, comrade Ernest Mandel, member of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International,
On May 5 at the department of economic sciences, he analyzed the place of the generalized recession of the international capitalist économy in postwar history before an audience of 1, 500-
2,000 people; the meeting was held about fifteen kilometers from Madrid. The following day, the auditorium of the sociology department was filled to overflowing by 4,000-5,000 people. Many people stood in the corridors, and many had to leave because they could not find space.
In his speech comrade Mandel dealt with the nature of the bourgeois state, the impossibility of using the bourgeois state apparatus to achieve socialism, the necessity for overthrowing the bourgeois state, the importance of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the identity of the dictatorship of the proletariat with socialist democracy, that is, the exercise of power by democratically elected workers councils within which there would be freedom of action for all parties, representatives of which would be elected by the workers. The passages of the speech opposing refarmism and calling upon the workers to prepare the seizure of power, as well as those defending the dictatorship of the proletariat and condemning the Stalinist dictatorship of the bureaucracy and calling for the democracy of workers councils, received enthusiastic ovations from the
The speech was followed by ample discussion, with interventions from striking telephone workers and from a leader of the construction workers who has been laid off. The meeting was punctuated by cheers for the Fourth International, Trotskyism, the workers commissions, amnesty for political prisoners, the workers in struggle in the Spanish state, the struggles of the oppressed nationalities, and workers unity. The police had surrounded the campus, but in view of the huge crowd they refrained from intervening (except to sabotage the loudspeaking system for about half an hour). In their own way, the authorities drew the conclusions of the success of the meeting, which was reported in several daily newspapers and many weeklies: they banned the third meeting comrade ent and complementary logic on the political terrain. The radical" measures are to be held in reserve for "after" this "period that will last for months, " during which the very fragile "crystal democracy" resulting from the royal "act of valor" will be protected by the weavers of the "social pact." The workers have their own plans All these gentlemen are dividing a pie that has not yet been baked. It is necessary to understand their projects in order to get an idea of the crisis that exists in the country. To get an idea, for example, of how it is that the referendum, announced with such fanfare only a few weeks ago, appears to have gone up in smoke. Important sectors of the government, as well as the king himself, considered the referendum unviable without what Areilza called a "national pact, " some sort of agreement with the "opposition" that could count at least on the neutrality of the Communist partyBut the real nub of the problem lies in whether this very "national pact" has any possibility of assuring the "iron control" over the transition to which we referred earlier. Once again, the answer to this question is No. To think that the legalization of the entire Spanish held two public conferences in Madrid May 5 and 6, 1976. audience. Mandel was supposed to have addressed in the Ateneo on May 17.
workers movement will be able to be controlled by the Spanish bourgeoisie, even with the determined collaboration of the reformists; to think that the workers will accept a "social pact" with a capitalist system in open crisis (a system for which total economic insolvency at the 1958 level is predicted within two years; to think that the national question will be resolved with a few drops of "autonomy"; to think that the mass movement will tolerate rigid restrictions on the democratic rights it has so painfully conquered (the right to strike, for example; to think that the mass movement will resign itself to the maintenance of the Francoist repressive forces, will consider the army untouchable, will go along with promises for a Constituent Assembly that may never materialize, will tolerate that "extremists" who refuse to accept the limits of puppet democracy are sent back to prison, will remain passive in face of fascist provocations (how many pistols like those that were fired in Montejurra have been distributed throughout the country?); to think all this is to believe in pure illusion. The workers have their own plans. And the orientation that best corresponds to the strengthening and development of these plans is the general strike against the Francoist monarchy. In this we place our trust and for this we struggle. May 18, 1976
19
We are publishing below an extract of a contribution of the Liga Comunista Revolucionaria/
Euzkadi ta Askatasuna-VI (Revolutionary Communist League/Basque Nation and Freedom-
Sixth Congress) to the discussion on the mass movement in the urban centers of the Spanish state. The development of this movement, with tenant associations, neighborhood commissions, and similar phenomena, is one of the notable features of the popular mobilization today.
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