DEMONSTRATE IN SPAIN
More than 1,500 Madrid workers and students joined January 26 ina demonstration, organized by the underground unions, before the headquarters of the government-sponsored unions. They shouted for free trade unions, the right to strike, a minimum daily wage of 175 pesetas [$2.92] instead of the present 60 pesetas [$1], a 44-hour week, and the lifting of reprisals against workers fired because of work conflicts in Madrid and Biscay.
The police broke up the demonstration, arresting thirty.
: _ On February 5, some 2, 000 students demonstrated in front of the rectorate of the "university of Madrid. They chanted slogans against the official student unions, demanding freedom to organize.
Four hundred armed guards were sent to disperse the demonstra~ tion but the students put up a stiff battle, holding their ground for an hour and a half, blocking traffic in the principal streets.
In Barcelona on the same day, 3,000 students demonstrated in front of the faculty of political science against the official student union. They had assembled to see a film Viridiana which won a prize at the Cannes Festival three years ago. When they were told that it had been banned by the dean, they began demonstrating.
The leaders of the official unions are alarmed. They recently issued a declaration calling for a "revision" in the minimum wage. They also pleaded for "real powers" in collective bargaining.
The explanation for the rise in social tension is to be found in certain economic facts. Strong injections of American militar dollars, a booming tourist trade (some 15,000,000 tourists a year and industrial expansion have sent profits spiraling in Spain. At the. same time, the: Franco regime has kept wages in deep freeze. In addition,: inflation has cnt. deeply into an already abysmal standard of living. According to. official statistics the cost of living rose last year alone by nine per cent.
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AFRICAN STUDENTS IN