The coming to power of Juan Carlos has obviously opened up a new situation in Spain. Can you outline the major political factors involved?
The prime objective for big capital is to get a direct say in the countrys atpairs by break t ing gradually with a system whereby one man, Franco, and his clique held all the reins of power. This is what is meant by the policy of "reforming the dictatorship'. But already these projects have come up against several obstacles.
Firstly, this 'reform of the dictatorship' can only be carried through on the basis of the present institutions, which are dominated by a Francoist bureaucracy opposed to all reforms.
Furthermore, this 'reform' presupposes the legitimation of the present set-up in the eyes of the masses, which would mean establishing a social base and therefore a series of significant concessions on social questions. However, the Spanish social and economic structures aren't cohesive or strong enough to survive such a policy - the more so, as we are now seeing a new rise in the mass movement which is systematically going beyond all the projects of the regime.
Can you specify the particular characteristics of this new stage in the rise of the mass movement?
The new political situation has undoubtedly emphasised all the factors radicalising the masses. But it is the fight for amnesty, for the freeing of all the political prisoners, which is crystallising the mobilisation of the masses. From the petitions of the administrative councils of Pontevedra to the demonstration of 30,000 outside Carabanchel, it is the first time that at the same time and on the same demand - amnesty - entire professions, neighbourhoods, towns and villages have taken part in such a political campaign.
In Madrid and Barcelona, the fight for amnesty has often been pursued alongside struggles for economic demands, and around the negotiations for the collective contracts. In Euskadi (the Basque country), the campaign for amnesty has been tied in directly with demands for the dissolution of the special police bodies, the purging of the State apparatus and the factory administrations, the elimination of the Francoist bureaucrats, etc.
Every where these mobilisations have shown that far from being taken in by Fraga Iribarne, the masses fully realise the limitations of the indulto (pardon) — only 500 political prisoners out of 6,000 released - and the need to struggle for total amnesty.
Riot police move into action against dem onstrators in Madrid's main street of the Fourth International Has the exclusion of the Communsist Party from the political solution put forward by the bourgeoisie altered its position in any way!
This situation has induced in it a greater activism - but it hasn't altered its general orientation of class collaboration. Since the death of Franco all the CP's activity has been based on its intention of showing the bourgeoisie that there can be no viable political solution without the CP, that no peaceful transition is possible without the CP.
The CP is well aware of the danger that it could be marginalised in the face of the manoeuvres by Fraga Iribarne, the main bourgeois parties, and the Socialist Party (PSOE). So it has redoubled its activities and initiatives: CP secretary Carillo even declares that the time has passed for days for amnesty or economic demands -pass in intensity all the days previously organised. But this demagogy cannot cover up for the opportunist policy of the CP, seen in its refusal to make a joint appeal for a general strike on 11 December.
There seems to be something of a debate inside the CP on the trade union question. What are the different positions?
The opposing currents on this question refNect - in a very distorted way - the recent history of the Spanish workers' movement.
After the last elections in the CNS (state-run trade union), where the CUD (united and democratic canditatures) won an enormous success, capturing 80 per cent of the positions (los enlaces stewards), the CP prioritised this arena to the point of abandoning the workers commissions.
old worker militant) - defending their interests as leaders of the workers commissions -have responded very sharply, explaining that no trade union can be developed outside the workers commissions; and that the present orientation, prioritising los enlaces, can only in their view lead to the liquidation of the workers commissions.
Carillo has now taken a middle position in this battle. In a recent issue of Nuestra Bandera (CP review), after defining the workers commissions as a socio-political movement embracing the legal structures - los enlaces, the CUD - and illegal structures', Carillo went on to explain that it was necessary to combine work in the workers commissions and los enlaces without prioritising one structure or the other. But he concluded by judging that the time was inopportune to call for a constituent trade union congress, doubtless preferring to jockey for position in manoeuvres and negotiations at the top.
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every day must surby universal suffrage. • - roughly equivalent to shop even more urgent task.
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OTHER Laxes of the policy put forward by The present political situation means th -at the centre of all struggles and demonstr tions must be put forward slogans, demands and initiatives which pose the dismantling of the These take on all the more importance for revolutionary marxists in that the political forms of the Spanish bourgeois State have since the civil war coincided with the Francoist dictatorship; thus all the battles for the release of the political prisoners, the dissolution of the special police bodies, the purging of the army, police and administration etc. ment. have a political and social dynamic which undermines the very foundations of the bourgThese demands, taken up by ever increasing sections of the masses, tie in directly with struggles to win democratic freedoms: the right to strike, to meet, to demonstrate freedom of the press, the right to vote. Faced with the manoeuvres of the bourgeoisie, faced with the fraudulent projects to restructure the Cortes, the only framework for exercising these liberties can be a Constituent Assembly, elected In the same way, in Euskadi, Catalonia, Valencia and Galicia, only the election by 315,000 To meet our target of £15,000 by end of February, we need to raise £9,240,62.
The money raised so far has gone towards taking the first steps to a 16-page Red Weekly. Your donations have enabled us to make changes in our editorial staff and buy a new IBM composer. The next big step is for a further expansion of editorial staff and a major sales drive.
But we still need more finance for this and other steps to build a 16-page weekly and regularly produce our theoretical journal International. With costs rising rapidly this becomes an We appeal to all our readers and sympathisers - in order to build the Fourth International in Britain and its newspaper Red Weekly, we need your money now. Please send all donations to: Jo-Ann, 97 Caledonian Road, London N.1. (cheques made payable to "The Week'). universal suffrage of a National Assembly exercising the right to self-determination car meet the aspirations of these peoples.
However, here and now - without waiting for the summoning of this or that body -we think that only the mobilisation of the masses can secure such achievements. That is why we call every where for the strengthening of the workers commissions, for their unitication, for the unity of all the workers organisations for a constituent trade union assembly; for the generalisition of workers assemblies, of committees elected and recallable in the factories; and finally for a struggle to satisfy all the workers' economic demands, which can only be met by a workers' govern.
The working class of Euskadi has already shown the way to achieve these objectives with its three tremendous general strikes: the weapon of the general strike, of the united front of the workers' organisations in a cen tral strike committee.
Strengthened by these experiences, by the Euskadi strikes, we call for the unity of all the workers' organisations — and in particular those of the revolutionary left - for these organisations to break with all parties or organs of class collaboration, to respond to the aspirations of the masses in Spain, Euskadi, Catalonia, Valencia and Galicia, so that we can finish for ever with the Francoist dictatorship.
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Francoist bureaucrats in the Cortes (phoney parliament) have already protested against liberalisation • Finally, can you outline the central
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