New danger of coup in Spain

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CP and SP leaders Carrillo and Gonzales paying homage to the Francoist flag LIFE, PERCEPO corarren Pickets last week ourside Be: Siree: Magistrates alleged Red Army Fac::: " wemi Astrid Proll The death of fascist dictator Franco three followers trying to run in two directions simultaneously.

One section which came to be led by the slick and cunning Adolfo Suarez moved, with the help of the treacherous leaders of the main workers parties and more recently Fidel Castro and others, towards instituting an exceptionally controlled and limited form of parliamentary democracy.

After 18 months this democracy still maintains in power exactly the same band of criminals whom Franco appointed as his trustees.

But the other section of the headless Francoists have not disappeared.

Hard line

They remain in nearly all the crucial positions of power in local government (where there have still been no elections) and most important in the police and army.

These hard-line Francoists have been ready at any moment since 1975 to seize power if the Suarez project of controlled The announcement that US President Carter will travel to Cairo to democratisation looked like failing to keep the masses in order.

Undoubtedly sections of the police and army officer corps have already on three or four occasions in the last two years been on the point of making an attempt at a coup.

Shot dead

And another such moment may now be approaching.

Last week in the Basque city of San Sebastian two policemen of the Civil Guard were shot dead in the street.

This brings to nearly 20 the number of police killed this year alone.

In early July these shootings and the assassination of a leading General were used by the police and army as pretexts for a series of murderous attacks on the masses.

Detachments of armed police ran amok in the border town of Renteria, indiscriminately attacking the inhabitants.

"Too soft'

In the same week police brutally attacked demonstrations in San Sebastian and Pampiona, killing a member of the Revolutionary Communist League (LCR).

The Spanish calling Minister resign soft.

leaders of the equivalent of the Federation were on the Interior : Martin Villa, to because he was too Skin deep At the same time the army Chief of Staff, Liniers, was in Argentina flattering General Videla and publicly saying that the Spanish military would act if and when they had to.

The Defence Minister was obliged to make a statement saying that the army did not plan to seize power at that moment.

Shortly after this immediate crisis had passed, hardline Francoist Manuel Fraga, leader of the Popular Alliance, began a new, more vigorous political campaign.

Once again it had been shown how skin-deep is Spanish "democracy" Now the further police killings (by a section of the Basque nationalist organisation ETA) have brought all the same pressures to the surface once again.

Pretext These reactionary threats by one section of the Francoists are used by the leaders of the Communist Party as a pretext for strengthening their alliance with Suarez and the "democratic" Francoists.

With last year's Moncloa pact on the point of expiring, and the capitalist class desperate to maintain wage control, the CP is/now preparing the ground for a new phase of wage control.

Conscious role

REMOVA the Stalinists, nonetheless like the Cr, its main conscious political role is to show the capitalist class and the Francoist police and army which stands behind it) that Socialist and Communist leaders can keep the working class on its best behaviour without the need for Francoist bullets. the three main union organisations in Italy-including the Communist Party led CGIL-are drafting a plan whereby they agree that there will be no strikes at certain times in public industries.

This is because public service workers have understandably been picking the most stratetically effective times to go on strike.

But • union leaders, including the Stalinists, have decided that this must stop.

They have set out to improve the "public" image of the unions by taking away their power to cause industrial stoppages.

If the deal is agreed there would be no public service strikes at Christmas . Or public transport strikes when they are most used, e.g. during the rush hour.

yRS POLL demanding

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