Franco's Men Sleep Easy Despite Election Reverses

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Within a few days the Mayoralty of Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and of all Spain's major industrial cities will pass from the hands of appointed Francoist functionaries into those of people persecuted and in some cases imprisoned by Franco's dictatorship.

The new incumbents will be in the main members of the Socialist Party (PSOE): the Communist Party and in a few cases Basque or other nationalist parties.

Premier Adolfo Suarez' Francoist Democratic Centre Union (CDU) won twice many seats nationally as the PSOE in Spain's first municipal elections since 1933.

Majorities

But the PSOE and CP together won majorities of councillors in virtually all the big cities.

It is these councillors who will now elect the mayors.

But most of Franco's officials can still rest easy in their beds.

Because the prospective Mayor of Madrid, Enrique Tierno Galvan has said time and time again the PSOE will be "gradualist" and that The ilian ıdolfo "there will be no purges the City Hall"

And there are clear signs that the PSOE and the CP will set out to ensure they do not govern the cities alone, but search out some sort of coalition or similar agreement with the UCD.

Share of spoils

The CP (which has more councillors than the PSOE in only one city) is insistently demanding a share of the spoils of office while the PSOE remains aloof.

Already there are strong indications that the masses, especially in Euskadi (the Basque region), expect the representatives they have elected to use their new positions against the central government of the UCD.

And the new Suarez government announced and ratified by parliamentary vote last week against PSOE, CP and Basque nationalist votes, has shown that it is preparing for increasingly sharp conflict with the masses.

As Franco's municipal mayors step into well-compensated "retirement, his trusted servants still hold on to office in Madrid.

Fascist general

hated 'Francoist Interior Minister, Martin Villa, has been replaced by an experienced fascist General of the Francoist provincial force, the Civil Guard.

And the Armed Forces Ministry remains in the hands of army General Gutierrez Mellado.

Suarez' strategy is to show the more die-hard sections of the military hierarchy that their recent thoughts, and occasionally actions, about staging a military coup to restore Francoist authority is unnecessary.

He has ensured that Franco's Generals-for whom no one cast a single vote in Spain's recent orgy of "democracy"-remain in the most powerful posts of the government.

The stage is set for immense new clashes between the regime and the organised working class.

The government is preparing to launch new economic attacks to solve the continuing crisis of Spanish capital; to resist any serious attempt by national minorities to gain the right to national self-determination; and to meet resistance to these policies by the traditional Francoist measures of batons and bullets.

That, despite the Socialist and Communist mayors, is still the reality of Suarez' «democracy"

While capitalist heads of state wrung their hands and trembled at the prospect of future mass upheavals in Pakistan, former President Bhutto was rapidly and furtively hanged last week, on the orders of military President Zia.

Bhutto was an ideal candidate for hanging-not by dictator Zia but by a workers' PSOE leader Gonzalez court. He had marked his period in office by a massive spate of bribery., corruption and embezzlement, along with the imprisonment, •torture and murder …of his political opponents, and brazen ballot rigging.

In 1973 the total of Bhutto's political prisoners was estimated at 20,000. Bhutto's "Defence of Pakistan Rules' allowed wholesale arrests without proof, and jail without trial.

His followers were given carte blanche to harass and intimidate opponents. In one The overturn of Iran as a bastion of imperialist power in, the Mindle East has focussed growing attention on the chronic economic and political dislocation of Turkey.

Western bankers who previously scorned appeals for loans from Prime Minister Ecevit have begun to take a fresh interest in propping up the tottering economy.

Last week saw the signing of a $250 million loan from the nervous Saudi Arabian regime, eager to avert mass struggles in what has become a crucial strategic country.

No doubt imperialist chiefs will hope that a large chunk of such loans will be spent refurbishing Turkey's armed forces: an American report describes the navy as "mainly rejects" and the air force as "barely 50% operational"

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cashes in on Iran crisis