Spain's Tony Benn Lines up to Step into Psoe

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Stepping up street violence-Fuerza Nuevo fascists Other In an atmosphere of mounting political tension in Spain, with fascist bands stepping up their street mobilisations and calling for a military takeover, the struggle for the leadership of the Socialist Party (PSOE) has begun.

Tyranny is under threat in Nepal. The autocratic rule of King Birendra has been challenged by the development of opposition which has been spearheaded by the mass student demonstrations of the last two months.

It looks fairly clear that one of the major contenders to replace Felipe Gonzalez as First Secretary of the party will be Francisco Bustelo, the best-known of the fake lefts' who lead the Madrid federation of the PSOE.

Parallel

There is a certair between Bustelo Their democratic demands have symbolised the popular discontent with the political and economic system of the Himalayan state.

Poorest Like nearby Bhutan, Nepal is among the very poorest countries in the world. The i pari illel and his closest British Tony Benn.

Both men are self evident political opportunists.

Both are limbering up for a shot at the leadership at a moment when the existing leader has lost prestige as a result of conference and election defeats.

Both men have for years cultivated a left' image despite the fact that in concrete terms they have gone along with every policy of the right wing And both are now justifying their treacherous past but saying their parties now need a more left-wing policy for the future.

Same thing

Bustelo said so in so many words last week.

For the last two and a half years, he admitted:

"I would have done the same thing as Felipe Gonzalez."

For those years, he went on, Gonzalez had led the average weekly i come is £1 per head, in an econ omy dominated by agriculture, tourism and smuggling.

A product of Eton and Harvard, the young king succeeded seven years ago to his father's throne as the incarnation of the God Vishnu, King of Kings, the Five Times Godly, Valorous Warrior and Divine Emperor.

This panoply of names rests on the 'Panchayat' system of 'non-party' elections to a powerless assembly.

Designed to integrate every layer of Nepalese society in collaboration with the plans of the autocracy, the Panchayat system has met with deepening party on the basis of declaration of princi iles even harder than the one we just adopted".

'Marxist'

He was referring to the declaration of the PSOE as a "Marxist class party" which was passed at the recent PSOE congress by an overwhelming margin-despite Gonzalez' pleas.

It was this defeat which pushed Gonzalez into what he clearly wants to be no more than a temporary resignation.

But, warns Bustelo, "If he says today he doesn't like those principles then it must be because he has a plan in his head which he still hasn't told us about.

Bustelo referred particularly to a possible plan for a coalition government with the right.

"Six months after entering such a government we would have to call the police to defend party headquarters against demonstrations of unemployed workers"

But Bustelo's defence of "Marxism" and opposition to coalitions remains on a formal level.

Refuses He refuses to • fight for a of socialist policies.

Rank and file militants of the PSOE must reject Gonzalez-in happier times this crass opportunist attempt by Bustelo to gain the leadership.

The Bustelo bandwagon is not negligible.

But it must be derailed and substituted by a principled fight against the rght-wing leadership based on the fight for the Trotskyist Transitional Programme.

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