Spain's generals press for

Scan page 2

More evidence appears every day of feverish preparations by sections of the Spanish ruling class to put an end to the already restricted democratic rights which exist in Spain.

The centre of this activity has been the senior officer corps of the Francoist army.

About ten senior generals have been conducting what is evidently a coordinated 'campaign to make the public preparations for either a military coup or, at least, the declaration of a state of emergency.

Speeches

Five or six of the generals have in the last four weeks given widely publicised speeches lamenting the democratisation of the last two years.

The keynote of one of these, by General Gonzales del Yerro, was that "Spain is dying in our hands"

Several of the most senior generals have been giving similar interviews, including eulogies of Franco, to major national newspapers.

Sections of the capitalist class have also been organising a campaign among leaders of the ruling Democratic Centre Union (UDC) to throw out Adolfo Suarez and replace him with an even more right-wing Premier, less identified with compromises with the leaders of the workers' parties.

Suarez, himself, is now staking everything on getting a sufficiently huge majority for his fake Basque "autonomy" in the October 25 referendum.

The openly pro-imperialist Jamaica Labour Party bas set out to capitalise on the mass discontent with the Manley government in preparation for the General Election due within the next eighteen months.

JLP leader Edward Seaga addressed a crowd of 45,000 supporters in Kingston on 4 October.

In his speech he claimed that attacks by Manley's People's National Party on the JLP, himself, the major capitalist paperune Gleaner-and the United States were all part of a "Cuban design"

Orchestrated

This speech is the latest episode in an orchestrated campaign, eagerly supported by the Gleaner, to whip up anti-communist sentiment and direct it at Cuba and Manley's government.

Seaga went on to claim:

"We must understand that the presence of Estrada (the Cuban Ambassador to Jamaica)

Manley how to conduct affairs in Jamaica."

Arguing that he had no quarrel with Cuba and that he was not against the Cuban revolution Seaga said:

"What Castro wants to do with the Cubans in Cuba is his business [!]. What we object to is the interference in this Suarez He hopes that this will put an end to ETA's successful campaign of terrorist acts against the police and military.

But this hope looks increasingly forlorn.

Not only is ETA's boycott campaign getting broad popular support, but the utterly inadequate "autonomy" proposals make it virtually inconceivable that, whatever the result of the referendum, ETA will be willing to end the campaign. island's affairs Seaga went number of areas were actively government and the Cubans had the last state of Jamaica.

World crisis

• Whatever the real extend of Cuban activity in Jamaica, one thing is certain. Neither the Cubans nor Manley have any intention of fighting to mobilise the masses against the catastrophic effects the world capitalist crisis is having on the Jamaican In line with IMF dictates Manley is holding down wages, slashing public services and allowing inflation to let rip.

It is these material conditions facing the Jamaican working class and the refusal of the 'socialist" Manley to carry out socialist policies for dealing with the situation that has allowed the pro-imperialist JLP to creép ahead of the PNP in the opinion polls.

Many sections of the working class however have resorted to strike action in an attempt to protect their living standards.

The combined efforts of the JLP, the Gleaner and US imper¡alism to prevent Manley winning a third term of office seem set to ensure' a bitter and doubtless bloody election campaign when the time finally comes.

Cuban on to list a where Cubans assisting the claimed that masterminded emergency in Indeed when the bourgeois Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) starts to take on a direct responsibility for repression in Euskadi, the political crisis of the region, and so of Spain as a whole, will be sharpened.

PNV will exposed as an agent of italist exploitation every bit equal of Suarez' ge ivernment and the class war in Euskadi will emerge still more openly.

There is thus no possibility that the pressures within the ruling class towards emergency rule or a coup will diminish.

The only serious question is when they intend to strike.

The workers' movement must be alerted to the danger and must organise adequate measures of self-defence through independent working class organisations.

In doing this worker s will encounter every issible obstacle from their main 1 eaders -especially Communist leader Santiago Carrillo.

Played down

He has put his public faith in "democratic" Suarez-a stand echoed. by the recently reelected Socialist Party leader Felipe Gonzalez.

Last week Gonzalez dangerously played down the coup danger under the guise of opposing the government:

"When the military stage coup d'etat, it is to put the right in power. But it's already there."

But what Gonzalez failed to point out was that the section of the right which was in power today is able to exert control of the mass movement only because of the shameful collaboration of Gonzalez and his ilk.

Fear

The section of the right now preparing to ditch Suarez is doing so because it fears that the working class and its allies will be able to organise the anti-capitalist offensive which Gonzales and Carrilio relentlessly oppose.

The capitalists are increasingly becoming convinced that without the full restoration of the Francoist dictatorship, they and their system of exploitation will not be able to survive.

----- pull-quotes -----

here is to be Manley's boss, to bo Manley's tutor, to direct

Exposed The "opposition"