Basque referendum: a broken e reterendum: a broken- crutch for Franco's heirs

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It is the repressive omni- no more t present Francoist police which, nomy on thi regime in Madrid with a broken crutch.

Though of those voting there was a 95% majority for the statute-agreed between the ruling Democratic Centre Union (UCD) the bourgeois nationalists of the Basque National Party (PNV) and the Socialist and Communist party opposition'-the most significant figure was the high number of abstentions.

Only 61% of the population voted, implying virtually as much support for protest abstentions as in the referendum of December 1977.

And this time the traditional parties with mass support 11 Euskadi were all actively campaigning for a 'yes' vote, while in December 1977 they were all still illegal.

The abstentions, therefore, are clear testimony to the growing influence of the left wing of Basque nationalism represented at the military level by ETA (militar) and at the political level by the coalition Herri Batasuna (Popular Unity).

Although, of course, not all the abstentions can be counted as conscious political ones, the figures suggest that Herri Batasuna has maintained the bulk of the support that it won in the parliamentary and municipal elections earlier this year.

While they tried to put a good face on it, the leaders of good face on it, the leaders of the recime and of the PNV had the regime and of the PNV had to acknowledge that the referendum, though it gives the go-ahead to implementing the new statute, has by no means laid to rest the threat which the demand for real national self determination poses to the reactionary plans of the Spanish and Basque capitalist classes.

PNV leader, Garraiochea, recognised immediately after the results were issued that ETA (militar)'s war would continue.

Anger

What he did not say, but must undoubtedly fear, is that the anger of the Basque working class will from now on be turned increasingly; as the statute is implemented, against the PNV and the reformist and Stalinist leaderships in the Basque country itself rather than against the Francoists in Madrid.

Despite its remarkable success at the military level, ETA's guerrilla strategy politically represents the most radical wing of petty bourgeois nationalism, though it receives very significant working class It has no answers to the problems faced by the working çlass and is, therefore, no substitute for the building of revolutionary proletarian (i.e. Trotskyist) party which represents the independent interests of the working class and whose programme must include but not stop short at the most uncompromising struggle for the right to national self determination in Euskadi.

The Madrid regime and the PNV are now hoping that the statute will head off this explosive demand by providing many of the trappings of national independence with none of the reality.

Euskadi will have a locally elected parliament of 60 seats (20 for each of the three •Suarez officially recognised Basque provinces-Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya and Alava) and a local government whose Prime Minister will nonetheless be nominated by the King in Madrid!

The Basque language will become an official language and there will be a Basque TV channel. The government will have responsibility for education, transport, health and tourIsm with certain limited powers of taxation and other responsibilities for the economy.

But apparently the most significant provision of the Statute is that which allows the Basque government to have its own police force. present Francoist police which, not without reason, the bour- nit without rescan tha hair geois nationalists believe to be a or the radical policies of BOA (militar).

They hope that a change the apparent responsibility the repressive forces will help guarantee the capitalist order the Basque country.

But it is certain that the consciousness of the Basque working class runs much deeper than the nationalists hope.

Workers will see clearly enough that what is planned is not a change of regime, or even a change of personnel, but merely a change of uniform.

It is planned that the officers of the new police force will still be appointed from Madrid and that the Madrid forces are to continue to have main responsibility for the fight against ETA (militar).

So this fraud will be exposed long before the first time a 'Basque national policeman' shoots down a Basque worker.

The provisions of the Basque statute are paralleled in that for Catalonia, which also received a large 'yes' majority.

The relatively low poll in Catalonia reflected not an active campaign of boycott as in Euskadi but rather a mass indifference towards a statute that is widely seen as conferring no more than cosmetic nomy on the region.

'Reforming' Francoist Premier, Adolfo Suarez, was hoping to use an overwhelming 'yes' majority on the referenda to reassure the growing sections of the bourgeoisie who are increasingly calling for a new military regime of the Francoist generals in the army..

On paper that is what he got. But no-one last week, not even himself, could present the results as decisive.

Unemployment The working class in Euskadi and Catalonia, as well as throughout Spain, continue to make the same demands as before, as unemployment continues to grow and real wages , fall.

And the referenda have done precisely nothing to put the Spanish bourgeoisie in a better position to meet any of these demands.

It is in Euskadi that the working class struggle against Francoism and Spanish capitalism has reached its highest point.

There is every sign that after the referendum, as before it, the Basque working class will continue to be in the vanguard of a growing struggle throughout Spain.

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Page f SOCIALIST.PRESS. Wednesday 31 October 1979 ET