Spanish right strengthened by coup attempt FRANCO'S MEN FLEX THEIR MUSCLES

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Fighting the Spain is not ruled by a military dictatorship today. That is worth saying because it is only just true.

And unless there is a major political change it may not remain true for long.

The attempt by Spain's rulers to promote the myth that last week's attempted coup was the work of a handful of madmen like Lieutenant-General Tejero, have already failed.

The evidence so far revealed -and it is still very confusedproves beyond doubt that Spain last week came within an ace of becoming another Turkey.

At least half the top generals of the army seem to be either directly implicated in the coup or else showed marked ambiguity in the direction of their loyalties.

Indeed Juan Carlos was told of the coup by the country's Deputy Chief of Staff, General Alfonso Armada, the proposed new head of a right wing junta Credibility Another aspect of the official version of the coup seems to have gained more credibility -the role of the King.

In a clear and decisive exercise of his authority as Commander-in-Chief, King Juan Carlos is supposed to have brought the rebels to heel, and kept the doubters on the side of constitutionality.

Political leaders of the main parties leaned over backwards in praising the monarch that Franco had bequeathed them. First among the arch-monarchists was Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo, who was seen fondly embracing the King on television around the world.

Unfortunately the King single-handedly saves democracy' story doesn't explain what the King was doing during the seven hours that elapsed between the seizure of the Parliament and the proposal by some of the plotters to Juan Carlos that he should lead the coup, and his brief broadcast at am. in support of the constitution.

Was he trying to control the rebel generals or desperately trying to find out which way the wind was blowing?

In any case the picture of the decisive constitutional love of democracy has been well established and Juan Carlos has emerged from the coup attempt with his reputation greatly enhanced and the monarchy strengthened.

At the same time the reputhe tation of the political reform Report from HENRY engineered by Adolfo Suarez has fallen. The same has to be said of the labour movement.

Again the official story that complete calm ruled in Spain throughout the seventeen hours of the coup attempt is a myth.

There were factory meetings, even protest strikes in some towns (Pamplona, in particular). And there was universal hostility to the coup among the masses.

But nonetheless the response of the labour movement was frighteningly weak and slow. The main workers parties -the PSOE (Socialists) and the CP: their respective unions-the UGT and the Workers Commissions: and even the radical Basque nationalists of ETA all did their best to demobilise a working class that was willing to resist but was lamentably unorganised.

In many factories on the Tuesday, the day after the coup, they called meetings and then sent workers back to work. There were virtually no street demonstrations in the early part of the week and very few political posters.

The Communist and Socialist leaders tied the fate of democracy to the monarchy and the right wing.

They both called demonstrations on the Friday after the coup along with the Centre Democratic Union (UCD), the ruling party of the 'democratic Francoists'.

Could i Those who cling to the liberal notion that the transition to socialism can be achieved by the peaceful road of the ballot box must have experienced a severe jolt this week with the revelations in the New Statesman about Airey Neave's secret preparations for the liquidation of leading socialists in the event of Tony Benn forming a government.

Ironically Neave numselt Is to 1C be found in several small pieces in a coffin in a country churchyard, but that should in no way lead workers to underestimate the significance of his paramilitary preparations.

The New Statesman article points to the tip of a very formidable iceberg which shows the lengths to which key layers PHILLIPS in Madrid Socialist leader Felipe Gonzalez, with the support of Santiago Carrillo of the Communist Party, called for a coalition government on a minimum programme -of "defence of democracy" with the UCD, and even by implication, with Manuel Fraga's further right Democratic Alliance.

Weakness

Had the coup not collapsed so quickly the resistance would have been much more evident.

But the tardiness and weakness of the response of the labour movement will be a lesson for those in the Francoist armed forces who have no doubt already begun to plan the next coup.

They will also note the ease with which General Millans del Bosch, was able for seven hours, without visible opposition, to send his tanks onto the streets of the province of Valencia, declaring a curfew, a ban on all political meetings, a ban on Juan Carlos it happen of the ruling class will resort when faced with mass movements in the working class.

In 1974 fairly widespread coverage was given to "private armies" being organised by tinpot Colonel Blimps in homes for senile ex-British Raj brigadiers-but the real danger comes from powerful elements of the bourgeoisie working hand in hand with the agencies of state surveillance.

If Airey Neave, at the time Thatcher's closest advisor and a man with lifelong contacts in the state security machine, was involved in such clandestine planning right up to his death and during the course of a General Election campaign, what other murky facts have still to be revealed?

The significance for workers coming forward in struggle is crystal clear. A general strike to bring down the Tories could lead to an election and the cuts SUPPLEMENT strikes and all the other classical elements of reactionary military rule.

The failure of last week's coup provides a breathing space, but possibly a brief one, in which it is possible for the workers' movement to learn its lessons: the need for vigilance, preparation, organisation, resistance; the arming of workers' militias; the creation of a united front of workers and nationalist organisations against the coup; the setting up of a public workers' inquiry into the coup in support of the demand for the punishment of those responsible and the dissolution of the Francoist armed forces.

Last week there was little sign of any of this taking place. Instead, the week ended with a series of massive demonstrations —over a million in Madrid, and several of more than 250,000in favour of "freedom, democracy and the constitution" in which the Socialist and Communist masses marched behind banners carried not only by their own leaders but also by the democratic Francoists of the UCD and even by Manuel Fraga.

The abortive coup underlines the necessity to build a revolutionary, Trotskyist party in Spain which can combat the danger of a renewed military crackdown on the workers' movement and the treacherous politics of the reformist and Stalinist leaders. return of a Labour government under Michael Foot.

But it could also take place under conditions where councils of action became widespread, where direct confrontation with the state was a daily necessity and where the establishment of a workers' government was posed.

In such a situation the physical defence of workers' organisations and workers' leaders would be of paramount importance.

Even the institutions of bourgeois democracy such as Parliament and local councile will be jettisoned by an endan- VUULIVAD gered ruling class when the crunch comes.

The events of Spain, Chile and Turkey are watched closely by the right as well as the left, and the left already has much further to go in shedding its liberal illusions. Charles' wedding-p.2