[The Defence Minister's leaked secret statement to parliament…]

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The Defence Minister's leaked secret statement to parliament last week about the just-failed military coup on February 23 confirmed the worst fears about the fragility of Spain's postFranco 'democracy'.

Oliart's report revealed a plot of very wide extent among military and Civil Guard officers which had been carefully planned over several months.

He made it clear that many This also explains something of the timing of the coup attempt. Suarez evidently resigned • to reduce military pressure against his ineffective, though reactionary, regime.

The plotters therefore moved (before many senior officers were ready) 'at the moment of Calvo Sotelo's installation as Premier before the UCD government got a new lease of life under a new leader.

Oliart's statement was leaked to the press by members of parliament who had secretly government had hoped for.

Even before the leak the government has been planning to introduce legislation which will curb the freedom of the press and which will allow them to close down not only the embarrassing official Francoist daily El Alcazar but also the Basque daily, Egin.

In the Basque provinces the EȚA militar campaign against the army has continued, regardless of the coup attempt. Since February . 23 ETA have succeeded in killing a group of London March 1981 Dear Comrades, It is to be hoped that Socialist Press will be able to carry more extensive material on the newly proclaimed Fourth International (International Committee) soon. From my point of view the 28 February meeting reported in issue 238 raised more questions than it answered, and cannot be seen as a definitive solution to the problems of the fragmentation of the Trotskyist movement in Britain and the world.

Although these points will, however, have to await a more detailed discussion, I would like to add to your report on the 28 February meeting.

"Fusion'

It must have been apparent to even the most casual observer that the fusion' between the aspirants to 'orthodoxy' as represented by the SLG and LWR, (as the mouthpieces of the UCI), and the current led by Moreno, which steadfastly refuses to give an account of its period in the Pabloite' United Secretariat, has a very long way to go before anything resembling a politically coherent world proletarian leadership can emerge from it.

The most glaring example of this, and one which your account should have mentioned -given that it was juxtaposed to a piece on the FI(IC)'s defamation of Lora-was the striking contradiction between John Archer's opening contribution importance of history, contin SLG uity and tradition, in particular the SLL in Britain (a view which we would largely support) and Moreno's vulgar dismissal of history as a fit subject for a few specialists but hermetically isolated from real work His dismissal of history can only lead to a refusal to evaluate and learn from past errors, and in some cases crimes of leaderships, and will inevitably lead the working class into the same traps that have held it in its historic impasse since 1938.

Attacks

Moreno's violent and repetitious attacks on the whole history of Lora's organisation not only undermine his own rejectión of historical analysis but question every central decision made by the 'orthodox' SLL-OCI current in Latin America.

It is important that the SLG, if it is serious about its claims to à continuity with earlier struggles to build a movement in Britain and internationally, give a proper account of ifs position in relation to Lora and his movement, and of his expulsion from the OCRFI.

It would also be worthwhile to record the dishonest way in which Moreno replied to the points raised by WSL and Workers Power speakers. None of their points were seriously dealt with, and both were dismissed as provincial establishments trying to maintain their own little enterprises.

Debating tricks

In fact he sought to combine the two groups in the minds of the audience by a series of debating tricks that would be more appropriate to the Oxford Union than' the workers' movement.

He failed entirely to explain why he had broken off his earlier approaches to the WSL and had not been prepared to support their request to present material to the founding conference of the FI(IC). He refused to even consider the international work of the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee.

Certainly the discussion must continue, and joint solidarity work must be undertaken with the SLG on the assumption that they are a group of serious workers. Equally we should insist on an honest approach in these discussions and an end to sharp practice.

Fraternally, Ernie Stubbins Reconstruct Fourth Internotional!

No. 1 Nov. 1979 DISCUSSION BULLETIN 60p The Transitional Programme in Today's Class Struggle The founding programmatic document of the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee.

Available, price 80p

including postage, from WSL, BM Box 5277, London WCIN 3XX