Franco style elections must be fought by

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ira perilous position.

15 unable to keep functioning Franco's old fascist "union" › the CNS, known as the "vertical union"

This is because the mass of working class has shown time and time again its rejection of the fascist institution and its demand for free workers' organisations.

But the Suarez regime is completely unwilling grant freedom to genuinely independent workers' organisations because that will make it more difficult to impose on the working class the vast economic burdens which Spanish capitalism needs to load on the working class.

Franco's heir, Juan Carlos Just as the Francoists used the fraudulent guise of parliamentary democracy to legitimise themselves in power last June, so now they are trying to carry out a similar political con-trick in the field of trade unions.

In all factories and workplaces, the government says, workers must elect factory committees which will be the only bodies entitled to negotiate with the management.

Elections will take place in all factories simultaneously and only when the government decides.

Factory committees are not permitted to form organisations of liason or joint white collar workers. And all "employees" including management, may vote.

Not answerable Workers less than 18 years old and those with less than six months continuous work in their present factory may not vote except when short separate representation.

The committees, once elected, are not in any way answerable to workers' meetings.

In fact they are not answerable to anything until the government decides it is time for new elections.

But under the regime's new trade union legislation these committees will be the only recognised representatives of the workers.

Unrecognised

That means that all the free committees, assemblies, factory councils and ordinating bodies, which Spanish workers have already built to replace the crumbling sham of Franco's "trade unions". , will be unrecognised and virtually illegal.

According to the government they should now be dissolved and replaced with the new committees elected according to the government's norms.

In factories where workers refuse to implement elections within these norms then the members of the old committees (called enlaces and jurados) of the vertical fascist CNS will remain in office and will be the only legal workers' representatives.

Vertical It is very clear that these elections are seen by the regime as a way of attacking the independence and organisation of the working class.

The regime is trying to retain as much as possible of the content of the old vertical Francoist svstem bv dressing Carrillo signs the it up in "democratic" frills.

They do not tire of pointing out that the élections will be run "by the workers themselves" (as long as they obey the government norms to the letter) and that independently . organised trade union sections are allowed freely to put up their lists of candidates for But the elections are designed precisely to weaken these sections of free trade unions by forbidding them to represent workers except through the semi-capitalist committees.

As in all its other major anti-working class endeavours -the general elections of 1976 and the Moncloa Pact of austerity measures-the Suarez regime would not have any hope of imposing these fraudulent committees on the working class if it did not have the support of the Stalinist and reformist Spokesmen of both the Workers Commission and the General Workers' Union (UGT), politically dominated by the Communist Party and the Socialist Party respectively, have both backed up the government's plan.

A Workers' Commiss spokesman said that "at l the working class is going have instruments adequate its needs"

Formal dispute

There was dispute between the Workers' Commission and the UGT about whether the voting procedure should be based on selecting closed lists of candidates or selecting a certain number of candidates from any list.

Apart from this formal dispute, however, both the Stalinist and reformist leaders have completely accepted the norms imposed on workers' representation by the Francoist government.

Workers' Commissions everywhere, along in most places, with the UGT, are participating fully in the But large sections of the working class have seen clearly what government interference means and have shown themselves ready to fight it in a principled way.

Boycott

A minority of local sections of the UGT, and the whole of the CNT, the anarchist trade union federation, have declared a position of boycott towards the regime's decree.

The CNT's position, however, is a negative one in that it rejects the governments elections without seriously tackling the provision of a concrete alternative which genuinely strengthens the organisation of the working class.

The process of building elected factory committees answerable to the mass meetings of the workers, of unifying those committees within industries and linking them to other committees regionally and nationally must continue.

Free elections

Independent, elections onen to 'ade ment's schedule.

But in that case voting could only be justified if there is a candidacy standing on the platform of refusal to accept any of the constitutional norms of the committees contained in the regime's decree.

In practice in the great majority of factories the Workers' Commissions and the UGT will be standing rival slates of candidates all fully committed to compliance with the government's reactionary decree.

In those circumstances Trotskyists should fight for an active boycott based on the campaign to mount elections to genuinely free and , independent organs of workers' representation in which Trotskyists would fight for the Transitional Programme of the Fourth BOLIVIA The banzer dictatorship, after last week's political concessions, has now announced that restrictions on trade union activity have been lifted. The Bolivian Confederation of Workers (COB), illegal since 1974 has resumed public activity. Troops, however, still occupy the mining areas and there can be no doubt that Banzer is hoping for a moment to seize back the concessions he has been forced to grant.

HOLLAND

Philip Agee, ex-CIA agent and exposer of the Agency's activities, has lost his appeal against an expulsion order from the Dutch government. Last year he was expelled from Britain, France and West Germany.

INDIA

As the strike of one million teachers and :her government empl rees ontorad ito ciuth want i tha

Opposition

Despite some impor opposition to the impler tation of the De (especially from the i organised factories long ago elected their interference), in most pi committees without elections are likely to place in the next few w nominally under the regi norms.

But as soon as any stru develops then there doubt that workers will tr breack out of the strai jacket whett am ment's Decree aims to f on the workers' movemen Over the last two y workers have not only rap joined trade unions, es ially the UGT, but also : number of areas (especiall Euskadi) they have for strike and occupation c mittees and factory coor ating committees.

Prepared to defend These committées 1 comel.e usually sprung up in relat to specific anti-governm struggles.

They have shown the 1 in which large sections of Spanish working class prepared to defend material conditions, political rights and independence, all of wi are attacked by the regin Decree on factory election BRIEF state of Maharashtra, further seven million work joined them in a 24hr general strike. This action 1 Tuesday brought Bombay a standstill.

Soares' new coalit government with th Christian Democra minister and no Socia Party "lefts" faces a vote confidence this week. 1 Communist Party has offer no more than formal opp ition to this right wing co ition.

INDONESIA

Troops have been plar on an emergency footing a told to be "ready for al thing" after new outbreaks agitation against dicta Suharto. Hundreds of peor especially students, have br arrested and many ner papers closed down. In Mai Suharto faces a president election: he is the or nandidntal

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ILIST PRE dnesc SS, of the EEC, too, farmers are demanding higher food prices and those demands can only be met by a generally agreed increase in EEC food prices.

That measure would be

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