Since the struggle of the SEAT workers in Barcelona last October, there have been major mobilisations of workers over the renewal of the Collective Contracts, as well as student struggles. What is the significance of the new wave of workers' struggles, given the sharpenig crisis of the regime?
Ever since the struggles against the Burgos trials in December 1970, the Franco regime has faced a growing, increasingly political mass movement. This is the context of the present struggles. The lessons of the SEAT strikethe advanced demands, new forms of organisabion, and above all the mass response to attacks by the forces of repression, have been learned by broad layers of workers. In any workers" #ruggles since then, factory assemblies have been set up, common demands have been defended and self-defence pickets formed: solidarity actions are organised throughout the area. There have been real advances in exemplary struggles such as the Michelin strike at /itoria (42 days) and the Elesa strike at Zarauz (78 days), both of them in the Basque country, and the Commetsa strike in Barcelona. A major step forward came with the struggle of the Bazan workers at El Ferrol, because of their level of combativity, the fact that the fruitlessness of the Collective Contracts was hown up, and above all, because of the solidarity movement throughout the region and the country as a whole. At the same time, the attitude of the repressive forces again showed the real nature of the "liberalisation" advocaled by some of the forces supporting the reas well as the falseness of any illusions the regime can be overthrown by peaceful The struggles are very significant politically. se the labour movement, despite its orgaNot only an offensive nisational weakness, is heginning concretely to face the need to prepare for grocralised, nationwide struggles to push the crisis of the Franco regime to a decisive point.
What is the real importance of the student struggles in the strengthening of the student movement?
If student struggles weten't very unified or co-ordinated in t ed from December *70 to December in the 10th December distric celona and the first lents in Madrid. the student movey-February mobiliin the medics. They ed response in oppoof the General Educasection procedures), of the police in the uniting repression. The mass the radicalisation m confrontations with the extension of solidarity action to other areas of struggle fother universities, schools and hospital medical staff), drove the government back, forcing it to lift penalties imposed on the medical students. On 14 February, the CP called for a strike of all teachers, which was supported by other organisations including our own. It had a real effect in the schools, and even in religious teacher training colleges. In Madrid the day of action was unsuccessful because of the closing of the unversity.
Later on, although the mobilisation for the days of action on 1 and 8 March was smaller than in February, it was possible to give the movement a new impulse and organise for future actions. Through all these struggles, the student movement has become much stronger far from the resistance weakening as a restrike was conducted through the Assembly and the clection of a committee responsible to all the workers.
In every factory where the LCR intervenes, we try to achieve unity in action with other organisationsto helptheextensionof thestruggle andsolidarityaction; and we also stress the need toorganise self-defence from the beginningot the struggle, given that there will certainly he confrontations with the repressive forces. In the student struggles, in Madrid the LCR has played a very important role in the mobilisations of the past few months. To organise solidarity with the medical students, when the movement began, the LCR called for the formation of Action Committees which brought together some 400 students: they posed the need to broaden the movement, hold a general assembly of the whole university, and they called for demonstrations with self-defence pickets, ete. The CP on the one hand, and the Action Committees on the other, were the main political forces. On 1 March, in Madrid, the CP's student organisation and the LCR student committee issued a joint call for a day ofstrug gle, which represented a step forward in unity of action in the student movement, but was inadequate or ambiguous in some respects (how should the day be organised? the problem of self-defence, etc.). There were lightning demonstrations and actions in the various faculties. !
Again in Madrid, on 8 March, the LCR proposed joint actions to other organisations (the CP, the maoists); despite the fact that most refused, there was a public demonstration, with self-defence pickets protecting the demonstrators against the police presence in the area. On the same day the LCR held a clandestine demonstration with 600 students. Finally on 15 March, the LCR called for a demonstration in solidarity with the El Ferrol workers, which was joined by some 800 people could well be the last major offensive bethere will be mobilisations of a political nature in the coming months. Already the Building Workers' Commission in Madrid has called on the workers in this branch (some 100,000) to go on strike in the week 24-29 April; and there will be actions in other sectors too.
The LCR will work with all its strength to ensure that these actions are well-organised and a major step forward in the radicalisation of broad layers of workers. In the case of the building workers' strike, many worker militants have already weighed up the experience of recent strikes and are prepared to organise better this time, despite the CP's role in holding them back, especially from protecting the strikers against repression and organising the movement democratically.
So we hope that May Day will have a political importance and a mass character sufficient to encourage the workers' movement to deal decisive blows against the dictatorship. For its part, the LCR will be calling on other organisations to organise a day of solidarity with the Indochinese revolution, linked to the current international campaign. Given the situation in Spain, we also see this as a part of the preparation for May Day.
NOTE:
The CP leadership is being obliged to employ more subtle tactics with its left wing because of the weakness of its organisational hold over the workers vanguard, and because the extreme left, despite its divisions, is growing stronger. The 14 March Mundo Obrero (CP newspaper) refers to unity of action with the LCR in Madrid in the following terms: "The CP Committee for Student Organisation and the LCR Student Committee have published a joint call for a struggle against the General coucation Law and a call to strike on 1 May without this meaning that deep stra tegical and tactical differences have been forgotten.
The above interview first appeared in Rouge, newspaper of the Ligue Communiste, French Section of the Fourth International.
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