The first round of the workers' work of the most important groups of strikers.
Some have simply been starved back, such as those at the ITT affiliate Standard Electric, who were in the vanguard of the present wave of struggle, but as a result have been out or strike for two months (and in Spain - where there are no trade union funds or social security payments for strikers - that means two months with no income at all).
Others, like the Madrid building workers have returned to worl after winning partial concessions from the employers in the form of wage rises.
Yet others have been driven back by the iron heel of the dictatorship: the postal and telephone workers were torcca to cna tael strike after being drafted into the army and made subject to martial law; a similar move broke the strike of aircraft workers; and the Madrid underground has only been kept running by the threat of such "militarisation.
NOT SATISFIED But all these groups of workers have one thine in common - none of them have seen either their basic material needs or their deep desire for political freedom satisfied. The repression that was necessary to prevent this upsurge turning into an all-out political offensive has been extremely embarrassing for.the regime, whose attempts to cultivate a 'liberal' image have been rather dented by the spectacle of hundreds of riot-equipped policemen ruthlessly tear-gassing and baton-charging demonstrations of housewives and trade unionists.
difficulty, the regime is starting to play up its much-vaunted plans for 'reform'. In fact these reforms would do nothing more than tart up the dictatorship which General Franco created and bequeathed to the present regime. The changes it suggests are tiny.
ish parliament): it is proposed that all representatives (instead of the by universal suffrage (only 'heads ent); but this body would still have almost no power over the Government, and there would be an appointed upper-house with power to block the decisions of the elected rebrese alives associations': this would allow many political parties that are at present illegal to operate publicly; but the Government has made it clear that it has no intention of legalising the main workers organisation - the Communist Party - nor any of the growing organisations to its left.
• Reform of the official trade unions: this is designed to stop an influx of workers into the powerful, illegal workers commissions over which the Government has no control; but it in no way represents the WEEKLY
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upsurge in Spain now seems to have passed, with the return to