Pinochet of Chile at the funeral of Franco). But to have open spokesmen of the capitalists at a workAnd vet unal is exaculy wnat the delegates to the 14 February Conference will find awaiting them. Sitting alongside Jack Jones, Michael Foot and Spanish workers' leader Marcello Camacho will be a starstudded crew of Tories and Liberals - not British Tories and Liberals, but those who share their political views in Spain.
This is what the decision to invite representatives from the two opposition groups, the Junta Democratica (Democratic Council) and the Platforma de Convergencia Democratica (Platform of Democratic Agreement) amounts to. For while each of these bodies is led by one of the main workers parties (the Democratic Council by the Communist Party, and the Democratic Platform by the Socialist Party), both include representatives of capitalist political LOUDLILLS More importantly, both these bodies are openly dedicated to drawing in representatives of the capitalists and uniting tne working class with the capitalist class in order to establish 'democracy' in Spain. HOW?
Of course, we are 100 per cent in favour of the present struggle for democratic rights in Spain. recognise that it is important for the Spanish workers to win things like the right to have free trade unions and their own political parties, free elections, the right to free speech, free assembly and the right of of self-determination for the oppressed nationalities; and we understand that the Spanish workers must conquer gains like these if they are to carry forward the struggle in defence of their class interests.
But the question is - how can they conquer these gains? And what sort of democracy should the international workers movement be supportimprecor 5.75, L.30 WITCHHUNT IN WEST GERMANY Latest issue contains articles on the witchhunt in West Germany: repercussions of the Angolan civil war; Liga Comunista occlaration on ooain. report and documents trom Lei congress in rortugal, USFI declaration plus article on Timor; behind the South Moluccans' revolt; death sentences in Sri Lanka; workers mobilisation in Mexico; Indian prisoners campaign in Britain. All essential reading and unbeatable value at only 30p (plus 8p p&p) from Red Books, 97 Caledonian Rd, London N1. Or why not take out a subscription-f7 to Red Books will bring you every issue for a year. What would the delegates to this Saturday's 'Conference in Solidarity with the Spanish Working Class' think if they arrived to find representatives of the Tory and Liberal parties sitting on the platform? They might already find themselves a little uneasy at the fact that one of the keynote ing in Spain?
The class collaborationist views put forward by the Communist and Socialist Parties of Spain, and embodied in the Democratic Council and the Democratic Platform, assume that the working class and important sections of the capitalist class share a common standpoint, and that the road to democracy lies in uniting these different forces in order to ensure a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. SUPPORT This viewpoint overlooks' the fact that the present dictatorship has, for the past thirty years, rested on the support of the Spanish capitalists. At various times there have been disagreements between the politicians running the regime and the representatives of big capital. But all this has produced is bitter factional struggles within the dictatorsmip, not a rejection of the dic tatorship by the capitalists.
For example, in the late 1950s the most important groups of Spanish capitalists, aided by international capital, put up a fight to get the regime to open up une country Lo foreign investment and expand We Spain's relations with foreign capitalism. They won this fight; and spokesmen of big capital, organised in the Catholic society 'Opus Dei', type state party, the Falange, in key government posts. This drew the ca capitalists closer to the regime than ever before, and opened up a phase of economic development in Spain. But it did not produce any move from dictatorship to democracy.
True, a brief phase of phoney "liberalisation' opened up. But the regime, despite its new outlook, rapidly scrapped it and turned back Los autona cores ve culous as soon as the Spanish workers began to take advantage of the paltry rights that had been granted to them.
PUPPETS Today the Spanish regime is trying to carry out the same operation - to alter some aspects of the dictatorship to meet the interests of the main capitalist groups, but without opening the door to massive working class struggles, or losing those instruments of the dictatorship which are so valuable in keeping the workers down. Thus the real spokesmen of the Spanish capitalists are not the pathetic puppets who provide window-dressing for the Democratic Council and the Democratic Platform, but the same men who did the job in the 1960s - politicians like Manuel Fraga Iribarne and Jesus Maria de Areilza key ministers in the present Spanish A brief look at the set-up of Spanish capitalism makes the reasons tor this quite clear. th of Spanish capitalism since the war has depended on massive state support anu massive foreign investment. This is obvious if we look at the top 25 Spanish companies: of these, 14 involve important foreign capitalist interests and nine are supported by the state industrial corporation INI. Only two top Spanish companies are independent of both the Francoist state and foreign capital - and they are involved in economic activities (petroleum and shipbuilding) where international connections are very important.
of these big capitalist interestsbasically financial and industrial groups tied up with foreign capital and the exporting of Spanish goods abroad regime's recent record, which has fuelled rather than suppressed labSpain's efforts to get an economic deal with the Common Market abroad. They thus support the current moves to liberalise' the regime in order to obtain a better image overseas and undercut political opposition in Europe to Spanish membership of the EEC is just as wedded to the dictatorship as the group directly dependent on SLaLC ass SLanCe. ship of the Common Market will do them no good unless Spanish industry can out-compete its rivals The growIt is certainly the case that some - are dissatisfied with the our discontent at home, and blocked MISLEAD However, this group of capitalists For member in other European countries. Given the lower level of development of Spanish capitalism there is only one way this can be done - by preserving the low wages and bad conditions of the Spanish workers compared with their brothers and sisters in "democratic' Europe. And that in turn requires the continuing backup of the repressive machinery of the the Francoist dictatorship.
Thus it is that neither the Democratic Council nor the Platform, despite their desperate wooing, have been able to win the support of any important section of the capitalists. All that they do is mislead the Spanish workers into thinking that the road to democracy lies in waiting for the capitalists to do the job for them, and limiting their methods of struggle to those acceptable to these 'shy' capitalists.
Demonstrators mill through the streets last Sunday in Barcelona's biggest demonstration since the Civil War This was made clear by the lead. er of the Spanish Communists, Santiago Carillo, in a recent speech to workers' leaders. He warned them firmly, never occupy factories or companies'. This, he said, would threaten to 'split this democratio front which is developing'. Thus Carillo advises the Spanish working class to fight the dictatorship with one hand tied behind its back, in order that its ranks, tens of millions strong, should not be 'isolated' from the tiny handful of Spanish capitalists!
In actual fact the Spanish working class is not likely to follow the Democratic Council and Democratic Platform up the dead-end of class collaborationist methods of struggle against the dictatorship. experience of the most militant sections of the working class, like those in Euzkadi (the Basque country), has already taught them that only the struggles and organIsanons or the working class can De
ation still holds great dangers for the struggle in Spain. For, faced with the intransigent resistance of the die-hard right-wingers firmly ensconced in the dictatorship on the one side, and the upsurge of the working class on the other, the leading capitalists may decide that it is necessary to make the desperate gamble of scrapping the dictatorship and introducing extensive democratic reforms before the masses do the job themselves.
WHAT SORT Under those circumstances, the question will be posed - what sort ELobito Red Weekly 12 February 1976 BENGUEL/ RAILWAY Z NAMIBIA (S.W. Africa)
IRE L.TANGANYIKA Mpulungi Mpika A LUSAKA ivingstone SALISBURY Spain/Zambia 11 Dar Salaam TANZANIA TANZAM RAILWAY Fort Jameson Nacala BLANTYRE
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speakers is Miciael Foot, top minister in a Labour Government that has given important diplomat- ic support to the Spanish dictatorship (for example, sending its official representative to join General ers movement conference on international solidarity - surely this would be going too far?