The best film of the year showed London's AnECIODO lous's epic The Travelling Players Shot in Greece under the colonels on a shoe-string budget, it tells the tragic history of Greece from 1939. 52, as seen through the eyes and actions of a group of actors. It is perhaps the most moving, skilful and multi-sided study of revolution and counter-revolution made A film which runs it close with similar pre-ocupations, and one -to walcl m 1yr is Jame cam no's Long Holidays of 1936. Made in Franco's dving davs. it is th most explicit film about the SpanIsh Civil War vet made in Spain These are two films to see which tower over the heaps of blood hate, repression and gratuitous sex which pass for popular cinema in these times. And we can be sure that there will be others in 1977;
least because or the year other major event, the opening of onema London. which represents an important new oulict lor mie screenne ano oisurDENGALI PRIENDS IN Europ books Anetore Stalin, LiSoctis Feminism Un-m. Bom Box 4272. London Wor MANCHESTER Agee/Hosenball DetCommittee Tentre muting thir nev Agee, Mike Beatier (NUS), Prer Sweating?
Saturday 8
Saines, Admission 60 g •S UKT: A new novel o Malachi O'Doherty. Vivid description o dun Publications, 10 Beneri Peliy, Seankr Frankie Thurs OUT NOW: December issue of Worker Power 3 with articles on the Labou Sovernment and the Crisis, te spitelr TA Camerve LEICEO Ch National Abortion Cam paign would like to hear he National Tribunal. All contributior vill remain anonymou: Please co act: 35 Keythorpe St, Leicester ABORTION RIGHTS (off Clapham High St). Speakers, filn and singers.
MANCHESTER Red Weekly Discussior n the Red Week!
MANUS OFF IKCLAND soecia 2001 movement bulelin canine for immed ATICIe:
te COMBAT REPRESSION *Bukovsky releases Corvalan! or perhaps Bukovsky and Corvalan neip each omer our of poncal prisons' - this was the kind of Christmas message sent Dy Mos cow to the labour movement in the caDialist woro. it woule nave been difficult to imagine a more unwe come cesture Tor Marchais of the French Communcolleagues other Communist Parties in Westcrn europe.
And to add an extra insult, those WOrk mass man wide campaigned vigorously against the brutal repression in Chile and foi the release of political prisoners like Corvalan could imagine kind of celebrations being held by the Chilean Junta for Pinochet's considerable diplomatic victory. For once revolutionary Marxists must wholeheartedly agre with a phrase from Marchais: it was a "lamentable exchange'.
WELCOME If we forget for a moment the form of release of these two remained until his recent release.
ADMISSION Grigorenko has pointed out tha Moscow's release of Bukovsky and INTO foreign exile amounts to an admission that Bukovsky was indeed a political prisoner. So question arises: why did the Soviet leadership decide to arrange the swap in so blatant a way?
There are two possible explanations. The first is that the Soviet bureaucracy failed to foresee the kind of impact its cynical deal would have in the labour movements orine capitalist wor din other words, they inadvertently allowca ine kind or norse-trading that is habitual for behind-the-scenes oiscuss ons oerwee Mos cow and the capitalist world to spill over into public view.
But this explanation is not the most likely one. In the first place, a number of East European CPs had already denounced the Chilean proposal to swap Corvalan for Bukovsky. Only two months befgrowing movement in the defence of Soviet political prisoners is creating serious political problems Following an obviously Soviet-inspired Bul garian denunciation of the Western CPs for anti-Sovietism Hungarian Party boss, Kadar, publicly dissociated himself from such a characterisation.
In short, the Bukovsky swap is a further step in the complex crisis of European Stalinism which is destined to become more acute throughout 1977. It is a further symptom of the growing inter-play of the crisis in the capitalist Wes and the crisis in the bureaucratised workers states of Eastern Europe.
Ked week v nas consistently campaigned against all attempts to repress acmocranc rignis in cast ern Europe and the USSR. It has diso occu in tne toretone Chilean solidarity activities. We can only hope that the fates of those two former politial prisoners. now political exiles. will help to bring home the realities of world politics at the start of 1977. OLIVER MacDONALD SPANISH COPS THE SPANISH dictatorship has been forced to release its most embarrasing political prisoner. After being held for eight days, Santiago Carrillo, general secretary of the Communist Party [PCE], was let out of the prison hospital of Carabanchel on bail.
From the Government's point of view, the strongest reason for his release was the strength of the defence campaign which was launched immediately after his arrest, culminating in a mass demonstration in Madrid which was brutally attacked by the police. But it also seems likely that the Government itself never planned Carrillo's arrest.
He first appeared publicly at a press conference on 10 December. but it took me ponce a fortnignt to "find" him. It is far more likely that the arrest was taken independently by the police. coincidental that the arrest was quickly followed by a reshuffle of hard-line security chiefs.
ANALYSIS Carrillo's analysis of his release is largely correct. *The Communist Party has not yet been made legal by my release', he said, 'but at the same time you cannot say that it is illegal.' The Interior Ministry has made it clear that it will tolerate PCE activity, but only through front organisations.
But Carrillo is also over the moon about the possibilities of legalisation of the PCE. Rather than seeing the release of himself and seven of his comrades as a victory for te enure tert wnien moonsed in tael defence, he only regards it as a new attitude on the part of the Government.
here no coup at he Governmen Wwe legalise the PCE sooner or later; but it also wants to poosette supon one on me socar aemocrats. at the expense of the PCE and the far left prior to the elecions ater us vear, carrio nas usce us recase a an opportunity to state the PE's commitment to reassert the position of his party While Carrillo's release was a victory, - used it to obscure some basic poltical issues. The need to fight for the release of all political WaS highlighted by weekend in the Basque country. Mass demonstrations PUT THEIR FOOT IN IT?
It may not be SANTIAGO CARRILLO attacks.
WOrKerS
Carrillo has not even the major The has struggles last Juan Aguirre demanded a total amnesty and fought off the attacks of the Civil Guard and Armed Police. In Eibar a NoT tenonstors were wounded on New Year's Eve. At Algorta, near Bilbao, workers threv up barricades in the streets on Sunday against polic are showing in practice wha understood in theory. The dictatorship of Franco lives on. Among the precon ditions for participation in any elections must be the release of all political prisoners and the legalisation of all the organisations of the workers movement.
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include Politica *Political Status*
The meaning of Bukovsky's release