dictatorship. Such an offensive draw in the mass of students, armers, agricultural labourers, wives and small traders, isolate tatorship and the capitalist and hring the regime crashing the moment, despite the trems purtial struggles taking place, litical fosce is yet able to play art. The revolutionary left -ally the supporters of the Four ternational - have been able to art in the leadership of imporgional struggies, like the gonnike of 300,000 workers in the • provinces In December last But they do not yet have the or influence In do this throughsilitants, and in particular at present on tria for the t of the Cafe Rolande, md the assassination of Prime Minister| Carrero hese trials which mvolve militants Eva Forest und alcon, and building workers" stonio Durun, along with thers- which now provide ral focus for solidarity strug: h inside Spain ibself and out Ешоре.
Spanish dictatorship is now netween two stocis. Un the image to the rest of Europe to win acceptance into the in Market, This was reflecred educed sentences which the achel 10, leaders of the illrkets commissions, received recent appeal. On the other wants to serve a warning ising tide of miss opposition Spanish state is still ready e to use the most bloody * of repression. It is to'use the trial of Forest ists has shown the slightest interest in uniting with the Junta Democratica". The reason is simple —as we Jiave already pointed out they are quite pleased with the basic set-up of the present regime, even if some might want to adopt a 'liberal turn to try and derail the present struggles.
PIPE DREAM Tho "Junta Democratica' is a class-collaborationist pipe dream. But the Communist Party is quite prepared to block the real way forward in order to promote it. Last year, for example, they were talking about organising a national general strike against the dictatorship. Even though they were only proposing a unutca protest strike, and not the beginning of a real struggle for power, they prompMy scrapped the plan when it looked as if certain currents of liberal capand Duran for this purpose.
it B therefore no accident that the militants accused of the Cale Kolando bombing (which all left wing organisations have denied responsibility for and blamed on right-wing provocaleurs) bave been leading activists in the struggle against the dick forship.
Lydia Falcon, a lawyer, is the author of several books on the position of women in Spain and a leading activist in the emerging women's Liberation movement in Spain. She was so bratally tortured by the pol ice during her interrogation that she had to be hospitalised.
Eva Forest, a psychatrist, has Played a leading role in the movement in soldarity with the Vietnamese revolution and has also taken a prominent part in the Spanish wonen's movement. She too was brutally tortured, both physically and psych clogically. and raped during her interrogation (see Med Weekly, 19 Dee ember 1974).
Antonio Duran. a rank-and-file worker leader, played an important part in the Pegase car strike in 1968, and in the recent building workers' spanish solidarity Dubtle meetin «Tali"
laber neveR 5 5.60 Atter being arrested, along with other militants, on the trumped up charge of beine involved in the Cafe Kolando bombing, Forest and Duran are now being brought to trial and threatened with execution on the even phonier accusation that they look part in the assasination of Сагтето Blanco.
It is vital that the international worker movement take up the call from the Carabanchel prison and organise the widest possible solidarity to provent these militants falling into the hands ol Franco's executioners. An international campaign in their defence is already mounting in Eur opc. Hese in Britain it is urgent diat trade union bodies, student unions, and women's groups throw their fall weight behind the campaign for the release of Forest, Duran, their comrades, and fil the political prisoners of the Spanish dictatorship.
FREE Forest and Duran FREE all political prisoners STOP the assassination of worker and student militants STOP the torture and repression ship.
comittee ories remained closed. ories. by the police.
MINE OCCUPIED DOWN with the Spanish Dictatorfor the time during which their fact- the west.
At the same time the organisation of the struggle was developed. Apart from regular mass meetings in all the factorles, central meetings were held in the town involving not just the strikers but also students and the population in general. These became a means of spreading information and drawing together solidarity. A parallel development was the establishment of a central co-ordinating committee of representatives from the workers commissions in all the striking factBut January came and still the bosses showed no signs of yielding New tactics were needed. The idea of widespread occupations was put forward. But they ran up against the preventive measures taken by the pol ice. The workers at Inposa, for instance, three times occupied their fact ory and three tines were thrown out But where there's a will there's a way and the potash miners of Por ahas found it. All the madn pit entr ances to their mine were barred by the para-military civil guards; but one largely disused pit was still open. So the miners went down this entrance und made their way to the main pits through connecting galleries We've got plenty of dy numite, and if you try to evict us we'll blow the whole place up, they warned the civil guards. The hint was taken, guards. The hunt was taken.
This occupation of the polash mine became one of the main focuses of the ongoing struggle. Communiat ion was maintained with those down the pit by means of radio telephones. And when a mass meeting of 6,000 workers on the outskirls of l'amplona decided to organise an immediate demonstration in support of moses to extend the scruggle towards a general strike, the nine was its natural destinTudela in the south and Estella to The only answer of the authorities was to step up the repression. Anoth er demonstration to the potash mine was met with mass arrests. But again the only effect of these tactics was to increasing number of factories were electing strike committees responsible to regular mass meetings, and the contral coordinating committee was enlarged to include their representatives as well as delegates from the student assemblies and tenants associations. CONCESSIONS By Monday 20 January it was clear that the bosses were prepared to make substantial concessions i: order to get production going again. The police had been told le avaid any more clashes. At some factories, like Bendiberica, victimised workers had already been reinstated and most of the otber demands met. So the Jeadership ol the workers commiss -jors decided to recommend a lemp orary refurn to work as a tactical move pending a full announcement of the bosses' concessions But it was a return to work which siguified a further consolidation of working class forces in the area ag ainst the Franco regime. This was summarised in u balance sheet drawn up at a mass meeting of the Imenasa workers which noted (1) that the experience of elected strike committ ees was an important pain for future struggles; (2) that they would not relax their vigilance during the return to work: (3) the necessity of co-ordinating future struggles with lose "taking place in the reat of Spain in order to confront the dictatorship at the level of the state.
TENDENCY C* IN ITS LAST FEW ISSUES, RED WEEKLY HAS PUBLISHED OPENING CONTRIBUTIONS campaign: a meeting of over 400 worten chaired by a member of the IMG voted to set up an ad-hoc abortion committee: in Scotland, the Scottish-wide women's movement has recently voted to focus its energies on the issue of abortion.
We should build WACC, an indepencent women's orpanisation which includes activists who share our per spective of muss mobilisations and action. This is a single issue campaign which has been formed because of the recognition by women that it is class society. The fight for the lib ation of women is thus inseparabl from the strugele to abolish capita ism, so giving the women's liberat ion moventent its objectively anti capitalist thrust and dynamie. We recognise that because women are oppressed as a sex by class societ and because the proletariat is expi ted as a class by capitalism both 1:
Women can become a powerf illy of the working class in the str de co overthrow capiralisms. The
----- pull-quotes -----
Martin Meteyard
FROM THREE TENDENCIES INSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL MARXIST GROUP TO THE DISCUSSION LEADING UP TO THE ORGANISATION'S NATIONAL CONFERENCE AT THE END OF THIS MONTH. THIS WEEK WE PUBLISH A FURTHER CONTRIBUTION FROM