Although Franco undoubtedly played an important role in the evolution of the regime to which he has bequeathed his name, it would be naive to think that the existence of the dietatorship was mainly a product of his own wishes.
The death of the caudillo will behead the system. Because of this it will take on considerable political importance and play a part in changing the relationship of forces. But in no way will it do away with the profound historic and social reasons which have made the dictatorship the absolute horizon of the Spanish bourgeoisie in the course of the last thrity years.
REFORMISTS
The least significant concession to the working class threatens to rekindle conflicts which were never extinguished, and to sweep away the whole edifice of delicately balanced structures. Left to its own devices, the bourgeoisie will never opt for a democratisation whose consequences could endanger its very existence. Only a solid push by the working class can tear down the walls of the dictatorship and force open the gates to a different road.
But the reformists whether open like the Communist Party, or more subtle - are far from reaching this obvious conclusion. They prefer to act as auxiliaries to the liberal capitalists, encouraging them towards new democratic efforts. In the name of a false and threadbare realism, they say that one must first break the logjam of the present situation, whatever the compromises necessary to achieve it. It's a familiar refrain: better a constitutional monarchy than an absolute monarchy; better a bourgeois republic than a military The characteristic of this kind of reasoning is that it clothes a fundamental error with the appearance of truth.
What does Santiago Carrillo, general secretary of the CP, have to say today? In an interview in Time he prays for a broad coalition government of national reconciliation, which would include the forces of the right, of the centre and of the left, on the basis of re-establishing freedoms and calling Constituent elections. He then counterposes the claim of the Count of Barcelona, Don Juan, to that of his son Juan Carlos!
PROBLEM
For the working class, the main problem today is not whether Don Juan or Juan Carlos will succeed Franco, but rather how to finish with Francoism, with its institutions, with all the aspects of the regime -(Cont. on page 11)