New epoch?
*Spain is part of Europe, 1 would even say mat spain, by is history and civilisation, is one of the founders of Europe... Finally, I am thinking of the new sovereign of Spain, of the young sovereign of Spain, who has, as he has said himself, the responsibility, but also the will to open up now a new epoch These views are not the exclusive property of Giscard or the French ruling class. Just a few days previously the Council of Ministers of the EEC issued a statement greeting the perspectives opening up for closer relations between Spain and democratic Europe' So while they are not very fussy about the nature of the regime that "democratic Europe' is to welcome into its bosom, at least a few token reforms are required so that Juan Carlos and his Francoist clique can be dressed up as honest (if rather conservative) "democrats' for the benefit of the European socianst and labour movement.
But neither Juan Carlos nor any representatives of the Spanish capitalist class are interested in or capable of des troying Franco's dictatorship. That can only be done by the sort of united and determined working class struggle that the European capitalists are working to prevent. All support for these capitalist elements in the name of "democracy' is a total sham — l amounts to nothing more than underwriting the continuation of dictatorship in Spain.
One of the main tasks facing the European workers movement today is to build a massive movement of solidarity with the Spanish working class which can expose the manoeuvres of the European ruling class and its agents and prevent them from bolstering up the heirs of Franco. Not the least responsibility lies with us here in Britain, where we have to show up the complicity of the Wilson Government in this reactionary operation and force it to break all links with the heirs of Franco.