Ice and determination of the workers movement.
it within six months, became inevitable.
After the end of the war the fate • Franco and his regime seemed very cure. After all, the Spanish dictaanship had been spawned by the fasc it powers, had promptly joined their inti-Cominter Pact", and, while forly neutral during the war, had rered them considerable assistance.
Wins of workers, who had been uaded to fight on behalf of their in classes on the pretext that this a 'crusade against fascism', natrilly expected Franco to be dealt with in the same way as Hitler and Mussolini.
ALLY However they were wrong. The uropean ruling class had already emonstrated what side they were on in the fisht between fascism and be workers movement during the panish Civil War, when they main ained a policy of 'non-intervention' at starved the Republic of essential The aftermath of the bomb that removed former Prime Minister Carrero Blanco from the scene THE IBERIAN PENINSULA is in the centre of revolutionary struggle in Eurpe. It is not only in Portugal that the working class are beginning to take their de into their own hands: in Spuin as well, the rotten dictatorship of General rancisco Franco is being shaken to its very foundations by the growing powThe present regime in Spain was born out of the bitter international class druggles of the pre-war years. The Civil War which swept Spain from 1936 to 939 represented the high point in the resistance of the European proletariat the reactionary offensive of the European ruling class. On the one side the lemational Brigades rallied the cream of the workers' movement from Furand North America to the defence of the Spanish Republic, while on the er fascist Italy and Nazi Germany poured men, arms and supplies to underle their protege General Franco. Once the Spanish workers' resistance had smashed the bloody conflagration of the Scoond World War, which broke war materials while Franco's forces were generously supplied by their fascist backers. Now the capitalist powers, under the leadership of American imperialism, were forming up for a political fight with the workers' states of Russia, Eastern Europe and China. What better ally could tney seek than Franco's Spain, whose -army and state had been forged in the fight against the evil of communism'.
So after a few years token penitence, Spain was progressively re-admitted to the capitalist family of nations, In 1950, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the United Nations lifted their censure of the Spanish repime which had instructed UN members to break all links with the regime. Loans began to flow into the country from American banks, and the Us military began to develop relations with the only general who ever completely defeated the Communists, as one American politician described Franco, Finally, in 1953 the security of the Spanish dictator ship was established with a ten year treaty of economic assistance and states.
the blood and bones of the Spanish build itself up on their sweat. The Jong overdue reconstruction of the economy (total production didn't reach the pre-Civil War level until 1953) was carried out through the ruthless exploitation of the working class. In the lifteen years from 1940 but wages wore only allowed to rise by 100% cutting the purchasing power of the average workers wages almost in half FAT wage increases were almost entirely paid for out of the increased produc tivity of their labour, the capitalists were able to boost profits freely by putting up prices. As a result, after a decade of such "reconstruction", the Spanish economy was able to open itself up to trade and investment ties with the rest of Europe, and attain a rate of economic growth comparable to the best on the con based on the msery of the vast mat ority of Spanish people, but it inade military cooperation with the United The dictatorship had been born on working class, and now proceeded to the country's wealth.
1955 prices soured in Spain hy 240%, The Spanish capitalists prew fat from this exploitation. While workers' This 'achievement was, of course, The notorious "Guardia Civile on the march profound changes in the set-up of Spanish society. At the time of the Civil War and for many years after -Spain was i predominantly agricultural country, made up for the most past of small farmers and agriculfural labourers. But by 1965 there were more workers in industry than peasants and labourers on the land, and these industrial workers, increasingly concentrated in large industrial enterprises, were producing almost balf At the same time, the cupitalists overcame many of their previous differences, based on the citterent snter ests of particular regions or economic sectors. Now they became united under the leadership of the big capitalist monopolists who control Spain's financial institutions, and through them the major industries. This band of capitalist robbers is thoroughly devoled to the dictatorship, whose off icient and ruthless repression of the working class made Spain such a wonderful place - for capitalises.
The first effect of these changes was temporarily to strengthen the dictatorship, but in the long run they have been digging its grave. For they have produced a working class that is larger, more concentrated, and nore cconomically powerful than ever before. At the same time they have laid the basis for a polarisation of social struggles in Spain between the regime and its capitalist backers on the one hand, and the mass of Spanish people (workers, students, small farmers and small shopkeepers) under the leadership of the industrial work ing class, on the other. The present upheavals swoeping the country are the first signs of just such a polarisWORKERS' COMMISSIONS The Spanish working class will be no mean opponent for the capItalists and the state to take on, Gespite the immonse repressive mach ine they have at their disposal. For over a decade now the Spanish workers movement has heen patjently rebuilding its organisations, despite the repression. In the late by BRIAN S 1950s and early 19605, spontancous illegal strike waves forced the Gov ernment to abandon their iron eng on wages and won substantial incr eases in real wages. Out of these struggles, from early 1962 onwards, were born the workers commissions. These are rank-and-tile committees which unite and organise the workers" strugale at the factory, local regional, and recently even the nat ional level.
Despite the fact that they are ill egal (in 1973, 10 culitants charged with nothing more than being menbets of the national coordinating body of the workers" connissions, were given long jail sentences. although the state war forced to reprisoners and the fight for their rel