On March 8, a massive general strike swept through the oppressed Basque drovinces in nortnern spain while thousands of students and workers staged strikes Madrid. The protests came in response io the killings of several Basque workers in the city of Vitoria the previous •veekena.
According to a Reuters dispatch from Bilbao, Labour sources said that the strike brought out 250, 000 Basques in : he biggest stoppage in the north since he 1936-39 civil war..'.
Protest This current round of protests aren •ul or a two-mon one rke ov over 5,000 Vitoria steelworkers. Employers answered the workers' wage demands by firing strike leaders. an estimated 80 of Vitoria's whole •orkforce staged a general strike in support of the striking steelworkers.
Police attacked the demonstration arrested picketers outside :hat had remained open. Reinforcements •.ere called in Trom nearby •o nelp quel ine strikers. and assemblies in Kings, Dronen On March 3, Carlos.
Temper.
Ine snoos provinces The. groups Juan alities, vinism. cise The attempt that called the March 3 protest state that six people were killed in the ass. ault and that more than one hundred Government sources fi most newspapers list four dead.
The murders in Vitoria touched off strikes and demonstrations in Basque cities of Pamplona, Bilbao and Sar Sebastian. Protests also occurred in Barcelona, Madrid and at several universities. Authorities tried to break up most of inese demonsirations. Political Freedom During the weeks prior to the killmalor strike struggles had •ULi among TrUcK bakery workers, teachers, ured professors, Jane construction workers. Campuses throughout Spain also continued to be centres ot opposition to the regime of Since the death of Franco last NovUnis nanapickea successor has failed to widen political freedom in Spain. unions and political parties are still illegal, for example.
Carlos has also imposed an popular wage freeze; denied amnesty to most political prisoners; tused to grant any real autonomv to the oppressed Basque and Catalan nationwise anguaces ana cultures consiantly fall victim to Madrid's chauThe new king claims that he has put Spain on the path towards democratizion, but his cabinet's statement on the Vitoria what these promises are worth. statement, issued March 5th, said that the actions of the Vitoria police were 'directed' toward protecting the exerof individual freedom!.
Vitoria general strike la clear to hinder the programme retorm that ine spanish people desire and which the Government is not dis -posed to abandon'. can involve thousands in struggle. ery woman in this country is threatened by the select Committee, which aims to return thousands of them once again to the back streets and NAC, ing the struggle against that Committee, can begin to tap support. It is by involving these women action, by struggling round a concrete issue that they can to, inat we will be able to explain to them the need to go further anc fight for the right to free abortion on Stages cannot, however, A recent opinion poll carried out by MARPLAN on behalf of the that 72% of parents were in favour of abortion on demand. The fact that there exists such massive support means that the NAC has the potential tor involving thousands in action on the streets Concrcle y showine ine covernment na the plans of the Select Committee be tolerated. a mass action orientation around the concrete issue of abortion _toæetner with the new avenues support opening up in the movement, inere Is no reason why NAC should not be able to reverse the present trends.
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'orderly' murders shows The It called during general strike two days earlier.
It is Carlos! inability to even begin dismantling the Franco heritage (shown most clearly in his refusal to release those thousands of political prisoners still rotting in the dictatorship's jails) which is the real cause of growing unThe minor reforms he has put forward cannot even begin to satisfy the desire among Spanish workers for elementary rights - such as the righ to form political parties or to demonstrate - which the death of Franco seemed to promise them Despite the brutality of the regime in dealing with mass opposition, unrest will continue to explode in anti-government action as happened on 8th Basque workers packed Vitoria cathedral March 5 to honor three strikers gunned down by Juan Carlos's police to ever idiocu Basqué nationalists, Nation.
such Continuing to defend Franco's legacy will only bring the Carlos governmen (and its fascist supporters in the army)
contlict with files s pressure for democratic change. The recent strikes and demonstrations are only the opening shots of a growing working class opposition which, already, has seen the struggle by the Catalan & long oppressed by ine Franco regime, tor selt-determinCarlos may ride out ine present wave but not those of the future. Franco's legacy won't be removed from 'abovel but by Spanish workers who will reject the CPis plans for an 'orderly transition'to create a true socialist democracy.
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