society under siege from the state.
The parallels nearer home are striking.
the mark.
BUYING a newspaper in Euskadi (the Basque country)
means having to prepare By Richard Carver EVEN without the state of virtual war between ETA and the Spanish state, the Basque pestion would loom large over Thursday's general election.
There is a political apathy in Spain that would have been unthinkable in the days of the DICAL SUTUREIES against Franco regime. Only 59.4 per cent of voters approved the new constitution in last December's referendum, even though all the major parties called for a In the Basque country there 31110100221U2n0ara stitution, partly because it unity of the Spanish state, but also because the radical Basque workers' movement could not stomach its defence of the monarchy, of private property, and of the old, hated state machine.
DIVIDED
Only 27.34 per cent voted yes in the province of Guipuzcoa, 31.14 per cent in Vizcaya. The WETE divided between abstention and outright rejec- these were the only provinces where there was a substantial no vote.
This result begins to explain why the Basque situation is so Krave now. on one side une ETA guerillas are increasingly frustrated at what they indifference on the part of the refusal of the major working population 25 a whole. class parties to campaign for self-determination for Basque country Is seen as a betrayal by the whole Spanish working class.
ETA's military tactics do not morove me situation, being consciously designed to bring down repression on the Basque people, thus stirring them into action.
But the responsibility for this lies with the Spanish state. The referendum result signalled the beginning of a new phase in the war against the Basque population.
POLICE
Police are shipped in by the thousands, people detained without charge, demonstrations banned without notice, and nationalist militants shot down by "fascists, in a regime whose most obvious European parallel is in the North Socialist Challenge 1 March 1979 page 10 PRESS converage of this Tuesday's general elections in Spain has tended to concentrate on the situation in the Basque country - supposedly under siege from "terrorist' forces. But, as this graphic account from the Basque country shows, the reverse is true — it is a "troubled province' After we received this The author of this article describes Soria jail, where Basque political prisoners are held, as the Spanish Alcatraz. Maybe Spanish H Block would be nearer yourself every morning for an avalanche of shootings.
Euskadi lives points and vans packed with the Both the Socialist (PSOE) the and Communist (PCE) Parties signed the Moncog Pacts of autumn 1977, which still form the backdrop to the political situation.
ACCORDS These accords provided for limits, removed fascist laws against unemployment (!), and established a framework austerity. On the political level they ruled out the possibility of The readiness of the PSOE and to capitalist economic combined with the lukewarm of the trade leaderships, has serious working class opposition and stabilised the conservative government of Suarez. of Although there has been a anti-riot equipment with rifles and machine-guns pointing out ine back window. Ine pretext is the war against the ETA'.
The whole suffers the consequences.
Unable to offer
people have been demanding for many years sovereignty and an end to the activity of the armed police the government of the Union o me benocase cente trying to 'pacify Euskadi" filling the streets with police and the barracks and police stations with Basque citizens.
The decision was taken just detentions and at the moment when Peixoto, an ETA leader living the the check- French Basque gravely wounded; when three beat unemployment.
quite dramatic rise in days lost through strikes months, opposition to the Working class example, estimates of the drop in PSOE membership over the past year range from 75,000 to 250,000.
The PCE generally resolved for expelling an important opposition current, which opposed the party's rightward drift.
DYNAMIC implement Fortunately for the Spanish policies, ruling class, leadership dynamic. prevented After using the PSOE and PCE to implement the austerity for a year, Prime Adolfo Suarez made towards political tation, and is now taking the Guipuzcoa;
Basque people OUr - national of them daily. Just country, was rogate them.
Socialist Party poster proclaims the need for firm government to SP leader Gonzalez has had his hair retouched with grey by the artist to drive home the message.
in recent there is no unified LoVemen. political Principally he For push leadership has "solution' to problems by question.
the results of the reflected in political general election. rather more Suarez's who was Minister rapid turn COLITEL theme government civil guard died in an attack in when the police mentally backward and, moreover, son Castile. of a lieutenant colonel - in a coma and Maria Luisa Garcia Cabeza lost an eye through a shot from a rubber bullet, both on banned ourselves anti-nuclear demonstration.
completely The net is cast very wide.
since Dozens of people are detained one example: young people were arrested in Durango on 17 January for running support groups for the the People remain incommuni- night.
cado from their relatives and lawyers for as long as police consider it necessary to internot there. calculated gamble of early conveniently ISOLATE distant future. to isolate the opposition emerging on his right and, he hopes, win an increased majority to help through major the political measures such as his electoral the national Spanish Kevolutionars An election also pre-empts League (LCR).
elections in April, which the left is likely to win. They would have expected that result to be La subsequent audacity is Moncloa matched by the lacklustre left.
PSOE leader Felipe Gonzalez, of once fond of trumpeting the socialist alter- nationalities. native in power, now prefers La strong an overRecently all Basque prisoners accused of belonging to the Every day more alarming news reaches Euskadi about the situation of the 97 Basque prisoners.
*11S of us prisoners found There because of what we might do, which is a illegal situation, means already convicting us for things which EDe are still awaiting trial.
They've got us submitted to a continual tension created by presence of the Armed Police near our cells day and Searches, as much of cens as or marviaudis, are conc day and night. The ones of the cells are done while we're whelming majority - which postpones responsibilities of power to the But Suarez can be beaten. The recent strike wave and the that mintancy the Basques shows this and it is central theme of the campaign of the legally Trotskyists of the Communist POLICIES They are presenting candidates in 34 provinces around the themes of rejection of the Pacts and the constitution, the centralisation workers' struggles, and self-determination for the Suarez must be beaten, they and these the policies that can do it.
Inn These armed police carry their guns, pistols, rifles with rubber bullets. tear gar and smoke bombs, the normal truncheons and the ones with the electric charge, and a spray containing a paralysing liquid that they're constantly flashing at us arrogantly.' On top of all this the prisoners Soria denounce deplorable hygiene the restrictions on their right to communicate relatives and lawyers, and the absolute ban on their doing this in the Basque language, the censorship of their correspondenceall the letters they send or receive are read - and so on.
They're beginning to call Soria the Spanish Alcatraz.
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article we heard news of the arrest of a couple of dozen revolutionaries and radical nationalists under a law exactly like the Prevention of Terrorism Act.