Gonzalez pays the price for austerity SPAIN of mass action by students, workers and pea- sants since the death of Franco in 1975, the tons saw a sharp fall in the ruling SOE (Spanish Socialist Workers Party) share of the vote. It losr five percentage points and 40: per cent of its local councillors thereby losing its overall majority in many big cities. This AFTER A SPRING which saw the highest level 10 June Furopean, local and provincial clec:
cions in Cantabria it fell nine points and in Asturias fourteen points. The Communist Party ted-m (Izquierda Unida) gained one and a half points in the Furopean elections and increased its representation even mare ar was clearly a sanction by a part of the social democratic party's clectoral base against the workers" struggles and tough police reaction its vote went down even further, in provincial elec- Tr areas particularly hit by government's austerity politics.
Alliance) actually lost öne and a half local level. Significantly the CP got its biggest increase In the Asturias region, The centrist minister Suarez and moderate regional narionalist" partics took most of the support position party, the right wing AP (Popular bourgeois force, the CDS (Social and Democratic Centre) led by fornicr prime lost by the PSOE. The biggest bourgebis op-
agroement unless the government makes a turn in its economic policy. Both unions ac- cept the principle of such social contracts and (Moncloa Pact, AEs pact) but the recent struggles ublige them to adopt a tougher negonating position, particularly in the case ticism much more strongly. Nevertheless # few cosmetic concessions could lead one or other or both of these leaders to try and sella Despite the announcement of negotiations lor a now social pact many labour conflicts Have SOCIALIST OUTLOOK ao:2 July/August 1987 past struggles and step up their verhal criticism of Spanish press of a nsprure in the Spanish: however, Redondo called for a vote for the force for progress in Spain today. At the reject any effective unity of action with the per cent wage limit hur does not exclude sacrifices and austerity in any new social pact as long as all social forces share in it and some concessions are made (Cinco Dies, 1 May The Spanish press is now full of Gonza- lez's proposed threc-ycar social rontract. He has defended his cconomic model as "well worked out and well implemented' but ac- cepted "some modifications were necessary" (Cinco Dias, 15 June 1987) Redondo and such an of the CoDo whose Icadership voices its seep: a victory for the C0DO in the decisive larger Nicholas Redondo and the UGT leadership: then had to adapt to the pressure of the new the guvernment. Much talk ensued in the PSOE saying ir was the only solid political same time the UGT leadership continued to other trade unions. Redondo rejects the five Before te elecuions, the new social contract to their membership - bankworkers Camacho express doubts about indecd signed them remain unresolved family: factories. socialist 1987). have elections held in every workplace resulted in Regional and nationalist divisions also Division is also stoked up by the government which has used its power and resources to the social democratic dominated trade union conlederation, against the CCOO. However the November 1986 national trade union establish a more favourable relationship of unity. It is boiling up today over who 15.r0 favnur the UCT (General Workers Union), forces with a government that has delibe- ratcly marginalised left forces outside the PSOE. The endemic COOD faction fighting between pro-Camacho forces who still sup- port the mainstream CP and pro-Carrillo for- ces who have split is an obstacle to effective difficult to achieve. Spanish social democracy and its unpopular austerity programme. the alternatives for the workers" democratic parties has been were a considerable setback for DAVE KELLAWAY looks at march of one of the most *the triumphant onward The recent elections in Spain replace Camacho, when he retires. right-wing social halted' make workers unity movement. rent, sections of the Workers Commissions had wupported these struggles in order to police. Airport workers, railway workers, bank workers, medical staff also began to policy of a five per cent wage limit, its attacks on working conditions and cutbacks in the Pressure built up particularly inside the (CC0O) lor a state-wide general strike to get the government to change course. A vote on this was defeated in the CODO executive thanks lo die opposition of forces from both the eurocommunist and stalinist wings of the Spanish Communist movement. To an ex- Commissions Early this vear the government faced a workers and others whose jobs were directly threatened by the second wave of industrial reconversion being steadfastly pursued by the government. Nearly 30,000 jobs were Lo go in the two worst-hit sectors. Occupations, the temporary kidnapping of managing directors, the barricading of roads and town- wide or regional general strikes led co serious clashes with the police and in the first week of May a young worker died of injurics su- stuined in carlier clashes at thie hands of the rake militant action againsr the government's So after uninterrupted wuccess xiner 1982 it scems that the triumphant onward march ofone of the most right-wing social democra- Today it has to discuss coalitions to govern the towns with forces to both its riglic (CDs, regionalise) and left (ul) and to fine tune its vicious anti- working class cconnmic policy through na- tirinal negotiations with the trades unions and employers organisations for a three vear social contract up to the 1990 parliamentary stufent revolt partly inspired by the French cxample. This was followed by militant ac- by steelworkers, shipyard uc parties has been halled. welfare and state sectors. by Communist led the temporary laken elections: points. TIDES 34
da Socialista (a left social democratic current) ment outside the PSOR 15 hampered by the more structured left Challenge to the PSOE hundreds of PSOE cadre who have lost their jobs in local councils as a result of the party's decline, however, and the calls from lzquier- for certain party leaders hears to roll there is still no effective challenge yet developing in- side the PSOE (Repubico, 17 June). Realign: fragmentation of the Communir movement and the wicakness of the revolutionary left. order to end any resistance. The wave of Taragona oil relinery — the Basque national question is still a thorn in the side of Gonza- Spain today shows that even after years ul relative social peace with only isolated struggles there can be sudden explosions of workers" resistunce. Furthermore a social demucratic government will use both repres- sion and attempts to incorporare the trade union bureaucracies into social contracts in struggles do provide a basis for developing a SPAIN been our and medical stall continuc their action. There is no guarantee thar the pact. Goverument spokespeople are downplay- ing the significance of the fall in is support on 10 June. pointing to irs will substantial lead and the weakness of any credible gov- crumental alternative Even with thix set- bark, the PROE's national vote at 40% dwarfs the it's 5.13 per cent. The rise of the CDS in this election to 10.12 per cent is compensated by the more rightist AP's decline to 24.5 per will 'cool down? the situation
helped on its left by the collapse and frag- and on its right by the bourgeois parties' division, weakness and lack of a post-Franco corn in bourgenis ruling circles that a conti- nued crosion or sudden cullapse of the PSOE This explains why unlike in France or even in Britain, the Spanish social democrats. with a tough austerity policy, have won two successive elections, brought Spain into the ERC and, for good mcasure, kept it in NATO. The PSOrk strong position today has been mcnation of the Communis Party and mi- stakes of the revolutionary left since 1975, approach. During the elec tion, calls were made lor a bloc of unity between the Al and the CDS reflecting con- does not leave a dangerous vacuut. modernising
No wonder a leading banker, Pedmo Toledo, has appreciatively commented: "I have to say *a student revolt partly inspired by the French example
35 Antonio Gramsci Send all subscriptions and enquiries for bulk rates to IMR, 2 rue Richard Lenor 93108 Monitresil INTERNATIONAL MARXIST The legacy of • Liberation theology challenges Marxism - Michael Lowy * Resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism - Salah jaber - Lessons of Grenada - Laurent Beaulleu A subscription for three issues costs only 68.50. * Luxemburg and Lenin — Paul Leblanc Summer issue out now! • Gramser's Marxism — Livio Maitan France, Choques gayable to PE. C REVIEW Subscribe! Adrerralinent helped by is holding meetings outside Eus- kadi, in support of workers struggies like the one held in Reinosa - the town where thr police killed a striker — which attrarted 300 Furopean Mr elected with a third of its votes coming from outside Fuskadi. It increased hao: ( + 2), Pamplona (+ 2). Vitoria (+1) and San Sebasrian (+ 1). This is a positive result too for the sectors of the revolutionary left like the 1ck (section of the Fourth Inter- national) which actively supported the Henri Batasuna (HB) campaign thronghour the Spanish state in the rech of a boycott by the mamstrcam left. Perhaps this result was people. Alone with LIN# continued millitary capacity — during che election in blew up he ved wound, I do not think any government to the right of the Psk would have carried out any other conomic policy. (Cinco Dias, 30 April 1987). This policy has meant a rise of 35.6 per cent in profits in 1986 over 1985, well over thren million unemployed (20 per cent, the highest in Europe), eight million placed Spain scoond in the table of the must Another source of difficulty for the PSOT urising from the elections is tbe further con- solidation in support Tor Herri Batasuna which won 1.88 per cent of the vote and got a the number of councillors in towns like Bil- that the socialist government's economic management on the major questions hus pror moration in workers? conditions and statu- people officially defined as poor, and a dete International investors SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 1 July Augen 1987 profitable places to invest. tory: rights
Alan Thomell, From