A Socialist government

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Henry Phillips concludes his series on Spain with a survey of the state of the Left FEBRUARY 23 1981, the day of the attempted military coup, still haunts most political leaders and parties; but none more than those of the workers movement and the left.

On that night the Spanish left was forced to endure a trial which everyone (though none publicly) acknowledges that it failed disastrously.

On that night it was clear for all to see that the coup failed not because of any mass mobilisations against it by the left or workers' movement, but because some of its main protagonists got cold feet at the last minute.

On that night the still very limited democratic gains of post-franco Spain showed themselves to be frighteningly vulnerable, with no strong forces protecting them.

The present political lines of the main workers' organisations in parliament and of the two main trade unions are based on conclusions drawn from the experiences of February 23.

But the conclusions have not been that the workers must prevent a further coup by strengthening their mobilisation and vigilance against threats from the right.

On the contrary they have used the failure of February 23 to argue that the weakness of the workers' movement dictates the need to compromise with the bourgeoisie in order to mollify and placate the right.

King

Immediately after the coup both the Socialist and Communist Party leaderships rallied behind Franco's chosen successor King Juan Carlos who was most probably connected with the coup plot himself.

In Parliament the Socialists followed this not by pposing., the governun JCD's falure to bring tu democracy to Spain but by forming a parliament alliance with them to halt the moves towards democracy which so alarmed the military hierarchy.

The most significant result of this has been the passage of the Law for the Harmonisation of Autonomy (LOAPA) which slams a brake on further advances to regional autonomy and limits the gains already made in Euzkadi (the Basque region), Catalonia, Galicia and Andalucia. This reactionary act was passed explicitly to allay the generals' often expressed fears that the Spanish state was breaking up.

The Socialists did, it is true. oppose the government over the country's recent adhesion to NATO. But many of the right-wing generals are opposed to NATO entry as well.

On the economic tront the PSOE has been as compromising as on national rights. Is trade union, the UGT. along with the Communist-dominated Workers' Committees last

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A Republican fighter falls in the Civil War ~ Socialist Organiser no.97