Media 68

The problem of planning and anticipating political developments after the death of the Generalissimo Franco is the subject of the discussion that in Spain, during the spring and summer of 1968, involves the Catholic hierarchy, the crown and the Falange, the party brought to power by the "Caudillo de Espana por gracias de Dios" after the defeat of the Spanish Republic.

The formula that is adopted is a "Franchism without Franco" in order to permit a painless hand-over, while obviously altering the form of state, but without having the changes affect the established order. The previous year the Ley organica del Estado had already been passed by the Cortes. This, as well as re-establishing the monarchy, foresees a partial democratization of Spanish public life, introducing a novelty in the formation of the government, that is the entrance of civilians not connected with the powerful Falangist system.

Before 1967, the government was formed always and only by military personnel, who modelled the state structures to their image and likeness. It is the army that has the last word on national security; it is the army that watches over the activity of the police; and finally it is the army that maintains control over the magistracy. And yet, for the whole of 1968, in Franco’s Spain a new wind blows. For the first time, censorship on the press is slackened and the newspapers inform about the workers' strikes that more than once block the streets of Madrid with their marches, while the occupations of the universities and the clashes between students and the granaderos are described with sympathy by some journalists. Finally, the pages dedicated to international news are full of reports on student mobilization in France, Italy, Germany and on the movement against the war in Vietnam in the United States.
The Falange asks a number of times for the direct intervention of Franco to stop the "wave of chaos" in the country, but the sick old general prefers to delegate the repressive action to the government. In spite of numerous arrests of trade unionists and students, the strikes increase in number and Spain, at the end of the year, is at the head of the list of the European countries that had most strikes. The greatest anti-Franchist parties, who operate underground, seek that unity of action that was missing during the thirty years of dictatorship.

Their meetings are almost all held in France, but they lead to nothing. The memory of the divisions and clashes, including armed ones, which opposed the Communists to the anarchists, the Trotskyists, the Socialists, in the short experience of the Spanish Republic is still very strong. But if suspicion and hostility affect the relations between the political forces, the experience in the factories is quite different. Here the joint action between Socialists, Communists, anti-Franchist Catholics and anarchists can be experienced in the Comisiones Obreras.

The partial legalization of the right to strike and the choice of the entrepreneurs to set up a real autonomous body of representation, delegitimize the corporative Cns, the vertical trade union, with which the regime tried to regulate and hide the conflicts between capital and work. In 1968 there is no "institutional" organism that is not affected by the protests.

Not only are the organizations which should build the workers consent to Franchism constantly defeated in the working place in the elections of the trade union delegates, but even in the Universities the student bodies imposed by the regime suffered clamorous electoral repudiation. Already in 1965, in the renewal of the student representatives in the academic senates, the Franchist "Trade Union of university students" loses its majority of votes and will subsequently be dissolved to give life to the more technocratic "Student professional association", which will never manage to be more than an acronym unknown to most.

Even the magistracy claims its independence from political power and more than once does not confirm arrests made by the political police. The paralysis of the government structures caused by the workers’ and student mobilization shows the difficulty of Franchism, which seems by now incapable of providing political answers suitable for the transformations that have taken place in the life of the society and poses the problem of transition to democracy.

Opus Dei, the Catholic Church and the Spanish technocratic middle class hope in a painless passage to democracy and play their cards on the young Juan Carlos di Bourbon who is in fact appointed as the successor of Franco. The position of the Falange and of the military is different: for them the only solution is the state of emergency and a "Franchism without Franco".

In the meantime the Workers’ Commissions have called a day of mobilization for the feast of the workers on May first. In the Asturias the miners are again on strike against the political dismissals that took place throughout 1967 and in the first months of 1998 and to wrench salary increases, just like the metal workers in Galicia and in Catalonia.

The regime oscillates between repression and impotence. Many Trade Unionists are arrested, among these Marcelino Camacho, charismatic leader of the workers Commissions.

The first of May is for the workers Commissions the occasion for launching their platform at national level. The demonstrations are numerous and in Madrid, Bilbao and Barcellona, the workers marches are joined by the students. Even if the police intervenes harshly the country is however paralyzed.

The head of the government announces an exemplary trial against the trade unionists arrested in the previous months, but the ministers connected with Opus Dei insist for a slackening of the repression.

The wrestling between the two components of Franchism will continue until the following year, when, on 24 January 1969, the "hardliners" of the regime will win and the state of emergency will be proclaimed so putting an end to the wave of strikes and student demonstrations that are shaking the country. In the meantime, in all the big cities the universities are repeatedly occupied and cleared by the police, who thus shatter the old university regulation that forbids access of the granaderos and the Spanish army to the Spanish universities. In the cradle of the workers Commissions, the Asturias, the miners proclaim a general strike.

In the Basque countries the independentist mobilizations resume, with a dramatic moment in the killing by Eta of the head of the political police of San Sebastian. All told, the whole of Spain is in ferment and the Falange insists for a solution by force. But there is another element that opposes it to Opus Dei.

The reestablishment of the monarchy is judged by the Falange as an insult to the "Republican" sentiments of Franchism. Guilty of the offence is Opus Dei, which is involved in the scandal of the Matesa factory, that has a vast echo in the newspapers.

It is the chance for a showdown with the forces in favour of the monarchy who contest the hard wing of Franchism. The victory of the Falange with the proclamation of the state of emergency closes a phase of Spanish political life in which the regime seemed about to collapse. The clashes between the different components of Franchism are judged by the anti-Franchist parties as an occasion for accelerating the crisis of the regime.

The Communist Party insists for the constitution of a provisional united government in exile, while the Psoe and the moderates hope that international pressures will give the final push to the regime. The provisional government will not be constituted and, in spite of the intense diplomatic activity of the United States and Germany for the beginning of a "democratization from above", the "generalissimo" will not give up his power.

The failure of the hypotheses of the Communists and of the Socialists is not just the result of the divisions within the anti-Franchist front, but is due to the lack, in many cases, of a relation between the work of the leaders in exile and the new Spanish social and political situation.

At the end of 1968, numerous anti-Franchist formations did however flourish. Groups such as the "Frente de liberacion popular" (Flp) appear together with "Bandera roja" of Maoist acronyms next to Trotskyist or anarchical groups. But the multiplication of the acronyms is not a sign of the weakness and fragmentation of the opposition movement. If anything it is an indication of that "turning-point" of which everyone speaks and writes.

In fact, for the first time since Franco is in power, books are translated and printed without the intervention of censorship. The press speaks openly of the end of Franchism; in the Universities the autonomy of the teaching, guaranteed by the law, is used for freely discussing modern Spanish history, so shattering the taboo that forbade speaking about the Republican experience of the 1930s. A turning-point that not even the proclamation of the state of emergency manages to stop. In fact the strikes continue as do the university occupations.

While even the students of the high schools and the professional institutions also strike, Barcellona, Bilbao, Valencia and Madrid become the theatre of continuous clashes between the police and groups of workers and students, who adopt the technique of commandos for opposing the charges of the police. The workers Commissions and the other underground trade unions (Ugt and Uso) call for a national day of mobilization of all workers on 3 November 1969. It will be the first general strike that will paralyze the country.

It is in this climate that in December 1970 in Burgos the trial begins against the sixteen members of Eta accused of killing the head of the political police of San Sebastian. The government would like to conclude the trial with the condemning to death of the Basque militants, but international pressure, the resumption of autonomist mobilization in Catalonia and the climate of insurrection in the Basque countries, after the kidnapping in San Sebastian of the German honorary consul, will cause the postponement of the beginning of the trial.

The Bishop of Pamplona publicly states his support for the national claims of Euzkadi. The trial, presided over by a Council of war, begins, but the publication of the sentence is continuously postponed, also because the Vatican, in an open letter to Franco, asks for clemency for the Basque militants.

In this situation the government calls for a series of demonstrations in favour of Franco. The most imposing one is in Madrid; two hundred thousand people participate in it, but when in the Plaza de Oriente Franco appears next to Juan Carlos of Bourbon the usual ovation for the Caudillo de Espana por gracias de Dios is lacking.

Many shout against the Opus Dei and Franchism and the demonstration is rapidly concluded. On 31 December 1970 the sentence of the Council of War is made known: the sixteen militants of Eta, even if condemned, are pardoned.