'Democratic renovation' still watchword of Spanish CP Overtures to Army and Church

•SPAIN is moving towards the elimination of the fascist forms of the dictatorship of monopoly capital, linked with the personality of Franco and the survivals of the war in which Spaniards fought against each other in 1936-1939', states the Spanish Communist Party's latest programme.

It seeks to prepare the succession to Franco by offering itself, as in the past, as part of a broad coalition to establish a bourgeois democratic republic.

The programmatic demands it puts forward are not intended to sharpen the struggle against capitalism, which Asturian miners and others sections of the working class have been waging in recent months.

Democrat revolution Instead, it seeks a democratic revolution, to be carried out by 'all democratic elements', including sections of the army and church.

The new statement is merely a continuation of a well-established line. The Communist leaders fear above all a revolutionary upheaval in Spain. They offer themselves as eager partners, able to control part of the working class, to all those politicians, including former supporters of Franco, who wish to see a smooth transition to a more liberal regime.

According to the French paper, 'Le Monde', the statement even contains a reference to the 'positive aspects' of changes recently carried out by the Franco regime. For its part, the Communist 'L'Humanité does not reproduce the statement in full, perhaps because some sections would be too much for some of its readers to stomach.

Demagogic demands In any case, the true character of the policy of the Spanish CP is plain . for all to see. It puts forward demagogic demands of a general kind— agrarian reform, better living standards, progressive taxation and the nationalization of the banks.

These can be supported by many middle class Spaniards who have become dissatisfied with Franco. Even the demand for self-determination for Catalonia, the Basque country and Galicia takes on, in this context, the character of a conciliation with the middle class nationalist groups in those regions.

The appeal to sections of the army and the church—the very institutions which brought Franco to power-shows how far the Communist leaders have to go in their search for allies.

Learned nothing

It reveals clearly, too, that they are not out to smash the state, but to prepare a smooth transition to a new form of 'democratic' bourgeois rule. From the agony of the civil war they have learned nothing and forgotten nothing.

It is evident, moreover, that the new statement is not really directed to the Spanish workers and peasants at all.

It is intended by the Khrushchevites to establish the position of the Soviet Union in relation to coming changes in Spain and to show that Franco's successors have nothing to fear from a revolution under Communist Party leadership.

To underline this aspect and assure maximum international publicity, the statement was distributed by post to the foreign press in Madrid.

Bitter attack

The Spanish Communist Party reserves its bitterest words, not for the corrupt hangers-on of Franco, not for the landlords and bosses who have sucked the blood of the Spanish workers and peasants for centuries, nor even for the big new monopoly interests who are reorganising the Spanish economy on modern lines, but for those 'adventuristic and unstable elements' who have attacked the official policy of the party.

Reporting the Spanish statement the French newspaper, 'Le Monde' says the CP 'has little new to offer but the condemnation of the "Italian line"!

The statement attempts to project a middle way to steer between the alternative of proletarian revolution on one side and the complete opportunism of the right-wing Amendola line of the Italian CP.

On guard After pointing out that the central committee of the Spanish CP is against the Chinese position of the extreme left, the statement adds: "The party is also on its guard against the infiltration of neo-capitalist and revisionist elements seeking to make it deviate to a reformist position."

The line of the 'deviationists, supported by two members of the executive committee who were later thrown out, is that the fall of Franco could not lead to to a revolutionary democratic development in Spain.

These opportunists' believe that the Spanish CP should resign itself to follow the wake of 'liberalisation' but not adapt itself to a situation where workers and bosses can enjoy what the statement calls. 'the benefits of modern neo-capitalism'.

Rejects position

The Spanish CP categorically rejects 'this opportunist social-democratic position' and will fight 'against these right-wing deviations as strongly as against the extreme left, the statement says.

After pointing out that when a party is forced to work underground, central control must be more than democracy, declaration calls for respect for the official line of the Spanish CP, emphasising the fact that 'today a group or militant in the party cannot be allowed, on the pretext of autonomy, to contradict its political line and oppose its discipline' (!)

It is known that in a number of countries Spanish exiles have been profoundly disturbed by the conciliatory policy of the party. Some have found in the Peking break an occasion to crystallize their opposition, but it is not the desire of the Chinese to split the party which is at the root of the trouble.

In Belgium a group of Spanish exiles publish 'Proletario' in which there are permanent attacks on the 'revisionists' Carrillo, Pasionaria, Lister and other Spanish Communist leaders under the influence of Moscow.

Spanish Marxists will have to find a road to regroupment through an implacable criticism of the role and record of the Spanish Communist Party and an understanding of why it can produce such statements as the last one.

Call to army

A recent example of the complete revisionist policies of the Spanish CP which have held back the working class of Spain for many years is given in the magazine 'Revolution' This quotes the secretary-general of the party, Carrillo, speaking over Radio Espana Independiente in May 1962 during a period of militant strikes by workers in northern Spain-in particular, the miners of the Asturias.

In calling on the armed forces to fraternise with the people, he says that the workers' cause is a noble one "because they desire a regime of liberty, where all ideas and beliefs, all respectable interests, will be respected.

But he goes on to say that instead of joining the ranks of the workers, the armed forces 'must remain outside this conflict.

Franco disappear

To support this he says that 'Franco and his regime will disappear in the near future, but the Army and Forces of Order will remain.

'And if they can maintain a worthy position in this moment, they will remain surrounded by the respect of the people and the

invite arrest in September 1964 Three