4 i

res

ae Tuling circles them-
— army, church, big
. and landowners —
{oy the ecUvring in readiness
the g5. death or retirement of
Buy year-old “Caudill.”

tog hey have little elbow
fine 0 Opposition to the re-

e
OW has Spread even to their
Tanks,

i bug:
| Mines
ay

7
rit Falange, the only legal
pa 1S ‘striving hard to as-

A, People’s welfare:

Wig 'tt of this bid, more
fj nae being given to the
| Ontrg = — the government-,

tinay e

d unions — whose na-
tig, {elegate, Jose Solis, is
| the = secretary-general of
At alange,
a ne Same time Commu-
| lOSiga Nd others are working
‘hang the Sindicatos, to
Dloy them from worker-
Work €r bodies into real

| Beg mic demands from the
‘fay 2S in words only. In
iq ff] ranco’s cabinet re-
tg,” Carlier this year pro-
| thing @ government if any-
| Its farther to the right than
|g cdecessor.

SNificant in the new gov-

: FIRE PREVENT

‘y
y

a your eye on Spain. For after 18 yeats ©
he Now multiplying — and so are the difficu: :
“Yilesyy PPosition to the fascists’ rule, or protest against on
Laity ead, It- now. embraces ‘not only the

| Pe — but increasing numbers of intellectuals and members ©

ue ‘“
inate § “new look” — to put ~
tthe Srward as the defender

By LANCE SAMSON

FRANCO
After him, what?

ernment is the growing influ-
ence of Opus Dei, a Roman
Catholic secular, semi - secret
ociety.

: At Teast five members of the
cabinet are either members or
close supporters of Opus Del,
including Interior Minister
General Vega:

Soon after he took over, 4
number of right wing oppon-
ents of the regime were ar
rested. The sweeP came just

WEEK October 6-12

OPPOSITION GROWING
of change

{ Franco dictatorship the signs of change

ities facing the regime. es
e or other major aspect of it, is

workers and peasants —— among the poorest 1n

f other classes. -

when a list of opponents of the
regime circulated in Madrid—
many said by Opus Dei.
Many of those arrested, and
other Monarchists, are in favor
of a constitutional monarchy
and are not satisfied with the
government announcement in

July that the monarchy is to~

be reinstated after Franco.
They want it now — and

not on the fascists’ terms.
oes; % oy

Protests against arrests, par-
ticularly arzests of students
have in recent months come
from university figures and
other people who for years
had supported the regime by
their silence.

In the ‘church, some bishops
and right wing politicians are
today working for the forma-
tion of a Christian Democratic
party. The danger to the
church of being inseparably

involved in the Franco regime ~

is being more and more widely
recognised by the hierarchy.

In the army — which was
Franco’s first stepping-stone to
power the shifting) situation is
also. visible.

General Munoz Grande, the
commander-in-chief, who led
the Spanish Blue Division
which fought with the Nazis
against the Soviet Union, has on
a number of recent public oc-
casions called for cheers for
Spain and for the army — but
not for Franco.

At a meeting of generals
earlier this year all officers
present signed a document
pledging their obedience to the
commander-in-chief and they
instructed him to pass this on
verbally to Franco.

In business circles opposition
to the monopoly groups is
increasing. Some merchants
have begun to try to contact
the People’s Democracies with
a view to trade, and many in
this class ‘are beginning to see
that the only chance for their
own survival is the end of the
regime.

New ideas have entered

' Spain, too, with the return of

over 2,000 Spaniards who had
lived in exile in the Soviet
Union since the cival war.

Se ee

On the economic front in«
flation is raging with increas-
ing momentum. Since 1955 the
value of money has continu-
ally fallen, and bad harvests
have increased the difficul-
ties.

One of the main factors, of
course, is the. huge military
budget which franco is keep-
ing up and the growing. taxa-
tion, largely indirect, to pay
for it.

The Spanish Army has been equipped with U.S. arms,
shown Here being unloaded and the U.S. has air and naval
pases in Spain — but the people don’t want them.

There is purchase tax on
nearly all manufactured goods
and processed foods, plus a
“luxury tax’? on such things
as toothpaste, soap, medicines,
and electric light bulbs.

Spain’s balance of trade is
getting more and more lop-

sided, with exports covering
only about: half the imports.

The cost of living in the
past year has risen by over 35
percent. But average wages
are still only between $9 and
$12 a week and even former
Finance Minister Arburua has
warned that- unless they are
increased there will be an-
other spring like: 1951 — the
year of the great strike.

The’ great transport boy-
cotts in Barcelona and Madrid
against fare inereases earlier
this year have shown how the
people feel and what they are
capable of doing.

The Spanish people are now
using many different ways to
protest against the regime—
strikes, sitdown: strikes like
that last month in engineering
factories in the Bilbao region,
boycotts, all form of peaceful
struggle for a better standard
of living and for democracy.

In all these movements the
spanish Communist party is
taking part, working for the
maximum unity against
Franco.

In this situation, the party’s
call last year for “national re-
conciliation” — for letting by-
gones be bygones and uniting
all the forces and parties want
the Franco regime ousted — is
continuing to gain adherents.

In its declaration last Feb-
ruary the party said: “Any
step forward toward im-
proving living conditions, to-

ward a policy of peace, na-
tional independence and the
restoration of democratic lib-
erties will be greatly wel-

comed and supported by the
majority. of the nation... -

“The Spanish Communist
party has several times de-
clared its willingness to sup-
port any government that will
put into practice the solution
mentioned above... .”

Already the Republican and
Socialist parties, meeting in
Paris, have come to an agree~
ment.

So far they haye excluded
the Communist party, but
their very coming together
shows a change in Socialist
party policy, previously op-
posed to working with anyone.

There are strong moves from
Washington and Bonn to get
Franco admited to NATO. So
far the opposition of some of
the NATO member states, par-
ticularly Norway, has pre-
vented it.

For Franco, admission™ to
NATO is largely a matter of
prestige. Already he is in the
United Nations. NATO would
crown his achievement of re-
spectability.

But for the Washington
war-planners, getting Spain
into NATO is less vital. Al-
ready the U.S. has numerous
air and naval bases in the
country.

Dollars are also going into
Franco’s treasury for improv-
ing the Spanish: Army.

» But it looks as though, once

again, the U.S. rulers are
throwing away their money.
All the signs in Spain are
for a change — and neither
Franco, his monopoly backers
nor the U.S. State Department
can prevent it. :

October 4, 1957 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 9