The replacement of the dying dictator Franco by Prince Juan Carlos - the great hope of liberal' cap italist opinion in Europe - has not made a jot of difference to the repressive attacks of the dictatorsorship ever on the press. The police have also stepped up their attacks. In Madrid a mass assembly of students in the Science Faculty to discuss the present situation was broken up and 60 arrests were WEEKLY actions have been the 'unofficial" ones taken by bands of fascist thugs. These extreme right wing groups, who operate in open collusion with the police (indeed, they are often made up of off-duty policemen, represent tions of the dictatorship. to ensure its survival by intimidating the opposition and maintaining a state of political tension that would make any "liberal' manoeuvres by Franco's successor impossible.
ACTIONS
Among the actions they have undertaken in the past week alone are:
* In the Basque town of Zarauz they invaded the home of Basque anti-fascist martyr Txiki, brutally beating his mother ship on all expressions of political opposition.
But the most serious repressive the most die-hard secThey aim tails.
Spain) as they left. and sister, and smashing up their furniture.
* In Valencia and Seville it was they, rather than the police, who turned up at the student assemblies and broke them up using clubs, chains, and Molotov cock* In Madrid a fascist band, armed with sub-machine guns, broke into the office of a Christian Democrat lawyer while a group of liberal lawyers were giving an interview to a Venezuelan journalist. They forced everyone to lie on the floor and brutaly beat mem, lerang on tear gas grenades (standard police equipment in These right-wing groups can be expected to step up their activities over the coming months as the crisis of the dictatorship grows. The classThe Government has imposed the most rigorous cencollaborationist schemes of the main oppositionist groups can do nothing to meet this threat, for they centre around collaboration with the state authorities who are themselves up to their necks in these right-wing plots.
Only a united front of all workers' organisations, for which revolutionaries in Spain are presently calling, can organise the sort of mass, united self-defence which is necessary to defeat this fascist thuggery.
SOLIDARITY
International workers' solidarity, too, can help to isolate these attacks. An important first step will be the national demonstration this Saturday called by the Action Group against the Repression in Spain, which assembles at Speakers Corner at 1 pm.
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made. At the University of Seville the same thing took place, this time leading to 41 arrests. CHRIS BALFOUR