FRFI 178 April / May 2004
March has been a month of death, grief, rage, social unrest and political punishment in Spain. On 11 March, exactly 911 days after the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York, 12 bombs went off in Madrid, leaving 202 people dead and 1,500 injured. The effect on the population has been a reinvigoration of disgust at the war on Iraq, which was opposed by 90% of Spaniards. There was also immense anger at the government’s handling of the crisis, which took place just three days before the general elections. The authoritarianism and blatant lies told by Aznar’s People’s Party (PP) led to them being voted out and to the completely unexpected victory of the social democratic Labour Party (PSOE), who won almost three million more votes than in 2000.
Despite its name, the PP is a bourgeois right-wing party. Most of its leading members have economic, ideological and family ties to the national-Catholic dictatorship of General Franco. Eight years of conservative government have deepened the process of total privatisation begun by the social democrats in the early 1990s. The remains of the public sector have been dismantled; there has been speculation on the housing market and regressive tax reforms. Two Basque newspapers have been closed down and the Basque party Batasuna banned. There have been cuts in social expenditure, protest has been criminalised and the rate of growth has been sustained by poverty pay at home and aggressive economic interventionism abroad.
Three episodes in the political life of the PP government have been especially controversial. Firstly, the 20 June 2002 general strike against reform of the labour market. Secondly, the manipulative and profit-hungry way in which the country’s greatest-ever environmental disaster was dealt with (a massive oil spill on the coast of Galicia). Finally, Aznar’s government’s imperialist backing of the US/ UK invasion of Iraq, together with repressive measures against the anti-war movement of a kind not seen since the time of Franco.
In the run-up to the general election, an intelligence report was leaked to the right-wing press about the talks in southern France between two leaders of the Basque armed group ETA and the leader of ERC (Catalonian nationalists governing in coalition with the regional PSOE). Aznar’s PP and its media launched a campaign to undermine all opposition and portray themselves as the only guarantors of democracy and the fight against terrorism. When, surprisingly, in February ETA declared a unilateral ceasefire in Catalonia, the PP saw a chance to escalate its propaganda in order to gain an absolute majority in parliament.
On 11 March bombs in rucksacks exploded on two trains coming into Madrid’s Atocha station from working class dormitory towns. At the same time three more blasts took place in trains at El Pozo and Santa Eugenia. Everything happened within minutes, between 7:39 and 7:42. Many people were killed in secondary explosions as they were trying to rescue the wounded from the first ones. Two more bombs failed to go off. The terrorist attack hit hundreds of students and workers from traditionally left-wing working class areas where the population includes many immigrants.
The government lost no time in blaming ETA and Basque separatism, although the armed group has never carried out such carnage and traditionally gives warnings when it plants bombs in public places. Representatives of Batasuna, the party banned for being ‘the voice of ETA in the Basque Parliament’, strenuously condemned the bombing and stated that it had nothing to do with their struggle; they were ignored. The Interior Minister Angel Acebes went further, pointing the finger at ETA as directly responsible and decrying anyone who dared to doubt it. The conservatives used ETA as a campaigning tool, aligning themselves with Bush’s philosophy: whoever is not with us is with the terrorists. It was no coincidence that among the first people to be telephoned by Aznar were George Bush and his brother Jeb.
As early as 5pm on the day of the attack, all Spanish ambassadors received an official letter urging them to blame the Basque groups, although no evidence was provided. Meanwhile the people of Madrid showed overwhelming solidarity with the victims, with student nurses offering help, taxi-drivers taking no payment for driving whole families to visit relatives in hospitals, and would-be blood donors queuing in their hundreds.
Three days of official mourning were called and the next day millions marched under the government slogan ‘With the victims, with the Constitution, for the defeat of terrorism’. By that time the London office of Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper had released the e-mail in which Al Qaida claimed responsibility, and Aznar’s government was about to watch the video from the organisation that admitted responsibility for the bombings. Their lies and prevarication in the face of this information caused public outrage.
Saturday 13 March was the ‘reflection day’, just before the Sunday election, when traditionally no political speech or demonstration is allowed. However, people organised spontaneously to deliberately disobey the law. About five thousand gathered around the PP headquarters shouting ‘Liars’, ‘Murderers’, ‘We told you not to wage war’, ‘Your war, our dead’ and ‘You have chauffeurs, we have only local trains’. Over a million people spontaneously took to the streets in different cities and police charged demonstrators in Barcelona and Zaragoza. Madrid saw crowds stopping the traffic, banging kitchen pots and marching throughout the centre till dawn. The police decided it would be counter-productive to attack enormous numbers of furious demonstrators; however the Spanish media censored the rebellion, replacing the news with films and highlights of football matches – a futile exercise, as cable and satellite channels covered the demonstrations extensively.
Government hysteria was shown at its most extreme in Pamplona where an off-duty policeman shot dead a baker who refused to put a sign in his shop saying ‘No to ETA’. State forces baton-charged his memorial march in the Basque town of Hernani and a 60-year-old woman died of a heart attack.
The election had a 77.25% turnout and the PSOE got 42.64% of the votes, or 164 seats, against the 34.16% of the PP (125 seats). The PSOE leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has promised the withdrawal of troops before 30 June if the UN doesn’t take control of occupied Iraq. Contrary to the view of the right-wing press that the Spaniards yielded to the threat of terrorism and the election result was a sign of cowardice, the truth is that the people showed courage on the streets and at the polls. Aznar was punished for backing the onslaught on the Iraqi people. The Madrid attacks galvanised the strong Spanish anti-war movement, which could have a profound impact both inside and outside the country.
The PSOE is no more progressive than the PP. It supported the invasion of Yugoslavia; the Gulf War and the sanctions against Iraq. Its 14 years in government are famous for dirty tricks and corruption. At the moment it has rejected ETA’s offer of dialogue. However it will bring the Spanish ruling class closer to the European imperialist bloc led by Germany and France, increasing the rivalry with US/UK imperialism in the international arena. Pulling 1,300 troops out of Iraq has no military consequences for the 127,000 strong US army, but has a political effect in strengthening the EU. Spain may now stop playing the strategic role designated by Washington and performed by Aznar of splitting European imperialism. This will increase capitalist rivalry and bring new contradictions in the future.
Juanjo Rivas & Daniel Muelas
