fgrtngghflyC 13“. March, 1981 anarchist Vol 42, No. 5 -,~§=? ‘=1-3;: .>~3"' -.- __a_.__ $2 JUST as we were putting the fin- democracy is that the armed forces ablishing the more relaxed stability ishing touches - on the evening of must be subservient to the civil it hoped for, with Christian demo- Monday 23rd February - to our authority: Parliament. And with the crats and Social democrats fight- last issue, the news started coming changes that have followed the death ing for the middle grotmd - much as through the radio of the attempted of the Caudillo, new attitudes and we might see them doing here in the coup in Spain by a Colonel of the codes of behaviour have emerged not too distant future. While outside Civil Guard. which must have annoyed the auth- of Parliament, extremist groups We held our breath and the front oritarians in the Army more than felt free to emerge and start bomb- page until the Tuesday morning, by somewhat. Even a Communist Party ing and shooting each other up. which time it was clear that the has been permitted I The most determined and mili- coup had been abortive. Appeals by There might even be a feeling tant of these, of course, had already King Juan Carlos to the Army and that they have been betrayed by the been going before the death of the police to remain ‘loyal’ to the old dictator. He chose no successor Franco: the Basque separatists, infant Spanish democratic constit- from their ranks to follow him as whose militarist wing, ETA-Militar, ution had found the likely response Head of State. Instead he ordered has realised that the coming of and ‘reason’ had prevailed. a the return of the monarchy - nomin- ‘democracy’ in Madrid made no diff- It woul d be extraordinary if ating Juan Carlos. Now this might erence to their struggle, since all there were not a lot of hatred we ll be thought to be acceptable to gove rnmentsare centrist in concept among the upper ranks of the any army with a history of working and determined to hang on to every Spanish army for the political within a democracy - but not the bit of territory under their control. ‘democracy’ which has followed, Spanish Army, with no such history, It was the Guardia Civile which along with the establishment of the for right away King Juan Carlos had taken the brunt of ETA's viol- King as the He ad of State, the death declared his intention of leading the ence. As is so often the case, civil of Gene ralissimo Franco. country back (back?) to democratic guards we re sent to the area from Under Franco's merciless Fal- forms of government. other regions of Spain, having no angist rule, the Army was the elite The Army therefore had to stand sympathy for the local struggle and of Spain. With no external wars to and see its old enemies from the not even speaking the local language. fight, the Army was the effective bitter struggle of the Civil War re- But the ease with which they were government, subject only to its emerge and re-form. Not only pol- picked off amused burning resent- leader. Delegating most of the dirty itical parties of the centre and the ment back in the elite squad’s head- work to the Civil Guard, the Army left, but trades unions; even the quarters in Madrid. bathed in its power and privilege, CNT re-eme rged with, no doubt in It was not surprising, therefore, the prize for its triumph over the the military mind, the spectre of that it was a Colonel of the Guardia Spanish people in the Civil War. an anarchist movement in its back- Civile who was prepared to lead the With the coming of this democ- ground. A coup last week. Lt-Col Antonio racy, however, the Army has been Nor has the political democracy Teje ro Mlina had only recently gone demoted, since one of the tenets of been an unqualified success in est- back to his post after serving a term 2 FREEDOM demonstrators shouted fascist slog- bequeathed by Franco. But Juan ans of support for the stranded Col- Carlos knows that this is 1981, not onel. 1936. The whole of Europe is diff- Some odd facts have emerged. erent; there is no Nazi Germany, no Like, the rank-and-file civil guards fascist Italy, but there is the EEC, who followed Te je ro into the cham which Spain desperately wants to ber were simply rounded up outside join, and which her economy needs, and ordered to follow him in with- and there is NATO. ‘~‘4kx,&h41‘._. out knowing why. ‘We were just The authoritarian European states I obeying orders’ was their story - which were thought right and proper and it seems to have been accepted in the 30s and to the extent that by the investigation committee, for Spain still maintains the outward whom, of course, such behaviour trappings of fascism, like in the P is only too right and prope r. There maintenance of the Guardia Civile, § ‘ §t__:_ . were some, however, who deser- her presence among the ’democracies‘ ted the Colonel and walked back out could be an embarrassment. Old- of the building again as soon as they fashioned brutality might be all found out what he had led them right in Sal Salvador but not in into. (Will they be rewarded or Europe . punished for disobeying orde rs ‘?) Nov; then, is the appropriate All in all, it wasn't the Colonel's time to demand that the hated day, a fact which seems to have Civil Guard be disbanded. What- dawnded on him quite early in the ever governmental structures of detention for indiscipline in the proceedings, for one report had remain which we, as anarchists, past. He was ve ry clearly finding it him saying - as the deputies were would reject, the retention of this very difficult to live with democracy being led out of the chamber- ie, outward relic of Franco's 30 years The extent of the plotting has not yet long before he surrendered - ‘You of tyranny can surely not be justif- been revealed, although what is al- are leaving all right. Nothing will ied by anybody. If the activities of ready obvious is that it is more happen. The only thing I know is the Basque guerillas seem to just- widespread than the event of 23rd that I'm going to have to spend 30 ify its continuance - then let the Feb might have indicated. or 40 years in prison.’ And so he democratic Spanish King tell the Only one high- ranking army off- We ll may. Spanish Parliament to let thom icer acted on that same evening: Mopping-up ope rations have foll- people go. Give the Basques their Major-General Jaime Milans del owed. High- ranking army and civil independence; remove the excuse Bosch, stationed in Valencia, sent guard officers have been arrested, for para-military police. his tanks into the streets and declar- including Major-Gene ral del Bosch Disband La Guardia Civile I ed a state of emergency. From the of Valencia. It is being hailed by re st, whoever and wherever they the deputies, safe ly back in their were: nothing. seats as a ‘triumph’ for dem- (Illustrations taken from Bicicleta) But Colonel Tejero's antic was ocracy, when really 1t was either a bungled farce, or a , spectacular enough. Choosing a ,--~ moment when the Spanish Cortes deliberate plot to flush out (the Parliament) was in a state of potential military conspitators. \;. flux - for they were in the middle of On a great wave of relief, the electing a new prime ministe r- he Spanish people, spectators at the ' led a squad of 200 civil guards into game s, filled the streets four days the chambe r, scared the daylights after the events. l, 400, 000 came out of the deputies by ordering his out in Madrid, 350, O00 in Valencia, men to shoot up the ceiling and he rd- whi le in Barcelona, Spain's second ed the deputies out, covered in largest city, only about 200, 000 F plaster and confusion. marched. Could it be that the people One of the press photographers of Barcelona were not so impresse still in the building had managed to after all with the democratic trium- get a photograph of Te je ro waving ph ? his arm and brandishing a hand-gun Whatever the truth of this extra- The photo went round the world and ordinary affair, we must remember must have made the lucky pressman that in terms of Spanish political a pretty peseta. history, it's not so extraordinary. But from then on, the intrepid For the reasons we outlined at the Colonel didn't know what do to. He beginning, a great deal of resent- //’ must have been getting reports ment and bitterness 1s simmering 1 / from other regions and must have among the state's forces in Spain. known that, with the exception of The lid has just been lifted a little Valencia, he was on his own. What- and we have been allowed a glimpse. "1 ever promises he had been given of There can be no dount that the support, none came. Outside and military and the para-military Civil throughout the night, units of the Guard have both been disappointed Army and the police quietly surr- at the role played by the King, whom ounded the Parliament building. no doubt they expected to carry on aw-1"" Outside them, some right-wing the same authoritarian structure y‘/(“gal/KM-ua.:58 FREEDOM 3 touch 0 anarchism WHY has there been so much ment- "Thedoctrine that, I believe, Heffer continues with an attack on ion of anarchism in the press rec- distorted and eventually defiled the anarchist concept of government ently (by which I mean an increase Marxism was the dictatorship of the as the root of evil.