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From New Interventions, Vol. 10 No. 3, Spring 2001.
Transcribed by Paul Flewers.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
Patrick Baker
The Spanish Transition to Democracy: A Missed Opportunity for the Left?
Socialist History Society Occasional Papers Series, No. 11, £2.50
Predictions of revolution in Spain after Franco’s death in 1975, and following the end of the Greek and Portuguese dictatorships, came to nothing. Spain’s rulers made the transition from a dictatorship to a weak parliamentary regime more easily and cheaply than they could have imagined.
The forces which backed Franco’s rising in 1936 have kept almost all of their privileges. The Constitution recognises the army’s place in guaranteeing Spain’s territorial unity. It is now a key part of Nato, where Spain is, next to the United Kingdom, the keenest supporter of Nato’s wars. The Catholic Church and the monarchy retain the positions they so nearly lost in 1936. Police and army killers and torturers remain in their posts, and the paramilitary Civil Guard has not been reformed. Political changes are limited, compared not only to the expectations of 1975, but to those implemented in Greece and Portugal after the fall of their dictatorships. Amazingly, key posts are occupied by people like Fraga Iribarne, Franco’s former Interior Minister, and members of Francoist clans such as Prime Minister Aznar and current Interior Minister Mayor Oreja.
The former opposition, particularly the Communist Party, have suffered a tragicomic fate. Many leading members have made careers in the Socialist Party, and others have moved yet further to the right. Ramón Tamames, once tipped as Santiago Carrillo’s successor, is now a prominent member of the governing Partido Popular, a party established by Franco’s supporters.
Political corruption is endemic, parliament is rigidly controlled, and there is very little political involvement by the general population. Newspapers refer to the ‘political class’, a peculiarly Spanish formulation, which recognises that the general population hardly participates in political life. The once mighty Communist Party has not recovered from the part it played in preserving Spain’s élites.
The Spanish Transition To Democracy is based on 23 interviews with former members of the opposition to Franco, some of whom played a key part in the transition. They include Santiago Carrillo, the former General Secretary of the Spanish Communist Party, Francisco Frutos, the present incumbent, and Gregorio López Raimundo, a former leader of the Catalan communists. These are astute characters who have been questioned before. Patrick Baker was not free to deploy the interrogation techniques which Carrillo once used so effectively to extract confessions from dissident party members, even if he wished to. Frutos’ observation that Carrillo is a ‘short-term dribbler’ who has little strategic sense, or long-term vision is accurate but too limited. Carrillo was playing a different game, as his main aim was always to obtain a share in government. A good result for him would have done nothing to benefit working people.
The interviews with rank-and-file activists show strong criticism of the policy followed during the transition, particularly the Moncloa Pact when the unions gave the government a free hand in return for promises which were never kept. Yet such activists are too kind to their former leaders. Begoña San José presents the late Pilar Brabo, once seen as an heir to Carrillo’s throne, as a critic of his methods, whereas the prevailing view is that she lost favour by assuming that her succession was guaranteed. Such an observation reinforces the impression of the party’s rank and file that one had at the time: these were people who were prepared to work and suffer, but were also prisoners of a political culture which inhibited critical thought.
The pamphlet is part of a larger project, which could shed more light on an important topic. Patrick Baker accepts that Carrillo’s policy was a disaster, but seems to assume that the Communist Party could have helped mobilise the workers to gain socialism, or at least a better deal. That was not a realistic expectation, given its leadership’s record in the 40 years prior to the transition.
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Last updated: 11 March 2015