LOOKING TO THE LEFT

SPANISH JUSTICE IS ON TRIAL

2012-02-01T10:51:00.000+01:00

The Spanish High Court judge, Baltasar Garzón, is internationally known because of his attempts to bring the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to face justice, which were largely thwarted by Margaret Thatcher. However in Spain he has made a career of investigating the cases corrupt politicians and those on the far right would wish to remain covered up.

Hence on Tuesday Garzón stepped into the dock of the Supreme Court charged with investigating the violation of human rights committed during the Civil War and Franco dictatorship. This case has the legal world in outrage as well as human rights groups. How can a judge be tried for investigating crimes against humanity? The far right groups including ‘Manos Limpias – Clean Hands’ who brought the case against Garzón would argue: because he has gone against Spain’s Amnesty Law introduced in 1977.

Amnesty International has labelled Garzón trail as “scandalous”. The internationally respected organization issued a statement before the judge was due to enter the dock on Tuesday. He is accused of obstructing justice by opening an investigation into the crimes of the Franco era and to determine who was responsible for them. If found guilty he faces being banned from office for 20 years effectively ending his judicial career.

The human rights organisation is not alone in its support for Garzón. Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the Asociación por la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, have called press conferences to voice their outrage and backing for the judge for the morning when his trial opened.

Amnesty International has spoken out over Judge Baltasar Garzón being placed on trial for seeking justice, the truth and justice for the victims and their families of a massive violation of human rights. It also defends his investigation of the abuse of human rights and says to do so is an international obligation for Spain.

The judge stands accused because he investigated in the High Court the forced disappearance of 114,266 people between July 1936 and December 1951. His right wing action group accusers say he has gone against the provisions of the Amnesty Law passed in 1977. However Amnesty International dismisses this as irrelevant adding whether he infringed the law or not Spain has a duty under international law to uncover the truth of those years. A leading QC I consulted agrees: international has precedence over Spanish law.

The federal co-ordinator of Izquierda Unida, Cayo Lara, attended a protest organised by the Plataforma de Apoyo a Garzón outside the Supreme Court in Madrid as the trial got underway. He told the crowd if the judge is found guilty it will “be a stain on Spanish justice.”

Lara continued: “All international justice has its eyes on what is happening here and they are perplexed because they can’t understand that when other countries have investigated their crimes in their own dictatorships they have resolved them from a democratic point of view – yet in Spain we have these terms and conditions and the person who is in the dock is the one who had the courage to investigate.”

Expressing the views of many Spaniards, especially those of the centre and far left, Lara said the Supreme Court should remember that over 130,000 people are still lying in the gutters of Spain in unmarked graves. He added: “they should judge these crimes rather than the judge so that one day we can have a quality democracy.” Lara concluded: “Black has to become light so clear and sharp and has to defend truth, justice and reparation for the victims.”

The opening day of the trial reached the stage of a judicial farce when the State prosecutor sided with the defence and called for the charges against Garzón to be thrown out. Respected public prosecutor Luis Navajas told the court: “We agree with the arguments put forward by the defence. We ask that the trial be shelved.”

The Supreme Court has adjourned to Tuesday January 31 when it will rule on the petition to have the case dismissed. If it rejects the application Judge Baltasar Garzón is due to give evidence on that day but it will be Spanish justice that is on trial.

(The above article appeared in Panorama (Gibraltar) on Friday January 27 and in the Morning Star on Wednesday February 1 2012)

IS ED MAKING A BALLS OF IT?

2012-01-25T11:38:00.001+01:00

The New Year got off to a bad start for the Labour Party leader Ed Miliband when Lord Maurice Glasman, his presumed guru, blasted him and the party for “showing no signs of winning the economic argument” in a wide ranging article in the New Statesman.

The media guns were swiftly turned on Miliband but should they have instead been aimed at the other Ed - Balls. After all the Labour Party leader has to lead on all fronts; it is the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls, who is meant to dominate the economic debate. Balls, who was an advisor then a ministerial colleague of the Iron Chancellor, Gordon Brown, knows more than anybody how he jealously guarded his turf, especially as Ed was one of his economic enforcers.

I will return to this theme shortly but first I want to concentrate on the speech given by Ed Balls to the Fabian Society at their Economic Alternative conference held on January 14. Whilst the Shadow Chancellor intoned the Labour Party economic policy mantra the main theme of his address was a robust defence of Keynes.

Balls is a disciple of John Maynard Keynes. He told the conference: “the reason why the real Keynes is so relevant today is that the global economy has been sliding into that rare and dangerous ’special case’ that Keynes identified in the 1930s and Japan suffered in the 1990s.

“You either learn the lessons of history or repeat the mistakes of history.

“With growth stagnating around the world, every country pressing ahead with deep cuts risks being a catastrophic mistake.

“Which is why Ed Miliband and I have argued for a global plan for growth, with clear medium-term plans to get deficits down, but stimulus now to avoid a global slump too.

“Rejecting the complacent isolationism of the 1930s and instead following Keynes’ lead by setting out a global solution to global problems – an economic alternative based on growth, job creation and balanced deficit reduction, which is the only sane way forward for Britain – and the only way back to credibility in the Euro area too.”

There were few detractors to Balls message and those that there were formed two camps. Some felt that Balls having argued the Keynes case didn’t go on to reach the Keynesian conclusion whilst others had no time for Labour’s timid approach on the economy.

On my way to the Fabian Society event held at the Institute of Education, part of the University of London in Bloomsbury, I passed through Gordon Square. A blue plaque on one of the buildings tells us that it was here that John Maynard Keynes spent many years of his life. I wondered whether Ed Balls’ female side may have got to him and he would have placed flowers on the doorstep before his speech but sadly no.

This is relevant because after Ed Balls speech I spoke to a number of people who said how impressed they had been with his performance as normally they found him repulsive; he was simply too aggressive. At the Fabians he was amongst friends but if Labour supporters rejected him because he acts in the media like an aggressive pit bull terrier imagine what a negative impact he must have on floating voters.

After Balls speech I sent out a Twitter on this theme. Here are just a few comments but I did not receive one in support of the present Balls style.

“Well that’s his and Gordon’s fault then; bring the real Miliband back and maybe, just maybe, people will start listening.”

“He was always been shallow and selfish in power. Now out of power why would that change?”

“Balls past behaviour and failings undermines everything he says and does now. People are neither stupid nor amnesiac.”

Now my point is this. It is all very well Ed Balls warmly embracing John Maynard Keynes but for the majority of voters the only Keynes they know is Milton. If he presents himself to the public as a rabid dog of war: first he is not seen as a Chancellor in waiting; secondly he is roundly rejected by the majority of the population, thirdly and worst of all Labour’s economic message is lost because the voters do not like the messenger.

So this presents Ed Miliband with a major problem. He has a shadow Chancellor who is identified by the majority of voters with the economic failures of the last Labour Government. He has an economic policy that is not even getting heard because of Balls’ aggressive stance. Hence when Glasman states Labour is showing signs of not winning the economic argument it could be said the good lord is merely stating as they would say in my part of London “the bleeding obvious”.

It was Tony Blair who said the New Labour project would only be complete when the Labour Party loved Peter Mandelson. I am not sure all the party ever did but Ed Miliband has a tougher job on his hands. He has to persuade the voters to love Ed Balls and when they have done that his economic policy. Sadly time is not on his side.

(The above article appeared in the London Progressive Journal on January 26 2012).

PROTEST MOVEMENT OR TOURIST ATTRACTION?

2012-01-17T13:29:00.000+01:00

We are told the Occupy movement started last summer in the USA on Wall Street. Whilst that is probably true the fact is the mass protest movement started in Spain under the 15-M banner.

Pictures were flashed around the world as there were mass occupations of plazas in Madrid and Barcelona. Whilst the former was largely peaceful there were accusations and indeed evidence of secret police infiltrating the crowds in Barcelona and fermenting violent confrontations.

The 15-M movement, which took its initials from the date of the municipal and some regional government elections in Spain (May 15), was protesting over the financial crisis and unemployment but also about the all pervasive political corruption in Spain.

Whilst 15-M still exists it has been joined by other mass movements one of which deals with the plight of those who have lost their homes through repossessions. The story invariably starts with the victims losing their jobs so they cannot keep up the mortgage payments, and then the bank or mortgage lender has them evicted so now they have no salary or home. The property is sold off cheap and the former householders finds they are responsible for the difference between their mortgage and the forced sale price. Hence not only have they no job, no home but now they owe over 100,000 euros to the bank.

What both the 15-M and other action groups have in common is they are an integral part of the local community. So whilst the world watched Madrid and Barcelona I signed the 15-M petition in Ronda, which has around 35,000 residents then marched in Jerez, the bankrupt Sherry city, with the unions and local protestors. It was the people who were on the streets, young, middle-aged and old, the unemployed, those in work and on pensions, children in arms and in prams, all classes, marching against the injustice that surrounds us.

Which brings me to my native London. At the end of November I was back in town and it was suggested I went to take a look at the Occupy movement outside St Pauls. Given my experiences with the 15-M in Spain I needed little persuading.

In the ‘Fabian Review’ Tom Hampson reveals a new poll carried out by the society and the TUC. In his opening paragraph he writes: “Quietly and without much fuss the British mainstream has shifted. Across the nation, worn out political territory has been vacated and tents have been pitched on the new centre-ground, and middle England has unfurled polite and new placards and banners that read ‘people before profit’, ‘narrow the gap between rich and poor’ and ‘protect the workers’. Tea has been brewed and hardier souls are even sleeping out overnight. Only the new radical fringe – mostly Tory voters – have stayed away from the party.”

Well the 15-M and other Spanish movements would certainly endorse those sentiments but what I found outside St Paul’s was sterile in the extreme. In Spain we marched and the mainstream political parties took note largely because elections were in the offing and they tried the clothes of the protestors on for size. The far left Izquierda Unida found they fitted best but socialist PSOE and the centre-right Partido Popular looked like scarecrows as both parties are the problem not the solution.

I sat on the steps of St Paul’s and listened to one of the speeches and was immediately aware that the audience was largely young foreign tourists – next stop the Tower of London and Madame Tassauds. The woman protestor addressing the crowd even had to appeal for help with her tasks as she was doing the work supposedly assigned to others. I saw nobody rush forward to volunteer to help her.

So here I was in the centre of the City of London, to one side the empty tents of the protestors, to the other tourists taking in the sights, yet nowhere to be seen where the people of Britain displaying their anger over the injustices meted out by the greedy Capital of capitalism.

When I say the people of Britain I don’t mean those in the tents or those who wrap scarves around their faces to destroy property during riots. I mean the angry “young, middle-aged and old, children in arms and in prams, all classes, the unemployed, those in work and on pensions, marching against the injustice that surrounds us” – the same people I stood amongst in Spain.

It is an empty protest outside St Paul’s. It receives a nod from the clerics inside the cathedral, from some politicos and the public’s recognition that they are there. Yet they have failed to capture the mass support of the British public and until or unless they do the Occupy the City movement will be nothing more than a passing tourist attraction.

(The above article appeared in the London Progressive Journal on January 14 2012)

ROUGH OR JUSTICE?

2012-01-09T17:43:00.000+01:00

As I scanned the Spanish press for some interesting reports to follow up I spotted the headline – Spain’s oldest prisoner kept inside over Christmas. I envisaged an 80 or 90-year-old spending the festive season locked behind bars which would make a good human interest story but on reading the article I discovered there was far more to it.

To start with Miguel Montes Neiro isn’t Spain’s oldest prisoner, he is just 61. Rather he is the country’s longest serving inmate although the prison service disputes that. The reason he generated so many column inches is that Miguel Montes Neiro spent Christmas, New Year and Three Kings behind bars – even though the Spanish Government had granted him a pardon.

Miguel and his family had hoped that a recent decision by the Council of Ministers, the Cabinet, of the outgoing Spanish Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on a pardon for Miguel would be acted on. The decision was communicated from the government to the Supreme Court to the Granada provincial court for his sentence to be lifted. However the judiciary is always sensitive to orders from the executive branch of government and an outgoing administration holds little sway hence Miguel was not released in time for Christmas.

Miguel is being held at the Albolote prison near Granada and his family through their lawyer had asked the governing board for Miguel to be released to be with them for the extended Spanish Christmas. However the application was denied and although they travelled to the Granada court with a petition of ‘habeas corpus’ hoping to bring him home they returned alone as the duty judge rejected it on technical grounds.

Miguel is said to have been “very depressed” by the decision with his lawyer adding: “it is as if he has been sentenced to another 20 years”. A family member said they felt as if all the snow on the Sierra Nevada mountains had been dropped on them.

The prison’s governing body is in no doubt as to why Miguel spent the festive season behind bars. It says to be released under the terms of the current regulations a close family member has to have died or be seriously ill or his wife is giving birth. In Miguel’s case none of these applied.

Between escapes and crimes Francisco Miguel Montes Neiro, to give him his full name, has spent more than half of his life in prison since 1966. He recently stated: “Now they say I will be in prison to 2021. I will then be 71. I will not live ten more years neither do I want to live inside.” With his escapes he has spent 1,386 days at liberty. If you discount that time he has served almost 32 of the last 35 years inside the walls of Spanish prisons. Although he has been convicted of some 20 offences none of them are blood crimes.

He looks older than his 61 years and this is due in a large part to the three hunger strikes he has undertaken in order to seek an official pardon. He has been convicted of robbery, assaults, carrying of weapons, holding false documentation and what are described as “delitos contra la salud pública” in other words drug offences.

A spokesperson for the Instituciones Penitenciarias disputes the fact he is the longest serving prisoner arguing he has spent long periods on the streets in which he returned to crime.

From Granada, of the flamenco tradition, Miguel is regarded by the prison service as a grade one prisoner because of his many escapes. There are various grades – for instance grade three prisoners normally are free during the day and just sleep in their cells at night, returning home for the weekends.

The last time Miguel was given permission to leave jail was in 2009 for two hours to attend the funeral of his mother. Albolote prison is 25 kms from Granada and each week some of his four brothers or their children visit him but they say are not always allowed to enter the jail. The prison runs a tough regime, bars block the views from the windows and there is cheap plastic for mirrors which deform the image.

In Britain Miguel might be described as a habitual criminal or an aging “Jack the lad”. He has escaped, he has committed crimes and society has demanded he pay the price. Perhaps after a life of crime in some ways it is fitting that finally having been given a government pardon the judicial and prison service has had the last say.

My only comment is that I believe Miguel deserved better than to be used as a gimmick by the outgoing socialist government. I offer no other opinion here but to beg the questions has society failed Miguel or did he receive his just desserts? As a non-violent prisoner should he have received grade two or three treatment or as a constant escapee was he number one class?

Is Miguel’s treatment rough or true justice?

(A version of the above article appeared in the Morning Star on January 10 2012)

BAN THE SPANISH ROYAL FAMILY FROM BUSINESS

2011-12-20T12:29:00.000+01:00

Senator Jordi Guillot, who represents the Iniciativa per Catalunya-Verds, which presented itself with the far-left Izquierda Unida at the Spanish General Election, is proposing to Spain’s Upper House of Parliament that members of the Royal Family be banned from participating in businesses, advising companies or having a financial interest in them.

He spoke out over the so-called “el escándolo Urdangarín” which has embroiled the Duke of Palma who is the husband of the Infanta Cristina, daughter of Spain’s monarch Juan Carlos I. He wants the matter debated by the Senate when it holds its first meeting on December 13.

Guillot is seeking the Real Decreto 1369/1987 be modified – this royal decree regulates the treatment and honours that correspond to the members of the Crown. He wants the decree to be amended to ensure no member of the Royal Family takes part in remunerated activities, cannot form any part of a business and no person who have been convicted of a crime can be a member of the Royal Family.

This would see Iñaki Urdangarín thrown out of the ranks of royalty and his titles withdrawn should he be convicted. The Duke of Palma is an advisor to Telefónica Internacional and co-owner with his wife the Infanta Cristina of Aizoon SL. Since 2006 this company has had a 50 per cent holding in Nóos.

The ICV senator is very angry over “the silence” that the Casa Real has maintained over the judicial investigation in to the business activities of Iñaki Urdangarín. Guillot stated: “This is another case that demonstrates the necessity of knowing the accounts of the Royal Family. It will be good to oblige the members of the monarchy to declare their assets and the economic activities that they participate in, in a similar manner to the other senior members of the government.”

The Duke of Palma, Iñaki Urdangarín, is being investigated in the Palma Arena case over allegations that his company Nóos received money from large businesses and private entities. None of these so far have accused Urdangarín of fraud or indeed the others implicated in the affair.

Investigations by the Agencia Tributaria tax agency, the economic crime squad of the National Police and the anti-corruption prosecutor of the Balearic Islands have found that associates linked to Urdangarín invoiced between 2003 and 2007 millions of euros to large companies. These included Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen, Iberdrola, Bancaja, the football clubs Villareal and Valencia plus Roig Grupo Corporación and the Sociedad General de Autores (SGA). The report also showed that Nóos, a supposedly non-profit making company, had relations with other major companies such as Repsol, BAF, Motor Press Ibérica and financial institutions.

It is believed that the clients of Urdangarín paid to him and marketing- image experts very high sums. It is claimed that SGAE handed over 760,000 euros to Nóos, a car company another million euros and Villarreal football club almost 700,000 euros. It appears the Duke of Palma also received sums for publicity for a series of events Nóos organized with public funds in Valencia and Palma. Nóos is said to also have received 625,000 euros from private sponsorship plus 2.3 million euros from the Balearic Government of the then president Jaume Matas. If there is any wrong doing it will revolve around Nóos non-compliance with an agreement with the public organization Illesport under which private funding was meant to be used to reduce the dependency of the events on public cash.

The duke used the name of the Royal Family and his wife the Infanta Cristina as bait to sell the projects. The Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo claims that apart from the Duke, his wife and their private secretary are also involved. They could face charges of misappropriating funds, fraud, falsifying documents and obstructing justice. Not surprisingly given the seriousness of the charges the investigators are being accused of bowing to pressure from the King in a cover-up.

Last year the then Izquierda Unida mayor of the Andalucía town of Puerto Real, José Antonio Barroso, attacked the Spanish monarch, Juan Carlos I, and has repeated his accusation that he is corrupt. He accused the monarch of having “enriched himself illegally” and added some unflattering remarks on the morality of his father adding like father, like son.

The Partido Comunista also organised a petition presented to the Spanish Parliament demanding transparency in the accounts of the Royal household. The PC pointed out it was “unusual” that the King “does not explain how he spends the budget he receives from the State, that is around 10 million euros a year. Whilst he does not declare his spending there will be suspicions.”

(The above article appeared in the London Progressive Journal on December 20 2011)

THE FOURTH FORCE IN SPANISH POLITICS: VOTO EN BLANCO

2011-12-03T13:35:00.000+01:00

Following the recent Spanish general election there is now a fourth force in the nation’s politics. After the new party of government, the Partido Popular, comes the outgoing socialist PSOE, the far-left Izquierda Unida and then the Voto en Blanco – those who submitted blank votes as a symbol of protest.

En masse the PSOE supporters abandoned their party with 4.4 million previous voters rejecting the socialists. The majority abstained, others stayed on the left with Izquierda Unida, which rose from two to 11 seats and its vote hit 6.9 per cent – but – and this is the key point only 550,000 of those dissatisfied voters went to the PP. Hence it wasn’t a mass endorsement of the Partido Popular but a mass rejection of PSOE.

It is in to this scenario that Voto en Blanco entered with the blank votes accounting for the fourth largest amount in the general election. In the election for Spain’s Upper House, the Senado, there were 1,263,120 which equates to 5.37 per cent of the electorate and also three times as many as registered a blank vote in 2008 when it was 2.06 per cent. In the Lower House, Congreso, the blank votes reached 333,095 or 1.37 per cent against 1.11 in 2008.

To the total of blank votes – 1,596,215 – has to be added the sum of 97,706 for the political group Escaños en Blanco. Their electoral promise was that if their candidates were elected to parliament they would not take their seats as a protest and rejection of the unjust Spanish political system which they claim is anti-democratic.

The result of the Voto en Blanco, along with those who abstained and submitted spoiled votes, shows the overall discontentment of the Spanish people with the political system and the offerings of the various parties. The increase in this protest vote has been notable but it is insufficient because it was overshadowed by the immense wave of rejection of PSOE.

This was the major tendency in the 2011 general election, with voters turning their backs on outgoing premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and his successor Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. They were humiliated and suffered the worst result for the socialists since the death of Franco and now PSOE needs to enter a period of deep reflection.

Traditionally and importantly the Voto en Blanco represents a frontal protest by those citizens against the various electoral offerings presented by the parties but, and this is the important part, who refuse to renounce their right to vote and be part of the democratic process. A right earned by Spanish society through force and bloodshed.

(The above article appeared in the London Progressive Journal on Saturday December 3 2011)

VOTERS SWING BEHIND THE PCE ON ITS 90 TH ANNIVERSARY

2011-11-14T23:02:00.000+01:00

This year the Partido Comunista Español celebrates its 90 th anniversary on November 14 just under a week before Spain holds its general election. The PCE could have reasons to celebrate because whilst the centre right Partido Popular will probably become the government the communists now within the Izquierda Unida coalition could well pick up seats in parliament as the PSOE vote collapses.

The Communist Party in Britain has never enjoyed the success of its counterparts in France, Italy or Spain. Communist MPs have been far and few between with just Walton Newbold, Shapurji Saklatvala, Willie Gallacher and Phil Paratin. It has always been left to the Labour Party to represent the working class in the UK with communists often opting to run on the socialist ticket. True the PCE in Spain has had to reinvent itself and now forms the key component of Izquierda Unida. However the far left grouping has numerous councillors, controls major town halls and has MPs in the regional parliaments. At the 2007 elections it returned 2033 councillors but this year that increased to 2628 giving it 58 mayors and hence control of that number of town halls. This makes the IU the third largest national party in Spain and at the heart of the political process with two MPs and two Euro MPs.

I am giving a potted history of the PCE but there will be disputed versions given its fractious, often violent, history – no surprise given the Spanish and international political scenario over those years. A raised fist salute along the way to Rafael Moreno Marín, the PCE organiser in Arriate, who has given me facts and figures.

The Partido Comunista de España is not only an integral part of Izquierda Unida but also plays a major role in the giant CC.OO union. It was born of a schism in PSOE by members unhappy with the social democratic stance of the party who also wanted to partake in Lenin’s Third International. The PCE was a coming together of the Partido Comunista Español and the Partido Comunista Obrero Español. It was formed on November 14 1921 and duly became a member of the Third International hosting its first congress in Sevilla in March 1922. By September 1923 the party was repressed thought not dissolved by the Miguel Primo de Rivera dictatorship.

In November 1925, PCE leaders joined with Comintern officials and leaders of the Catalonian-separatist Estat Català in endorsing a revolutionary program. By the time the Second Republic was declared in 1931 the PCE was in a much weakened state but its first parliamentarian was elected on December 3 1933. Cayetano Bolívar Escribano was in prison at the time and was released to take his seat.

The PCE remained a small party but started to grow with the formation of the Popular Front government in February 1936 of which it was an integral part. Following the start of the Spanish Civil War in July of that year the PCE, led by José Díaz and Dolores Ibárruri ‘La Pasionaria’, worked tirelessly for the Republic and the Popular Front government. The communists found themselves at odds with the popular social revolution and were seen as one of the major movers behind the Barcelona May Days in 1937 when POUM was suppressed. It is said the Soviet Union wanted the Spanish Revolution put down so as not to upset Britain and France whilst facing the Soviet threat. In the early days of the war the PCE is estimated to have grown from 30,000 to 100,000 members and founded a branch of the International Red Aid.

Needless to say after Franco defeated the Republic in April 1939 the PCE was persecuted and became a guerrilla organisation in some parts of Spain. After the signing of the Molotov – Ribbentrop Pact in 1941 the PCE viewed Germany’s aggression in a neutral mode until it attacked the Soviet Union. A large number of the PCE membership were forced in to exile, many joined Russia’s Red Army. France was also home to other Spanish communists where they started organising during the later period of the Franco era. It was at this time it started organising the CC.OO which with the PCE became the backbone of opposition in Spain.

Dolores Ibárruri “La Pasionaria” played a major role in the PCE leading it as General Secretary until 1960. Santiago Carrillo took over the post which he held to 1982 and it was he who steered the PCE away from its Leninist routes on to the Euro Communist path in the process accepting Liberal democracy and a constitutional monarchy in Spain. Many party members regarded this as a “treason” and formed breakaways yet the party held together, was legalised in April 1977, one of the first steps in the Spanish transition to democracy. Within weeks it had 200,000 card holders.

In the 1977 elections, the first of the transition, the PCE received 10 per cent of the vote and repeated the feat in 1979. However in 1982 it went down to defeat and three years later Carrillo was expelled because of his attempts to follow a social democratic path and the party moved away from Euro Communism.

It was in 1986 during the anti-NATO protests that the PCE joined with other left wing groups to form Izquierda Unida including environmentalists. From 1982 to 1988 the General Secretary of IU was Gerardo Iglesias followed by Julio Anguita from 1988 to 1998. This post was then held by Francisco Frutos until 2009 when he was succeeded by José Luis Centella.

Izquierda Unida, which is still dedicated to restoring the Third Republic, now finds itself at the heart of the debate in the economic and financial crisis. The opinion polls indicate that the centre-right Partido Popular will crush the socialist PSOE on November 20. The result will be a massive blow to the left in Spain yet the IU may well become an electoral home for those on the left who reject the widespread political corruption that has gripped PSOE (as well as the PP). It is also at one with those who support the 15M movement, Los Indignados, as well as those battling to have the law changed with regard to property repossessions. This involves those who have lost their homes after they were reposed by the banks – but although homeless they still face massive debts to the mortgage companies.

What is clear that 90 years on the PCE is still at the heart of the debate and could be one of the big winners on November 20 when it could return between 10 and 15 MPs to Congress, Spain’s lower chamber of parliament.

(Versions of the above article appeared in The Morning Star and London Progressive Journal on Monday November 14 2011).

ANGRY, BROKE AND HOMELESS

2011-10-31T10:34:00.000+01:00

In May Spain held its elections for the town councils and some regional governments. On that occasion, the agenda was hijacked by the 15-M movement, Los Indignados, who campaigned for a return of true democracy and an end to political corruption. They camped out in the nation’s plazas and the people, young and old, marched with them. They were the forerunners of the protestors camping on the streets of New York and London now.

The Los Indignados have not gone away, far from it. However there is now a new mass protest movement on the streets. This involves those who have lost their homes after they were reposed by the banks – but although homeless they still face massive debts to the mortgage companies.

They held their first nationwide demonstrations on the day before the socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero dissolved parliament and Spain’s general election campaign got underway. This new angry protest movement will accompany all the parties all along the way. Their plight is the nation’s plight.

Demonstrations are being held nationwide to demand a change to the laws that govern homes being repossessed. The numbers being forced onto the streets has gathered pace because of the economic crisis and the protestors are defending the constitutional right of people to live in a home in dignity.

The action is being co-ordinated by the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca. They also have the support of the 15-M democracy movement. Their objective is a reform of the unjust mortgage law because it places in debt for life all the families that have had their homes repossessed. The law over-protects the banks and other financial entities to the detriment of the families that lose their jobs then homes because of the economic crisis.

One of the angry protestors has been 47-year-old Juan Coperías who lost his business and home, a rural hotel in Ciudad Real when he found himself in debt to over a million euros in just a few years. The bank auctioned the property for 300,000 euros and is demanding he pay them a further 400,000 euros. A despondent Juan said even if he had three lives he could not repay that huge sum.

However the majority of the cases involve homes in the 100,000 to 200,000 euros bracket. As the family cannot pay the mortgage they are forced out on to the street. The property is then auctioned at a knock down price usually to the predators waiting to pick up such bargains leaving the previous owners still owing the difference between the sale price, their mortgage plus costs.

The protestors are not alone. A recent statement was issued by the progressive judge’s association, Jueces para la Democracia, which denounced the existing law in favour of the banks. This legal group is demanding a new law that limits the ability of the financial institutions to place those who lose their homes in major debt. It wants the regulation of the handing down of huge debts on families and small businesses. The association added it was very worried by the steady growth in those made homeless because they cannot fund their mortgages.

The Spanish tragedy is that things are not going to get better – they are going to get worse. The financial crisis still has a long way to run and the jobless level, standing at over 20 per cent, could well rise. When Spaniards go to the polls on November 20 it is likely they will return a centre-right Partido Popular government. This is bad news for Los Indignados and the dispossessed. The PP, the heirs of Franco, will cut harder than the Socialists. They are no friends of democracy; they are mired in corruption and will always favour the banks over the homeless.

(The above article appeared in the London Progressive Journal on Saturday October 29 2011)

CALL FOR UN SANCTIONS AGAINST MOROCCO

2011-10-21T11:04:00.000+02:00

As peaceful protests take place in over 80 countries around the world against the corrupt financial and political systems one only has to go to the Western Sahara to see the other side of the coin. Since the peaceful protest by tens of thousands of Saharawis last October at the Gdeim Izik protest camp Morocco has been turning up the desert heat. What was the largest ever protest in the occupied territories culminated on Monday, October 10, with Moroccan forces brutally attacking peaceful protesters in El Aaiun. The Polisario claims some 30 Saharawis were injured and many others arrested.

It was against this background that the President of the Republic and Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, called on the United Nations to impose sanctions against Morocco. The purpose is to make Rabat comply with the mandate of the UN and end its colonial policy in Western Sahara.

Mohamed Abdelaziz wrote to the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon denouncing the situation of terror, siege, abductions and imprisonments, which take place in the occupied cities of Dakhla and El Aaiun and all the occupied territories of Western Sahara at the hands of Morocco.

The president wrote: “It’s clear that Morocco does not respect the provisions of international humanitarian law, clings to continue its flagrant violations of human rights in Western Sahara, which is under direct UN responsibility, pending decolonization and exercise of inalienable right to self determination and independence.” He then went on to urge the imposition of sanctions against Morocco to fulfil the UN mandate which affirms the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.

Mohamed Abdelaziz also drew the attention of the UN Secretary General to the situation of the family of Saeed Dembar to recover its rights as well as finally being able to bury their son who was brutally murdered by Moroccan police on December 23, 2010

The various peaceful protests by the Saharawi are an attempt to show their deep frustration over the lack of political progress in the Western Sahara to the outside world. The only meaningful activity in the region is Morocco’s plundering of their natural resources.

The Saharawis have now lived through 36 years of illegal colonisation; nearly 20 years of waiting for a referendum on the status of Western Sahara. The referendum is demanded by international law and promised by the UN yet nothing has happened hence Mohamed Abdelaziz’s strong letter to the Secretary General.

The Saharawis are not totally alone and both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have accused the Moroccan authorities of allegedly torturing many Saharawis. Amnesty International’s 2011Report accuses Rabat of “beatings, electric shocks and threats of rape.” It adds the detainees face military courts on trumped up charges after forced confessions.

As the protestors in New York, London, Madrid and around the world receive front page coverage in the press the authorities in Morocco maintain a media blackout in the Western Sahara. Morocco has banned the entrance to Western Sahara of media and independent observers as well as the Spanish International Association for the Observation of Human Rights (AIODH) from visiting Saharawi human rights activists held in prisons in Morocco. However the Saharawi voice has not been silenced and cries out for justice.

(A version of the above article appeared in the Morning Star on Friday October 21 2011)

GIBRALTAR SWINGS TO THE LEFT

2011-09-26T19:30:00.000+02:00

I am too long in the tooth to call an election before the votes are counted but this year’s opinion polls in Gibraltar make encouraging reading for the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party and their Liberal partners.

After four consecutive terms of a centre right GSD government under Peter Caruana the new leader of the GSLP, Fabian Picardo, has positive reasons to believe he could become the Rock’s next chief minister. The latest poll sounding by Vox gives the GSLP a 5.6 per cent lead over the GSD. It is the largest sample ever taken of Gibraltar’s voting intentions and was carried out on a household basis. As GSLP households tend to have more voters than GSD the actual lead could be larger still. However the outcome of the general election, which could come at any time, will depend on which party gets its share of the 21,000 registered voters to the polling station.

The GSLP should have a place in the heart of all British trade unionists. It is the oldest surviving political party in Gibraltar. Its grass roots are deep in the British Trade Union Movement because founder and outgoing leader Joe Bossano had lived in London’s East End where he was active in the Labour Party and union.

He returned to Gibraltar to become the District Officer of the TGWU which during Bossano’s tenure was instrumental in achieving parity with the UK for all workers in Gibraltar. Labour veteran Alf Lomas was Political Secretary of the London Co-operative at that time and active in the TGWU and the Labour Party. He told me: “There was no GSLP in those days and Joe and I had long discussions about forming a Labour Party. I helped to draw up the constitution and was made No 1 Honorary Member of the Party on its formation.” The GSLP fought its first election in 1978 and between 1988 and 1996 was the party of government.

Fabian Picardo was elected leader of the GSLP in April as Joe Bossano had signalled he would stand down before the next election. Picardo is now Leader of the Opposition in Parliament and a successful lawyer but started from humble beginnings and is a member of Unite, the successor to the mighty TGWU.

Gibraltarians are British subjects but it may surprise many readers to learn they do not share in the same basic rights enjoyed in the UK. The GSD government has done nothing in its four terms to rectify this sorry state of affairs indeed there is every indication it has no intention of doing so. Gibraltarians cannot appeal to the UK as they have their own government so their sole right to justice is via Europe which often sends the case to the UK.

Hence in the GSLP’s “Make the change” campaign Gibraltarians’ rights and open, transparent government are priorities with a Ministerial Code, Freedom of Information Act, Citizens Charter, protection for whistle blowers and the introduction of a 30 Year Rule already announced in policy statements.

So how has Fabian Picardo’s working class background shaped his political views. He told the MORNING STAR: “In every way. I am the product of that upbringing. I understand what it is like when people don’t have jobs and I consider myself a worker. My parents worked very hard indeed to enable me to become a professional; and I won’t allow anything to go to my head and make me think I am better than any other worker or anything other than a worker. I understand the need to make ends meet requires careful planning and that a wage sometimes needs to be stretched by working people. That is why I get so annoyed when I see taxpayers money wasted on frivolities or for what are clearly GSD partisan ends.”

So as the Gibraltar general election approaches what is his message to the voters of the Rock? Picardo is clear: “I do not want to be an all-powerful leader who uses Ministers like assistants as Caruana does. I want to strengthen democracy and accountability. I want to strengthen the civil service as an essential part of the structure of government. I am in politics because I believe in protecting the Gibraltar that I grew up in and making it stronger in the international community of nations. I want to see the quality of life of Gibraltarians improve and I want to see Gibraltar stay British as a guarantee for our future in respect of education, the rule of law and the quality of our democracy.”

The coming weeks will decide whether the GSLP Liberals take power in Gibraltar by ousting the GSD regime headed by Chief Minister Peter Caruana who rules the Rock as if it is his personal fiefdom. If Fabian Picardo takes office Gibraltar will again have a true socialist and trade unionist at its helm. When was the last time that happened in Britain?

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on September 27 2011)

SPAIN’S LEFT DEMANDS REFERENDUM ON DEBT LIMIT

2011-09-01T19:02:00.000+02:00

The accord between the ruling socialist party in Spain and the centre-right Partido Popular on changing the country’s constitution to limit government debt has met with stiff opposition from the far left Izquierda Unida and pro democracy groups such as the 15-M.

There are two main objections to the sudden move by the outgoing PSOE Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who has the support of the leader of the PP, Mariano Rajoy, who hopes to lead his party to government in November’s elections. The first is if Spain’s constitution is to be amended it should go before the people for their approval in a referendum. The second is the drastic effects the move could have on services such as health and education.

It would take just ten per cent of the MPs or senators in the Spanish Parliament to demand a binding referendum be called on the issue of reforming the Constitution to limit the public debt. The end effects could limit the access to health or education amongst other services for society’s most vulnerable – the rich won’t suffer as they can afford to pay for private care or teaching. By limiting debt the government is limiting its investment in society.

The Constitution does not demand that the people should be consulted for such a change to be made. However the pressure is on for ten per cent of the members of Congress and the Senate to demand a referendum on this key issue, which will have a profound effect on the future standard of Spaniards lives. This the Constitution does allow for – and the result will be binding.

Those activists who are agitating for the referendum say that Spain is the least participatory democracy in the EU. As the debt limitation measure would have a profound effect on the welfare state they argue it is scarcely democratic that it should be passed without the people having their say. Ironically Spain holds a general election on November 20 but as both the two main parties – PSOE and the PP – backed the introduction of the debt limit it will not be an issue.

When it comes to the Spanish welfare state it has one of the lowest levels of social public spending per capita in the EU. In addition whilst the debt limit applies to all government spending the areas that are being targeted are pensions as well as health, education, home care, social services, social housing plus the other components of the welfare state.

The change to the Constitution is being driven through Spain’s parliament with indecent haste. It remains to be seen whether the far left and democratic groups can halt this assault on those who depend on the welfare system in its tracks. It is tragic that the driving force should be a socialist government selling out the very people it was elected to support – and of course Spain heirs to Franco are right behind them.

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on Friday September 2 2011)

JOSÉ MORALES URGENTLY NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

2011-07-28T18:31:00.000+02:00

Uruguayan activist threatened with expulsion from Spain over peaceful pro-Western Sahara protest

José Morales Brum urgently needs the support of readers on two counts. First to prevent his expulsion from Spain over his participation in a peaceful pro- Western Sahara protest in Lanzarote. Second to show the undercover police involved in this case that the world is watching.

The facts are these. José Morales Brum is a Uruguayan activist resident in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. He is a pro-Western Sahara supporter, a union activist, a member of the Partido Comunista de Uruguay and of the Espacio Sahara in Lanzarote.

On Friday July 22 the Saharawi collective on Lanzarote held a protest in the Calle Real de Arrecife to receive 12 young Saharan who are going to pass their holidays on the island. This is a tradition carried out each year throughout Spain where cities, towns and villages open their doors to these children so they can escape the refuge camps for at least a few weeks. The demonstration was also to demand justice for Said Dambar, the young Saharan who was assassinated in El Aaiún in December after being shot by the police. It was seven months since his death.

What appears to be a plain-clothes National Police officer wearing a baseball cap and with a camera started taking photos of the children and the members of Said Dambar’s family along with others taking part in the protest. He had also been present at other such demonstrations and José Morales responded by taking photos of him. Without identifying himself he attempted to snatch the camera away from Morales who naturally resisted. Those assisting the protest came to the activist’s help believing he was the victim of a street theft. It was at this point that the man shouted he was a police officer, waved his service gun at Morales and the others then sought shelter in a nearby cafe. He waited there till the local police arrived but never identified himself with his official badge.

On the following day José Morales went to the duty court to report what had happened to him. After being kept waiting for eight hours four plainclothes police officers arrived. The apparently had been monitoring the activities of a 15-M movement demonstration. They demanded to see his identification and residency card then informed him he was being detained for public order offences and for an assault on authority. He was held in the police cells overnight. The next day he appeared before a judge who set him free provisionally without bail.

On the Monday events took a more sinister turn. Police informed José Morales that the Brigada de Extranjería had sited him for very serious public order offences under the Ley Orgánica with regard to security. On Tuesday came the news that they had opened an expulsion procedure and he had 48 hours to appeal.

Answers are now being angrily demanded to a number of questions. A representative of the Dirección Insular de la Administración General del Estado in Lanzarote declared: “The Saharans have always been very correct in their behaviour.” If that is so, if they are always peaceful and well-behaved, why were the police taking photos of the demonstrators? Why was the plainclothes officer there? If José Morales had carried out the crimes of which he is accused, why was he not arrested immediately? Why was he only detained when he went to the court to report the actions of the police officer?

The actions taken against José Morales are completely disproportionate. He has not been given the opportunity to have his expulsion case heard in an appropriate manner. Indeed the actions of the police are also a hostile attack on the Saharan people and their cause.

José Morales many supporters state that if Spain does not permit judicial procedures to be correctly carried out then the country is on the road to loosing its status as a democratic State where its citizens are protected by their rights under the law.

Please sign the petition in support of José Morales online at: http://networkedblogs.com/kWkCQ - or go to the Facebook page: Campaña Internacional de FIRMAS por el URUGUAYO José Morales.

José and democracy urgently need your support!

(José Morales is on the right of the photograph)

(Versions of the above article are appearing in various publications)

“THESE CAN’T BE MY DAUGHTER’S BONES”

2011-07-27T18:43:00.000+02:00

I return today to Spain’s missing babies. The majority of cases relate to between the 1950s and 70s although some reports are from the 80s. Hence most come from the Franco era when mothers suspect their babies were taken from them at birth and sold or passed to adoptive families.

The spotlight first fell on the cases from La Línea de la Concepción, the border town with Gibraltar, although there are now numerous reports from throughout Spain. The La Línea court is investigating along with the Algeciras Prosecutor and the National Police some 105 suspected such thefts. I highlight the case today of Remedios.

Once these cases were taken up by the legal system it was clear whatever the outcome for each family it would be traumatic. If they found a lost son or daughter alive and well it would be traumatic for all concerned. The opening of a tomb to ascertain whether it contained any remains would be traumatic. For Remedios the discovery of the bones in her daughter’s niche at Estepona’s cemetery has been very traumatic indeed.

In June the La Línea court ordered niches at the local cemetery, which were claimed to be the final resting places of three of these babes, to be opened with the remains taken for forensic tests. On June 29, again on the orders of a La Línea judge, the same process was undertaken at Estepona’s cemetery.

Remedios had given birth to a daughter on November 16 1981 at the then Residencia Sanitara in La Línea. As she was from Estepona, some 30 kilometres from La Línea, when her baby supposedly died shortly after birth, principally from lack of oxygen, she insisted her remains were interred in her local cemetery.

Now we come to the harrowing cry from Remedios: “These can’t be my daughter’s bones.” She was given just two hours notice to go to Estepona cemetery to meet the judge, Judicial Police officers, two forensic scientists and cemetery workers. The burial ground was sealed off and niche 26 opened. She said she had been waiting months for this moment but instead of closure she is left with torment.

Inside the tomb were the remains of a complete skeleton but Remedios asks, my daughter – also named Remedios – was hours old, how could she have such a complete skeleton? At the back of the mummified mouth are clearly tooth sockets. The ribs are four centimetres long and a centimetre wide, the size of her finger – how can this be asks Remedios when my baby just weighed two and a half kilos? The remains also had the legs crossed in an apparent effort to cram the large baby in to a small casket.

Whether this is the baby of Remedios will be determined by DNA tests being carried out at the Instituto de Medicina Legal in Sevilla. After her baby died officials at La Línea hospital offered to bury it at no charge – as has been the case with other missing babies – but she and her husband declined. The remains were taken at their request to Estepona but the parents were not allowed to see the body. Her sister-in-law asked to see the baby too but the undertaker refused saying it wasn’t allowed – an action Remedios described as inhumane and a violation of their rights.

There is one intriguing difference in this case. The gynaecologist who delivered Remedios’ baby and declared it dead is still working at a medical practice in La Línea. If the DNA tests show the remains are not the daughter of Remedios then the chief prosecutor in the Campo de Gibraltar, Juan Cisneros, who is leading the investigation, knows who to ask.

(Versions of the above article has appeared in Panorama, Dscriber (USA) and other publications)

THE MURDOCH DEBACLE STARTED THERE

2011-07-21T19:21:00.000+02:00

We live in a confusing world!

When I visited London in January I had arranged to meet the former Tory MP Sir Teddy Taylor. In his autobiography ‘Teddy Boy Blue’ he had covered his meetings with Gaddafi in Libya. We were meant to meet over dinner to discuss those encounters in relation to Lockerbie. I was struck down with a flu type bug so cancelled our meeting till I returned in May by which time of course the world had moved on and Gaddafi was front page news for different reasons.

Similarly in May I visited the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell to see the small patio dedicated to the printers who had lost their lives in the Spanish Civil War. Also at the Marx Memorial Library was the exhibition “News International Wapping – 25 Years On”. Subtitled as the strike that made the modern media it details the history of Murdoch in the UK and the violent confrontations of the Wapping dispute.

When I viewed it I did so largely out of recent social and political historical interest. Little did I know that within weeks, just like Libya, Wapping would again be propelled to the front of the UK’s news with the escalation of the phone hacking scandal and the resulting closure of the News of the World.

The curator Ann Field tells me well over 500 people have viewed the exhibition at the Marx Memorial Library. A fair enough number for such a venue. However, if the truth was told, if five million visited it still wouldn’t be enough. For to see the current scandal in its full context you have to go back to 1986.

The exhibition tells us the Wapping conspiracy involved Rupert Murdoch, his henchmen the EETPU and Farrar & Co, the company’s and the queen’s solicitors, who advised News International on how to get rid of its workers. They wrote: “the cheapest way would be to dismiss employees while participating in a strike.”

The importance played by Murdoch’s UK press holdings in building his empire is detailed by Granville Williams of the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom. He states: “Pre-Wapping his Fleet Street papers generated 45 per cent of Murdoch’s profits. Post-Wapping the boost in profits from the papers funded his global expansion. He acquired the Twentieth Century Fox film studio, created the Fox TV network in the States, and launched Sky in the UK.”

At the exhibition I met Jo Chesterman. Her husband, Fred, had been a driver for one of Murdoch’s newspapers and she was propelled in to forming the women’s support group, largely by the wives of the former striking miners. Jo’s photographs and first hand report from the frontline made riveting viewing and listening. One of the pundits on TV recently linked the closeness between the Murdoch Empire and the Met Police, who were wined and dined during the phone hacking investigation then offered lucrative jobs, to the Wapping dispute. One of Jo’s most sickening photographs was of a demonstrating print worker who had each arm grabbed by a police officer, walked fast in to a lamppost then let go. He collapsed to the ground his face smashed and covered in blood. His stunned anguish stared out at me.

From July 25 the exhibition moves to TUC Congress House for three weeks. So large is the demand to see it thanks to the Murdoch crisis that it has numerous other dates and venues both to the end of 2011 and in to 2012. If you haven’t yet seen it I strongly recommend you do. The Murdoch debacle started there.

(A version of the above article has appeared in Panorama and other publications)

LONDON MEMORIALS TO THE FIGHT AGAINST FRANCO

2011-07-14T12:46:00.000+02:00

In January of last year I read an article in The Morning Star about a memorial garden to British volunteers in the Spanish Civil War in London. However it wasn’t till this May that I decided to visit my native ‘old smoke’ from Spain to try and find it.

Google was no great help but did point me to another memorial by County Hall, the former GLC council chamber on the Thames opposite Westminster. I did eventually track down the memorial garden, or patio to be more correct, but I will come to that later.

To go back in history the memorials are to the British volunteers who joined the International Brigades. These were made up largely of socialist, communist and anarchist volunteers from numerous countries to went to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the 1936 – 1939 Spanish Civil War.

It is claimed people from 53 nations took part. The total number of volunteer combatants could have been as high as 35,000 although it is estimated that only around 20,000 were on the battle front at any one time. In addition up to 5,000 were engaged in non-combatant activities. They fought against the Spanish Nationalist forces under Franco which in turn were supported by German and Italian forces.

Some 2,000 people from Britain joined the International Brigades plus another 250 from what was then the Irish Free State. The Irish were in the main divided between the British Battalion and the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. Britons also served in both as well as the Tom Mann Centuria – a small group who operated as part of the largely German Thälmann Battalion.

It is well known that the English writers Laurie Lee and George Orwell served in the International Brigades alongside the trade union leader Jack Jones. However I was intrigued to find the name of the actor James Robertson Justice also listed amongst the combatants plus an “English upper-class communist” Esmond Romilly.

There are actually a number of memorials to the International Brigade volunteers throughout Britain. However the main one is without a doubt in Jubilee Gardens by the London Eye and County Hall – or rather it normally is. It consists of a bronze statue by Ian Walters that was unveiled by the former Labour Party leader Michael Foot in 1985. Unfortunately you cannot visit it to next year. The gardens are being revamped, the statue is in storage and when they re-open the memorial will have a new location away from the Eye’s queue.

Every year the International Brigades Memorial Trust holds a ceremony to commemorate those who felt compelled between 1936 and 1939 to travel to Spain to fight against fascism. As I stated previously around 2,000 made that journey with 500 paying the ultimate sacrifice and dying in Spain.

The 2010 commemoration ceremony in Jubilee Gardens was the first held by the IBMT at which no veterans of the conflict were present but needless to say their children and grandchildren were.

Now to the second London memorial. Whilst Jubilee Gardens is visited by hundreds of thousands of people a year the memorial garden has to be viewed by appointment. The reason for this it proudly stands at the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell.

I made the short walk from Farringdon Station along streets I hadn’t trod for over 45 years. I presumed the library would have a garden at the front in which would be placed the memorial. I found myself standing outside a building in Clerkenwell Green and noticed there was an exhibition inside dedicated to the Wapping Newspaper Strike. It soon occurred to me this was Marx House, a former 1738 Welsh Charity school, but garden there was none.

I had pre-arranged my visit and went up to the library which apart from holding Marx’s own library also houses the definitive archives related to the International Brigades. I was then led back through the building and out through a door which led to a small patio at the rear of the building. I was in the International Brigade Memorial Garden.

The official inauguration took place in January of last year and was presided over by Les Baylis and Tony Burke, the assistant general secretaries of Unite the Union. It was they who unveiled the striking statue of an International Brigade volunteer which had previously been at the Unite training centre in Quorn in Leicestershire.

At that ceremony Les Baylis had said: “It is entirely fitting that Unite Graphical Paper and Media Sector has sponsored this garden and chosen to relocate the magnificent bronze statue of an international Brigade fighter within these walls.”

The reason is that by trade more printers went to fight in Spain than any other. Three of that number George Hardy, Leslie Maughan and Walter Tapsell gave their lives for democracy and are honoured by a commemoration plaque on the patio’s wall which also includes the name of journalist Ralph Fox.

Bill Alexander, the commander of the British battalion and a member of the union, was the president of the Marx Memorial Library up till his death. The brigade veterans left their archives to the library in perpetuity in 1975. Today they are the finest source for the conflict in the British Isles and can be viewed by researchers and historians along with the numerous other important document collections at the library.

Perhaps this memorial garden is best summed up by Tony Burke who said at the ceremony: “We would want Unite members, and trade unionists and printers, to visit the archive and also spend a few moments at the memorial to remember those brave printers who risked and gave their lives as members of the International Brigades and fought against fascism. We well always recall that ‘freedom was never held, without a fight, without struggle there can be no victory’!”

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on July 14 2011)

THE SECRET POLICEMAN IS HAVING A BALL

2011-06-27T17:01:00.000+02:00

If you ask most people about the secret police their minds will go back to the days of the Nazi regime or totalitarian Eastern Bloc states. However many will be aware that the secret policeman (and policewoman) is alive and well. Indeed as I write this in Spain they are having a ball!

Spain and a repressive regime go hand in hand for those who think back to the years of the Franco dictatorship. For Spaniards who are of my generation or older the threat of the knock on the door was very real indeed. For those under 40 it is all history. They are very proud of the advances Spain has made in the democratic stakes since the death of Franco. Hence the discovery that secret police are still on the nation’s streets has come as a profound shock.

Of course Spain’s secret police have been there all alone. In March I wrote in the Morning Star about the anniversary of February 23 1981 attempted coup when the fledgling democracy of Spain was almost brought to its knees when the Guardia Civil Lieutenant Coronel Antonio Tejero marched in to the Spanish parliament, confronted the MPs and fired shots in the chamber.

One of those forced to flee was Antonio Herrera now in charge of the health section of the CC.OO union. The Communist MP, Paco Vázquez, met him in Málaga offering to take him to Gibraltar. He declined and says later friends in the police told him at the time they knew exactly where to find him plus each and every one of those on the left.

Now the secret police have surfaced again amongst the protestors, ‘Los Indignados’, of the 15-M movement. This movement makes up a number of people’s organisations which have become indignant with the nation’s economic plight, the endemic political corruption and greed. The street protests have been largely peaceful and have embraced young and pensioners, the employed and jobless, professional classes and artisans. The Spanish summer is as real as the Arab spring.

So the surfacing of videos that show secret police infiltrating the demonstrations of the 15-M movement to provoke disturbances and confrontations supposedly on the part of the protestors in order to justify the brutal police retaliation has come as a major shock to the public.

Whilst the shock is real enough what has left people stunned is that only websites such as Voto en Blanco have had the courage to show what is going on via the internet. No media, which is subjected to or dependent on the State or its agencies, has been brave enough to report the actions of the secret police. Whilst it is the police in the spotlight they, of course, take their orders from the politicians in power who are demonstrating the low moral standing of those who currently govern Spain.

The majority of the violence has taken place in Barcelona, a territory governed by the Generalitat. It is here that Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spain’s minister of the interior, who is also responsible for the security of the country, has approved the tactics and methods of the police which are more in keeping with a dictatorship or a democracy that has no ethics or decency.

As can clearly been seen on the videos that have been placed on YouTube, although I understand access to some has been blocked, police provocateurs have infiltrated the demonstrations and used violence in stark contrast to the peaceful protests around them. In a video of the demonstration in Barcelona’s Parc de la Ciutadella once the secret police have done their work the riot squads move in firing directly in to the crowds. The video then identifies the police perpetrators.

These are the actions we associate with Nazi, Fascists or repressive regimes. However Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba is not only a socialist government minister but the likely heir to the current premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

If socialist Rubalcaba can sanction such action on behalf of PSOE then if Mariano Rajoy’s centre-right Partido Popular wins the general election next March expect the repressive instruments of State to be given full reign. For the sad fact is all the corrupt political parties are under attack. Collectively they are guilty as charged so will fight back with their total might – secret police and all.

(Versions of this article appeared in the Morning Star and Panorama on June 28 2011).

THE RIGHT HAVE GOT IT WRONG

2011-06-23T19:46:00.000+02:00

We started with the Arab Spring and that has seemingly morphed into the European Summer. In Spain the people are taking to the streets and are questioning the very foundations of their democracy. It would be laughable if it were not so tragic but the centre-right Partido Popular would have Spaniards believe they are the answer. Wrong: the PP are the problem.

“Los Indignados” is the collective term for the protestors in Spain. They form under the banner 15-M, May 15 being the day they took to the streets ahead of the local and some regional elections on the 22 nd. The indignant ones are not just young activists: they come from all age groups, mothers with babes in arms, pensioners, workers, the jobless – every Spaniard who wants to cry “¡Basta!” “Enough!” – and their number is steadily growing.

The movement started in Madrid where the “Indignados” moved in to the Puerta del Sol on May 15 and set up camp. Madrid as a city and region is controlled by the PP so the centre-right party was happy to see them on the streets as the elections drew near, a very public rejection of the socialist Zapatero government.

The PSOE government wisely chose not to intervene as the election board ruled the gathering illegal if it continued on the eve of the polls – a day of reflection in the Spanish electoral process. The PP swept to power in regions, provinces and town halls making historic gains. Then the party’s mood changed. They wanted the plazas cleared, the “Indignados” were a nuisance, an eye-sore, a blight on business – the PP demanded the government take action.

The protestors held their position; in Barcelona the results were bloody confrontations with the Catalan police, the Mossos d’Esquadra, who were also accused of infiltrating the 15-M movement and acting as provocateurs. Eventually they dispersed, usually cleaning up as they went. The action groups have not evaporated they have merely reformed basing themselves in the very city, town and village neighbourhoods from which they draw their strength and support.

On Sunday 19-J protests were held throughout Spain with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets in Madrid, Barcelona, Pamplona, Gijón, Salamanca, Valladolid, Valencia, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Bilbao, Vitoria, San Sebastián, Sevilla, Málaga. These were set piece events but far more significantly virtually every small town and village also held their own angry protests. Posters accused the prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero of being “a lackey of the banks”. Others proclaimed ““There is no democracy, government by the markets”, “the crisis that pays the capitalists” and “Democracy, rest in peace.”

In March I wrote an article in The Morning Star on political corruption in Spain. I quoted fellow journalist, Francisco Rubiales, who pens the “Voto en Blanco” blog which has long campaigned for Spaniards to withhold their votes from corrupt politicians. He spoke of a Spain infected by the worst political, social, cultural and human cancer – deep and rampant corruption which closes off the country’s road to the future and snatches away the dignity of the Spanish people.

On Monday after the 19-M protests he wrote thus: “What happened yesterday in Spain is important because it signifies the awakening of a nation which has until now been subjected and castrated by one of the worst political classes in the world. Spain, fortunately, wakes up and displays its teeth to the politicians that already hide, frightened, behind the police forces who have been armed and trained to suppress popular outrage. When a political class has to defend itself from its own people with the police because it lacks the arguments, it has lost democratic legitimacy. It is the beginning of a new chapter in the history of modern Spain: of popular outrage against this worthless political class. Welcome the protests, symbol of the courage of a people and their attachment to the values of decency.”

Of course all the political parties have rushed to engage the support of the 15-M movement. This week the vice-secretary of communications of the Partido Popular, Esteban González Pons, stated: “The solution to the indignation is dignity and this they can do at the polls, the votes, the voice of the people, the change and we think that is the PP. When after the 15-M the Spaniards were permitted to vote, they voted more than ever for the Partido Popular and we are going to prepare to be the alternative to restore the dignity of Spain.”

The centre right could not be more wrong. True Spaniards voted out the ruling PSOE and hence the Partido Popular benefited as too did the far left Izquierda Unida. Yet the move by the PP to link itself with “Los Indignados” is either cynicism or stupidity, possibly both. The political heirs to Franco are a key element of Rubiales “worst political classes in the world.” It is a party riddled with corruption and if Zapatero is a lackey of the banks then the leader of the PP and probably Spain’s next premier, Mariano Rajoy, is their partner, friend and ally.

The 15-M movement and through it an ever increasing number of Spaniards are demanding a thorough overhaul of the political and economic system with an end to endemic corruption. The PP cannot deliver that hence the party’s attempts to try and fool the people in to believing it can will rebound in the most violent of forms. Spain is a country in political crisis; when the Partido Popular comes to power the powder keg will explode because in its election euphoria it has overlooked the simple fact – it is the party that stands for everything that the 15-M movement rejects.

(The photograph was taken at the Jerez 15-M meeting on Sunday - David Eade (c))

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on Friday June 24 2011)

THE SPANISH REVOLUTION

2011-05-25T18:06:00.000+02:00

Spain captured the world headlines last week as thousands of young people poured into Madrid’s Puerta del Sol to demand “real democracy now”.

The massive protest was under the Movimiento 15-M banner with similar demonstrations witnessed in Barcelona, Bilbao, Murcia, Valladolid, Santiago de Compostella, Vitoria, Zaragoza amongst other Spanish cities as well as amongst young Spaniards in Washington, New York, Frankfurt, Berlin, Athens and Mexico City.

The most tense day was last Saturday – a day of reflection in Spain’s town hall elections and also in polls for some regional governments. It is a day by law when no political activity can take place and the Junta Electoral Central that governs such matters had deemed the Puerta del Sol gathering illegal.

In the event the thousands gathered in Madrid’s central plaza remained in place without any confrontations with the police. The minister of the interior, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, consulted with security officials, but took the view that as long as the protests remained peaceful no action was to be taken.

A wise political move as socialist Rubalcaba is the favourite to succeed PSOE premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Zapatero will not contest the general election next March and this summer a new socialist leader will be chosen. A bloody confrontation last Saturday ahead of the polls on Sunday when PSOE was humiliated in many of its strongest seats would not have read well on his CV.

The irony of course is that the political beneficiaries of the deep anger over the high unemployment, financial meltdown and corruption has been the centre-right Partido Popular which is well set to take power in Madrid at the general election. Ironically the far-left Izquierda Unida (which includes the Partido Comunista) has also received a boost from PSOE’s mauling but not sufficient to make any inroads in to central government. Gaspar Llamazares, the IU MP, stated: “The results of the IU were positive but insufficient. Positive in the extension of autonomous and local seats but insufficient because we did not collect the votes lost by PSOE or of the radical democracy. We need to change and become the focus of the social and political left.”

As Llamazares has identified the problem for all political parties in Spain is their total rejection by a large number of young people in the country and especially those who took to the streets. They view all politicians as “deplorable” with over half subscribing to the view politics has nothing to do with them neither does it encroach on their private lives. Also in the firing line is the Catholic Church, large companies, the unions, the Spanish Royal family and parliament.

The majority view is the Catholic Church is too rich and meddles too much in politics. Of the politicians themselves they are viewed as pursuing their own interests and in promoting the interests of the multinationals and banks over those of the people. “We live under the dictatorship of the markets” was one of the protest banners.

There would also appear to be a collapse in the support for social movements compared with just six years ago. Ecologists, pro-human rights groups, pacifists have all lost support with only one in five young persons belonging to any form of association and those are largely cultural, sporting or youth orientated.

The family has always been a strong feature of Spanish life and is the refuge for many in the economic crisis with its accompanying high unemployment. A survey has shown that 85 per cent of young people still live with their family whether they study or work and the average age of leaving home has risen to 27. Not surprisingly 71 per cent rate their family as the most important aspect of their lives ahead of their health and friends.

Spain, as in many nations, is being confronted by a generation of pessimists. Over 40 per cent see unemployment as the major problem in their lives, over half of 15 to 24 year olds view their future with extreme pessimism, indeed it is a generation that believes it will be worse off that its parents.

The Partido Popular might be riding high in the polls but it would be very foolish indeed if it believed it is tapping in to this anger and dissatisfaction – for the party of the centre right, mired in corruption, is seen as part of the problem not the solution.

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on Thursday May 26 2011)

THE PARTY IS DEAD, LONG LIVE LABOUR

2011-05-17T19:04:00.000+02:00

The venue was Millbank Tower in Westminster by the Thames. The room in a previous life had been New Labour’s campaign briefing headquarters. Labour has moved on and now it is the Tories who occupy offices upstairs.

The event was the Fabian Society’s “Progressive Fight Back”. It was billed as “the first chance for Fabian and Labour members and other campaigners to debate what the fallout of the 2011 elections mean for the future of British politics.”

So did the Tories send a spy to listen in? Well to be frank if they did they would have been more than happy with what they heard. They would have found a Labour Party busy studying its navel, a party under the guidance of Peter Hain ‘refounding’ itself and to be honest it was not a pretty sight. Indeed if the political ghost of Lord Mandelson was still lurking behind the scenes he would have spun in his ermine gown.

Hain’s brief from Ed Miliband is to ‘refound’ the Labour Party. However the Labour Party is an irrelevance to the majority of people in Britain. Voters make governments and not party members whatever the activists may think. The voters are swayed by what politicians say on TV, radio, the press and social media. Few give any thought to the Labour Party and on this evidence it’s just as well.

Party members stood up to speak of a hostile party, one where local organisations were used as tools by MPs or councillors to secure their re-selection, of a large unfathomable rules book, of branches that set out to put members firmly in their place and discourage family involvement, a Labour that expects its members to campaign without adequate information or support and the public can be a member of this sorry state of affairs for just 40 pounds a year. Don’t all rush at once!

Peter Hain has the unenviable task of ‘refounding’ the party with the option to open it up to first and second class members. The consultation only has a month or so to run and if the Fabian’s conference is anything to go by the final conclusions could be dire.

For me the most depressing picture of the modern Labour Party was not painted by the members but by Hain himself. Fresh off the back of leading the party in Wales to success in the Welsh Assembly elections he urged delegates not to Twitter one statement because he’d never said that and refused to make another because he was scared of what the party hierarchy would say. He even talked of a key Labour committee where he and other members were not allowed to exchange email addresses as they weren’t to communicate with each other. If they had anything to say to each other, and preferably they didn't, it should be done through party HQ.

One of Hain’s big ideas for engaging with the public is to copy from the US Democrats the “joggers for Obama”. I say it is his big idea for he pushed it three times at least. If Labour believes the “Millipedes” are going to sprint the party to victory at the next election they face many years in opposition.

The Labour movement was forged by men and women with fires in their bellies who campaigned for social justice. The issues have changed but the need for passion hasn’t. The party has no place in modern day politics but Labour has.

The traditional canvasser is greeted on the doorstep with best indifference at worst hostility. The door knocking is dismissed by voters because it is a once every four or five year event and for the rest of the time they are ignored.

The new political agenda is not being set in the USA but on the streets not by teams of canvassers but by the people of Arab nations. It is people power in its rawest state fuelled by the explosion of the social media. The challenge for the Labour Party is to adapt to a world where nearly everybody has a mobile phone and almost every household is connected to the internet. That is where the future elections will be fought and won without a jogger in sight.

Cable theft: I should add the key note speech at the Fabian’s conference was made by Andy Burnham reflecting on the general election defeat, the results of the recent 2011 elections and the strategy for recovery. His subsequent session of engagement with the audience was bizarrely interrupted by the surprise arrival of Lib Dem minister Vince Cable. Cable then high jacked the remainder of the Burnham’s session, overran in to Hain’s and stole the headlines in the Fabian Society’s blog on the conference. A blog which incidentally totally ignores Hain’s speech on ‘refounding Labour’ and the consultation process.

SPAIN’S TRAGIC MAP OF DEATH

2011-05-10T17:40:00.000+02:00

It is 75 years since the start of the Spanish Civil War and in recent days the Ministry of Justice has published a graphic map on its website showing more than 2,000 burial sites of the victims of the war and the Franco repression to be found on the Iberian Peninsula, the islands and the north coast of Africa.

It is not a map of historic reference but an aid to those who still want to find or recover their family members. Visitors to the ministry’s website can key in regions of Spain or a person’s name to see if the common grave has been located. Advice is given on how recover these remains for reburial depending on the rules and regulations applying in the various autonomous regions.

The map of Spain is covered with green, red, yellow, black and white markers denoting the state of a specific common burial site. Some graves have been exhumed, others untouched, some have disappeared, there are zones with a number of burial places but there is a giant blue star in the centre of Spain indicating the Valle de los Caídos where many of the victims of Franco’s slaughter was transferred to.

The Valle de los Caídos – Valley of the Fallen – was started by Franco in 1940 supposedly as a national act of atonement. It took over 18 years to build, cost over 1.1 billion pesetas with much of the funds raised from National Lottery draws and donations.

Just who built the monument is a matter of argument. Certainly the paid workers were the poor from the land who had no other employment. “Red” prisoners were also used. The charge that the monument site was “like a Nazi concentration camp” refers to the use of convicts and Popular Front war prisoners. They worked in exchange for their convictions being lifted. Ten per cent of the workforce is said to have been prisoners but other sources claim up to 20.000 prisoners were used with dark references to “forced labour.”

The Valle de los Caídos is the final resting place of Franco. He also had interred there José Antonio Primo de Rivera, the founder of the Falange, the Spanish Fascist party that aided Franco’s propulsion to power.

The valley contains both Nationalist and Republican graves but apart from being the final resting place of Primo de Rivera and Franco, the tone of the monument is distinctly Nationalist and anti-Communist. Here you will find the slogan “¡Caídos por Dios y por España!” - “Fallen for God and Spain!” symbolising the close ties between Franco’s regime and the Catholic Church. Franco also chose to announce the creation of the monument on 1 April 1940, the day of the victory parade to celebrate the first anniversary of his triumph over the Republic. Franco announced his personal decision to raise a splendid monument to those who had fallen in “his” cause.

As the Ministry of Justice published its map, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the Minister of the Interior, first vice president of the government and the favourite to succeed premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said it would be practically impossible to identify thousands of the bodies at the Valle de los Caídos.

The Ministry of Justice’s map and website will have encouraged many people whose family members are interred there to try to find their remains. However Rubalcaba warned them the task would be extremely complex and practically impossible to achieve.

It is said that in the Valle de los Caídos are the remains of 33,847 victims of the Civil War from both sides. Between 1959 and 1983 491 bodies were removed and taken to their home towns and villages for reburial. According to the Patrimonio Nacional another 21,423 victims have been identified but the remains of 12,410 have not.

The events of 75 years ago plus the Franco era still haunt and divide Spain. The Ley de Memoría Histórica brought in by the socialist government aims to find the thousands of still missing graves so that grandparents, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters can finally be identified and laid to rest. It is a painful task.

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on May 11 2011)

FORGIVE ME FATHER FOR I AM AN ATHEIST

2011-04-21T11:38:00.000+02:00

On August 16 a rather unique event is due to take place in Madrid’s El Retiro Park when hundreds of atheists are expected to queue to take confession in protest at the Catholic World Youth Day being held in the city which the Pope is to attend.

I take the view that if you have a religious faith or none you have a total right to practice and hold those beliefs. For instance I believe the Pope has every right to visit his faithful in Spain or any other country. However I totally reject the notion I or any other citizen should have to fund that visit. If a religious leader is the guest of his or her faithful then it is those believers who should pay. This is the main reason why atheists will be protesting on August 16 with the “Confesión masiva de Ateos” and I as a Catholic agnostic support them fully.

When the Pope visits Madrid to take part in the Catholic World Youth Day it will be his second visit within a year following on from Santiago and Barcelona. For this privilege the Spanish tax payer, regardless of his or her beliefs, has and will have to dug deep to fund it. Those who are atheists and oppose this event say El Retiro will become a Catholic theme park between August 16 and 21 and in a sense they are right.

Even if you did hold the view that tax payers should support such visits it would be hard to justify at this present time. Spain is being battered by the economic crisis, there is a record high number of jobless, the long term unemployed have had their financial support removed and pensions are under attack. How in those circumstances can a government fund a Papal visit whilst the number of its homeless, jobless and poverty stricken rises dramatically?

The organisers point out seven Spanish government ministries will be at the event’s beck and call. To subsidise the cost of staging the international gathering the Catholic Church has gone online and established a shop where the faithful can buy or contribute towards vestments and religious objects to be used during the ceremonies.

The organisers believe up to two million young people will take part. Based on previous World Youth Days a third are expected to come from Madrid, another third from the rest of Spain with the balance from the Church worldwide. Travel visas for those from outside the Schengen nations will be free.

Various non-faith organisations have criticised the fact that the church is to be given the use of schools and sports complexes for the young people to stay in by Madrid’s town hall, public health and security services come free, as well as bracelets allowing those attending to visit tourist sites without charge. Businesses sponsoring the World Youth Day will receive financial benefits.

During his visit Pope Benedict will hold a mass at the Cuatro Vientos airfield along with 1,000 cardinals and bishops plus 10,000 priests from 150 countries, which brings us to the confessionals.

One of the major concessions is the use of El Retiro where booths will be set up for hundreds of priests speaking all the major languages to hear the confessions of the young people taking part.

The atheists intend to flood the confessionals between 16.30 and 19.30 on August 16 by taking their places in the booths and totally disrupting the hearing of the young Catholics’ sins. The words “Forgive me father for I have sinned” will be replaced by declarations of atheism instead.

Emi Aperte from Castejón in Navarra created the Facebook page for the event and explained: “The idea came one night when I was talking to my friend Marivic about the news which said Madrid town hall would give El Retiro Park, which is a public place, for confessions. We decided we should show our dissent by taking advantage of the mass confessionals and everybody going to confess whatever they want. From there we created the event and made it public.”

One of those supporting the “Confesión masiva de Ateos” is Fa López Garcia from Ferrol who is an educator. She explained: “The religions have demonstrated during human history that they have manipulated, oppressed and tortured all that have raised their voice against this system demanding free thinking. The Catholic Church is one of the most influential religions in the West with a good marketing business that for over 2,000 years knows and is conscious that to go on to the street to demonstrate is a strong act of solidarity for the institution. The lay movement knows all these strategies can be created in parallel with demonstrations in support of the liberty of belief. The atheist demonstrations have been prohibited in public by the Spanish State. Meanwhile the ecclesiastic professions have all the support of the Spanish State. In conclusion we have a Spanish Constitution but we can declare that out society is still very far from the thoughts and actions of the Second Republic. Our historical memory is weak and manipulated.”

Those who want to support the “Confesión masiva de Ateos” will find it on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=137299326332220 – needless to say there are many other protests planned to coincide with the World Youth Day and Papal visit. It is estimated that over the Pope’s visits to Santiago, Barcelona and now Madrid 29.8 million euros will be paid by the Spanish public with Madrid town hall and the Comunidad de Madrid contributing over 25 million euros. Europa Laica is to send the Pope a fake bill for the total.

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on Wednesday April 20 2011)

US TANK HAD CLEAR SIGHT OF BAGDAD HOTEL

2011-04-06T18:33:00.000+02:00

It was in August of last year when I first wrote in the Morning Star about José Couso, the Telecinco news cameraman, who was killed on April 8 2003 when he was hit and fatally wounded by a shell from a US Mark 1 Abrams tank fired at the Hotel Palestine in Bagdad.

The US has constantly refused to send the three military members implicated in the case to Spain to face trial. Last week a startling new submission was made to the Spanish High Court which suggests the tank crew had lied to their superiors.

Since Couso’s death his family have tried to have the tank crew tried by the Spanish courts. Various judges have opened proceedings only for the cases to be shelved. In December El País revealed the Wiki Leaks papers which suggested the US Government had pressured its counterpart in Madrid and in turn the Spanish judicial authorities not to proceed with the investigation. Both governments deny any such conspiracy. The Couso family demanded an enquiry.

In July 2010 High Court Judge Santiago Pedraz opened a new investigation and the three US Army officers were charged with a crime against the international community along with homicide and are now the subjects of find and capture warrants. It is no surprise the US authorities have refused to co-operate with bringing about their detention.

Last Wednesday lawyers acting for the Couso family presented before a judge at the High Court a report produced by two Doctors of Physical Science who are also leading professors at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid.

They had travelled to the Hotel Palestine in Bagdad to inspect the site of the tragedy. Their six page report concludes that the US tank that fired at the building killing José Couso and his Ukrainian colleague Taras Protsyuk had a clear view of the terrace on which he was filming. If true it goes against the version of events given by the tank crew who told their superiors they had fired after they saw a flash of light from Couso’s room.

The six-page report was requested by the lawyer acting for Couso’s family. The tests were carried out on photographs taken during the visit to Bagdad by a judicial commission headed by High Court judge Santiago Pedraz on January 28.

The digital images were taken from the exact spot from where the M1 Abrams tank fired on the Al-Jumhuriya Bridge towards the hotel where the shell exploded. The professors used calculations and optics to obtain a simulation of what could be seen from the visor at the top of the tank. Their calculations took in to account various factors such as the distance between the hotel and the tank (1.7 kilometres), the angle of firing (79.5 degrees), the height of the 14 th floor of the hotel where the terrace on which Couso was filming stands, the angle of the vision system of the tanks turret (6.5 degrees) and the maximum vision of the M1 Abrams tank.

The tests are said to have faithfully reproduced the vision from the bridge and the hotel terrace. According to judicial sources this evidence would suggest that the three soldiers, without any reasonable doubt, had perfectly clear vision of the terrace and the windows of the room from which Couso was filming when he was hit by the shell.

The person who ordered the tank to fire was Lieutenant Colonel Philip de Camp the head of the armoured division who transmitted the order to Captain Philip Wolford to fire the shell and Sergeant Thomas Gibson who made up the tank’s crew. It is also alleged they knew the hotel was in a civilian zone and was occupied by journalists indeed Reuters, Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV had their offices there. Hence to fire at the building was almost certain to result in the death of civilians or journalists.

The report requested by the Couso family runs parallel to another being produced for Judge Pedraz. Again using material gathered during his January visit a group of experts in the Comunidad de Madrid are also working with the photographs and videos on their own report.

This Friday there will be a demonstration outside the US Embassy in Madrid at 20.00 in support José Couso. It marks the 8 th anniversary of the day he was killed by the US tank. Present will be his mother, family members, his lawyer, a witness to his death and other supporters. Their aim is simple – to have the US Government hand over the tank crew to stand trial.

When reopening the case last year Judge Pedraz expressed the hope that the Obama administration in Washington would be more co-operative than its Bush predecessor in wanting to establish the true facts surrounding Couso’s death. Sadly it would appear the USA believes only its citizens have a right to justice and certainly not a Spanish news cameraman or his family.

(The above article will appear in The Morning Star in the coming days)

BIGGEST THREAT TO SPANISH DEMOCRACY: ANOTHER COUP OR CORRUPTION?

2011-03-31T18:59:00.000+02:00

February 23 1981 marked a significant day in Spanish history. It was the day the fledgling democracy of Spain was almost brought to its knees by the attempted coup in which the Guardia Civil Lieutenant Coronel Antonio Tejero marched in to the Spanish parliament, confronted the MPs and fired shots in the chamber.

In the event apart from holding the MPs in Madrid at gunpoint with support from an uprising in Valencia the coup fell flat on its face with a significant role in its downfall being played by King Juan Carlos I. However it is clear from statements made on the 30 th anniversary that those on the left and the unions feared for their very lives.

One of those, Antonio Herrera, now in charge of the health section of the CC.OO union told how shortly after Tejero had stormed Congress and the coup was underway he left one of Málaga’s hospitals. He saw youths wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the Spanish flag. He went with union colleagues to the Nadiuska restaurant in Gibralfaro and then to the Cádiz road. It was there that the Communist MP, Paco Vázquez, offered to take him to Gibraltar. He declined and says that later friends in the police told him at the time they knew exactly where to find each and every one of them.

Whilst the coup would have been largely a blow against those on the left the current level of political corruption in Spain strikes at democracy itself. This May there are the elections for the country’s town halls and next March it is the Spanish general election as well as those for many of the regional governments. So the question is begged: what is the biggest threat to democracy – the coup of thirty years ago or the present high level of political corruption.

The esteemed Spanish journalist, Francisco Rubiales, who was an Efe correspondent in Cuba, Central America and Italy, pointed me in the direction of the fascinating website ‘Corruptódromo’. It is published by the “No les votes” action group and details many of the major political corruption cases that are assaulting Spain. I say many because the list is not updated daily so for example, the false ERE lay off claims and the misappropriation of European funds to combat the unemployment in Andalucía involving at least 1,600 companies have not been fully included.

To quote Francisco’s words: “After a visit to the Corruptódromo, a decent citizen experiences disgust, indignation, and the firm intention of not voting for the parties that are tainted with this horrendous scourge.” Francisco has his own website “Voto en Blanco” and argues the Corruptódromo is the best possible motivation for making a “blank vote” or abstaining.

Francisco goes on to say a glance at the Corruptódromo shows that Spain is infected by the worst political, social, cultural and human cancer – deep and rampant corruption which closes off the country’s road to the future and snatches away the dignity of the Spanish people.

Indeed there is a serious quandary facing the Spanish – a quandary that actually threatens democracy in Spain. For it is not just one party or a group of people that are mired in corruption it engulfs the ruling socialist PSOE, the main centre-right Partido Popular opposition, various regional parties –indeed the only party that largely escapes is the far-left Izquierda Unida.

The Corruptódromo lists 154 major corruption cases but of course there are far more. For instance just one of those cases involves 1,700 PSOE town halls alone that are under investigation for town planning offences; the Gürtel case involves numerous PP mayors and ex-mayors in Madrid plus construction and other companies in a massive fraud; Francisco Camps has been convicted of bribery yet is the PP’s candidate for president in the Valencia regional elections next year; the Unió Mallorquina now the Convergencia per Illes Balears is accused of misappropriating public funds on a massive scale; the CIU in Cataluña of diverting 35.1 million euros destined for the Palau de la Música, and the Coalición Canaria in various frauds which could total 100,000,000 euros. These are just a few examples I have picked from the tip of a very smelly dung heap.

The problem for voters is that many of the politicians involved in these corruption cases like Camps will again be seeking re-election at the coming polls. Even in those cases where they have been removed from office many are still the power behind the throne or the same corrupt party structure remains in place. Not only are the political parties mired in corruption they show a total contempt for the people who vote them in to power and who they are supposed to represent.

I asked Francisco how he saw the situation now compared with 1981. He told me: “Spanish democracy cannot be in danger because it doesn’t exist. The corruption is the great problem of Spain, but not only the corruption of the persons, that allows them to abuse power, to rob and to enrich themselves illegally, but the corruption of the system, that is more serious. I do not see the risk of some State coup similar to 1981. The major risk is that the country goes on sleeping, and that the politicians, that are the great problem of Spain, they carry on degrading it. There is a principal that says the worst of society comes to power every two or three centuries. Some countries manage to avoid it because there are filters and cautions. Spain has failed and we have the worst in power.”

As Izquierda Unida – a far left coalition including the Partido Comunista - is relatively untouched by the corruption scandal I also asked Gaspar Llamazares, its spokesperson in Spain’s lower house of parliament Congress, how he saw 1981 and today. He told me: “At the time it was the military threat. Today the threat to democracy comes from the markets - and corruption is one of its effects.”

I agree – Spain has moved on; the army or Guardia Civil will not rise again and even if they did who would they propel to power as the centre right is as corrupt as the centre left? Spaniards feel betrayed as it is they who battle the economic crisis, face massive unemployment, the slashing of their pensions whilst the political cast are protected as they have their collective hands in the corruption barrel.

The day of reckoning will surely come for Spain when protests and marching are not enough – but what then?

(The above article appeared in Panorama on March 21 and 22 and a version in The Morning Star on March 31 2011)

Corruptódromo website:

ILLEGAL AND IMMORAL -

2011-03-15T16:56:00.000+01:00

The commercial accord between the EU and Morocco that is currently going through the approval process in the European Parliament has been labelled as illegal and immoral. These were the conclusions reached at a seminar on the treaty held last week in Spain.

In a statement one of the participants, Ecologistas en Acción declared: “The conclusions are clear: it is an illegal accord because of the judicial situation of occupied Western Sahara, it is immoral because it includes resources of this territory and it is socially and environmentally prejudicial because it favours the benefits to the large corporations to the detriment of small farmers and the environment.

Juan Soroeta, an expert in International Law, stated that the accord was illegal, because amongst other reasons, “the natural resources of the non-autonomous territories, that is to say, the pending decolonisation of the Western Sahara – can’t be exploited to the detriment of the population and without the approval of the legitimate representatives, in this case Saharan – the Polisario Front that openly rejects the accord.”

Pilar Ramírez of the Western Sahara Resource Watch added: “the accord on the subject of fishing is also illegal. From the ethical point of view because they are exploiting the resources that are the property of the Saharan people.”

International maritime legislation says that you cannot negotiate with the fishing resources of a country that doesn’t have the pertinence of those waters and up till now nobody has recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over this maritime space.

From the political point of view, Alí Mojtar of the Polisario Front protested that “with this accord, Europe supports directly the Moroccan cause to keep the Western Sahara territories” and as a result violates the Declaration of Human Rights and worsens the situation under which the population of the Western Sahara lives.

Pressure is now being applied to Euro MPs not to ratify the new Accord of Association which sets out to liberalise commerce and agriculture between the EU and Morocco. In Spain demonstrations will be held against the agreement and in the country’s lower house of parliament, Congress, MPs are being asked to protest to the Spanish Government about the serious illegalities and violations of human rights.

The King of the Poor has 2,000 million euros

Meanwhile in Morocco itself the move towards democratic freedom amongst Arab nations is being keenly felt. This has led to the Moroccan monarch, Mohamed VI, moving to head off demonstrations that could endanger his regime.

Although Mohamed VI is known in Morocco as the “King of the Poor” he has five palaces in Rabat, Fez, Casablanca, Meknes and Marrakesh plus another in Bets in France some 70 kms from Paris which he inherited from his father Hassan II. The 47-year-old king is the seventh richest monarch in the world and according to Forbes has an estimated personal fortune of 2,000 million euros.

This puts him in a stark contrast to the average Moroccan who earns $3,000 per annum, slightly above the Egyptian norm but behind Tunisia with $4,100 and the highest earners in the Maghreb, Libya with $12,000.

However it is the jobless that were behind the power change in Tunisia. In Morocco the figure is around 10 per cent compared with 14 per cent in Tunisia and Algeria. The main problem facing Mohamed VI is that amongst his 35 million subjects half are under 25 years of age and these have been hit hard by juvenile unemployment. Mohamed VI has already doubled the subventions on basic food stuffs and domestic gas but this has not proved enough.

Wikileaks revealed that a US diplomat reported “the corruption in Morocco extends to the royal palace”. Now Moroccans want more transparency and given what has happened elsewhere in the Maghreb the king has decided to act.

Last week Mohamed VI announced a fundamental reform of the constitution that has been in place since 1996 and was introduced by his father. In a TV address he has spoken of giving total responsibility to the government, ensuring the independent power of the judiciary, and ceding to parliament the functions of representation, legislation and control.

It remains to be seen how the Movement of February 20 will respond. It has called for massive demonstrations on March 20 to demand political change, more employment, actions against institutionalised corruption and the reform of the Constitution.

Osama El Khlifi, one of the young people that started the movement on Facebook, says the king’s speech has changed nothing. “We are going to demonstrate on the 20 th with the same demands. There will be more people on the streets than in February.”

It remains to be seen how Mohamed VI will react.

(A version of the above article appeared in the Morning Star on Wednesday March 16 2011).

THE PRICE OF HUMILIATION AND RAPE: 1,800 EUROS

2011-02-08T18:21:00.002+01:00

Many of the wives, mothers and sisters of the “rojos” (reds) during the Spanish Civil War had their heads shaved, were insulted and humiliated. In the majority of cases it was not anonymous members of Franco’s forces that committed these outrages but their neighbours who up till then they had considered their friends.

In Andalucía the provinces of Cádiz, Sevilla and Huelva saw these acts carried out first, they were repeated later in Málaga and Almería. Now the regional government has carried out a measure to recognise these humiliated women.

These dreadful acts were all performed in public places – the plazas, markets or even in the churches of villages and towns – locations where people gathered in large numbers. The women had their head shaved, were placed on the backs of donkeys and paraded in front of their neighbours.

As a result they were marked and indeed scared for life. Hence the Andalucía government has decided to pay compensation of 1,800 euros in recognition of the moral damage they incurred - to those that are still alive to tell the tale that is.

January 13 marked the day when those women who suffered in this way had to make themselves known to the authorities. In the event 106 have had their applications accepted. The vice counsellor of the Andalucía Government and Justice Ministry, José Antonio Gómez Periñán, said he had received well over 200 applications but not all of these had met with the required conditions.

All the women who have survived had to be able to demonstrate they were victims of this abuse with photographic or documentary proof. They also had to be currently living in Andalucía. Around 27 lived outside of the region and over 100 have died and it was their families that presented their applications.

They all, says Gómez Periñán, received a document that expressed the regional government’s regret for the physical, verbal and moral violence they had suffered.

The years when the most number of these acts took place were between the start of the Civil War in 1936 and 1950. Gómez Periñán says society is in debt to these women – they are the victims of the repression but up till now they have received nothing.

Often the women would be required to work for free for the very people who had murdered their men folk. They were also made to clean churches and often were raped. Although 106 will now be compensated the Asociación Andaluza de Memoria Histórica y Justicia believes there are many more.

Needless to say organisations on the right in Spain have called this action a pre-election gimmick. As they are the political heirs of those who committed these outrages there is little surprise in that.

However given that a socialist government has been in power in the autonomous region of Andalucía for so long one can only wonder why these suffering women were not honoured earlier. Indeed these atrocious acts were committed throughout Spain yet at a national level the socialist governments since democracy returned have not acknowledged these women’s sufferings. Needless to say the centre-right Partido Popular just wishes the legacy of the Civil War and Franco era would go away.

What leaves me befuddled is the sum of 1,800 euros. Did some civil servant in the Andalucía capital of Sevilla think this up as suitable compensation? What is 1,800 euros – around 1,500 pounds? It hardly fits the crimes these women and mere girls were made to suffer and who have been marked out in their communities ever since.

Let’s be frank, there is no adequate sum to repay them – and it certainly isn’t 1,800 euros.

(The following article appeared in The Morning Star on Monday February 7 2011)

LIB DEMS: PAYING THE PRICE FOR POLITICAL DISHONESTY

2011-01-27T19:49:00.001+01:00

At the last general election my niece, a young graduate, voted Lib Dem. Part perhaps caught up in Clegg-mania but more supporting a left of centre agenda that wasn’t Labour she had hopes of a bright new political world. Well of course the Lib Dems didn’t win but by entering a coalition with the Tories she has ended up with a government she didn’t vote for and found the manifesto she did vote for wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Under the present electoral voting system, in normal times as in 2010, only two parties could have won the general election – the Conservatives or Labour. They could have won it in a number of ways – with an outright majority, as the largest party governing in minority or as a coalition. It was the Conservatives who in the end won the prize, but it could have been Labour. It was never going to be the Lib Dems.

Hence I would argue that the only party to present to the country a dishonest manifesto was the Lib Dems. The Labour party had to deliver a manifesto it could honour because as the party of government it knew what was possible and would not have been given the latitude of breaking its promises because it didn’t know what was going on.

The Conservatives would have had more lee-way here because the opposition party would always be in the dark on the state of the nation’s finances and other obligations the out going administration would have tied it in to. Yet it would have presented a programme for government which by and large it intended to follow.

The minor parties – yes even the BNP – would have presented honest manifestos because they knew that they would not form the next government or for many administrations to come. Their message would be of a Britain they wanted to see and if they had a chance of winning one seat what their MP would do for those constituents.

Yet it was only the Lib Dems, out of stupidity and vanity, presented a manifesto for government when there was never a snowballs chance in hell it would govern. Perhaps because it had been allowed a place in the TV debates the party felt it had to compete with Labour and the Tories. Indeed that has always been its stance – but in the past it had the safety of knowing it would never be elected so what promises it made would never have to be kept. It should also not be forgotten that although it is now a party of government the Clegg-mania election was a disaster for the Lib Dems with their seats dropping from 62 to 57.

As I write this the Home Secretary, Teresa May, has just been presenting to the House of Commons the changes to the rules governing the detention of terror suspects. This was a manifesto pledge by the Lib Dems to scrap these detentions but now in coalition with the Tories yet again they have had to go back on their pledge. One TV commentator said he did not believe this would harm the Lib Dems as they would argue, as so often in recent months, they were now in coalition so had to compromise on the issue. However he went on to say that the pledge was made because the Lib Dems never believed they would have to carry it out yet here they were in government seeing their election promises fall one by one.

When I recently attended the Fabian Society New Year Conference the key note speech was given by Ed Miliband in which he went out of his way to offer the hand of partnership to Lib Dems to form a progressive alliance in British politics. The offer was to disaffected Lib Dem voters who seem to be switching to Labour in their droves. It was also to those Lib Dem elected politicians who did not support the coalition with the Tories or the trashing of all the Lib Dems stand for.

There is a lot of anger in the Labour Party towards the Lib Dems. Not because they did not enter a coalition with Labour but because they did with the Tories - hence are supporting their policy of cut and burn and in the process disowning their manifesto.

Had the Lib Dems been honest at the last election they would have presented not the manifesto of dreams but manifestos for coalition. The party would have stated it knew it would not govern but believed it could be a party of government as has been the case. Therefore there would have been two manifestos, one for Labour and one for the Tories, which would have set out their terms of business. On that basis the two main parties would have known what a coalition with the Lib Dems meant – and more importantly the Lib Dems would have had a mandate from the voters for such a deal.

It is relevant because come the next general election the three main parties will again face each other. It is possible a Conservative-Lib Dem or a Labour – Lib Dem coalition could be the outcome if the Lib Dems survive as a meaningful political force.

The problem for the Lib Dems is come the next election their party could be in total disarray. Ed Miliband may have wooed the majority of their voters and Clegg and Co could preside over a mere rump. How many Lib Dem MPs will be ready to disown their discredited leadership and throw in their lot with or work alongside a resurgent Labour? In the meantime I hope the Lib Dem ministers enjoy their limos – because the price of their political dishonesty will be paid in full at the ballot box.

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on January 28 2011)

PSOE’S ‘GORDON BROWN’ MOMENT

2011-01-18T15:54:00.000+01:00

Spain’s PSOE faces a dilemma ahead of the March 2012 general election similar to that which faced the Labour Party in the UK in the run up to last May’s poll.

The socialist government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is trailing in the polls, by nearly ten points in some soundings, behind the opposition centre-right Partido Popular. However an opinion poll says that if Zapatero stood down and was replaced by his popular vice president, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the socialists would retain power with a 6.5 per cent lead.

The poll published on Sunday in the national daily El País showed that 37.1 per cent of those questioned would vote socialist if Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba was leader. The opposition PP would gather just 30.6 per cent of the vote. However if Zapatero stayed at the helm then the PP had a six per cent lead over PSOE.

Rubalcaba was promoted to the first vice president of the government in November with Zapatero hoping it would stem the loss of popularity suffered by the socialists since the financial crisis started in 2008. This has not happened and it would appear voters are disenchanted with the prime minister more than with his party.

The majority of Spaniards accept the country is in a financial mess and that tough measures are required to solve the crisis. However in the spotlight is the public sector along with the employment and pension laws. This has angered the unions as it is not government or town hall employees, the workers or the pensioners who caused the economic mess – yet they are the ones being expected to unjustly pick up the tab. Even so the general strike called last September was hardly a resounding success and the unions seem reluctant to challenge the socialist government knowing all too well that the PP would inflict even more hardship.

This is the ‘Gordon Brown’ moment for the Spanish socialist party. It is arguable that had Labour ditched its beleaguered prime minister it would have won last year’s general election with perhaps David Miliband now in the hot seat. In the event Labour lost, Ed Miliband won the resulting leadership contest sending both Gordon and David into the political wilderness. Some might say David Miliband got his just desserts as had he had the courage to challenge Brown and win then Britain could have been spared four years of devastating Tory – Lib Dem cuts.

Unlike Brown Zapatero says he has made the decision on whether he will lead the party into the 2012 election but has not said what his decision is. However as a two-term winner he will find it less difficult to hand over to a colleague than Brown who flunked the voting test.

These opinion poll findings will add pressure on Zapatero to go with the socialists hoping that Rubalcaba will ride to the rescue. If he does that will leave the PP’s hapless leader, Mariano Rajoy, as a three time loser.

Even José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, despite the PP’s commanding lead, is more popular with voters than the opposition party leader Rajoy. A CIS poll put Zapatero on 3.46 and Rajoy on 3.42 – both behind the CiU’s Josep A Durán I Lleida (3.97) and Rosa Díez (UPyD) 3.89. Zapatero has the confidence of 17 per cent of voters and Rajoy just 15.6 per cent. Rubalcaba seems set to greatly improve on that and could end the PP’s power ambitions and in the process Rajoy’s political career.

(Photo: Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba)

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star on Friday January 14, 2011)

WIKI LEAKS: THE COUSO CASE

2010-12-21T17:17:00.001+01:00

It was back in August that I first wrote for several publications about Spain wanting a three man US army tank crew to stand trial for the death of José Couso. High Court judge, Santiago Pedraz, had issued three international arrest warrants in Madrid after they fired at the Telecinco cameraman in Bagdad in 2003 fatally wounding him. The judge said he was confident the new US administration of Barack Obama will want to co-operate with the investigation.

What we know now but did know then was that the US Government had seemingly pressured the Spanish Government to have the case stopped. We only know this thanks to the Wiki Leaks leaked cables between the US Madrid Embassy and the State Department in Washington. However we may shortly find out a whole lot more as the family of José Couso has now presented a legal request before the Madrid prosecutor demanding that an investigation is carried out in to whether pressure was applied to influence the judicial process by the US.

The family’s lawyer, Enrique Santiago, confirmed the papers had been lodged and the brother of José, Javier Couso, told Cadena Ser radio that they wanted the matter investigated fully.

It was the Spanish daily newspaper El País that published documents from Wiki Leaks allegedly belonging to the State Department in the USA which showed contact between various prosecutors and members of the Spanish Government and the US Embassy. They related to various cases involving the USA amongst them that of Couso.

On Monday December 13 Juan Fernando López-Aguilar, who was the minister for justice between 2004 and 2007 said the papers did not accurately reflect the contacts and defended the integrity of the Spanish government and the judicial system. Javier Couso dismissed his arguments as “lies”.

The Madrid prosecutor now has two options: to hand the case over to a competent judge for investigation or to file it on the basis there had been no illegal activity. Lawyer Enrique Santiago said he hoped to have an indication as to what would happen shortly but it all depended on the “enthusiasm” for investigating a case in which a number of prosecutors were named including the State Prosecutor, Cándido Conde-Pumpido. For his part the State Prosecutor insists only the official position of his office was communicated to Washington and no outside influence was allowed.

The problem for the Spanish Government is that the case of José Couso has twice been filed by the High Court although it was re-opened in July by the Supreme Court based on the seriousness of the alleged crimes and because the US authorities had not co-operated with the Spanish justice system when it asked to question the three military personnel involved.

Judge Santiago Pedraz has intended to travel to Baghdad to visit the site of where José Couso was killed on April 3 2003 when the US troops entered the city at the end of the war against Sadam Hussein. However Interpol has not issued the find and capture warrant issued by the judge against the three US soldiers – sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel Philip de Camp - saying it would have to change its statutes to proceed against the military.

José Couso was fatally wounded when he was hit by a shell from a US Mark 1 Abram’s tank that fired at the Hotel Palestine in Bagdad which at the time was a civil zone and used by reporters. In 2006 the High Court filed the case having taken the view that Couso’s death was an “act of war” and was not a premeditated attack on the journalists.

The Supreme Court later rejected this argument and ordered at the insistence of the family the investigation be re-opened. In 2009 the High Court again filed the case and annulled the accusation of “homicide and a crime against the international community” against the three US soldiers.

The view of the court then was there was “insufficient evidence” that the tank’s crew that had fired at Couso deliberately. A Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters was also killed in the same tragedy. The shell had hit its office on the 15 th floor, and Couso was on the floor below.

However thanks to Wiki Leaks the demand for justice for José Couso has again taken centre stage. Only this time the Spanish Government, the State Prosecutor, the US State Department and the three soldiers are all in the firing line.

(The above article appeared in The Morning Star on Wednesday December 22 2010)

SPANISH PROSECUTOR DEMANDS INVESTIGATION IN TO FRANCO’S MISSING BABIES

2010-12-13T16:34:00.000+01:00

The numerous cases of babies that went missing shortly after their birth during the Franco era in Spain have now led the chief prosecutor of the nation’s High Court to write to the Ministry of Justice demanding a full investigation.

The cases date from 1940 and continued to just after Franco’s death in 1980. The chief prosecutor, Javier Zaragoza, has sent a letter to the minister of justice, Francisco Caamaño, to propose that the ministry opens a special office to handle the cases of those who believed their children or brothers and sisters have disappeared and to then seek a solution to their claims.

Zaragoza has called for an “administrative” investigation for the alleged crimes committed between 1940 and 1980. He wants the Ministry of Justice to locate the whereabouts of children reported missing and to investigate the false death certificates that were given to parents by hospitals at the time of supposed demise of their child – these parents suspect a false identity was then created for the baby.

Spain has introduced the ‘Ley de Memoria Histórica’ which was approved by parliament in 2007 but whilst it deals with the victims of the Civil War (1936-39) and during the era of the dictator Francisco Franco (1939 – 75) it does not include the children who disappeared during the ‘Franquismo’ period.

The letter from the chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza was sent to the ministry just 15 days after he’d met with the families of the Grupos de Afectados de Clínicas de Toda España that had reported “hundreds of cases” of snatchings of recently born babies from Spanish clinics where the parents were told their infant had died.

However the actions of the chief prosecutor has been criticised by the Asociación para la Recuperación de la Memoría Histórica that represents the families of those who were victims of the Franco era. In a communiqué the association says the case should be far more that an “administrative” investigation. It points to: “the theft of the babies that have been kidnapped and these boys and girls are kidnap victims” and that has not been stated in the prosecutor’s letter. It is obvious a serious crime is involved; hence it should be a “criminal” investigation.

The Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón has previously stressed the need to investigate these thefts of children and opened a brief case in 2008 which suggested that 113,000 babies disappeared during the Civil War and the years of ‘Franquismo’. Garzón’s investigation was brought to a halt after the extreme right went to court to seek a ruling he had no competence in the matter. Garzón was suspended from his post on a temporary basis in May of this year – but the judge spoke out about the systematic kidnapping of the children of Republican prisoners who for more than 60 years have not had the minimum investigation into their case.

Garzón is of the opinion that there could have developed a system for the disappearance of minors, the children of Republican mothers (the dead, prisoners, executed, exiled or simply disappeared) for several years from 1937 to 1950, which at the time were carried out under the umbrella of apparent legality. The official records speak of 30,000 children being adopted during the 40s and 50s with cases largely handled by religious institutions.

Of course those responsible are now either very elderly or deceased and the records, if they exists, will be in archives. However many of the children will still be alive but unaware of their true identity or that their parents and brothers and sisters are searching for them.

(Photo: Baltasar Garzón)

(A version of the above article appeared in the Morning Star on December 12 2010)

WESTERN SAHARAN HOMES IN FLAMES

2010-11-09T18:41:00.000+01:00

On Tuesday morning the Frente Polisario news agency, SPS, issued the following press release: “Hundreds of Moroccan colonists, supported by lorries of the Moroccan occupation army” have set fire to Saharan homes in the Matalla quarter of the Western Sahara capital of El Aaiún.

At the same time various blogs published by Saharan activists claimed that Moroccan troops had overnight handed out weapons to the colonists and they were now involved in an armed house-to-house offensive and they were beginning to set fire to all the cars of the Saharans and various homes.

For its part the Consejo de Ministros of the self-appointed República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (RASD) described the attacks as “a vile act” and laid the blame at the door of the Moroccan monarch, Mohamed VI. The council said his comments on the anniversary of the “Marcha Verde” that saw Morocco take possession of the Western Sahara has done nothing to lessen tensions. Indeed it has described it as an order “to commit this massacre” which had coincided with the third round of informal negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco at the UN.

Meanwhile the Polisario has raised the number of Saharan dead after the violent attack on Monday by Moroccan security forces on the Gdeim Izik protest camp to 10. In addition there are reported to be 700 injured with 150 people have disappeared. For its part the Asociación de Derechos Humanos de Marruecos says 12 people have died, 60 are injured with 65 being detained. It adds that the number of dead amongst the security forces is placed at five.

There is growing anger in Spain where it is believed Morocco is intent on provoking a civil war in the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. There have been widespread demonstrations outside the Moroccan embassy in Madrid and the country’s consulates throughout the country. However the Spanish Government maintains its policy of not criticising its neighbour across the Strait especially over the Western Sahara.

The new minister for foreign affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, is thousands of miles away in the Bolivian capital but is in touch with the Spanish Ambassador in Morocco and with her government in Madrid. She is insisting all is not yet clear, has called for calm and voiced her support for the talks between the Polisario and Morocco under the UN special envoy Christopher Ross.

These talks at the UN were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. The Polisario representative at the UN, Ahmed Bujari, has sent a letter to the Security Council asking it to intervene to lessen the tensions in the area.

Just back from Morocco is the Izquierda Unida Euro MP, Willy Meyer (pictured above), who along with three Spanish journalists were refused entry to the Western Sahara on Sunday. They were not allowed to disembark from their aircraft at El Aaiún and were forced to return to Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.

Meyer is quoted as saying Morocco “does not want witnesses” in the Western Sahara and he demanded that the minister for foreign affairs, Trinidad Jiménez, demand immediate explanations from Rabat as why they had been denied access. Meyer added that Morocco had “cut off these territories from the press, elected politicians from Spain and those from the EU. An act that is “absolutely intolerable.”

SPAIN’S LEFT MOURNS MARCELINO CAMACHO

2010-11-04T19:17:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday Madrid’s Puerta de Alcalá was packed once again to receive Marcelino Camacho. The plaza had been the scene of many of his May Day speeches but on this occasion the crowds had gathered to mourn his passing as the cortege passed by.

The tributes to Camacho – a founder of the CC.OO union and a former Communist MP - were led by the writer Almudena Grandes and included contributions from one of his sons, Marcel Camacho, as well as the secretary general of the Spanish Communist Party, José Luis Centella plus the secretary general of the CC.OO Ignacio Fernández Toxo.

When the union leader relayed the condolences sent by the Royal Family the words were greeted with heckling by some of those present who supported the Republican cause. Camacho’s widow, Josefina Samper, led the mourners in singing La Internacional and recalled her deceased husband’s recent words “If one falls, you get up immediately and walk on.”

When he died Marcelino Camacho Abad was 92 years old. He had been a dedicated unionist and politician throughout his long life. He founded the CC.OO union and was its first general secretary between 1976 and 1987 and a Communist MP for Madrid between 1977 and 1981.

It was back in 1935 that he joined the Spanish Communist Party (PCE) and the UGT union working on the railways with his father in Soria. After the military uprising along with other rail workers he cut the tracks preventing the Fascist advance. He then crossed on foot to the Madrid mountains and was a member of a Republican fighting band during the Spanish Civil War. In the final days of that conflict he imprisoned by the Junta de Casado – the government that signed an accord between Madrid and Franco. Camacho escaped but whilst on the run he was denounced by a person he did not know and was sentence to hard labour in work camps ending up in the Moroccan city of Tangier.

In 1944 he escaped again and this time went to Algeria. He was detained by the French police as he crossed the border and taken to Orán where there was a large colony of Spanish immigrants. Some were economic migrants and others Republican refugees amongst them Josefina Samper who he married on December 22, 1948.

In 1957 he returned to Spain as a metal worker at the Perkins Hispania factory. It was not long before he started representing the workers and again became an active communist infiltrating the union organization of the Franco regime. Because of his union and political activity he was jailed for nine years in 1967 at the infamous Carabanchel prison in Madrid.

Following the death of Franco and the collapse of his regime in 1976 the Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO) was constituted with Camacho as its secretary general. He was also a central committee member of the PCE and was elected an MP in 1977 and again in 1979. He resigned from parliament after the PCE backed government plans for labour reform with which he profoundly disagreed.

During Camacho’s tenure as secretary general the CC.OO became the major union in Spain. It called the first general strike against Felipe González’s socialist government in 1985 and Camacho played a leading part in the protests over Spain’s decision to join NATO in 1986. Finally in 1987 he stood down as secretary general and became the union’s honorary president. However he resigned from that post in 1995 as he disagreed with the direction that both the union and the PCE were taking.

Until his death he remained an active member of the PCE, its Federal Committee and also of its affiliate Izquierda Unida. In his later years he received doctorates from the universities of Valencia and Cádiz including the Medalla al Mérito Constitucional from King Juan Carlos I. The Spanish Civil order had been created by the socialist government of Felipe González to honour those people who had given service to the Constitution, to its values and who had helped establish it.

At his funeral writer Almudena Grandes said that Camacho had been one of the true fathers of democracy, of liberty and of human rights and such a figure could never die. The one time leader of the CC.OO had frequently spoken at factory gates but with the objectives of “liberty, social justice and peace but always equality.”

(The above article appeared on Thursday November 4 on The Comment Factory website)

PROTESTS OVER MOROCCO BANNING SPANISH JOURNALISTS

2010-10-28T19:29:00.003+02:00

The Federación de Asociaciones de Periodistas de España (FAPE) which represents over 20,000 journalists in Spain has issued a strongly worded condemnation of Morocco’s banning of seven Spanish journalists from visiting the Western Sahara.

They were meant to fly from Casablanca to El Aaíun in the Western Sahara to report on the death of a 14-year-old boy in an incident on Sunday. The group representing Efe, Cadena SER, TVE, TV3 and El Mundo were due to travel with Royal Air Moroc but at the last minute were told their tickets had been withdrawn.

The journalists were all accredited to work in Morocco but since July 1 the Ministry of Communications has restricted foreign journalists to the capital Rabat unless they have been given specific permission to report from elsewhere.

FAPE stressed to the Moroccan authorities that in Spain the media was allowed to work freely and this was the norm in all democratic countries. It also restated the words of Morocco’s monarch, Mohammed VI, who promised three years after taking over the throne to honour press freedom. At the time he stated: “We want to reaffirm our firm decision to consolidate the freedom of the press, to preserve information pluralism and to guarantee the modernization of the sector that represents one of the pillars of our project for a modern democratic society.”

Spain’s relations with Morocco are fraught at the best of times. On one level there is the normal day to day relationship based on being neighbours across the Strait of Gibraltar. More difficult is the situation regarding the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla which Spain views as being an integral part of the country whilst Morocco sees Spain as an occupying power. Then there is the Western Sahara which was literally abandoned by Spain in the dying days of Franco and left to Morocco and Mauritania to administer. When Mauritania withdrew Morocco annexed the area. Since then the people of the Western Sahara have sought independence but Morocco will only offer autonomy and moves towards that status have been slow in starting.

The Moroccan government has accused the Western Sahara independence movement Polisario and its backer Algeria of using journalists to politicise social demands by protestors who have set up a tent camp near the Saharan capital El Aaíun. Morocco perceives Spanish media as often siding with Polisario and has accused Algeria of using Spanish journalists in a “media war” against Morocco.

The incident the Spanish journalists wanted to cover was the killing of 14-year-old Najem el-Guareh near the protest camp on Sunday. There are two versions of the story. The Moroccan Interior Ministry stated on Tuesday that two cars tried to force their way through a police checkpoint. In one of the cars was Ahmed Daoudi, a known criminal who was transporting weapons in order to take revenge on the protestors who had expelled him from their camp. The occupants of one of the cars opened fire, forcing police to respond.

The camp residents tell a different story. According to the Spanish newspaper El País they denied the car occupants had opened fire. El-Guareh was shot. Several others, including Daoudi, were reportedly injured with at least one other person is reported to be in a serious condition.

On Wednesday it was reported that the mother of Najem el-Guareh had made an official complaint against the Gendarmería Real officers who shot him. She has also refused to accept his body until a post-mortem and investigation is carried out.

The demonstrators are demanding social improvements such as better housing. Morocco has cut down on the construction of social housing because of the economic crisis. The protest was taking separatist undertones, though it was not initially believed to be associated with Polisario.

Even the size of the camp is open to dispute with Morocco saying there are 1,000 protestors whilst Spanish sources say 10,000. However until Morocco opens up its country and the Western Sahara to the international news media the truth will never be known and in turn Morocco cannot be considered a modern democratic nation.

(The above article appeared in Panorama and a version of the above in The Morning Star on October 28 and 29 2010).

IN TO THE FOX FIRE

2010-10-28T19:20:00.004+02:00

I admit to watching Fox News on a daily basis. I should add I also watch the BBC, NBC, CNN, Sky, Al Jazeera, a variety of Spanish stations plus one in France with news in English I can’t remember the name of.

I watch Fox because I want to know what the far right and Republican minds in the USA are thinking – ok what Rupert Murdoch is thinking - and it’s not pretty.

My one friend in my visits to Fox has been Juan Williams – who has been deemed as Murdoch’s token Liberal (that is Liberal in US terms) amongst the mad men such as Bill O’Reilly, Glen Beck and Sean Hannity – the high priests in Rupert’s scary church. What he did was bravely and alone offer a fair and balanced non-Republican view on a station that slavishly follows Murdoch’s far right agenda.

Now all that has changed. Williams apart from being a Fox contributor was till last week a broadcaster on NPR – the supposedly liberal radio news network.

He was fired because in a TV debate with Bill O’Reilly in which he denounced the self-opinionated presenter’s phrase that “Muslims” were responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks – they were Al Qaeda members said Williams – he went on to say if after the attacks he saw somebody who was obviously a Muslim on his flight he was nervous.

For that NPR sacked him but the fact is the majority of US citizens feel the same way. I flew several times in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and shared his fear. It doesn’t make me anti-Muslim just a nervous flyer who at that time felt even more nervous still.

Back at the time when black on black crime in New York was rife Jesse Jackson said: “There is nothing more painful to me ... than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Nobody is going to be so stupid as to suggest that Jackson is anti-black any more than Williams (or I come to that) are anti-Muslim.

Needless to say there is now a furore in the USA over William’s sacking – with the flames being stoked up by Fox News. There are calls for NPR to lose any government funding it might receive – calls that may well be answered by Congress after the mid-term elections. Fox will certainly try to insist they address the question.

There are two tragedies here. First that Juan Williams, a fair and decent man who has broadcast with NPR for over a decade, has been sacked for his remark. Secondly that Fox has used the opportunity to step in to the breach and give him what I read is a $2 million three year contract. He will now be their full-time token Liberal but one has to wonder how soon the novelty will wear off - for him and them – once his view of the world clashes as it only can with Murdoch’s world.

There is a third looming tragedy. Williams has been hurt by his treatment by NPR and whereas in the past he has distanced himself from his fellow Fox News colleagues he now embraces them as they want to embrace him. Two million is a lot of money and one has to question if Williams isn’t selling his soul in accepting the Murdoch dollar?

In his book “The Blair Years” Alastair Campbell recounts Australian PM, Paul Keating, talking to him about Murdoch when Tony Blair addressed his News Corp executives down under in 1995. He said: “You have to remember with Rupert, it’s all about Rupert. Rupert is number 1, 2, 3 and 4 as far as Rupert is concerned. Anna and the kids come next and everything else is a long, long way behind.”

On that basis Williams is not even on Murdoch’s radar except if he is paying the man $2 million he believes the return for him and Fox will be even greater. The frying pan may have been bad but is William’s prepared for the Fox fire?

(The above article appeared on October 25 2010 on The Comment Factory website).

WE WENT ON STRIKE! WHAT DID WE ACHIEVE? NOTHING!

2010-10-18T19:00:00.002+02:00

On September 29 I joined many other people in Spain and supported the general strike. Although I have reservations about strikes, a subject to which I will return, I did so because whilst I accept that strong measures are required to solve the financial crisis making the weak and vulnerable pay for the sins of the bankers is not the solution nor is it just.

José Javier Cubillo, national organisation secretary of the UGT, said the strike had drawn the support of 70 per cent of workers of whom 10 million had been called out. The union, along with its CC.OO partners, insisted this meant the government had to reconsider its tough economic and labour reform policies.

So what did the strike achieve? If we are talking of the objectives of the unions - nothing! The government is sticking to its cuts. Moodys down graded Spain’s credit rating from Aaa to Aa1 shortly after whilst the centre right Partido Popular gained a few points in the opinion polls making it even more likely they will form the new government in 2012. Their policies will be tougher than socialist PSOE.

I want to go back to the East End of London in 1926 the year of the General Strike. By then my uncle Len was a communist. My maternal grandmother – his sister and a socialist all her life - was bringing my mother up on her own after being widowed when her young husband was struck down by TB.

Life for that working class generation was tough. There was neither the social welfare safety net nor the national health service that we take for granted today.

It was my grandmother who was the rock on which I forged my early values. Yet the most telling moment came in the late 1960s when I went in to her room where she was watching TV. The news was about another strike and tears were running down her cheeks. She was so furious with the actions of the unions that she could not contain herself as she felt they were destroying everything the union and Labour movements had fought so hard to build up.

Certainly the world she now viewed about her was vastly different from the one she had been a teenager and a young adult in. She held firmly to her core socialist beliefs but believed the unions were knocking down what had been built up with so much pain. Her feelings struck a chord in my soul.

Although the General Strike of 1926 is now a part of the socialist and union movement heritage it lasted ten days and totally failed in its objectives of preventing wage reduction and worsening conditions for the miners. The unions’ winter of discontent of 1979 did more to usher in the Thatcher era than anything the Labour Government of Jim Callaghan did. Then as now in Spain we are railing against a socialist government in the full knowledge that the outcome will almost certainly be a centre-right government which will hammer the people even harder.

There is something noble about a person having the inalienable right to withdraw his or her labour and to strike to defend their rights or the rights of others. Yet when in the days of the cotton mills that could bring production to a crashing halt or a dock strike could prevent the mill receiving its raw materials or exporting its finished product the reality today is very different.

In an age when money or information can be passed around the world in a split second, or a factory can be relocated to Eastern Europe or Asia, we are still manning pickets, waving banners, marching and shouting slogans. The world has passed our mode of protest by. Whilst I joined the strike on September 29 because I believed a stand had to be made against the wrongs that were being committed against pensioners, public service employees, those in work and the unemployed in the name of clearing up the mess left by the financial sector – I did so in the full knowledge that it would amount to nothing. Indeed the end result could be a switch from a socialist to a centre right government.

Governments today, regardless of political persuasion, dance to a different beat and centre right Sarkozy is no more going to back down on pension reform in France than centre left Zapatero is in Spain. In the future if we are to take on governments or employers and win the battle for social justice we will need a new armoury.

Unions have a problem. Ninety-five per cent of their work is defending the rights of workers, negotiating with management, education – and if the truth were told a good union is an important part of our economic engine as any entrepreneur. Yet it goes totally unreported. What the public is aware of is the set piece strikes and more often than not these efforts are unsuccessful. Unions worldwide in this modern age are fighting 21 st century battles with 19 th century weapons - that has to change and fast.

(The above article appeared in the Morning Star on September 17 2010)

MINERS OF SPAIN WE STAND WITH YOU

2010-09-15T17:17:00.004+02:00

There was a time when the might of Britain’s shipbuilders, dock workers, boilermakers and miners would have led resistance to the Con-Dem coalition’s merciless cuts.

That roll call of proud union names has passed into history, the jobs sent to low-wage economies overseas. Mining, which once employed hundreds of thousands, fell victim to a relentless politically motivated onslaught which has left the country with a tiny handful of working pits.

Today their Spanish counterparts are fighting a similar battle.

Any veteran National Union of Mineworkers activist will have heard of the Spanish regions of Asturias, Palencia, Leon and Tereul. It is here that the latest struggle for survival is being played out.

Miners, many of whom haven’t been paid for weeks, have taken to the streets to save their industry and livelihoods. Both are mortally threatened by a European Union plan to ban state subsidies which would shut the pits for good.

Trade unionists have responded with strikes and civil disobedience, but not all the action is taking place above ground.

Some have staged lock-ins in the hot, humid shafts beneath the surface in a brave bid to defend their livelihoods.

Miners sealed underground at the Velilla del Rio Carrion pit say that the condensation in the air makes it difficult to breathe and the poor prospects for survival of their industry saps their morale, but they continue to fight.

They face the loss of their jobs, their industry and the dignity of their communities. They fight on.

And their struggle has swelled a rising tide which will crash across the country on September 29, the day of a general strike called by the two biggest unions CC.OO and UGT against Spain’s massive, brutal cuts package.

It was the reckless and even criminal behaviour of bankers, speculators and financiers that sparked the banking collapse. It is ordinary people who are being made to pay the price.

Pensioners and future pensioners are having their payments frozen and their retirement age extended. The unemployed are having their benefits slashed despite spiralling joblessness which makes finding work near impossible.

Workers who do have a job are being forced to sign new contracts making it easier to sack them.

The poor, the low paid, the old, and the vulnerable will be hit in Spain as they will be in Britain, while the financiers laugh all the way to the bank with their bonuses intact.

Action by millions of workers in Spain may prove fruitless. The chances of the “Socialist” government in Madrid going back on its planned programme are slim - it answers to the world financial markets and the EU rather than Spanish voters.

Resistance to the cuts is also more likely to deliver a right-of-centre Partido Popular government at the next election that would cut harder and hit the vulnerable more ruthlessly.

The unions, greens and the United Left are striking against a socialist government which is already odds on to lose in 2012.

Yet strike we will, with a heavy heart and sense of foreboding. And we will take inspiration from the miners, because at the end of the day we are fighting for their dignity and ours.

No government, be it socialist or centre-right, has the mandate or the power to take that dignity away.

(The above article appeared in The Morning Star on September 15)

WANTED FOR MURDER: US TANK CREW

2010-08-07T22:58:00.002+02:00

Spain wants a three man US army tank crew to stand trial for the death of José Couso. High Court judge, Santiago Pedraz, has issued three international arrest warrants in Madrid after they fired at the Telecinco cameraman in Bagdad in 2003 fatally wounding him.

The judge is confident the new US administration of Barack Obama will want to co-operate with the investigation. However whilst Washington is quick to criticise other nations non-compliance with what it deems as justice it has no enthusiasm for the handing over of its citizens – just ask the people of Bhopal.

Pedraz acted after the Supreme Court decided at the beginning of July to reopen the investigation in to the death of the Telecinco cameraman who was killed during the invasion of Iraq by US troops. The highest court in Spain accepted an appeal made by the family of Couso in the case that had been archived by the High Court in July 2009.

Last Friday (July 30) the judge issued a “find and capture” warrant for the tank crew on the basis “they can be deemed to have committed a crime against the international community” which amounts to homicide. Santiago Pedraz has also decided to form a judicial commission to ascertain what happened in Bagdad to cause Couso’s death.

The magistrate will himself head the investigation and will visit the zones of the Jamurohaora Bridge from which the US tank fired, the Hotel Palestine where Reuters, Al Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV had its offices plus any other places deemed to be relevant.

The Ministry of the Interior has confirmed the detention order has been sent to Interpol via the Policía Nacional. From that moment on nations that are members of the Interpol network are obliged to detain the three troopers if they are in their jurisdiction.

The High Court has called on the US government to make available all documentation on the incident and to present declarations along with the three tank crew. The court points out that these events occurred under the previous US administration of President George W Bush. His government refused to co-operate with previous Spanish investigations but Pedraz hopes the attitude of Obama will be more positive.

It is the third time that Spain has issued arrest warrants for Sergeant Thomas Gibson, Captain Philip Wolford and Lieutenant Colonel Philip de Camp.

José Couso was killed on April 8 2003 when he was hit by a shell from a US Mark 1 Abrams tank that fired at the Hotel Palestine in Bagdad which at the time was a civil zone and used by reporters. In 2006 the High Court filed the case having taken the view that Couso’s death was an “act of war” and was not a premeditated attack on the journalists.

The Supreme Court later rejected this argument and ordered at the insistence of the family the investigation be re-opened. In 2009 the High Court again filed the case and annulled the accusation of “homicide and a crime against the international community” against the three US soldiers.

The view of the court then was there was “insufficient evidence” that the tank’s crew that had fired at Couso deliberately. A Ukrainian cameraman working for Reuters was also killed in the same tragedy. The shell had hit its office on the 15 th floor, and Couso was on the floor below.
Needless to say the family of Couso are delighted at the decision of Pedraz and the re-issuing of the arrest orders. The cameraman’s sister, Sabela Couso, described it as a “triumph” and condemned the constant strong objections and stone walling put forward by the US Army.

The ruling has also been welcomed by Olga Rodríguez, Carlos Hernández, Jon Sistiaga and Jesús Quiñonero – the four journalists who were witnesses to the attack that resulted in Couso’s death. They have stated their willingness to travel to Iraq with the judge and to go to the bridge and hotel with him.

Their view is the tank fired from its position from which it could clearly see with its prismatic system the signs for the hotel as well as the word “Press” clearly written on the flak jackets worn by the journalists. They watched the terrible events unfold from their own hotel balcony and dismiss the claims that the soldiers did not know the international press were at the hotel.

Spain’s minister of justice, Francisco Caamaño, has promised his department’s full international co-operation should the judge request it to find and detain the soldiers. He noted that both the Supreme and High Courts had recently taken the view there were sufficient elements to continue the investigation and the government respected the judicial decision. It now remains to be seen whether the US government also respects justice.

Once the news reaches the USA fire and brimstone can be expected from the far right with much frothing of Murdoch’s organ on Fox News. For America justice is something it dispenses to the world and from which its citizens are largely exempt. Those - including Judge Pedraz - who believe the Obama administration views justice differently, should not hold their breath. However it is reassuring that after Spain’s right tried to muzzle the country’s famous campaigning judge, Baltasar Garzón; there are other magistrates ready to step forward to uphold international justice, even against the might of the USA.

(The above article appeared in the Morning Star in August 2010)

FRANCO’S 30,000 STOLEN BABIES

2010-07-27T11:22:00.002+02:00

La Línea is the Spanish town that has grown up across the border from Gibraltar at the tip of southern Spain. Over the years Spaniards have flocked to the town to seek work in the dock and ship yards plus the other booming businesses of Gibraltar. This is relevant to what follows because it means the itinerant husbands and wives did not have their families to support them in the event of giving birth or a child’s death.

Last November Cristina Díaz Carrasco broke the astonishing tale of her brother’s possible disappearance from La Línea hospital in 1967 to the media. He was said to have died shortly after his birth. As her mother was from Irún in Northern Spain and had no family in the area his body was buried by the hospital. The family returned each summer and left flowers on what was presumed to be his grave. However after works at the cemetery in 1980 the grave could not be found and it was subsequently discovered that there were no records at the cemetery, the Civil Registry or the archives of his birth, death or interment.

It was an interesting story but I presumed a one off. Not so because since Cristina made her suspicions public at least five other families have come forward with a similar tale in La Línea.

One of the latest involves a woman named Carmen from the Canary Islands. She came to La Línea in 1968 with her husband to work. She arrived pregnant and fearing all was not well sought medical aid. On November 14, 1968 she gave birth at the private Inmaculada Clinic to a son who she was told soon died.

Neither Carmen nor her husband had any family in La Línea and the hospital told them not to worry it would take care of everything. It was when her daughter saw Cristina Díaz Carrasco on the Antena 3 TV programme ‘Espejo Público’ and they discussed it she found their situations had been very similar and just a year apart.

She had never visited La Línea cemetery to visit the grave of her son but now she decided to make the trip. Again no grave could be found nor did the cemetery have any records of such a baby having been buried there in November of 1968. She also visited the Archivo Histórico Municipal in La Línea which holds the records from that time. There is no record of his birth, death or burial.

One might argue that this were cases of poor record keeping except that in wider Spain during the Franco era it has been established that children were indeed taken from their parents without their knowledge and passed on to an adoptive family.

It is reported Judge Baltasar Garzón has estimated that during the post war period of the Franco dictatorship a staggering 30,000 babies were re-allocated in this way. Garzón has reached that conclusion by gleaning facts and figures from various studies. It has also been reported that 200,000 pesetas was the price of acquiring such a baby in the 1960s. In his book – Mala gente que camina – Benjamín Prado says that in Spain people think “such things only happened in Argentina or Chile which had much shorter dictatorships. The courts do not want to investigate in case the same thing happened here.”

In Madrid in the 1960s one of the standard jokes amongst children was to say to their parents “did you buy me in the Rastro?” However Prado points out that many did just that – bought them at the market - and hence many Spaniards do not know their true parentage or indeed who they are.

Now there are many web pages and social networks on this theme. The problem is that the Andalucía health system that runs the present hospital La Línea didn’t exist then and the birth and death records are in archives with those involved in recording them long since retired or deceased. However the thirst for the truth amongst the 40-year-olds is strong and they will not be silenced until the truth is uncovered.

As I wrote this article the prosecutor in Algeciras – the nearest major town to La Línea - has decided to open an investigation into these local disappearances. Chief prosecutor, Juan Cisneros, has accepted the official reports by six families that involve births at the then municipal hospital in La Línea as well as two private clinics in the town. Cisneros says these cases have to be investigated to find answers for the families involved and determine just what happened in the last century.

All the affected families have now joined an association called Anadir formed by Antonio Barroso. He was adopted and suspects he was stolen from his true parents. The lawyer Enrique Vila is taking all these cases to the High Court both in Cádiz and in Spain where there are dozens more. However it has to be recognised that because of the time that has passed any investigation will be difficult to pursue a fact that was recently stressed by the head prosecutor in the Cádiz court, Ángeles Ayuso.

(Photo: Cristina Díaz Carrasco's grandmother supposedly with the body of her brother in La Línea hospital's mortuary).

(The above article appeared in The Morning Star in July 2010 and parts have appeared in Panorama in May and June 2010).

SPANISH PRACTICES AT SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL

2010-07-27T11:18:00.004+02:00

Call me naive, call me a romantic, but my view of Socialist International was a brother and sisterhood of socialist parties united under the red flag. Well that has not been the experience of the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party due to Spanish practices by PSOE.

I start this article in Gibraltar but not with the GSLP but rather the Liberal Party that has been its junior coalition partner in opposition since 2000 and if the opinion polls are correct could join it in government in 2011. The leader of the Liberals, Dr Joseph Garcia, was telling me the major role they play in Liberal International.

“Liberal International is the global federation of Liberal and Democratic political parties. There are Liberal parties from 50 countries that are full members and from 25 countries as observer members. The Liberal Party of Gibraltar is a full member in its own right. We have our own seat on the Executive Committee and our own voting rights independently of UK parties.”

It was later when I spoke to Fabian Picardo, a British trained lawyer, a GSLP MP, a possible future leader and Chief Minister that I was stunned to learn that not only was the party not a member of Socialist International but did not even have observer status.

Now if you ask Socialist International they will tell you that the GSLP has never applied for membership and hence the issue has not been discussed by the committee. Except they are unlikely to tell you anything at all. Joe Bossano, the founder of the GSLP, a former chief minister of Gibraltar and current leader confirmed they wrote to the Secretary General, Luis Ayala, around 1984/5 just prior to Spain joining the EU in 1986 and they have never had a reply despite many reminder letters. I contacted Socialist International three times without the courtesy of an answer either.

So let’s take a look at the Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party. It is the oldest surviving active political party in Gibraltar. Its grass roots are deep in the British Trade Union Movement because founder and current leader Joe Bossano had lived in London’s East End where he was active in the Labour Party and union.

Indeed when he returned to Gibraltar he became the District Officer of the TGWU which during Bossano’s tenure was instrumental in achieving parity with the UK for all workers in Gibraltar. The GSLP fought its first election in 1978 and between 1988 and 1996 was the party of government.

Labour veteran Alf Lomas told me: “I have had a long association with Joe Bossano since I first went to speak in Gibraltar in the seventies to address the AGM of the TGWU. I was Political Secretary of the London Co-operative at that time and active in the union and the Labour Party. There was no GSLP in those days and Joe and I had long discussions about forming a Labour Party. I helped to draw up the constitution and was made No 1 Honorary Member of the Party on its formation.”

So what’s the Spanish take on all this. It is the opposition of the Partido Socialista Obrero Español - PSOE, which celebrated the 100 th anniversary of winning its first parliamentary seat in May that has kept the GSLP out of Socialist International.

I spoke to PSOE’s José Carracao who sits in Spain’s Senate – its upper house of parliament. He was a mayor of Jimena de la Frontera, president of the association of municipalities in the area across the border from the Rock and today has in the Senate special responsibility for Gibraltar – Spanish relations.

He said: “Gibraltar is a dependent territory of the UK and is represented internationally by the UK. The existence of “internationals” of political parties (Socialist International, Liberal International) is the consequence of national parties of the same politics coming together. From our point of view Gibraltar does not have an international presence and it represented in its external relations by the UK. The only parties that can have representation and international presence from an ideological point of view are the parties of the UK. The consequence for us is that is that Gibraltar can only have representation and an international presence by its integration or association with other parties of the same ideological point of view, with parties in the UK. This has been the position till now of PSOE and those responsible for its external relations in its various Federal Executives.”

Here are some points on José Carracao’s remarks:

Dr Joseph García said: “Spain’s Centro Democratico y Social introduced us to Liberal International and supported our membership. We have very good links with our Catalan friends and have hosted visits to Gibraltar by Catalan MPs and by the International Relations Secretary of Covergencia Democratica in the past.”

Glyn Ford, who had been the MEP for Gibraltar and is closely associated with the GSLP questioned: “How does he explain the separate SI membership of the SDLP from Northern Ireland, a British Colony!”

Whilst Alf Lomas, who was also an MEP till 1999 added: “I often clashed with the Spanish Socialist Party about Gibraltar particularly on occasions when Joe visited the Parliament as my guest. PSOE even opposed Joe coming into the EP Socialist Group Meetings.”

Although Franco died in 1975 many consider the socialist PSOE’s general election win in October 1982 as being the defining moment in Spain’s transition to democracy. Hence in 1985 Joe Bossano travelled to PSOE’s Madrid HQ to speak with Manuel Chaves – the then Minister of Labour - and Elena Flores, the International Secretary of PSOE.

At a personal level relations between PSOE and the GSLP are very cordial. They told Bossano that if Premier Felipe González had his photo taken with him at Socialist International it would cost PSOE one million votes. As Bossano did not want to harm his fellow socialists electoral chances in the 1986 election he agreed to delay an application.

I told Joe I could understand Spain’s opposition to Gibraltarian institutions but not Spanish socialists opposing Gibraltar’s socialists joining the international umbrella organization. “But Socialist International has influence,” he countered –and there we had it. Forget the PSOE mantra mouthed by José Carracao – the party is simply scared that Socialist International might follow the lead set by Liberal International and endorse Gibraltar’s right to self determination.
Surely this is the most fundamental of socialist democratic principles yet an anathema to PSOE and Spain at least where Gibraltar is concerned.

(Photo: Joe Bossano campaigning in Gibraltar in 1984)

(The above article appeared in the Morning Star and in Panorama in July 2010)

IS IT TIME FOR A UNITED LEFT?

2010-05-10T18:45:00.004+02:00

By David Eade

Being British and a keen student of politics I have been taking a close interest in the General Election. However living 1,000 miles to the south I have viewed the proceedings more as onlooker as my political fate is decided in Madrid and not London.

I had talked of the election before now as the Phoney War. Sure enough come next Friday Britain shall have a new government or three parties haggling as to who will take power. Yet as financial bodies have pointed out this week none of the three main challengers have dealt in factual terms with how they will tackle the economic crisis that has been put on hold to May 7. They are in denial but the wider public is not fooled.

There is no doubting that the week after the election the British people will wake up to the awful financial reality. Even if the prime minister of the new day does not want to admit to it, just yet, the world financial markets will dictate the waiting time is up – it is time for action, or else. Cuts will be made, jobs will be lost, and as always it is those at the bottom of the pile who will bear the brunt.

This sense of denial had filled me with gloom but then another topic took over. It was the fact that the Communist Party is contesting just a few seats and to be frank has absolutely no chance of winning any of them –indeed saving the deposit might be an achievement. That is not to pour cold water on those engaged in the battle for votes or the winning of minds. Yet if at this time of abject economic and social crisis the Communist Party is deemed irrelevant then something is very badly amiss.

With the drawing closer of the Labour and Liberal parties the dreams of Lord Mandelson and his cohorts are being answered. Mandelson’s dreams are territory I would not normally wish to enter but he has long hoped for a coalition of the Labour and Liberal forces to keep the Conservatives forever at bay.

Viewed from Spain where the Communist Party in Izquierda Unida is alive and well the scenario in Britain fills me with despair. I know the Communist Party has traditionally played a more major role in European political life than in the UK. My uncle Len became a Communist in the 1920s and remained so till his death in the 1960s. Yet even within the staunch socialist family of which he was a part he was viewed as the political eccentric.

I am a member of Izquierda Unida in Spain – a broad coalition of left parties dominated by the Communist Party. In a country on a continent where proportional representation rules the IU has a strong voice in the government of the nation but at a local level actually holds the reigns of power either in absolute or in coalition.

The coalition of the left was formed in 1986 largely amongst parties who believed in a Republican Spain. In November 1992 it became a registered party and now often presents itself with Los Verdes – the Greens. In 2008 it had 48,318 members and in the General Election of that year along with the Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV) took 963,040 votes giving the IU two seats in parliament and the ICV one. How many Communist MPs or councillors will be returned in Britain next Thursday?

The IU is the third force in Spanish politics and forms a parliamentary block with the Esquera Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) and the ICV. More over it has a senator in the Upper House, a Euro MP, MPs in the regional governments and controls numerous town halls.

So is now the time for a political realignment on the left of British politics? Well it is now or never – because the situation facing Britons in the coming months and years will never be more conducive to the forming of such a coalition. Election reform may be on the cards, which would help such an alliance. However if those on the left of British politics, be they in the Labour, Communist or other parties or pressure group cannot present a united coherent message to the voters – then the game is up.

(A version of the above article appeared in The Morning Star in May 2010)

SPEAKING ILL OF THE DEAD

2010-04-22T19:03:00.004+02:00

By David Eade

As I write this the great and good of Spanish life as well as the international sports community have gathered in Barcelona to pay homage to Juan Antonio Samaranch, the former president of the International Olympic Committee.

Samaranch died on Tuesday in a Barcelona hospital aged 89. He has been described as a master of negotiation, persuasion and behind-the-scenes diplomacy during his 21 years at the helm of the IOC. His remains rested at the Catalan parliament before being taken on Thursday to Barcelona’s cathedral. Plenty will be singing his praises at his funeral. The Spanish heir to the throne, the Príncipe de Asturias, Felipe de Borbón described him as a “colossus of the modern Olympics” and “firmly loyal to the Crown”.

However he was also a divisive figure in both Spanish politics, especially for those on the left, and in wider international sport. As I started penning this I received an email via Facebook asking me to support a call to not have Samaranch honoured with a minute’s silence at Barcelona’s Camp Nou soccer stadium.

Yet he is a hero to many in Barcelona. It was Samaranch who brought the 1992 Olympics to his hometown. However his attempts to do the same for Madrid failed miserably. He tried to help Madrid secure the 2012 and 2016 games. Madrid finished third behind winner London and Paris for the 2012 Olympics and second to Rio de Janeiro for 2016.

Samaranch spoke during Madrid’s presentation in Copenhagen last year asking the IOC to send the games to the Spanish capital as a parting gift for this old man in his final days. “Dear colleagues, I know that I am very near the end of my time,” Samaranch said. The IOC ignored his plea.

Andrew Jennings has written several books about the IOC. He has no doubt about his feelings on Samaranch: “He was a very bad man. He nearly destroyed the Olympics. We didn’t need all that money in sport. It created this imperial world where he had to get lots of money to maintain his excellencies (the IOC members) touring the world."

Samaranch has also been condemned for serving the Franco dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s – before his appointment to the IOC he was Spain’s ambassador to Russia. Samaranch claims he had only a modest role as director general of sports and parliamentary leader of the Falangist movement. I doubt whether the leader of the Falange in parliament was ever modest.

Anna Simó, the Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya spokesperson in the Spanish parliament said the party never had any sympathy for him because of his past links to the Franco regime. Ernest Benach of the same party only spoke in a very brief statement of his sadness for the family. The ICV, linked to the far left Izquierda Unida, avoided offering any words of praise at all.

The major scandal that overshadowed his term in office led to the ousting of 10 IOC members for accepting cash, scholarships and other inducements from Salt Lake City representatives bidding for the 2002 Winter Games.

When Samaranch came to power 29 years ago, the IOC was virtually bankrupt, the Olympics were battered by boycotts and terrorism and few cities wanted to host the games. When he left his post, the IOC’s coffers were full with billions of dollars in commercial revenues, the boycotts were over, cities around the world were fighting each other furiously for the games, and the Olympics were firmly established as the world’s major sporting festival. True – but the rumours of corruptions hang over his legacy like a funeral pall.

(The above article appeared in Panorama)

THE KING IS CORRUPT

2010-04-22T19:00:00.005+02:00

By David Eade

The mayor of the Andalucía town of Puerto Real, José Antonio Barroso, has returned to attack the Spanish monarch, King Juan Carlos, and has repeated his accusation that he is corrupt.

The Izquierda Unida politician is a constant thorn in the king’s side and one might take the view that the Spanish monarch would by now ignore his words of venom. However last year Barroso was fined 6,840 euros in a Madrid court after a case was brought against him for “serious injury” against Juan Carlos.

The remarks that caused the stir were made by Barroso in a speech to celebrate the Third Republic made in Los Barrios. He accused the monarch of being “corrupt”, having “enriched himself illegally” and added some unflattering remarks on the morality of his father adding like father, like son.

As a Briton living in Spain I have my private views on the Spanish Royal Family and the monarch in general. However they remain that – private – because I believe that whether Spain is a monarchy or a republic is for Spanish people to decide.

None the less over the last year I have expressed one specific thought in writing on Barroso and the King. I firmly believe that Barroso has the right to state his honestly held views on the monarchy and the family of King Juan Carlos. It’s called freedom of speech.

If the monarch feels that Barroso has overstepped the mark, if he finds he cannot turn the other cheek, then of course he is free to take the matter to court. If that is the case then it should be a legal action brought by and paid for by the monarch. When Barroso was brought before a judge it was on behalf of the Spanish State which means that I and other tax payers in this country footed the bill for the King.

Now the secretary general of the Communist Party in Andalucía, José Manuel Mariscal, has spoken out in Barroso’s support after he repeated he recently repeated his remark in Algeciras. Mariscal stated: “Barroso can be very expressive, but he tells truths with his fists.”

It was certainly a combative speech by Barroso who was a guest speaker at a meeting held by the local communist party in the plaza de la Constitución where the Republican flag was raised. He shared the platform with Inmaculada Nieto, the leader of Izquierda Unida in the governing coalition at Algeciras town hall, her fellow IU councillors and the town’s former communist mayor Paco Esteban.

Barroso told the audience: “In the distance is heard a lackey’s and courtesan’s voice that cries Viva España, Viva el Rey. And from here we answer – Long live the people of the Spanish Republic. And death to all that the King represents that is corruption, and rotten. Ultimately, all that is despicable that a caste of his nature represents. Yes Viva España Republicana and death to all that the King represents and signifies.”

José Barroso continued that “in a society that is unable to admit, perhaps because it doesn’t known or it doesn’t want to know, that the Constitution of 78, is a constitution absolutely undemocratic, it shields the interests of the undesirable, of the major delinquent that exists in this country who answers to the name of Juan Carlos I of Borbón.”

Staying with matters royal the Partido Comunista is organising a petition to be presented to the Spanish Parliament – Congreso de los Diputados – demanding transparency in the accounts of the Royal household. Marsical said it was “unusual” that the King “does not explain how he spends the budget he receives from the State, that is around 10 million euros a year. Whilst he does not declare his spending there will be suspicions.”

By the by, if my figures are correct, the British monarch currently receives 7.9 million pounds a year from the Civil List compared with the 10 million euros for King Juan Carlos. The Civil List is due for review after the General Election as the figure was set in 2000 with Queen Elizabeth II pressing for a major increase. Both sums should give ample food for thought for monarchists and republicans.

(The above article appeared in Panorama)

SIXTEEN MONTHS WITHOUT PAY – AND NO DOLE

2010-04-10T17:20:00.003+02:00

By David Eade

When I first came to Spain nearly 20 years ago I had an occasional coffee in a nice café-restaurant facing on to the main square in Fuengirola. It had an interior patio and was a marked change to the greasy spoons of my home town, London. After a year or so the café suddenly closed. That surprised me but what shocked me was to learn that many of the staff had not been paid for nearly a year.

It was my first introduction to the very different labour laws in Spain where those employees on fixed contracts cannot be suddenly fired even if they are not paid. Indeed as long as they turn up for work their contract is binding with the unpaid workers having statutory rights if the company is eventually wound-up.

Over the years this kind of scenario has become more commonplace especially in the current economic crisis. However one of the most celebrated of these cases involves Los Monteros hotel in Marbella.

Los Monteros became a tourism symbol for the Costa del Sol as it was the first five-star luxury hotel opening its doors in 1964. Now some might argue that the closure of a jet set hotel is no loss at all. On the contrary - the fact the establishment has closed its doors has no impact whatsoever on the well heeled – they simply follow the money to another exotic location. Those who suffer are such as Ana María Díaz who works in the laundry and has been at the hotel since 1974. Or Antonio Guil who has been the maintenance man for 36 years. Or Jerónimo Torres, the head barman, who started out learning his trade at the hotel in 1971 at the age of 16. It is they and the other 180 current employees of the hotel that are the victims.

It was back in November 2008 that I first wrote about Los Monteros because then Lebanese owner Mohamed Reda Bahige Alaywan had not paid his workers for two months. Nor did there seem to be any funding for the improvements so badly needed by this top-notch hotel. However within days the plight of the employees and the future of the hotel seemed to have turned around. In stepped the Russian company Northwest Oil but it was bad news not good.

Rather than put the hotel back on its feet, giving the employees their back wages whilst ensuring their future Northwest Oil took a very different route. This created the suspicion the purchase was nothing more than a property speculation strategy – a strategy that soon went wrong. Marbella town hall quickly moved to block any rezoning of the land on the valuable coastline site for urban development requiring it to be for hotel use only.

Since June 4 2009 the hotel has not been open to guests. The director, Ernest Malyshev, did declare Los Monteros open for a while but as there was no power or water guests could have not run the taps in their rooms, had a meal or turned on a light. This ploy to be technically open to guests was carried out in the hope of avoiding Andalucía government and court sanctions.

So what is the situation now? The president of the committee of the business (that speaks for the employees), José Osorio, believes the hotel owes more than 57 million euros to the Spanish tax and social security agencies. In addition some 400 claims have been made in the Málaga mercantile court against the companies Northwest Oil established to run the hotel and hold its assets. Furthermore around 250 families who depended on the hotel for their incomes have had their lives ruined because they have received no pay for 16 or more months nor have they been eligible for the dole as technically these wage earners are still employed.

So who is to blame? Northwest Oil certainly but Osorio and the CC.OO union representative Lola Villalba also point their fingers at Marbella town hall, the Andalucía government and the Andalucía ombudsman who they believe should have taken firmer action. Bitterly the workers talk of how all the politicians turned out to have their photographs taken on the pick line but then did nothing else to help them.

And the future? An administrator appointed by the court now controls the hotel. The manager Salvador Ríos, who along with his employees have stuck to their posts, insists it is ready to open its doors within 15 days largely because they all have ensured the building has been maintained – at their expense. They have also occupied the hotel to ensure the furnishings, fittings and assets were not stripped. The most likely course is that the hotel will be sold. The employees as creditors can only hope this will see their outstanding salaries paid and their future employment guaranteed. Sadly we could still be many months off a conclusion and in the meantime they are euroless.

(The above article appeared in the Morning Star in April)

SPAIN TODAY, BRITAIN – VERY SOON?

2010-03-30T16:10:00.004+02:00

By David Eade

The economic crisis that started in the banking sector in the USA quickly spread around the world and engulfed the majority of nations. However it affected different countries in various ways. For instance one of the most visible signs in the UK was the collapse of the banks whereas in Spain the financial institutions have remained fairly stable.

Make no mistake thought the financial crisis in Spain has been severe and it is the only major EU economy still in recession. Unemployment is also the highest in the EU whilst the worst hit sector has been the construction industry.

So it is no surprise that the Spanish socialist government is having to look at drastic ways of dragging the country out of the downward spiral that threatens the financial and political stability of the nation. What has come as a surprise is that the PSOE government has chosen to put pensions in to the forefront of that battle. It has caused a rift between the socialists and those on the far left of Spanish politics in Izquierda Unida and indeed its loyal backers – the unions.

One major difference between Britain and Spain is that whilst centre right and centre left parties predominate the far left in Spain plays a major role whereas in the UK it occupies the fringe. There are IU councillors, town halls and provincial administrations as well as MPs at regional, national and European level. So when the IU decides to mobilise it matters.

At present the pension age in Spain is 65 and to qualify for a State pension you have to be in the scheme for 15 years. What the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is proposing is that the age should be moved to 67 with the suggestion that workers should be in the system for 25 years. That forms part of the PSOE government’s financial rescue plan to be presented to the European Commission in Brussels. If implemented it would affect every worker below retirement age, immediately.

The IU case is quite simple. The pension age should remain at 65; the qualifying period should stand and the current system whereby the value of pensions is maintained because they rise with the inflation index (IPC) should not be altered.

The rise from 65 to 67 is the tip of this iceberg. If the qualifying period was increased from15 to 25 years that would leave many people now at the end of their working lives without any hope of qualifying. Also it has always been accepted that apart from any increases awarded by the government of the day the pensions would keep pace with inflation with the IPC linked annual rise.

In a report on the issue the Secretaría de Economía y Trabajo of the federal IU argues that the socialist government’s policy will benefit the nation’s banks who market private pension schemes. It believes that if State pensions are to be low and difficult to obtain then workers will want to contract with a private pension instead. Is it not ironic that to solve a crisis started by the banks it is those selfsame financial institutions who would benefit at the expense of the workers? Has it not always been so?

The Zapatero government argues that the changes are necessary because currently State pensions account for 8 per cent of PIB (Britain’s GNP). It points out that in Italy pensions account for 14 per cent of PIB but there are no plans to increase the qualifying age whilst in France where the qualifying age is 60 there are no plans to alter the qualifying period. In Spain the pension system is in good shape with an 8,500 million surplus in 2009 – the year the financial crisis was at full force.

The IU is to take to the streets to make its case. It was 11 years ago that the party collected a petition of 500,000 signatures and presented it to the Spanish lower house of parliament, Congress. This action allowed its proposal for the working day to be reduced from 40 to 35 hours to become an Inciativa Legislativa Popular (ILP). Now the federation of leftist groups is to take the same action to keep the pension age at 65 through the ILP voice of the people.

Gaspar Llamazares, the IU spokesperson in Congress, did not mince his words. He stated: “If the Executive does not withdraw this proposal there is no possible negotiation. This cannot be negotiated. The president must appear in Congress and withdraw this measure that breaks the pact with the parliamentary left and the workers.”

The IU is not acting alone and the main Spanish unions, the CC.OO and UGT, held demonstrations that ran from February 23 to March 6 in all the major cities. Over 50,000 people took to the streets in the provincial capitals of Andalucía, 4,000 in Santander, tens of thousands in Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia – throughout Spain the response has been the same.

The battle lines have been drawn. Indeed the UGT and CC.OO have now signed an accord with the DGB union in Germany: “to put people first and not the markets - that without the guarantees of fundamental human rights it is not possible to obtain a stable economic market. Likewise we call for single position amongst European unions to defend the public systems of pensions.”

Now back to Britain. At some stage in the not too distant future the British Government of the day is going to have to tackle the financial chaos. Nothing is going to happen before the next election. However once a government is returned the socialists, conservatives or a coalition who then have a mandate to rule will act. How they act will be governed by their political perspective but act they will and it could well be the State pensions that are in the firing line.

BLAS INFANTE: ANDALUCÍA’S REVOLUTIONARY

2010-03-04T10:23:00.000+01:00

By David Eade

Every year on February 28 the Spanish region of Andalucía celebrates its national day. It also pays homage to Blas Infante – the father of the modern Andalucía. He died for his belief in a radical, federal Andalucía for as the military coup took hold in 1936 he was rounded up by the Falange and shot. It was four years later – June 1940 – when a judicial death sentence was handed down to justify his assassination – a verdict that still stands to this day.

Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas was born in Casares on July 5, 1885 - today Casares is a small inland village on the Costa del Sol. Blas’ father – Luis Infante Andrade – was licensed in law and was the secretary of the Casares court. His mother – Ginesa Pérez de Vargas – was from a family of farm labourers but was regarded as middle class in the extreme poverty of those times.

Blas studied for his ‘bachillerato’ in Archidona till 1899 when the family suffered badly in the economic disaster of 1898 that saw the country loose its colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines after the Spanish – American War. This forced Blas to leave college with his final course in his ‘bachillerato’ uncompleted. From 1900 he worked as a secretary at the court in Casares and at the same time studied with the faculty of law at Granada University travelling there in June and September to take his exams before finally becoming a lawyer in 1906.

From 1910 he worked as a notary in Cantillana which allowed him to make contact with the intellectuals living in Sevilla where he started to develop his ideas on Andalucía especially with the members of the Ateneo de Sevilla. The hard conditions of the agricultural labourers who worked on a daily basis made a major impact on him forging his socialist beliefs.

It was during the reign of Alfonso XIII that Blas Infante’s political thoughts developed along Republican and federalist lines. He believed in the defending of Andalucía as a Spanish region different from the rest of the country – furthermore he wanted to see Andalucía reconstructed as part of the wider regeneration of Spain.

Around this time he wrote: “My nationalism, before being Andaluz, is human. I believe that by birth nature signals to the soldiers of life the place where they have to fight for it. I work for the cause of the spirit of Andalucía because that is where I was born. If I was born elsewhere I would fight for that cause with equal fervour.”

By 1915 he had set out his personal vision of the history, identity and problems of Andalucía in his most important book ‘Ideal Andaluz’. In 1918 he was present at the Assembly of Ronda, where inspired by the Constitution of Antequera of 1883, it set out the bases for ‘Andalucismo’ in order to obtain political autonomy for Andalucía. This assembly adopted the design of the flag and coat of arms of Andalucía proposed by Blas Infante.

In the 1918 elections Blas Infante attempted to stand in the district elections for Gaucín and a year later there again and in Sevilla but the strong presence of the ‘caciquismo’ – local bosses who protected the political and economic elite - prevented his success. On January 1, 1919, he signed along with other members of several Centros Andaluces the Manifesto Andalucista de Córdoba that defined the concept of Andalucía as a historic nation within a federal Spain.

During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera he rejected approaches to co-operate with the authorities. In reprisal the Centros Andaluces founded by Blas Infante in 1916 were closed as too was the publication Andalucía in which was set out the platform for andalucismo politics.

When the Second Republic was proclaimed in 1931 he took the post of notary in Coria del Rio where he built a house called ‘Dar al-Farah’ or ‘House of Happiness’ inspired by the architecture of Al Andalus personally overseeing its decoration. He presided over the Junta Liberalista de Andalucía which presented candidates for the Partido Republicano Federal. It did not win any seats in parliament but its manifesto repudiated centralism for federalism, sought a solution to the ‘caciquismo’, the reform of the electoral, economic and justice systems and promoted the freedom of expression amongst its beliefs. He ran for parliament again in the elections of November 1933 for Málaga for a coalition Izquierda Republicana Andaluz formed by the Partido Republicano Radical Socialista and the Izquierda Radical Socialista but its failure left Blas Infante a disillusioned man.

In 1933 Blas Infante proposed that the melody of the hymn ‘Santo Dios’, sung by the agricultural workers when they finished for the day, should form the basis of the Himno de Andalucía. This became the anthem of Andalucía which was adopted along with Infante’s flag and coat of arms when the autonomous regional government was formed in 1981.

After the elections of 1936 and the victory of the Popular Front the Andalucista political movement received a boost. During a conference in Sevilla on July 5 Blas Infante was acclaimed as the president of honour of the future Junta Regional de Andalucía. Just days later the military coup took place that led to the start of the Spanish Civil War. Members of the Falange went to Blas Infante’s house in Coria del Rio and he was taken away to be shot without any trial or sentence being handed down. His assassination took place on August 11 along with two other prisoners at km 4 on the Sevilla to Carmona road.

It was not till four years later that the Tribunal de Responsabilidades Políticas, created after the end of the Civil War, condemned Blas Infante to death and also ruled that his heirs should pay a fine. In a document dated May 4 1940 written in Sevilla it declared:

“...because he formed part of a candidature of revolutionary tendency in the elections of 1931 and in the successive years until 1936 that signified he was a propagandist of a party of Andalucía or a regionalist Andaluz.”

Indeed a Franco regime that brutally repressed the national ambitions of the Galician, Basque and Catalan people was not going to tolerate any suggestion of a federal administration for Andalucía. Blas Infante had associated himself with them as in the late 1920s he travelled to Galicia to meet with independence groups whilst in 1934 he visited Lluis Companys, the president of the Generalidad de Cataluña, who was being held in prison in El Puerto de Santa María along with other members of his government.

It is ironic that whilst the Junta de Andalucía formed after Spain’s return to democracy has adopted the flag, coat of arms and national anthem created by Blas Infante – no steps have been taken to reverse the judicial sentence handed down years after his death. This rankles with many, especially those on the left of Andalucía politics, so perhaps amongst this year’s celebrations for the 125 th anniversary of his birth the father of Andalucía might finally receive justice.

A footnote: since democracy was restored to Spain the socialist-leaning Partido Andalucista has largely failed to capture the imagination of the people of Andalucía. The region has largely been a PSOE socialist fiefdom whilst the Izquierda Unida, formed around the former Communist Party, has returned MPs and holds many town halls. Since 1981 Izquierda Unida - that embraces many of the ideals of Blas Infante - has ruled at Casares town hall apart for a break of four years. It has also been the major protector of the memory of Blas Infante. Mayor Antonia Morera insists that Casares must be included in the 125 th anniversary celebrations whilst the wider IU wants his death sentence withdrawn.

(A version of this article appeared in The Morning Star in Febaruary 2010).

NEW ABORTION LAW OPENS UP OLD WOUNDS

2010-03-04T10:18:00.000+01:00

By David Eade

Spain’s highly controversial abortion law has been passed by the lower house of parliament – Congress – but it is still making its way through the Senate. However the Ley del Aborto has already opened up old wounds between the Catholic Church and the ruling socialist party.

First to the law itself. Under its provisions abortions would be available on demand for women of 16 and over up to the 14th week of pregnancy, and up to 22 weeks if there was a risk to the mother’s health or if the foetus was deformed. Women can also undergo the procedure after 22 weeks if the foetus had a serious or incurable illness.

However what has angered the Catholic community most and even some supporters of the PSOE government is the provision allowing girls of 16 to have an abortion without their parents’ consent or knowledge. Opinion polls have shown that 56 per cent of socialists who support the PSOE government are very unhappy over allowing 16 year olds to be able to have an abortion without their parents’ knowledge or consent against 64 per cent opposition across the board.

The protests against the new abortion law have been led by Hazte Oir – a coalition of Catholic organizations. In October over a million people gathered in the plaza de Independencia in Madrid to voice their opposition to the new law. This highly motivated Catholic opposition has been joined by the centre-right Partido Popular that has pledged to ask the Constitutional Court to overturn the abortion legislation when it is passed in to law.

Now we wind forward to the present and the opening up of old wounds. It has come about because of the decision by the Catholic Church hierarchy to ban a leading member of the PSOE ruling party from receiving communion. José Bono is a staunch Catholic but he is also president of the lower house of Spain’s parliament. In an interview with the daily newspaper, El Mundo, he voiced his support for the new law which he voted in favour of when it was approved by Congress in December.

Bono argued in the interview that he supported the new law because he understood that it would reduce the number of abortions and that, according to the Encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “politicians can vote for laws governing abortion if they believe that they are reducing the evil it causes.”

However the Spanish Episcopal Conference has refuted this thesis. In a letter to El Mundo the bishops state that this Encyclical allows a Catholic to vote for an abortion law that reduces the injustice of the current legislation but the politician is obliged to vote against any law which does not adequately protect the inviolable right to life of those who are yet to be born.

The Catholic Church in Spain feels itself under attack by the very liberal PSOE administration of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero on numerous fronts including abortion, divorce, gay rights and education. In recent history the church was closely associated with the dictatorship of Franco and hence generations of distrust have grown up between it and those on the left of Spanish politics.

Indeed students of the Spanish Civil War will well remember the role played by the Catholic caucus in the USA in pressuring the president Franklin D Roosevelt from supporting the democratically elected government in Madrid. Catholic activists and writers also rubbished the press reports by Jay Allen on the Nationalist’s slaughter in Badajoz and George Steer’s accounts of the destruction of Guernica arguing they were communist inventions.

The vice secretary general of PSOE, José Blanco, waded in to the battle after the church barred Bono from receiving communion. He has accused the church of “hypocrisy” pointing out that it took no action against members of the former Partido Popular government of José María Aznar that introduced the present abortion law.

Bono accused the Catholic Church of “a permanent contradiction” because it didn’t deny communion “to members of the government of the right under who in our country there have been over 500,000 abortions.”

Thus the fight over the right to life of the unborn child has descended in to old animosities with socialists believing that the church favours its allies on the right above those on the left – even devout Catholics such as PSOE’s José Bono.
Interestingly the well-known Spanish socialist Luis Solana, who was instrumental in establishing democracy after Franco and then serving as an MP as well as heading the telecommunications giant Telefónica and State broadcaster RTVE, has been addressing this issue in recent days. He concedes that socialists who are also practising Catholics have experienced “many bitter times”.

Solana says that as far as the church is concerned the classic socialist is an agnostic. Hence those who follow both the Catholic and socialist creeds such as José Bono are not allowed for by the hierarchy and should says Solana – expect no charity in the treatment of their faith.

He added that a Catholic socialist had many problems in being accepted by the church. So much so that if a socialist politician votes in favour of the new abortion law then he will have insurmountable problems with the bishops. He then begs the question - if you are a Catholic how should you vote?

Solana continues, perhaps with his tongue in his cheek, perhaps not, that the solution for Bono and Christian socialists is to become freemasons. He observes that masons believe in God and another life as do Christians. Masons practice solidarity, equality and justice as do Socialists. Also in masonry there is an organisation and hierarchy as there is in the church and socialist party.

Back in October I wrote in my blog “Tilting at Windmills” about an interview in La Opinión de Malaga with Pedro Moreno Brenes.

“Pedro Moreno Brenes is a communist, the leader of the Izquierda Unida party at Málaga town hall, a lecturer in law at Málaga University and a Catholic. Nor is he a closet Catholic but practices his faith alongside his political beliefs that he has held since adolescence.

“He is quite clear as to how his religion co-exists with his political leanings. He says that the IU respects all beliefs and that for him there is no conflict whether he is invited to a religious or civil event. He added that he was pleased to accept all invitations should they be from the Muslim or Jewish communities or indeed atheists.

“Asked about the antagonism between the IU and the Catholic Church Pedro Moreno Brenes is quite clear. “The party, for example, proposes that there shouldn’t be any tax privileges for religious entities. It is compatible in the respect of - and the separation of - public and religious life.”

“So was Christ the first Communist? Pedro Moreno Brenes is in no doubt that the Christian message of “love one another” is much the same as the communist belief in fraternity and equality.”

However whilst it may be compatible to be a Christian as well as a socialist or communist in Spain - where Catholicism is the only real Christian option - politicians can co-exist happily with Christianity but tragically the Catholic Church is very much at odds with them.

(A version of this article appeared in The Morning Star in February 2010).

FROM HUNGER STRIKE TO HOUSE ARREST

2010-03-04T10:14:00.000+01:00

By David Eade
The Western Sahara peace activist, Aminatu Haidar, switched within hours from being on the verge of death from an enforced hunger strike in Spain to being held under house arrest at her home in El Aaiún. When you are fighting for civil rights for your country your life is constantly under threat so such radical changes in fortunes come as the norm to the woman described as the “Saharawi Gandhi” for her non-violent protests.

It was on November 14 that Morocco refused to allow Aminatu Haidar to return to her home in the Western Sahara on her return from New York where she had received the Civil Courage Prize for her work in demanding human rights for her homeland. Although she had neither a Moroccan nor Spanish passport she was allowed to return to Lanzarote with the government in Madrid guaranteeing her safe conduct although she was later fined on public order offences.

The Spanish Government offered her a passport but she refused the gesture as she insisted on keeping her Western Saharan status. Instead she vowed to return to her native land “dead or alive”.

Haidar had upset Morocco because she rejected that country’s right to rule over the Western Sahara. The prime minister of the self proclaimed República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (RASD), Abdelkader Taleb Omar, called on the international community to pressure Morocco to comply with international law and appealed to the Spanish monarch, King Juan Carlos, to add his support by interceding with the Moroccan king on Haidar’s behalf.

On Monday December 14 the US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, met with the Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, at the White House with Haidar at the top of their agenda. The meeting had originally been scheduled to discuss Spain taking over the presidency of the EU on January 1 but as Haidar’s condition weakened it became a diplomatic priority to seek a solution. From the US capital Moratinos issued a plea to Haidar to end her hunger strike.

Morocco stood fast over Haidar. The foreign minister, Taib Fassi Fihri, insisted that his government would make no concessions. He accused the activist of blackmail and said it was a campaign organised by Algeria and the Polisario Front.

Apart from demanding that Haidar be allowed to return to the Western Sahara in dignity the area’s premier Abdelkader Taleb Omar, had also called for the release of all Saharan political prisoners, an investigation in to the fate of those who have disappeared plus the opening of the area to international human rights observers.

Then on Thursday December 17 there was frantic activity as first Haidar was admitted to Lanzarote hospital suffering from abdominal pain as a result of her 32-day hunger strike. With reports that her life was hanging by a thread there was increased diplomatic contacts between the Spanish and Moroccan governments with the latter finally relenting and allowing her to return home.

She was declared free to leave Spain for her home country to be with her children and mother. So at midnight on the same Thursday she was flown in a hospital plane to the capital of the Western Sahara - El Aaiún. She was accompanied on her journey by her sister and the doctor who had been attending her. On receiving the news she was free to go home her protest and hunger strike ended. On leaving Spain Aminatu Haidar declared: “This is a triumph - a victory for international law, human rights and the Saharan cause.”

It was a victory at a price! Haidar now says she has being held under house arrest since her return home to El Aaiún on December 18. Before Christmas the Moroccan security forces prevented a Reuter’s reporter from visiting Haidar at her home so she gave a telephone interview with the press agency’s office in Rabat on Christmas Eve. Haidar said: “My isolation continues. I am under house arrest. The members of my family and friends have problems visiting me. The shops in my quarter are suffering from the isolation.”

She continued: “I have the value of my convictions to continue with the cause of self-determination for the Saharan people. Nothing will make me give up – the threat of jail, kidnapping, torture or exile.” She accused Morocco of using “carrot and the stick” politics with the Polisario Front and the Saharans adding that “Morocco is repressing the Saharan population whilst it is negotiation with the Polisario Front.”
Franco’s dying act

Like many of the troubled lands in today’s world the tragedy of Western Sahara lies in its colonial rule by Spain and Franco’s desire to rid his country of its obligations “muy pronto”. Indeed it was literally Franco’s dying act that his government secretly signed a tripartite agreement with Morocco and Mauritania allowing Spain to abandon the Western Sahara. The agreement was signed on November 14 1975 – days later Franco was dead.

Spain was gone from the Western Sahara within three months. Instead of the tripartite administration envisaged in the accord Morocco and Mauritania each annexed parts of the territory. Morocco seized the northern two thirds creating its southern provinces whilst Mauritania took the southern third as Tiris al-Gharbiyya.
Franco’s Spain may have abandoned its former colony but the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, forced Mauritania to withdraw in 1979. This solved little as Morocco merely moved in to the territory that Mauritania had controlled setting up the sand-berm in the desert to contain the Polisario liberation fighters.

In 1991 the fighting ceased after the UN brokered a peace agreement. However this still leaves the former colony that covers some 266,000 square kilometres of desert flatlands – one of the most sparsely populated nations on earth – in a state of limbo. El Aaiún, where Haidar is now under house arrest, is the Western Saharan capital – home to over half of the more than 500,000 people who live in the former Spanish colony.

So to today where Morocco and the Polosario Front independence movement with its República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic) government vies for control of these desert sands. It will come as no surprise that the USA has sat on the fence whilst the SADR has won the backing from 46 States plus the African Union and Morocco has the support of the Arab League. Spain is one of those countries refusing to recognise Morocco’s sovereignty claim.

This support swings with the fickleness of international trends and it is left to brave people such as Aminatu Haidar and her Collective of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders to keep the plight of this impoverished would-be nation in the hearts and minds of those who believe in civil rights and the right to self-determination for all.

(A version of this article appeared in The Morning Star in January 2010).