SPAIN: The Communist Flop

Having failed so ignobly to pull off a general strike in May of 1958, Spam’s tiny but tightly organized Communist Party was determined that this year would be different. In the biggest flood of anti-Franco propaganda ever, they printed up hundreds of thousands of leaflets to prepare the workers to do their part when Radio Espana Independiente in Communist Prague gave the signal. To some of these leaflets they signed the names of liberal and Roman Catholic organizations that had not even been consulted. “A truly national movement!” cried the Communist radio. But when the big day finally arrived last week . . .

In San Sebastian someone dutifully painted a hammer and sickle upon a wall —and that was just about all there was to that. In Madrid some 100 workers from two factories stayed home until 10:30 in the morning, found themselves locked out when they finally showed up for work. In restless Barcelona, where the Reds had hoped to put on their most impressive performance, even men on sick list went off to their factories. For one thing, at a time when the country’s ailing industries were looking for every possible excuse to get rid of workers (it is against Spanish law to lay off workers, as well as to strike), no one wanted to take any chances. But the real reason went deeper. “A purely Communist strike,’ complained one Socialist leader. “If they succeed, they’ll take all the credit. If they fail, they will blame us.” So Spain’s moderate opposition, of all varieties, did their most to make the general strike of 1959 a failure.

Franco’s police, on special alert to head off the strike, arrested the Reds’ mystery man, one “Jimenez Lara,” on one of his underground trips into Spain. Most of the other 150 alleged “underground leaders” rounded up before the general strike were, however, non-Communist and Roman Catholic moderates who, though opposed to Franco, seek to disprove Franco’s favorite propaganda line—”Either Franco or the Communists.”