Seven Spanish Militants Arrested

At midday, November 8th in Paris, France, the French police in collaboration with the Spanish Guardia Civil detained seven militants of the Communist Party of Spain (reconstituted) (PCE(r)) under the accusation of being members of the "leadership of GRAPO". Among the seven arrested is Manuel Perez Martinez, General Secretary of the PCE(r).

These detentions take place within the Spanish regime's new terrorist offensive, which has as its fundamental objective to prevent, using all means available, the vanguard organization of the popular resistance being able to continue with their work of denouncing the regime and gaining greater support among all the people.

The anti-people counterrevolutionary strategy of the present Spanish fascist regime is nothing new, since it has been put into practice many times by the previous governments of the monarchy. It is sufficient to remember the dirty war of the Felipe Gonzalez period, through which they tried to find a "shortcut" to liquidate all resistance to the regime in a very short space of time. As is known, this strategy ended up being a failure, resulting in, on the one hand, the strengthening of the revolutionary organization and guerrillas, and on the other hand, an even greater deepening of the crisis of the regime and the political bankruptcy of the social-fascists of the PSOE.

After the arrival of the Partido Popular in the government, it was very clear that this counter-revolutionary strategy would be applied, maintained and deepening some measures of the previous period and adding other new ones. Now, prompted by the pressure of the latest actions of the guerrillas and the growing influence of the PCE(r) among the working and popular masses, the setting into motion of this strategy has been accelerated. Thus, in addition to the suffocating police pressure which has been seen in the last months and the disproportionate very heavy sentences handed out to youth arrested for participating in acts of sabotage, there are now projects to reform the Penal Code and the Juvenile Law (in order to lower the penal age to 14), along with the re-establishment of life imprisonment for "terrorists".

The objective of all these legal reforms, which count on the support of the parliamentary parties, consists in eliminating the last remnants of freedom of expression and of association, while at the very same time giving carte blanche to the police and special tribunal (Ausencia Nacional). All these "legal" measures aimed at trying to isolate the revolutionary and popular organizations, there is no doubt that the regime will attempt to annihilate, using any methods it can, from assassination to arrest of militants wherever they find them (as in the case of Paris), to slow extermination of the political prisoners (the bourgeois propaganda media have already put under pressure the leadership of GRAPO, citing among these Francisco Brotons Beneyto, in a clear attempt to confront the great solidarity that is building up in the campaign for his liberation). In addition to all of this, there is the criminalization of all the solidarity organizations.

The "new" principle with respect to previous periods is that all of these measures, as happened in the General Franco era, are situated with the "legality" of the regime itself, making even clearer still the turn of Spanish "democracy" to its fascist origins, which in any case it had never abandoned. We call upon all popular and revolutionary organizations, on all anti-fascists and genuine democrats to express their solidarity in every way possible with the comrades arrested on November 8th, with the political prisoners and with the anti-fascist struggle in Spain.

AFAPP-ACPG thanks in advance all those who want to contribute and also to help them confront the financial costs imposed by legal support of the people arrested in France, as the French lawyers who are now representing them have to be paid.

The Editorial Board of Northstar Compass journal, the Council of Canadian Friends of Soviet People and the Organizing Committee for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People have sent protests to France and are taking steps to help financially these arrested comrades.

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