ITALY / SPANISH STATE
These huge investments do not however meet the economic needs of Andalusia. On the contrary, they will accentuate, directly or indirectly, its most negative aspects by putting our sun and soil on sale and recklessly gambling on mass tourism which can only create precarious jobs around volatile and unsure invest-
The technological park project at La Cartuja will require only an extremely highly qualified workforce and will create very few new jobs. It will on the other hand, mean great profits for multinationals like Fujitsu or Siemens. For the same cost, the basis of an infrastructure could have been developed which would have eliminated the endemic unemployment which Andalusia has suffered from
Selling Spain
THE Universal Exposition at
The financial cost of these highways has been increased by a growth in accidents and disastrous effects on the envi-
A monument to social
The Expo will obviously not satisfy the region's other social needs either. As the
Seville opened its gates on April
20. Millions of pesetas have been invested in this commemoration of the five hundredth anniversary of the "discovery" of America. Why has so much money and effort been devoted to this?
DOCUMENT*
T HE government of Andalusia
would like people to believe that the Exposition will be a boon to the local economy. At the same time they want to present a "modern" image of the country. "Expo" is therefore presented as a "regional development" initiative. The advertising campaign announcing the event has highlighted these themes with slogans proclaiming "Andalusia opens up to the future"
The Exposition has given rise to a multitude of projects, of which the most important is the City of the Pharaohs perched on the island of Cartuja, which in 1993 will become the "technological city" for the electronic and telecommunication multinationals rather than the amusement park that had been originally planned. No plans have been made for the Exposition's buildings when the event closes on October 12, 1992. It is estimated that the cost of the Exposition's grounds have reached a billion
In preparation for "Expo" an entire tourist infrastructure along the coast of Cadiz and Huelva as well as several new hotels in Seville have been built and a
A high-speed train, the TAV (similar to the French TGV) cost a half billion pesetas — a rather capricious expense of doubtful profitability which will only serve the elites. This train will run between Madrid and Seville under the surveillance of 10,000 soldiers of three armies which itself will cost an additional six million pesetas. Its two meter-high protective wall will destroy natural settings like the Sierra Morena in Malaga.
At the same time the Andalusian railroad network remains obsolete and the government is planning to privatize some of its lines. The elimination of the direct lines between Huelva and Madrid, and Cadix and Madrid as well as the west Andalusian line will force travellers who want to leave Andalusia to take the much more expensive TAV.
The investments that have been made around the Exposition are reinforcing a model of economic development in Andalusia based above all on tourism and intensive agriculture. These tendencies have already begun with the entry of the Spanish State into the European Community (EC), and with the destruction of an important part of Andalusian industry which was already in crisis. The fishing sector is in permanent crisis and the mechanization of intensive farming has led to the near disappearance of agricultural wage labor. All this has led to a sharp rise in unemployment (700,000 Andalusians are out of work) - the highest in the Spanish State and among the highest in Europe.
priest Diamantino rightly said, the budget allotted to half a bridge at the Exposition could have eradicated the shantytowns of Andalusia.
The association for the defense of human rights in Andalusia estimates that there are 40,000 uninhabitable dwellings in this region. A glance at the rural zones and the outskirts of the towns gives an idea of the depth of the region's poverty.
The federal government in Madrid and the regional government have deepened the gap between Seville and the rest of Andalusia. In doing so they have confirmed the suspicions that Seville has received the largest slice of the pie.
But the Expo will also have other consequences; behind this luxurious wall lurks the rest of the city and its needs. It will be the population that will have to assume the burden of the municipal taxes that will sharply increase and who will be dispossessed of the public lands stolen from them. It will become more difficult to gain access to housing, and some old projects like that of the Hospital of Aljarafe will be put on the shelf. For how many years will the people of Seville be forced to pay the price of EXPO-92?
The administrative apparatus of Seville will no doubt be reinforced as a result of Expo. Protected by the government and its army of bureaucrats who fly like vultures around prey, a new caste of senori* This statement is from Accion Alternativa, the Andalusian affiliate of the organization Izquierda Alternativa (Left Alternative), born of the fusion of the former Spanish section of the Fourth International, the LCR and the Communist Movement (MC) - See International Vienpoint, no. 218, Deceber 9 9, 1991.
THOSE passing construction sites in Seville on the morning of April
22 couldn't help but notice freshly us". Two days earlier on Sunday
May 25, 1992 arrested.
By their brutality, the police unmasked the true wishes of the Spanish government: nothing or nobody is to interfere with the spectacle of the Seville "Expo". ANTONIO FLORES* Continued from previous page tos has replaced the old system and aggravated social inequalities.
Expo has brought very little to Seville apart from the restoration of part of the Guadalquivir river. It has above all brought about an enormous speculative boom that has enriched a small minority. Seville has become one of the most expensive cities in the Spanish state. Rents have risen to the point that having a place to live has become a luxury that
The mayoralty of Seville, which had been under the control of the ruling Socialist Party (PSOE), is today controlled by the Popular Party of Andalusia, a right wing party that has been one of the key forces behind real estate speculation and the sale of public lands. The old quarters are still left to decay and the poor neighborhoods are in ruins.
Keeping out the "undesirables"
During the six months that the Exposition will be held, the Seville population will be subjected to a major police presence. Penalties against so-called "delinquents" and those who dare to write graffiti will be heavier than usual. 10 swept from the center of town and the Those considered "marginal" will be International Viewpoint # 229
Alameda under the pretext of fighting drug abuse. Nearly a thousand hospital beds will be kept open in case of accidents that might happen at the Expo. Workers in so-called essential services (health, transportation, fire fighting, municipal services and so on) will have no vacation during the next six months.
The Seville Exposition like the celebrations of the five hundredth anniversary of the conquest of America, is a gross publicity stunt aimed at the people of the Spanish State.
The regime wants to show that Spain is finally one of the great Western powers although in fact, it is a second-rate country. It hopes to strengthen Spanish patriotism and to cut across the solidarity between the peoples of Latin America and the poor of the Spanish State. In Andalusia there are 600,000 "poor", 100,000 "indigents" and as many illiterates.
In opposition to these official projects the Exposition must be made the occasion for criticism and rebellion against the plans of the federal and Andalusian governments. It must be the occasion to show our solidarity with the peoples of Latin America and the outcasts of the Spanish state. This corrupt system must be fought. *
HE fact that those protesting against the Exposition were German and Italian nationals had no importance whatsoever for the government of Felipe Gonzalez. The forty-two foreigners — mostly Germans - arrested in Seville during the week inaugarating the Exposition were expelled from Spanish territory on April 29 under a law on foreigners that up until now had been used to exclude or expel poor immigrants.
For the Spanish government 1992 constitutes a test that must be passed. It must impress on Spanish public opinion a particular view of the country. If the government fails, the image that it has carefully prepared over the last ten years will collapse. They have tried to show that the Spain of bulls, flamenco, and sun has given way to a Spain of foreign investments and technological progress — finally part of the First World. How can the population be made to relate to the windmills of Maastricht? The message is clear: "We are modern, and therefore we must be on the razor's edge of modernity -even if there is an impossible price to pay."
The government has not succeeded in hiding the costs of this operation. The hundreds of billions of pesetas spent on the Barcelona Olympic games, the Seville Exposition and the TGV as well as the naming of Madrid as a cultural capital, is proof of that. The minister of the econo* Antonio Florez is a member of the Committee against the Celebrations of ther Five Hundredth Anniversary Celebration and spokesman for the Spanish state campaign "500 years of Agression, 500 years of Resistance, For the Emancipation of the Peoples."
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SPANISH STATE The shining future? painted slogans reading "The Exposition has been forced on April 20, the city where the Universal Exposition is to be held saw three people wounded by police fire and seventy-two
my, Carlos Solchaga has already presented the bill: the European convergence plan will among other things reduce unemployment insurance and the duration of its payment in order to eventually recover the current investments.
The celebration of the five hundredth anniversary itself has become of secondary importance in this giant face-lift. The presenation of this image of the Spanish State in relation to Latin America filled an essential role during the first years of the project - demonstrating that the crucial role that Spain can play in a united Europe will be its special access to a market of over 300,000,000 Hispanics. It must be remembered that the purchasing power of the Latin American market is superior to that Africa or Asia and is also attractive to European investors by reason of its low
But the winds have changed with the collapse of the East European regimes. The importance of Latin America has diminished in the face of the supposed larger market of the former "socialist" countries with their superior revenues and more qualified workers. However, the situation has quickly become more complicated than imagined in this part of Europe, especailly for a country like Spain which has much less resources to invest than Germany or France.
Thus, Latin America, without being as important as it was at the beginning, has once again become an important target.