SPAIN. Nato - no thanks!
have clearly been attained. It is very important today that people are broadly aware of the need to confront the government.
Having failed to fix a date for a referendum on this issue, Felipe Gonzalez has just confirmed without any ambiguity that he means to continue to participate in the "political' structures of Nato (the Spanish state does not participate in the military structures at the moment). Only six months ago the Spanish leader had
The demonstrations that took place in most of the large towns in the
Spanish state on December 2 marked a new step forward for the peace movement in the country.
They came in the wake of new opinion poll results showing 52 per cent of the spanish people opposed to spanish entry into Nato.
The organisers were convinced that for every 10,000 people out in the streets this month there will be 100,000 in spring
1985.
Jacqueline ALLIO
In the capital 150,000 people assembled on the 'Paseo' de Madrid and spelt out in giant human letters: 'No to Nato'.
*Bases out' and 'Neutrality'. In Barcelona,
70,000 people participated in five pro-
NO cessions converging from different parts of the city, each one carrying their own colours and marching behind one of the five main slogans adopted by the national coordination:
'No to Nato'
', "Bases out',
Neutrality
• - Dissolution of military
*Social spending, not military pacts.
spending' and 'No to Yankee interven-
EL DIA DESPRES tion in Nicaragua'.
Human chains in Valencia drew in some 20,000 people.
In Oviedo, there
10,000 and the same in Seville.
were
In Saragossa, 5,000 demonstrators marched behind huge effigies and mock windmills as a way of saying to prime minister,
*Like so much wind, Gonzalleft open the question of the intentions of the government.
If the PSOE (the Spanish socialist party) was absent from these mobilisations, the PCE (Spanish communist party), Ignacio Gallego's pro-Soviet communist party, the LCR (Liga Comunista Revolucionaria), section of the Fourth International in the Spanish state, and the MCE (Spanish Communist Movement -an organisation of the far left), supported and participated actively throughout the country.
The UGT, the union federation linked to the PSOE and the Young Socialists also supported the actions, but reluctantly, with carping criticisms of certain slogans because they did not like the centrality of the slogan 'No to Nato'.
A firm 'no' had also come the week before in the referendum organised in the town of Hospitalet, one of the major concentrations of workers near Barcelona. Out of 300,000 inhabitants, 25,440 took part in the referendum organised by the peace movement - a figure which surpassed the highest expectations of the organisers.
The send off for the referendum was
Gonzalez:
ez, everything you say is a pack of lies?
LCR A
In certain areas of the Spanish state, such as in Galicia and Euskadi, the demonstrations were originally to take place on the same day as everywhere else but were put back to December 16 because of the given in the morning with the launching of 13 coloured rockets from the 13 different districts of the town. For five hours Hospitalet became a "Nato-free' city with voting tables on every street corner and placards bearing the words We want a clear referendum, now, to
The objectives that the activists in strikes taking place in the shipyards in set for themselves these areas.
the movement had
Human chain spelling the words 'Nato No, Bases Out' (DR)
- CONCENT
CASTEL get out of Nato.'
From midday onwards they started to run out of voting slips in several areas, which showed the success of the action. About 500 people participated in organising the referendum, which was announced the day before by a procession of musicians led by a huge effigy of Reagan who 'stopped off at the Town Hall to greet his "colleague', the Socialist mayor of the town.
A group of officers' attempts to intimidate people by knocking over a voting table run by a group of women did not interfere with the success of the ballot.
The count took place after more fireworks had announced the end of the referendum, and it showed 9,789 for getting out of Nato and 9,802 for the dismantling of American bases in Spain. The day was brought to a close by solidarity action with the shipbuilding workers strug. gling to defend their jobs. Gonzalez should be very worried now. The peace movement in the Spanish state is on the march.
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