New York Times (29 Oct 1975)

An interesting article on the situation in Catalonia just weeks before the passing of General Franco.

Click here if need be to access the whole text.

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/29/archives/proud-catalan-minority-insists-on-changes-for-spain.html

October 29,1975, Page 14 

The New York Times Archives

BARCELONA, Spain,
Oct. 28

The Catalans, a proud linguistic minority of nearly eight million people within the Spanish state, appear more united than ever before in their fractious and war-ravaged history in calling for speedy political change in this country.

In Catalonia, politicians or all shades, industrial workers, businessmen, teachers, army officers and scores of others are calling for the immediate democratization of Spain with the death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. They are also agreed in demanding a certain degree of autonomy for Catalonia.

All political parties except the official movement are illegal in Spain, and leaders of the various Catalan parties have recently been holding many of their semiclandestine meetings in churches. other meetings are held in office buildings. One recent meeting of several thousand representatives of eight political parties was dispersed among many small offices, connected with microphones and loud-speakers so that speeches and debates could be heard by all.

A Communist Seeks unity

An example of the new spirit, of unity and reconciliation apparent among former political foes here, whose hostility has been tempered by more than three decades of repression by General Franco, is Joan Pages Moret.

Mr. Pages is a lifelong Communist party organizer, a senior brigade commander of Communist forces during the Civil War of 1936-39, and a survivor of both Nazi and Spanish concentration camps and prisons.

He is as much a Communist as ever. But he said in a conversation:

"It is not a question of whether cooperation is merely desirable between Marxist and bourgeois democratic parties in Spain. Cooperation between us - radicals, Catholics, conservatives, Social Democrats, all the rest, except the fascists, is absolutely essential. We must work together permanently this time or we are all lost.

"Obviously, we shall all PUSH for our various ideas of government, but the one thing we, must do together is obtain guarantees of permanent, elective democracy and a plural party system."

There is some trepidation, especially among businessmen, about what could happen if all the political forces pent up since 1939 should be suddenly released now.

"I wonder whether even we Catalans, who are far more educated and politically sophisticated than the Spanish, will be able to avoid chaos, if and when Franco's successor opens a Pandora's box of free political activity," a Barcelona banker said.

Most Catalans appear to believe, however, that the risks involved in immediate political freedom are worth the price.

Even shopkeepers here are speaking of a great historic crossroads at which Spain and Catalonia now stand.

There is endless enthusiastic conversation, newspapers at the Barcelona newsstands are sold out almost immediately, and people seem happy. But nearly all seem to sense the imminence of very great danger in the period immediately after General Franco's death.

"After Franco's death there will certainly be popular demonstrations here," said a Catalonian businessman. "If the forces of order open fire on any of them and there is a massacre, without a doubt, there will be civil war in Spain."

The businessman, Josep Andreu Abello, is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Catalonia.

In his well-appointed office in the Bank of Catalonia building here, Mr. Andreu spoke of the need to democratize Spain, to win partial autonomy for Spain's Catalan-speaking people, and to change the "fascist mentality" of the nation's leadership under General Franco.

Not Bloodshed But Change

 Almost identical views were expressed in a cheap cafe on Calle de Entenza, across the street from Barcelona's forbidding central prison. The speaker this time was Alberto Fina, one of the leaders of the Spanish Communist party.

"There is great similarity in the political views of all of the parties of Catalonia," Mr. Fir, a ... said. 

"None of us want to see bloodshed, but all of us want change, and rapid change. 

"The Franco regime is even more repressive today than in 1960. Right now, there are 150 political prisoners in that jail across the street, many more than in 1960. Then, there were four women political prisoners in there, and right now there are 40."

At the University of Barcelona, a young lecturer said: "Catalonia has a reputation as a rebellious tinderbox, partly because of the tremendous fight this principality made during the Civil War against the fascists."

"We are not revolutionaries, though. Very, very few Catalans actually want to secede from Spain. But we are not willing to put up with another generation or two of fascism, and we are not willing to go ...  by Castille like vassals. 

We are not arming ourselves, we are not preaching... But if the police or various fascist terrorists begin... us, the situation will become very dangerous for the ... during the past few days. ... Catalans here ... businessmen, politicians, teachers, professors, and others have received telephoned death threats at night. The liberal community here is therefore worried.

In some minds, the situation seems especially serious because of the ethnic composition of the local security forces.

"There are very few Catalan army officers," a journalist said. "In the police and civil guard, there are practically no Catalans. Therefore they have little sympathy or identity of interest with the Catalan people, and would not hesitate to shoot us if Madrid gave the word."

Up to now, Catalans have generally been avoiding any kind of street demonstration that could result in bloodshed.

"Right now, something of that kind would be exceptionally dangerous and rather pointless," a local Marxist said. 'Street demonstrations would be useful only if most of the population took part. Small ones would result in many dead to no purpose.

The Catalan flag - yellow with four red stripes - is widely flown, and many of the new cars jamming Barcelona's streets and parking lots display stickers, in Catalan, saying:"I am a Catalan" or "Read, Write and Speak Catalan." Such things would not have been tolerated a few years ago.

On the other hand, the Catalan language is still banned from schools, courts, official correspondence, newspapers and all other publications. The popular Catalan folk-singer Raimon complains that not only are the lyrics of his songs censored before performances, but policemen are always in the audience with texts in front of them, listening for deviations. 

The Catalan language is closely related to Castilian Spanish and any Spanish-speaking person can at least read it easily.

Catalans say their land is totally controlled from Madrid. 'We can't even put up a peanut stand without a permit from Madrid," a social scientist said. 

In the Balearic Islands, where Catalan is the dominant language, some 1,000 hotels have closed because of the drastic decline in tourism since the recent execution of five terrorists. 

"We Catalans have been especially hurt by the boycott and the irony is that we oppose fascism as much or more than any Western European democracy," a businessman said. «You see, the thing we want more than anything else is to rejoin Western Europe." 

Despite the nervousness of conversations at cafes and elsewhere, life for most people in Barcelona is normal and pleasant. 

Many people have been listening for the news about General Franco's health on pocket radios, but few seem terribly concerned.

Stores Are Jammed 

Warm, sunny weather fills the tree-lined avenues and the plazas of Bacelona with strollers. The crowds jamming the department stores are as dense as those in the stores on Herald Square during sales days. 

People speak almost abstractly of the danger of civil war, without seeming to believe themselves in physical danger. Despite some terrorist incidents, very little violence has occurred in Catalonia in recent times. 

Even the military policemen, who wear white Nazi-era German helmets, seem to enjoy taking the air as they stroll their patrols, along with the regular police and the civil guards.

"What you must remember," An aging former soldier said," is that Barcelona was beautiful before the Civil War, too. Beauty and death have often been inseparable partners in Spain.

The New York Times (Oct. 29, 1975) 

Spanish crisis is fostering strong sense of unity in Catalan-speaking region.