Unaccustomed Tumult

Until recently, strikes and demonstrations were the rare exceptions in Spain; by last week they seemed to have become the rule. Shouting "Freedom, Freedom!" 2,000 students surged out of Madrid University to scuffle with squads of grey-clad police. After the Madrid riot was put down, students in Barcelona took up the fight; even women students joined in, whacking cops with rock-filled purses. Striking miners closed down 21 pits in the always tense Asturias area, and 7,000 textile workers staged a one-day walkout in Barcelona. Steel workers struck a major cold-rolling plant in Bilbao. Elsewhere, Spain's burgeoning industries were bothered by sit-ins, walkouts, and slowdowns.

In a sense, General Francisco Franco has brought the trouble on himself by seeking in recent months to relax the tight rein that his regime had for decades imposed on Spain. Franco recently promulgated a new constitution that will ultimately bring the country at least a semblance of parliamentary democracy, also decreed that strikes were no longer illegal provided that they were called exclusively for economic reasons. Taking him at his word, Spanish workers have struck a number of times for higher wages to offset Spain's rising cost of living. But politics also clearly played a role in last week's disturbances. Clandestine Communist labor leaders wanted to demonstrate their considerable power among Spanish workers. So far, police have kept the disturbances well under control, and students calmed down so quickly after classes were suspended that both Madrid and Barcelona universities expected shortly to resume normal schedules.

Some Spaniards fear that last week's disturbances may cause Franco to reverse his liberal trend and reimpose totalitarian controls. Now that Spaniards have had a taste of the new liberalism, however, any attempts to reassert the old autocratic rule might only provoke even greater violence among students and workers. That would wipe out Franco's plan to guide Spain into a new era of freedom before his death, and with it his hope that history will judge him as a ruler who knew when to innovate rather than to dictate.

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