conspirators.
also the 'official' cluding the conservative premier Calvo Sotelo.
They understandably cowering behind their seats all night, either not brought to trial or found not guilty.
But no one is very surprised by the decision, except apparently these politicians, the Socialist, the Communist and ConScivalive UDC parties, who had all previously declared their confidence in military justice.
Even the thirty years for Tejero and Milans del Bosch (the judges asked the government to reduce It to twenty) can be conShey did plan to remove all mild. After democratic rights from 37. million Spaniards for macle ume. and undoubtedly to imprison and caccuLe an unspecified number.
And there's no doubt that in their confinement they will continue to enjoy the fine cuisine and freedom pursue their literary careers that they have up till now. It's a sentence far removed from the summary executions of Republican officers who attempted a coup in 1930 prisoners cue ndtionalist prisoners today who receive up to 70 years.
The trial itself revealed little that was not already known. There was conflict between General Armada and the rest. Armada was the GLC, Darwin, any was needed, comes in the paltry sentences handed out to most of the recent coup d'état The court martial's decision has angered not only the vast majority of the population but rulers, the politicians inupset that the Civil Guards who burst into the Parliament, blasting off at the artwork and keeping them were the general who was sent unknowingly to negotiate an end to the coup he had helped plan.
But Armada then backed out of the original plan and wanted to form a government headed himselt or civilians. Tejero would have nothing to do will. o makes maters worse, at the trial Armada denied any part in the plot.
He got off only vcals vuls corcemneo lo ignominy in anybody's version of history.
Orders How many more were involved, who financed it anu now close une coup came to as the lines buzzed al night between the country's military CUllImanders, are all matters that did not and probably Will never come to light.
The long three months trial were mostly taken up with the defence lawyers arguing not that their clients did not com mit 'military rebellion' but that it might not have been a Dau laca arler all.
Their clients were only 'obeying orders' or believ4917 NOS ed they were acting in accur anile win toe King's wishes. (None of them remembered that it is ilegal to obey an unconstitutional order, nor ala tney attempt to find out the King's wishes for unease ves.. excuse did not work for Milans del Bosch or Tejero who hence the 30 years.
defence. One lawyer who had spent a morning protesting his clients innocence told a journalist Well of course my client was in the coup -• s0 was l'.
The standard pro-coup Drovaranda unev cave oul was that the situation in spain was worse than 1936, with tendencies to seval alisill. councinic chaos and declining moral values.
But really outstanding was Tejero's lawyer who gave the courtroom nistory lesson departing from the undeniable truth that all established orders owe their existence violent movements in the past. There were many cases of Spanish Kings supporting a coup against they had sworn to support, he said. workers and the most oppressed section mist trade union leaders, 1980 defeat of the Sri Lankan workers, of a series of developments in recent months that have shattered the carefully built up image of the present Sri Lankan regime as a stable and a reliable ally of the imperialists.
Corruption, scandals involving senior ministers, hyper-inflation, and the continuing resilience of the oppressed workers, peasants, students, and all covic lave rocked the of Mr JR Jayawardene.
The much-publicised economic upturn in the last three years, primarily due to the increase in imports and the consequent growth of the service sector, , nas now halt. The government facing a serious financial crisis.
The costs of its prestige construction projects like Lne irrigation scheme have doubled or tripled.
It is no longer able to borrow from the institutions like the International Monetary Fund to bridge shortfall and is increasingly compelled to borrow at extremely high interest commercial credit institutions.
In order to bridge the ever-increasing deficit, the government of Sri Lanka has resorted to printing new money. surprisingly these It's the real thing... 'None of 11S present can accept that Franco was unscrupulous because one day he went against the established темне when She abyss, one dedared.
abyss,' he declared And indeed none of the officers judging Tejero THE TWO DAY STRIKE of 600,000 plantation numerically the most important the Sri Lankan working class - on 13 and 14 May put paid to the myth, often propagated by reforthat after the July they would take years to recover. This strike is one measures have pushed up the inflation rates to 50 per cent.
The cost of living has more than doubled in the last four years and the rea wages of all workers and those on fixed incomes have fallen.
The worst affected are the workers who have no other source of income to supplement their very meagre wages, and are still paid on a daily basis.
In order to repay the massive foreign loans they have conu acled the government has begun to case vast lacks diana t multinational companies such Nestlé.
Lile Gutherie Corporation, would have been there had It not been for that very rebellion Franco's 1936 But unfortunately seems unlikely that Spain's chief workers' parties, the socialists and CONmunists, will draw the corthe long established free education system and replace it with one which would restore privileges of the rich, met 1 a very all SOCICLY Students organis ed pickets and strikes, and the government was forced to retreat on this issue.
Meanwhile the repression in the north continues unabated. Using draconian 'Prevention of Act ICIOTISE Tamils are being arrested, held incommunicado anc tortured.
rect lessons from this latest piece of history.
The absurdity Walcill of a "democracy' whose existence depends on the whim of the King to support or not any coup atGoes seem to occur to them. And with Sevaka (the UNP union) joined the May strike their thousands shows the depth overwhelming majority of people wiln Inis regime A few months earlier 16,000 port WUIKCI. Colombo, of whom over 10,000 were members of the JSS went on strike and smashed the JSS office Workers everywhere feel the need for rank and file unity and the need to form links and party barOne milan worker. of the Ja-ela district who have grasped the imprisonment of the most headstrong fascist in armed forces they believe that this demostrengthened, clac forgetting that should the established order be really threatened, the army will again take to the streets.
wich me camone various factions in his own The Daily. governmen faces next year and its chances are very good The opposition bourgeois party of Mrs Bandaranaıke • has gained and the ex-Trotskyist LSSP is seeking to put together yet anothe with her.
As yet there is no organisation in the working class movement that could become a credible alternauve to the bourgeois parties The old reformist left is incapable of constructing such an alternative But the elements of a new revolutionary movement has begun to emerge The CONDAVE elements of the July 1980 strike have begun coalesce work together with the militan Revolutionary Marxist Party (Sri Lankan section Fourth International).
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