As we said at the end of the chapter corresponding to 1974, the euphoria aroused by the democratic revival of Greece and Portugal continues to feed the "hopes" of "progressive" sectors in the world, who dream of a march toward revolution on a peaceful path. Meanwhile, authoritarian Order is unlikely -- in the East or in the West -- to give up any of its counter-revolutionary prerogatives or facilitate a true democratization of society. On the contrary, throughout 1975 even the "democratic states", which constantly boast about their respect for the "Rights of Man", have applied themselves to perfecting their judicial-repressive arsenal with a view to confronting the subversive activity of marginal revolutionary groups. But this goes together with the growing consciousness and revolutionary radicalization of huge sectors of youth disappointed by the paralysing reformism of organizations and parties that claim to represent the revolutionary aspirations of the working class.

So it is not surprising that, in this context, the revolutionary marginalism of the aforementioned "extreme left" is still the subject of increasingly bitter criticisms from the legalist left, and at the same time the sacrificial victim of a repression whose basic aim is to frighten the working class. Especially when the disastrous effects of the capitalist crisis are felt more strongly.

Yet as the most recent events in the Iberian peninsula have shown, the combativeness and statements of revolutionary marginalism are the only ones to have shaken and challenged the status quo of the order established by capitalism and the ruling classes.

The fact is that at the very moment that we are writing this brief supplement in order to sum up the repression and revolutionary praxis in 1975, it has been anti-Francoist activism (the ETA, the FRAP¹, and the Autonomous Groups²) that has forced Spanish fascism to drop its mask and face an international campaign of denunciation.

From the execution in 1974 (by garroting) of Puig Antich and the actions of the GARI on behalf of the other anti-Francoists liable to receive the death penalty, to the five shot out of eleven ETA and FRAP members condemned to death, in September 1975, anti-Francoist activism has travelled a long and difficult road to reach its present combativeness. But the distance which separates the repressive cruelty of the Regime from the growing awareness of international public opinion is even greater. We must not delude ourselves for all that. This growing awareness and the official denunciations of many states could disappear rather quickly without the Francoist regime yielding in the essential points. Yet what is new is that the radicalization of the confrontation has jeopardized the plans for succession prepared for the post-Franco period, and that to the extent that new events radicalize this confrontation, the chances of Francoism without Franco lessen.

As it did in Portugal, reformist conservatism in Spain also sought and is still seeking a counter-revolutionary solution to the disappearance of the dictator and his regime. The prospects of the counter-revolutionary project, which all sectors of the legalist left consciously or unconsciously participate in, basically depend on the level of revolutionary radicalization that the marginal activism of the extreme left causes working class struggles to reach in the next few months.

It is undoubted that the activism of the most radicalized sectors of the international extreme left was, in 1975, the basis of the revolutionary praxis that revealed the manoeuvres of social democracy and the revolutionary demagogy of the orthodox communist parties.

From the spectacular but harmless actions of the GARI to the more radically violent ones of the ETA and the FRAP, via those of the anarchist groups more or less close to the Red Army Fraction of West Germany and those of the Japanese Red Army, the Argentinian "Montoneros" and the ERP, as well as the many actions of protest and solidarity by many revolutionary activist groups scattered over the world, what stands out in the first place is that a higher degree of revolutionary violence can unblock situations that were politically or socially rigid, and that, on the other hand, this higher degree of violence inexorably corresponds to an increasing marginalization of the "activist" groups by "legalist democratic" forces.

So the marginalization of revolutionary forces currently appears to be the indispensable condition for the radicalization of the revolutionary process, in the face of a left that increasingly accomodates itself to the order established by capitalism.

October 1975.

¹ Although the FRAP claims to be a Front made up of varied "revolutionary, anti-fascist and patriotic" organizations, in reality, only Marxist-Leninist (Maoist) groups and a few Republican and Masonic personalities belong to it.
² The libertarians continue to organize and act under this name, which is actually a totally decentralized structure.