Spaniards register pain of austerity policies

Press, 14 March 1987, Page 10

Spaniards register pain of austerity policies

By

LESLIE CRAWFORD

NZPA-Reuter Madrid Protest marches against unpopular economic policies swept Spain yesterday in the wake of violent clashes in the northern town of Reinosa, where more than 80 people were injured in violent demonstrations against threatened job losses.

Thousands of workers took to the streets in more than 30 Spanish cities to demonstrate against the socialist Government’s austerity programme. But the turn-out, regarded as a dress rehearsal for a general strike next month, disap-

pointed union organisers of the Communist Workers’ Commissions (CC.OO). In Madrid, the CC.OO head, Marcelino Camacho, led about 5000 trade unionists bearing banners demanding jobs, real wage increases and a shorter working week. In Asturias, in northern Spain, where 20,000 coalminers have been on strike for the last three weeks against planned job cuts, tens of thousands backed the union protest in the regional capital, Oviedo. Landless peasants, shipyard workers and dockers marched in the southern

cities of Seville and Cadiz to protest against rural unemployment and the streamlining of unprofitable heavy industries, in which more than 50,000 jobs have been lost. Fanners hit by European Community competition staged disruptive tractor convoys in the west and citrus-growing Mediterranean provinces. In Reinosa, pitched battles between steel foundry workers and paramilitary police took place after a former company chairman was abducted to back demands for guarantees of no redundancies.

The police ran out of rubber bullets in their

attempt to free the hostage and were attacked by an angry crowd. The incidents in Reinosa are symptomatic of the growing social unrest gripping Spain: from high school pupils to teachers, doctors, farmers, miners and industrial workers. After four years of austerity, Spaniards are concerned about the price they have had to pay to cure the country’s economic ills and curb inflation. Unemployment brushed the three-million mark, last month, which at 21.5 per cent is the highest in Europe.