Falange Moves Left

...Those people" happen to be conservatives and aristocrats who, like the Falange, sided with Franco in the Civil War...

...The findings of such an investigation should be rendered public...

...Why are the big profits of large companies and financial groups kept secret...

...So the Falange is moving left...

...Indeed, any doubts it may have had on this score were wiped out last week when Luis Carrero Blanco, minister in charge of General Franco's office, told the Cortes: "When the Generalissimo is not with us, the destinies of Spain will be directed by a monarchy...

...The Franco state draws much of its revenue from indirect taxation and little from the income tax, which makes no dent worth mentioning in the wealth of Spain's very rich...

...The latter, Monarchists and conservatives, have been relentlessly whittling away at Falange influence in anticipation of the struggle for power that is bound to come when the Caudillo's dictatorship ends...

...The persistence of the privileged class in perpetuating their criteria as to what constitutes a basic necessity and what constitutes a luxury is an obstacle in the way of the social policy which the regime is trying to put into effect...

...These people are incapable of appreciating liberty...

...On what criterion do the banks base the granting of credit to private enterprise...

...It is noted that, whereas Arriba has been permitted to pose some embarrassing questions, no answers have yet been forthcoming...

...The Caudillo did two things...

...If the Falange and sindicatos are zippered together by Solis, this could facilitate Government watchfulness for signs of active opposition in labor ranks...

...Why are the names- of those who never pay income taxes not made public...

...They want to go back to the past...

...We don't want those people back...

...To make room for Solis, veteran party-man Jose Luis Arrese was shunted off to the Ministry of Housing—and political oblivion...

...Aside from giving the Falange a new lease on life, the new look can, if it goes over, render the regime a service...

...In February, it got a sharp push when Franco reshuffled his government...

...Falange integration with the sindicatos was emphasized even more when Franco allowed Solis to retain his old job as national delegate of the unions...

...It is tying in with the country's powerful labor unions, the sindicatos, which are Government-controlled but whose 8 million members represent a latent force capable of anything if aroused...

...Would it not be interesting to know the identity of board members and how they are interrelated financially...

...Why don't the privileged groups which accumulate so much money invest it where it will be in the general interest...

...Thus, certain articles of hygiene and of essential use continue to be burdened with a luxury tax...

...He tilted his already rightist cabinet further to the right by bringing in "collaborationist" Monarchists (as distinguished from Monarchists grown impatient with the regime), anti-Falange generals, and men of the Opus Dei, a Cattholic secular society which has been gaining influence in Spain and within the regime itself...

...The change is due partly to Franco, partly to the emergence of new political forces...

...We are tired of hearing groups of the opposition talk of liberty,"' Solis went on, evidently referring to Monarchists gone sour on the regime and other groups that want more political freedom...

...The new look extends also to the party press...

...Spain's only legal party, struggling for survival, is becoming the defender of the common man falange moves left By Richard Mowrer Madrid Frayed and somewhat the worse for wear after 20 years as Spain's only political party, the blue-shirted Falange is undergoing a drastic transformation...

...Arriba, in an editorial entitled "Legitimate Curiosity," arguing that the workers have the right to know the answers to these questions: "Why are monopolies not investigated, particularly in the paper and electric-power industries...

...He made his first address as secretary-general of the party decked out in full Falange uniform, but when he spoke he startled his audience by sounding more like an opposition labor leader than a member of the cabinet...

...The shift to the left began slowly a year ago...

...It would seem that the rich regard the common man's access to articles which can no longer be classed as luxuries as being unnecessary, unproductive, even dangerous...

...A bold new tone is getting past the censorship and into print, which makes for more interesting reading than the Spanish public has been permitted in years...

...It is fading out as the standard-bearer of the Franco regime's authoritarian ideology, assuming instead the role of defender of the common man...

...Speaking to assembled Galicians in Franco's home province, the 46-year-old Andalusian unexpectedly digressed from his written text and shouted: "Under the Republic, the rightists tried to cut the workers' wages by half...

...Here are some examples: • Madrid's syndicalist paper Pueblo: "Whereas our workers are poorer than the workers in other countries, our rich are as rich or richer than the rich elsewhere...

...But to what extent, if at all, the new trend is winning over the Spanish worker remains a mystery...

...The party, losing ground, has come to realize that if it is to survive it must take on a pretty convincing "new look...

...Arriba, official organ of the Falange, denouncing the luxury tax imposed on articles of hygiene and other necessities: "The definition of what is a necessity and what is a luxury is still subject to the interpretation of an outdated bourgeois mentality...

...At the same time, Franco ousted die-hard Falangists from top posts and accentuated the party's new function as political arm of the sindicatos by picking for the post of Minister Secretary-General of the Falange Jose Solis, national delegate of the labor unions...

...They are part and parcel of the regime...

...There is a purchase tax on nearly all manufactured goods and processed foods, plus a luxury tax on such items as toilet soap, tooth paste, electric-light bulbs and medicines...

...Falangist-syndicalist newspapers have begun to denounce, quite vigorously, some of the social injustices prevalent in Spain...

...Since then, Solis has reinforced his reputation of being more syndicalist than Falangist by indulging in lively speech-making...