Exhuming Franco: Neither forget nor forgive

The decision of the PSOE government reopened great controversy. Here we express our opinion about it. On Friday 24 the Executive Council of Ministers approved the decree law that will allow the exhumation of Francisco Franco Valley of the Fallen, the only European monuments dedicated to a dictator. Your family will 15 days to indicate a place for the transfer of the bones or present arguments. Later, the decree must be validated by a simple majority in Congress. Not be problems, the administrative process could be completed by year-end.

We want to make it clear that we do not consider that Pedro Sanchez is a champion of democracy by issuing the decree. After so many years of government, the PSOE acts this way, at this time, the need to strengthen its weak government in public opinion. Achieve electoral revenue is one of the main motivations.

The disinterment has a symbolic and actual content at the same time. It reopened a debate arising from the past, but present connotations. This is because accounts never settled with the dictatorship, despite decades since the end of the Civil War, the Second World War, the death of Franco and the Transition.

The Valley of the Fallen is not a common cemetery, but a sinister monument. Its construction was defined by decree in 1940 after the victory against revolutionary in the Civil War. He rose labor republican prisoners, they were tortured and under conditions similar to those of a Nazi concentration. Many lost their lives in that job.

It was built with the aim of "Burying those who were sacrificed for God and Spain and a few fell on our Crusade, regardless of the field that they fight, as it imposed by the Christian spirit of forgiveness that inspired its creation, provided that each other were of Spanish nationality and Catholic religion ".

Bodies were moved there since 1958 al 1983. That is the transition, Some cynics called modélica, perfectly assimilated Franco's legacy. Of the 33.847 buried, 12.410 They are unknown. An important part corresponds to Republicans corpses were unearthed from other sites and transferred without the consent of their families. In its great majority, the tombs of Franco are individualized. Near them, there is a mass grave with the remains of unidentified Republicans. For these reasons, it is not surprising that the dispute has also been installed around what fate give that ghastly place.

We reject the exhumation is placed at the service of turning the page, crimes against humanity do not prescribe.

We are facing one of the most important polemics after which generated the motion of censure against M.Rajoy. Those who want to prevent disinterment brandish legal arguments such as: the continuity of custody of the place given to the Benedictines in 1958, it inappropriate to do so by decree and other. Beyond these aspects, there is a debate installed both the superstructure and society.

Would vote for parties like United-We can, PDeCAT, PNV y ERC, also he demanded the repeal of the judgments of Franco. These were carried out against the president of the Catalan Lluis Companys (shot in 1940) and hundreds of thousands of persecuted people criminally for their militancy, political or ideological bias.

For the relatives of the dictator, only intended to "take revenge 42 years later". There was fachos that published a manifesto and paid homage in the Valley, with Spanish flags and Nazi salutes. The PP always refused to condemn the dictatorship in Congress. Now was the new president Pablo Casado who said "reopen old wounds leads nowhere", preferring to "look to the future and what needs to happen in Spain over the next 40 years and not on what happened ago 40 years". Equally, the PP still did not say how to vote.
President of Citizens, Albert Rivera, He announced that it will refrain from validating the decree. The "dandies" orange can not hide their admiration for the reactionary values. Right dispute to see who appears as the Spanish patriot. At the same time, using a formulation for reconciliation, They intended to shut out the possibility of advancing to judge Francoist crimes, something that only could be started promptly with Argentina Cause.

We are in favor of the exhumation. It is the remains of who gave a coup against the Second Republic and murdered thousands of Republicans. Likewise we should define what to do with the Valley of the Fallen, so you never forget the fascist horror, for memory and knowledge of the past to strengthen the fight against the resurgence of such expressions of barbarity. We reject the exhumation is placed at the service of turning the page. Crimes against humanity do not prescribe.

We must demand that the historical truth known, something that justice is committed to preventing and could only ensure an Independent Investigation Commission.

You can go further and the only way is to direct and massive eruption of mass movement. There is a great responsibility we, United Left, labor organizations and those considered progressive and leftist: They should convene to form a great movement, broad and unitary, by clarifying crimes, the cancellation of trials, the return of stolen goods, the location and recognition of the identity of children who were appropriate and compensation from the Spanish State to victims of dictatorship or their direct descendants.

Justice is determined to prevent knowledge of historical truth. It is something that could only ensure an Independent Investigation Commission, addressing tasks such as: declassify secret files, rebuild destroyed, untethered investigate and shed light on the crimes against humanity of the Franco regime and its ties to Nazis and Fascists.

The ongoing debate again demonstrates coexistence that for decades kept the mandates inherited from the dictatorship and bourgeois democracy recovered. The Constitution of '78, Transition and institutions of the regime he found a place of privilege to the reactionary legacy of Franco that last. Monarchical restoration, privileges and power that keeps the Catholic Church, the (in)Justice, oppression Catalunya, repression and the existence of political prisoners independence, They realize it. The fact that the dictatorial regime did not fall as a result of the workers' and popular mobilization, but by the death of Franco, left intact many of the antidemocratic features forged in the long and tortuous period facto.

The times demand profound changes. Not come from the central government, or electioneering proposals bourgeois or pseudo progressive parties, They will be born of the will and popular participation. For these reasons, it is vital that the mobilization imposed the convening of a Constituent Assembly, Free and Sovereign, to discuss and decide democratically on all social and political issues involved.