Word: barcelona
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Generalissimo Francisco Franco was good & mad, according to reports seeping from his Madrid palace. Why, he angrily demanded of his advisers, had they kept him ignorant of the people's impatience over the soaring cost of living? The Barcelona protest strike (TIME, March 19) had come as a shock. The dictator's underlings lamely explained that they had not bothered him with details because they had hoped to clear the situation up before news of it reached his ears...
Governor Baeza Alegria, who had ordered hundreds of arrests, was replaced by Air Force General Felipe Acedo Colunga, remembered as a ruthless court-martial prosecutor following the 1934 revolt of Asturian miners. Last week Barcelona shops opened, workmen went back to their jobs, and the 15,000 police wandered about the streets, weapons conspicuously visible...
...Barcelona walls this week, strike slogans could still be seen that accurately described the spirit behind the outburst: No somos Comunistas. Solamente queremos comer-We are not Communists. We only want to eat-and Franco, Si. Straperlistas, No.-Franco, Yes. Black-marketeers...
...simple matter for black marketeers to obtain import licenses for splendid American convertibles, while farmers were unable to get licenses for tractors; that the building of hospitals and low-price houses had been halted by lack of material, while luxurious apartment houses and private mansions mushroomed in Madrid. Barcelona had not read that kind of talk for years. The 50,000 copies which reached the city were immediately snapped up, helped build the strike spirit...
...courses open to him: 1) house-cleaning of all corrupt influences in government; 2) harsher police repression of all signs of discontent. Franco seemed to be taking the course of repression. At week's end Foreign Minister Alberto Martin Artajo told the Spanish cabinet that the Barcelona strike had stepped up an "anti-Spanish offensive abroad by the Communist press and radio." The cabinet appointed Rafael Hierro Martinez, a friend of Franco, to be Inspector General of the Armed Police, charged him with preventing uprisings in the Barcelona pattern...