The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-17
By N. MAJoRsKY tMosoOw).

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
BY n MAJORSKY (Moscow).
III.
The considerable difficulties which hinder
rapid passing Of the Spanish revolution to
higher stage must not however call forth the
slightest doubt that this process is necessary and
inevitable
The ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Of the class struggle
between the Spanish proletariat and the bour-
geoisie at present is, whether the revolution is
ended or only just begun.
The profound social conflicts which overthrow
the monarchy of Alfonso XIII cannot be solved
by the Spanish bourgeoisie, and determine its
doom.
The agrar1an question is the most important
political problem of present-day Spain. Sc per
cent of the toiling population are engaged in ag-
riculture. The working conditions in agriculture
such that Spain can juStifiably be described
as the most feudal country in Europe. Enor-
mously big estates and millions of landless peas
ants-tenants and agricultural workers, those
are the two poles of agrarian Spain. People
without land and land without people"-that is
how the bourgeois journalist Cristobal de Castro
described the situation.
In the province of Salamanca So landowners
each own more than 1000 hectares, 100 land
owners each possess more than $500 hectares and
407 over 5000 hectares each. In the province of
Seville there are 296 landed estates comprising
over 1000 hectares, 148 estates of over $500 hec-
tares and n estates of over 5000 hectares. Con-
ditionS are pretty much the same in most of the
provinces of Spain. In q provinces (out of a to-
tai of 500 765 per cent of the population possess
At per cent of the land, whilst ST per cent of the
land is in the hands of per cent of the popu-
lation Such a maldistribution of the land is
hardly to be found anywhere else.
The owners of the enormous landed estates
are really feudal lords Large portions of their
estates are allowed to lie uncultivated and are
used for hunting purposes or the breeding of
bulls, destined for slaughter at the bull fights.
The landlords possess feudal rights over the ten
ants living on their estates The jority of the
peasants live in state of extreme poverty The
peasant masses are the greater part illiterate.
According to the article of Christobal de Castro
quoted above, 'the fate of the peasant in Spain
is more pitiable and humiIating than that of
a serf," and that declares the author, sis the
great tragedy of Spain. The situation of the
day-laborer is of course no better. AS the CORE
spondent of the "Quotidien" in Barcelona re-
ports, in the past winter the landlords have
paid wage workers with families half peseta a
day. Families with ten members live on about
ninepence day. For at least ten or twelve days
In Spain the revolutionary liquidation Of the
landownng class is on the order of the day.
The elementary movements of the peasants and
of the 1andworkers commenced already before
the April upheavel and are still going on. One
Of the first acts of the provisional government
was to declare land ownership to be inviolable.
The partial reforms that can be carried out will
not satisfy the great mass of the peasants.
Another painful and acute question of present.
day Spain is the question of nationalities and
colonies. Spain has colonial possessions in At
RIGA, including part of Morocco In the year
1925 Primo de Rivera, with great difficulty and
the aid Of France, suppressed the revolt of the
Riffs. They have begun to stir again. In Te-
tuan, the capital Of Spanish Morocco, it came to
collisions between demonstrators and police. In
Tangier, neighboring "international town, the
situation is extremely strained There are no
grounds whatever for expecting from the provi-
sionaI government any serious improvement on
the former policy in Morocco. This. however
means an inevitable upsurge of the emancipation
movement in Morocco.
Within Spain itself the national question is
pressing for solution in three provinces: Cata-
lonia, Vizkaya and Galicia. The bourgeois pro-
visonal government has concluded temporary
comprise with the Catalonian nationalists To-
wards the Basques and Galcians it is adopting
an obdurate attitude. Here conflicts are in
evitable.
Now with regard to the labour question Great
poverty is characteristic of SPAIN there exists
no social legislation and in particular no unem-
ployment insurance This factor is of particular
Importance at present, there are about one
million unemployed in the country. The eight
hour working day is not observed. There are no
factory councils. The average wage amounts to
to pesetas day q shilling to odd Accord
ing to the calculations of the liberal newspaper
"El SOL" the real wages of a Spanish worker
amount to only As per cent of the wages of an