SPANISH SYNDICALIST NEWS

REPRESSION AGAINST CNT:TWELVE MEMBERS OF ITS MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE ARRESTED.
Today, April 12th 1996, at 20:30, the National Police special forces arrived with a judge at the local and national office of the CNT (Spanish anarcho-syndicalist union). They were "armed" with a judicial order dated April 11th 1996 which authorised them to ask for the original document of a release issued in 1993. Said order had not been notified to the interested party, who, logically was not given the possibility to appeal against it.
The people who happened to be there at this moment asked for some explanations and, as those given did not satisfy them , they refused to collaborate any futher, although in a pacific way. Eventually, the judge lost her nerve and ordered the police to force the door open and to arrest them all. The humiliation and the total lack or respect toward the unionists were highlighted by the fact that they were handcuffed and driven away in the most spectacular way although none of them resisted being arrested. The National Committee understands said grotesque police action in the context of a the wider campaign aimed at hindering our right for independent and critical unionist positions , in the interests of the workers.
Besides any pertinent legal proceedings, this organisation will answer this provocation the way it hurts them the most - confrontation with the present system of labour relations that impairs day by day, the living conditions of the workers.
National Committee of the CNT
Madrid April 12th. 1996

STOP PRESS

Dear Friends,
As you can see from the attached press release, the judge of Court No.28 has entered by brute force, the office of the CNT in Madrid and ordered the arrest of 12 militants, in the purest fascist style.
Although all our friends are already free, we ask you to send letters of protest to:
PRESIDENCIA DEL GOBIERNO
Complejo de Moncloa
28071 MADRID (SPAIN)
MINISTERIO DE JUSTICIA E INTERIOR, C/San Bernardo, 62, 28071, MADRID (SPAIN) fAX:34-1-5221538
MINISTERIO DE TRABAJO YSEGURIDAD SOCIAL C/Augustin de Betheancourt, 4, 28071 MADRID SPAIN fAX: 34-1-5330271.