Half a century since the first arrest of members of a still illegal UP
Three young farmers from Garrigues and Urgell were arrested and prosecuted for public disorder in 1976
The White BorgesThe next May 1st marks fifty years since one of the most daring actions of agrarian unionism in the still tender post-Franco era. It happened in Les Borges Blanques in 1976. Three young farmers from the area, members of the still illegal Unió de Pagesos, prepared a banner and hundreds of leaflets denouncing the policies of UTECO (the Francoist union of cooperatives) and the ruinous prices of oil. They prepared everything to be displayed on Passeig del Terrall, precisely at the time of the inauguration of the Oil Fair in the capital of Les Garrigues, where regime authorities and police agents were to be present. It was a success, but unfortunately the three young men were identified: Josep Pau Pernau from Arbeca, Josep Duch Sesplugues from Espluga Calba, and Modest Panadés Vives from Belianes were captured by the Civil Guard and detained for two nights in the town hall cells, where they suffered some beatings.
The Civil Guard believed there was some big fish behind those three young men, someone more politically committed than them. But they got nothing more out of it. On the third day, the Civil Guard transferred the detainees, with some media attention, to the Provincial Court of Lleida. The judge charged them with the crimes of illegal propaganda and disturbance of public order and ordered provisional release under a bail of five thousand pesetas each (which at the time was equivalent to a week's salary).
In the days following that arrest, other farmer demonstrations were called in defense of fair prices and criticizing the Francoist policy of surpluses. Adolfo Suárez's new government approved the first amnesty decree in July, which would affect all those convicted of acts of political intent and opinion. Our three arrested young men welcomed it and recovered the money from the bail and judicial appeals.
Unió de Pagesos gained strength thanks to massive demonstrations in Tarragona and Lleida. On November 28, 1976, it held its first congress in l'Espluga de Francolí and the following year it was finally legalized as a professional agricultural organization.
