Eurocommunism and the Spanish Communists
This article attempts to place the PCE in the generally‐held views of Eurocommunism and explore the current orientation of the party. Focusing on the ideology and the political practice of the PCE, the thesis is that the PCE is a ‘Eurocommunist’ party in the mould of the French and Italian parties but with obvious differences arising from nearly forty years of underground existence under Franco. The perspectives attached to Eurocommunism in many ways do not represent a sharp departure from the past history of the PCE. The major strength of the PCE today is not in the electoral arena where it receives only about 10 per cent of the vote, but rather in the trade union movement where it enjoys a hegemonic position in the largest trade union federation, the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO).
The Spanish peace movement in a European context
The sharp decline of the Spanish peace movement in the latter part of the 1980s paralleled quite closely the decline of similar movements elsewhere in Western Europe, particularly the United Kingdom and Germany. There has been considerable research carried out into the rise of the ‘new social movements’ in Western Europe but little attention has been given to southern Europe, particularly Spain. Also, most of the literature has focused on the period of ascendancy for these movements rather than the era of their decline in the later 1980s. This article seeks to fill that gap by focusing on the decline of the Spanish peace movement within the wider context of the European ‘new social movements’. It explores the common factors in the European‐wide decline while highlighting certain factors that were unique to Spain.
Chemical, biological, and immunological characterization of mono- and diiodothyrotropin releasing factor.
Abstract Iodination of thyrotropin releasing factor (TRF) with chloramine-T and NaI at pH 7.5 produces both mono- and diiodo-TRF as well as unreacted TRF and I − . The four compounds can be separated by ion-exchange chromatography on SP-Sephadex C-25, using a stepwise gradient of 0.01 m MH 4 OAc at pH 3.5, 5.2 and 7.2. The monoiodo-TRF was characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance, mass spectra, and elemental analysis as [Im-5-iodo-His 2 ]-TRF while the diiodo-TRF was similarly characterized as [Im-2,5-diiodo-His 2 ]-TRF. Both iodination products showed no thyrotropin releasing activity at doses up to 1 μg in the in vivo mouse bioassay. The specific binding of mono- and diiodo-TRF was measured against three different TRF antisera. In the absence of TRF, antisera A and C bound more diiodo-TRF than monoiodo-TRF while antiserum B seemed to bind both tracers equally. In all cases steeper curves were produced when diiodo-TRF was displaced by synthetic TRF.