1.
GV & SV People down steps of subway on way to work in Madrid, Spain (2 shots)
0.14

2.
SV & CU Strikers in factory grounds (3 shots)
0.34

3.
GV & SV Construction workers on site collecting and laying bricks (2 shots)
0.45

4.
SV Shops closed and barred (4 shots)
1.04

5.
SV & GV Bus picking up passenger and driving off (2 shots)
1.25



Initials BB/2200



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The industrial suburbs of northern Madrid, the Spanish capital, were almost paralysed by a massive strike on Friday (1 October) in protest at the killing of a student shot five days earlier.

SYNOPSIS: The strike was called by student leaders. It's widely claimed that the 21-year-old psychology student, Gonzalez Martinez, was killed by rightwing extremists. But the turn-out of workers who struck in sympathy was not as large as student leaders had hoped for. Communist-led workers' commissions estimated that between 150,000 and 200,000 of Madrid's one million workers came out on strike. Government sources put the number much lower -- at about 45,000. Martinez had died during one of the several recent demonstrations in Madrid.

Shops throughout the northern suburbs were closed and barred during the day, as several thousand strikers and students marched to a university church for a funeral service for the dead student. They created chaos near the state university as they blocked roads, but police allowed them to attend the service without incident. However, after the ceremony, police made baton charges and fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd. In scattered incidents, about 20 people were arrested. Pickets punctured the tyres of some public buses which were still running, and at least one bus driver who refused to strike was stoned.