In the morning of Sunday 15 January 1978, a demonstration organized by the anarcho-syndicalist trade union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) took place in Barcelona.
[2] At around 13:15, after the protest had ended and the protestors were dispersing, a group of young adults instigated by Joaquín Gambín threw molotov coctails at the stone facade of the Scala nightclub.
According to the police, this was the cause of the fire that destroyed the building and killed four workers – Ramón Egea, Juan López, Diego Montoro and Bernabé Bravo –, three of which were paradoxically affiliated with CNT, that happened to be in the club at that time.
Some attributed the crime to common murderers, others speculated that its cause was related with affairs regarding the business of the club and others implicated relationships of the perpetrators with the campaign in favor of the freedom of expression of Albert Boadella (who was at the time brought to a court-martial for allegedly offending the army with one of his works).
The position of the defense was that the police orchestrated the incident with the use of agents provocateurs to reduce CNT's popularity among the workers and to stop its growth in Catalonia.