Inside Spain!

" ALGO NECESARIO" - Something Necessay!
by Carlos Beltran

IT IS necessary to await the triumph of the motion of censor presented by the Partido Socialista (Socialist Party) against Mariano Rajoy (the leader of the Partido Popular [Conservative Party]).  It's complicated to grasp that the Partido Socialista doesn't have any alternative, still less anything to lose.  For the motion to really succeed the important thing is to put all the parties before a mirror.

Or to vote against Rajoy, and his corruption and his anti-social policies:

The result was 180 votes in favour of the motion of censure; 169 votes against and one abstention.  That was ten votes  more than Ranjoy got when he was chosen two years ago - two years of cuts and corruption that it would have been possible to abstain in the election of Ranjoy in 2015.

This amounts to a rejection of Ranjoyand the Partido Popular, rather than support for Pedro Sanchez.  Yet for Sanchezit is an opportunity to dismantle the most aggressive policies of the reactionaries in the Partido Popular, in respect of pensions. civil liberties, labour laws etc. 

On th theme of the Catalans; the most important thing now is to look for the broadest consensus to take forward this issue; yes with their 84 deputies the left have to confront the block of 169 right-wing deputies.

From my point of view and the tenor of the composition of of the Government, it is an agony and it brings in a period of hope and pleasure and at least we have a President who speaks English. A government with a majority of women; a government which as a dialogue with the trade unions and social protection; social justice; and the reduction of tension in Cataluña: this isn’t a panacea but it is better than to abandon the country to a situation of obscurantism and a lack of common decency of those who believe they own the country. Yet don’t forget the Partido Popular have the most seats in the Congress; there is division of the Left, and there is the problem of Cataluña.

But yes, ‘there is a road to travel’ with pot-holes that are difficult to navigate.

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Catalonia: Release all political prisoners immediately!

FOR the last four months, repression has been unleashed in Catalonia. 
 

Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, officials of democratic associations, were thrown in jail more than three months ago; Oriol Junqueras, who was nevertheless elected as a member of the autonomous Parliament on 21 December, is still being detained.

The deposed President and three other ministerial advisers of his government are still in exile in Brussels, under threat of being thrown in jail if they set foot on Spanish soil; hundreds of mayors, teachers, other workers and activists have been summoned to court and charged with rebellion and sedition, in other words charged with organising a violent uprising against the Spanish State. Catalan autonomy has been suspended under Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, and it is Rajoy who is governing, from Madrid with his ministers.

What is their “crime”? The Spanish monarchy and its government are punishing them for organising the vote through which the Catalan people freely declared themselves in favour of the Catalan Republic on 1 October 2017.

This brutal repression by the Rajoy government and the monarchy, which began with the huge police violence against people who were voting on 1 October, has the unconditional support of the European Commission, the governments of the leading countries of the European Union (Macron, Merkel, May, etc.), as well as the Trump administration.

On 28 January, the monarchy, the government and – following their diktats – the Constitutional Court went a step further in restricting rights, in violation of their own laws and legal precedents, by forbidding the majority of the autonomous Parliament elected on 21 October to appoint the President of their choice, in the person of Carles Puigdemont.

We are activists of all political tendencies of the democratic and labour movement from the Spanish State and all over Europe. Together with all the workers of Europe, we have seen the vast majority of the Catalan people peacefully and courageously mobilise for the Republic, and we have seen the State respond with police brutality, legal prosecutions and the suppression of their rights. We cannot remain impassive! We unconditionally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Catalan people for their rights to be respected!

We defend their right to freely decide their own future, to rid themselves of the monarchy and the institutions of the 1978 Constitution, which guarantee the continuity of Francoism.

We defend their right to constitute their own Republic, just as we defend the right of all the peoples of the Spanish State to constitute their own Republics and – if they so wish – to freely form their own union of Republics.

We, activists of the labour and democratic movement from the Spanish State and throughout Europe, call for united action throughout Europe for the following:

Release all the political prisoners immediately!

Cancel all the legal prosecutions!

Freedom for the Catalan people to choose their own representatives!

Hands off the Catalan Republic!

First endorsers

BELARUS

Youri Glouchakov,  « Razam » Social Movement

BRITAIN

Mike Arnott, Secretary Dundee Trades Council - personal capacity  ; Mike Calvert, Deputy Secretary Islington Unison - personal capacity  ; Jane Doolan, Secretary Islington Unison, Unison NEC - personal capacity   ;  Paul Filby, Secretary Merseyside Trades Council - personal capacity  ; Steve Hedley, RMT Assistant General Secretary - personal capacity  ; John Hendy, QC - personal capacity  ; Ian Hodson, National President BFAWU - personal capacity  , Michael Loughlin, Christ Church University Canterbury - personal capacity   ; Henry Mott, UNITE Southwark - personal capacity  ; Nick Phillips, UNITE - personal capacity  ; Nat Queen, University of Birmingham, UCU - personal capacity  ; John Sweeney, trade unionist - personal capacity  

BELGIUM

Salah Azaam, trade unionist  ; Toni Bernardi, Retired Metalworker ; Michèle Corin, SP activist Verviers ; Gaëtan Coucke, trade unionist education ; Sarah De Laet, teacher , trade union representative ; Roberto Giarrocco, trade union representative Public services ; José Hardy, trade union representative Public Service Governmental sector ; Serge Monsieur, president CGSP ALR Vivaqua (pers cap ) ; Laura Moraga Moral, Teacher trade unionist ; Jan Smidt, labour activist ; Claire Thomas, Teacher trade union representative CGSP .

CZECH REPUBLIC

Petr Schnur, CMF, České mírové fórum (Czech Peace Forum)

FRANCE

Gilles Barthes, psychiatrist (76) ; Jean-Michel Boulmé, POID activist (01) ; Cécile Brandely, lawyer , member Lawyers of France trade union (31) ; Oscar Caballero-Ramirez, trade unionist metal industry (17) ; Patricia Cestor, trade unionist national education (92) ; Jacques Châtillon, freethinker (22) ; Katel Corduant, trade unionist (75) ; Christian Delannoy, General Practitioner (59) ; Jean-Michel Delaye, trade unionist , town councillor Brumath (67) ; Laurent Denil (95) ; Claire Dujardin, lawyer , member Lawyers of France trade union (31) ; Stephen Duval, lawyer (69) ; Patrick Farbiaz, Social ecology (75) ; Dominique Ferré, contributor to La Tribune des travailleurs (94) ; Jean-Christophe Giraud, lawyer (69) ; Daniel Gluckstein, POID National Secretary ,International Workers Committee ( IWC ) co-coordinator (93) ; Basile Gonzales, child psychiatrist (76) ; Thomas Gonzales, lawyer (34) ; Nicolas Griffon, General Practitioner (76) ; Pierre Herranz, retiree labour activist , (17) ; Michèle Kauffer, trade unionist (91) ; Christel Keiser, town councillor , POID National Secretary (93) ; Marc Lagier, clinician (37) ; Francis Lopera, trade unionist ArcelorMittal (57) ; Maria José Malheiros, trade unionist (75) ; Alexia Muller, trade unionist (75) ; François Préneau, retiree, trade unionist , member of Ensemble (44) ; Grégoire Privolt, teacher trade unionist (69) ; Jean Pierre Richaudeau, Initiative pour le socialisme ( Initiative for socialism ) (74) ; Paul Robel, General Practitioner (56) ; Olivier Roux, teacher trade unionist (2A) ; Gérard Schivardi, Mayor of Mailhac (11) ; Arsène Schmitt, border zone trade unionist (57) ; Robert Schmitz, trade unionist (75) ; Henri Sick, trade unionist (75) ; Sarah Taconet, General Practitioner (95) ; Marinette Veyssière, trade unionist (79) ; Katia Vidal, trade unionist (66).

Germany

Sidonie Kellerer, trade unionist GEW ; Peter Kreutler, vice-president Düsseldorf SPD Workers Commission (AfA), trade unionist ver.di, trade union representatives committee ; Norbert Müller, SPD, trade unionist ver.di; Peter Saalmüller, SPD, trade unionist ver.di; Heimgard Schüller, trade unionist IG BAU;

Klaus Schüller, SPD Workers Commission (AfA) NEC , trade unionist EVG, Member of the International Workers Committee follow up Committee (IWC ) ; Anna Helena Schuster, shop steward ver.di ; Heinz Werner Schuster, Chair Düsseldorf SPD Workers Commission (AfA), ver.di representative

GREECE

Dimitrios Balaskas, agricultural worker , Nafplio ; Andreas Guhl, editor “Ergatika Nea”, LAE Argolide member  ; Maryse Le Lohé, LAE Papagos-Cholargos member Athens ; Sotiria Lioni, Nafplio ; Eleni Pierropoulou, member Popular Unity (LAE), Papagos-Cholargos, Athens.

HUNGARY

Tamàs Krausz, historian (pers cap ) ; Tamàs Gàspàr Miklos, philosopher, visiting professor, Central European University, Budapest, pers cap ; Judit Morva, activist, Le Monde Diplomatique Hungarian edition (pers cap ) ; Judit Somi, labour activist , contributor to Munkàs Hirlap

IRELAND

Ciaran Campbell, Mandate Trade Union - personal capacity  ; John Douglas, Mandate General Secretary - personal capacity  ; Brian Forbes, Mandate Trade Union - personal capacity  .

ITALY

Bruno Boggio, retiree, political activist ; Luigi Brandellero, worker , Tribuna Libera Editorial board ; Alessandra Cigna, teacher , trade union activist  ; Ugo Croce, self employed , Political Movement for the Repeal  ; Luis Cabases, journalist ; Felice Fazzolari, teacher , Political Movement for the Repeal; Kristian Goglio, teacher , trade unionist  ; Dario Granaglia, worker , trade unionist  ; Monica Grilli, teacher , trade union representative ; Gianni Guglieri, worker , trade unionist  ; Antonio Landro, teacher , trade unionist ; Aldo Mangano, student  ; Andrea Monasterolo, worker , trade unionist  ; Maria Jesus Lopez Montalban, Chair « Amics de Catalunya a Italia » Association  ; Alberto Pian, teacher trade union activist ; Betty Raineri, teacher , trade union activist ; Lorenzo Varaldo, Headmaster , Political Movement for the Repeal; Vanna Ventre, teacher , "Tribuna Libera" editorial board ;

PORTUGAL

Jorge Fonseca de Almeida, « economist ; Jaime Pereira, retiree ; Rui Rodrigues, University Professor ; José Júlio Santana Henriques, trade unionist, retiree ; Lia Santos, teacher e SPGL/CGTP ; Jorge Torres, Saica workers commission , CITE/CGTP trade union rep ; Adriano Zilhão, economist.

ROMANIA

Contantin Cretan, former political prisoner jailed because of his trade union activity.

RUSSIA

Mark Vassilev, historian.

SERBIA

Jaćim Milunović, labour activist .

SPANISH STATE

Miguel Angel Aragoneses Garcia, representative LAB trade union committee (Euzkadi-Basque Country ) ; Lurdes Barba, theater director (Catalonia) ; Patxi Fernández Álvarez, retiree, UGT trade unionist (Euzkadi- Basque Country) ; Eduard Gonzalo, pro-independence militant (Catalonia) ; Jordi Rabella Foz (Catalonia); José Luis Vinatea, deliverer , UGT trade unionist (Euzkadi- Basque Country) ; Felipe Zorita, retired rail worker , UGT trade unionist (Euzkadi- Basque Country)

SWITZERLAND

Michel Zimmermann, Member Geneva Socialist Party , Town Councillor Versoix ; Dogan Fennibay, trade unionist UNIA.

TURKEY

Yasar Avci, Retired Workers Union; Sevim Kacmaz, precarious labour  ; IKP member  ; Sadi Ozansü, Chair Workers Fraternity Party (IKP) ; Furkan Safak, IKP member  ; Birsen Yesilkanat, Health Workers Union .

Reasons for the Catalan Crisis

'The elections in February [19]36 was celebrated with [the former Catalan President, Lluís] Companys* and his [Catalan] government [still] in prison, later what followed was the proclamation of the Catalan republic inside the federal Spanish republic.  Then with the victory of the Popular Front [parties] came amnesty [for Companys and the other Catalan politicians].  How it is that history repeats itself, unfortunately with other parameters, but without gun shots, physical violence, and despite the social break (the catalan society is divided in two parts)" '

Carlos Beltran:  former representative in the Madrid CGT / CNT 

GERALD Brenan, the anthropologist and historian (who lived in Spain from 1919 until his death in 1987), in his book 'The Spanish Labyrinth' (1962) wrote:
'Both linguistically and culturally Catalonia was originally an extension of the south of France rather than a part of Spain and, under the rich merchant class which ruled it during the Middle Ages, it acquired an active, enterprising character and a European outlook very different from that of its semi-pastoral neighbours on the interior plateaux.'

More recently in 2006, after lengthy negotiations a Socialist PSOE government had agreed a Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia that devolved further powers to the Catalan region in 2006.

This statute was put to a vote in the Spanish and Catalan parliaments and it was endorsed in a referendum in Catalonia.  At that stage, support for Catalan independence stood at just 14 percent. The conservative People’s Party (PP), then in opposition, promised to reverse the statute unilaterally and took the issue to the Constitutional Court. In 2010, the court struck down a large part of the statute.  The response in Barcelona was a huge demonstration of more than a million people under the slogan  'We are a nation. We decide.'

The following year, Rajoy’s PP won an outright majority in the general election.

As a consequence, the Catalan government and its supporters were annoyed and attempted to negotiate with Rajoy about what should happen next.  Rajoy refused to engage.  The results were to drive up support for independence, increased success for separatist parties in regional elections, the first of a series of attempts to hold a referendum on independence, and the replacement of the Catalan government’s centrist leader Artur Mas by the more radical Carles Puigdemont.  Thus it was Rajoy and his refusal to negotiate that almost single-handedly brought about the election of a majority-separatist government in Catalonia in 2016.

Meanwhile, a Madrid judge has jailed eight MPs involved in the Catalan government that had declared independence.   


Now with television channels showing images of police vans with flashing blue lights said to be taking the former ministers to different prisons, Catalans took to the streets in anger and disbelief.
There were protests in front of the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, the regional capital, with police estimating a crowd of 20,000.  Others gathered outside town halls across the region including 8,000 people in both Girona and Tarragona.

Marta Rovira, a lawyer and Catalan separatist lawmaker, briefly broke down in tears as she spoke to reporters in Madrid after the announcement of the detentions.
'The Spanish state is a failed state, a state that has failed democratically," she said. "I'm convinced we won't surrender, we won't, we will fight until the end.'

Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive former president of Catalonia, on Sunday handed himself over to Belgian police before a European arrest warrant invoked by a Spanish judge triggered his capture and detention.

Today, the Belgian vice-premier and interior minister stated that Madrid had overreacted and all efforts must be made to ensure that Mr Puigdemont and his colleagues get a fair trial if he is returned to Spain. Jan Jambon, who criticised the “silence” of the European Union on the issue, said:  'I am just questioning how a European Union member state can go this far and I am asking myself whether Europe is to have an opinion on this.'

*   Lluís Companys i Jover (Catalan pronunciation: [ʎuˈis kumˈpaɲs]; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a leftist politician. He was the President of Catalonia (Spain), from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
He was a lawyer and leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) political party. Exiled after the war, he was captured and handed over by the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, to the Spanish State of Francisco Franco, who had him executed by firing squad in 1940. Companys is the only incumbent democratically elected president in European history to have been executed.^{[3][4] [5]}

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Free North Campaign

 NORTHERN REPUBLIC

Bulletin of the Free North Campaign

The Free North Campaign is a socialist, republican campaign group that

calls for ever-greater autonomy and self-government for the North of England. We do not support any single political party but stand in solidarity with progressive independence and regionalist movements around the world. We believe in the radical devolution of political and economic power away from

the London-centric elites to localcommunities and municipalities.

SOLIDARITY WITH CATALONIA!

The Free North Campaign sends its support and solidarity to the people of Catalonia in their historic struggle for freedom and independence from the Spanish state.Irrespective of

whether the October 1st referendum was legal or not (in the eyes of the Spanish government and courts), the violent response of the Madrid government must be condemned as a criminal act

.

The European Union must also be condemned for its predictably inadequate response to the oppressive Francoist tactics of the Rajoy government and the national police force.

The EU has demonstrated that its main concern is protecting the interest of Europe’s ruling elite, rather than defending the citizens of Europe.  During the Scottish referendum,  the British establishment used a combination of fear and insincere sycophancy to encourage Scots to vote No.  In contrast, the Spanish state broke bones, smashed heads open, stole ballot boxes and closed polling stations.  Anyone who was undecided about Catalan independence before the referendum can surely no longer be ambivalent about the issue now.

Catalan Nationalism contains liberal, conservative and left-wing shades of opinion. Our political sympathies naturally lie with those on the left; in the Catalan Parliament this is represented by the Republican Left of Cataloniaand the anti-capitalist Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP).

Fundamentally any region which seeks to separate itself from a repressive and reactionary state deserves the support of progressives. Independence alone will not inevitably lead to social and economic justice, but it can significantly speed up the pace of radical change and deal a decisive blow to the ruling class.

******

The Free North Campaignwelcomes all supporters who broadly

agree with our principles. 

Email us at: freenorth@hotmail.co.uk

and followthe twitter account @Free_North.

For a ‘Council of the North'

Political leaders from Leeds, Merseyside, Manchester Newcastle and West Yorkshire

met recently to discuss forming a body to speak on behalf of Northern interests.

Andy Burnham, the metro mayor of Greater Manchester said:

“If the North is to get the investment it has been promised, and fulfil its vast potential, we must come together, work together, and speak with one voice. “Today’s meeting was an important step

towards achieving that. The North of England is getting organised and can no longer be ignored.”

Steve Rotheram, the metro mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:  

“The UK is simply too London-centric and we need to be inventive and determined if we are goingto off-set its disproportionate influence andshare of national resources.”

Catalan situation stirring up Spain's troubled past

on NEWS EUROPE

by Mary Fitzgerald

October 7 2017 2:30 AM

NATIONALISM is such a prickly question in Spain that the country's national anthem is only one of a handful in the world to have no words, or at least no words that are acceptable to everyone.  The 'Marcha Real' (or 'Royal March') once had lyrics approved by General Francisco Franco, their fascistic overtones reflecting the nature of his dictatorship.  But the anthem has been played without words since 1978 when Spain embraced democracy three years after the general's death.

It is impossible to observe what is currently happening in Spain - with the clash between Madrid and Catalans seeking independence triggering its most serious political crisis in years - without seeing ghosts of the country's past, and particularly the long decades of the Franco era.

"Espana una, grande y libre" (Spain, one, great and free) was the slogan of the Franco regime as it sought to centralise the country through authoritarianism after it emerged from a civil war so bloody a large part of its history remains unexplored.

The post-Franco democratic transition saw Spain carved into 17 autonomous regions but the question of how autonomous they should be has been fraught ever since.

While the 1978 constitution gave control of services including education and health to regional governments, ultimate power was vested in Madrid.
Several parts of Spain chafed under this set-up, and some chafed more than others, particularly the Basque region and Catalonia where the sense of regional identity is particularly strong and rooted in distinctive languages as well as history.

Grievances from the Franco era play a key role in shaping narratives in both regions, the resentment towards Madrid is partly rooted in those historical experiences and can sometimes take a disturbing turn.
I remember one elderly man who helped found ETA, the armed group that transformed the Basque push for autonomy into a violent campaign, telling me they would never forget what Franco had done to their region. Among other things, he claimed Franco had tried to "dilute the blood purity of the Basques" by resettling people from other parts of Spain there.

For many Catalan separatists, similar memories of the Franco years are key to their antipathy towards Castillian nationalism.
But just like not every Catalan is in favour of independence, not every Spaniard troubled by the separatist push shares the worldview of the protesters in Madrid recently filmed making arm salutes while singing Franco-ist anthems.

Among the many who do not fit the lazy categorisations employed by too many on all sides of the current debacle is a Spaniard I know who was born in Extremadura near the Portuguese border - historically one of the country's poorest regions - grew up in Madrid and later lived for several years in Barcelona as an adult.  He is a filmmaker and his politics are of the left.  Having made his home in several countries over the years, if anything he would describe himself as citizen of the world. Several members of his family died fighting Franco's side during the civil war, others were among the war prisoners used to carve out the massive Valle de los Caidos (Valley of The Fallen) memorial near Madrid where the general was eventually buried.  I remember visiting the site with him some years ago and seeing how the monument is a place of pilgrimage for those still nostalgic for the Franco era while representing something very different and unsettling to others.

Nationalism leaves this Spaniard cold for all kinds of reasons, including his country's turbulent past, but what is happening in Catalonia also worries him.

The actions of police who used rubber bullets and batons to stop people voting in last Sunday's referendum shocked him, just as the Catalan insistence to hold the ballot despite Madrid banning it as unconstitutional concerned him.
'There is much politicking at play and few signs of politicians facing up to their responsibilities whether in Madrid or Barcelona,' he says.

He's been arguing with Catalan friends. "Emotions are running too high on all sides, it has fed the extremes."
What he dreams of is a Spain united in its diversity, one where the appeal of hard-line nationalists - whether Castillian or regional - would gradually wear away.

But the question of a singular national identity continues to elude Spain decades after Franco tried to impose one through a dictatorship entwined with Catholicism that sought to erase regional languages and cultural diversity.  Many argue it is an impossibility.
For now, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has offered all-party negotiations which raises the prospect of some kind of agreement that would give Catalonia more autonomy, but not independence.
The police violence of last weekend has fanned the hardline Catalan separatists, however, so a peaceful solution is not guaranteed.  And watching closely will be separatist movements elsewhere in Spain and far beyond its borders.

Strike Halts Barcelona - King to speak

KING Felipe will make a televised statement at 9 a.m. local time, a spokesman for the royal household told CNN.

His decision to intervene in the crisis comes as tens of thousands of people gathered in Barcelona, angered by the harsh treatment meted out by national forces who tried to prevent the banned vote from taking place. Many demonstrated in front of the Barcelona headquarters of the Spanish national police.

Shops were closed, universities halted classes and transport companies ran reduced services as supporters of Catalonia's bid for independence from Spain attempted to maintain the momentum from Sunday's vote.

The main trade unions, the CCOO and UGT stopped short of declaring a general strike, describing the action instead as a "work stoppage" to skirt labor laws that forbid strikes for political reasons.

Facing Spain's biggest political crisis in decades, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy held talks with opposition parties in Madrid.

Protesters gathering in Barcelona said they were motivated by fury at Sunday's violent crackdown -- the Catalan health ministry said 893 people were injured as riot police raided polling stations, dragged away voters and fired rubber bullets.

"This is a protest against police violence and maintaining momentum after Sunday," said Victor Noguer, 27, a firefighter.

"The streets will always be ours," protesters chanted, some of them draped in the blue, yellow and red Estelada flag used by Catalan separatists.

Protesters wave a Catalan pro-independence 'Estelada' flag as they gather at the Placa de la Universitat square in Barcelona during a general strike in Catalonia called by Catalan unions on October 3, 2017.

Officers from the Guardia Civil and the Catalan police force stood guard outside the local headquarters of the Spanish government in Barcelona, where hundreds of firefighters gathered. Other groups of protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the national police, shouting "Spanish police get out!"

In an interview with CNN at a police control center in the city, Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau condemned Rajoy's decision to deploy national security forces as "seriously irresponsible."

"Why is he throwing thousands of police officers against the population," asked Colau, who does not support Catalan independence but was in favor of holding the referendum. "Why is he keeping thousands of police officers on standby in the city of Barcelona and in Catalonia? What is the message of fear he wants to send?"

Protestors gather in front of the Spanish Partido Popular ruling party headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.

The presence of the Spanish national police and the Guardia Civil in Catalonia is a source of increasing tension in the city following Sunday's violence. Animosity is also rising between local and national forces.

On Tuesday, the Guardia Civil police union, the AUGC, filed a complaint with the Catalan High Court against the Catalan police, or Mossos d'Esquadra, complaining that they failed in their duties by not enforcing the court ruling that banned the referendum.

The AUGC also filed a complaint in connection with the eviction of 200 officers from the Hotel Vila in the Calella district of Barcelona. It called for a judicial inquiry into reports the mayor threatened to withdraw the hotel's license if the Guardia Civil remained there.

Spanish newspaper El Pais said two hotels in Barcelona and hotels in Reus, 100 kilometers from the city, have ordered Guardia Civil officers to leave following Sunday's referendum.

Spain's Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, said Madrid would "take all necessary measures" to stop the "intolerable harassment" of national security forces.

The Catalan government says it earned the right to split from Spain, claiming 90% of those who voted in Sunday's poll were in favour of independence. But the result was not decisive: turnout was low, at around 42%.

Catalan independence vote caps four centuries of mistrust

Catalan authorities blamed the crackdown for the low turnout, but it remains clear that public opinion in Catalonia is deeply split on independence.

Catalan President Carles Puigdemont stopped short of declaring independence for Catalonia Monday. According to the referendum law passed by the Catalan Parliament -- and declared illegal by Spain's top court -- authorities have 48 hours after the result to declare a split. Catalan authorities have not yet presented a final result to the Parliament in Barcelona.

Puigdemont has called for international mediation to resolve the crisis.

Protestors throw referendum ballots as they rally in front of Spain's ruling Partido Popular headquarters in Barcelona.

It said that during his meetings the Prime Minister "has strongly defended the actions of the security forces during [Sunday's] events and has reiterated that more than 400 officers needed (medical) attention and 40 needed emergency attention because of their injuries."

Rajoy's office said Tuesday that he was considering calling a special session of Spain's Congress of Deputies to discuss the crisis.

So far, European Union leaders and the European Commission have backed the Spanish government's opinion that the referendum was illegal.

The European Parliament, the EU's only elected body, will discuss the crists on Wednesday. The issue Catalan cause is likely to find more sympathizers, especially from the smaller nations.

The UN Commissioner for Human Rights has asked to be allowed to send in experts to examine if citizens' rights have been violated.

******

Spanish PM praises police

 Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy says police behaved with 'serenity'!

The Associated Press
(@AP)

BREAKING: Spanish PM thanks police, says they acted with "firmness and serenity" to Catalonia's independence referendum.

 

But, Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, was among the few national leaders to denounce the violence, which the Catalan government said had left 465 people injured as police forcibly removed voters from polling stations and on one occasion fired rubber bullets.
“Violence can never be the answer!” Michel said on Twitter.
His Slovenian counterpart, Miro Cerar, also expressed his concern, saying he was “concerned” and calling for “political dialogue, rule of law and peaceful solutions”.

Podemos, Catalonia, & Spanish labour

The left and self-determination

  Excerpt from 'INTERNATIONAL SOCIALISM' Issue: 155 

Posted on 29th June 2017 Héctor Sierra

PODERMOS and IU have refused to lend their support to the pro-independence majority.  They have argued that CiU waves the flag of independence to divert attention from its own role in implementing cuts and have accused CUP and ERC of helping whitewash its neoliberal record.  But CiU never really supported independence, embracing the cause only when it saw it was unstoppable.  And no one has done as much to unmask their responsibility for austerity in Catalonia as the CUP’s militants.
The current attitude towards self-determination by parties such as Podemos and IU has been typical of the Spanish left at crucial points in the country’s history.  Both the Communist Party (closely tied to the Soviet Union) during the Civil War (1936-9), and the Eurocommunist current during the transition to democracy, were dismissive of the nationalist movements, when not openly conceding to Spanish chauvinism.
IU claims to be interested not in any national struggle, but in the social struggle, missing the point that Catalan independence is interlinked with the most radical demands of society.  They pose as internationalists, but Catalan and Spanish nationalism cannot be equated. Spanish chauvinism is an ideology pumped out from the top of society, whose core components were devised by the Catholic Church and the fascist regime over 40 years and which today remains in the hands of the state.  What is commonly branded as Catalan (or Basque) nationalism is a much more complex affair, and does not lie firmly in the grip of the Catalan bourgeoisie.  Independence means different things for the different classes supporting it.  For instance, former Catalan president Artur Mas said in a visit to the US that an independent Catalonia would remain loyal to Nato—but among working class people there is a broad consensus that the country would not have an army.
Refusal to back independence has also been justified on the grounds that it weakens the unity of the Spanish working class.  But, while there have been repeated attempts to divide Spanish and Catalan workers, they have come from politicians and the media, not from below.  In fact, the national minorities are a ruling class’s recurrent scapegoat when it comes to diverting attention from issues such as austerity or corruption.  The way to achieve unity among workers is precisely through supporting the rights of Catalans and Basques, continuously under attack, and challenging scapegoating, something the Spanish left has largely failed to do.
Podemos’s talk of a multinational state, inspired by Errejón’s study of Bolivian politics, was refreshing at first. Iglesias and Errejón tried to appeal to left voters in Catalonia and the Basque Country by arguing that Podemos would bring about the democratisation of the Spanish state that would make possible a recognition of their national rights.  But while paying lip service to self-determination, in practice they have proved unable even to lend support to non-binding municipal initiatives for the democratic right to a referendum.  More recently, Iglesias has proposed a status of shared sovereignty as an alternative to independence.  This, of course, presupposes and is reliant on an eventual Podemos-led government.  Unlike these abstract prospect, the possibility of independence exists now and is within reach.
There is nothing inherent in the Catalan working class that makes it more left-wing than that of the rest of the state, and arguments of that kind should be challenged as they foster illusions about the viability of socialism developing within the limits of a single country.  An independent Catalonia could well end up being another capitalist state, controlled by its national bourgeoisie that goes on exploiting workers.  But there was nothing inevitable about Catalan society shifting to the left because of plummeting living standards. It has been the leading role of the Catalan left, along with the systematic work of the anti-fascist platform Unitat Contra el Feixisme (UCFR) in preventing fascist groups from tapping into the mood, that has ensured this was the case.  The same remains true when it comes to fighting for independence and defining its content.
The unmissable fact is that right now the left in Catalonia has a much more advantageous balance of forces than in the rest of the state, and levels of class confidence and consciousness are higher there—which is not to say that they cannot develop to the same extent everywhere else. Indeed, ensuring a victory for the Catalan left could be the way to achieve this goal.
The damage to the Spanish ruling class that the loss of Catalonia would cause is unimaginable; Catalonia makes a large contribution to the state’s revenues, with 18.8 percent of national GDP.  The centrality of national unity to the dominant ideology of the ruling class would also turn the event into a political earthquake.  A victory for independence would thus precipitate a crisis of unforeseeable consequences, throwing into chaos not only the PP but Spanish capitalism as a whole.
Socialism can only be achieved internationally, but by opening new prospects for the left in Catalonia and by breaking the consensus imposed by fascism in the transition to democracy, Catalan independence would advance the cause of the entire working class.  And, if a triumph of the Catalan left would be a positive development for workers in the rest of the state, what would the consequences of its defeat be?
Due to the need to look strong and stable, and the pressure exerted by the Spanish nationalist lobby, the PP has refused to negotiate with the Catalan parliament.  The pro-independence majority has pledged to organise a referendum on 1 October but all the calls on the central government to cooperate have fallen on deaf ears.  Likewise CiU and ERC have fruitlessly sought the intervention of the EU and third countries to lift the bar on a referendum.  The EU will not accept the unilateral separation of part of a member state, and the idea of being out of the EU sends shivers down the spine of CiU politicians.  As it becomes clearer that to go ahead with the referendum will involve an open confrontation with the Spanish state, and that they no longer control the process in motion, the risk exists that the Catalan bourgeoisie will instead try to strike a deal from above.  However, awareness that supporters of independence are running out of patience and will not accept more excuses complicates this.
Meanwhile, threats and attacks by the Spanish state have mounted. Individuals and associations have been brought to court for organising a non-binding referendum in 2014 that was ruled illegal. Activists of the CUP have also faced trial for burning pictures of the Spanish king at a public event. The main newspapers in Madrid and senior army officers have repeatedly asked the government to send the army in and suspend Catalan autonomy, as the constitution allows.
Only the CUP discounted from the beginning the possibility of an agreed referendum and has demanded the Catalan Parliament stop obeying laws coming from Madrid.  The work of activists in the CUP’s ranks and other left groups in the next months will be crucial to bring pressure from below to bear on the Catalan government.  A half-heartedly called referendum will give Rajoy the excuse he is awaiting to act.  An actual military intervention cannot be ruled out in the end. If this happened, nobody can seriously think that it would not be followed by an immediate clampdown on opposition everywhere else in the state and by new steps towards authoritarianism.  What the left does inside and outside Catalonia can prevent this scenario.  The leadership of Podemos and IU will act according to an electoral logic, but every activist, in these or other groups, who wants to challenge the system must actively support independence.  Solidarity with Catalonia can make a fundamental difference.

Conclusion: further destabilisation

It must not be forgotten that the PP is in office only because of the failure of all the other parties to form a government.  In the long run stability remains impossible and Rajoy does not rule out calling a new general election if the opposition PSOE, whose goodwill his government depends on, obstructs his work.
The PSOE say that they are the real opposition, not Podemos, while siding with the conservatives whenever stability is at stake. But they are deeply divided.  A managing board controlled the party for half a year after Sánchez’s removal, until in May a new leadership election took place.  Sánchez, although marginalised by the bureaucracy, stood again on an anti-Rajoy platform and beat Susana Díaz, the candidate of the establishment.  While this revived the talks of a hypothetical left coalition headed by PSOE and Podemos, the PSOE has since abstained in a motion of no confidence against Rajoy put forward by Podemos in June. It is uncertain to what extent the PSOE, still a pillar of the system, can be moved leftwards.  Nevertheless, the rebellion that has brought Sánchez back to power has exposed the noncomformity of a majority of the membership.
More importantly, the PP might have been able to mitigate the effects of the economic crisis temporarily, but the structural problems that brought the Spanish economy to its knees when the financial bubble burst remain untouched.  Investing in property and other forms of fictitious capital are still an important part of the economy, while productive investment and profitability remain low. This makes the Spanish economy extremely vulnerable to any upheaval in international markets in coming years.
Corruption remains rampant.  Hardly a week goes by without new scandals involving PP members coming to light.  While Rajoy has so far dodged any investigations, he is due to testify in court as a witness in relation to inquiries into senior party members close to him.  The Prosecutor’s Office for corruption is tightly controlled by the conservatives, so many cases do not lead to prison sentences, but corruption is an issue with the potential to unite people from all walks of life against the government.
As the dockers have shown, austerity can be fought.  The labour reforms can be repealed.  The Gag Law can be resisted. Rajoy’s government is weak and it can be brought down before 2020.
On the way to this goal, Podemos, IU and the unions are travelling companions, but the initiative must not be abandoned to their leaders.  If the left stands another chance to form a government, this should be welcomed and supported, without abandoning the critique of reformism or the building of a revolutionary party and without allowing mobilisation to decline again.
In making all this possible, the key issue that can alter the balance of power, throwing the Spanish state’s rulers on the defensive, is Catalonia.
Héctor Sierra is a Spanish socialist based in London and a member of the SWP.

Galicians question Spanish state

El Bloque Nacionalista Gallego ha expresado su "total condena a la represión policial con la que el Estado español intenta impedir el derecho del pueblo catalán a expresarse en las urnas", al tiempo que acusa al Gobierno de Mariano Rajoy de "saltarse la Constitución que tanto invoca imponiendo por la fuerza un estado de excepción ilegal en Catalunya". 

The Nationalist Block of Galicia has expressed its 'total condemnation of the polictical repression with Spanish state intent on impeding the rights of the Catalan public to express at the ballot box', it is time to accuse the government of Mariano Rajoy of  'overturning the constitution so as to invoke a force of the state of exception ilegal in Catalonia'.

Enjoying a Government-free life in Spain

by Brian Bamford

SPAIN has not had an elected national government  for the last 291 days.  Being Spaniards this is seen as a rather good thing.  Félix Pastor told the New York Times that 'No government, no thieves'. Mr Pastor is a language teacher who echoes the view of many voters who are fed up with the corruption and other scandals that have been rooted in the administrations of both of the two previous governing parties:  PSOE (Socialist) and the Partido Popular (Conservative)..

Following the last two national general elections since last December, no party has won enough seats or been able to form a coalition with another party to establish a government.  Hence for the first time in four decades of democracy Spain has a caretaker government which has minimal and very limited powers. 

While in the UK Theresa May has just told the Conservative Conference in Birmingham that government can be good, in Spain the people cast a contemptuous eye over the scheming politicians.  Last Saturday, the Socialists' leader, Pedro Sánchez, stepped down in a step that should help his party to agree to the re-election of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy and a government led by his conservative Popular Party. 

The Spanish political party bosses may fear that the modern Spaniards are getting too used to a state with no government.  Both the English and the Spanish working-classes historically distrust their politicians, the only difference being that while the English take a passive attitude of scepticism towards politics often voting with a yawn, the Spaniards have historically confronted the politics of the state with an alternative politics of the streets, the community and the trade union.  To understand this it may be helpful to read George Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' for a glimpse of a form of socialism without the state.

Writing from Madrid the journalists Raphael Minder and David Zucchino write in Tuesday's International New York Times:.

'Spain's leaders warned that having no government would mean chaos and deprivation.  Instead, more than anything, the crisis seems to have offered a glimpse of life if politicians simply stepped out of the way.  For many here, it has not been all that bad.'

Last December, Spaniards were expecting a radical change in their politics with two new parties contending for the first time; these new parties Podemos and Cuidadanos had won a third of the parliamentary seats.  But no party has since been able to agree or muster a majority.  The Socialist PSOE party is now in melt-down. 

Spain is fortunate in so far as the 17 regional governments have extensive powers.  It is these that supply health care, education and many other needs of daily life.

Santiago Lago Peñas, an economics professor in Galicia, told the New York Times:

'For a Spanish citizen, the most relevant government is the regional government is the regional one.'

Outside of the capital in Madrid Spaniards are suspicious, and Ana Cancela, a civil servant told the New York Times:

'We already knew the politicians were corrupt, but now we also see that they can't even make politics work.'

The editor of the news website eldiario.es said:

'A lot of people said we would go to hell if we didn't form a government, but we're still here.'

We must wait to see what conclusions Spaniards draw from the current situation.

'Anarchy' = Absence of government in Spain?

THE word 'anarchy' in its dictionary definition is often defined as 'an absence of government'.  Though pedantic thinkers, including anarchists, will often rely on narrow dictionary definitions of the meaning of words, modern philosophers like Ludwig Wittgenstein have discredited this approach to the pursuit of meaning.  Those of us come from a Wittgensteinian or ethnomethodological tradition consider the meaning of a word to be in its use.
Ironically the reality of the present situation in Spain is that for the first time since January 1492, when Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon – the Catholic monarchs – occupied Granada completing their conquest of Moorish Spain, Spain has always had a government.  Even at the time of the Spanish Civil War in 1936-37 when the Spanish anarchists were at their strongest, their was a government in Spain (actual there were two if we count the Nationalist one and even the anarchists ultimately accepted the invite to join the governments in Madrid and Barcelona).
And yet, since December 20^th, last year., when the elections failed to give any party a necessary majority to form a government and attempts to form a coalition failed, Spain has had no effective government.   Under the Spanish system a Spaniard votes for 'diputados' (MPs) who elect the prime minister.  Then with a parliamentary majority, the winning party proclaims its leader, but without a majority, the parties need to negotiate.  This means a voter may end up supporting positions he/ or she would not normally support.  Today voting for the Socialist Party may mean a leftist coalition if the Socialists join with the Podemos Party, or a vote for the centre-right may involve voting for the conservative Popular Party (PP) and then get an alliance of the PP and the Ciudadnos Party.  It offers a blank cheque to the parliamentary parties, but even then the Spanish parties have not been able to get any agreement.  
Because of this failure to get agreement a second election had to be called on June 26^th, which ended in a very similar result to the one last December.  For more than 250 days Spain has been unable to elect a government. 
As things stand a 'caretaker' government is in place: the Partido Popular.  But it can't appoint new ministers, and from its original 13-member cabinet, only 10 are left.  The caretaker government has no authority to approve next year's budget, a basic tool of government and which should be in place by October; as you read this experts in constitutional law are pouring over the legal texts to search for a line that suggests authority in the current situation.  It has been nine months since the government enacted any laws:  its members are too busy campaigning and negotiating. 
Martin Caparrós, a journalist on the New York Times writes:
'These days, the “meanwhile” government manages everyday matters, and not very well.  In a situation that lacks legal status, no one wants to be in charge of important decisions, affairs are delayed and decisions never made...'
The life of ordinary people continues much as always, and Seňor Caparrós continues:
'In everyday life, a country without a government looks dangerously similar to one with one. ...  There are those who wonder if governments are so necessary and seem uninterested in any attempt to form one.'
This week, Mariano Rajoy of the PP will try to be reinstated as qa fully functioning prime minister.  But his option are limited.  If he fails, his party will probably call for new elections to be held on the 25^th, December.  If so that should give a boost to any latent anarchism in Spain, because Seňor Ranjoy and his party will be hoping the by calling an election during Navidad will benefit the right with a low turnout, but it will merely deliver a death blow to any vain expectations in elections whatever the outcome.  Especially since the Spaniards have a long history of distrust of governments.