A GRASSROOTS MOBILISATION WANT TO BECOME CATALONIA REPUBLIC
IN THE NEW YEAR, SUPPORTERS OF INDEPENDENCE NEED TO BUILD A MASS MOVEMENT IN CATALONIA AND SOLIDARITY ACROSS EUROPE.
Let’s start with a reason to cheer the result of Catalonia’s elections.
The biggest loser was the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy and his
minority government in Madrid. Rajoy’s Popular Party trailed in last among all
the parties.
Seven Catalan politicians remain behind bars after Rajoy took control
of Catalonia, dissolving its government and parliament. This was the man who
chose to send in the paramilitary Guardia Civil to attack voters, to seize
ballot papers and ballot boxes and to close polling stations on 1 October when
the Catalans voted in an independence referendum agreed by their parliament but
declared illegal by the PP influenced Spanish Constitutional Court, largely
appointed by the Madrid government.
For those of us in Britain it’s sweet justice for a man who has become
closely allied to Theresa May in a cynical deal whereby she backs him over
Catalonia and he helps her over Brexit (and drops demands for the return of the
British military enclave, Gibraltar).
But for those of us who support Catalan independence the cheers must be
a bit muted. Yes, the independence parties took the biggest share of the votes,
and yes the turnout was impressive but… The centre right Junts per Catalunya
(Together for Catalonia), centre left Esquerra and the radical left CUP,
Popular Unity - together won 70 seats, two above a majority but two less than
in the previous parliament. Together they fell short of winning a majority of
votes, though getting 48% of the total.
Esquerra had been in the lead to become the biggest party in the polls
but in the end it came third. Junts per Catalunya, led by the Catalan
President, Carles Puigdemont, overtook them. The CUP went down from 10 seats to
four.
Reasons to worry include the fact that the party which received the
biggest share of the votes was the pro-business Ciutadans (Citizens) party
which won 37 seats, led in Catalonia by Ines Arrimadas. This means they have
displaced the Popular Party as the Unionist party in Catalonia, reflecting the
fact that in Spain they have been picking up support because they have taken an
even harder stance against the Catalans, and the Basques, than Rajoy.
It is a reminder how supposedly socially liberal neo-liberal parties
can shift so easily to authoritarianism, something we are witnessing elsewhere
in Europe.
That the independence parties did not do better reflects, in my
opinion, the fact that their campaign rightly focused on the repression imposed
on Catalonia by the Spanish state and the plight of the prisoners. But what
they did not do was put forward a vision for an independent Catalan Republic
which could break from Madrid’s full on neo-liberal policies and its love
affair with finance (sounds familiar to British ears), boost welfare and create
jobs. In contrast, the unionists banged on and on about the number of
corporations fleeing Catalonia faced with the prospect of independence.
One of the problems in doing that is the divide between Junts per
Catalunya coalition, dominated by Puigdemont’s Partido Demócrata Europeo
Catalán, and Esquerra and CUP. PdeCat is a centre right grouping which supports
neo-liberal policies. On independence Puigdemont prevaricated before finally
declaring independence post-referendum, and a substantial section of the party
is much cooler than him on the whole independence agenda. Clearly Junts per
Catalunya gained votes through sympathy with Puigdemont, but that obscured the
fact that his party seems to be in retreat from the declaration of the Catalan
Republic.
PdeCat will now be in position to regain the Presidency (it remains to
see if Puigdemont can return). That requires CUP not just to offer external
support to a PdeCat-Esquerra government, as before, but, despite its own
setback, to hopefully launch a grassroots movement for the Republic. That means
transforming the existing Committees to Defend the Republic, formed from the
grassroots mobilisation which ensured the 1 October referendum went ahead, into
a mass movement involving all of those committed not just to supporting
independence but creating, from the bottom up, the Catalan Republic.
Local assemblies need to sketch out their blueprint for a new
constitutional basis for a Republic, ensuring mass participation, and for an
agenda which can create jobs, boost welfare services and more.
That brings me to the biggest problem overshadowing this election. The
Catalan Parliament declared independence, then went home for the weekend. The
Spanish state, in contrast, mobilised immediately to ensure independence
remained a dead letter. In other words, it was in effect a symbolic declaration
of independence with no strategy for dealing with the inevitable Spanish
response.
The Catalan Government seemed to believe the EU would ride to their
rescue but instead its reaction in backing Rajoy speaks volumes about its own
undemocratic nature.
The Rajoy government has said it would repeat its repressive actions
again. It is under no pressure from the European Union which has backed it to
the hilt and remained silent over its repression. Rajoy is under pressure from
his right not to make any concessions to the Catalans. In addition, he has to
consider his own support. For a decade they have been mobilised in opposition
to Catalan demands, demonstrating, petitioning and even demanding a boycott of
Catalan goods. Across Spain we have seen Spanish nationalism mobilising, so in
Madrid the display of Spanish flags is not confined to upper class areas but is
in evidence in working class ones (reflecting in part the hopeless position
taken by the Spanish left in relation to Catalan self-determination).
In the immediate term we need to support several crucial things in
every way possible: demands for the release of the four political prisoners;
the dropping of all investigations and charges against these, plus against the
six Catalan ministers released on bail and the President and four ministers in
exile in Brussels; the right of President Puigdemont and exiled ministers to
return to Catalonia unhindered. The latter are targeted by arrest warrants for
their role in organising the independence referendum and face arrest the minute
they set foot in Spain.
Unless the three elected candidates in prison (one prisoner is a
civilian leader, not politician) are released and Puigdemont and the ministers
return, they cannot vote in parliament to form a workable majority. In other
words, the Spanish state will over-ride the result of a democratic election.
It is up to Spanish PM Rajoy to convene the Catalan Parliament since he
has ripped up Catalonia’s Statute of Autonomy and imposed direct rule. He has a
deadline of 23 January to do that and the Catalan Parliament must vote on a new
government by 8 February.
In the opening days of 2018 this situation requires mass mobilisation
in Catalonia and the building of solidarity across Europe. Those of us who
support democracy and Catalonia’s right to self-determination all have a job of
work to do.
CHRIS BAMBERY
An author, political activist and commentator
A supporter of Rise
The radical left wing coalition in Scotland.
SOURCE : COUNTERFIRE
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