https://socialistaction.org/2017/09/23/4th-international-defend-the-right-to-self-determination-in-catalonia/
4th International: Defend the right to self-determination in Catalonia!
/ 3 days ago
Oct. 2017 Catalonia
People rally outside the high court in Barcelona, Sept. 21, to protest
Spanish government’s repression of referendum on Catalan independence.
Josep Lago / AFP / Getty Images.
By Fourth International Bureau
On 20 September 2017, the Civil Guard and the Spanish National Police
arrested 14 senior officials of the Generalitat (the Catalan government)
and carried out 40 searches of public buildings and private homes. A
police operation then seized propaganda material of the CUP (Candidatura
de Unidad Popular, the main party of the pro-independence left) and,
without any legal authorisation, surrounded its headquarters for the
whole day, for no reason other than provocation. Following the
prosecution of more than 700 Catalan mayors who support the referendum
on October 1st and after repeated complaints against the Bureau of the
Catalan Parliament, these actions represent a qualitative leap in the
escalation of repression by the Spanish state institutions against the
referendum on self-determination.
Escalating repression and intervention of the Generalitat
Further to this the Spanish Ministry of Finance’s decision to take
administrative control of the Generalitat’s accounts de facto amounts to
the cancellation of autonomy, after long years of control of public
finances by the Generalitat. This under the pretext of ensuring the
implementation of austerity policies, although in practice the Madrid
government has been seeking to progressively drown autonomy. In
addition, Minister Montoro’s measure puts many budget items at risk
(starting with the basic insertion income recently approved by the
Parliament, aimed at alleviating extreme poverty and social exclusion)
and generates uncertainty among civil servants and public employees
about their next pay packets.
A clash of legitimacies in Catalonia
Since 6 and 7 September—with the approval of the Referendum Law and the
so-called “Disengagement Act” by the Catalan Parliament—there has been a
situation of dual legitimacy in which there are two legal systems that
do not mutually recognize each other. The first of these laws is
intended to convene the referendum and the second constitutes a kind of
“provisional constitution” between a hypothetical Yes victory and a
Constituent Assembly. Both laws have been annulled by the Spanish
Constitutional Court, but they remain in force from the point of view of
the government of the Generalitat and a majority of the Catalan
population, who believe that the Constitutional Court has no legitimacy
to annul them. This situation contains in embryo a political revolution
in a part of the Spanish state and an unprecedented crisis of the
post-Francoist monarchy and constitution of 1978. The coming hours and
days will be decisive for the outcome.
Supporting the 1 October self-determination referendum and the
mobilizations against repression and civil rights
The situation is very tense and the events of 20 September announce an
escalation of actions-reactions that points to a situation going beyond
the established framework. For the moment, the repressive apparatus has
not been fragmented (the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police, have not
dared to disobey the orders of the Spanish courts, but try to adopt a
low profile that prevents them from being tried for disobedience), but
it is hard to know what will happen if there is open and massive
repression against a population that is mobilizing peacefully.
At the moment, the Catalan government is maintaining the call for the
referendum on 1 October although in previously the Civil Guard also
seized electoral propaganda, ballot papers and census letters in
printing presses and newspapers throughout Catalonia.
The escalating repression of the Spanish state, preceded by the
so-called “gag law” (which has already severely curtailed democratic
rights to deal with the struggles of the indignados and mareas) has
generated a de facto state of emergency in which basic rights are being
seriously violated. This not only jeopardizes the future of Catalan
institutions but threatens the most serious political regression since
the coup attempt of 23 February 1981.
The reaction of the Catalan people, including significant sectors of the
organized labour movement, has been an enormous mobilization in
Barcelona and throughout Catalonia and has counted on mass solidarity
against repression and for the right to decide in the main cities of the
whole Spanish state. There are discussions on calling a general strike
against the repression and on 20 September the Barcelona dockers decided
to sabotage the cruisers moored in the city’s port that accommodate the
almost 5000 police and civil guards that the Ministry of the Interior
has sent to Catalunya to repress the Referendum.
In the coming days, there will be a trial of strength between the
Catalan popular and pro-sovereignty forces, with the support of the
democratic sectors of the Spanish people, and the immobilism and
authoritarian tendencies of the Spanish state, inherited from forty
years of Francoist dictatorship.
Moreover, it seems that for the first time the conditions exist for a
real coming together of the two great mass movements generated by the
world crisis and the regime crisis in the Spanish state, that until now
have remained distant and suspicious of each other: the indignados
movement that exploded on 15 May, 2011 and the Catalan pro-independence
process that emerged a year earlier.
The anti-capitalist and revolutionary Catalan and Spanish state forces
must take advantage of and develop enormous strategic potential for
rupture inherent in this. The pressure of events is pushing for an
objective convergence: faced with repression, the workers and popular
sectors become aware of what is at stake and, in turn, nationalist
currents seek solidarity from the progressive and democratic forces of
the Spanish state as a whole.
Urgent international solidarity
In this context, international mobilization plays a fundamental role in
the conflict. A victory in Catalonia would be a victory for all the
popular, revolutionary and democratic forces of Europe and the world. A
defeat will lead to a serious setback for democracy and class struggle
in Catalonia, the Spanish state and the European Union.
The Fourth International calls on its national organizations to organize
solidarity in all countries and to call rallies in front of the Spanish
embassies and consulates, for the right to self-determination and
against repression faced with each new repressive action attempted by
the Spanish state.
Long live the right of self-determination of Catalonia!
All our support for the 1 October referendum on self-determination!
Down with the repression, the attack on freedoms and political regression!
Executive Bureau of the Fourth International.
21 September, 2017
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September 23, 2017 in Europe, Fourth International.
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