Spain
Communist Party of Spain M-L (PCE M-L)
Report to the Plenum of the Central Committee
(Excerpts)
[...] Among the outstanding students of European reaction in matters of
repression, is the Spanish state: the leader of a trade union of the
Civil Guard said in an interview that Spain is the state in the
European Union with the highest ratio of police: 5.3, as against 3.2
[per thousand inhabitants – translator’s note]
throughout the EU. We are well above the U.S., Canada, Japan, etc. Just
to reach the same level as Germany, Spain would have 75,000police in excess. This would save 4,000 million
euros, the same amount as taking away the extra pay of the officials,
or the cuts in education. In Spain there are almost twice as many
police per 100,000 inhabitants as in Britain.
While teachers are laid off, scholarships are cut back and spending
on health care is decreased, the government does not hesitate to
squander thousands of millions on its military budget. An unproductive
expense, but one that is absolutely logical from the point of view of
the oligarchy: it must keep the armed wing of capital happy and defend
and safeguard its interests beyond the borders. The repressive bodies
of the state, particularly the Army, are the last line of defense of
the capitalist order.
Disguised as humanitarian aid, the Spanish
Armed Forces collaborate on war missions to serve the interests of the
Spanish oligarchy and imperialism. The latest military adventure was
directed at Mali. Despite the government’s blindness regarding the real
cost of these operations, between 2002 and 2011 it spent 4,000 million
euros on foreign interventions. The mission in Afghanistan alone has
cost more than 2,000 million euros since 2002.
So far the social protests have focused on opposition to the cuts and
privatization of public services, but there has been little criticism
of military spending. Rajoy’s government has managed to insulate the
Armed Forces from the hurricane of social protest. It is high time that
this issue is taken to the street. The Army, as it is now designed, is
a parasitic element on the social body, with its own special system of
social security (ISFAS), residences, casinos, etc. We demand the
immediate withdrawal of Spanish troops from abroad, withdrawal from
NATO, a drastic reduction in the military budget and an end of all the
perks and privileges of the military caste.
[...] The figures of recorded unemployment show an increase in hiring of more
than 90,000 people, which has led to the Rajoy government to announce
the beginning of the end of the crisis. But the optimism of this
reactionary leader is unfounded: Quarterly unemployment figures taken
from surveys of the economically active population (SEAP), which are
much more reliable and therefore are used by the EUROSTAT office to
make its “predictions,” place the real number of unemployed much
higher, over 6.2 million workers. The reason for the difference between
registered unemployment and the SEAP, which grows as the recession
progresses, is simple: many unemployed workers do not register,
discouraged about the ability of government agencies to find them a job.
[...] After the great demonstrations at the end of last year,
symbolized by the General Strike of November 14 and the white tide of
Madrid health care workers, the government changed its tactic: with the
collaboration of the main opportunist union leaders it pretended to
“moderate” the attacks and adopted an attitude of calculated vagueness
in its statements that perfectly synthesize Rajoy's words to the press
that he would not raise taxes... unless the situation made it
necessary: a monument to cynicism.
But the truth is that he is going ahead with his plans at all levels:
In the first quarter, he imposed Strategy for Entrepreneurship and
Youth Employment, which he claimed would provide new incentives for
employers to hiring youths in more precarious conditions. He also
imposed a reform of the pension system that would make it harder for
certain groups at risk of social exclusion (those unemployed who are
over 55 years, forced early retirement, etc.) to gain access and he
attacked partial retirement (the relief contract which previously
allowed the replacement of workers near retirement age, with a long
professional career, with new workers). Besides these two new attacks,
other reactionary reforms are ongoing: of the Criminal Code, of the Law
on Abortion, etc.
To all this must be added the numerous corruption scandals that affect
all the institutions of the regime, including the royal family: the
Gurtel scandal, whose judicial investigation lasted for years and led
to the expulsion from the judiciary of one of the star judges of the
High Court (Baltasar Garzon), as well as the revelations this year of
the case of Barcenas (formerly responsible for the national finances of
the PP [People’s Party]). This scandal, which involved almost all the
leaders of the PP who received millions in commissions in envelopes and
finance the election campaigns with the “help” of big business,
provoked a wave of outrage that gradually has been silencing legal
formalism and the fear of the “opposition “ to cover themselves to
avoid being implicated in other proceedings that affect them. The
scandal of the EREs in Andalusia (whose investigation was conducted by
a judge with ties of friendship to the current mayor of Seville, of the
PP) or Bankia (on whose Board of Directors sat some “ representatives”
of the institutional left who share “sins” with the most rotten right).
Among the most notorious cases of corruption is the so-called Noos
case, which involves the son-in-law of Bourbon, I. Urdangarin and his
wife ([Christina] the daughter of Juan Carlos [King of Spain, of the
House of Bourbon – translators note]).
To avoid implicating her, the prosecutor and the royal family have
resorted to all sorts of legal arguments. His lawyer, in a symbolic
parable of monarchist Spain, is Miguel Roca, one of the fathers of the
Constitution of 1978 and known representative of Catalan bourgeois
nationalism. Finally it is probable that it will not end by implicating
Christina of Bourbon, but the scandal has revealed that the highest
institution of Franco’s hereditary state is completely involved in
corruption. At the same time, it has shown the intimate connection
between the Bourbons and the top-ranking reactionary politicians who
govern the institutions of the regime.
[...] It is true that the
protests were able to limit and soften the attacks, even though they
have not put an end to them. It is important to consider, to the extent
that, in the absence of a center that would be able to coordinate and
direct all struggles to overcome the regime, the feeling of frustration
can spread and cause discouragement in the popular movement.
The fear of the reformists bent on waging their battle with white
gloves within the institutions at the blow of the commission of
investigation and amendment, along with the sectarian disdain of the
radical-opportunists, is contributing to the divisions in the struggles
and their lack of objectives. Neither the one nor the other has done
anything to carry out the slogan of: “Government, resign!” which has
nevertheless caught on among the broadest masses. Once again, the
movement and its objectives go their separate ways: on the one hand the
sparks and all kinds of spontaneous expression of outrage and being fed
up; on the other, the parliamentary white glove. On the one hand the
tides: of green, white, black, etc. [uniforms – translators note];
on the other the State Pact that offers the majority of the
parliamentary “opposition” parties and opportunist leaders of the two
main trade unions of the masses, Toxo and Mendez, reinforce with their
agreement with the government and employers which was put into effect
on May 16 at the Moncloa Palace [residence of the Prime Minister – translator’s note].
Rajoy has set the boundaries of the “dialogue”: they will not change a
single one of his plans for cutbacks. In exchange for nothing, the
opportunists who lead the CCOO and UGT [Workers’ Commissions and
General Union of Workers, major trade union federations in Spain – translator s note]
offer an “inevitable consensus of the country” (sic). In the joint
statement signed by the government, employers and unions, they also
agreed on a “unity of action within the European institutions to
strengthen the national interests in a community spirit.” This seems to
be the main line of the pact that the government wants. Thus they
intend to place all the blame on the European Union for the cutbacks,
absolving the government from this, which is simply applying the
adjustments to avoid an even harsher intervention by imperialist Europe.
In the same document, they agreed to achieve “the moderate evolution of
wages and corporate profits... and prices.” A recent report by the
European Central Bank shows that reality has nothing to do with such
“good intentions”: the profits of big business are excessive (they rose
an average of 1.4% in 2012), the same with prices, especially of staple
goods (which have gone up 3%), while wages have fallen (more than 8 %
in that same year). The signatories also acknowledged that the so-
called Strategy for Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment, approved by
the Government by decree, was the result of a process of dialogue and
participation with the social partners. This (once again) leaves in a
bad place the CCOO opportunist leaders, who said that they disagreed
with this measure and “recognized” the error of their photo in the
Ministry of Labor in the presentation of the strategy.
The signatories of the statement showed their agreement on another
point in finding and eliminating duplicity and unnecessary spending on
Public Administration, which reinforces the government's intention to
amend the Basic Law on Local Government.(1)
And finally, the Government's intention to deal a new and devastating
blow to the pension system (following the “recommendations” of the EU)
was sped up, bringing closer the implementation of the reform of 2011
and defining the so-called “sustainability factor,” which is the first
step to unlinking public pensions from the Consumer Price Index and
lowering them when the government in office considers it necessary.
The first test of the real extent of the dialogue begun on May 16 was
soon given by Rajoy himself, during his visit to Durao Bar- roso
[President of the European Commission – translator’s note]
on June 5. There he expressed his agreement with the recommendations of
the European Commission, which leaves little doubt about the direction
of the coming reform:
The newspaper El Pais, in its issue of June 6 2013, stated: “Before
the end of 2013 the sustainability factor of pensions should be
regulated, establishing retirement age based on life expectancy. ”
Besides, “in early 2014 the ‘Law of Deindexing’ should be in place,
which will unlink the increase in public pensions and wages from
inflation. Rajoy also stated that he was ruling out an increase in the
VAT (Value Added Tax) for the ‘short term ’, but did not close the door
to raising the tax on some consumer products. ”
And if there was any doubt, the newspaper insisted: “The
prescriptions of the EU are not an imposition for the simple reason
that they ‘coincide substantially ’, on the steps and in stages,...
with those contained in the Program of Stability or the National Plan
of Reforms. While in recent months Rajoy has publicly ruled out raising
the VAT, increasing the retirement age or touching the labor reform...
On the contrary. He stated that if the reforms are good for Spain, the
best is to make them “as soon as possible”. So, he considered it
‘probable ’ that the reform of the pension system ‘could be finished
before the end of the year ’ and that the comprehensive reform of the
tax system would be adopted the following year ’.”
We see a
complete lack of actual content in an agreement that is in itself a
boost to the Government, which is rejected by the vast majority of
citizens and which should fall to open a new political period. And a
betrayal by the opportunist leaders of the CCOO and UGT.
On Friday June 7 the so-called “experts’ report” was made public on the
definition of the “sustainability factor” of the public pension system,
a term that already appeared in the text of the ASE (pension agreement)
of January 2011. Most of the experts who prepared the report [...] are
in the pay of the financial institutions or insurance companies (BBVA,
ECSC, UNESPA, etc.). But the surprise became apparent when the “expert
“ proposed by the CCOO, Miguel Angel Garcia, voted for the report that
proposed delinking pensions from the CPI and their future determination
by two new formulas that determine pensions by other factors: the
number of pensioners, state income, etc.
In Spain, where public spending on pensions is 10% of GDP compared with
an average of 13% in the European Union, a group of phony independent
experts approved a report that justifies further cuts, supported by the
representative of the principal union. As expected the shock has been
enormous: thousands of union members and cadres demanded explanations;
the leadership of the federation (of the CCOO) issued a first report that was absolutely shameful, which simply said: “the
report is just that, a report, which is not binding on the Government,
nor on the Spanish Parliament, nor on the social partners.”
[...] There have been many organizations that have issued resolutions
critical of this new trick of the right opportunists who lead the CCOO
at a time when the prestige of the union is at its lowest. We emphasize
here, besides the two statements mentioned above, the resolutions of
the Federations of Education in Madrid and Castilla Leon and the Union
Section of Nissan. There have been many people who, carried away by a
visceral impulse, have disaffiliated; there have been many delegates
who on Monday the 10th claimed to be “sick” to avoid the pressure of
their comrades of the Union Section, with the hope of receiving a
minimum explanation of what was happening.
All indications are that the plan that the small group of opportunist
leaders who dictate the policy of the CCOO had concocted outside the
leadership bodies (including the Executive of the Federation itself)
made an error in assessment (probably the result of the growing
isolation from reality of the main leader Toxo (and Co.), who do not
understand the new situation and see themselves as acceptable and
accepted partners). They are waiting to strike again, as in 2011,
raising support for the conclusions of the report as the lesser evil.
But the brutality of the proposals in the document, their lack of the
least rigor, the absolutely partial character of the opinion of its
authors and the unlimited stupidity of its expert, his cockiness and
submissive and sold-out attitude, have led to the first internal revolt
in the CCOO
[...]. A convulsion whose consequences will last, because although
at the extraordinary meeting of the Federation Executive, on Tuesday at
11 AM, and of the General Secretaries of the federations and
territories, that same afternoon, was called upon to close ranks, this
blow has sown distrust in the style of leadership among many, a
majority, of the cadres.
Toxo, true to form, has not acknowledged his responsibility nor that of
any of his collaborators; he has limited himself to considering that
the leadership had made an error, period. He has refused to punish the
author of the mess, although many people had asked for his punishment
and ended up criticizing those who, when they took office, rapidly
avoided a greater discredit of the union: the critical sector and the
members of the technical cabinet of the federation.
Let no one doubt that Carlos Bravo and Co. will try to silence the
response to the more than likely blow that the government is preparing
against pensions (it is very likely that it will take advantage of the
summer to carry it out). But with the blunder of the “expert,” Miguel
Angel will find it very difficult to justify a new betrayal such as
that of January 2011.
[...] As we see, when the trade union movement should lead the
demonstrations, providing them with some common objectives (first among
which should be the resignation of the government) and lead the
struggles in a class sense, the opportunist leaders bow their heads and
provide a “consensus for the country” together with the neo-Franco
right wing and the big parasitic and speculative employers and they
clumsily engage in a sham concocted to justify a final blow to the
public pension system.
Toxo, Mendez and their teams of collaborators are well aware that “the
photo” of May 16 is also a blow against the credibility, already
extremely weakened by their continuous hesitation and cowardice, of the
mass unions, which end up assimilating one more of the institutions of
the regime that is discredited in the eyes of most citizens.
Why this new surrender? Why this unnecessary gesture that causes more
confusion among the cadres and members of the unions and weakens trade
unionism at a time when it is increasingly necessary to organize the
workers to defend their rights?
There are many factors that explain this attitude, including the fear
of Toxo, Mendez and Co. that the abuses will come out to light of some
of the hatchet men who have guaranteed their support and maintained
internal peace in the crackdown against the class-struggle unionists
(whether coordinated in the critical sector, such as in the CCOO, or
not), in exchange for agreeing to the games of the new incompetent rich
on the Boards of Directors of the Savings Banks, or allowing them to
continue greasing a complex structure of grants of subsidies that would
ensure “service unionism” that, in the absence of class politics,
maintained control of the CCOO and UGT in the hands of Fidalgo or
Gutierrez respectively.
[...] The class enemy knows the intimate link between the employers and
some opportunist leaders because it was the class enemy who encouraged
this complicity. Now they are willing to use that information, not
against those who have been corrupted (they always have real impunity
that the judicial system in this country has guaranteed to the corrupt,
through delayed trials, formal obstacles, etc.), but against the very
idea of trade unionism, understood as the independent organization for
the defense of our class against the bourgeoisie.
In this task, the class enemy finds an unexpected ally in the
radical-opportunist currents, which join the attack on mass unionism,
extending the misery of their unprincipled leaders to all the trade
unionists, not understanding that they are not Alende, Paredes and Co.
[leaders of the CCOO – translator’s note] who are in danger, but the
very idea of unionism.
The fear that the government, threatened by continued corruption
scandals, would turn on the fan which will end up splattering shit on
everything, is, as we say, one of the likely factors that explain this
new surrender of the opportunist apparatus. But it is not the only one,
not even the main one. Above this is the class essence of the current
that dominates the trade union apparatus in Spain. It is a current that
arose from revisionism in all its variants (reformism, Trotskyism,
etc.) that for years fomented a type of unionism centered on sectors of
the labor aristocracy, accustomed to pacts and consensus, and which
have run out of time, in a situation in which their mentor no longer
needs their services if there is no commitment completely in defense of
the policy of the oligarchy.
The “excessive responsibility” of Toxo and Mendez, who will sign
anything put in front of them, even knowing that they would thus lose
support among workers, has been forged through blows of internal
repression and threats by the apparatus of power. The case of the
Housing Cooperative PSV, for example, was the payment by Felipe
Gonzalez for the effort of the then Secretary General of the UGT,
Nicolas Redondo Sr. to distance himself from the anti-worker policies
of the Government of Mr. X. In the CCOO there are constant reprisals
against the internal opposition. Thus there has been ingrained a type
of unionism submissive to those in power, fearful and cowardly, more
concerned about maintaining control of the organization at all costs
than about meeting its responsibilities to the workers.
Nevertheless, in spite of their leaders, the mass trade unions today
are necessary because they are powerful organized structures, which
organize the most conscious sectors of our class. It is for this reason
that, particularly now, we communists call for a redoubling our efforts
to establish and consolidate the classconscious sectors of the mass
unions. It is precisely now when we have to intensify the battle to
isolate those who collaborate with the class enemy, when we must
contend more diligently for the leadership against the right
opportunists.
[...] The battle has just begun. The attitude of other union currents
that call themselves “revolutionary” only contributes to the division
in the struggles. We must work for unity also in the union sphere, and
to reinforce the main organizations that are able to articulate the
general struggles of the workers’ movement. If the class-struggle
unionists leave the field open, the result will be an even greater
weakness of the workers’ movement.
New massive demonstrations and General Strikes are coming (and soon).
In the short term, as we will see below, the political battle will come
to the fore, not only due to the proximity of the elections, but
because only the political struggle can provide the consistency that
the union and citizen’s movement need.
The mass trade unions have represented, for a long time, the only
organized bastion (despite their limitations) capable of confronting
the reactionary avalanche that dominates the political agenda.
Certainly, they are an instrument whose leadership has been taken over
by unworthy leaders. But something similar (if not worse) has occurred
in the field of the political left. And the fact is that, with a
popular movement that is divided (and despite its advances, though this
is the case), spineless and disoriented, the ORGANIZATION (in capital
letters) is very necessary. We can not give it up, nor are we able to
create another organic alternative that is able to play the role that
the CCOO and UGT must play.
[...]
On the Unity of the Left
[...] ... the fascist sectors that now dominate the state apparatus,
the government and the PP, openly raised the need for a strong
government that addresses the problems without political formalisms, a
government of technicians is not subject to democratic control, that
the contradiction is not between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat,
nor between the right and left as its political expression, but between
“those at the top” and “ those at the bottom,” between politicians (in
general) and the people (in general, without class distinction).
Since our previous CC the attacks of capital and the general
mobilization of the masses have continued. On February 23 (the day that
the Congress of the Federation of the CCOO ended) a march was held in
which huge numbers of citizens took to the streets in their hundreds of
thousands. In Murcia a march was held on March 16. These demonstrations
have a new feature: thousands of Republican flags, spontaneous slogans
and shouts demanding the resignation of the government, which showed
that the popular movement was passing from the initial naivete evident
in the demonstrations of March 15, to a more conscious attitude,
seeking a solution to the situation in political terms.
[...] In the pages of October
we have criticized the positions of a certain sector of Trotskyism
that, in the pages of ATTAC, called for the defense of Rajoy against an
alleged plot of the financial speculators, hurt by the “courage” of
Mariano [Rajoy – translator’s note] towards the markets, that called
for the EU to carry out a policy of investments and to “refuse” to
implement the reforms that it has demanded.
These days, there has
been insistent talk of the imminence of a State Pact. As we have said,
the PP has very clearly marked the conditions of the Pact by limiting
the agreement to a “consensus” of the political forces of the regime
before the European Institutions, but making it clear that the
government will not change its policy of cutbacks. [...]
As the crisis develops our political predictions are being confirmed.
The various forces show their class essence beyond the phraseology more
or less committed to the system, to the point that the opportunist
leaders, forced to choose, moved swiftly to join the ranks of the most
reactionary neoliberalism, even though they are conscious of the fact
that this submissive attitude has more and more disparaged and
discredited them among the workers.
[...] ... The Rajoy government is reliably fulfilling the orders of the
European imperialist troika and will continue to relentlessly implement
their policy of cutbacks. So, after the last months and a widespread
general and sectoral demonstration, the situation was put forward to
our class and to the peoples of Spain in all its harshness: without
organization and without politics it is not possible to defend oneself
effectively against the waves of cutbacks that the government has
unleashed month after month. To accomplish both things, organization
and politics, we must begin to raise rigorously the need for unity.
[...] Now, the Rajoy government and the immense propaganda apparatus
that sustains it, is presenting itself as champion of a group of
countries that are fighting for the EU to commit itself to a policy of
investment and public spending. He says that pessimism is in retreat
and speaks of green shoots, based on the numbers of unemployed recorded
in the last three months, although all the figures (including those of
the SEAP) show the complete opposite.
Moreover, we know that the very successor crowned by Franco [King Juan Carlos – translator’s note]
has met “discreetly” with the last three presidents of the Government:
Gonzalez, Aznar and Zapatero, to ask for unity. The unity of the forces
of the oligarchy to openly defend the interests of capital, to prop up
a regime that has been discredited before the majority of the working
masses. A unity to continue mercilessly pounding a people who are
suffering from already intolerable rates of unemployment, insecurity
and misery.
[...] Similarly, the nationalist forces are stirring up
in a timely manner the specter of controlled sovereignty and are
engaged in a pointless fight, among themselves and with the
representatives of the PP and PSOE [Socialist Party of the Workers of
Spain], at the expense of the last days of the economic agreement of
the Basque Country and Navarra.
That is, although it seems that we are experiencing a situation of
relative calm, tension continues to build. Presently, if the political
explosion that everyone expects to be imminent has not yet taken place,
it is because the forces that the masses have so far identified as left
in the institutions remain committed in one way or another to
supporting the regime and they are afraid to clearly confront the
government, in order not to cause a situation that is getting out of
hand.
[... ] It is true that bipartisanship is sinking, but that tension has
not yet been sufficiently translated into an organized, articulate and
united response in the sense of overcoming the regime. This
insufficient maturity of the movement is being utilized by the
institutional left and the trade union leaders to justify their
passivity, if not their commitment to the reactionary regime and heir
of Franco.
[...] The picture that we have been describing has unleashed a marathon
of initiatives that have in common the search, at least formally, for
the unity of the left. Some of these initiatives share increasingly
openly with us the view that the unity should be around a minimum
political objective: without a rupture with the regime of continuity,
without returning to the starting point and finishing the job that the
institutional left abandoned by accepting the transition and its
commitment not to break with the Franco power structure, it is not
possible to bring about a real change in the economic, social and
political situation nor to overcome the capitalist crisis, without a
huge cost in social terms. Another sector that is being manipulated by
the political chieftains of the various revisionist families denies
that this must be the priority of the popular movement.
The point is that, in Spain, we have been witnessing for some time a
relentless dance of initiatives of “convergence,” including real
“experiments” in the formation of new “points of reference” that are
repeating many of the deviations previously tried in the old capitalist
Europe, as the so-called “crisis of values of the left” was growing.
Since the refoundation of the IU, sponsored by Enrique de Santiago
among others, through the Round Tables, to the Civic Front of Julio
Anguita, etc., there has been a marathon of proposals coinciding in one
point: what is important is the program that is proposed, the objective
does not matter. Some say this explicitly.(2) Others decorate it with
more radical language: “the
communists should be at the forefront of the experiments (sic) of unity
of action that are the prelude to wider battles ” (Javier Parra, director of larepublica.es, “The communists and the ongoing social unrest: towards the United Front”). They all take
note of the crisis of liberalism and the growing activity and influence
of the social movements among broad strata of society (Ibid)(3) in
order to finally confine the popular movement to street protests:
politics is left to those who so far have represented the popular
interests in institutions, in such an unfortunate manner.
The main
leaders of the IU, who really control the internal power and dominate
the politics of pacts and compromise agreements hatched with the
majorities of the coalition: people like Angel Perez, Llamazares, Meyer
and Co. [of the United Left – translator’s note],
believe that the continuation of the unitary noise, in the “mystical”
terms of the melody of most of these initiatives, there will be more
votes for the lists that they control.
This sector of leaders does
not really want a unitary bloc of the left, much less willing are they
for this bloc to put forward a program of breaking with the regime.
They fight among themselves viciously, but they join forces against
attempts at real unity of the class because their real aim is to
“surpass” the Italian: a majority of the UI in the left that would
force the PSOE to agree, as in Andalusia. It is that model and not that
of the AGE in Galicia that interests the revisionist leaders.
And yet, there are (increasingly) important sectors within the IU / PCE
[Communist Party of Spain] (and the PSOE) who are committed to unity in
the only sense that it is possible to the point that we have reached:
unity to bring about the Third Republic and form a political bloc of
the left against the oligarchy.
[...] In our previous Enlarged Plenum we insisted on the need to
strengthen our contacts with the sectors of the parties of the
institutional left that share our unitary positions, of advancing
toward the formation of a Popular
Front, or Popular Bloc against the oligarchic minority.
What happened these last few months confirms the correctness of that
aim. The holding of events in Galicia, Valencia, Cantabria, etc. has
proven that it increases the internal tension in the left
organizations, the unease with the opportunist elements in the
leadership and the unitary consciousness.
The event of May 18 in the Marcelino Camacho Auditorium of the CCOO in
Madrid is an example of what we say: this act raised very important
expectations in a part of the PCE and IU and has improved the
coordination of sectors that share with us the need for unity for the
democratic rupture.
We must deepen the task that we set in our previous Enlarged Plenum:
building bridges with these sectors and helping them to coordinate with
us. We must be clear, however, that as the election period approaches,
the tension grows and our work advances, the pressure by the
revisionists will grow exponentially (not only by the reformers, but
also by the radical- opportunists), their maneuvers and attacks.
As we have seen on the occasion of the fiasco of the representative of
opportunism in the commission of “experts” that caused an important
internal reaction, an ever growing part of the organized left is
starting to move in the right direction, willing to put aside secondary
differences to work for common goals. We will have to face
difficulties, but we will have to work enthusiastically to develop a
popular bloc that will let us begin a qualitative change in the present
balance of forces that are clearly favorable to reaction.
Without ever forgetting that our priority is to strengthen our own
camp, because we know that we also need to change the balance of forces
within the left in order to foster unity, and to create leadership
teams with comrades ready and able to carry out the political struggle.
Because one of the fundamental problems we face is to draw to us the
mass of workers who remain alienated from politics and disoriented; an
army that, once it is in motion, is unstoppable, but that lately shows
signs of a certain discouragement, frustrated by the political misery
of the country, by fear and docility of those who lead the
organizations that should today be heading the social response.
Plenum of the Central Committee, held in June of this year (2013). The full text can be seen on our website: www.pceml.info
Notes:
1) From the draft it is known that from the reform will
emerge an unprecedented attack on democratic rights and the poor
participation of citizens: it is meant to force municipalities to abide
by the criteria for spending set by the government, even threatening
intervention; to limit the number of elected representatives in the
councils and in general to submit the Local Government to the direct
control of the Autonomous Regions and Provincial Councils, which are
the two main areas of corruption and despotism.
2) Anguita,
as we analyzed in his day in the pages of October, expressed it in
these erroneous terms: “The speed of a convoy is that of the last of
its components,” which led him to defend the formation of his
alternative starting with a concrete program that is applicable,
perfectly malleable, developable and legal (see article in October).
3) Javier Parra, in the same writing also made clear
that his proposal does not go to the heart of the problem when he
stated: “a
united, social and popular front, that has nothing to do with the
electoral process or with the representation in local or national
institutions, but with the implementation of participatory and
executive mechanisms that would be able to exercise an effective
counter-power.”
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