Impunity yesterday, 155 from today: Puigdemont freedom and all political prisoners

Does Spanish "democracy" work? Are democratic freedoms being curtailed? Do I need to make changes? Which would be?

Until the 23 of March the judge of the Supreme Court (TS) Pablo Llarena has accused 25 catalan leaders. Most are political prisoners or exiles, with accusations ranging from disobedience to rebellion and embezzlement, with penalties that can reach 30 years in prison.
On Sunday 25 ousted catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, was arrested in Germany, after crossing the border from Denmark. He was transferred to Neumuenster prison.. Merkel's police acted with the support of Spanish intelligence services (CNI) by virtue of the Euro arrest warrant of judge Pablo Llarena. A German judge will decide whether to release him or send him to the High Court to extradite him.
With this offensive they intend to completely decapitate the "Procès". The Spanish attack generated a tremendous anger, large mobilizations to the German embassy, to the delegations of the Spanish government, saucepans, roadblocks and highways. The fundamental calls were made by the CDRs and the ANC. And the actions will continue. There were clashes with the Mossos, who repressed the protesters, causing injuries and arrests.
Happenings clean, the government of M.. Rajoy, declared the 1O Referendum illegal, in which more than two million Catalans said YES to the Republic. The Civil Guard appealed to repressive charges against people who were voting peacefully. Then, dismissed President Carles Puigdemont and intervened in Catalan institutions, ending autonomy. He called for illegitimate elections that he lost by beating. And he also did not recognize the result since, via the High Court, disqualified Parliament from investing three proposed presidents: Carles Puigdemont, Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Turull. The Generalitat continues to be intervened by the vice president of the Spanish State, Maria Soraya de Santa Maria.
The threat to maintain the validity of the 155 still dormant. In the meantime, there is censorship, singers sentenced to prison for the lyrics of their songs, indicted for tweeting against the King or burning his image, putting on a clown nose next to a civil guard or for "fomenting hatred."
For European capitalist governments, supposed champions of “advanced democracy”, the independentistas are criminals, the fugitive exiles and the promoters of the seditious Referendum. For these reasons and the fear that other peoples will take the path of self-determination, support Rajoy's measures for Catalonia to return to "normality".
we see it differently. The offensive against the Catalan people has the characteristics of a coup to crush the will for self-determination of those who have a different opinion.
The division of powers is at least, in doubt. The Judicial Power functions as a dependency of the Executive Power or dictates, placing more emphasis on the political than on the legal. The monarchical-constitutional regime acquires increasingly Bonapartist characteristics.
The situation is serious and, without a doubt it affects elementary human rights. Authoritarian measures apply mainly to Catalans, but they do succeed, then they will be taken as a model to use on other oppressed peoples and the working class.
Because, it is a mistake not to face the 155 and its measures throughout the Spanish State, beyond sympathizing or not with the independence cause. Even without sharing the policy of the majority leaders of ERC and JxCAT, as is our case. The mobilization of the Catalan people continues to be the fundamental reinsurance to stop the Spanish offensive and advance towards the Republic. The fundamental base to be expanded is in the workers and peoples of the Iberian Peninsula and around the world, not in the European capitalist governments to which the Catalan leadership appeals.
Democratic demands are immediate, like the social ones for decent pensions, wages, public education and health, gender rights and other claims that cannot wait, nor should they oppose.
The issues linked to institutions and the regime are very deep, there are elements of continuity between the past and the present that cannot be ignored and that make it necessary to propose solutions that, based on immediate needs, they are staggered towards a bottom exit. What are those issues that we attach so much importance to?? Many of them are debated daily.

Dictatorship and Transition

After defeating the Spanish revolution, Francoism imposed brutal levels of exploitation on the working class during 40 years. The dictatorial regime committed political murders, chased, tortured and imprisoned revolutionaries and fighters. It also crushed social, culturally and economically to the oppressed peoples of the peninsula.
After Franco's death in 1975 The period known as “The Transition” began. The previous year the Carnation Revolution had occurred in Portugal, that overturned the Salazar dictatorship that had governed since 1926. Inspired by the neighboring revolution and hopeful by the death of Franco, the workers took to the streets. He began a strong rise of the class struggle, with waves of strikes over wage increases and democratic claims, such as freedom of association and freedom of political prisoners. Also it revived the struggle of nationalities.

The regime erected by Franco faltered. But there were parties that acted to dismantle the mobilization and collaborate with the needs of capitalism.. The Spanish Communist Party (PCE), the union center Workers Commissions (CC.OO.), the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and the General Union of Workers (UGT), They made an agreement with King Juan Carlos de Borbón and the Francoist political forces, the future political regime. This involved endorsing the monarchy, the continuity of the army, the impunity of those responsible for crimes against humanity and the decisive weight of the Catholic Church. The agreement was consecrated with the elections of 1977, the adjustment arising from the Moncloa Pact and the approval of the Constitution of 1978. The main nationalist parties ended up entering into this agreement, giving up the right to self-determination and accepting limited autonomy. ERC was the case and the parties grouped in Convergence and Union after the adoption of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia in 1979.
The '78 regime, alternation between the PSOE and the PP (Popular party, the most recent heir of the old right), with the support of traditional nationalist parties, They provided the Spanish and European bourgeoisies with the stability required to guarantee their profits..
Franco died, but the judges, the established economic power, The repressive apparatus and its executors maintained impunity and its antidemocratic essence..
It is impossible not to remember the murder of our colleague Yolanda González, student, worker and activist of the Socialist Workers Party (PST), that we claim as our ancestor. February 1 1980 She was kidnapped and murdered with several shots to the head.. The crime was carried out by a “Fuerza Nueva” commando, the party of the Spanish fascist Blas Piñar, who acted with impunity during the Transition. Emilio Hellín Moro was the material author of the crime that later continued to be active for different repressive forces of the Spanish State..

From the immediate to the strategic

Today, The immediate task is to defeat the 155 by M. Rajoy, enough of the chase, and annulment of the cases against the independentists. The way to achieve this is the broadest unity of action, in Catalonia and in the Spanish State, with massive mobilizations and general strike. It is necessary to appeal to the pronouncement and actions of the people of the world in a strong international campaign against the curtailment of democratic freedoms and the attack on human rights.. Freedom for Carles Puigdemont and political prisoners.
They are political causes, very deep historical and social aspects that make it time and again, with greater or lesser intensity, the exhaustion of a regime born from the bowels of a dictatorship is expressed. The Constitution of '78 was shaped to save capitalism and revive the monarchy.
Although the PP, citizens, the PSOE and others, they support the king and the bourgeois institutions, the problems not resolved by the Transition come to the fore again. The fact that the dictatorial regime did not fall due to mobilization, left clear anti-democratic traits alive.
For these reasons, It is a historical necessity and a present task, form an Independent Investigative Commission, declassify secret files, rebuild the destroyed, investigate without ties and bring to light the whole truth about crimes against humanity. The laws of impunity must be annulled and the repressors of yesterday and today punished.
Beyond the partial projects and electoral poses of Podemos, PSOE and others, there is the power of mobilization, the only one who can open the way in the face of impunity.
Judge Pablo Llarena acts arbitrarily and politically, argues violence against Catalans, but the only violent ones are the ones he defends. It is essential that judges be elected by popular vote and be independent, not hand-picked to defend the current government tooth and nail. In many countries there are People's Courts that can play a positive role.
The current institutions are exhausted. The electoral system is armed to favor the PP-PSOE two-party system, Democratic mechanisms such as the 1O Referendum in Catalonia are not recognized, nor other instances of popular consultation.
Political officials live as privileged and their positions are not revocable., although they mock the mandates they received at the polls. If they want to dedicate themselves to public service, They should earn the same as a skilled worker and be obliged to use public services like anyone else.
The sum of nonsense is in the existence of the monarchy, reactionary and perimide. Definitely, The '78 regime is at the service of sustaining the capitalist system of hunger and oppression by appealing to all the mechanisms of violence of the bourgeois state. The charges against people voting in Catalonia are an example of what they are capable of doing to avoid self-determination. And they are not going to stop to talk, nor to give a political solution unless the struggle imposes it on them. They are determined to go to the end, That is why it is key to organize to face all the circumstances posed by State violence.. The CDRs are a great example to strengthen and extend.
The Spanish State has a history of social oppression, politics, economic and cultural on different nationalities. He always denied the right to self-determination and for the people of the Iberian Peninsula to decide what relationship they want to have with each other.. Even autonomy is permanently backdated in all areas. The times demand profound changes, not come from the central government, or electioneering proposals bourgeois or pseudo progressive parties. They will be born of popular participation, democratic and organized, with the momentum that once expressed 15M. To debate and decide everything, it is necessary to call a Constituent Assembly, Free and Sovereign.
On this way, we will continue building a revolutionary and socialist party, raising the need to defeat capitalism, to govern the workers and the people. Our strategy is a Federation of Socialist Republics of the Iberian Peninsula, with full workers democracy.