CUP debates

Some leftist groups participate in the exchange of opinions and formulate proposals.

The candidacy Popular Unity (CUP) develops a debate on the strategy for process towards the Catalan Republic and the conjunctural tactics facing the upcoming regional elections of the 14 February. We reiterate our gratitude to the comrades of the CUP for allowing us to participate fraternally in the debate in different instances: in the assemblies of the CUP L´Hospitalet (whose list municipal we participate in 2019), in the plenary held in Sabadell and in the telematic meeting “Nodes; Debates of popular unity " among other. Giving continuity in the exchange of opinions, we will outline some points of view.

After the application of 155, the repression of the '78 regime has not stopped, there are political prisoners and exiles. The refusal to recognize the third degree to the Catalan leaders unjustly imprisoned, the dismissal of the President Quim Torra for hanging a banner from the balcony of the Palace of the Generalitat, the continuation of the persecution and punishment of activists who demand for democratic rights, They categorically demonstrate the intention of revenge of the Spanish institutionality and the objective of crushing by all means the road to self-determination .  

Meanwhile, ERC formations, JxCat and PdeCat maintain a general independence discourse, but they have not raised a consistent struggle for the rupture and the concretion of the Republic. From the Govern and the Parliament are oriented to the recovery of limited autonomy, from an alleged dialogue with the bourgeois government PSOE-UP, from which the holding of a referendum agreed with the oppressors derives.

Despite the repressive oppression of some and the inconsistency of others, It is not yet the last word. The Catalan people have not been bowed, beyond the situation of decline in the intensity of the mobilizations, within it there is a majority that remains firm in specifying the mandate expressed in the 1-O Referendum.

Distant from both, The Popular Unity Candidacy is critical of the majority Catalan parties, that's why he denounces them, he places them, deploys democratic and social proposals favorable to workers and the people. In this way, she has won the sympathy of a broad social sector and the respect of many activists who observe her with sympathy.. From our point of view, the CUP is faced with a great opportunity to become a strong alternative, on condition of overcoming the contradictions that stress it by adopting a policy sharply independent of the bourgeois parties, with an anti-capitalist program, an orientation that goes beyond the electoral framework to settle in the struggles and within the working class.

The documents presented by the CUP management allow an open debate and raise some important questions with which we agree, for example, the need to prepare a new attack against the state and the defense of self-determination. Nevertheless, are not crossed by the axis of the unilateral break, with the necessary tasks for the CUP to be hegemonic in a process of this type. The "Strategic unit" and the "Extension of the base" they should not be put into practice with organizations that directly defend the interests of the Catalan bourgeoisie, nor with those who act as your transmission belt. The reasons are of balance and perspective.

With relationship to the recent past and present, ERC, PdeCat, JxCat, they squandered the impressive power of mobilizations, deep in their fights electoral and apparatus caused divisions, caused confusion about the independence project and demoralization of many freedom fighters. They are responsible for the Aragonese Law, to carry out a management focused on sustain capitalist profits without privilege employment, since they did not go beyond "Signs of concern" before the layoffs at Nissan and other companies, they do nothing against precariousness labor, nor did the living conditions of the majority improve. Regarding the pandemic, They have played an unfortunate role that has not privileged investment in healthcare public, nor respect for doctors and nurses eliminating precariousness in who risk their lives every day. Because, before the second wave of Covid-19 are replacing the lack of public resources, with new limitations to democratic rights, such as the militarization of health that implies curfew, and the continuity of focusing responsibilities on population, as rightly points out the CUP. You can't put a gram of trust in variants employers and much less share government responsibilities with them.

With relationship to the future of the fight against the oppression of the Spanish State, at this time, the path to independence is intimately linked to the struggle anti-capitalist, against exploitation, precariousness, the settings, poverty and social inequalities. Precisely, all the issues that bourgeois cause sustain and reproduce. In this there are no national differences, the Catalan bourgeoisie will not be consistent until the end in the claim independentista, since it will put their class interests first. The Republic Catalan will be possible in a process led by the working class, with students, feminist groups, immigrants and other popular sectors, mobilized, making strikes and building their own power bodies. The path to independence cannot be dissociated from the path to socialism, nor consider in stages.

Strategic unity must be with the working class and the mobilized people, in the perspective of installing an alternative of real power, forged in struggles, in each work establishment, factory, hospital, CAP, university and school, in each City Council of the Catalan towns and cities. Promoting democratic and independent organization in the CDRs, in Popular Assemblies or in the form that the mobilized themselves decide. With the necessary disposition to: popular self-defense against repressive attacks, coordination of struggles, the push for civil disobedience, to the general strike and the unilateral rupture. This does not imply denying unity of action with the organizations with which there is some point of agreement to promote mobilization., for amnesty for political prisoners and exiles, the cessation of persecution, repression and other causes.

The state is refuses to grant a consensual referendum and no gap appears that indicate a change. The monarchical-parliamentary regime is weakened and going through an unprecedented crisis: Juan Carlos I is on the run for corruption, justice is severely challenged for its dependence on political power and with government institutions whose administrative offices are located in the "Sewers of the State". But, at the same time, its defenders are reaffirm the unity of Spain, using the club (PP) and the carrot (PSOE-UP) alternately with the same objective: defeat the Catalan people. They will not give in by democratic conviction or by a call from the bloc european imperialist, since they support the established order. If in some moment, faced with the force of mobilization due to the rupture or a sudden turn of the situation, the possibility of an agreed Referendum opens, could be a option to evaluate. In the meantime, propose the Referendum as an axis of the politics, leads to a dead end.

We consider wrong to contrast the democratic program for self-determination with the anti-capitalist program, of class independence. It is necessary to develop a transitional program that responds to both democratic aspirations and social, something that capitalism cannot guarantee, much less with a oppressive regime forged under Franco's ideology. Faced with a crisis in the unprecedented global economy, exacerbated by the health crisis caused by the pandemic, entrepreneurs aim to safeguard their profits at the cost of further exploitation, they want the crisis to be paid by the workers and the people. Capitalism cannot be fixed and cannot be humanized, as the reformists want us to believe, that's why stockings don't work inks, nor the patches, substantive proposals are needed. A "Socialist government, feminist and ecologist " it will only be able to favor the great popular majorities if the capitalism and a model of socialism with democracy is built.  

We do not belittle international aspects, since the authoritarian restrictions imposed with the excuse of the Covid-19 pandemic, do not stop the popular rebellions, how that of black people in the United States, as in lebanon, en Indonesia, Belarus or Chile, that mark the way forward. We believe that the battle for the Catalan Republic, it will not be defined only in Catalonia, nor depositing expectations that the imperialist EU bloc accepts that the breakdown of the status quo that they themselves designed and maintain. The essential thing is to achieve support of the workers and the peoples of the Spanish State and Europe, for the which you have to actively solidarity with the just struggles that lead ahead. further, We point out that we have no confidence in the progressive international, by who is part of it and by its reformist policy, enchalecada in the frameworks of the regimes and the capitalist system.

Substantive issues raised, that we consider in debate, We reaffirm a proposal to intervene in common, both in the struggles and in the elections, the formation of a radical left front. It would have been very useful, for example, in the fight against the closure of Nissan, to propose a policy independent of the employers, the union bureaucracy and governments, for nationalization under workers' control and, fundamentally, carry out a great support campaign throughout Catalonia, something that was not pushed, beyond expressed solidarity. The crisis of the capitalist economy, aggravated by the pandemic, has extended the strike, has deepened job insecurity, the poverty and inequality, because, a front is needed to turn around, as well as to face the pandemic with a unique health system, universal and free. An alliance endowed with a program to support the struggles, of rupture with the monarchical-parliamentary regime, with the EU and clearly anti-capitalist, that faces the government of the intended "Progressive coalition" PSOE-UP and a relentless fight against the right and the extreme right represented by the PP, Citizens and Vox and not be influenced by "Siren sings" of the parties of the Catalan bourgeoisie. That drives the emergence of new leaders union, combative and democratic, before the betrayals of the UGT and CC.OO bureaucracy. Such training could be very attractive to workers, feminist groups, youth and immigrants, for truly progressive and independent left personalities who are not party members.

The CUP develops open discussions, on many occasions it calls for unitary actions and carries out calls to the progressive and left sectors. It has the strength and the I root to stand up the construction of a radical left front, of class independence. It would be a big step forward if I called on make it happen. It would give a clear and unambiguous message about the strategy to fix and also give a clean and jerk to the dispute in the face of the next regional elections. from now, it would be more forceful if they were part Anticapitalists and Revolutionary Left. Like the participation of organizations such as the CRT, AT THE, Red Current and SOL. We need a front that does not stay in the middle on the way in their proposals for change, as it happens to the reformists. That variant is what is lacking so that they are not the bourgeois options of the regime, nor the far right, those that thrive on disappointment and growing popular discontent.

We believe that the debate in the CUP is not over, comrades continue to exchange opinions with agreements, differences and nuances, that's why we will continue participating. At the same time, it is very important to start laying the foundations for a principled regrouping, political and action of those who consider ourselves revolutionary socialists and internationalists, respecting the different origins from which we come and our own identities. Definitely, prioritizing coincidences while we patiently debate the differences by which we integrate different organizations.