Catalonia-12M: For a Left Front for elections and struggles

The electoral advance and the capitalist crisis raise the need and the opportunity to establish a new project for self-determination, anticapitalist, revolutionary and socialist.

The Catalan elections were scheduled for February 2025, but President Pere Aragonés ended the Legislature and set the new call for the 12 May 2024. The early elections were called after the Parliament rejected the budget 2024 presented by ERC with the support of the PSC, A determining point being the debate around the construction of the Hard Rock casino and its rejection by the CUP and the Commons. Nevertheless, This is not the only reason that explains why the elections are brought forward more than a year.

Responsible for a disaster

ERC is in political decline and that made them consider overtaking as a “lesser evil” before its wear continues to deepen. During Aragonés' period as head of the Government, salaries have been devalued with inflation and job insecurity has deepened.. Rents and rates for electricity and other services have risen to the point of being unpayable, public health and education conditions have continued to worsen. They have continued to use the armed arm of power, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to repress social movements, evict families and tenants. They have also given in to autonomism by negotiating with Pedro Sánchez and giving air to the regime. And now, with the terrible management that has been done of the drought, its failure to be an option for the population is reaffirmed. It is unfortunate to see the dispute between the leaders of ERC and Junts to demonstrate who is the best ally of the PSOE and to see who gets the "merits" of the agreements with Pedro Sánchez when, both the pardon for the independence leaders and the partial amnesty that they agreed upon, They are the result of the demands of the Catalan popular mobilizations. Pere Aragonés from power and Oriol Junqueras from the party, They are responsible for guiding a Government that is disastrous for working people, both in the democratic and social spheres.

For ERC « When a door closes, a window opens ».

With the new announcement of Aragonès, ERC intends to take advantage of the national situation that has placed the PSOE and, Consequently, the PSC in a position weakened by the corruption of the “Koldo Plot” that impregnates the ’78 regime with a smell of rotten. It is worth remembering that Salvador Illa, reference of the Catalan socialists, He was Minister of Health during the corruption scandal that is being investigated. Also among the most Spanish and reactionary sectors, a percentage of votes that punish the socialists for their approval of the amnesty law cannot be ruled out.. further, The decision also took into account the situation of the pro-independence parties.: Junts does not have a candidate yet, although Carles Puigdemont left the possibility of running ajar. And the CUP is focused on the “Garbí Process” for the “refoundation”. The progress in Catalonia has had consequences in the Spanish State , since the intensified dispute between ERC and Junts, crutches of the Sánchez government, has caused the PSOE to postpone the budget debate of 2024. asked for an agreement in the EU to decouple the price of electricity from the price of gas, One thing is the intentions of ERC and another is the results based on the changing political situations.. It will be seen if the advance is favorable to ERC or ends up sinking it, strengthening the PSC as the “original version” of reformist autonomism and not the “bad photocopy” of ERC.

We must turn our backs on the expressions of the regime and the system

Looking ahead to 12M we cannot place expectations on ERC, which is subject to corporate interests, as we have already seen with the failed attempt at Hard Rock, but still insists on moving forward, along with other projects such as the Fourth Belt, that are widely rejected by social and environmental movements. Junts also governed and is not so far from ERC, That's why he also made cuts and privatizations. Both bombard the unity of the independence movement from their own interests, which are those of the Catalan bourgeoisie. Beyond the “independence” rhetoric that they maintain, It would be a mistake to forget that they missed the historic opportunity to make the Catalan Republic a reality with the people in the streets and that, instead, They have set the course towards autonomy. The alternative should not be the PSC-PSOE, the most reliable option for entrepreneurs, nor the Commons, the beautiful face of the regime and capitalism. To consistently confront ERC and Junts, to the right of the PP, to the extreme right of Vox and Aliança Catalana, a different political alternative is necessary .

For a Left Front for elections and struggles

We must form a Left Front, with a class and transitional independence program, for a full amnesty, the defense of the territory, self determination, a government of the workers and the people and socialism. Made up of experienced militants, working class activists, of the feminist movement, environmentalist and student, with combative social platforms, immigrant rights advocates, anti-fascists and those who embrace the cause of a Free Sahara. It must be a tool that responds to the crisis of the '78 regime and the consequences of the capitalist economic crisis.; promoting the emergence of popular mobilization and the general strike to impose an agenda of "those from below", something that neither the regime parties nor the leaders of the majority unions do, delivered to the interests of employers and the governments in power .

Challenges and opportunities for the CUP and the left

The CUP has announced the start of the territorial debate that will culminate in a telematic vote to validate the electoral list. In this sense, from participation and support critical that we have offered to them on different occasions, We believe that the CUP and the pro-independence left can play an important role in class liberation if they make a call like the one we propose. Anticapitalists could also fulfill it. So that the anti-system approaches are consistent, It is necessary to get rid of any position of adaptation to the regime that, since if we are not forceful in this delimitation, could mark one before and one after on the path towards reformism. A radical left anti-capitalist alternative would be stronger with the participation of the groups that claim to be revolutionary socialists, like Socialism and Freedom, Internationalist Struggle, Izquierda Revolucionaria, CRT and Red Current. It is useful and urgent to hold a meeting to exchange opinions and explore the possibility of forging an alternative and class pole to the regime's options..