The Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) issued a resolution exposing the two-month PSOE Government regarding it relation with imperialism, monopoly capital versus the interests of the working class.
ICP, 3 August 2018
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of PCPE issued a Resolution on July 25th titled ‘No Trust in Social-democracy! For One Country for the Working Class!’. Almost two months after the motion of no confidence which made Pedro Sánchez the Prime Minister, the resolution addressing the working class and the working people of Spain pointed out the mistake to place any hope in the new socialdemocrat government of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and the need to struggle against its policies.
The Resolution reminded that all over history it has been confirmed that social-democracy claims to represents the worker majority but acts as ‘the most effective safeguard of the interests of monopolistic capital’. During periods of economic growth, they share out scraps while capitalism offers huge profits to big companies. In the 80's and 90's the PSOE carried out the measures that destroyed a good part of our Spain’s industrial infrastructure to integrate the country in the plans of the then European Economic Community (now EU). The EEC saw Spain ‘almost exclusively as a touristic destiny, with a very limited and specialised industry sector and absolutely dependent on the abroad in the energy subject’.
The labour reforms carried out by PSOE in those years worsened the working conditions and the life of the working class. The class gains of the previous century have been gradually dismantled despite the hard struggles of the workers' and popular movement which faced strong repression. The ‘social-democrat management of capitalism’ started the privatisations of health care and education, promoted the model of Bolonia in the university and one education system based on offering cheap workforce to businessmen. The Resolution exposed the hypocricy of the PSOE regarding the workers by refusing to abolish the 2010 and 2012 labour reforms, in contrast to their stance when they were in opposition. The Resolution said, ‘the social-democrats pretend to be different to the other political forces suggesting and carrying out some reforms of a cosmetic nature which neither address nor disrupt the situation of exploitation most of the population lives’.
According to the Resolution, ‘The evident limitations the Sánchez Government is already showing are not coming from its parliamentary weakness, but from the essence of social-democracy itself, which only aims to sweeten capitalism.’ The PCPE warned that the workers' and popular movement, especially the union movement against ‘taking a serious risk of falling again into the trap of trusting socialdemocracy’. It argued that the immediate deactivation of the main mobilisations that were being carried out against the previous government is ‘a worrying evidence that reformism is still dominating the union organisations' boards and that the politics of social pact, which has been translated as a gradual worsening of life and labour conditions for our class, is going to be reinforced in the next term’.
In the Resolution, the ‘politics of gestures’ of the two-month-long Sánchez Government was labeled as ‘a smokescreen to gain legitimacy both in Spain and abroad’. The Resolution said, ‘The decision adopted in the Aquarius ship, for instance, comes up against the government inaction in the other cases, less famous but equally terrible, which happen everyday in the Mediterranean Sea, in front of our coasts and our borders. We denounce this measure was adopted with the only goal of presenting the new Government as a parter willing to please the other European powers, which was materialised a few days later with the acceptance of reinforcing the migration polices of the EU, which voluntarily ignore the responsibility of the EU powers in the sharpening of the migration crisis, and the role itself of the previous PSOE Government in the destabilisation and pillaging of Northern Africa through the military intervention in Libya.’
The document asserted that the different governments of PSOE have been steady defenders of Spain’s membership of NATO, also supporting its ‘enlarging the participation in imperialist military interventions in the Mediterranean Area, Middle East, Africa and the Indian Ocean’. PSOE had showed its eagerness in placing Spain among imperialist powers by its leading role in the attacks against Libya, after Spain’s troops had retired from Iraq in 2004. The Resolution underlined that it is the mission of PSOE governments, like other capitalist governments, ‘to promote the relative position of Spanish monopolies abroad’.
In the Resolution, the PCPE argued that those who reach agreements with social-democracy 'aim to support and perfect the capitalist model' and warned the workers' and popular movement not to ‘lower the banners of struggle against this new capitalist Government’, not to assume 'the “lesser evil” theory’. It declared that in the next term the PCPE would focus on explaining ‘the experience accumulated in decades of struggle of the International Communist Movement, the lessons we have learnt about the role of social-democracy in Spain and all over the world, to prevent our class and our people to see themselves trapped in false dilemmas that will only assist the goal of maintaining exploitation and scarcity’.
The PCPE called the ensemble of the workers' and popular movement, especially the union movement, ‘to retake the initiative in workplaces and study centres, to organise the offensive for conquering new rights, to develop a struggle position independent of reformist and bourgeois forces and to raise its own struggle programme which will have the goal of the revolutionary overcome of capitalism in our country’. To clarify its position the PCPE reiterated, ‘our political and organisation priorities remain unchanged independently of the colour of the government in power, developing in every issue the independent political and ideological stance of the working class, based on its own interests and not on the any other social class ones’.
The Resolution of the PB of the CC of the PCPE declared that 'The communists of the PCPE have as a goal to build one country for the working class' and called the working class and the working people of Spain to struggle for the ‘immediate goals that serve to gather forces in the perspective of the overthrow of Spanish capitalism and its governments’ listed as follows:
− Immediate abolition of the 2010 and 2012 labour reforms.
− End of the double wage scales at all levels and elimination of the training contracts.
− Immediate abolition of the Pensions Reform.
− Recovery of free-of-charge at all education levels and elimination of the Education Subsidies.
− Recovery of the unique, free and universal public healthcare system.
− Recovery of the energy sovereignty.
− Withdrawal of the Spanish troops on imperialist missions abroad.
− Unilateral withdrawal from NATO and EU.
− Dismantling of the foreign military bases in our territory.