Catalonia – Some Notes and Instruments for a Revolutionary and Class Stand To Guide the Internationalist Action and Solidarity. PCm Italy.
unofficial traslation
In
order to correctly contextualize the issue of Catalonia, in no way we
can see only the aspirations for independence of a large part of the
Catalan masses or the peculiar characteristics that can make
Catalonia a nation.
This,
however necessary, would not explain why here and now this
contradiction has come to a fundamental point, it has so sharpened
that to put for the Spanish State the alternative between a
new-Francoist dictatorship on Catalonia with a sort of military
occupation, or the national independence lead by a fraction of the
Catalan national bourgeoisie and the middle bourgeoisie.
Marx
and Engels taught us that we must go beyond this, we have to identify
the existing nexus between the development of the bourgeoisie in the
Spanish State and in Catalonia and the economic and social conditions
that are the ground of the current sharpening clash.
It
is therefore impossible to properly frame the issue without
considering the economic and global crisis, the inter-imperialistic
contradictions and the role of the Spanish State, within the scenario
of a Europe under the German leadership and not only.
A
first point that needs to be noted is that the aspiration to be
established as nation and to assert the nation's factor is first and
foremost a need of the bourgeoisie, particularly in situations within
imperialist countries. It is the bourgeoisie that strives to develop
economically, progressively breaking obstacles and barriers, and
demands a territorial unity to lash the working masses and the
progressive mass movement to its cart.
In
the case of Catalonia, the problem is not so much the feudal
residuals, but the rule of the Spanish State which contains in itself
a "feudal" fraction, i.e. the monarchy and post Francoism
which, while not being feudalism in the strict sense, plays a role of
obstacle and brake for the development of the Catalan bourgeoisie.
Another
element, which is always common in national issues and in Spain in
particular, is the weight of the organization of the Church, that in
Spain is the Vatican, the Roman Curia which, as it had firmly taken
side with Franco, now firmly takes side with the Spanish monarchy and
the Spanish State, and therefore interacts, feeds the aspiration for
independence of Catalonia.
Another
necessary element for the analysis of the contradiction in Catalonia
is, as Marx and Engels taught us, the deep study of the existing
nexus between the national issue and the development of the workers'
movement.
Here
our point of reference can only be that of France in 1848; that is to
say, in Catalonia we are seeing an imperialist rule on an oppressed
people of the third world, but a situation in which Catalonia itself
is a capitalist country, not completed in terms of existing as
autonomous nation. The necessary entrance of the working class in
this contention requires it to fall into the field as an autonomous
force in the struggle for political power.
The
need for the proletariat to enter the field in the current struggle
in Catalonia is within a precise definition and a precise limitation,
starting from what Marx and Engels stated in the Manifesto:
“The
working men have no country. We cannot take from them what they have
not got. Since the proletariat must first of all acquire political
supremacy, must rise to be the leading class of the nation, must
constitute itself the nation, it is so far, itself national, though
not in the bourgeois sense of the word.”
Thus,
it is evident that the proletariat in Catalonia is interested in a
Catalan nation as a ground for the seizure of political power; and in
this sense, even in the current clash, its being on the side of the
independence for Catalonia is radically different from that of the
bourgeoisie.
In
Catalonia too, the proletariat must be aware that a Catalonia in the
hands of the bourgeoisie is not their country, it would be the
homeland of the bourgeoisie and the strata of middle and petty
bourgeoisie allied, and therefore also in such a Catalonia, also in
this struggle for independence the working class must conduct its
struggle on the trade union and economic fronts, as on all fronts, to
topple the current ruling class.
Even
within the struggle for the independence of Catalonia, the working
class is internationalist and aims at a society in which the economy
is organized on a global scale and where not only the exploitation of
a nation by another but the antagonism of the nations as such
disappears, because these exploitation and antagonism are always
characteristic of the capitalist and imperialist economies.
The
working class addresses the national issue as a class struggling for
the political power, taking on itself all the problems of national
life and, in the case of Catalonia, the issue of independence. But
this is not a struggle apart, but an integral part of the more
general struggle to seize the political power and for the
emancipation of the proletariat. (see Marx on Italy/Austria, letter
to Laube, May 1848, quoted on "Marxism and national and colonial
question",Stalin)
The
working class - as Marx and Engels taught us - takes part in national
struggles, as in the case of Catalonia, not only as a social question
but as a matter of democracy. Indeed, the referendum and the right to
declare the independence of Catalonia, are democratic issues,
supported by a fraction of the bourgeoisie itself.
It
is clear - and Marx and Engels taught us - that the position of the
communists and the working class can not be the same of the false
communists, who disregard or even oppose the national issue of
Catalonia, taking with socialist arguments the side of the Spanish
State. The struggle of the working class develops better in a
situation in which there is not the oppression of one nation on
another, also, in the concrete case, in an imperialist country.
But,
the working class also takes part for another important reason. The
participation of the working class as an autonomous force in the
struggle in Catalonia deeply changes the terms of the problem,
highlighting the existing contradiction between the class interests
of the Catalan bourgeoisie and the interests of the masses. That
because always, also in the present-day Catalonia, the bourgeoisie
subordinates, and will further subordinate, the interests of the
nation to its own interest.
It
is important to mention the quotation of Marx and Engels of 1849 on
the NRZ (quoted in Marxism and the national and colonial question,
Stalin), where they point out that in Italian contention, Italian
independence could be lost not so much because of the military power
of Austria as for the cowardice of Piedmontese monarchy. We can and
will compare that with the attitude of the current premier Puigdemont
in Catalonia.
This
is also important to grasp the substance of Marx's and Engels's
point, who did not merely uphold the class action as an autonomous
force but also called to draw its conclusions in the conflict "The
mass insurrection, revolutionary war, guerrillas everywhere are the
only means with which a small people can win a bigger one and with
which a weaker army can cope with a stronger and better organized
army."
If
the proletariat as autonomous class comes into the field and takes
these as the means to deal with the contention in Catalonia, it is
likely that the bourgeois fraction currently leading the movement
"rather
than alliance with the people will prefer to broker the peace with
its worst enemy."
Marx
and Engels teach us that in the current context of the struggle in
Catalonia, the participation of workers is greatly important, even if
they were not fully conscious and even if they were small groups.
Why
is this important? Because it can be the opportunity to open the way
and prepare the ground for the struggle for the proletarian power in
Catalonia, for a socialist Catalonia.
In
essence, in a developed capitalist society, and Catalonia is so, even
in front of the national oppression by the Spanish State, the workers
have no country, but in such a contention they take part and side to
advance in the national dimension of Catalonia the struggle for the
liberation of the working class, which excludes any oppression and
exploitation of a nation by another. This position is different from
the bourgeois nationalism, that aims to continue oppressing the
working class and the masses in a national context. This
participation of the working class is against the positions that,
about Catalonia, regard the national question as extraneous to the
working class.
Again,
considering the situation in Catalonia, emerges the need for
communists who want to lead the working class as an autonomous force
to resolutely fight both the right opportunism and the "left"
opportunism.
The
former uphold the cause of the Spanish State, coming to the view that
the Spanish State is the true frame of the class struggle, which
naturally leads them to do anything but to take advantage of the
Catalan crisis to intensify the class struggle in the Spanish State.
The
latter distance the working class from the liberation struggle in
Catalonia, leaving the field free for the bourgeoisie and
contributing to keep this national struggle in the camp of the
inter-bourgeois contradictions.
They
both break in fact the unity of the working class, that right in the
situation of the Catalan crisis, would have all the opportunity to
get concrete and weigh on the Spanish State and in Catalonia, and
then achieve the goals of proletarian power and socialism.
At
the same time, it is absolutely necessary in the current struggle for
the national independence of Catalonia not to allow room it in any
way to a position considering Catalonia something different from a
developed capitalist country. This would give a side to a view of
Catalonia as a proletarian nation because it is oppressed, which
is always a characteristic of the bourgeoisie and its reactionary
wing.
Therefore,
it is decisive the struggle of communists against those who prevent
the working class from taking part in this contention, both in the
Spanish State and in Catalonia, particularly against those who paint
themselves as Left and or communists.
Lenin
teaches us that the if communists today give up the immediate and
decided struggle for the democratic issue of the independence of
Catalonia, they will play the game of the bourgeoisie, both in the
Spanish State and in Catalonia itself. In the Spanish state, because
they weaken the progressive struggle for the independence of
Catalonia, which without the role and participation of the working
class can not win; in Catalonia, because they leave the bourgeoisie
free to lash the masses to its cart. On the contrary, the role and
participation of the working class will allow to formulate and
implement the claim independence of Catalonia in a revolutionary and
non-reformist way, and to open the way, we repeat, to a socialist
Catalonia.
For this reason, even in front of the current sharpening of the contradiction between the Spanish State, led by the Rajoy’s government, supported in various forms by the other parliamentary parties in Spain, and the Catalan government of Puigdemont, we should not be deceived by the slogans of bourgeoisies; these tend or sooner or later to settle or line up behind other imperialist powers to achieve their goals
