Monday, January 8, 2018

RBC: Considerations on Catalan process




The Network of Communist Blogs (RBC) considers it appropriate to point out some considerations about the Catalan process and, ultimately, about the right to self-determination of all peoples.

Like José Díaz, when he advocated, in his speech at the Monumental Cinema of Madrid, for the creation of a "Popular Antifascist Movement" on the basis of four specific points, the RBC also defends the "liberation of the oppressed peoples by the Spanish imperialism.

That the right to freely govern their destinies to Catalonia, to Euskadi, to Galicia and to all nationalities are oppressed by the imperialism of Spain be granted ".

José Díaz, Secretary General of the PCE in the years when the Party was a Marxist-Leninist vanguard of the Spanish proletariat - faithful follower, therefore, of Lenin and Stalin - applied the doctrine and principles of what Lenin called "the double task of proletariat in terms of the right to self-determination "[1].

On this basis, the RBC emphasizes the following points on the so-called Catalan process, the last link, for the moment, of the historic struggle of the Catalan people for their liberation from Spanish imperialism:

1.- In the first place, the Catalan independence movement is not just a bourgeois movement as many leftist chauvinists point out. From its multiclass character, reflected in an enormous social support, stands out an evident emancipatory, popular and worker component, whose interested concealment seeks, above all, to separate the current Catalan movement from the struggle of the workers of the rest of the State.

2. The Communists, therefore, must not limit themselves to supporting or criticizing it, but, as in any popular or revolutionary movement, they must actively participate in it, directing the masses, especially the proletariat, and becoming their Vanguard.

3 .- The open wound in Catalonia is not going to close and with simple legal or budgetary patches.

In the context of political struggle in Catalonia, to which, it is to be expected, other nations of the Spanish State and the most diverse popular sectors will be added, the communists must not contribute at all to the fact that the monarchical regime can take over the situation and suffocate it.

For the communists the main task of this day, theoretical and practical, goes through the transformation of the Catalan problem of the Bourbon regime into the problem of the Bourbon regime in the Spanish state as a whole.

4. - As Federick Engels wrote, when, referring to the problem of Alsace and Lorraine, said that such a problem would not exist if France and Germany were socialist states, only the end of capitalism and the construction of free states of exploitation can resolve the national issue Catalan  [2].

Ultimately, in the liquidation of the regime of 78, that is, the socio-political and economic system that "tied and well tied" the Francoism is the only possibility of overcoming the "Spain one, large and free to that of the nations and popular classes of the State.

5.- The objective, then, is to eliminate private property and replace it with the socialization of the means of production, that is, to end capitalism, end the barbarism that this system represents for workers, peoples and humanity.  

The Communists is to support unambiguously any progress, however small, towards socialism. In this concrete sense, the passage from the monarchy of 78 to the Third Republic, with the deep meaning that this word has in Spain, constitutes a step forward that we must help to give, no matter how bourgeois this may ultimately be.

Let us never forget the famous words of Stalin in his Foundations of Leninism about the national question and its relation to the struggle against imperialism! [3]

6.- Following Lenin, it is about fighting, first of all, for class unity: All workers, regardless of our nationality, are class brothers! 

All workers have the same common enemy, which is the bourgeoisie of each of our nations! This does not exclude, in any way, neither the belonging of each worker to a specific nation or people nor their identification with a specific culture, which, as such, can never be enemies of the working class of any other State. 

In the concrete situation of Catalonia, the only enemy of the Spanish working class is the great Spanish chauvinism, heir to the fascists of 36. The only homeland of the Spanish bourgeoisie, of the parasitic class of the Bourbon monarchy, is its pocket.

7.- Finally, the RBC must mention the lamentable role of Podemos, whose ambiguity demonstrates, once again, that its main objective and raison d'etre is the demobilization of popular protest and the dismantling of the workers' organization.

Instead of taking the side of the republican forces in Catalonia, instead of articulating a democratic and progressive political front against the 78 State, instead of taking to the streets with the republican masses of the entire State, Podemos, it has placed, in the least bad of the cases, in the equidistance, that is, on the passive side of the monarchy and of great Spanish chauvinism; it has chosen to assume the status quo instead of putting itself aside from the progressive and democratic aspirations not only of the Catalans, but of the working class of the entire Spanish State; has renounced the construction of a Spain different from the current one; it is his accommodating and servile attitude, and not the legitimate struggle of the Catalan people, which has allowed fascism and chauvinism to reappear through the streets of Spain.

The Welsh comrade, Nicholas Glais, of the blog Democracy and Class Struggle, member of the RBC, has expressed himself correctly in the following terms regarding those who give coverage to Spanish chauvinism "on the left":

 "It is time to declare war on those Leftists who do not see national self-determination as part of the class struggle for democracy and socialism. "

ANNEX

In response to the left chauvinists and those who call themselves "neutral" or "equidistant" under the false excuse of considering the Catalan question a simple struggle between the Spanish and Catalan bourgeoisie, the RBC offers you a text by Stalin on the concession of the independence to Finland on the part of the USSR.

"On the independence of Finland

Report on the meeting of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee on December 22, 1917.

(Press reference)

A few days ago, the representatives of Finland addressed us claiming the immediate recognition of the full independence of Finland and the ratification of the fact of their separation from Russia.

In response, the Council of People's Commissaries has resolved to accede to this and to promulgate a decree concerning the full independence of Finland, a decree that has already been published in the newspapers.

Here is the text of the decision of the Council of People's Commissars:

"In response to the message of the Finnish government vindicating the recognition of the independence of the Finnish Republic, the Council of People's Commissars, in full agreement with the principles of the right of nations to self-determination, proposes: to propose to the Central Executive Committee: a ) the recognition of the Finnish Republic as an independent State and b) the organization, in agreement with the Finnish government, of a special commission (with representatives of both parties) to establish practical measures arising from the separation of Finland from Russia.

Obviously, the Council of People's Commissars could not proceed otherwise, since if a people, in the person of their representatives, claims recognition of their independence, the proletarian government, based on the principle of granting the right of self-determination to the people, must accede to it.

The bourgeois press says that we have led the country to complete disintegration, that we have lost several countries, including Finland. But, comrades, we could not lose it, since, in fact, it was never our property. If we had forcibly retained Finland, that would not mean in any way that we had acquired it.

We know perfectly well how it "acquires" by force and arbitrariness whole States and what terrain arises thanks to it for the relations between the people and their oppressors.

The principles of social democracy, its slogans and aspirations reside in the creation of the desired atmosphere of trust between the peoples, and only on that ground is the slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!" All this is old and public domain.

If we look more closely at the granting of independence to Finland, we will see that, in fact, the Council of People's Commissars has granted freedom, contrary to its wish, not to the people, not to the representatives of the Finnish proletariat, but to the Finnish bourgeoisie, which, by a strange set of circumstances, has seized power and received independence from the socialists of Russia.

The Finnish workers and social democrats have found themselves in a situation in which they have had to accept freedom, not directly from the hands of the socialists of Russia, but with the help of the Finnish bourgeoisie.

As this means a tragedy for the Finnish proletariat, we can not fail to point out that the Finnish Social Democrats, due solely to their indecision and incomprehensible cowardice,



SOURCE: 

Spanish Version

http://reddeblogscomunistas.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/algunas-consideraciones-sobre-el-proces.html

http://cuestionatelotodo.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/rbc-consideraciones-sobre-el-proces.html

French Version

1 comment:

victoria oprimidos said...

Very good translate in English. Red salutes !