Jorge Martin discusses the latest events and developments in Catalonia, where Puigdemont – the Catalan President – has delayed announcing the formation of an independent republic, under pressure from bourgeois public opinion. But the situation is not resolved, as there is still a counter-acting pressure of the masses from below and the repressive Spanish regime to contend with.
At the end of last month, on 23rd September, Mélenchon’s France Insoumise (Rebellious France) organised a massive rally of over 100,000 in Paris against the austerity programme of the Macron government. Jérôme Métellus, editor of Révolution, outlines what the Left and the trade unions in France should do next in the struggle to bring down Macron.
Catalonia’s Independence Referendum on 1st October has opened up a major crisis of the regime in Spain. Hundreds of thousands occupied and defended polling stations in order to vote on the day. Those sights are now burnt into the consciousness of the Catalan people. On 3rd October, a national shutdown paralysed Catalonia with huge demonstrations against police repression.
Despite brutal police repression, hundreds of thousands fought with determination yesterday to vote in the referendum on Catalan independence. The real ugly face of the Spanish regime was clear to see. At the same time, Jorge Martin reports, the mass mobilisation and self-organisation of the Catalan people was also on display.
We publish here a statement by the International Marxist Tendency, along with a series of reports from Arturo Rodriguez in Barcelona about the rapidly developing mass movement for a Catalan independence referendum and against state repression.
A political earthquake is the best way we can describe the federal elections that took place in Germany on Sunday 24th September. For the first time ever in post-war history an extreme right-wing party has been elected to the Bundestag. At the same time, the parties that have formed the “Grand Coalition” – lead by Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2003 – have suffered historic defeats.
We publish here two articles by Arturo Rodríguez in Barcelona and one by Jorge Martin, who report on the latest events in the movement for Catalan independence and provide some background to the national question in Catalonia.
Since being elected, Macron – the poster-boy of European liberalism – has seen his popularity steadily decline as his facade of respectability crumbles away. A majority of French voters are now “dissatisfied” with the President’s performance, with approval ratings lower than for any incoming president, after four months, since 1995.
The chaotic process of Brexit reflects the long-term decline and decay of British capitalism. But this turbulence, in turn, is not confined to the UK. The whole of European capitalism is equally crisis-ridden. As Josh Holroyd discusses, the future for both the UK and EU under capitalism is one of stagnation, slump, and austerity.
Shortly after midday on 29th June, an eleven person jury delivered 6 unanimous verdicts of “not guilty” to spontaneous cheers in the courtroom at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The verdict brings to its conclusion a trial by means of which the Irish ruling class sought to bring an end to the fundamental democratic right to peaceful protest.
110 years ago, in 1907, a strike in Belfast over wages by dockworkers, coal labourers and others united both catholics and protestants against the ruthless bosses. Although ultimately defeated, the strike remains an important historical demonstration of the power of the working class when united.
On 17-18th May, Greece was shaken by a general strike and protests in all major cities against a new round of austerity measures. As Arturo Rodríguez explains, Syriza has become the administrator of crisis-ridden Greek capitalism and is being used by the Troika to grind down the Greek working class.