Jorge Martin reports on how the arrest of two Catalan officials has reignited the mass movement for independence. The whip of oppression wielded by the Spanish state has driven the masses back into action. The mood is incendiary, and Puigdemont has been left little room for manoeuvre.

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.