Spanish State: Anticapitalistas Breaks With Podemos, A Positive Step

By Socialismo y Libertad

We need to build a new and strong alternative on the left. The formation of the self-styled “progressive coalition government” of the PSOE and Unidas Podemos implies a qualitative change in Pablo Iglesias´ party. By occupying important ministerial positions in the executive presided by Pedro Sánchez, the purple party sealed its adaptation to the “caste” of the ’78 regime and the capitalist system. It was a step fully endorsed by the Izquierda Unida, the Communist Party and the Comunes.

However, Anticapitalistas (Spanish section of the Unified Secretariat-IV International) rejected the decision. MEP Miguel Urbán withdrew from the party. In a video with Iglesias, the leader Teresa Rodríguez said that she will not aspire to renew her position in the coordination of Podemos Andalucía. And a statement on the Anticapitalistas website sealed the split, due to disagreeing with the current course of integration of Podemos in the regime, and with “the politics of pacts and social consensus, which gives up on confronting the great economic powers”. Anticapitalistas will not attend the next Podemos State Assembly because they evaluate that it will be “a mere ratification of their leadership and of the strategy adopted to subordinate Podemos to the PSOE”.

The decision by Anticapitalists to break with Podemos is a positive step that we welcome. The most important question lies in what decision Anticapitalists will make in relation to the future of its political organization: will they be dedicated only to the growth of their party or will it make a broader call? Given the course adopted by Podemos, ERC and other reformists, thousands of young workers, students, women, immigrants and social groups would receive a broad call for Anticapitalists to form a new left wing alternative with sympathy. This could be multiplied if the CUP did the same at the level of the Spanish State.

Activists from different origins could take as their own a program that includes, among other points, the defeat of the “Trifacho”, the confrontation with the reactionary measures taken by the government-regime-EU imperialist bloc tripod, self-determination and amnesty for Catalan political prisoners. The recognition of the political-organizational independence of its members and the adoption of democratic mechanisms would facilitate the possibility of coming together. In that case, we would not hesitate to join a project of this type.

The comrades of “Anticapitalistas” will communicate their final decision on the relationship with Podemos, which is ultimately with the current government, after March 28 when their process of internal deliberation ends. We will await the results of the debate without resorting to the sectarian mechanism of demanding an immediate self-critical assessment as a sine qua non condition.

There will be an opportunity to exchange opinions about the conclusions they reach. There is nothing that prevents a patient, fraternal and fruitful exchange between organizations that consider themselves internationalist, revolutionary and socialist. Immediately, we have to meet in the streets, supporting together the struggles for increases in wages and pensions, for the annulment of the labor reform, the gag law and for feminist mobilizations next 8M, International Working Women´s Day.