Spanish State- February 10th, 2017
The supporters of Podemos:
renegades of Trotskyism following the “new left”
The Spanish state of the monarchist constitution of 1978 continues in the worst of its bankruptcies, with a working class a thousand times betrayed and sold out by its leaderships of union bureaucrats and "new left" of Stalinists and socialimperialists. And at the same time, renegades of Trotskyism bury the struggle for socialist revolution by supporting Podemos as squires from behind.
Assuming that Stalinist Eurocommunism of PCE-UI was never in the field of revolution and that its alliance with the reformism of Podemos is natural, we are going to describe in this article the position of different groups of renegades of Trotskyism, which call themselves revolutionaries, as regards the pre-congress process of the Second Podemos Citizen State Assembly in Vista Alegre, where it is discussed outside the reality that working class is living.
The agglutinating factor of these renegades of Trotskyism is their desperation to look for "progressive leftists". Thus, all of them discuss about the Podemos congress, from within or outside and they make programmatic suggestions to its different wings. Their role is to make masses believe that "popular front" of Podemos that the working class can improve their condition within this rotten capitalist system.
Within Podemos is Anticapitalistas current (brother party of French NAP and member of the Unified Secretariat). They are an organization that for years denied the struggle for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Now, they call themselves "Anticapitalists," but their program is not to defeat capitalism or expropriate the bourgeoisie, their slogans is to "press" bankers and imperialist governments so they do not to attack masses "so" savagely, "moderate" the adjustment or propel "anti-austerity" plans.
This current is the same that months ago in France, with its NAP party, told the masses revolting against Khomri Law –which stole 35 hours of weekly shift- that a "social censorship" against Hollande had to be made and also that they had to conquer a "real democracy".
We know that their international current is not revolutionary because they have given up fighting for the proletariat's seizure of power. What is more, at this point we must say that they are not even consistent democrats: in France they do not call to defeat the V French imperialist republic and in the Spanish State they do not call to throw down the Monarchy and regime of the 1978.
Podemos and all the currents that comprise it, including Anticapitalists, are the firemen who in Greece, as in France and in the Spanish State, have been running to put out the revolutionary fires of the masses so that their spark does not ignite Europe, containing the masses so that socialist revolution that defeats capitalism does not succeed .
Around Anticapitalists, several groups of renegades of Trotskyism swarm from within or outside of Podemos. Within the framework of this Vista Alegre II, there is a symbiosis between the different groups of this type.
One of these currents of renegades of Trotskyism that is in the bosom of Podemos is Class Struggle, of the international current IMC of Alan Woods, ex- Militant. They present their own document (1) in the Congress of Vista Alegre II with which they are supposed to give a workers' orientation to Podemos. This group wants its document to be centered "on the street, unity and popular power", but far from being focused on mobilization, emphasizes institutional work and "our deputies" as a key issue.
This current, we cannot forget, gave the Transitional Program of the Fourth International to Bolivarian-bourgeois Chávez, to paint him as anti-imperialist and revolutionary, when he was in charge of passing the worst plans of imperialism against the masses in Venezuela. That is why it is not surprising that today the maximum program of Class Struggle is, within the framework of the capitalist system, a constituent process agreed upon.
Then there are other currents that call themselves Trotskyits and play the role of advisors to either Anticapitalists or to the other sectors in Podemos, such as that of Pablo Iglesias.
The Militant-Revolutionary Left, the international trend former CMR of Ted Grant, is positioned in the internal dispute of Podemos supporting the list of Pablo Iglesias explicitly (2). This current of renegades of Trotskyism poses Podemos as the subject for the "socialist" transformation and Pablo Iglesias as the leader of this process. None of this shocks us because The Militant has always renounced the construction of a revolutionary party. They have always been the left wing of Social-Democracy, having as reference of construction to PSOE and IU (United Left) and now Podemos.
The bottom line is that they do not see the construction of an independent party of the working class because it has no socialist revolution as their goal.
Another current as Class against Class (satellite group of PTS in the Spanish state) has written an article of "Critical Reflections to Anticapitalistas proposal" (3). There they play the role of Anticapitalist advisors, making them a lukewarm critic saying that they are the left wing of the official sector of Pablo Iglesias. They classify Anticapitalist positions as "right definitions" with "absences." According to them, Anticapitalists has not given the battle to the official sectors of Podemos because they have capitulated in subjects like the rejection to the Crown or the exit of the NATO. How can Class against class say that Anticapitalists have "right definitions" when they are, along with the rest of Podemos, supporters of the self-reforming monarchy? How can this be an "absence" for them and also the departure of NATO? But if NATO troops are the occupation troops with which imperialism controls, keeping them prepared to attack the exploited if they dare begin a revolutionary process.
As we see, Class against class is a "left wing" of Anti-capitalists: advisors of those who support the Bourbon monarchy and NATO bases.
Finally, another current that call itself Trotskyist, Red Current (LIT-CI) of morenista ideology, is limited to request (4) the institutional positions of Podemos to be at the service of mobilizations. But the deputies and public positions of Podemos have as a perspective consolidate its electoral apparatus and make small changes in the Regime of the monarchical Constitution of the 1978. Put "illusion" that they would use their parliament seats to make denounces, as if they were revolutionaries, means embellish them.
Red Current demands that these supposedly democratic MPs (who are not even so) carry out the tasks that the militant masses of the Spanish State sought to do, with the true rebellion of the "indignados", who had as their vanguard the heroic Asturias miners who suffered persecution and imprisonment. But it is not surprising, since we have already seen its international trend, LIT-CI, doing the same with Chavez and calling him to fight for socialism. How can the bourgeoisie do socialism if it exists to do capitalism?
On the other hand, they criticize Anticapitalists for their "disobedient strategy" before the European institutions. Red Current said that "it is not possible to satisfy the basic demands of the working majority without breaking with the EU and euro". But in reality we must affirm that for the revolutionaries the demands of the working class can not be fully satisfied without destroying the European Union by means of a Revolution and building on its ruins the Socialist United States of Europe. That is the essential internationalist alternative that is lacking in its criticism, Revolution, which does not exist at all in the texts of Anticapitalists or Red Current.
Moreover, none of these groups of renegades of Trotskyism mentioned in this article think that the working class needs to do revolution because they consider that they can improve the standard of living of workers under Capitalism.
In conclusion, the "new left" of Stalinism, Social-Democracy and the renegades of Trotskyism, who go to their tail, prepare the conditions with their siren songs to numb the masses. With their policies they put the working class on their knees before their "democratic" executioners and thus prepare the greatest defeats of the proletariat.
Again an iron alternative is in the world proletariat: reform or revolution; Trotskyism vs. Stalinism and derivatives; Soviet strategy for socialist revolution or reformist makeup of a rotten capitalist system. A new regrouping of the working ranks becomes essential. The bourgeoisie speaks the language of class war against the exploited; the time has come for the working class to speak the language of revolution.
COLECTIVO DEMOCRACIA OBRERA, MADRID, MEMBER OF FLTI