Communist Youth Organization

The Youth Branch of The Workers’ Communist Party of Iran

Chia Barsen: The spectre of "Podemos" in Spain


A new left wing specter is rising in Spain and it has forced both the centre-left and the centre-right to rethink their political strategy. Most especially, the neo-liberal right-wing party in Spain that was comfortably in bed with the European Central Bank, is scrambling to renegotiate how it will approach next year’s election, and specifically, how to lubricate the next round of austerity measures in order to press it down the throats of the Spanish working-class.

Spain, since its liberal bourgeois democracy in 1970 has had a two party system. The new left-wing group called “Podemos” is the third addition to the two powerful parties. This new party has been polling almost evenly with the People’s Party (the right wing party) and edging ahead of the Socialists party.

The Podemos is promising to the people to be an alternative to the business as usual exclusive bourgeois politics that wants nothing more than to keep the working-class deaf, dumb and out of politics and the sphere of political influence. The Podemos is attempting to create “Circulos” (local assemblies) across Spain. The Circulos hold weekly meetings where Spaniards can discuss macro and micro level economic and political issues. In this way the Podemos is generating its power from the grassroots, and it is in turn empowering the local people and the working-class of Spain in general. It is only if the Podemos truly represents the economic interests of the working-class in Spain that it can count on the working-class to support it in return.  

Working people of Spain want immediate social and economic security, and a strong and committed plan to leave the exchange-value wage slavery system of capitalism that has places them in economic and social crisis periodically.

Where does the politics of the Podemos lay in the political spectrum of Spain? When in power, any political group will have to answer to the bankrupt economy and its many ties with tentacles of the European Central Bank. Podemos will have to take a strong stance against the European Central Bank, but it can only do that if the working-class is behind it. The Podemos has no choice but to empower the working people if it wants to gain power and to stay in power: all other reformist bourgeois options have already been taken by other political groups in the political spectrum of Spain. There is simply no more room for another neo-liberal reformist party or a dead-end “socialist” party: those two categories have already been taken.

The right-wing parties in Spain, as well as the long lost decaying left-wing parties that have nothing new to say, are desperately trying to match the words of Podemos in order to make sure they get as much of the election pie as possible. It is simply new faces telling old lies, but this time the people of Spain have an alternative and the unpredictable nature of Podemos is putting fear in the bourgeois-hearts of the centre-left and the centre-right parties.

The people of Europe have simply no-where left to go economically. The people of Europe, having lost all economically, have literally nothing left to lose in trying a new alternative. The lies of the neo-liberalism, told in so many languages, have become saturated. The rise of the spectre of Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece, demonstrates a strong possibility of a counter weight to the neo-liberal agenda for Europe, but this can only happen if both parties remain true to economic interests of the working-class in their respective countries.

Chia Barsen

www.chiabarsen.com
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