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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