IDC: According to your party's statement the dispute in the Parliament, between the People's Party (PP) and PSOE, consists the result of a competition between differents parts of the capital. Do you think that the big capital wants new anti-worker, anti-people reforms that a PSOE government under P. Sanchez premiership could implement easier than the previous government? If yes, could you briefly tell us what kind of reforms the new government is planning to implement?
A.GARCIA: The exit from the capitalist crisis has been possible thanks to the
intensification of exploitation. In Spain, the labor rlights that had
been achieved in the previous decades have been seriously regressed.
Social rights have suffered hard blows. The wealth has been
concentrated, as never before, in the hands of a small bourgeoisie,
while the vast majority of the workers face serious difficulties in
satisfying their most basic needs. Poverty grows and wages and
pensions aren't enough for living. The new cycle of capital
accumulation that has been initiated in Spain requires a constant
intensification of the exploitation of labor power.
During
the last months, social struggles have been intensified. A new
process of mobilization started with the participation of millions of
people. Women, pensioners and students took a step forward and the
main trade unions prompted mobilizations aimed at bringing together
all these struggles in a general strike. The unrest over the serious
cases of corruption which directly affected the government of Mariano
Rajoy kept growing.
This
is the framework within which the PSOE presented the censure motion.
With a PP government the social conflict was unavoidable. The General
Budget for 2018, with which the bourgeois class had laid the economic
foundations that would exist until the end of the term of the current
legislature, had been approved the previous week.
The
new PSOE government has accepted these budgets, which are
tremendously reactionary and, therefore, the economic policy is not
going to change under Pedro Sanchez. The new government will try to
approve some symbolic measures aimed to calm the popular discontent
and to deactivate the struggles that began in the previous months.
For example, it is foreseeable that they will try to modify some
aspects of the so-called “Ley Mondaza” law, which allows
a-without limits- repression to the workers-people's movement. In any
case, the essence of that law will be maintained. They are not going
to modify the labor reform either.
We
will see a whole series of gestures aimed at inactivating the
struggles, in order to redirect and integrate them into the
parliamentary debate. The government of Pedro Sanchez comes in order
to to guarantee the social peace that the bourgeois class needs at
the moment and to facilitate the reorganization of the polical system
which has been taking place for years.
 |
| Pedro Sanchez (left) with Pablo Iglesias of Podemos. |
IDC: In a statement earlier today (ed: the day of the governmental change), a member of the Political Bureau of SYRIZA stated that "today is a good day for the people of Europe" and hailed the governmental change as a victory of the "progressive forces" against the "neoliberal and corrupted Right". You know the role of SYRIZA's social democracy in Greece and the results of its policies. Do you believe that Pedro Sanchez is a kind of "Spain's Tsipras", and will try to entrap working people and popular strata in new illusions?
A. GARCIA: In
Spain, the Socialist Party (PSOE) faced the serious danger to have
the same fate as PASOK, but it finally managed to survive thanks to
Pedro Sanchez. Therefore, the respective role of SYRIZA in Spain is
played by the alliance between the Socialist Party of Pedro Sanchez
and Podemos which supported the motion of censure without demanding
anything in exchange; they even asked to participate in the new
government. It is an agreement between the old and the new social
democracy. It isn't a surprise that [this agreement] is hailed by
forces like SYRIZA.
However,
the new government of the Socialists in Spain will be very weak,
taking into account that with Podemos' support only there will not be
the needed parliamentary majority. The political system needed a
stimulation and PSOE functioned as a tonic. At the same time,
nevertheless, as we mentioned, in the capitalist staffs new
antiworker people are being prepared and the party of Ciudadanos- a
kind of political Right's refoundation- is being shamelessly
strengthened by the monopolies.
The
new correlation of forces that is developing will be crystallized in
the next general elections, which will be called when Pedro Sanchez
thinks that there are hopes for the choice of social democracy to
move forward. At that moment, the working people will face a new
electoral blackmail: either to support the forces of social
democracy, or to risk a government of the hard Right, expressed by
the alliance between Ciudadanos and the People's Party. They will
bring the workers-people's movement in front of the old dilemma to
choose the lesser evil.
IDC: You have called the working people to intensify their struggle without placing any hope to the new social democratic government. What are the major initiatives you are undertaking as a Party towards the organization of the workers-people's movement and, taking this opportunity, what message do you want to send to the communists and the working class of Greece?
A.GARCIA: The Communist Party does not forget the role that the Socialists (PSOE) have played in our country. We know them perfectly. Felipe Gonzalez came to the government with the slogan “NO to the accession to NATO” and four years later Spain joined NATO. He was talking about social rights, but at the same time he continued the negotiations for the integration in the European Economic Community, he imposed with “blood and fire” the so-called “industrial reconstruction”, destroyed the labor rights which had been conquered in the previous period, strongly suppressed every social challenge, used state terrorism and sent the spanish army to fight in the new imperialist wars which followed the triumph of the counterrevolution in the USSR.
IDC: You have called the working people to intensify their struggle without placing any hope to the new social democratic government. What are the major initiatives you are undertaking as a Party towards the organization of the workers-people's movement and, taking this opportunity, what message do you want to send to the communists and the working class of Greece?
A.GARCIA: The Communist Party does not forget the role that the Socialists (PSOE) have played in our country. We know them perfectly. Felipe Gonzalez came to the government with the slogan “NO to the accession to NATO” and four years later Spain joined NATO. He was talking about social rights, but at the same time he continued the negotiations for the integration in the European Economic Community, he imposed with “blood and fire” the so-called “industrial reconstruction”, destroyed the labor rights which had been conquered in the previous period, strongly suppressed every social challenge, used state terrorism and sent the spanish army to fight in the new imperialist wars which followed the triumph of the counterrevolution in the USSR.
The
role of the Socialist Party was decisive for the position of Spain in
the imperialist chain and the modernization of spanish capitalism
after Franco's regime. The next government of PSOE under Rodriguez
Zapatero followed the same path, implemented the policies demanded
then by the capital and, in the midst of the capitalist crisis,
granted to the monopolies large amounts of capital through state
investments. Zapatero's social democratic rhetoric ended with a
constitutional change, commonly agreed with the People's Party (PP),
which introduced the principle of budgetary stability in the article
135 of the Constitution. Previously, in 2010, they had approved a
labor reform which favored exploitation, the generalization of
temporary contracts and the new forms of labor insecurity, which were
furtherly strengthened by the People's Party in 2012. They did the
same also with social security by increasing the retirement age
limits.
The
Socialist Party of Pedro Sanchez will follow the same path: a policy
that aims to deceive the people and a management that will benefit
the interests of the capital. There are no illusions with PSOE. This
is the reason why we are trying to mobilize the working class, so
that the new government will not be given a minute of respite.
In
the next months, our Party will focus on the working class, to
discuss seriously the path that must be followed. In the labor places
and trade unions it is necessary to be realized the need to follow an
independent path, based exclusively on the interests of the workers
of our country, on the basis of the needs of the large popular
majority. If the leaderships of the trade union organizations choose
to put obstacles to the process of mobilizations that began, they
will commit a serious irresponsibility that will have serious
consequences. The social presure must not be reduced. Only the
decisive and organized struggle will achieve victories and new
conquests for the workers' movement. This is the reflection that the
communists convey in the places of labour and study, in the working
class neighborhoods, in the trade unions.
The
workers' movement must not be trapped by the PSOE nor by forces like
Podemos that follow it, which in turn are being followed by the
remnants of older forces deriving from eurocommunism. Either we fight
hard for a country with the working class on the forefont or,
otherwise, the times we will face will be extremely difficult. The
political system is being reorganized in order to press even more the
workers-people's movement and intensify capitalist exploitation to
the highest extent. The alternative solution isn't the reform of the
political system within the framework of bourgeois democracy, as the
old and new social democracy argues. This reform is impossible in the
present phase of capitalism, it is an illusion, it is a trap, it is a
deception of the people.
The
workers' movement must be regrouped, must be reorganized, must build
a plan for the country based on a new kind of power, the workers'
power. For that reason, the Communist Party is necessary to continue
being strengthened, so that it can fight politically and
ideologically against all bourgeois forces which try to move the
workers away from this path. Capitalism isn't the future. The Party
is trying to increase its power in the workers' movement, in the
labour places, in the strategic sectors of production. Its there
where the concentrated social forces exist, which will play a
decisive role for our country's future, a socialist-communist future.
I
remember when SYRIZA came to the government. While the whole spanish
left was seeking a photo with Tsipras, in Greece only the KKE raised
its voice and warned about the character of the new government –
for that reason the KKE was harshly attacked. That period we didn't
hesitate to publicly place ourselves in favor of the KKE, that was
our proletarian internationalist duty and, moreover, we were
convinced that the Greek communists were right in their analysis
about the role of the SYRIZA government, as it was also proved in
practice. The principled position that the KKE had was a big lesson
for us, which helps us to deal the new developments in Spain with the
needed strategic clarity.
Recently
we participated in the events for the 100th anniversary of
the KKE in Athens. I don't want to miss the opportunity to
congratulate the pioneer communists of Greece and their Party. The
KKE, having a history of 100 years, is the youngest party in Greece,
because it represents the socialist-communist future that is going to
come in both Greece and Spain. The communists of Spain will be by the
side of our Greek comrades in the harsh and decisive struggles which,
undoubtedly, are being unfolded in front of us.
Thank
you very much for the interview.
