The Catalan elections on 21 December represent a slap in the face for the strategy of the Spanish government: of introducing direct rule to smash the independence movement. The Spanish ruling party has been reduced to 3 seats in Catalonia and the pro-independence bloc has once again won an overall majority in the Catalan Parliament.

The Catalan elections of 21 December take place in exceptional conditions of repression and limitation of democratic rights. The elections have become a battleground to legitimise (or not) a coup by the 1978 regime, in which article 155 of the Spanish constitution was used to dismiss the Catalan government and disband the Catalan parliament. With two days to go, the result of the elections is hard to predict.

The following statement was produced by comrades from the Catalan section of the International Marxist Tendency, REVOLUCIÓ. It outlines comrades’ support for the CUP in the “illegitimate and imposed” 21 December Catalan regional election, to undermine the ‘78 regime, and also outlines the tasks for the movement for a Catalan Republic.

Events in Catalonia in the last two months represent the biggest challenge ever faced by the Spanish regime since its establishment in 1978. The explosion of the masses on to the scene has acquired at points insurrectionary features. Where does this movement come from? What is its character and how can it move forward in the face of Spanish state repression?

 The Catalan general strike against repression, article 155 intervention and for the release of the political prisoners managed to paralyse the country. Despite all difficulties, the strike had a large following in education, the public sector and the media, but was almost non-existent in industry and transport. However, the day was marked by mass road and transport blockades organised by the Committees for the Defence of the Republic (CDRs) and mass demonstrations in all cities and towns.

The Spanish state intends to appear as the victor in the unfinished battle against the Catalan independence movement, but the most significant development in these 2 months has been the emergence of the largest movement of civil disobedience in the Spanish state in 40 years.

El Estado español pretende aparecer como el vencedor en la batalla inacabada contra el independentismo catalán, pero el hecho más significativo de lo sucedido en estos dos meses ha sido el desarrollo del mayor movimiento de desobediencia civil habido en el Estado español en 40 años. Este movimiento ha sido protagonizado por millones de personas comunes y corrientes, ha tenido características revolucionarias y ha puesto en jaque al régimen del 78 y a su aparato de Estado heredado del franquismo. Las lecciones a sacar de este conflicto, que está lejos de haber concluido, son preciosas; y ayudarán a forjar la conciencia revolucionaria de la nueva generación, en Catalunya y en todo el

Libertad incondicional y sin cargos para Oriol Junqueras, los 7 consellers de la Generalitat, los dos Jordis y demás presos políticos del Estado español (presos de Alsasua, Alfón, Andrés Bódalo, etc.)

The decision to jail eight members of the Catalan government, and to issue an arrest warrant for the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, along with a further four members of his government, is an unprecedented and very serious violation of basic democratic rights that has revived the Catalan independence movement.

After a week of about turns, indecision and last minute attempts to find a negotiated way out, the Catalan Republic was proclaimed on Friday, October 27. Tens of thousands celebrated in the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan towns and cities.

Aquest és el volant que els companys de REVOLUCIÓ - Corrent Marxista Internacional estant distribuint a les mobilitzacions d'avui...

450,000 marched on Saturday, October 21, in Barcelona (according to local police) with tens of thousands gathering in other towns and cities across Catalonia, to demand freedom for the two Jordis (held without bail on sedition charges) and to reject the Article 155 coup announced by Spanish president Rajoy in the morning.

Avui entrevistem a Vidal Aragonés, regidor a l’ajuntament de Cornellà per Cornellà en Comú-Crida per Cornellà, advocat laboralista vinculat a diferents sindicats de classe més combatius especialment als estibadors, professor de dret laboral a la UAB, i uns dels defensors més eloqüents de la independència des d’un punt de vista marxista.

We publish here an interview by the Catalan paper of the IMT, Revolució.Vidal Aragonés is a town councilor in Cornellà, for Cornellà en Comú-Crida per Cornellà; a labour lawyer linked to different militant class struggle unions (especially to the dockers); professor of labour law at the UAB and one of the most eloquent advocates of independence from a Marxist point of view.