The problem Spanish workers face is not a lack of militancy or even in some sectors, strong organisation at the base. It is rather that they have a leadership pressured into action from below but willing to see the rank and \ufb01le\u2019s energy and imagination frittered away in a series of fatal compromises with the government and the bosses that will divide and weaken the labour movement.<\/p>\n
In the language of trade union bureaucrats the whole world over the General Secretary of the CO, Antonio Guti\u00e9rrez, said of the joint UGT\/CO protests planned for this summer:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mobilisation must be great in scope and very overwhelming so that the government sits down and negotiates as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guti\u00e9rrez and the UGT leaders recognise that such is the scale of the planned changes for Spanish capitalism in the next few years that they must hang together or hang separately; a substantially reduced state sector and union membership means a reduced basis for their own power and privileges. This is especially true as the government has announced this year that by the end of the year it aims to have in place a new piece of anti-trade union legislation that will restrict the legal framework for industrial action.<\/p>\n
The recent rift between the UGT and the PSOE, as a result of the government\u2019s attacks, must not deceive the base of the unions into thinking that these leaders have broken politically with the logic of the government\u2019s policies. They accept that Spain\u2019s transition from the second to the \ufb01rst division of EC countries is necessary. They want to soften the harsh effects of this transition on their members\u2019 jobs, pay and services, the better to protect their own bureaucratic interests. The union leaders want to keep control of the action and direct it towards a compromise with the government.<\/p>\n
The recent con\ufb02icts have been defensive ones that have forced certain concessions from the employers or the government. It is possible that during the summer\u2019s key international events, more compromises can be exacted from the state. But the bills for all these events will have to be presented in due course and postponement of the day of reckoning will make the eventual con\ufb02icts all the more bitter.<\/p>\n
Spanish workers must develop a class conscious vanguard across all the threatened sectors of industry and agriculture and build a revolutionary party that can weld that consciousness into a \ufb01ght for an action programme.<\/p>\n
The logic of Maastricht runs counter to the logic of workers\u2019 needs. An action programme for the Spanish working class will start by defending the workers\u2019 immediate needs against this logic\u2014on pay, jobs and public spending\u2014and direct this defensive struggle towards a \ufb01ght against Spanish capitalism, and its PSOE minders, as a whole.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The problem Spanish workers face is not a lack of militancy or even in some sectors, strong organisation at the base. It is rather that they have a leadership pressured into action from below but willing to see the rank and \ufb01le\u2019s energy and imagination frittered away in a series of fatal compromises with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7724,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-3687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7724"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fifthinternational.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}