Han pasado casi cuatro décadas desde los dramáticos acontecimientos del 23 de febrero de 1981, y aún permanecen grabados en mi memoria como si hubieran sucedido solo ayer. Había vivido en España desde enero de 1976, cuando participé en la lucha clandestina contra la dictadura de Franco.

In the past few days, the level of repression, intimidation and blatant authoritarianism exercised by the rotten Spanish ‘78 regime has reached unprecedented levels. It is enough to make one’s blood boil. On 20 February, Communist rapper Valtonyc was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for "lèse majesté" (insulting the crown) and “glorifying terrorism” in the lyrics of one of his songs.

La clase dominante y su aparato de Estado están decididos a hacer cualquier cosa para dar un escarmiento al independentismo catalán e impedir la investidura de Puigdemont como President de la Generalitat. Para ello, están pisoteando sus propias leyes en una deriva autoritaria que también apunta contra los movimientos de lucha y resistencia de la clase obrera que se dibujan en el horizonte. Si la excusa para violentar su propia legalidad burguesa es la “situación excepcional” catalana, ¿cuánto más no van a justificar mañana acciones similares y más graves cuando tengan lugar, a su entender, “situaciones excepcionales” en el resto del Estado?

When the Catalan government declared a republic, the Spanish regime answered by sacking it, dismissing the Catalan Parliament and calling fresh elections on 21 December. That election was another defeat for the Spanish regime as it delivered, again, a pro-independence majority. Unable and unwilling to respect the democratic will of the Catalan people, the Spanish regime is now using all means at its disposal to prevent Carles Puigdemont from being elected as Catalan president. In the process it is revealing the profoundly undemocratic nature of the regime that was established in 1978.

El régimen neofranquista español fracasó en su objetivo de impedir la mayoría absoluta del independentismo catalán en el Parlament y desalojarlo de la Generalitat. No obstante, alardea de haber disciplinado a los dirigentes de ERC y del PDECAT para que abandonen la vía del independentismo unilateral, y se felicita por haber establecido una cabeza de puente reaccionaria en las zonas obreras de mayoría castellanohablante, principalmente a través de Ciudadanos. Sin duda, pretenden estimular un enfrentamiento entre los trabajadores catalanes en líneas nacionales. Este es un enorme peligro que los obreros españoles y catalanes deben combatir firmemente.

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.