Fighting fascism in the Catalan Countries

Arran is the youth organization of the Esquerra Independentista, a revolutionary political movement that has the objective of building an independent, socialist and feminist Països Catalans in order to achieve communism.

The analysis of the development of the extreme right in the actual situation is a difficult task: it requires both theoretical and practical notions in order to understand a political dynamic that has to do with a specific historical background. Even so, as much as it is a complex phenomenon of international scope, the study of specific cases helps to clarify the plurality of common trends. Researching Spanish nationalism confirms this.

The development of Spain’s nationalism—indefinitely associated with the rise and course of the extreme right—aims to establish an identity rooted in a reactionary imaginary and composed of different cultural, historical and political traits, which is useful for the maintenance and promotion of the economic and ideological interests of the dominant classes in the State. This national construct pursues the establishment of a unified imaginary of the nation. For this reason, the consolidation process of the Spanish state has symbolically and administratively excluded other identities, languages, cultures and nationalities.

This has generated conflicts, aggravated by the birth and radicalization of different ideologies and conservative and reactionary political movements.

This brief contextualization serves as a starting point to situate the rebirth of certain variations of Spain’s nationalism that have recently assaulted the public scene and that, in the best of cases, represent a radicalized renewal of previous conservative tendencies: that is, the ideological commitment to the recovery of a notion of Spain prior to the Transition, characterized by a culturally exclusionary program and promoter of neoliberal measures. Its resurgence is alarming because the current moment of crisis and precarity is allowing the politicization of growing sectors of the popular classes, among them the youth.

Analysing reality to go on the offensive

So, how can we explain this growth of the extreme right in the Spanish and French states? In what way does it contribute elements of interest to understand the reactionary wave that is spreading throughout the continent and the world? Answering these questions requires addressing some key elements to understand the emergence of this trend in our context. On the one hand, in comparison with other European countries, we must point out the relative delay in the emergence of far-right political formations with considerable parliamentary representation.

The late electoral eruption of VOX or other expressions of the reactionary extreme right such as Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF) is explained by the fact that a large part of the interests and ideological aspirations of these factions had traditionally been channelled through the Popular Party (PP) and groups with little media impact.

At the same time, symbols such as the monarchy, the police and even the army capitalized on the representation of Spain as a unified territory.

However, at peak moments of confrontation with the liberation aspirations of the peripheral nationalisms—recently, the Procés Sobiranista in Catalonia—, the range of symbols has multiplied and the range of reactionary political options beyond the traditional parties has multiplied, especially when these have been unable to monopolize the subsequent political repression.

In the Països Catalans, this dynamic has translated into autonomous governments with the presence of VOX (1) (in the País Valencià and Illes), the electoral triumph of Regarupament Nacional in Catalunya Nord (a territory under French domination), the birth of Revuelta (a youth organization linked to VOX with a presence throughout Spain) or the appearance of Alianza Catalana (AC) in the Principat de Catalunya. At the same time, these events have evidenced the reactionary background of the political program of some formations —such as Junts per Catalunya (JxCat)— which until now had whitewashed their class nature under the protection of the pro-independence aspirations of the grassroots Catalan national liberation movement.

In a certain sense, the current political scenario concludes the  reunification process of the parliamentary standard-bearers of society: despite the fact that in recent years the electoral landscape has changed—characterized by the emergence of Podemos and other “progressive” regionalist candidates, in addition to the aforementioned formations—this has not been due to a multiplication of programmatic alternatives. On the contrary, in many cases the birth of these political parties has meant the legitimization of repressive policies, sealing the hardening of living conditions for the popular classes and, particularly, for the youth. This shows how the false promises of democratic renewal and the anti-establishment proclamations of social democracy and the extreme right reinforce the interests of big capital. In short, old wine in new glasses.

Secondly, though moments like this are presented as an alternative to despair, it must be understood that the extreme right and identity values are functional for the maintenance of the current order. 

Consequently, the construction of socialism in the Països Catalans also has to face the fight against the xenophobic reaction at a time when it channels part of the social discontent, especially among the youth, towards institutional and parliamentary politics, the economic and ecological crisis or other problems. Therefore, despite the fact that the apparent aesthetic renewal of some philo-fascist tendencies has catapulted them to the media scene, from ARRAN we analyse that the extreme right in the Spanish state has been historically protected by the institutions born of Franco’s dictatorship and regime.

In this respect, the Spanish territorial framework and its integrity constitute one of the fundamental pillars of “Españolismo” or Spanish Nationalism, understood as the category that condenses—in the Spanish conditions—most of the characteristics that other extreme right-wing currents represent in other parts of the world. Similarly, in the French state, the exponential growth of the National Rally and its opposition to immigration coincide with the main axioms of the traditions of European fascism.

In the same vein, the policies promoted by AC (2) do not question—nor do they intend to—the fundamental pillars of the system; in fact, they contribute to its reinforcement through repression and division of the working class in an exclusionary national framework. Ultimately, this means that, in the short term, the existence of this regional matrix party contributes to the division of the working class and benefits the interests of Spanish big capital, to the same extent that autonomous branches of state formations in the País Valencià or the Illes.

Independently of the national identity it promotes, the extreme right endorses and defends the interests of the big bourgeoisie.

Antifascism is class struggle

From our point of view, the work or conscious organization of oppressed nations or peoples starts from the premise that the dispute in these territories transcends the class struggle in a strict sense: in addition to the classes native to the regions, the classes at the state level enrich themselves at the expense of maintaining their political and economic domination. In these territories, the questioning of the domination system also fights for generating a collective identity that goes beyond the established frameworks, turning it into a potential to confront the reactionary rise.

The creation of this identity, which for our political Movement promotes the expansion of class consciousness, must consider that national affiliation is one of the layers of individual and collective personality. It is very difficult to escape—even if we are not aware of it, our way of understanding the world is also partially conditioned by the place where we were born or where we live. In fact, although capital has become internationalized, a large part of the measures that continue to be applied for its reinforcement are of state matrix.

On a daily basis, hundreds of symbols reinforce a certain ideology or idea of a nation entrenched in administrations, institutions and social relations of domination. For these reasons, a behaviour or political strategy that is alien to the conflictive national reality in which the struggle for social liberation in the Països Catalans tends to reinforce the progressive disappearance of the political conflict and the cultural traits of the minority culture.

It is in this sense that political and youth organizations must promote the process of awareness connecting cultural traits that constitute the richness of humanity and the dignity of our people with contemporary social conflicts that articulate a notion of integrating Catalanness. All this must be fought using all our weapons, generating new referents in a living cultural front, linked to our national and social aspirations and renewing the way we communicate, adapting to new platforms and new struggles.

That is to say, we are trying to generate a Catalan identity in continuous dispute, as much with Spanish Nationalism as with the most reactionary Catalanism or French centralism.

A Catalanism that integrates newcomers through the socialization of freedom and equality values. It is not an easy task, but it is an urgent and indispensable task that we young revolutionary women must not shy away from.

Unlike other parties or political movements, the Esquerra Independentista neither take refuge in one or another notion of pre-existing Catalanism nor deny the national question to confront the reactionary rise. Unlike Alianza Catalana or the regional expressions of Spanish Nationalism, the Catalan popular culture gathers community values and is in constant change and in process of integrating new members from our community. This identity notion confronts the most reactionary visions of the Spanish or Catalan nationalism because of its internationalist vocation, fostered in the defence and vindication of the cultural and linguistic features shared in all the Catalan territory.

Our identity under construction is explained by a history of struggle and resistance mainly led by the popular classes.

Even so, the renewal of the anti-fascist front not only involves understanding our history, but also forces us to face some urgent tasks. In the first instance, to clarify the revolutionary political program and its short-term translation. In other words, to disarm the seductive politics of the extreme right we must attack its foundations, deeply rooted in the bowels of the capitalist system. The necessary measures to confront the current crisis are not to be found among the tools of the capitalist system: whether on the ecological front or in defense of the right to housing, fascism is never on the side of the interests of the popular classes.

For this reason, a concrete program must include measures such as the expropriation of public housing for social rent, or economic policies that prioritize the ecological transition. This propositional and strategic capacity must be socialized in all the fronts of popular organization and permeate the different factions of the organized working class, permeating at the same time throughout the territory and in the unorganized popular classes.

The main barrier of containment of the extreme right is not in the institutions, but in the street.

Once this program has been elaborated, which a growing number of organizations and spaces of the popular movement potentially share, we have to make it effective, present it to society and convince through collective mobilizations and victories that political organization is the only way to confront the current crisis. In this way, we will discredit the racism and xenophobic solutions of the extreme right.

In our territory we can already see some examples: the environmentalist demonstration of June 8 under the slogan “Health. Earth. Future.”, the clamors against the touristification and the destruction of the land throughout the Països Catalans, the massive response to the perpetuation of the Palestinian genocide or the announced mobilization to exercise control over the real estate market. All of them are symptoms that a hopeful imaginary is articulated to dispute these dark moments.

An imaginary that recovers its strength inspired by feminist struggles and struggles for sexual and gender liberation, the lessons learned from the last cycle of pro-independence mobilizations and new forms of popular organization. It is all these referents who, innovating in practices of confrontation, denunciation and politicization, have achieved ideological changes that have undertaken processes of class consciousness.

Now it is up to the political organizations to synthesize them and turn them into proposals, actions and mobilizations.

In short, it is clear that these are difficult times, but paraphrasing Linera, for revolutionaries, difficult times is the air we breathe. To analyse the enemy well, to fight it on all fronts, to build horizons of emancipation and to develop them in a conflicted present is the most urgent task; a task that we in ARRAN take on with pride and commitment.

1.Vox. Spanish far-right political party founded in 2013 that began to have significant media and electoral relevance as of 2018.

2.Aliança Catalana. The Catalan Alliance (Aliança Catalana in Catalan) is an extreme right-wing Catalan pro-independence party founded in Ripoll in 2020.