By En Lucha/El Lluita

CCOO and UGT, the two main unions in Spain, have called a General Strike (GS) on 14 November against the policy of austerity that the public authorities are carrying out, from the central Spanish government headed by Mariano Rajoy to the autonomous regions. However, this strike is special, since it forms part of European day of struggle. There will be simultaneous general strikes in Portugal, probably Malta and Cyprus and Greece and Italy.
Since the beginning of the economic crisis the European elites have seen the status of the EU as a central power within world capitalism threatened. The European ruling classes have launched a massive attack to worsen the living conditions of the people of Europe by means of the destruction of public services and repeated attacks on working conditions. Plans to cut back on government spending have been introduced over a period of time, because the governments want to avoid at all costs that the slogan that appeared on a placard in the Parthenon will materialise: that ‘the people of Europe rise up as one’. For this reason alone, it is worth supporting the GS of 14 November. The decision of the European Trade Union Federation (ETUC) is a correct one; in fact it is outrageous that it has taken so long in calling a coordinated day of action. Experiences such as the global demos of 15 October 2011 and 12 May 2012, called by the social movements, the trade union left and revolutionary organisations must surely have had some influence on the calling for 14 November.
This call for a strike has been an urgent need before the avalanche of cuts and the unceasing rise in unemployment. The budget for 2013, presented by the governing Partido Popular, represents the greatest attack on the rights of the working class since the transition to democracy. It contains reductions in all social departments (18% in education, 22% in health care and 6% in unemployment benefits) while maintaining arms spending, tax bonuses for companies and, above all, while more money is being used to pay interest on the debt than all the salaries of public service employees added together.
While not against the referendum that CCOO and UGT are calling against the cuts, in En Lucha we think that the neo-liberal governments must be thrown out and a process for renewing the political system from below has to be started up. 14 November must be a great day of collective action, of international solidarity, of stopping the economy and showing that it is the workers who make society work, showing the power they have to stop the cuts. But just a one-day general strike will in all likelihood not be enough to stop the plans for spending cuts.
That is why we, the trade union movement and social movements, must call on the leadership of the CCOO and UGT to take the fight further. A plan of sustained struggle over a period of time is needed. We should also continue mobilising after 14 November.
In the local context there must be a day of unity against the right in every corner of the state, a unity based on respect for the democratic rights of the peoples, including the right to independence. In Catalonia and the rest of the Spanish state the local bourgeoisies will attempt to demobilise by playing the nationalist card. On this day we must clearly show class unity from one end of Europe to the other and, of course, within the frontiers of the Spanish state.
In the less than one month remaining before the General Strike, mass meetings must be called in workplaces to prepare for 14 November and to discuss how to continue mobilising. We must also endeavour to extend the mobilisation in local districts and the universities, and wherever possible to bring together the atmosphere created by the 15 May movement and the student movement with a powerful action by the working class —understood in the broadest sense of the word, to include students, the unemployed, retired, household workers, immigrant workers, etc — as a general strike.
Finally, as En Lucha we will be joining the mobilisations called for 23, 25 and 27 October before Congress in Madrid and the Education Deptartment in Catalonia, hoping they can lay the basis for the mass action and mobilisation that we need.
We have a second general strike in less than a year, a historic event. Raising the level of struggle and giving it greater continuity will be fundamental for stopping the social attacks. The message must be clear: 14 November must be the beginning of the end of the neoliberal governments.
This translation is reprinted from the International Socialist Tendency website.