Solidarity with Catalonia!

The resolution below was passed unanimously by the Marxist Student Federation national conference in February 2018

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The Marxist Student Federation (MSF) conference notes:

1. The Spanish state has consistently denied the democratic right of the Catalan people to decide their own future.
2. One of the pillars of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, written as part of a fake “transition” to democracy which left the foundations of the Franco regime untouched and its crimes unpunished, is the denial of the right of self-determination.
3. The democratically elected Catalan parliament decided to call a referendum on independence, which the Spanish state declared illegal.
4. The Spanish state then used all means at its disposal to prevent the referendum from going ahead, by seizing ballot papers, indicting hundreds of local mayors and then, on October 1 using brutal police force to stop people from voting. Spanish police repression on that day left over 1000 people injured, including one person who lost his eye as a result of the impact of a rubber bullet.
5. In spite of this, the Catalan people, organised from the rank and file, defended the polling stations, made sure they remained open and allowed over 2 million people to cast their votes in an inspiring display of defiance and democracy.
6. The Catalan Parliament, after much vacillation, finally decided to proclaim the Catalan Republic, following the mandate of the people expressed in the referendum.
7. Despite the fact that the Catalan government politicians were not prepared to defend the Republic they had just declared, the Spanish state responded with utmost severity, using article 155 of the Constitution to sack the Catalan government and dismiss the democratically elected Catalan parliament.
8. Catalan government members were charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds. Two of them remain in jail without bail pending trial, together with the two leaders of the Catalan mass pro-independence organisations (Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sánchez). Another 5 members of the Catalan government, including Catalan president Puigdemont are in exile in Belgium.
9. In the December 21 Catalan election, called under Spanish intervention and in exceptional conditions of repression of democratic rights, again the electorate delivered a pro-independence majority.
10. Disregarding again the democratic will of the people, the Spanish state is using all means at its disposal to prevent the Catalan parliament from democratically voting Puigdemont as president, even though there is a parliamentary majority for it.
11. Dozens of activists of the Committees for the Defence of the Republic and others have been charged or summonsed for their participation in peaceful mass action during the October 3 and November 8 general strike and other mobilisations which have taken place in the last few months. This is a clear attempt to intimidate those who struggle.

Therefore, the MSF resolves to:

1. Express its solidarity with the Catalan people and demands respect for its democratic rights, first and foremost the right of self-determination
2. Demands the immediate release of all political prisoners in Spain (those arrested in relation to the Catalan independence referendum, but also others arrested for their political opinions under the “gag law”, etc).
3. Demands an immediate end to Spanish state repression.
4. Expresses its solidarity with the struggle for a Catalan Republic which in our opinion must be linked to the struggle for the revolutionary transformation of society, a fundamental break with the capitalist system.
5. Commits itself to agitate in favour of the struggle in Catalonia, campaign in defence of democratic rights and against repression, and establish links with organisations of youth and students in Catalonia fighting for the same goals (particularly student organisations SEPC, UnisxlaRepublica, youth organisation Arrán, and the Committees for the Defence of the Republic).

• Free political prisoners!
• For democratic rights!
• For a Catalan Socialist Republic, the spark for an Iberian revolution!