Podemos has gained control of Barcelona and other major
regional strongholds from local elections. This is a seismic shift away from the
two parties (Socialist party and the People’s party), that have been in power
for the last 20 years. Bereft of any social responsibility towards the Spanish
people, the People’s party has been following the neoliberal ideology of
“structural adjustment”: liquidating public assets and social services to pay off
the debt accrued by the bank’s market gambling.
Neoliberalism as an ideology, that can be defined as an
insidious class assault to dispossess and recuperate class power and wealth,
has for years tacitly disguised its face behind ideas such as “individual
liberty and freedom”, “free market”, and “personal responsibility”. However,
over four decades of neoliberal hegemony around the world, especially in
developed economies, with ruinous effects on the lives of working people, is
now both discredited and distinguishable for its class character.
After years of discursive protests and demonstrations, both
local and general, the people of Spain, invidiously deprived of a humane
standard of living through high unemployment and austerity measures, are
voicing their discontent by uniting to vote for Podemos. The wave of change
that is sweeping through Spain is simply inexorable and it represents the
people’s unbridled hope for deep structural change in Spain. Small ephemeral
reforms by the bourgeois is no longer enough to stop this seismic shift to the
left. Podemos, only formed one year ago, is now gaining the highest number of
votes and is in a strong position to gain further political ground in
November’s general elections.
Where does the politics of Podemos lay in the political
spectrum of the left? Is there a way to discern between the communists of Cuba,
the Chavistas in Venezuela and the socialists
in Greece? All the above political parties have assiduously fought to separate
their movement from the neoliberal pillage of the world. However, it is worth
considering where their political movement is headed. If Capitalism can be
defined briefly as an economic system that is built on the exploitation of
labour during production (wage slavery) and domination of the working-class
socially, in a perpetual compound growth; then any group or movement that
raises the red flag today must have an antithesis to this definition in its
proposed long-term structural changes. Gaining state power and nationalizing
major industries is only a start, all socialist movements must be able to
answer how they are planning to:
1.
Eliminate wage slavery in their society through
the creation of associated producers fulfilling the needs of society
2.
Eliminate all social inequalities (each according
to his/her/their capacity and to each according to his/her/their needs)
3.
Provide adequate use-values (education, housing,
and food etc..) to all in the current exchange-value market system
4.
Create an exchange system that precludes and
eliminates Money (universal form of value) as a form of accumulation of social
wealth and power for an individual or group
5.
Eliminate all elements of the bourgeois in the
state, and spread political and economic power to the commons
6.
Introduce new technologies and organizational
forms and eliminate technical division of labour from social labour (to create
rotating roles) and reduce the load of social labour to expand on collective
leisure activities
7.
Eliminate the alienation of labour through
social labour becoming embedded in daily communal work and non-monetised social
labour.
While considering Podemos’ nascent strides towards state
power, it is worth considering some of the potential barriers they may face in
the near future. Currently Podemos is teeming with grassroots support and is
using this support to procure state power. In short, Podemos is choosing not to
circumvent the bourgeois elections and instead to use it to its own advantage
to gain power. However, this has in the short term meant that Podemos along
with millions of workers in Spain, needs to wait patiently until the next
election, which according to Podemos leaders, will delay the promised
structural reforms. Other potential barriers in the path of Podemos is capital
flight in a highly porous Spain economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF),
European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission (EC) all hold the
economic strings in Spain, in relation to existing capital, and this gives
these neoliberal institutions significant power over the Spanish economy. This fact
alone has sent Greece oscillating back and forth to the negotiating table with
the European lender, despite the myriad promises to the Greek people about
rejecting austerity. If the Spanish state politics, under the administration of
Podemos, takes a terse left turn, the European lenders can use the interest
rates to pressure the government.
In a world awash with surplus liquidity, the people of Spain
are bereft of a basic standard of living and condemned to abject poverty. Their
inexorable struggle to procure basic use-values such as food and shelter has
culminated in the Podemos movement. This
movement now has the historic opportunity to build on the trust of the Spanish
and strike back at the Neoliberal juggernaut institutions through revolutionary
economic praxis or to become debased in history as another ruinous movement.
Chia Barsen
www.chiabarsen.com
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