More than 12 and a half million of people (36% of the electors) reject to participate in the electoral farce of 28M. Social democracy collapses and elections are brought forward
We publish this unofficial translation of an article from the newspaper from the Spanish State Servir al pueblo found here.
The mass media of the bourgeois announce, with fanfare, that the Popular Party (PP) and the right is the big winner of yesterday’s night, and that the electoral participation has increase in most of the Municipalities and Autonomous Communities. Those newspapers, radio stations and television channels, wake up with big front pages like: PP sweeps in Madrid and multiply their territorial power (El País, newspaper), Sánchez [translator’s note, the president of the Central Government] drags the PSOE [Spanish socialist labor party, Sanchez’s party] to ruin (ABC, newspaper), PP runs over and the punishment to Sánchez erases PSOE from the map (El Mundo, newspaper) or PP sweeps: it won in the local and autonomous elections, it has been imposed in 30 province’s capital cities and has stolen 6 Autonomous Communities (Hoy por Hoy, news at 7:00h on 29/05/2023 in Cadena Ser, radio station).
All the front pages point at the same conclusion, what evidences that freedom of press does not exist. It is enough with reading the newspaper to identify the idea that they pretend to impose: PP is the most voted candidature in most of places (main idea in the front page) and that the election day has been marked by the increase of the participation, in several points even in lots of cities (secondary idea that is developed inside articles). This is a partial conclusion, logic, so as all the data interpretation, it is required an interpretation, and all interpretation has a class character. This interpretation favors the bourgeois, because the participation percentage is the thermometer of the bourgeois State for its legitimation in front of the masses. That is why they do so much emphasis and that is why we see all the candidates of the bourgeois, absolutely all of them without exception, rejoicing for the increase of the participation. The best example is given by Pedro Sánchez when he casted his vote in the ballot box, he declared in front of the mass media that “the more people come to vote in the day of today, it is better for our institutions (bourgeois, we add) and stronger our democracy (bourgeois, we add again) will be”.
But this is a false conclusion. It is not Marxist to take that conclusion, and we would not be doing a good thing for the proletariat’s struggle for its emancipation and the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE). There is an objective fact that not even with all their mediatic manipulation they can hide: of 35,414,655 of voters of the municipalities of all the Spanish State, 12,782,154 of them (36,07%) has chosen abstention and did not go to the ballon boxes. More than 12 and a half millions of people think that none of their problems will be solved depositing the vote in a ballon box. They don’t have faith in the system. Let’s get some conclusions:
1) The most voted party, in the local and in the autonomous elections, is no party but abstention.
With 99.66% of the census counted, the results of the local elections sorted by number of votes are the following:
Abstention: 12.782.154
PP: 7.034.994
PSOE: 6.274.722
VOX: 1.604.181
Unidas Podemos: Something more than half million (is difficult to be exact because their vote is distributed in several candidacies: Podemos más IU, IU, Con Andalucía, Elkarrekin, etc.):
Junts: 552.089
ERC: 524.202
EH Bildu: 366. 202
Compromís: 331.178
PNV: 322.553
Ciudadanos: 301.762
BNG: 248.676
The rest of the votes are from other candidacies, and we will have the 22 millions of total voters. In 12 of the 17 Autonomous Communities that has elected representatives for their parliaments, this dynamic is repeated. The concrete data of abstention is the follow: 32,27% in Aragón, 36,92% in Asturias, 45,29% in Balear Island, 37,30% in Canary Island, 31,41% in Cantabria, 30,44% in Castilla-La Mancha, 34,44% in Community of Madrid, 32,69 in País Valenciano, 30,63% in Extremadura, 27,54% in Rioja, 35,99% in Murcia and 32,47% in Navarra.
2) There has not been a “great electoral participation” but the tendency stays the same from last 50 years.
If we see the results of the general elections in the whole Spanish State, we can see how the number of participation has always been very similar, and has only changed some small points because of some political moments of large-scale propaganda for voting. But in all of them, it has always been several millions of people that thought that vote will not solve their problems. Let’s see
In 1979 the participation was of 67,43%, in 1982 of 79,97% (the highest in history), in 1986 70,46%, in 1989 of 69,74%, in 1993 of 76,44%, in 1996 of 77,38%, in 2000 of 68,71%, in 2004 of 75,66%, in 2008 of 73,85%, in 2011 of 71,77%, in 2015 of 73,20%, in 2016 of 66,48%, in April 2019 of 71,25%, in may 2019 (were repeated for not conforming a government) of 66,23%.
Focusing in that the electoral participation has increased, and do not explain, qualify or specify nothing else, is to reaffirm the State and giving legitimization to the bourgeois shift government. If we see the data, the participation of yesterday was lower than several other years! The variation of these little points of participation depend on the wear and tear of the party that is in the government of turn, the demobilization of the social democracy, the mobilization of the right and of the radical petite bourgeois. Not that the deepest masses, and the big proletarian neighborhoods trust more in the electoral farce and in the bourgeois system. It is there where the abstention is concentrated, the distrust to the bourgeois system.
Let’s put the example of the city of Madrid. Where the participation has been the worst and qualitatively lower than the average, it has been in for spots: the districts of Usera, Villaverde, Carabanchel and Puente de Vallecas. What a coincidence! The most poorest neighborhoods, there where the beating by imperialism deepens and broadens and where a large number of poor masses are concentrated.
3) Social democracy collapses, PP is imposed and Vox triples their number of councilors (from 500 to more than 1700)
We are not going to expose where PP and Vox won because there are tens of mass media that explain it. If you want to read it, it’s enough accessing ABC, El País, El Diario, La Razón, El Mundo or La Vanguardia. We are going to focus on that giving continuously empty promises have turned out bad to Podemos.
Their worst loses are the autonomous parliaments of Madrid (Assembly of Madrid) and in the Valencian one (Valencian Courts), where they did not even get a seat. They also do not get any councilor in the city of Madrid. Podemos only obtains 1 seat in Aragon (looses 4), Asturias (looses 3), and Balears (looses 5), 2 in Rioja (it maintains) and Murcia (it maintains) and 4 in Extremadura (it maintains). Besides the Madrilian (loses 10) and the Valencian (looses 8), it looses the presence that had in the Canarian parliament (looses 4), the Castilla-La Mancha parliament (2) and the Navarrian (2). Regarding the big cities, as we said, it did not obtain any councilor in Madrid, but neither in València, Zaragoza, Murcia and Las Palmas. It sinks in Alicante, where goes from 6 to 1 and in Sevilla where goes from 4 to 2. It only holds in Barcelona, where it seems like Ada Colau could loose the mayor’s office. Regarding the “communist” candidatures, the results has been so disastrous that in quantitative level it is not worthwhile to talk about them.
Pedro Sanchez brought forward the general elections of the end of the year to the next 23th July
After the PSOE loses almost half million votes, and most of its associates of government are reduced to a very small presence, the government brought forward the elections to the next Sunday 23th July. In this way, they want to conserve all the seats they can and maintain their economical privileges due to being managers of the imperialist State.
It is foreseeable that the participation in the general elections will grow in several points in comparison with the local and autonomous elections. On one hand, is the natural tendency, and on the other hand, with the advance of PP and VOX, now PSOE and Unidas Podemos will apply the story of the boy who cried wolf to the parliamentarian politics: We need to vote to stop fascism! All people to vote! But we know if there is an increase of votes, between 10 and 12 million people will continue no voting because they lost all their hope in that the system solves the misery they are living daily.
Balance of the boycott and conclusion of the electoral farce of 28M: The struggle for the reconstitution ofthePCE will boost the boycott!
The campaign for the election boycott has proved to have a great potential. If we look to the campaign, we can see three sectors clearly differentiated: 1) those who unmask the electoral farce and want the active boycott; 2) those who point out the electoral farce but do not openly want the boycott; 3) those who participate actively or passively in the electoral farce, asking for votes for themselves or for the lesser evil.
Among those who want active boycott, we found a relatively small campaign, carried on by different forces of the working class movement with different ideological lines (Maoists, Marxist-Leninists, Anarchists, Antifascists in general…) and without coordination between them. All of these forces have done actions as destruction of electoral propaganda, graffiti, posters, stickers, public events like talks and conferences, people’s schools of formation and propaganda, etc.
Among those who point out the electoral farce but don’t openly want the boycott, we found the same groups of ideological lines (Communists, Anarchists, Antifascists…). Someones will tell that it’s not the moment, for tactical reasons (denies its strategical character), logistical (they claim that “it is not the moment” for pragmatism, falling down in revisionism) or they just don’t tell why in a public way, and then, we don’t know their arguments. How Chairman Mao said, it’s not about grasping, its about grasping firmly:
“Grasp firmly.” That is to say, the Party committee must not merely “grasp”, but must “grasp firmly”, its main tasks. One can get a grip on something only when it is grasped firmly, without the slightest slackening. Not to grasp firmly is not to grasp at all. Naturally, one cannot get a grip on something with an open hand. When the hand is clenched as if grasping some- thing but is not clenched tightly, there is still no grip. Some of our comrades do grasp the main tasks, but their grasp is not firm and so they cannot make a success of their work. It will not do to have no grasp at all, nor will it do if the grasp is not firm.” (Chapter X. Leadership of Party Committees, Quotations on Chairman Mao).
Two line struggle operates and will continue operating between these three sectors of the working class movement, and finally the red line will impose over the black line. Because one divides in two, and inside the three sectors (who do boycott, who do “boycott in a half way” and who participate in this electoral farce) there is two line struggle, between these different sectors and inside them, and logically, inside each of the parties, organizations and collectives.
This shows a big potential, a perfect place for the developing of the revolutionaries: if we look at the last 20 years, boycott grows in the quantitative level as a slogan among the different forces of the workers movement. As the struggle for the reconstitution of the Communist Party of Spain (PCE) progresses, the campaign for the boycott will take on a larger dimension and more communists, more revolutionaries, more masses, will opt for the boycott. Let us march under the red banner of our slogan in the next general elections of July 23:
Boycott 23rd of July!
Down with the electoral farce!
Elections no! People’s War yes!
