A Summit of Lackeys and Murderers Orchestrated by Spanish Imperialism
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Servir al Pueblo of the Spanish State on the 21st of April.
On Saturday, April 18, Barcelona hosted the 4th Summit in Defense of Democracy, an international political event that brought together several prime ministers, heads of State, and political leaders from the social democratic and parliamentary left. Sheinbaum (Mexico), Lula (Brazil), Petro (Colombia), Orsi (Uruguay), and Boric (Chile), among others, participated in the meeting led by the host and President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. US politicians also participated, such as Tim Walz (governor of Minnesota and a well-known opponent of Donald Trump), along with representatives from Germany, Austria, Ireland, Lithuania, Albania, Barbados, Cape Verde, and South Africa, bringing the total to nearly 3,000 participants from 40 countries.
The media outlets of Spanish imperialism, such as Vocento, Prisa, and Atresmedia, among others, describe the meeting as a kind of “progressive summit” of the “Latin American and international left,” in which participants advocated for “a rules-based world” and “the defense of international law,” committed to “multilateralism,” “equality among peoples,” and expressed concern over “the normalization of the use of force in international relations.” In general, the national press hammers home the same idea: “progressive forces of the world seal an alliance in Barcelona against Trump and the far right.” Sánchez’s fine Fourth Meeting in Defense of Democracy versus Trump’s dreadful Shield of the Americas! Part of the international press—that which has partial and temporary interests in common with Spanish imperialism—also speaks in these terms.
Murderers, lackeys, and bootlickers
In the face of misinformation from the bourgeois media, let’s be clear. The April 18 meeting in Barcelona had no progressive character whatsoever. If the big bourgeoisie calls it a summit of progressives, the proletariat must call it a summit of imperialists, lackeys, and murderers. None of them are innocent—that is what they are.
Claudia Sheinbaum is a murderer. Since 1968, successive Mexican governments have been waging a terrorist war against the people, and she has personally ensured its continuation. The country’s Fourth Transformation (4T) consists of measures to restructure bureaucratic capitalism, to deepen the oppression and exploitation of workers, peasants, merchants, and Indigenous peoples. Those who disagree with these measures are repressed by the army or by government-hired paramilitaries. A clear example is the peasants and indigenous people of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, who are tortured and murdered by the imperialist megaproject of the Tehuantepec Interoceanic Isthmus Corridor (CIIT). The “war on drugs” of recent years is the excuse to continue the war against the people and deepen the militarization of the State. In addition to being a murderer, she is a bootlicker for the US imperialists. She allows military operations on Mexican soil, sells out national sovereignty, and, moreover, recently did not hesitate for a second (she didn’t even make a show of it!) to cut off oil supplies to Cuba. Without a doubt, Sheinbaum is neither progressive nor anything of the sort.
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is another murderer. Although some Spaniards view him as a left-wing leader—a beacon of hope for the people in the face of the fascist beast that is the Bolsonaristas—we must banish this notion from the mass movement. Lula’s government is just as criminal as Bolsonaro’s was. In fact, Lula’s PT government has intensified repression against the peasant movement, increasing gun violence in rural areas and the torture and murder of peasant leaders. In the cities, police violence has skyrocketed like never before. The class struggle has exploded in recent years, and there are more land seizures; more uprisings; more strikes; more roadblocks; more militant struggles… There is even more armed self-defense against the fascists. And this has not been thanks to Lula’s government, but in spite of it, because the government criminalizes the self-defense of peasants, workers, and other popular sectors. The Agrarian Revolution currently shaking Brazil—a revolution that is raising tens of thousands under the slogan “Land to those who work it!”—an anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution that is part of the New Democratic Revolution—is being repressed by the PT government. Lula and the PT do not want to liberate their people, but to bind them in the quagmire of the dictatorship of the imperialists, the big landlords, and the traitorous political lackeys, such as himself.
Gustavo Petro isn’t progressive either. Petro isn’t carrying out reforms, but merely implementing measures. Reforms are victories won by the people after shedding their blood in the streets, where many of the people’s sons and daughters become martyrs. When reforms do not come from struggle, but from the corridors and offices, they are measures against the people. Measures dictated to restructure bureaucratic capitalism, to try to save it from its crisis and deepen the bureaucratic line in the administration, the economy, and culture. All Petro has done are measures in the service of the imperialists and the big landlords. Petro has betrayed the interests of the masses and has betrayed the martyrs and prisoners of the Great Popular Uprising that shook Colombia in 2021. Petro contributed to the demobilization of the people; he is Colombia’s greatest strike-breaking firefighter. He is not in the least progressive, much less anti-imperialist. In addition to allowing military incursions into Colombia under the guise of “the war on drugs” and continuing “military cooperation” (subjugation) with the Yankees, history will remember him as a ridiculous and pathetic figure. After “confronting” Trump over the bombings of Venezuela, he met with him and declared that the meeting had gone 9 out of 10. Trump, for his part, declared that Petro was “a fantastic person.” What an anti-imperialist—you’re “fantastic” to your enemy!
We cannot go into detail about each and every one of the political leaders who attended the Barcelona meeting. However, we believe our position has been sufficiently substantiated: they are murderers of their own people and lackeys of imperialism. They are not leaders of the people; they are managers of bureaucratic capitalism. There is nothing progressive about them. Anyone who serves imperialist interests cannot be progressive. Imperialism has no progressive character whatsoever; it is reaction in every sense of the word.
The Crisis of Spanish Imperialism
In the face of misinformation from the bourgeois media, let’s be clear. The April 18 meeting in Barcelona had no progressive character whatsoever. If the big bourgeoisie calls it a summit of progressives, the proletariat must call it a summit of imperialists, lackeys, and murderers. None of them are innocent—that is what they are.
Spanish imperialism is facing the greatest and most severe crisis in its history. There are two key moments in this crisis. The first is the bursting of the real estate bubble from 2008 to 2012, when the economic crisis gave rise to a political crisis that has persisted from then until now; the second is 2020, with the global crisis of overproduction, which has deepened the political crisis that already existed.
Spanish imperialism has a political instrument to exercise the dictatorship of the monopolies against the proletariat and the working masses: the imperialist State. Therefore, the crisis of Spanish imperialism necessarily manifests itself as a crisis of the old State and of bourgeois democracy. The imperialists cannot govern as before because the masses increasingly distrust bourgeois democracy and all its institutions (a tendency toward mass rebellion, the growing explosiveness of their struggles, the ascendant nature of the mass struggle, etc.). In response, the Spanish imperialist State is becoming militarized: the reactionary and fascist transformation of State institutions, the denial of democratic rights, the promotion of eviction companies, the criminalization of workers’ struggles…
Despite all its militarization and propaganda, Spanish imperialism cannot resolve its political crisis, because it is permanent. Governments are weak and unstable, and there are no longer any absolute majorities. The “State parties” are finding it increasingly difficult to reach agreements on key issues such as the budget or the appointment of judges. Corruption scandals are eroding confidence in bourgeois politics. The radical social-democratic option (Podemos and Sumar) has collapsed, and there is no party that can institutionally channel all the anger of the masses, as there once was. Voter abstention in bourgeois elections is very high, especially in working-class neighborhoods and among the poorest families, where there is no faith in bourgeois democracy. The main bureaucratic unions (CCOO and UGT), key to social peace, are widely reviled. There are increasingly more strikes and workers’ struggles taking place outside the framework of these traitorous union federations.
While imperialism is heading toward crisis and its entire system is falling apart, the masses are moving toward rebellion. These are the two sides of the same coin: if the crisis of imperialism is greater than ever, we are also entering a new era of revolutions. In other words: revolution is the main political trend in the world. The objective causes of revolution are more developed than ever. The subjective causes—primarily, the revolutionary forces—are in the process of developing. The flourishing of mass struggles is an example of this, for the development of the spontaneous is nothing other than the first phase of the development of the conscious.
Pedro Sánchez, representative of Spanish imperialism
Pedro Sánchez finds himself in this crisis situation, trying to survive and navigate his government’s ongoing crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic; an unstable governing coalition; one electoral defeat after another; governing for years without a budget; the corruption scandal involving Koldo, Aldama, and Ábalos… Sánchez has taken a beating from all sides, and yet he remains in office.
Spanish monopolies need a skilled politician at the helm of the government, one who will carry out their program of militarization and maintain social peace as much as possible. Pedro Sánchez is exactly what the imperialist big bourgeoisie needs. He has proven himself capable of implementing all reactionary measures while still presenting himself as a progressive and defender of the people. Sánchez’s propaganda and skill are such that even some political organizations speak of him as a kind of “lesser evil,” even as he carries out the monopolies’ reactionary agenda from A to Z. The PSOE government carries out the monopolies’ plans and maintains social peace better than a PP and Vox government would. For that reason, the monopolies did not let him fall during the Aldama and Ábalos crisis, but rather did everything possible to keep him firmly in power. It is important to understand this to reaffirm that, when Pedro Sánchez speaks, he is not speaking as “the dissenting voice” within the ruling establishment. When Pedro Sánchez speaks, the ruling establishment speaks. The monopolies speak; imperialism speaks. Pedro Sánchez, his rhetoric, his measures, and his plans are reactionary, from the first to the last.
Pedro Sánchez’s championing of anti-imperialist and progressive causes is part of this strategy to create stability within the government. And Pedro Sánchez has found in the defense of Palestine—and now, in the “No to War” movement—the best way to create stability. The feminist struggle doesn’t work for him, because the Ábalos scandal stripped it of any remaining legitimacy. The housing struggle is of no use to him, because none of his measures have served to alleviate the housing crisis. The labor struggle is of no use to him, because the official unions and Yolanda Díaz are increasingly discredited among workers. The only struggle that served him—allowing him to ride on the demands of the masses, appropriate them, and generate stability on the home front—has been the internationalist struggles of the Spanish people. Furthermore, Spanish imperialism found an international vacuum that no one was occupying, and which, thanks to the specific moment of inter-imperialist conflict, Pedro Sánchez could occupy.
This is a brief explanation. We cannot fully explore a topic as complex as this in just a few pages, but that is, in essence, the reason why the representative of Spanish imperialism presents himself as a progressive global leader: he needs to do so to contain the crisis of the old State and bourgeois democracy.
Finally, it goes without saying that the economic question is at play. Politics is a concentrated expression of the economy, so the political crisis is, ultimately, an economic crisis. The crisis of recent Spanish governments (Rajoy, Sánchez) stems from the fact that Spanish monopolies need to extract more superprofits from oppressed nations. But they cannot gain more markets than they already have, because the markets are already divided up. Their political, economic, and military power is not great enough to carry out a new division of the global spoils. Therefore, any stability the Sánchez government may enjoy will always be temporary.
The Latin American governments that attended the Barcelona summit have not chosen a change of imperialist master. It is not that they are switching from the US master to the Spanish master. They remain lackeys of the Yankees, but attending the summit benefits them in a certain way. In their national rhetoric, they present themselves as left-wing leaders and opponents of Trump. How could they not respond to the call of a “progressive” summit?
