Spanish State – Revolutionary Committees: Statement regarding the new massacre in Ceuta
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a statement by the Revolutionary Committees, published on 6th of August.
Tear down the walls of imperialism!
Position of the Revolutionary Committees on the new massacre in Ceuta
August 6, 2026
On July 31st, thousands of people, mainly from Morocco, stormed the walls of Ceuta (and to a lesser extent, Melilla) hoping to escape a life of poverty and find a better life in Europe. The response of the Spanish State was to close its borders, harass, and refuse any kind of help to migrants who were trying to cross the border. As a result, at least 142 bodies of people who drowned have already been recovered. Subsequently, the repressive forces of the Spanish State hunted down and deported as many migrants as they could within the city.
Spanish imperialism is responsible for all these deaths
The events of July 31st have become the deadliest massacre at the Spanish border in recent history, adding to other infamous events such as the Tarajal massacre in 2014 and the Melilla massacre in 2022. Furthermore, we must consider the thousands of deaths that accumulate each year in the Mediterranean. Migrating to Europe is not a whim for the millions of people who attempt it; it is a journey in which they risk their very lives and leave behind everything they know: their families, their communities, their land…all in order to escape the permanent misery to which they are condemned in their countries of origin. One cannot discuss the massacres at the borders and the migration policy of the Spanish State without first addressing how imperialism forces millions of people to abandon their homes.
For centuries, African countries have been subjugated by foreign powers. First, they were colonies of European powers until the 19th century. Then, they became semi-colonies when pre-monopolistic capitalism transformed into monopolistic capitalism (imperialism), and oppression was disguised by the “independence” gained during the decolonization of Africa. As semi-colonies, African countries have never had true political sovereignty, nor an economy that is not tied to foreign financial capital. This has prevented any of them from developing their own national capitalist economy. Instead, imperialist powers took the existing feudal and slave-based system and built upon it an economy entirely at the service of their monopolies (bureaucratic capitalism). The result of this absolute economic dependence is the constant underdevelopment of productive forces, especially in the countryside, which produces a vast number of unemployed; and at the same time, allows those who are employed to be exploited beyond their means.
Thus, imperialism creates a situation of widespread misery and allies itself with the most reactionary classes in African countries to maintain its oppressive order through repression and violence. In this way, the imperialist powers extract far greater profits from Africa than they would in their own countries (super-profits) and use them to maintain order within their own borders by raising the living standards through so-called “welfare States.” The enormous masses of migrants forced to leave their homes and go to Europe do so because imperialism has sown their countries with poverty, corruption, and political repression. This, and no other cause, is the explanation for the mass migration from Africa to Europe.
The Spanish State, as the imperialist State that it is, also participates in this plunder. Not content with turning their countries of origin into puppets, plundering their economic resources, and exploiting billions, Spanish imperialism also exploits the African masses within its own borders. Imperialism needs illegal immigration to drive down wages and ensure the labor force in the most arduous sectors of production. And it needs it to be illegal precisely so that migrants have no rights, so that conditions of extreme exploitation can be imposed upon them. Imperialism establishes a regime of terror through its immigration policy so that migrants fear deportation more than their living and working conditions.
In turn, imperialism needs to control the flow of migrants in order to manage the ratio of legal and illegal migration, and thus perpetuate its regime of terror based on the labor shortage or surplus. To this end, the Spanish State uses its ties of domination to force countries such as Mauritania and Morocco to control the flow of people crossing their borders. And often, this is done through the most criminal and repressive methods imaginable against the masses.
Morocco is a country oppressed by imperialism
Both the spokespeople for reactionary forces and the social-democrats and revisionist organizations within the Spanish State are reproducing, either openly or more subtly, the lie that the migration crises are a form of pressure exerted by the Moroccan State on the Spanish State, seeking some kind of political concession. We must denounce this for what it is: chauvinistic and reactionary lies.
Morocco is a semi-colony of imperialism, mainly Yankee, but also Spanish and French. Its entire economy is dominated by companies and capital from these countries. The same is true of its politics: the ruling classes in Morocco are the big bourgeoisie and big landlords tied to the State and foreign capital, and all the political measures they take are designed to please their imperialist masters. In this concrete case, it has been documented how Moroccan repressive forces charged at, fired water cannons at, and detained groups of migrants in the vicinity of Ceuta before and during the crossing, which in and on of itself disproves the “theory” that everything was orchestrated from Morocco. The reality is that it is Spanish imperialism, which plunders Africa and forces millions of people to abandon their homes, that forces Morocco to repress with blood and fire the migrants who want to cross the fence. But when the situation gets out of control and the masses find a way to get through… then they tell us it’s an attack on “Spanish sovereignty”!
Another version of this theory is that the crossing was, in fact, planned by the United States and Israel, using Morocco as a puppet, with the aim of destabilizing the Spanish government. Beyond the fact that there is no actual evidence of this, the entire theory is based on the idea that the Yankees and Zionism are unhappy with the supposed pro-Palestinian and pacifist policies of the PSOE government [Translator’s note: Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party]. The point is that these supposed policies are not real. The PSOE has done nothing for Palestine or to reduce the militaristic escalation beyond symbolic measures. To this day, it continues to trade with Israel and has increased military spending, while simultaneously containing the popular protest as much as possible through false promises. Those who argue that there is an antagonistic contradiction between the policies of the PSOE and those of Trump and Netanyahu are, in reality, maintaining that within imperialism there is a progressive current–– represented by the former, and a reactionary one, represented by the other two–– and that this constitutes a sort of attack by the reactionary current against the progressive one.
The truth is that there is no “progressive current” within imperialism, as Lenin said: “Political reaction all along the line is a characteristic feature of imperialism.” Of course, contradictions exist among imperialist countries, but these contradictions stem from the division of the world, not from the existence of more or less moderate forms of imperialism. Spanish imperialism has room to maneuver, and it generally uses it precisely to ally itself with the US. There is no real evidence that this alliance is broken or that the United States needs to intervene in Spanish politics, just as there is no reason to believe that a change of government would bring about a substantial change in the policies of Spanish imperialism. Those who maintain all this, even if they deny it in words, are buying into the narrative of an attack on Spanish sovereignty; They are defending the imperialist State and its government, and engaging in electoral politics by buying into its lies. However much these positions may be disguised as red, they are and always will be chauvinistic insofar as they failto point to Spanish imperialism as the main culprit of the massacre.
Another argument, used by those who deny Morocco’s semi-colonial character, is its occupation of Western Sahara. It is true that Morocco occupies the territory and that the Sahrawi guerrillas—organized in the Polisario Front—are waging a War of National Resistance against the invading reactionary army. But simply because it occupies another nation does not mean that Morocco is an independent country with real political sovereignty.
The occupation of Western Sahara is orchestrated by Yankee imperialism, in collusion with Spain and France, and carried out through its puppet: the Moroccan big landlord-bourgeois State and its reactionary governments. If we trace the tentacles of the occupation in the Sahara, all the profits from the plunder of fishing and mining resources go directly into the pockets of Yankee and Spanish monopolies.
A country can be oppressed by imperialism, yet at the same time, its local ruling classes can maintain a policy of war, aggression, occupation, and chauvinistic expansion against its neighbors. Another clear example is Turkey, which is also a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and oppresses the Kurds.
The National Resistance War in Western Sahara will inevitably triumph as long as the people continue on the path of resistance and armed struggle against the invader, the reactionary Moroccan army, and its instigator and promoter, Yankee imperialism. In turn, Morocco will be liberated when the proletariat, together with the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, and sectors of the national bourgeoisie, raises a broad front against imperialism and semi-feudalism, carrying forward the New Democratic Revolution, marching towards Socialism, and defending the right to self-determination of Western Sahara.
Popular self-defense against fascist attacks
Defending the government and Spanish imperialism is one of the possible consequences of the “theory of an attack on Spanish sovereignty,” but not the only one. The other side of this coin is the various fascist organizations that have used this supposed invasion to justify and incite migrant hunts in Ceuta, seeking to unleash a pogrom just as they did a year ago in Torre Pacheco (Murcia). The masses have responded to these attempts at fascist terrorism by confronting the thugs, demonstrating once again that the way to stop fascism does not lie in parliament, but in fighting in the streets. Revolutionaries must take note of this; it is our task to strengthen self-defense and organize the collective violence of the proletariat, alongside all other classes of the people, against the attacks of these fascist gangs. It is also necessary to combat and denounce the militarization and fascistization of the State itself, which has deployed forces ranging from the National Police to the Legion to hunt down migrants, militarizing the entire city of Ceuta and committing torture and abuse in the process.
Tear down the walls of imperialism
It would be incomplete to focus solely on the most immediate tasks within our borders. Revolutionaries must learn from the activity of the masses, the tasks that these pose for them, and not from the analyses of the bourgeois press. What we are witnessing today is how millions of sons and daughters of African nations risk everything and cross borders into Europe with the determination of those who have nothing left to lose but their chains. This requires confronting repression, it requires struggle, it requires certain forms of collective organization, however basic they may be, and it requires creativity. It is, in essence, a form of rebellion—albeit still very incipient one—against the imperialist order, which, despite using every possible means to confine these people to the Third World, cannot prevent their escape.
The question is whether the revolutionaries in our country are willing to act as if they, too, have nothing to lose but their chains . The task is clear: we must tear down the walls that separate us from our brothers and sisters in the Third World, and we must destroy our imperialist States to end the system of misery and oppression they uphold. Anything that diverts attention from these necessities actually reflects a fear of losing the comforts and privileges that imperialism provides through the plunder of the Third World.
