Spanish State – Serve the People: Ceuta is Being Used to Drive More Reactionarization and Militarization

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Servir al Pueblo, on September 25.

Last week, in the midst of the reactionarization and militarization of the Spanish State, the People’s Party (PP) has asked the government to recognize the military as law enforcement agents. Meanwhile, military organizations have demanded they would be allowed to use “proportional force” because they claim to be in a situation of “vulnerability”. What would it mean if members of the military were declared law enforcement agents? Currently, law enforcement officers are the National Police and the Civil Guard. In other words, the military is asking to be treated on an equal footing with them – to enforce their own law on the streets of Ceuta, but not illegally, as they do when they intimidate, harass, and assault migrants, but rather to do so fully within the law, with carte blanche. This, of course, is not merely a measure for Ceuta, but has to be viewed in its perspective: the bourgeois State uses Ceuta to launch experiments or pilot programs for measures it will implement when the class struggle sharpens in the Spanish state. When the masses become uncontrollable, when there are struggles in which the local and national police and the Civil Guard are insufficient, and the military should intervene and they should be given legal immunity to impose terror on the people. This would be a first test in light of this scenario. Once again, it is clear that Ceuta is being used as part of the internal front, as part of the attacks on the people that have been taking place and will continue to take place.

And what is this government, that calls itself the most progressive in history, doing? Is it disputing and opposing these demands? Does it denounce the constant violations of bourgeois law that have been and continue to be committed against migrants by repressive forces, like the assaults, immediate deportations, etc.? Obviously not: “Defense” Minister Margarita Robles was interested in the health of the two national police agents that were injured during the resistance the migrants in Ceuta put up and personally visited the at the Gómez Ulla Central Defense Hospital in Madrid. Margarita Robles publicly expressed “her full support” for the officers that were injured “while they were carrying out their duties.” The current government is also pushing militarization and reactionarization, and in fact is plunging into the electoral battle for the voting bloc of reactionaries and chauvinists who claim to “support” Ceuta and the repressive forces.

But this is not enough for the government, it even uses migrant minors as a political weapon and turns a blind eye to them, in order to blame the PP for their situation. On September 16, while leaving the control session of the Congress of Deputies, Pedro Sánchez was asked by the bourgeois media why there are more than a thousand minors living on the streets and beaches of Ceuta. He answered: “Ask Vivas this” (mayor and president of the autonomous city of Ceuta), passing the hot potato to the PP. In this way, bourgeois politics once again reveals its most despicable face: “That’s not my responsibility, blame that other party for this,” while more than a thousand minors remain unprotected, constantly harassed by reactionaries and the repressive forces (it is worth repeating this point). This is the legacy left by this “progressive” government: a brutal massacre of migrants in Ceuta, massive illegalities such as immediate pushbacks and the overcrowding of tens of thousands of them, and the subsequent abandonment of those who remain. What does it matter what happens to human lives if they can be used my electoral battles and, on top of that, “aren’t my responsibility?” Every action and word from this government regarding the misnamed “Ceuta Crisis” is more repugnant than the last, and it will not be forgotten.