Parliament today [6 September] will probably approve the law calling the referendum on 1 October. Anticapitalistes support the approval of the Referendum Law because it is a step towards the holding of a disobedient referendum to enforce the right to self-determination.
The popular mandate to exercise self-determination has been expressed in the institutions and on the streets on countless occasions in recent years. A popular mandate that the Spanish State and the forces of the 1978 regime intend to obstruct by judicial means. It is both legitimate and necessary to disobey a legal framework that denies political rights. Civil and institutional disobedience is a legitimate and indispensable tool for the conquest of social, political, economic and cultural rights as is shown by the history of popular, feminist and working class struggles.
However, the opacity in which the Generalitat Government has processed this law, like the rest of the preparations for 1 October, weakens the referendum itself and the posibility for a popular response against repressive measures. Confining the exercise of the right to self-determination to polling booths is to undermine the strength of the movement itself.
Self-organization and the full political participation of the popular classes are central tools for going beyond the legal framework and, therefore, must be prioritized over failed strategies for avoiding confrontation with the state. However, we must say in criticism that the opportunity to extend the census and political rights to residents without Spanish nationality, and thus deepen democracy, has been lost.
Faced with the more than expected express suspension of the Referendum Law by the Constitutional Court, Anticapitalistes call for mobilizations in defence of 1 October and in favour of disobeying this suspension and all future measures of the Spanish State to prevent it from being cast. The referendum can only be won on the streets.
6 September 2017
Original here.