IV497 - June 2016

IVP 497 June 2016 PDF
IVP 497 June 2016 PDF available to download here

The election result has not been as expected for those committed to political change to initiate social transformation. The Popular Party of Mariano Rajoy, a corrupt party responsible, for the policies of impoverishment won the elections. PSOE and Ciudadanos have losr votes and seats, but held up enough to guarantee the ’s ability to govern, at least in the short term. Unid@s Podemos, the electoral project in which we participate actively, does not meet the expectations raised, coming in as a third force.

This statement was adopted by the Bureau of the Fourth International on 28 June 2016.

With abstention up by 4% from the last parliamentary elections in the Spanish state on December 20, 2016 (69.84% participation against 73.2%), the results of what we might call a “second round”, with the right wing Popular Party (PP) increasing its number of votes (600,000 extra votes and 33% of voters) and its number of seats to 137 (against 123 previously), and a Socialist Party (PSOE) which, despite losing 100,000 votes (22.7% of voters) and five seats, remains the second biggest political force in the country.There is relief for the regime which had to deal with the pressure of Unidos Podemos (UP) which, losing more than a million votes, has not managed to appear as the political expression of change. The good news comes in the substantial decline of Ciudadanos which lost 400,000 votes and eight seats to the benefit of the PP which was able to exploit the theme of the “useful vote”. In Catalonia, one can only note the persistence of a majority in favor of autonomy with 56.6% of the vote going to the autonomist/pro-independence parties.

As we enter the last week of the electoral campaign (the election is on June 26), it is impossible to deny that, in spite of the efforts of most of the candidates in the elections to talk as little as possible about the “red lines” that the Troika intends to impose on Spain (budgetary cuts of more than 8 billion euros as well as a fine for not having respected the objectives concerning the budget deficit), the referendum on June 23 in Britain places the future of the European Union at the centre of the political agenda.

After a bitter and deeply reactionary campaign, Britain voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48% on June 23. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader, Nigel Farage, is celebrating his victory together with his chums on the hard-right Eurosceptic wing of the Tory Party. His far right friends across Europe, from Marine le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and similar people in Germany, Austria, Italy - and places beyond – are rubbing their hands in glee while working out how best to capitalize on this triumph. Conservative Prime David Cameron has resigned with effect from the autumn and it will be his successor - almost certainly prominent “Brexiter” Boris Johnson– that will lead divorce negotiations with the EU. Those that are now in the ascendancy in the Conservative Party are even further to the right that the defeated leadership of Cameron.

This statement was issued by Socialist Resistance, British section of the Fourth International on 24th June 2016, following the referendum.

Last year’s huge demonstrations over the garbage collection crisis in Lebanon have led to an electoral breakthrough.

This statement was made by the "Another Europe in Possible" campaign in Britain, that had campaigned for a "Remain" vote from a left perspective, on Friday 24 June, once it had become clear that the vote for Britain to leave the European Union had won in the referendum the previous day.

Labour MP Jo Cox was brutally murdered outside her constituency surgery in Yorkshire one week before the referendum on whether Britain should remain a member of the European Union, by a man with long involvement in fascist aactivties. Cox was visibly campaigning for a Remain vote and also had a history of activism around support for refugees.