Podemos and the Catalan Independence Process
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- Published on Thursday, 02 April 2015 23:34
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1101 .... April 3, 2015
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Podemos and the Catalan Independence Process
The rise of Podemos ("We Can") in the Spanish state -- and of its counterpart Podem in Catalonia -- has presented a new challenge to both the Catalan independence movement and to the traditional left in that subordinated national component of the Spanish state. Pablo Iglesias and other Podemos leaders, while indicating sympathy for self-determination of Catalonia, do not support its independence.
A key issue now on the agenda in Catalonia is how to combine the social emancipatory perspective of Podem/Podemos with the ascendant popular support for sovereignty or independence as registered last November 9 in a referendum that was opposed by the central government in Madrid.
In the following article a leading participant in the revolutionary Marxist... left in Catalonia, Josep Maria Antentas, suggests that the new context requires a recalibration of strategy of both the independence movement (which he supports) and the social layers primarily influenced by Podem/Podemos around a mutual strategy that combines support for self-determination of Catalonia and other national components of the existing state with a democratic and progressive social agenda.