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From: The Socialist issue 926, 23 November 2016: Fight austerity

Search site for keywords: Spain - Students - Union - Working class - Student - Government - Strike - CWI - Austerity - Peter Taaffe - Militant - Education

Spain: Students' Union surges forward in historic congress

photo IR (Click to enlarge)

Danny Byrne, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)

On 19-20 November, 300 young revolutionaries from 26 cities throughout the Spanish state - along with dozens of trade unionists and working class militants - met in Madrid for the 18th congress of the Spanish Student Union.

CWI members and representatives - including Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary - had the privilege to attend. The congress displayed a vibrant organisation whose forward march already has Spain's new, illegitimate PP government on the ropes.

Founded in 1985, and forged in the heat of another historic student movement which defeated the Felipe Gonzalez government, the Sindicato de Estudiantes (SE) is today at the epicentre of the class struggle.

It called and organised the momentous general student strike of 26 October (26O) which brought millions of students out on strike and over 200,000 onto the streets.

26O shattered the suffocating 'social peace' of recent years. In her opening speech, Ana Garcia, SE general secretary, explained that its struggle against the education attacks and the anti-working class Francoist 'revalidation' exams has become the new government's most troublesome 'hot potato'.

On 24 November, the SE will again empty the classrooms and fill the streets in another general student strike. For the government to begin its mandate with a defeat to the SE would have an enormous impact.

The message that struggle with militant methods pays will not be lost on the rank and file of the labour movement, whose leaders' main policy of social peace and class collaboration has won no such results.

SE's unbreakable link with the working class was underlined throughout the congress.

Speaker after speaker emphasised that this was a union of working class students, wedded to the struggle of the wider working class against austerity and capitalism.

The atmosphere throughout the weekend was electrifying.

Those attending, many who had only recently joined the union, were full of confidence and combativity. The anger against the ruling class, the sorrow of mass emigration and determination to fight for a future, were all vividly on show.

Hundreds rally to celebrate anniversary of Students' Union and Izquierda Revolucionaria

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.