BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
This past August marked ten years since our founding as the organisation Reconstrucción Comunista. On the occasion of our anniversary, I was entrusted with writing a very brief overview covering some aspects of our history. Gladly, I proceeded to do so, though not without first reflecting that this small commemorative outline is insufficient for something that many of our comrades and supporters have long been asking for: a more detailed understanding of our history, especially of the early years. For this reason, I commit myself from this moment onwards to writing a book on our first ten years of history, providing unpublished documents and testimonies that will surely be of interest to the reader.
The intention is not to write an official history of the Party, but rather to provide facts and shed some light on many unknown aspects without which it would be impossible to understand how we came to be what we are. For this reason, I will do so from my own personal experience and that of other veteran comrades, whose testimonies and documents I will present.
In this overview, unlike the future book mentioned earlier, I will not give names or provide documents. The purpose of the present work is simply to serve as a brief introduction to what we are and why we are the way we are.
First of all, and by way of introduction, I will say that when Reconstrucción Comunista (RC) was founded, we were a group of young people who knew nothing. As I have already said, we came from breaking with the revisionist parties that existed in the State, and our experience, in every respect, was therefore very limited. We had no teacher other than practice itself — trial and error. From our mistakes, we were able to rise again and again, learning and always moving forward. There is no better teacher than failure; you simply have to overcome it, learn from it and raise your abilities.
All of this applies both in practice and in theory. The near-total destruction of the communist movement — and especially of the Spanish communist movement — left few options: either continue wasting time in the alphabet soup of so-called communist parties that in reality are not communist at all, or break with all of that and build something new, something truly worthwhile, something revolutionary. We chose the second option, and it is along that path that we still continue. We did not care about criminalisation by the State, by the revisionist communist parties themselves, or by the postmodern left. We set ourselves an objective — the highest that a person can undertake — and decided never to yield, regardless of the problems and conflicts that might affect us. We swore to prevail, and whatever the cost, we shall prevail.
Although the composition of the Party’s members — both now and for many years — has consisted mostly of people who came to know the Party through its exemplary work, that is, people who did not come from any previous organisation, this was not the case at the beginning.
The very small group that would eventually found RC had already been together for several years — first in UJCE-Madrid and later in the CJC, spending barely two years in each. Things were not as they are now; it was very difficult to obtain information about what these so-called communist parties were really like. Between our lack of knowledge, our youth and inexperience, and the deception and falsehoods of these revisionist and reformist parties, we ended up joining both of them, one after the other.
We soon realised that both structures, the PCE and the PCPE alike, were cut from the same cloth. Despite the Soviet-style folklorism of the PCPE, its essence is just as reactionary as that of the PCE. They are not instruments of the working class; on the contrary, they serve as tools of capital to maintain fragmentation within communist ranks and to continue introducing bourgeois ideas into their midst, thereby hindering the collective organisation of workers.
Despite our inexperience, we continued to progress. We realised that we were wasting our time and that the PCPE had nothing revolutionary about it. During this period, many things happened which I will address in detail in the later work devoted to the history of the Party, to which I have already referred.
Thus, we gradually gained experience and political formation, which led us to break with the PCPE. Faced with the absence of a communist party in Spain, we decided to found a communist organisation that would struggle for its creation. In this way, at a plenary meeting of all those of us who had left the PCPE, on Friday 31 July 2009 in Puerta de Toledo, Madrid, Reconstrucción Comunista was born.
THE EARLY YEARS
Building an organisation from scratch is something profoundly difficult. We had no resources of any kind, and that exasperated people. Of those who attended that meeting in Puerta de Toledo (around thirty), only five of us remained. The strain of every kind that we were subjected to was not endured by people who were used to having everything handed to them and who were unwilling to adopt a militant culture of sacrifice, discipline and hard work. From this purge — or self-purge — emerged the seed of what, over the years, would become our flagship: our communist militant culture, our greatest treasure.
We had to restructure ourselves into a single cell; we had to learn how to function in every respect. Organisationally, we broke with revisionism, but the complete ideological rupture came over time — through study, work, self-criticism and rectification. And the process did not stop there. We also had to learn to break with their methods of work, some aspects of which we initially retained and which were, of course, anti-communist. We had to learn to use communist methods of work. It was not a short process. Many people were left behind because they were unable to adapt to the necessary changes that had to be undertaken. But we persevered, and over the years the process ultimately became a complete success.
Thus, through persistent and determined work, we reached our founding Congress. Sometimes I look back at the documents from the 1st Congress and realise how much we have changed, how much we have progressed, and how many mistakes we made at that time. Yet despite those mistakes, despite our youth, it is perfectly clear that the seed of what existed there — the essence of what we are now — was already present, even if only within a very small group of people.
The Congress was made up of the five comrades I have spoken about, together with more people whom we recruited mainly from the university, particularly from the Faculty of Political Science and its surrounding circles. It took place at the La Traba Social Centre, in Legazpi, Madrid, on 23 May 2010.
At this Congress, we consolidated all the work we had already been carrying out in the preceding months, and it served as a driving force enabling us to operate around short-, medium- and long-term plans that would ultimately lead to the organisation’s exponential growth. We equipped ourselves with the necessary structures to begin organising properly. We were still a single cell, carrying out our work in central Madrid and within the universities.
As an anecdote, it is worth mentioning that, in those early years, we were known as “La” RC, and this even appeared in our documents. It was only from the 2nd Congress onwards that “El” RC began to be used. Here we can see some extracts from the documents of the 1st Congress, showing that we were already moving along the path towards becoming what we are today:
Our militancy is one of commitment, of conscious militants. We do not want members; we want militants. The defining characteristics of our militants are sacrifice, ideological firmness, and resilience in the face of adversity and suffering. The better communist is not the one who speaks best or knows books by heart, but the one who works and sacrifices the most for their principles — those of Marxism-Leninism.[1].
RC advocates a federal, popular and workers’ republic aimed at achieving socialism; a secular republic in solidarity with the peoples and communities within the Spanish State; and a clearly anti-imperialist line in foreign policy, one that puts an end to Spain’s involvement in wars of plunder, such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.[2].
Within RC, we shall strictly uphold the principles of democratic centralism and, while these remain in force, the formation of organised factions whose sole aim is to undermine or destroy the organisation shall be prohibited.[3].
I could provide many more examples, but I do not wish to burden this overview with quotations; the essence of what I wanted to show has already been made clear.
In those early years, we worked across various mass fronts, work that allowed us to grow once again and helped people begin to recognise us.
To understand where and why we worked in those years, our average age must be taken into account. We were very young — I was the oldest, at 23 years old, while our average age was around 18 or 19. Who would have told me that, after turning 30, I would have many comrades twice my age? Work done properly eventually bears fruit.
Our work during those years was centred on universities and youth and anti-fascist spaces, to the point of becoming a reference within the Faculty of Political Science due to our bold and consistent work. At the same time, we began promoting and founding student groups in secondary schools.
Our youth never prevented us from working in other areas, such as international solidarity. We had spent years working alongside the Kurdish community and, as you will all know, that relationship deepened over time. We carried out all kinds of campaigns against the Turkish fascist government and organised cultural events, political gatherings and demonstrations throughout Madrid.
We also played a significant role in the mobilisations against the imperialist aggression in Libya, until confrontation with the reformists led us to leave the platform when they sought to turn it into an organisation serving Gaddafi. Nevertheless, we continued carrying out work independently.
On 15 May 2011, the 15M movement erupted, initially centred in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol before later decentralising into municipalities and neighbourhoods across Spain. Our forces at that time were still limited, and we were unable to put into practice a line of action aimed at radicalising the process and distancing the masses from the cross-class approaches of the reformists leading it. The outcome of all their manoeuvres was the absolute failure of the movement, the new PP government under Rajoy, and the later emergence of the reformists of Podemos.
How different our role in that process might have been had we possessed the strength we have now. When similar processes emerge in the future, we will be prepared to face the struggle with confidence.
That same year, we entered the republican movement. As a result of our work, the organisation continued to grow, and we held our first march within the framework of the united republican demonstration, which had a significant impact.
We wanted to make visible our rejection of the celebratory — almost festival-like — way in which a day is commemorated that, for us, is one of struggle and remembrance for our dead, those who fell in the fight for a better Spain. This earned us many enemies, who, consumed by envy, began trying to build a black legend around us. Envy is a dangerous thing, but work endures and the truth eventually comes to light; no matter how much they try to criminalise us, we grow stronger every day.
That 14 April 2011 was the key day on which we took a step forward for the first time — our first public act of breaking with the entire revisionist and postmodern left. For us, it was a crucial day, of vital importance in understanding who we are and where we come from.
After that 14 April, we decided to begin professionalising ourselves — to give the best of ourselves, raise our capacities, work and fulfil what the organisation and the workers’ and communist movement demanded of us. It was our duty.
Thus began a process of professionalising militancy, of developing a militant culture entirely different from that of the revisionist left’s organisations — one centred on study, discipline, sacrifice and effort: it was the germ of our current militant culture.
We knew that not everyone would be willing to undertake this change. For that reason, certain people who saw themselves under scrutiny for their inability to advance began engaging in factional activity, with the intention of opposing these changes. Thus, at the end of 2011, it was decided to act against this right-wing and liberal group. They carried out intense factional activity and were ultimately expelled. We lost a third of our membership — in numbers, though, according to this account, their contribution in qualitative terms was considered negligible. Facing our first internal faction was a hard blow, but the outcome was highly positive. As Stalin said: “The Party grows stronger by purging itself…” In the long run, we benefited from it; growth remained continuous and, within a few months, we had more members than ever before.
Within a short period, we divided into several cells: central Madrid, Leganés, Hortaleza and Pozuelo, soon followed by Vallecas and other localities.
At the same time, contacts began to emerge from other regions interested in becoming part of RC; the first to make contact were comrades from Navarre. At the end of 2011, comrades from Mallorca got in touch, and during the course of 2012 they would become integrated into the project. As the first to join RC from outside Madrid, this marked the beginning of our transition away from being — or at least from beginning to cease being — a regional organisation confined to Madrid.
THE NEW DIRECTION: 2012–2014
In 2012, we deepened our work in international solidarity, collaborating with Ecuador’s Popular Democratic Movement and supporting members of the Ecuadorian community who, according to this account, were facing persecution and harassment under the government of the supposedly “revolutionary” Rafael Correa. This work also continued throughout 2013.
We continued to strengthen relations with the Kurdish community and established close ties with our Turkish comrades from the MLKP. We developed our own campaigns and joined international initiatives aimed at denouncing the situation in Turkey and the oppression of the Kurdish people.
Solidarity Committees with Kurdistan were established across multiple regions of the State, becoming one of the driving forces behind the large central protest held in Madrid.
We also carried out extensive international work against the fascist and Islamist State of Iran, supporting Iranian revolutionaries in Spain through campaigns, informational events and protests outside its embassy.
At the same time, we also carried out work concerning the situation in India, collaborating during that period with various Maoist groups. However, as I already explained in “Some Aspects of Our History”, we had nothing to do with Maoism. We participated for reasons of solidarity, but the intentions of some of those groups were not the same as ours. As a result, it was a serious mistake to work alongside them within a united platform, though that is a long matter to explain. Anyone interested can refer to the aforementioned text, where I address the issue in detail.
Our entry into the trade union movement was not easy, mainly due to our young age. We took an active part in the general strikes of 2010, 2011 and 2012. Despite our lack of experience, these served as a school for us, allowing us to improve our activity from one mobilisation to the next. We were always combative, and for that reason we faced arrests and court cases. During the first two strikes, we worked mainly with the critical sector of Comisiones Obreras; in the two strikes of 2012, we worked more closely with the Madrid Trade Union Coordinating Committee. We never cared which union we worked with — we wanted to be wherever the workers were. Over time, while maintaining this same spirit, we deepened our trade union work, taking part in numerous workers’ struggles. We also participated for a period in the platform Hay que pararles los pies.
We began to work more intensively within the anti-repression movement, participating in both the first and second “Meeting for Solidarity Against All Forms of Repression.” Later, we would become founding members of the Anti-Repression Coordinating Committee, dedicated to supporting struggles and those subjected to State repression. These nationwide meetings took place in Madrid in 2013.
In 2011, we held two marches: the April one I mentioned earlier and another at the end of the year in defence of Madrid. It was a very successful format, but in April 2012, much to our surprise, other groups attempted to veto us from organising it again during a meeting of the Republican Coordinating Committee.
One of these individuals even managed to influence the remaining members of the AGE into issuing a statement against us. However, as is still the case today, our will and determination were unbreakable, and we prevailed. We won the meeting despite being in the minority, and we carried out what became our largest march up to that point. The members of the AGE were left appearing sectarian and detached from reality. The fallen of the revolution, the heroes of our class, do not belong to any individual. They are the legacy of our class, and if others refuse to claim them, we will continue to do so.
Particularly regrettable roles in all these events were played by the small group Octubre, self-described as the new PCE(ml), and by the PCE. According to this account, envy — especially on the part of the former — consumed them, but all their manoeuvres ultimately came to nothing. They failed to impose themselves and, by the following year, would not even attempt it again. In the end, we prevailed.
At the organisational level, the most important moment was the holding of our 2nd Congress in Vallecas, Madrid, attended by comrades from other regions for the first time. We still had shortcomings, but we corrected many of the errors we had carried over from the 1st Congress. We were already on the path of rectification that would eventually lead us to where we are today.
It was at this Congress that we denounced Maoism as a revisionist current. We developed work plans that would later allow our expansion across many parts of Spain and the strengthening of Madrid, which remained the organisation’s flagship stronghold. We equipped ourselves with a better organisational structure, optimising our resources and capacities, and the effects became evident over time. Things were genuinely beginning to go well; we grew as never before. Compared with what we are now, we were tiny, but at the time the pace of our growth was remarkable enough to command respect.
At that Congress, we spoke firmly about imperialism in much the same way as we do today; this can be seen clearly here:
Thus, we find ourselves faced with two imperialist blocs — the Russian-Chinese bloc and the American bloc — each with its own satellite states, clashing over a new division of the world. The clearest example of this is the invasion and occupation of Libya and the destabilisation of Syria.[4].
The essence of what we are now could already be seen as something latent, pushing towards militant professionalisation. Some would advance alongside the organisation, while others would be left behind, unable to break with their own weaknesses. Yet for every person who left, many more entered and joined the necessary transformation that had to continue unfolding.
At the end of 2012, a member of the organisation began carrying out dirty work for another party, the PCE(r). He was discovered and expelled, failing to draw anyone else with him and completely failing in his objective of undermining us in order to secure militants for that party. This marked the beginning of the conflict with that small revisionist party, although it lacks the importance to warrant more than this brief mention. When these events took place, they gave us six months to live. Here we still are, seven years later.
On 30 and 31 March 2013, the 1st Communist Gathering took place at our headquarters in Vallecas, a space we sought to create for debate between communist organisations. There was significant ideological struggle during the event, particularly regarding the debate around and critique of reconstitutionism. The organisations defending these positions were outmatched and unable to defend themselves coherently.
As with all these groups, the internet will always remain their refuge for distorting and lying, because in practice and in real debate they are consistently outmatched by Marxist–Leninists — as was also the case with the reconstitutionists of Célula Roja in Valencia during an event we organised against Maoism, from which they once again came away badly defeated. Four organisations attended this gathering, several more sent greetings, and historical figures from Madrid’s trade union and workers’ movement were also present.
2013 and 2014 were the great years of expansion, both in terms of the number of militants and the places in which we established RC. They were years of hard work in every respect, but through difficulties and overcoming them, we gradually forged ourselves.
In 2013, as a result of our significant growth, we decided to promote the creation of our youth organisation, the Young (Bolshevik) Guard, JG(B), which was formally established on 8 March of that same year. It began only in Madrid, but soon expanded to other regions such as Valencia and the Basque Country. The youth organisation focused its work on universities and youth spaces, encouraging participation and the creation of student and neighbourhood youth organisations that would later form the youth coordinating body.
On 22 March 2014, the Marches for Dignity took place. Due to our growth and overall strengthening, we played a major role in them, as reflected by our appearance in the media — both television and press — as one of the main driving forces behind the marches and the resistance against the police. For the first time, we appeared on the front pages; we were seen as the epicentre of the revolutionary forces.
In 2014, the Workers’ Bank was founded on our initiative. At that time, it was called the Workers’ Solidarity Food Bank (BOSA). Banks were established across multiple towns and neighbourhoods, and we threw ourselves fully into addressing the problems of precarity and evictions, carrying out significant work in this area. The accumulation of forces generated through this initiative would later provide the foundation for projects that I will explain further on.
In April 2014, we held our 1st Conference on the National Question, during which we removed any remaining influence of the so-called “revolutionary” left — in reality reformist — and established, in essence, the same line that we maintain today. Guests from other countries attended the conference, including Turkish comrades from the MLKP and German comrades.
During these years, expansion took place across multiple areas of the State, with particular prominence in Valencia and the Basque Country, achieving presence in all provinces, and later extending to Castellón, Cuenca and Jaén. We became a nationwide organisation, serving as a reference point for many people who were beginning to take an interest in establishing RC in other places.
Many pages would have to be devoted to discussing the conflicts with other organisations, and especially everything related to the international brigades in Rojava that led to the trial against us. I have already made some remarks regarding the former, and I will make further comments on the latter later on. However, the details and full content of these two issues would require considerable space to be addressed properly, and doing so would distract from the purpose of this present overview.
For that reason, I commit myself to addressing them in the future, in the expanded version of the book I have undertaken to write about our history, since some matters require more time to pass before they can be spoken of openly and without reservation — with nothing but the truth laid bare. Remember that good things take time, and that the truth always ends up prevailing; in this case, it can only serve to reflect well on us.
THE YEARS OF REFUNDATION: 2015 – 27 January 2016
At the beginning of 2015, we had to act against another faction that had emerged at the end of 2014. This faction was personalist and right-leaning in character; they wanted an RC that would become a reference point for the progressive and “antifa” left, they wanted to be part of it. We, however, were clear that we wanted to break with all of that and continue with our process of professionalisation. We were firmly convinced that we were right to sever ties with it all.
The struggle against revisionism had to continue; there could be no turning back, as these people wanted. Despite the favourable conditions they had in certain respects for pursuing their dubious actions, they were completely defeated both within the JG(B) and within RC.
Up to that point, they had been the most pitiful faction to have existed. Their inexperience and poor conduct led to their destruction and complete defeat. They believed that revolution and the struggle for it were a fashion, an aesthetic. We were very clear that this was not the case. Their purge would, over time, help us continue with our development and growth.
Youth collectives had already existed beforehand, but the JG(B) continued its youth work, helping these groups to grow and laying the foundations for the youth coordinating body. All of this work would be sustained over time, making possible developments that I will discuss in the following section.
At the end of 2014, members of our organisation enlisted in the international brigades called upon to fight in Rojava against the Islamic State. This news reached every media outlet, and the machinery of the State, together with the media in its service, began the campaign of criminalisation that would later lead to our arrests, imprisonment and outlawing for a year. Our commitment to the struggle against the Islamic State and to the freedom of the Kurdish people has remained constant throughout all these years.
On 10 April 2015, our 3rd Congress was held in Rivas, Madrid. There, we refounded ourselves as a Party, becoming the PML(RC) — Partido Marxista-Leninista (Reconstrucción Comunista). We advanced on many questions that would shape us into what we are today. Comrades from multiple regions attended, along with guests from fraternal parties in Tunisia, Turkey and Germany.
Although this Congress represented a major step forward, I must also say that we failed to resolve certain problems. Thus, in new regions that had experienced considerable growth, the same issues reappeared that we had already overcome in Madrid: sectionalism, liberalism and bureaucratism. This was especially evident in Valencia, where some people held a conception of the Party akin to a collection of independent fiefdoms — something that could not be tolerated.
Measures began to be taken, but before they could be fully implemented, the State struck against us on 27 January 2016 — a moment that marked a before and after in our trajectory. But that is another story, one to which I will return later.
When the brigadists returned, they were arrested and prosecuted. According to the account presented here, Arcadio was unable to withstand the pressure. He is described as having capitulated and as becoming a police collaborator, allegedly helping to build the case against us through falsehoods; in return, he was also reportedly provided with police protection.
He would receive a minor sentence, while others among us were placed in pre-trial detention, imprisoned and outlawed, facing lengthy prison demands. I will not go into further detail here, but I will address this matter more fully later, presenting trial documents as evidence for what the author describes as the disgraceful actions of a cowardly individual.
The testimony of Martos and of comrades from the international battalion in Rojava regarding the alleged role of the police collaborator in Syria is presented as particularly revealing. According to this account, signs of cowardice and lack of resolve were already apparent, though it is claimed that no one expected matters to deteriorate to such an extent. The author states that, in a future work on this subject, the testimonies referred to will be presented in greater detail.
Our process of growth continued at an accelerated pace, notably with the establishment of the PML(RC) in Tarragona and Barcelona in 2015, marking our expansion into the north. In the future, this would prove to be of vital importance for us.
We had planned to hold nationwide anti-fascist sessions towards the end of the year, which would span two months of work. The idea was to give them a class-based content, something generally absent from local anti-fascist events organised by groups whose understanding of anti-fascism reflects a fashionable, capital-compatible outlook.
These began to be carried out; the intention had been to conclude them in Barcelona, but before that could happen, Operation Valle — the name given to the operation against the Party — was launched. Several comrades were arrested; two of us, along with a Kurdish comrade, were placed in pre-trial detention, and the Party was outlawed. Despite everything, the comrades in Barcelona decided to carry on. The sessions, despite the difficulties, represented another step forward for us. They say that communists are forged through adversity, that people’s true character emerges when circumstances become difficult. In our case, it was no different. We saw everyone’s true nature: those who stood firm and faced the situation openly, and those who gave in to fear and comfort and, in doing so, not only betrayed us but, at the first sign of hardship, also betrayed the ideology they claimed to defend.
SINCE 27 JANUARY 2016
After 49 days in prison under the FIES 3 (Armed Groups category / Special Monitoring Regime) isolation regime, I was released. The situation I encountered upon leaving was desperate. Members of the former leadership who had not been imprisoned and who were not from Madrid were actively obstructing any activity from taking place, including initiatives of an anti-repression nature.
The situation was difficult, but there was also hope. We found that the bulk of the rank-and-file militancy had risen up against these cowardly and capitulating elements, particularly in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. It is no coincidence that these would later become our strongest bastions.
After travelling across Spain to restructure things, we found ourselves greatly diminished in number. Fear, along with the cowardly and petty actions of these bureaucratic and unstable elements, contributed to many people abandoning militancy.
Following the restructuring, these elements were removed from the Party, and things began to function again. In time, they would attempt to disguise their cowardice behind supposed ideological or practical differences, but the truth is that, in the meetings we held, they argued that they simply did not want problems and wanted to avoid the trial. They placed their own individual and selfish interests above the collective.
According to the author’s account, they were poor militants and incapable individuals, whose disappearance was seen as beneficial for the organisation’s continued growth without internal obstacles. They are described as a significant burden that had to be confronted. The text concludes by asserting that people may say what they wish, but that work and the passage of time ultimately judge everyone, and that, in this view, those individuals have earned a place “in the dustbin of history.”
In 2017, the Party began to function as never before; the restructuring was a major success. For us, 27 January marked a before and after — a moment that forced us to professionalise, to give the best of ourselves and to complete the development of our militant culture.
It was during this period that we coined the slogans “It is very difficult to destroy those who are unwilling to surrender” and “Death before capitulation.” We did what was necessary to become what we are. It is the most important period for understanding our evolution. From that moment onwards, we became a new Party, qualitatively superior; everything that came before was merely the beginning.
The decisive event that made us change and begin again from scratch was 27 January. All members of this Party are, in one way or another, shaped by that event and by those circumstances, and our adaptation to them explains why we are the way we are. It was a genuine refoundation. In terms of importance, everything prior to that date is anecdotal; what truly mattered was what happened from that point onwards.
All the spaces in which we had worked before the 27th were rebuilt, with many of them significantly expanded. We established ourselves in Granada, Seville, Alicante, Murcia, Lleida and Girona; the expansion continues, and at an ever-increasing pace.
Moreover, the number of militants in the territories where we had already been present grew exponentially. Never before have we been as numerous as we are today; we have multiplied our membership tenfold compared to what it was before 27 January 2016, while also, of course, increasing its quality.
In the summer of 2017, it was decided that I would be sent to live in Barcelona, as the emergence of procés and the inexperience of the comrades in Catalonia led them to seek help in organising themselves more effectively.
From the outset, there were tensions with people who appeared not to follow the Party’s line on the national question and the conception of the State. Nationalist influences must be eradicated, and unstable elements are therefore purged; as a result, Barcelona and Tarragona had to be restructured.
The result speaks for itself: Barcelona went from being a territory with a single cell to becoming an example for the Party because of its capacity in every respect. Never before had we been so numerous, nor of such quality. Numerically, it is one of the strongest areas in the entire State.
That same year brought major news: due to our significant growth and, above all, the strong influence we held among young people, the Youth organisation of our party was reconstituted, having been dissolved during the period of outlawing for practical reasons. Its name was changed to align it with that of the Party, becoming JML(RC). From the outset, the role of this youth organisation proved more effective and productive than the previous experience, and its growth was exponential due to the quality of its work in all areas.
An important event for us took place in Madrid’s Plaza de Callao on 1 January 2017. We held a demonstration for our freedom as a Party; it was a genuine show of strength. It marked the beginning of a new era. Although it may seem minor to us now, at the time it was extraordinary. The entire Madrid left was impressed, but we would not stop there — we would continue moving forward.
Due to our exponential growth and the demands of political development, we held our 4th Congress in Barcelona. There, we consolidated and reaffirmed all of our previous development. The Congress was a major success on every level, providing us with the tools to develop new lines of work. It was the Congress at which the initiative to establish Frente Obrero was approved, as the culmination of all the work carried out in mass fronts to make it possible. The Congress was held on 11 November 2017.
That same year brought major news: due to our significant growth and, above all, the strong influence we held among young people, the Youth organisation of our party was reconstituted, having been dissolved during the period of outlawing for practical reasons. Its name was changed to align it with that of the Party, becoming JML(RC). From the outset, the role of this youth organisation proved more effective and productive than the previous experience, and its growth was exponential due to the quality of its work in all areas.
On 15 October, we faced our trial before the National Court. We confronted State repression as we always have: with communist resolve. I still remember when we came out after the first day of the trial and more than a hundred comrades were waiting for us with their fists raised.
We confronted the farce and fabrication that the State had prepared against us. The absurd accusations gradually fell apart, but they reformulated their arguments. They were unable to secure a conviction against the Party, yet they devised a new line of reasoning in order to obtain a conviction, even if only a minor one. Thus, ten days after the end of the trial, the provisional sentences were made public.
A few of us were convicted; I was the only one to receive a sentence exceeding two years, for membership in a criminal organisation — an accusation which was, of course, as false as the previous ones. The State wanted to punish us for having dared to challenge its rules, for having been consistent revolutionaries.
They thought that this would stop us, hold us back, but nothing could be further from reality. If the convictions are ultimately upheld and it is once again demonstrated that in this country there is no justice other than the blatant oppression of our class, they will realise once more that, as individuals, we can be beaten, tortured, ruined, imprisoned and even killed — but that, as the vanguard of the revolutionary class, as a Communist and revolutionary Party, nothing and no one can stop us. We are the future; they are nothing more than the final executioners of a system already condemned to die, and victory will be ours. In June 2019, the 2nd Conference on the National Question was held in Hortaleza, Madrid. Comrades from multiple areas that had been established since 2017 took part. It represented a step forward and a reaffirmation of the positions we had already been defending for years.
THE ROAD TO FRENTE OBRERO
The youth coordinating body would eventually become Juventud Combativa, bringing together all the former youth collectives into a single organisation. This gave it a genuinely nationwide character, allowing it to expand across the entire territory.
BOSA underwent a similar process: it was no longer simply a food bank, but an organisation engaged in all kinds of social activity. It also began to gain public and nationwide prominence through its committed struggle against evictions and in defence of the rights of the working class. Its influence, capacity and numbers grew exponentially.
The State Coordinator for Social Struggle was established in 2016 to organise and connect the struggles of various collectives and organisations working in the same areas. It fulfilled the historical role for which it had emerged, but it was necessary to go further. Thus, at the initiative of the Party, a proposal was made to establish Frente Obrero in Spain.
In Spain, the “left” is the left of the system; the “communist” parties ceased to be such long ago. There is no organisation with real strength that represents the interests of our class. For the reconstruction of a strong workers’ movement, the existence of an organisation is necessary — one which, under a class-based and popular programme, is capable of attracting and consolidating those of us who stand for a combative and revolutionary left, rather than a servile left that defends the system and the ideological degeneration of postmodernism. An organisation committed to a militant culture of dedication and consistency, rooted at the grassroots and exemplary in practice.
A provisional meeting was convened, attended by those who would later become the founding members: Coordinadora Estatal de Lucha Social, Banco Obrero, Frente Republicano, Obreros en Lucha, Partido Marxista-Leninista (Reconstrucción Comunista), Estudiantes en Lucha, Juventud Combativa and Juventud Marxista-Leninista (Reconstrucción Comunista).
Local and regional committees began to be established on the basis of the programme and organisational points that emerged from that founding meeting. A coordinating committee at the national level was elected, whose main function would be to prepare the future political-organisational conference at which the provisional bodies would be chosen.
The work carried out and what is described here as the correctness of our programme led hundreds of people to join the Frente Obrero. Local committees were established across the whole of Spain, and the project was considered an unprecedented success.
We officially began this path with the publication of the programme points in October 2018, marking the launch of the Pro-Frente Obrero Committee.
On 14 October 2018, the 1st Political-Organisational Conference of the Frente was held, during which the National Executive Committee and the General Secretary, Carlos Gómez, were elected.
At present, we remain in the process of construction, working tirelessly to accumulate forces and make the political leap towards constituting ourselves as the Frente Obrero.
The Frente Obrero has even attracted attention in mainstream media due to its opposition to postmodernism, its work in favour of the republic and its involvement in workers’ struggles.
The Frente Obrero has marked the re-emergence of working-class forces on the political scene once again. We are reclaiming the space of a combative, revolutionary, working-class and transformative left, struggling tirelessly against all those who oppress our class, including what is described here as a caviar, progressive, snobbish and postmodern left that, in reality, serves only its own opportunistic interests. The Frente Obrero is presented as a force for the future and for hope, representing forces of progress and transformation, and as the heir to the entire tradition of workers’ and revolutionary struggle developed in Spain.
FRENTE DE OBREROS EN LUCHA
Both we, and by extension the Frente Obrero, have taken part in numerous workers’ conflicts, which has given us extensive experience in this field and enabled the formation of highly capable and valuable trade union cadres. The example set by these comrades resonated within our membership, initiating a process of professionalisation that led us to obtain trade union delegates in many workplaces.
We work wherever workers are present; it does not matter which trade union they belong to. Trade union agitation and activity must be carried out in all spaces. However, this does not prevent that, within the framework of the process of building the Frente Obrero and due to our concrete material conditions, we were able to launch our main trade union initiative: the Front of Workers in Struggle. This emerged from Workers in Struggle, an organisation created to develop joint work between workplaces and workers from the most diverse unions, with whom we shared a common line of trade union work.
Our commitment is to a workers’ (class-based), combative and revolutionary trade unionism, with a militant culture centred on discipline, effort, education and leading by example. This approach was put into practice with notable success, as hundreds of people quickly joined the FOL. New union branches and members continue to emerge every day across our territory. Although it already exists and operates at all levels, it was decided, in recognition of our work, to officially present the FOL, as part of the celebration of our 10th anniversary as a Party.
REPUBLICAN WORK. REVOLUTIONARY HISTORICAL MEMORY
For many years, we have participated in republican coordinating bodies and platforms, but it was from 2017 onwards that we took a significant step forward. According to this account, most republican organisations are either focused primarily on memorialism or function merely to attract a few militants in an effort to avoid dissolution. These organisations are also described here as being deeply influenced by postmodern currents.
We sought to break with these dynamics by turning the struggle for the republic into a combative and revolutionary cause, one that advocates the transformation of our society, ceases to be a once-a-year affair, and becomes something rooted in constant, grassroots and popular work, rather than being seen as folkloric or anachronistic. At the same time, youth must be integrated into the republican movement.
We took another leap forward on 14 April, although the decisive year in which all the work we had carried out truly became visible was 2018, when footage from that day shows that we made up more than half of the mobilisation. This fact is even more significant considering that we have always prioritised consistent work in neighbourhoods, towns and municipalities rather than mobilisation for its own sake.
Here, the results of continuous work and effort became visible in contrast to the alphabet soup of reformists, revisionists and postmodernists. Once again, our work spoke for itself.
We also began organising tributes, events and campaigns to honour those who fell for the Republic and for the revolution in Spain, as, according to this account, the decomposition and degeneration of “left-wing” organisations had reached the point where they no longer even commemorated their own dead, due to an evident lack of capacity. Particularly noteworthy was the nationwide campaign we carried out for 27 September in Madrid, the Basque Country, Catalonia and Valencia.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The first contacts we had were with the Kurdish community and with organisations from Turkey. At first, these were merely initial contacts, but in a short time we began to strengthen and deepen our relations.
Although at the beginning we maintained relations with several organisations, the one that stood out over the years was the one we developed with the MLKP.
We had very good relations also with Iranian exiles, mainly members of the Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerrillas (Minority), known as the Fedai (Minority). It was a relationship based on practical work and solidarity rather than anything else.
For years, we were members of an international coordinating body of workers’ and revolutionary parties, ICOR. There, we met very interesting people — good Marxist-Leninists with whom we still maintain very good relations, such as the Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party of Tunisia (PPDS) and the Labour Party of Bosnia and Serbia. Our membership in it was motivated by practical work and international solidarity, not by ideological considerations, as we differed greatly from the line of most of its parties. When we saw that the practical work was no longer being carried out, we decided to leave in 2019.
During this period, we also established relations with Red Action in Croatia and with Communist Construction in Germany. Later, we would establish relations with the French organisation Communist Reconstruction (a French organisation with a name similar to our own).
THEORETICAL WORK
Our study and political formation eventually led us to develop our own theoretical work. We began by publishing documents and later moved on to producing our theoretical organ. De Acero, a quarterly publication. Its first edition was released in June 2013.
Throughout all these years, we have addressed a wide variety of topics, ranging from organisational matters and current affairs to historical, theoretical and issues related to our activity.
At the same time, we have also written books on various subjects, primarily concerning issues of pressing importance to the workers’ and communist movements. Our published books are as follows:
— Desmontando a Mao (Debunking Mao) (2014).
— Manual de introducción al marxismo-leninismo (Introductory Handbook to Marxism–Leninism) (2014). We are about to publish the third edition.
— Compendio de textos sobre partido. Centralismo democrático y partido de nuevo tipo (Compendium of Texts on the Party: Democratic Centralism and the Party of a New Type) (2017).
— El marxismo y la mujer (Marxism and Women) (2017).
— El Estado y su caracterización. El caso español (The State and Its Characterisation: The Spanish Case) (2017).
— En defensa de Beria (In Defence of Beria) (2017).
— Historias de la España revolucionaria (Stories of Revolutionary Spain) (2019).
— Resistencia y lucha contra el posmodernismo (Resistance and Struggle Against Postmodernism) (2019).
At the same time, we have carried out a continuous effort to disseminate Marxism through our participation in the Universidad Obrera platforms and Formación Obrera, bringing Marxism to thousands of people around the world.
For us, study, political formation and theoretical development have always been a priority; there is no theory without revolutionary practice, and vice versa.
Roberto Vaquero Arribas, General Secretary of the PML (RC).
Written on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the PML(RC) and published in issue 15 of the journal. De Acero (October 2019).
NOTES
[1] Excerpt from documents of the 1st RC Congress.
[2] Excerpt from documents of the 1st RC Congress.
[3] Excerpt from documents of the 1st RC Congress.
[4] Excerpt from documents 2nd RC Congress
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