On Saturday 9 November, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Valencia to show their anger against the Government of the Generalitat Valenciana (the Valencian local government), and its president, Carlos Mazón, for their criminal actions after the ‘Dana’ flood on 29 and 30 October.

Closely following our special episode with Alan Woods covering Trump’s victory in the US election, Against the Stream went live again this week for another discussion. This time, Hamid Alizadeh and Fred Weston from the International Secretariat of the Revolutionary Communist International met to talk about the devastating floods in Spain and the resulting rage of the masses against the ruling class, the abrupt collapse of the German government, and more on the implications of Trump’s victory.

Six days after the flash floods which have left 214 people dead mainly in Valencia, an official visit by the head of state, the Spanish King, his wife, Queen Leticia, Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez and Valencia regional president Mazón was organised to several of the worst affected areas. As they arrived in Paiporta, outside Valencia, they were met by angry local residents who pelted them with mud and chased them away. These unprecedented scenes were an open expression of the class rage that had been building up for days.

This week, Jorge and Hamid sat down to discuss three flashpoints in the world crisis of capitalism: the floods that are devastating Spain, the spiralling conflict in the Middle East, and the impending US election.

The Spanish student strike of 1986/87 was an epoch-making movement, lasting three months, involving three million school and university students, with hundreds of thousands in demonstrations, which ended up in a victory against the Socialist Party government. This document, written at the time by Alan Woods, is a blow-by-blow account of the movement which draws out the main political points. Alan was in Spain for most of the struggle, involved in daily discussions with the leading Spanish Marxists which led the movement.

On 11 April, La Directa, a left-wing Catalan media outlet, published an interview with journalist Jesús Rodríguez in which he explained that he had gone into exile because of the judicial persecution he is suffering in the hands of the corrupt Spanish regime. His crime? Conducting journalism in a professional manner. On behalf of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation, we express our total rejection of this spurious prosecution and our complete solidarity with comrade Jesús Rodríguez and the other people who have also decided to go into exile.

On the weekend 15-17 March, the founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist Organisation (RCO) was held in Madrid. This was a historic milestone for several reasons: we had the largest presence and participation of any previous congress; we launched a new organisation; and the comrades came out more determined than ever to build the forces of communism in the Spanish state and around the world.

Lenin, Trotsky and the Bolsheviks created the most revolutionary party that the world has ever seen. But is the building of a communist party still a relevant task for today? The role of the party in the struggle to overthrow capitalism is a fundamental question that all thinking communists must understand.

In July 1936, General Franco’s coup d’état was defeated through a revolutionary uprising of the working class, and the anarchists emerged as the leading force. However, their programme and perspectives proved impotent in the face of events. They betrayed the revolution several times and, partly due to their mistakes, the Spanish proletariat was crushed. Fascism went on to establish a four-decade dictatorship. It is the duty of all thinking anarchists to analyse events in Spain critically and draw all the necessary conclusions.

The question of how to combine the struggle for reforms under capitalism with the need to go further and fight for socialism has occupied a very important part of the debates and tasks of the world communist movement since its birth.

A month after the Israeli government commenced its ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, the Organisation of Port Dockers of Barcelona (OEPB), ​​has resolved “not to allow the activity of ships in our port that contain war material”. The USTP (Port Workers Union) also took the same decision on 8 November.

This second instalment of the discussion between comrades of the IMT in the Spanish state and comrades of the Socialist Movement focuses on the class character of the state and how the Socialist Movement proposes to reach socialism.

The rapid emergence of the Socialist Movement (MS) in various parts of the Spanish state (Basque Country, Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon, Castile and Madrid) is a fact to be celebrated by other communists in Spain and internationally. In underlining this important fact, the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) wishes to establish a dialogue and a fraternal exchange of views with the comrades of the MS, in order to clarify the tasks and tactics that lie ahead for the communist movement.

The Spanish early elections of 23 July produced unexpected results. The right wing PP and far-right VOX failed to get the overall majority which opinion polls predicted. A last minute mobilisation of the left vote to prevent the entry of the far right in the government for the first time meant the vote for the social-democratic PSOE held up better than anticipated, leading to a hung parliament. The formation of a new government will be complicated and might even lead to repeat elections, just at a time when the Spanish ruling class needs a strong government to face the oncoming recession. The article by the Spanish comrades of Lucha de Clases analyses the reasons for this

The Spanish Civil War began this month in 1936 with the beginning of the coup by General Franco. The fascist forces could have been defeated, with the working class rising up and fighting back. But their heroism was betrayed by the Stalinists.