For a critique of the subsequent political evolution of “Emancipación”, see: leftcom.org

We welcome the formation in Spain of a new nucleus of the future world party of the proletariat, one of the many fruits of the work of the Nuevo Curso blog collective from which they have sprung. We see them as a new, young and vital expression of the development of a movement based on the historic acquisitions of the class and look forward to working and exchanging with them as they develop. We reproduce here the translation of their initial founding announcement, as well as the introduction to it by Nuevo Curso.

Welcome “Emancipación”

As a Marxist blog, defined by an internationalist platform, we wanted, right from our very first article, to be not only a tool for discussion and the raising of consciousness but also, a "call" for the formation of militant groups within the working class.

Therefore, the appearance of “Emancipación” from a group of contributors to our blog is obviously a source of pride for us all. But the importance of this new militant group of workers derives not from satisfying our predictions and expectations, but from responding to broader and deeper movements from the perspective of our class.

"Emancipación” is part of a worldwide flowering of new militant groups that are trying to reappropriate the experience of the communist left and are responding to the "new course" that we hoped would encourage the development of class consciousness among the more combative and conscious sectors of our class.

“Emancipación” is defined by a programme that is based specifically on the tradition and experience of the Spanish Communist Left. It is not a last-minute "invention", but the heir of the most coherent vanguard of our class in the Spanish peninsula during the last century. And for the same reason it is not the result of an archaeological sectarianism or a local historicism: "Emancipación" has been born out of dialogue and permanent debate with the current continuators of the work of the Italian Left and German-Dutch Communist Left, and because of their relationship with us, also forms part of the effort towards the revival and growth of the Communist Left in Mexico, Argentina and other Spanish-speaking countries. That is to say, “Emancipación” is one of the groups who defend the programme that will enable the future great movements of our class to overthrow the capitalist state everywhere.

“Emancipación” is not a "discussion group" but a demonstration of the desire to build an organisation based on the Communist Programme in order to develop links within the working class, which is necessary for the raising of class consciousness. Of course, they do not claim to be the "party", that is, they do not claim exclusively for themselves, or for what develops out of them, the political leadership of the workers. They come into existence as a small group of conscious individuals. The result, fragile as are all expressions of an exploited class, already exceeds the seed planted by our comrades.

For all of the above, we are convinced that the working class, always lacking in tools it can call its own, has in "Emancipación" a new tool which can help bring about the new international communist party in whose future creation we put so much trust. On the part of "New Course" we can only salute them, encourage the emergence of similar new initiatives, and try to contribute to their maturation and growth by making texts public, publishing contributions from the different currents of the historical Communist Left and current internationalist groups on the building of militant organizations who share the perspective of the class party.

Statement of “Emancipación” Presented to the Readers of “Nuevo Curso”

Within the background of the struggles for “workers’ rights” that are emerging around the world and encouraged by the project of publishing proletarian ideas that began with “Nuevo Curso” (New Course), a group of comrades who live in Granada, we have decided to form a revolutionary political group with the name of “Emancipación”.

Amongst a welter of progressive and nationalist organisations, our mission is clear, to present an internationalist and revolutionary alternative, a genuine communist alternative. “Emancipación” will also seek to push forward the struggles and demands of the working class that we are convinced have only begun to rise.

We start from the humble origins of a small group of comrades, but we have in our hearts a gigantic future, a future that goes beyond a decaying system that ties us to precariousness, social destruction and increasingly threatens imperialist war. We have large-scale perspectives and there are many projects we want to carry out in order to promote the constitution of the working class as an autonomous class and to make it clear to workers that a different future is possible.

“Emancipación” is very clear, the emancipation of workers must be the task of the workers themselves, for which we must equip ourselves with the tools to make it possible. For us, the programmatic basis of these tools is clear and well defined: internationalism and communism. We must remember once again that these two fundamental pillars are inseparable. We are internationalists because we understand that the emancipation of the working class goes through an international revolutionary movement of the world proletariat. We are communists because we aspire to put an end to a world that leads the vast majority into poverty, precariousness and imperialist war. We are communists because we affirm that it is the workers themselves who will make the future in which they will disappear as a class when they do away with wage labour. "Communism" is a future in which work ceases to be a chain that binds each worker to capitalist exploitation; but becomes instead, the free development of each person. The meaning of both communism and internationalism has been distorted and debased by the heirs of the counterrevolution, who seek nothing more than to subordinate the working class to the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie, under nationalist banners. We say it loud and clear, the working class must seek its independence from those who want to use it for their own interests of "nation building", even if they wrap themselves in red flags, because the national interest has nothing to do with the interests of the proletariat.

In short, we are undertaking the task of forming a communist group with the aim of contributing as far as we can to the autonomous organisation of our class, following a hard but necessary path. A path that requires us to take a step forward and recognise that the future belongs to us as the social class that produces on a daily basis all the wealth that surrounds us. The working class is denied even its own existence, while the bourgeoisie continues to accumulate capital by exploiting workers. We defend not only the idea of the potential strength of the proletariat but also the idea that the proletariat can place the entire economy under its management and turn production for profit into production for human need. We are told that nothing can change, that only by the good will of the bourgeoisie can our lives be marginally improved. We are told that workers are condemned to subordinate themselves to others. The propaganda of the ruling class draws us a supposed reality in which they are the past, present and the future. “Emancipación” says that the domination of the bourgeoisie must be ended, which will at the same time, be the emancipation of the working class.

Workers of all countries, unite and abolish armies, the police, arms production, borders, and wage labour!