On 27 September, workers in Spain are called to a general strike and day of action in solidarity with Palestine. The anarcho-syndicalist trade unions Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) and the Confederación Sindical Solidaridad Obrera (Confederación Sindical Solidaridad Obrera) are calling for the strike. Some 200 associations and groups, including political, feminist, student, environmental and Palestine solidarity associations such as Samidoun and Alkarama, Anticapitalistas, BDS Madrid and Ecologistas en Acción are participating either in the strike or in the day of actions. On Friday, rallies, actions, demonstrations and events have been called in 58 cities throughout Spain.
Solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon is the main focus of the day. An international solidarity of the working class that uses its best weapons, the strike and mobilisation in the streets to demand the Spanish government to cut all relations with the Zionist state.
In a video presented at the press conference sent from Gaza, Fayez, head of the Union of Independent Women Workers’ Committees, thanked the trade unions, social movements and all those who are fighting for the Palestinian people. In the video, he explains the terrible situation in Gaza and the right of the Palestinians to resistance, independence and self-determination.
He also points out the culprits and the shameful response of the international community and demands that international agreements be implemented and the culprits brought to justice.
Fayez asks not to remain quiet and act now, to do everything to stop the indiscriminate killing in Gaza.
Following his plea, a few days before the first anniversary of Israel’s accelerated genocide of the Palestinian people and after 76 years of occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid, participants of the strike and day of action will demand of the Spanish government to move from words to deeds.
The Spanish government’s recognition of the state of Palestine has had great repercussions internationally and has largely succeeded in concealing the fact that Spain ranks 5th among EU countries that have exported the most arms and ammunition to Israel since October. Despite Pedro Sánchez’s statements in Congress in April that ‘since 7 October, Spain has not been carrying out any arms sales operations with Israel, none’, Spain has not only continued to buy arms from Israel and award contracts to companies, but has also continued to send arms.
The government claims that the contracts and licences for the arms exported to Israel date from before 7 October 2023, but according to a study by the Delàs Centre for Peace Studies, to which Olga Rodríguez had access for eldiario.es, the purchase/sale of arms with Israel in the last year has not changed much compared to previous years.
In the months following October, for example, Spain sent ammunition worth almost 1 million euros. Moreover, it has not stopped importing arms from the Zionist state, transactions whose value and quantity are unknown thanks to national and international business networks and the Official Secrets Act. The government has also awarded public contracts to Israeli companies worth 1027 million euros. Among these companies are the military companies Elbit Systems and Rafael. This has led the Delàs centre’s researchers to state that ‘despite the extreme seriousness of Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip, Spain’s military relations with Israel have not changed substantially since 7 October’.
The number of arms ships that have docked in Spanish ports is also unknown. The Borkum scandal and the weeks that followed highlighted the complex international network employed by arms dealers that complicates scrutiny, as well as the lack of transparency of the Spanish government.
The opacity of arms trade with Israel is not new, as according to information published by Público, in 2014 the Spanish government signed a confidentiality agreement in perpetuity with the Israeli Ministry of Defence covering the arms trade between the two countries.
It is therefore hardly surprising the attitude of the current government that, although there are more than enough reasons and evidence for it to assume the obligations it has as a signatory to the Convention for the Prevention of Genocide, it does not establish a total arms embargo on Israel as requested by Spanish civil society and the United Nations rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese.
That is why people in Spain are going on strike and why they will take the streets in the hundreds of planned actions and demos. To demand an end to complicity with the genocide and for Spain to cut all relations with the genocidal state of Israel.
With a free Palestine already on the horizon, it is time for all of us to redouble our efforts and show the mercenaries of war that the people united will never be defeated.
