“Comrades, the joy begins. » This is the declaration of intentions with which the leader of Izquierda Unida, Antonio Maíllo, presented this Saturday the Call for Democracy, a political process that will end in the spring and with which the party wants to regain the initiative and create a popular alliance that challenges different sectors of society, environmentalism, feminism, social movements. Maíllo asked to take advantage of this process to change the mood of a “shocked” and “cowardly” left. “We are going on the offensive,” he said.
“We are about to change the atmosphere. I challenge you to do it, to go to the territories to transmit this initiative, which is an ideological approach”, encouraged Maíllo during the inauguration of this political process, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, mid -a day of conferences on the care economy or the right to housing in which personalities such as the former leader of Podemos and lawyer of the CAES, Alejandra Jacinto, and the former deputy of Unidas Podemos María Eugenia Rodríguez Palop.
People from social movements like Erik Guerrero, from Frente Migrante, Alberto Coronel, from Rebelión Cientifica, Jorge Riechmann, environmental activist and professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid or Carlos Gutiérrez, from Comisiones Obreras, also participated, an overview of the sectors which this UI wants to challenge with this call.
Maíllo, during this central gathering, repeatedly called for a return to joy. “They can’t take it away from us, because then they beat us,” he said. And he described this Call for Democracy as a turning point for this “shocked or intimidated left”. “The left should not dedicate itself to interpreting others but rather to calling others to join our project,” he said. “Call people to join this ambitious, open and participatory project,” he insisted.
This political process is one of the first ideas launched by Maíllo when he arrived at the leadership of the IU last May, in a context marked by the decline of the Sumar hypothesis as a broad front animated by the project of the second vice-president, Yolanda Díaz. , the coalition was burdened by a series of electoral processes that failed to produce the expected results.
The IU leader has since criticized the undemocratic way in which certain decisions had been taken in the construction of this front and proposed a new way of doing things, much more horizontal. In this context, the party has since tried to regain the initiative and this forum is a further step in this direction.
“Our commitment is to all those people who are fighting for their rights and for the rights of those who will come. This Call is committed to an inclusive alliance, which adds the voices of feminism, environmentalism and every social movement, because only with a broad popular alliance can we build a just society. , we read in the manifesto which inaugurates this political process.
An alliance that also challenges other political formations, civil society and, he said, those who “have moved away” in recent years during which the transformative left has lost many supports since the climax of United We Can almost ten years ago. “This Appeal was born from our activism, but it is aimed at all people who feel the need to participate, to mobilize and build a different future. This is why we appeal to all people involved in the society in which we live, to those who suffer injustice and to those who suffer the injustices of others as if they were their own,” states the manifesto.
To build an “alternative,” Maíllo said, “it is not enough to lift the scarecrow from which the right and the extreme right have come.” “IU raises this social proposal of the Call for Democracy not only to stop the extreme right but to be aware that it is stopped by the construction of an alternative country project. With more democracy,” he argued.
This project, according to the manifesto, is based on pillars such as the “distribution of work, time and care”, “universal and strong public services”, the “right to housing”, “strategic resources at the service of all and of all.” », “the State for dignity and equality” or Spain as a “host country”.
“Today we launch this Call for Democracy, a long-term process in which participation and collective construction will be our guide. We invite those who feel challenged by our proposal to be part of this process of struggle, construction, joy and hope. This is only the beginning, we will write the end together,” summarizes the manifesto.
“This call arises from our activism but it is addressed to those who want a different future,” said Maíllo, who requested that the manifesto be distributed to all cities in the state. “We will finish in spring because even if there are gray days, spring always comes,” he concluded.
