First it was the majority Basque unions that took the step , eager to always mark their own path of response. Then the two large class unions with representation in the whole of Spain were also encouraged. They have been joined by an endless number of social organizations and also some minority left-wing parties. The fact is that on March 29 a day of general strike is called in Spain. The excuse? The labor reform proposed by Rajoy. The reason? The disenchantment of many with the political management of the economic crisis but also with many other things that are at its origin.
Spanish society, perhaps a little less so in the Basque Country, always seems politically numb and the social response to the excesses of the great power groups seems that they can always wait to enjoy another little hole. Total, what is the use of complaining! The 15 M movement was a warning to sailors and a certain breath of hope for those stranded on land. A movement of a few degrees on the seismic scale but an unequivocal sign that something was moving, albeit timidly in the soul of our society.
Yes indeed. It took almost five million unemployed to see a few thousand people on the streets showing their indignation. It was necessary to prosecute an entire regional president so that the entrails of more than one convinced of democracy were turned upside down. It was necessary to save money from all the financial deliriums of the Savings Banks for some to realize that the Spanish financial system was, to a large extent, a social fiasco. It took thousands of competitive companies to drown without credit to realize the monumental nonsense. It took a German chancellor to ask us if we were joking to realize our precariousness.
Finally, we needed to see airports without planes in Castellón, motorways without cars in Bilbao, cities without people in Seseña, industrial parks without industry in Andalusia, scientific centers without financial viability in the CSIC, cultural centers without culture in Avilés or Santiago , silent auditoriums in El Ferrol or Torrevieja, marinas without boats in Laredo, stations without passengers in Albacete, thousands of kilometers of coastline covered in cement or three and a half million “for sale” signs. We needed to see it but, above all, see it all at once.
And still some irreducibles do not give up. Political parties, perhaps all without exception, still do not fully admit it. That they do not want to be in front of the banner has its logic. The modesty of their greater or lesser co-responsibility with the subject obliges them, but what cannot be done is that they do not demand of themselves, at least in private, a serene analysis of conscience and a deep self-criticism, inexcusable bases for their refoundation as social construction projects for which they were consecrated by the Constitution as fundamental instruments for political participation in democracy.
Rajoy’s labor reform is not the biggest drama or the biggest nonsense. He is surely one more extemporaneous guest at this party of unreason and despair of so many. The rigidity of the Spanish labor system was something that surely had to be reformulated because it was not efficient and charged companies with extraordinary costs, borne in good times but unbearable in times of crisis and readjustments. Dropping all this extra cost on the worker overnight is not, in any case, a supportive solution or comparable to that of other European systems that enjoy public and public-private reinsurance systems that prevent the worker from being deprived of the rights that as such correspond to them in a social state like ours.
The unions, very comfortable in their outdated imaginary of fighting against the bosses, have seen their role as leaders of a defenseless working class rediscovered in this clumsy operation by Rajoy. In his thick speech, the strangulation of the vital projects of the five million unemployed that the previous labor legislation protected did not seem to make a dent in them, not even to timidly concentrate in front of their headquarters.
His weakened voice rises high again today. And the excuse of the labor reform will be the spigot that will ignite the millions of causes that are spread everywhere. The cause of each of the five million bewildered unemployed, of the millions of young people discouraged by an uncertain future, of the millions of small and large businessmen committed to their workers and anguished by the situation, of the millions of retirees who sweated for to build what you see faltering today, of the millions of citizens who serve us from their public function in worse and worse conditions, of the hundreds of thousands of researchers who generate knowledge and technology to improve our well-being, of the people of the university, of education, culture, NGOs and many other conscious citizens.
A whole clamor to which I join from those lines because I too am outraged, overwhelmed and, above all, eager to see courage and sincerity in the political proposals of our rulers. It is not a response to the action of the Rajoy Government. Yes, a light to show you the way. At least for my part, it is an incentive against inaction and the lack of radical approaches that decisively extend investment in education, research and competitiveness in our government institutions, ignoring the advice of fanatical economists about greater social cuts and fewer concerns. environmental. Building a more efficient, rational and competitive state does not mean destroying the social state. Some of us think it’s compatible. Others we try to imitate know it. Failure to act with leadership and a long-term vision is also destroying the collective project that unites us as a society.
The unions should not confuse the success of their call with their ability to pull this society. With barely three months to go before the general elections, the political parties should not confuse this tool of social protest with an action only against those who govern us. Both listen to the silent clamor of a society that will stop one day to continue walking the rest.