Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) Statement on Catalonia

This statement would be more impressive as a principled stand against nationalism if it wasn't for the rather bland neutral reporting style of the two preceding paragraphs with their vague references to ''the Catalans'' and ''democracy'' that leaves much to be clarified as to what the WSA means in practice by it's ''support'' for the ''struggle of the oppressed and working class in Catalonia''?

l think everybody understands the point and appreciates principled statements at a time when there are lots of confused principles going around. But l agree with the criticism about the language; it is very cautious and vague. As for one point, about the lost of an economically important region being against the interests of capitalists, l think it is more important than that because in many states around the world, state revenues are spread and redistributed which can make the situation more complicated. For example, one comrade here argued with one Wobbly about this principle since he was arguing more or less along the line like "why should rich Catalonia have to pay money to support poor regions in Spain". l think that the reason any comrades here would have problems with argumentation like this is that, for example, the city l live in is the richest and a part of our tax revenue is sent to the poorest regions for help but there is a bourgeois movement against this type of regional redistribution. Such redistribution actually benefits things like schools, not really local capitalists. l'm aware that there are many more complicated economic issues in relation to Catalonia-Spain, but l think there are a number of economic interests, not only capitalist ones. Agreed that the capitalist classes often stand to be the main ones to benefit from national independence movements.