Below we reproduce an Urgent Communiqué from the Permanent Secretariat of CGT (General Confederation of Labour trade union federation) of Andalusia, Ceuta And Melilla. It sheds new light on last week’s so-called ‘invasion’ by migrants of Ceuta, an autonomous city of Spain on the North African coast, bordered by Morocco, which has not been reflected in the UK media. Our reproduction of this Communiqué does not imply any allegiance to the organisation.

Imperialist carnage on the border: 57 dead, gas from Algeria and the black hand of the CIA and Mossad after the stampede in Ceuta

What the media of capital and the fascist extreme right insist on calling an ‘invasion’ is nothing more than a smokescreen with which they are trying to hide a planned massacre. In Ceuta we are not facing a spontaneous migratory phenomenon, but rather the forced flight of more than 60,000 people, pushed into the abyss by a dictatorial regime that uses its own youth as political ammunition and geopolitical cannon fodder. The reality, raw and bloody, is that 57 people have already died on the fences and in the waters of the border. Fifty-seven workers’ lives cut short, fifty-seven corpses crying out for justice, while the figure continues to rise relentlessly.

The evidence of a state crime is now indisputable. The images and videos that have emerged show Moroccan police directing, organising and physically pushing young people towards the border. There are no mafias that can justify this; it is the monarchical elite itself that has opened the floodgates of despair. While on its own territory the Alawite dictatorship applies ferocious repression – murdering Sahrawi activists and brutally persecuting influencers and dissidents – at the border it turns human beings into human cannon balls. And most serious of all: the Government of Spain, in an exercise in colonial submissiveness, iefuses to denounce Morocco, cowardly shielding itself behind the story of the ‘alleged mafias’ so as not to anger their masters. They deliberately ignore the fact that the UN itself condemned Morocco months ago for using migration as a state weapon, but Spanish diplomacy prefers to look the other way rather than defend human life.

But to understand this barbarism, we must raise our eyes and look at the global geopolitical chessboard. This stampede is not a coincidence, it is a punishment. The trigger for this bloody retaliation has a name: Spain’s recent strategic agreement for the purchase of gas from Algeria. Yankee imperialism and its puppet in the Maghreb cannot tolerate that the Spanish state is trying to guarantee its energy sovereignty independent of Moroccan interests, by strengthening ties with a country that maintains a firm stance against imperial aggression.

In addition to this energy ‘sin’, there are other ‘disobediences’ which are unacceptable to Washington and Tel Aviv: the fact that the Spanish government has publicly described the Zionist massacre in Palestine as genocide and, above all, the categorical refusal to allow the military bases of Rota and Morón to be used for bombing Iran. Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu cannot forgive these affronts. The CIA, Mossad and the Moroccan secret services have orchestrated this chaos on the border to destabilise the government, force a change of course in Spanish foreign policy and show who calls the shots in southern Europe.

The strategic context is one of open war. Anglo-Saxon and Israeli imperialism are losing control of the Straits of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb, crucial avenues for their commercial and military hegemony. In the face of this debacle, they need to secure control of the Strait of Gibraltar with blood and fire. It is no coincidence that in Israel politicians and the media are celebrating this disaster, rubbing their hands at Spain’s humiliation. They are playing with people’s lives as if they were pieces in a macabre game.

And while imperialism settles its accounts, the Spanish state perfects its machinery of death. Recently, the Supreme Court has had to remind us that human rights are not suspended on the water, by limiting “returns without due process” at sea. The response of the institutional right and ultra-right? The president of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, has already demanded that the law be amended to create “physical structures in the sea”. This is nothing more than a euphemism for floating fences, more militarization and new death traps at sea. The state does not seek to guarantee rights; it seeks legal loopholes to continue killing with impunity.

At CGT Andalusia we are clear: our enemy is not the young Moroccan fleeing hunger and dictatorship. Our enemy is in the palaces of Rabat, in the Pentagon, in Mossad and in the Moncloa. Borders are the tool of the bourgeoisie to divide the working class and maintain its operations.

For all these reasons, we demand:

1. An immediate diplomatic break with the Kingdom of Morocco. Enough of covering up a dictatorship that throws its people to their deaths. The videos of its police are proof of a state crime.

2. Immediate closure and dismantling of the military bases of Rota and Morón. We will not allow Andalusian soil to be the rearguard of the dirty wars of the US and Israel against Iran and the peoples of the Middle East.

3. Absolute energy sovereignty. We defend the gas agreement with Algeria against imperial blackmail. The foreign and energy policy of this country is not to be negotiated with Trump or Netanyahu.

4. Total repeal of the Immigration Law and an end to returns without due process. We reject any ‘physical structures’ on land or sea. We demand the dismantling of Frontex and the immediate regularisation of all migrants.

5. Justice for the 57 victims. The top political and police commanders, both Moroccan and Spanish, who have ordered and carried out this massacre, should be held criminally responsible.

The truth is brutal, but it is our only weapon. Where there is a humanitarian crisis there are political leaders with blood on their hands. For the memory of the 57 victims, for class solidarity and against imperialism.

Not one person is illegal! Long live the struggle of the peoples!

For the internationalist solidarity of the working class!

Long live Free Sahara!

Permanent Secretariat of CGT Andalusia.

Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vista_de_Ceuta_desde_el_mirador_de_Isabel_II.jpg Source: P1060431Uploaded by ecemaml. Author: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vista_de_Ceuta_desde_el_mirador_de_Isabel_II.jpg#:~:text=Mario%20S%C3%A1nchez%20Bueno%20from%20Ceuta%2C%20Espa%C3%B1a, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.