Catalonia’s independence movement has largely come to an end. The Spanish constitutional court has cancelled the independence vote after abolishing Catalonian parliament. The dreams of paying fewer taxes may well be over unless the Spanish government decides to make a concession to the Catalonian capitalist class. Perhaps there can be some kind of radicalization in the future, but I doubt it will take place.

The Western left has once again taken on a cause with no critical thought taken on it. As soon as murmurs of independence began to spread, first worldists began talking as though this was the Catalonia of the Anarchist revolution. The same rhetoric was being used, and many were even claiming this was a resurgence of that very movement.

Such was utter nonsense. This modern independence movement was wholly bourgeois nationalism used to disguise a desire to pay fewer taxes. There is no oppression suffered by the Catalonian people, neither is the region being colonized. The whole movement is about the taxation placed upon the population of Catalonia.

Catalonia is the richest part of the country which often carries the poorer sections of the country with its taxation. That’s how taxes work, poorer areas which make significantly less are unable to pay as much of those that do. Catalonia is essentially saying that they don’t want to help the lesser among their own population. We can expect this from the capitalist class, but the regular working people of Catalonia are seeking lower taxes as well. If this is truly a worker’s revolution as the first worldists assert, then where is their solidarity with the other works in the rest of Spain which are not as well off as they are? There is no such class consciousness because this is not a class-based revolution as the first worldists claim.

What we see here is naked self-interest.

Such is the product of a lack of analysis. First worldists have taken these events without a single grain of salt, or even a moment of critical thought. Once again we see first worldists mindlessly cheerleading a movement simply because they are desperate to have something to hold on to. They are desperate to see some kind of revolutionary potential in the advanced countries despite all history demonstrating the opposite.

Many have gone so far as to claim this is like 1936 all over again. Such is utter nonsense. The Catalonian population is not seeking a whole new society. No one is calling for an Anarchist society. They are demanding the same bourgeois society with even greater privilege. The privilege to just discard the poor of Spain with which they have absolutely no solidarity with. To even think that this was anything but a bourgeois tax movement is to be wholly deluded or dishonest.

This is how first worldism functions, it is without scientific analysis. It has cheerleaded a bourgeois movement via bourgeois parlimentarianism. For their fervour, they have been rewarded with nothing. They have followed a bourgeois trap. Right along the same lines as the Barack Obama election and the Bernie Sanders campaign.

This is not like 1936. This is not revolution, there is no willingness to fight for a new world… especially no willingness to die for one.