A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneracion: Ceuta Is No Exception: Borders, Militarization, and Class Struggle | By LIZA (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The crisis in Ceuta has thrust migration, borders, racism, and the use 
of human movement as a political weapon back to the forefront of public 
debate with full force. Yet, this debate cannot be divorced from the 
exploitative relations that affect the working class as a whole. ---- 
After weeks of aggression, paramilitary and military violence, and 
widespread disinformation campaigns targeting the migrant population and 
volunteers in Ceuta, it is clear that our response cannot be limited to 
a mere moral condemnation of the violence. We must identify the 
structures that generate exploitation, militarization, and inequality. 
We must also expose the conditions that allow an authoritarian monarchy 
| like Morocco's | to use thousands of people as a tool for political 
leverage, and, in response, build an organized reaction involving our 
entire class.
Morocco's strategy is not new. Countries like Belarus and Turkey already 
used it years ago to gain political advantage, without any regard for 
the lethal consequences this could have for migrant communities. But 
Ceuta's characteristics and the inaction of the Spanish government make 
it a pressure cooker exploited by reactionary sectors. It is a heavily 
militarized city of no more than 19 square kilometers, located south of 
the Strait of Gibraltar—crucial for global trade—and claimed by Morocco 
for decades.

This pressure, driven by global geopolitical strategies, provides the 
perfect excuse for the PSOE government to approve the increased military 
budget and adopt NATO policies, while simultaneously maintaining the 
appearance of being left-wing. This is in Pedro Sánchez's interest 
because it offers a pretext for addressing the migration emergency, 
providing the justification every social democratic government needs to 
ultimately impose right-wing policies.

After more than 140 deaths, and following several weeks of political 
inaction and with hatred already simmering, on Wednesday, September 2nd, 
right-wing mobilizations took place throughout Spain, only serving to 
reaffirm the racist spiral unfolding in Ceuta. But also, on the other 
hand, numerous demonstrations were held under the slogan: "Let's stop 
racism." In the streets of Madrid and Granada, we found political and 
labor organizations, anti-racist groups, and individuals who had decided 
not to remain indifferent to the silenced racist violence that has been 
occurring for weeks in Ceuta.

From Liza in Madrid, we participated in that event as part of the 
Internationalist Assembly. We did so because we understand that in the 
face of a reactionary offensive, expressing solidarity is not enough; we 
must politically contest the meaning of what is happening.

However, the Ceuta crisis is not just another crisis. It is a symptom, 
not an exception. Underlying it is the convergence of several layers of 
conflict: the violent (in)action of the security forces on the ground, 
intended to escalate tensions and force the migrants to leave; the 
externalization of borders; imperialism; and the struggle for trade 
routes and strategic resources key to the profits of big capital. 
Equally, the increasingly precarious situation of the working class and 
the promotion of nationalism on an international scale result in 
ever-increasing violence and racist persecution, causing us to forget 
the interests of our own class.

Ceuta is being used, among other things, as a "laboratory for migration 
control" and the stage for a political battle in which the racialized 
working class is presented as the enemy, instead of examining who 
created the conditions that made this situation possible. The problem 
doesn't begin when a migrant arrives in Ceuta. The problem begins much 
earlier: in wars, in plunder, in global inequality, and in an economic 
order that needs borders to manage who can move, who can work, and under 
what conditions of exploitation.

Our position cannot be reduced to simply stating that "Europe mistreats 
migrants." It is something far more structural: European migration 
policy is part of a system of international capitalist exploitation and 
domination. The European Union militarizes its borders, outsources 
migration control, and delegates some of the violence to third-party 
states. And Spain is not merely a spectator of this dynamic, but a 
participant in it. The barbed wire fences, the Civil Guard and military 
beating migrants, and the summary deportations are a direct expression 
of the Spanish state's involvement in this migration control machinery.

Some, from the pulpit of social democracy and progressivism, are content 
to say that Morocco is bad and Spain is good; while others, entrenched 
in the far left, claim that Spain is imperialist and Morocco a 
geopolitical victim. Our perspective rejects this simplistic dichotomous 
logic because it fails to delve into reality and avoids a sustained, 
critical examination of the root of the problem.

From an internationalist perspective, we do not accept that the answer 
lies in choosing sides between states. We do not need to replace Spanish 
nationalism with Moroccan nationalism, nor to make one or the other 
state representative of the interests of those who work and live under 
its rule. Our commitment to the cause forces us to choose which state to 
support; internationalism forces us to ask ourselves what class 
interests each one defends. Our solidarity knows no borders because our 
class should not either.

Capitalism needs workers to compete for housing, jobs, public services, 
and living conditions, and it turns migrant workers into enemies of 
native workers. When a worker struggles to find housing, the problem 
isn't that another worker has crossed a border. When there's a shortage 
of doctors, school places, or public services, the problem isn't those 
who arrive seeking a better life. When wages aren't enough to make ends 
meet, the enemy isn't the migrant worker who earns even less and lives 
in even more precarious conditions.

Racism offers a false answer to real problems. It turns neighbors into 
enemies and obscures the social relations that produce precariousness. 
Capital thus obtains a divided, antagonistic, and more easily exploited 
working class.

However, speaking of class unity does not mean denying the differences 
that exist within our class. It means precisely preventing those 
differences from being used to pit against each other those who share a 
position of exploitation. A migrant does not cease to be part of the 
working class simply because they were born on the other side of a 
border; nor does a worker from Ceuta cease to be a victim of 
precariousness simply because her situation is used by the far right to 
fuel hatred.

Our involvement doesn't end with a rally in Madrid. As we write these 
lines, one of Liza's colleagues is in Ceuta volunteering with the mutual 
support brigades. As an organization, we have also contributed financial 
and material resources that have been able to reach her there through 
her. For us, this is all part of the same policy. Solidarity cannot 
simply be a slogan shouted during a demonstration. It must become a 
concrete practice: organizing resources, supporting those who resist, 
building networks, and helping those affected to become active agents 
with their own self-organization.

Our practice is based on the theory we develop together, and it is 
essential to move from mere assistance to mutual support networks with 
political capacity and their own organization. It is not enough for 
those of us who are already convinced to mobilize among ourselves; we 
must overcome the isolation of social movements and build a mass politics.

The anti-racist response needs more than just good slogans. It needs the 
capacity to step outside our usual spaces and challenge the common sense 
of our own class. If racism manages to present itself as the answer to 
real problems—housing, wages, public services, insecurity, or 
precariousness—it won't be enough to simply respond that migrants are 
victims. We have to explain who creates these conditions and organize 
those who suffer them to transform them.

On September 19th, we will return to the streets of Madrid. The Madrid 
Anti-Racist Network, together with Borders Resistance and No Name 
Kitchen, has called for a mobilization that will once again bring 
together a large part of Madrid's political and social movement. We want 
this mobilization to be more than just a response to the far right. We 
want it to be a response to what allows their discourse to find fertile 
ground. We want it to denounce racist persecutions, but also the borders 
that precede them. We want it to condemn those who persecute migrants, 
but also those who turn migration into a police matter. We want it to 
confront the far right, but also the policies of Fortress Europe. We 
want it to speak about racism, but also about capitalism, imperialism, 
and exploitation. And, above all, we want it to be capable of building a 
unity that doesn't pit workers from here against workers from there, but 
rather organizes them around what they share. We encourage political 
organizations to work on global days of action that highlight the 
violence of immigration control, and to revive an essential struggle in 
these times against the Spanish Immigration Law.

Ceuta, we insist, is no exception. It is a border where an order that 
permeates our lives far beyond its borders becomes visible. And 
precisely for that reason, our response cannot have borders either.

Liza, Anarchist Platform.

https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2026/09/18/ceuta-no-es-una-excepcion-fronteras-militarizacion-y-lucha-de-clases/
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