Khenkin Sergey Markovich – ScD in History, Professor, Principal Researcher INION RAS
Spain is a country with a strong tradition of revolutionarism. In the course of historical development, revolutionarism was transformed, adapting to the trends of the time. The activities of the leading left-wing radical organizations – Po-demos and Sumar – indicate that anti-system is in crisis, replaced by verbal radi-calism. But the latter is not always present in the discourse of these parties, often it alternates or is combined with restraint and caution. On many issues, Po-demos and Sumar are forced to correlate their discourse and practical actions with the logic of the existing socio-political system. Such an ambiguous position suits the mainstream class, allowing public discontent to be channeled into a completely safe channel. The experiment to turn Podemos into a new type of par-ty based on horizontal ties and the principles of direct democracy and aiming at radical reform of society ended in failure. After a series of perturbations, Po-demos began to adapt to the existing system to a greater extent than in the early years, and its organizational structure resembled traditional parties with their chieftist principle of organization. The Spanish experience confirms the crisis of anti-system politics in the modern West. The evolution of Spain's leading left-wing radical parties from anti-system to system is similar to that which European Social Democracy once committed. Nowadays, solid anti-system positions in Spain are occupied only by small left-wing radical organizations – Trotskyist, Maoist, anarchist. Ignoring funda-mentally changed country and international realities, they defend the orthodox dogmatic attitudes of a century ago. The ideological attitudes and practical ac-tions of these organizations are at odds with the attitude and sentiments of the overwhelming majority of the population, so they are doomed to remain on the periphery of political life. In other words, neither the organizations that set the tone nor the small movements in the left-wing radical camp have an effective strategy adequate to the realities of modern Spain.
Spain, anti-system, system, «Podemos», «Sumar», ultra-left organizations, Span-ish Socialist Workers Party, Communist Party.
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