The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Lies about the Bombing in Spain—And Many Other Things

Jul 19, 2004

A Parliamentary commission established to investigate the March 11 bombings in Madrid recently took testimony from members of the Aznar government that was in office at the time. These interviews confirm what people around the world suspected: Aznar and his minister consciously lied when they blamed the ETA, a domestic Basque separatist organization, for the bombing.

The bombs killed 190 people and wounded thousands more in the train station–most of them workers on their way to the job. With the attacks coming just three days before the legislative elections, Aznar’s government tried to limit their electoral fallout.

To be precise, what Aznar tried to do was hide what this bombing was: a consequence of his government joining the Americans in the war against Iraq. Thus Aznar tried to shift the blame onto a domestic organization.

The conclusions of the parliamentary investigation confirmed that Aznar’s government out and out lied. The methods used, as shocking as they are, are not very unusual. All the governments of the world that protect the interests of the wealthy owners do so in the name of the people. Thus it is an essential part of their policy to fool the people.

Look, for example, at the United States and Great Britain, who launched a war against the Iraqi people, pretending it was a search for weapons of mass destruction. Or consider Israel, which daily kills Palestinians in the name of peace. The French government, for its part, colonized half of Africa, carrying out bloody colonial wars in the name of "civilizing" these countries.

All these examples just underline why there is no reason for the people of any of these countries to believe any of these governments whose basic purpose is to protect the wealthy.