It is not a student union: it is a group of intolerant and anti-democrats

In a democracy, no one has the right to resort to violence to try to prevent others from exercising their freedoms.

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An attack on freedom of speech at a university

On February 13, Iván Espinosa de los Monteros went to the Complutense University of Madrid to give a lecture organized by the university association Libertad Sin Ira. As has happened before, a group of far-left thugs tried to disrupt the event, preventing entry to those who wanted to attend the lecture at the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology. These thugs also threw objects and attacked several people, so The National Police had to be deployed to confront the violent ones.

The next day, the far-left group "Sindicato de Estudiantes" (Student Union) claimed responsibility for this attack on freedom of speech, calling those who do not think like them "fascists". In other words, if this totalitarian group labels you in this way, your fundamental rights are automatically revoked. What the "Sindicato de Estudiantes" is doing does resemble fascism, because if there is one thing that characterizes all totalitarians, whether they are communists, fascists, or nazis, it is their hatred of freedom and their intolerance of differing opinions.

That group is linked to an organization that praises dictators

As I explained here in 2017, the "Sindicato de Estudiantes" is linked to a Trotskyist communist organization called "Izquierda Revolucionaria" (Revolutionary Left), which openly praises criminal dictators like Lenin and Fidel Castro, whose regimes, single-party dictatorships without free elections, were characterized by the systematic violation of the most basic human rights, including the torture and murder of those who did not share the same opinion as the communist elite. Something very similar to what fascist ideology dictatorships did.

I'm writing this now because three members of that far-left group have been summoned to testify by the National Police in connection with the aforementioned attack on freedom of expression at Complutense University. This Friday, the "Student Union" described this as "repression" and compared it to the times of Franco's dictatorship. A cynical statement from a communist group that supports dictatorships and that arrogates to itself the authority to decide who can express their opinions at the university and who cannot.

I think it's time to call things by their name. The aforementioned organization is not a "student union", since a union is a workers' organization, and that group doesn't seem to have any interest in studying. In reality, it's a group of intolerant and anti-democratic individuals, driven by an ideology —communism— that is as repulsive as the fascism they claim to hate, but with which they share an allergy to freedom and democracy.

Democracy must be defended against these violent anti-democrats

In a democracy, no one should be allowed to use violence to impede the exercise of freedoms. In any democratic country, such acts are classified as crimes, that is, as acts punishable by criminal law. If someone commits crimes like those seen on February 13, then the full weight of the law must fall on that person. To do otherwise would be to admit that fanatics have the right to prevent others from exercising their right to freely express and disseminate thoughts, ideas, and opinions, a right protected by Article 20 of the Spanish Constitution.

Finally, Article 515 of the Penal Code classifies as illicit associations those that employ violent means or promote violence against individuals, groups, or associations based on their ideology, religion, or beliefs. It is time for the Prosecutor's Office to act, because in a democracy there is no place for associations that promote, justify, or exercise violence against others for their opinions. We must not tolerate any totalitarian hijacking of our democracy and our freedoms, not even totalitarians who disguise themselves as "student unions."

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Image: @ivanedlm.