#title Ceuta, Morocco and the Weaponisation of the Working Class #author Confederación Nacional del Trabajo #date 3 August 2026 #source Retrieved on 21st September 2026 from [[https://www.iclcit.org/ceuta-morocco-and-the-weaponisation-of-the-working-class/][www.iclcit.org]] #lang en #pubdate 2026-09-21T10:08:47 #topics Morocco, Spain, borders First of all, we’d like to state our solidarity with the families and friends of all those who have died and those who are imprisoned. The recent tensions between the Spanish and Moroccan states have once again placed Ceuta at the centre of a conflict which is being presented as a matter of national sovereignty and border control. However, we at the CNT believe that this approach obscures the real problem and diverts attention away from those who suffer the consequences: the working class from both sides of the border. The governments of Spain and Morocco use the border as a tool for political bargaining. The Moroccan state uses control over migration flows as a means of exerting diplomatic pressure and to extract concessions to the dictatorship of Mohammed VI, and the Spanish one responds by stepping up the militarisation of the borders and tightening immigration policies (‘outsourcing’ the deadly border policy). This concessions include the legitimisation of the king’s dictatorial regime, with its hundreds of political prisoners and disregard for international rules, or the acceptance of its military occupation of Western Sahara, with its trail of human rights violations. Trapped in the midst of this dispute between states are the thousands of workers forced to migrate due to political repression, poverty, precarious living conditions, lack of opportunities, or the consequences of a deeply unequal economic model. It is this inequality that creates borders. Without it, there would be no ‘border’. This situation is exploited by the far right, which singles out migration as the root cause of all social problems. The fact that the arrival of migrants has become an international spectacle is a political decision made by the big capital and its governments. In this regard, there is a clear de facto alliance between the xenophobic far right – which defends the capitalists and scapegoats the migrants – and the dictatorship of the king of Morocco, who, as we have seen, cares very little for his own people. It is no coincidence that, just a few days ago, the dictator named a motorway in the occupied Sahara after ‘Donald Trump’. An occupation of the Sahara that, let us remember, is maintained thanks to the military aid provided by the State of Israel. The ruling class consciously uses the deliberate scarcity of public resources to pit the working class from one country against that of other territories. Public services are being privatised, social investment is being cutback – with this money diverted to military spending – and the accumulation of private profits is given primacy, all while it is repeated that the problem lies with those arriving in search of a better life. This discourse has the effect of shifting responsibility away from those who truly concentrate wealth and make economic decisions. Migrants are not our enemies. Nor are Moroccan workers, whose exploitation follows the same logic as that suffered by those of us who work in Spain. Competition does not arise from migration, but from an economic system that requires a precarious workforce—without rights and easy to exploit—to drive down working conditions as a whole. In this regard, we support regularisation measures that improve living conditions, grant rights and prevent the very competition that the far right so fervently desires. As an anarcho-syndicalist organisation, we reject both Spanish and Moroccan nationalisms. No state represents the interests of the working class. In the face of those who use borders to defend geopolitical or economic interests, we call for international solidarity amongst workers. The answer cannot be the closure of borders, their militarisation, or international conflict. Neither can we accept that public services remain deliberately underfunded, whilst military spending is increased, according to Trump’s wishes, and a wealthy minority gets even richer. The only viable solution for the social majority is socialising wealth, guaranteeing adequate public services for all and strengthening the organisation of the working class, regardless of their origin or nationality. CNT considers that the right to migrate can‘t be disregarded: the UN recognises the right to seek political asylum in the face of persecution. We consider that it must be respected and that anyone can do it to escape destitution, improve his or her living conditions, or simply for the sheer pleasure of discovering new places and cultures. In this regard, a person from Finland should have no greater right to move around the world than someone from Senegal, Colombia, Spain or Morocco. We advocate the abolition of borders. This is already the case of many European citizens globally, who can move freely around the world. This is also the case of countries with no significant inequality between them, such as Spain and Portugal. In this sense, what has happened in Ceuta is a mass exodus from the dictatorship of Mohamed VI, comparable to the flow of people that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Just like the people of Ukraine, Moroccans have the right to flee a dictatorship supported by the governments of the US, Israel and, as Pedro Sanchez says all the time, Spain. Equally, we also defend the right NOT to migrate: no one should be forced to leave a country because of political repression and poverty. In this regard, it is significant that this exodus of thousands of people took place on ‘Throne Day’, while the king was singing the praises of his absolutist regime in his Tetouan palace, just a few kilometres away from the dozens of people who were drowning in the sea. There are hundreds of political prisoners in Morocco, such as our comrades in the Hirak movement, including Nasser Zefzafi, who was sentenced to twenty years for demanding public hospitals and human rights. This mass exodus would not have taken place if Mohammed VI – supported by Pedro Sanchez – had not imprisoned hundreds of people for demanding basic things, such as public healthcare. In fact, no one knows where the hundreds of people arrested during the protests of last autumn are (rallies that rocked the country to demand this very same issue). Therefore, in the face of the strategy of states and capital, that try to divide us according to our nationality, origin or administrative status, the task of class unions is to organise wherever exploitation exists: in the workplace, in our neighbourhoods and in every space where we live and carry out our struggle. CNT remains committed to organise all workers, regardless of place of birth or status, fostering solidarity ties with unions and working class organisations on both sides of the Gibraltar Strait. In this regard, we specifically call on people from North Africa, on both sides of the border, to form sections of the ICL. We call on all those who oppose Europe’s criminal border policy and the dictatorship of the Makhzen. The square at the entrance to the medina of Tetouan must once again belong to the people, and this palace – along with the dictator’s palaces in Nador and Al Hoceima – must be expropriated for the people, so that the children living on the streets may have food and shelter. We call on the people of Guelaya – whether from ‘el pueblo’ or Beni Ensar – and the people of the Garb – whether from Ceuta, Tangier, El Haus, Tetouan or Anyera – to unite against the king, the ally of Israel, against borders, and against fascism. We wish for the unity of the working class across the Maghreb with that of the Iberian Peninsula. To those who use borders to protect privileges and create conflicts, we answer with internationalism, mutual aid and direct action. Our banner does not stand for any state: it stands for the emancipation of the working class.