The formations of alternative left will make visible their support for the general strike of this Wednesday, called by the trade unions CCOO and UGT to demand wage improvements and access to housing. To this end, they will deploy their main leaders in the demonstrations, will attend picket lines and will even donate part of their salaries, as will happen with positions in IU, Sumar and Compromís.
In the case of Frente Amplio, the pre-campaign activity will be suspended and the candidacy will focus on supporting mobilizations linked to the general stoppage. The presidential candidate of the Government, Ada Colau, will not have an agenda except for media attention at midday before joining a demonstration for the general strike.
In turn, the co-coordinator of Movimiento Sumar and number four of Frente Amplio for Madrid to the Congress, Verónica Martínez Barbero, has emphasized that they were going to be in "picket lines and in the demonstrations" to support the working class. From this candidacy they highlight that their leaders will stop their activities and will take part in gatherings in different parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Más Madrid will mobilize its autonomous deputies and city councillors across the community due to the general strike. The spokesperson in the Assembly, Manuela Bergerot, will attend the protests of the Corredor del Henares and in the afternoon will head the party's representation in the Atocha demonstration together with the spokesperson on the City Council of the capital, Rita Maestre, and the top candidate in Madrid of Frente Amplio, Emilio Delgado, as well as the leader of IU, Antonio Maíllo.
Delgado will take part in a picket line together with representatives of La Francia Insumisa and the euro MP Estrella Galán, in a mobilization that will count on the presence of references from the European left.
In addition, Más Madrid will open its offices in the capital and in Móstoles as supply points for those who support the general strike, and members of the organization will collaborate in the trade unions' offices.
For its part, Compromís will send its leaders to various picket lines and will join the demonstration convened at the autonomous level.
In IU, the federal leadership has agreed that the amount deducted from salary (equivalent to 1.4 days) from the federal leaders who go on strike will be directed to the resistance fund of the Sindicato de Inquilinas and to other similar initiatives related to ongoing labour disputes.
Thus, the federal coordinator, Antonio Maíllo, and the deputies of Por Andalucía, among them the leader of Movimiento Sumar Esperanza Gómez, will donate their salary to the Sindicato de Inquilinas, while the deputies in Congress Enrique Santiago and Toni Valero will direct it to the teachers of public education, on an indefinite strike since October 14. The deputy of Compromís, Alberto Ibáñez, will also hand over his pay to different entities.
In Andalusia, the Por Andalucía and Adelante Andalucía groups, which represent the alternative left in the autonomous parliament, have already advanced that they will go on strike and will not attend the plenary session in which the regional budgets are debated.
In a statement, IU has pointed out that its membership and its public offices will join the strike and will back the demonstrations promoted by trade union organizations.
"We want a dignified life for the social majority, starting with an accessible home with better salaries and strong public services. That is why we support the mobilizations of the different associations and social groups in defense of housing, in addition to those promoted by the Sindicato de Inquilinas and by the class trade union organizations," the group has said in that note.
Meanwhile, Unidas por Extremadura will donate the salary corresponding to the strike day to the platforms for housing. In Navarre, Bildu and Contigo Navarra have reiterated that they will support the stoppage.
Podemos, ERC and nationalist forces reinforce support for the strike
In turn, the candidates of ERC and Podemos, Gabriel Rufián and Irene Montero, have expressed their support for the general strike. Montero, together with Podemos’ secretary general, Ione Belarra, will take part in the demonstration in Madrid.
The electoral benchmark of Bildu in these elections, Oskar Matute, has predicted that the strike will be a historic day, while the national spokesperson of the BNG, Ana Pontón, has called for achieving a "massive" mobilization in the general strike.