In 1977, 48 years ago, Granada singer-songwriter Carlos Cano composed a piece of music Morga workers. The words reflected the economic, political and social reality of Andalusia at the time, which was plagued by backwardness. It was a protest anthem to “end unemployment and get work, free schools, medicine and hospitals.” That year, Andalusians took to the streets en masse to demand full political autonomy as a way out of developmental backwardness.
Today in the Andalusian Parliament, on the eve of Flag Day that commemorates the demonstrations of December 4, 1977, the spokesman for the Vox party, Manuel Gavira, was heard recalling that date which, in his words, asked for “equality with other parts of Spain” and reading passages from the murga, which is part of the musical culture of the Andalusian left.
Gaviera’s theory is that Andalusia is the same as it was before the Andalusian autonomy process. “The same problems that were seven years ago, the same problems that were 48 years ago, and the problems that you created for us with the socialists,” he told Andalusian President Juan Manuel Moreno in parliament’s monitoring session.
The Vox Party spokesman surprised the rest of the parliamentary blocs. No one expected that a party that defends the repression of the autonomous regions and their institutions, and that does not participate in the events of February 28, the Day of Andalusia, would use one of Carlos Cano’s most important songs to attack the Andalusian president. “In 2025, Andalusia will continue to lead the unemployment rate,” Gavira said. “‘Get rid of’ the unemployment rate and get a job is what was said in 1977.”
He breaks down other parts of the lyrics: “They also sang ‘Maroto, cultivate the land that is not protected’. Today there is less countryside than ever in Andalusia and there will be even less thanks to the policies you agree with the socialists in Brussels.” He continued, saying: “Flute, it is enough to be sucked out of the boat.” There are more politicians in this region than ever before; Then it was said, of course, about Ramon, we must put an end to so many scoundrels. Visionary Carlos Cano sees the corruption of the Socialists and his Popular Party in Almería. “The same problems that existed 48 years ago.”
This reference to Morga workers Teresa Rodriguez had already used it when she led Podemos’ candidacy to head the junta in 2015. In the packed Congress Palace in Seville, with Pablo Iglesias as the star guest, Rodriguez and José María González, Quiche, who would later be elected Mayor of Cádiz, repeated some passages claiming the authenticity of the letter. This was his way of saying that after decades of socialist mandates, Andalusia remained stagnant, a message that greatly angered the Andalusian Socialist Workers’ Party rulers.
Moreno did not hide his astonishment: “Demanding December 4, Carlos Cano… Don’t tell me that I will be happy to see him sing the anthem of Andalusia and become Andalusian?”, the Andalusian president told him, laughing.
The Vox Party has been walking with one hand on the ground and the other in the sky for some time to collect votes from all sectors. In the Andalusian parliament, he equates the People’s Party and the Socialist Workers’ Party as one and the same, representing “the bipartisanship that has been strengthened during the pandemic,” as Vox MP Javier Cortés said.
When this newspaper asked him about the theoretical request for December 4, Gavira said: “I am Andalusian, I know the history, I know that 4D was requested and it is okay for them to see us on a horse or as a landowner.” Spokesmen for other groups reacted without giving much importance to the matter. One Socialist Workers’ Party MP commented: “He was merely a source of controversy as the skeleton of his intervention.” “When Carlos Cano said that, I thought the basement of Parliament was opening and lightning was falling from the sky to cut it in half,” PP sources joked, adding: “I don’t know if he was responding to any strategy, but if so, it would take a lot of work for them to appear independent or Andalusian with the strategy they presented.”
Adelante Andalucía spokesman and candidate for council president, José Ignacio García, does not consider this a joke. Moreover, he admits that he is “worried” that Vox will “give up” on December 4th. “This is the responsibility of the People’s Party. At the same time that it has institutionalized the 4D, which is positive for many reasons and we support it, its rhetoric has been emptying the 4D of content for years, and even distorting history. And of course if everything is 4D, nothing is 4D. The signifier is so empty that the far right appropriates it.”
In November 2022, the government of Juan Manuel Moreno declared the mass demonstrations of December 4, 1977, Flag Day, an idea that came from the founder of the Andalusian Party, Alejandro Rojas Marcos. An official ceremony will be held tomorrow, Thursday, at San Telmo Palace. On November 21, Marcos Rojas proposed replacing part of the lyrics of the national anthem to adapt it to inclusive language. He defended the cancellation of the phrase “Men of Light, to whom We gave men the souls of men” with the phrase “People of Light, to whom We gave souls of men and women.”