Reasons for the Catalan Crisis

'The elections in February [19]36 was celebrated with [the former Catalan President, Lluís] Companys* and his [Catalan] government [still] in prison, later what followed was the proclamation of the Catalan republic inside the federal Spanish republic.  Then with the victory of the Popular Front [parties] came amnesty [for Companys and the other Catalan politicians].  How it is that history repeats itself, unfortunately with other parameters, but without gun shots, physical violence, and despite the social break (the catalan society is divided in two parts)" '

Carlos Beltran:  former representative in the Madrid CGT / CNT 

GERALD Brenan, the anthropologist and historian (who lived in Spain from 1919 until his death in 1987), in his book 'The Spanish Labyrinth' (1962) wrote:
'Both linguistically and culturally Catalonia was originally an extension of the south of France rather than a part of Spain and, under the rich merchant class which ruled it during the Middle Ages, it acquired an active, enterprising character and a European outlook very different from that of its semi-pastoral neighbours on the interior plateaux.'

More recently in 2006, after lengthy negotiations a Socialist PSOE government had agreed a Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia that devolved further powers to the Catalan region in 2006.

This statute was put to a vote in the Spanish and Catalan parliaments and it was endorsed in a referendum in Catalonia.  At that stage, support for Catalan independence stood at just 14 percent. The conservative People’s Party (PP), then in opposition, promised to reverse the statute unilaterally and took the issue to the Constitutional Court. In 2010, the court struck down a large part of the statute.  The response in Barcelona was a huge demonstration of more than a million people under the slogan  'We are a nation. We decide.'

The following year, Rajoy’s PP won an outright majority in the general election.

As a consequence, the Catalan government and its supporters were annoyed and attempted to negotiate with Rajoy about what should happen next.  Rajoy refused to engage.  The results were to drive up support for independence, increased success for separatist parties in regional elections, the first of a series of attempts to hold a referendum on independence, and the replacement of the Catalan government’s centrist leader Artur Mas by the more radical Carles Puigdemont.  Thus it was Rajoy and his refusal to negotiate that almost single-handedly brought about the election of a majority-separatist government in Catalonia in 2016.

Meanwhile, a Madrid judge has jailed eight MPs involved in the Catalan government that had declared independence.   


Now with television channels showing images of police vans with flashing blue lights said to be taking the former ministers to different prisons, Catalans took to the streets in anger and disbelief.
There were protests in front of the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, the regional capital, with police estimating a crowd of 20,000.  Others gathered outside town halls across the region including 8,000 people in both Girona and Tarragona.

Marta Rovira, a lawyer and Catalan separatist lawmaker, briefly broke down in tears as she spoke to reporters in Madrid after the announcement of the detentions.
'The Spanish state is a failed state, a state that has failed democratically," she said. "I'm convinced we won't surrender, we won't, we will fight until the end.'

Carles Puigdemont, the fugitive former president of Catalonia, on Sunday handed himself over to Belgian police before a European arrest warrant invoked by a Spanish judge triggered his capture and detention.

Today, the Belgian vice-premier and interior minister stated that Madrid had overreacted and all efforts must be made to ensure that Mr Puigdemont and his colleagues get a fair trial if he is returned to Spain. Jan Jambon, who criticised the “silence” of the European Union on the issue, said:  'I am just questioning how a European Union member state can go this far and I am asking myself whether Europe is to have an opinion on this.'

*   Lluís Companys i Jover (Catalan pronunciation: [ʎuˈis kumˈpaɲs]; 21 June 1882 – 15 October 1940) was a leftist politician. He was the President of Catalonia (Spain), from 1934 and during the Spanish Civil War.
He was a lawyer and leader of the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) political party. Exiled after the war, he was captured and handed over by the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo, to the Spanish State of Francisco Franco, who had him executed by firing squad in 1940. Companys is the only incumbent democratically elected president in European history to have been executed.^{[3][4] [5]}

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Puigdemont's Catalonia statement in 15 sentences

from La Vanguardia

Sergi Quitian , Barcelona

10/10/2017 20:00 | Updated 10/10/2017 20:27

The President of the [Catalan] Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont , appeared on Tuesday October 10 before the plenary of the Parliament and at his own request to report the results of the referendum on independence on 1 October .
The speech has been studied to the last detail in the last hours and has been controversial until the last moment in a meeting that have maintained the parliamentary groups of Junts pel Yes and the CUP and that has caused that the president Puigdemont requested the delay one hour from the beginning of the session.
Finally, at 19.00 in the afternoon and before all the deputies of the Parliament and more than 1,000 journalists, Puigdemont has assumed the mandate to turn Catalonia into an independent State in the form of a republic while at the same time asking the House to suspend the application of the DUI to open a process of dialogue.

'I assume the mandate of the people that Catalunya will become an independent state in the form of a republic '

'The Government and myself propose to the Parliament to suspend the effects of the declaration of independence to establish a process of dialogue '

'What I expose today is not a personal opinion, derives from the results of 1-O '

'The 1-O Catalunya held a referendum on self-determination in extreme conditions, amidst attacks on people who queued to introduce their ballot '

'The images of 1-O will remain in our memory forever, we will never forget it '

'We must all take our responsibility to de-escalate the situation. I will not contribute with the word or with the gesture to increase it '

'The votes favorable to the Estatut were 145,000 less than that obtained the yes to the independence the past 1-O '

'Millions of citizens have come to the rational conclusion that the only way to guarantee coexistence is for Catalonia to become a '

'From the point of view of self-government the last seven years have been the worst of the last four decades. There has been a lamination of skills and a shocking contempt against the language, culture and way of life in Catalonia '

'Catalan demands have always been expressed peacefully and from majorities obtained at the polls.'

'I ask for an effort to know and recognize what has brought us here. We are not criminals, we are not crazy, we are not abductees or coup. We are normal people who want to express themselves '

'We have nothing against Spain or against the Spaniards, on the contrary, we want to find ourselves better. To date the relationship does not work '

'Police repression and disqualification have been the response of the Spanish state to a peaceful demand '

'The polls have said yes to independence and this is the way that I am willing to go .'

There is a plea for dialogue that crosses all Europe, which already feels called '

Catalan situation stirring up Spain's troubled past

on NEWS EUROPE

by Mary Fitzgerald

October 7 2017 2:30 AM

NATIONALISM is such a prickly question in Spain that the country's national anthem is only one of a handful in the world to have no words, or at least no words that are acceptable to everyone.  The 'Marcha Real' (or 'Royal March') once had lyrics approved by General Francisco Franco, their fascistic overtones reflecting the nature of his dictatorship.  But the anthem has been played without words since 1978 when Spain embraced democracy three years after the general's death.

It is impossible to observe what is currently happening in Spain - with the clash between Madrid and Catalans seeking independence triggering its most serious political crisis in years - without seeing ghosts of the country's past, and particularly the long decades of the Franco era.

"Espana una, grande y libre" (Spain, one, great and free) was the slogan of the Franco regime as it sought to centralise the country through authoritarianism after it emerged from a civil war so bloody a large part of its history remains unexplored.

The post-Franco democratic transition saw Spain carved into 17 autonomous regions but the question of how autonomous they should be has been fraught ever since.

While the 1978 constitution gave control of services including education and health to regional governments, ultimate power was vested in Madrid.
Several parts of Spain chafed under this set-up, and some chafed more than others, particularly the Basque region and Catalonia where the sense of regional identity is particularly strong and rooted in distinctive languages as well as history.

Grievances from the Franco era play a key role in shaping narratives in both regions, the resentment towards Madrid is partly rooted in those historical experiences and can sometimes take a disturbing turn.
I remember one elderly man who helped found ETA, the armed group that transformed the Basque push for autonomy into a violent campaign, telling me they would never forget what Franco had done to their region. Among other things, he claimed Franco had tried to "dilute the blood purity of the Basques" by resettling people from other parts of Spain there.

For many Catalan separatists, similar memories of the Franco years are key to their antipathy towards Castillian nationalism.
But just like not every Catalan is in favour of independence, not every Spaniard troubled by the separatist push shares the worldview of the protesters in Madrid recently filmed making arm salutes while singing Franco-ist anthems.

Among the many who do not fit the lazy categorisations employed by too many on all sides of the current debacle is a Spaniard I know who was born in Extremadura near the Portuguese border - historically one of the country's poorest regions - grew up in Madrid and later lived for several years in Barcelona as an adult.  He is a filmmaker and his politics are of the left.  Having made his home in several countries over the years, if anything he would describe himself as citizen of the world. Several members of his family died fighting Franco's side during the civil war, others were among the war prisoners used to carve out the massive Valle de los Caidos (Valley of The Fallen) memorial near Madrid where the general was eventually buried.  I remember visiting the site with him some years ago and seeing how the monument is a place of pilgrimage for those still nostalgic for the Franco era while representing something very different and unsettling to others.

Nationalism leaves this Spaniard cold for all kinds of reasons, including his country's turbulent past, but what is happening in Catalonia also worries him.

The actions of police who used rubber bullets and batons to stop people voting in last Sunday's referendum shocked him, just as the Catalan insistence to hold the ballot despite Madrid banning it as unconstitutional concerned him.
'There is much politicking at play and few signs of politicians facing up to their responsibilities whether in Madrid or Barcelona,' he says.

He's been arguing with Catalan friends. "Emotions are running too high on all sides, it has fed the extremes."
What he dreams of is a Spain united in its diversity, one where the appeal of hard-line nationalists - whether Castillian or regional - would gradually wear away.

But the question of a singular national identity continues to elude Spain decades after Franco tried to impose one through a dictatorship entwined with Catholicism that sought to erase regional languages and cultural diversity.  Many argue it is an impossibility.
For now, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has offered all-party negotiations which raises the prospect of some kind of agreement that would give Catalonia more autonomy, but not independence.
The police violence of last weekend has fanned the hardline Catalan separatists, however, so a peaceful solution is not guaranteed.  And watching closely will be separatist movements elsewhere in Spain and far beyond its borders.

M/c Communist Party Commemoration:

Mrs Brown's Boys

‘From Manchester to Spain’: a commemoration of the life of George Brown; 2pm-4pm at the Waldorf Hotel, Gore Street, Manchester M1 3AQ; organised by the George Brown Commemoration Committee, Greater Manchester Communist Party and local IBMT members.

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LAST Saturday, the Manchester communists held a commemoration to George Brown who died fighting for the republican government in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.  

The event was introduced by Liz Payne, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain,

Slimmer and less charismatic than Boris Johnson, but with a similar shade of hair and equally plummy-voice, she introduced the event which with 30-odd in attendance was notable for its lack of young people.
Charles Jepson, a cheeky mustachioed J.P. from Blackburn, gave the talk on George Brown stressing his Irish roots and Communist Party connections.  It seems that George was distressed about the support for Franco prevailing in Ireland at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War.  The Roman Catholics were he said concerned about the attacks on the churches by Catalan and Spanish anarchist trade unionists.  Mr. Jepson himself taught at a high class Catholic school in Lancashire, and has sympathies for the IRA.
Mr. Jepson did not mention George's brother Michael Brown who was one of the earlier volunteers in the Spanish conflict, but who is sometimes classed as a 'deserter'. 

One account describes Michael experience thus:
'While Michael Brown was among the first group of British-based volunteers, arriving before the International Brigades were set up. He joined the No. 1 Coy. XIV Battalion at Lopera in late December 1936, a battle where the newly arrived volunteers were brutally attacked by the fascist troops. Having gone through this battle, Michael returned to Britain,...'

Tameside TUC & its enemies

The Tameside TUC booklet to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, first published in 2006, which interestingly was immediately confronted by elements in the Manchester International Brigade Memorial Trust such as Mike Luft who initially tried to suppress its production, but when they failed it went on to described Michael Brown as living in Harperhey, Manchester as follows:  'Deserted in December 1936, declaring:  'this isn't a war, this is bloody madness.  I've had enough.'

Tameside TUC's booklet states:  'George Brown from Platting, Manchester:  Secretary of Manchester Communist Party Branch.  Political commissar in Spain.  Killed at Villanueva de la Cañada in July 1937.'

Mr. Jepson said George Brown was wounded in Madridand he pointed out George Brown was a well-established leader of the workers’ movement in Manchester, who is on record as being the most senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain to be killed in action in Spain.  He was a full-time worker for the Party and a member of its national leadership, the Central Committee.
The mood music in George Brown's birth place the Irish Republic in 1936, was supportive of Franco, and the Irish Brigade (Spanish: Brigada Irlandesa, "Irish Brigade" Irish: Briogáid na hÉireann) fought on the Nationalist side of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.  The unit was formed wholly of Roman Catholics by the politician Eoin O'Duffy, who had previously organised the banned quasi-fascist Blueshirts and openly fascist Greenshirts in Ireland.
Jepson said that all this seeing General Franco as a saviour of the Roman Catholic Church disturbed George Brown, and he backed the 320 volunteers – both resident in Ireland or members of the ‘Irish Diaspora’ from the far-flung corners of the globe -  were part of a 45,000 strong army of private individuals from all walks of life resolved to stem the rise of fascism.  The majority of these volunteers served with the International Brigades, others were involved with various militias, and still more were engaged in medical and other support services. Over 55 different nationalities were represented.

'Sentimental Tripe' !

Another speaker talked about his aunty Evelyn Jones who was George Brown's wife, and who later after Georges death married Jack Jones, the man who later was to become the leader of the Transport & General Workers Union.  She was for a time a member of the Communist Party, and had been a Comintern courier during the Spanish Civil War.  
The talk was of interest but given that 10,000 police from other regions of Spain had been moved into Catalonia on the eve of the Catalan referendum the whole event had the feel of a Sunshine Club for elderly folk.  I was put in mind of what George Orwell wrote in his review of 'Volunteer in Spain', the book by international brigader John Sommerfield:  which Orwell described it thus:
'it may seem ungracious to say that this book is a piece of sentimental tripe; but so it is.'  
Sentimental tripe dogs these commemorations of the International Brigade Memorial Trust to this very day, as we witnessed last Saturday, and as we experienced when Tameside TUC published its own publication which tried to give a fair and balanced account of the local contributions of the international brigade volunteers in the struggle against Franco's fascists.  The problem with the International Brigade Memorial Trust is that it tries to present the British contingent of the International Brigade volunteers as a kind of cavalry, which stood in defence of democratic values between the people of Spain and Franco's fascists and the Moors.  In playing up the contribution of the international brigade at the expense of the Spanish working-class it often borders on hispanophobia.

Why was Spain the first country to seriously resist Fascism?

Ignazio Silone wrote in his book 'School for Dictators':

'Compare the respective attitudes towards fascism of the Spanish workers and the Germans.  The difference in national character can explain only part of the different way of reacting to the enemy's attack.  The growth in big industry has been a powerful help in reinforcing the tendency of Germans - workers included - towards zusammenmarschieren (mass-man marching together).... Individual initiative has been reduced to zero.'

The fact is the Spaniards were the first to seriously resist fascism because of the history and rural roots, which allowed anarchism to develop in cities like Barcelona to influence the labour movement.  We see the effects of this today in the general strike that is now taking place against the police brutality that took place during the Catalan referendum.
Pedro Cuadrado who was in the republican police in Barcelona in 1936, and later lived in Bolton, said that Barcelona was the first city to halt the march of fascism.

Because many, if not most of the members of the International Brigade Memorial Trust are super-annuated former British communist party members, they have difficulty understanding a cultures such as that of the Catalans and the Spaniards.

European Commission Backs Madrid!

 from 'Politico' today:

STRASBOURG — The Spanish government’s “proportionate use of force” in Catalonia was necessary to uphold the rule of law, the European Commission declared on Wednesday.
As the European Parliament opened a debate on the Catalonia crisis, Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans sided unequivocally with the Madrid government.

Timmermans minced no words in condemning the effort to hold an independence referendum as a violation of the Spanish constitution and, therefore, as a threat to the rule of law in all EU countries.
His comments were met by the continuing fury and disbelief of Catalans who insist the referendum was intended as a democratic expression of free speech and self-determination.

The debate in Strasbourg was allowed to proceed only after Parliament leaders agreed to narrowly define the subject as “the rule of law and fundamental rights in Spain in light of the events in Catalonia” — a demand made by the European People’s Party, the largest political group, which includes Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s Popular Party.
 
Timmermans, in the opening address, said, “We have shaped our democratic societies based on three principles: democracy, respect for the rule of law and human rights … The three need each other, they cannot exclude each other.” He continued, “If you remove one pillar, then the others will fall too.”
“The regional government of Catalonia has chosen to ignore the law in organizing the referendum of last Sunday,” he said.
Perhaps most strikingly, Timmermans defended the use of force by the Spanish police on Sunday. The police action resulted in jarring images of voters, including women and elderly citizens, being dragged away from polling stations — a stunning scene of unrest in a large Western democracy.
“Let me be clear: Violence does not solve anything in politics. It is never an answer, never a solution. And it can never be used as a weapon or instrument,” he said.
“None of us want to see violence in our societies,” Timmermans went on. “However it is a duty for any government to uphold the law, and this sometimes does require the proportionate use of force.”
 
Continuing his speech, he suggested that the Catalan authorities were demanding greater respect for their rights than they were willing to afford others in Spain.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental right of all European citizens and thus for all Spanish citizens,” Timmermans said. “But one opinion is not more valuable than another opinion only because it is expressed more loudly.”
The debate was arranged in such a way that only group leaders — none of whom are Spanish — could speak. But during a separate session earlier on Wednesday, MEP Jordi Solé from the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya turned to Timmermans to say: “If European institutions keep saying that it’s all about the law, and nothing else than the law, and that it’s an internal matter, you will deserve the world record for turning Catalan pro-Europeans citizens into Euroskeptics.”
Ryszard Legutko, a Polish MEP who is co-leader of the European Conservatives and Reformists group, used the Catalan debate to slam Timmermans and the Commission for hypocrisy.
 
“The European Commission repeatedly resorts to moralistic language, we just heard it,” said Legutko, whose country has been in a running battle over the rule of law with the Commission.
“When we view the action of the Commission in the handling of this particular situation in Catalonia, it looks more like a union of selective values. The double standards of the Commission is something that leaps to the eye. All are equal but some are more equal than others.”
“Let’s be honest,” he added. “If it was another member state, not Spain, the consequences and the rhetoric from the Commission would have been far harsher.”
At a briefing for journalists in Strasbourg, a senior Spanish diplomat pleaded for support for Madrid, describing the situation as a “coup” and warning that Catalan regional leader Carles Puigdemont may be “contemplating war.” The diplomat repeated Madrid’s flat rejection of an international mediator, calling it “out of the question.”
The diplomat said Madrid was open to dialogue with the regional Catalan authorities provided there was respect for Spanish law.
 
The leader of the center-right EPP, Manfred Weber, called the Catalonian government “irresponsible,” and said it was “splitting the country.” He called for dialogue, saying the conflict “can only be solved by the Spanish people themselves.”
Weber echoed the Commission’s warnings that Catalonia, even if it found a legal way to separate from Spain, would find itself outside the EU with no guarantee of returning. “Leaving the internal market, leaving the Schengen area and leaving Eurozone: is this really the Catalans’ best interest?” he asked.
Gianni Pittella, the Italian leader of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (SPD), dismissed the referendum as “useless” and urged Catalan authorities not to declare independence, warning that “it could trigger new confrontation and new disasters.”
Belgian MEP and former prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, leader of Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, urged both sides to meet at a negotiating table. “The future of Catalonia as in my own Flemish region lies not in brutal separation,” Verhofstadt said.
 
So far, however, Madrid has indicated no willingness to negotiate with the Catalans and has effectively demanded a complete surrender.
Support for Madrid was hardly unanimous in the Parliament, though leaders sought to limit the debate in part to restrict the number of pro-Catalan speakers.
Patrick Le Hyarric, a French MEP from the far-left GUE group, criticized EU countries who “turn a blind eye” on Catalonia while “the nation is ripping itself apart.”
“The EU must condemn the violation of the fundamental rights,” Le Hyarric said. “This crisis is not unfamiliar to us. We can’t accept politics based on violence in the EU.”

Catalan police officer investigated for sedition

THE Spanish national court announced Wednesday that Catalan regional police chief Josep Lluís Trapero is being investigated for sedition, and summoned him to court on Friday.

The charges were announced after prosecutors filed a complaint against the Catalan police, or “Mossos d’Esquadra,” for their role during police raids on September 20 when police arrested 14 Catalan officials and confiscated election material — actions meant to prevent the October 1 independence referendum from taking place.

A police officer from a Barcelona neighborhood and the leaders of two pro-independence grassroots organizations are also being investigated, and were asked to join Trapero at Friday’s hearing. If convicted, Trapero and the others could potentially face up to 15 years in jail for “preventing … the application of laws.” 
Spain’s Constitutional Court deemed the referendum illegal, and had ordered the Catalan police to prevent it from taking place.
The Catalan police was widely criticized by the anti-secession Spanish press for not doing enough on the day of the referendum. Videos of clashes between Catalan police and the Civil Guard, a Spanish law enforcement agency, circulated on social media.
Trapero gained international media attention as the policeman in charge of the response to the terrorist attacks in Catalonia in August.

Catalan General Strike

LARGE numbers of Catalans have observed a general strike to condemn police violence at a banned weekend referendum on independence, as Madrid comes under growing international pressure to resolve its worst political crisis in decades.
Schools and universities were shut on Tuesday and unions reported that most small businesses were closed after unions called for the stoppage to “vigorously condemn” the police response to the poll, in which Catalonia’s leader said 90% of voters had backed independence from Spain.
“An attack on democracy without precedent in recent times calls for a united response,” said Javier Pacheco, the secretary general in Catalonia of the Comisiones Obreras union. “We have called on all sectors to take part.”
No public transport will be available between 9am and 5pm in Barcelona, and in Tarragona the municipal bus service was cancelled. In the Ebro delta, the rice harvest was halted for the day.
Barcelona’s public universities were expected to join the strike, as was the contemporary art museum and the Sagrada Familia, the basilica designed by Antoni Gaudi and one of the city’s most popular tourist sites.
FC Barcelona said it would take part in the strike, adding that it would close its headquarters and that none of its professional or youth teams would train.
Demonstrations have been called to begin at noon and Britain’s Foreign Office warned travellers to expect further disruption in the region over the coming days.

Catalan leader calls for mediation with Spain over independence

The central government has vowed to stop the wealthy north-eastern region, which accounts for a fifth of Spain’s GDP, breaking away from Spain and has dismissed Sunday’s poll as unconstitutional and a “farce”.
At least 893 people and 33 police officers were reported to have been hurt on Sunday after riot police stormed polling stations, dragging out voters and firing rubber bullets into crowds.
Violent scenes played out in towns and cities across the region as riot police moved in to stop people from casting their ballots.
The UN rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said he was “very disturbed” by the unrest while the EU president, Donald Tusk, urged Madrid to avoid further use of violence.
The European parliament will hold a special debate on Wednesday on the issue.

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libcom report on Catalan strikes

 Posted By

Cipo Fraioli
Oct 3 2017 12:14

WORKERS in Catalonia have launched a general strike today in response to the brutal police repression following Sunday's Catalan independence referendum.

Originally called by a group of alternative unions including the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, who represent the majority of linesman at the Port of Barcelona, the revolutionary syndicalist CGT and Catalan unions the IAC and the COS, the strike is now also being supported by the dockworkers' Coordinadora as well as mainstream trade unions the CCOO and UGT.
They are also being joined by a wide range of student groups, social centres and Catalan nationalist organisations such as La Taula per la Democràcia, an organism created just before the referéndum, the ANC (Catalan National Assembly), FAPAC (the Federation of Catalan Neighbourhood Assemblies) and UFEC (Union of Catalan Sports Associations).
Neighbourhood defense committees which have been developing alongside the repression of the referendum vote met last night in squares around Catalonia to prepare for the strike. Many neighbourhoods held protests outside hotels at Calella, Pineda de Mar and Figueres to protest the hospitality given to National Police and Civil Guard, successfully forcing the hotels to end their stay.
Demonstrations involving tens of thousands have broken out in the streets this morning. Central Barcelona has an ongoing march of thousands led by the 'bombers' firefighters who were brutally attacked by police last week when they tried to protect demonstrators. Around Barcelona different groups have blocked roads and motorways both with throngs of people and barricades of tires. Tractors have driven into town from local villages to block roundabouts.
Strikes are taking place on Barcelona public transport, and ports at Barcelona and Tarragona are completely shut down. The University of Barcelona has been in occupation since September 22nd with most schools closed for the day. Flying pickets along demonstration routes have been calling on shops to strike for the day.
In a statement, the CNT said: "the unity of Spain has always been a rallying flag for the far right here. Therefore, any calls for self-determination from any part of it, as is the case now in Catalonia, spark a vicious response. We are already seeing an increase in the presence of fascist groups in many towns across Spain and the conservative government is taking an increasingly authoritarian stance, trampling on many fundamental freedoms. These are ominous signs of what might lie ahead for us. Repression is only likely to worsen on many fronts, maybe even involving the military.
"Make no mistake, while we firmly oppose repression from an increasingly authoritarian state and their fascist allies, we are in no way supportive of the nationalist agenda."
The statement also explained that CNT activists have "been busy making things uncomfortable for the nationalists, bringing economic and social issues to the fore, reminding people that the Catalan government was very keen to introduce social cuts only a few years ago.
"This should not be a fight between nations, but between classes. Between an oppressive regime and its fascist allies (as much a part of the “people” as anyone else) and those of us who stand for freedom and rebellious dignity.
We expect repression to increase during the following weeks and days and we will use our weapon of choice, the general strike, to make it difficult for police to move around, get supplies and do their work in general.
The statement concludes: "As revolutionaries, we don't believe we can just remain idle, while the police attack the people in the streets and fascist gangs roam our towns freely."
On Sunday, what should have been a peaceful referendum turned into a carnage. Ten thousand police officers from the Guardia Civil, sent by the central government in Madrid, surged against the peaceful voters, trying to thwart the referendum, by shutting down polling stations and seizing ballot boxes

Violence erupted quickly, and the Sunday turned bloody. More than 800 hundred people were hurt. Everyone from young children to pensioners were victims of an unnecessary display of police brutality. Female protestors have also complained of police sexually assaulting them during arrests.
All in all, police actions in Catalonia have felt to many like a revival of the ghost of Franco still alive in the Spanish right. At least 884 people were injured, after the police savagely attacked the people who were trying to cast their votes. Police officers resorted to rubber bullets (forbidden in Catalonia since 2013), truncheons and even tossed people away from polling booths. The gruesome images of police officers dragging by the hair several women, using tear gas on voters and brutally clashing their batons on even elder people, are available in the internet for everyone to see the strength that fascism has nowadays in Europe.
President Mariano Rajoy, of the right-wing Partido Popular, refuses to recognise the referendum, even declaring that “there has been no independence referendum”, before paying tribute to the Spanish Police, that responded with “firmness and serenity”.
The referendum bill was turned into law by Catalan President Carles Puigdemont on September 6, after being voted in the Catalan Parliament, with 72 votes in favour and 11 abstentions, in the 135-seat chamber in Barcelona. This law stated that 48 hours after the referendum, a yes vote would be followed by the declaration of independence, but was quickly suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court the day after, with the Spanish government claiming the vote illegal and unconstitutional.
The Catalan government declared that the referendum had been approved by 90% of the 2.3 million people who voted out of a total voter pool of 5,343,358. This means that the turnout was of 42%, with 58% abstaining.
The EU still remains largely silent, and hasn’t condemned the police violence in Spain. This represents the tension in the EU as a whole, where national independence campaigns in Scotland, Flanders, Veneto and elsewhere in other EU member states as well as the Basque Country in Spain. Catalonia is a major player in the Spanish economy and growth, accounting for around 19 percent of its GDP.
Lead image: twitter/@janinavilana

Paul Preston pontificates about referendum

PROFESSOR Paul Preston, the distinguished British Hispanist speaking on the Radio Four news program today, revealed something remarkable by saying that the Catalan referendum is a 'complicated process' !

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Spanish PM praises police

 Spanish Prime Minister Rajoy says police behaved with 'serenity'!

The Associated Press
(@AP)

BREAKING: Spanish PM thanks police, says they acted with "firmness and serenity" to Catalonia's independence referendum.

 

But, Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, was among the few national leaders to denounce the violence, which the Catalan government said had left 465 people injured as police forcibly removed voters from polling stations and on one occasion fired rubber bullets.
“Violence can never be the answer!” Michel said on Twitter.
His Slovenian counterpart, Miro Cerar, also expressed his concern, saying he was “concerned” and calling for “political dialogue, rule of law and peaceful solutions”.

CNT STATEMENT ON REFERENDUM

The International Solidarity Department has received and is happy to share this statement from the CNT Catalonia & Balearic Islands:
“The CNT local unions from Catalonia and the Balearic Islands publicly state our support for the self-determination of the Catalan people.
As anarcho-syndicalists, we don’t think that political reforms within a capitalist framework can reflect our desire for social transformation, a change that would place production and consumption means in workers’ hands. Because of this, our daily struggles do not focus on creating new states or backing parliamentary initiatives.
However, we can’t look the other way when regular people are being attacked and repressed by any state. A state that has, in this case, removed its mask and revealed itself as an authoritarian rule, the true heir of the Franco regime. This is something that could be glimpsed before through many instances, such as labour law reforms, bank bail-outs, cuts on health and education, mass evictions of out-of-work families…many of which were implemented by the Catalan government itself.
CNT Catalonia and the Balearic greet this spirit of disobedience against a dictatorial state, a discriminatory and fascist state, and want to assert our strongest denunciation of repression against workers and of those who carry it out.
The men and women in CNT will stand as one to defend their neighbours and townsfolks, as couldn´t be otherwise with an anarcho-syndicalist, and henceforth revolutionary, organisation.”

You can also view the original statement published here in Catalan, Spanish and English.

Update 29/09/2017: we now have confirmation the regional CNT of Catalonia and Balearic Islands has voted to join the call out for a general strike on Wednesday 3rd October. The other big radical union in the Iberian peninsula – the CGT – has also called out for a general strike, and various smaller alternative unions have joined. 
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Mossos (Squaddies) close 221 polling booths

Los Mossos d'Esquadra han cerrado en Catalunya un total de 221 colegios electorales del referéndum hasta las 15:10 horas de hoy, ha informado la policía. En su cuenta oficial de Twitter, los Mossos aseguran que están en la calle trabajando "para dar cumplimiento a la orden del TSJC con proporcionalidad", adecuándose a cada situación para garantizar la seguridad.

THE 'Squadies' have closed in Catalonia a total of 221 electoral colleges of the referendum up to 3.15 (Spanish time) this afternoon, claimed the police.  In their official Twitter account the Mossos confirm that they are in the streets working 'to establish order of the TSJC with proportionality', we try in every situation to guarantee security.

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Galicians question Spanish state

El Bloque Nacionalista Gallego ha expresado su "total condena a la represión policial con la que el Estado español intenta impedir el derecho del pueblo catalán a expresarse en las urnas", al tiempo que acusa al Gobierno de Mariano Rajoy de "saltarse la Constitución que tanto invoca imponiendo por la fuerza un estado de excepción ilegal en Catalunya". 

The Nationalist Block of Galicia has expressed its 'total condemnation of the polictical repression with Spanish state intent on impeding the rights of the Catalan public to express at the ballot box', it is time to accuse the government of Mariano Rajoy of  'overturning the constitution so as to invoke a force of the state of exception ilegal in Catalonia'.

Catalonia NOW!

'What's happening is a mini revolution': eyewitness accounts

Sarah Marsh

Readers have been sharing their eyewitness accounts with us –you can share yours with us here.

‘It is frightening, we are living in a world where human rights are being not listened to’

What is happening at the moment is a mini revolution – the Catalans
want a referendum and where we are right now, we are waiting for Guardias to arrive as that is what is happening elsewhere. Old people have been attacked ...We are doing what we want to do which is just vote.
It has not been violent where we are but what we are hearing and
seeing things. Last night I was outside the square eating sausages we
cooked on the BBQ and talking about what tomorrow means and now we are talking about what Monday means and Tuesday. It is frightening, we are living in a world where human rights are being not listened to. I think Catalonia deserves to be listened to.
If the rest of the world does not put its arms up and prevent the Spanish government from attacking peaceful demonstrators, then that is worrying.
I have got children with me at the moment, they know what is going on and they can feel this tension – it’s just not nice. You bring children up to be peaceful and seeing the establishment carry old ladies off. It would be great if everything news-wise shows what is really happenings. – Fiona Williamson, 44 from Barcelona

‘This is history. People say they will not move if there is violence’

Sitting outside the polling station in Barcelona Nord. We’re here on holiday but it is fascinating to watch all these people voting. They are here to stand and be visible, we’ve talked to some people. Other stations around here are closed so more people are coming here to vote. The local Catalan police are patrolling but there is no aggravation towards them, they are not stopping the process. Earlier today I saw seven police vans drive by, the cars beeped their horns in protest. Catalonian flags are hanging in windows, there is graffiti for voting yes. There are no posters for no. I talked to a girl and asked if she knew anyone voting no. She said she knew some people from university, but there was no argument between them. They just wanted to vote. People clap when they leave the station. A man handed his umbrella to another pushing an elderly lady in a wheelchair. The atmosphere is friendly and momentous. People are happy to talk and share with us. This is history. They say they will not move if there is violence. It’s too important – Caitríona O’Brien and Malachy McDermott, Irish holidaymakers in Barcelona