An Homage to Catalonia?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 09/30/2017 - 10:08pm

Catalan referendum: Barcelona braces for confrontation ahead of banned independence vote

Barcelona, one of Europe's biggest tourist destinations, is starting to resemble a war zone.
Thousands of national police have been moved into the city to stop regional authorities holding an independence referendum on Sunday.
On Thursday, students and other activists began staging protests and sit-ins to defend what they see as their right to vote. The city is bracing for what could be the worst civil confrontation since democracy was restored in the 1980s.
...The Spanish Government in Madrid has mobilised the paramilitary police force the Guardia Civil to seize ballot papers and stop schools and public buildings hosting polling stations.
Many in Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, still associate the Guardia Civil with Franco's fascist dictatorship when they were the shock troops to crush separatism. So many have been brought in from other provinces that the Government has hired cruise ships to house them.
Madrid has also asserted direct control over the regional police force, the Mosso d'Esquadra, formed after Catalonia was granted limited autonomy in 1979. But the regional Parliament says it will not yield control of its police to the Interior Ministry and it is unclear how enthusiastically Mossos will follow Madrid's orders.

Activists occupy schools ahead of vote

More than 160 schools in Catalonia have been occupied by activists trying to keep them open ahead of the region's banned independence referendum, Spain's central government says.
Police visited 1,300 of the 2,315 schools in Catalonia designated as polling stations, finding 163 occupied.

Spanish ambassador to UK calls Catalan referendum a ‘coup d’etat’

The Spanish ambassador to the UK, Carlos Bastarreche, has claimed that Europe is watching “a slow-motion, low-cost coup d’etat” by the Catalan government.

UN rights experts criticise Spanish efforts to block Catalan vote

UN human rights experts have weighed in on the escalating row over Catalonia’s independence referendum, warning the Spanish authorities that their “worrying” efforts to halt Sunday’s poll appear to violate fundamental rights and risk stifling debate “at a critical moment for Spain’s democracy”.

From what I understand, Madrid is legally right.
Catalonia is in the right in every other way.

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Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 12:16am
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says Julian Assange

The world's first internet war has begun, in Catalonia, as the people and government use it to organize an independence referendum on Sunday and Spanish intelligence attacks, freezing telecommunications links, occupying telecoms buildings, censors 100s of sites, protocols etc.

And for those looking for a great visual metaphor.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 12:22am

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Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 12:25am
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A nice historical summary of how Spanish attempts to rein in Catalan autonomy over the years has backfired.

For most of the years since the ratification of the Spanish post-Franco Constitution in 1978 the matter of independence was a nonstarter for a broad swath of the Catalan political establishment.

What changed things?

What changed things was the election of José María Aznar, the son of an important propagandist for the Francoist regime, as prime minister in 1996 with a clear – albeit at first skillfully camouflaged – program to roll back the regime of timid decentralization that grew out of the aforementioned post-Franco Constitution.

...

When, in the summer of 2010, the Constitutional Tribunal did indeed nullify important parts of them 2006 law, including the right of Catalans to legally refer to their collective as a nation, Catalans took to the streets massively in protest.

They believed that the Spanish state could no longer be considered a good faith negotiator. They had played by the rules of the state and its constitution and won new rights, albeit much less than they originally wanted.

However, using its effective control of a deeply and transparently corrupt judiciary, the PP had managed to overturn this impeccably executed constitutional reform.

Since this time, the entire tenor of Catalan politics has changed. Independentism, which until 2010 was still a decidedly minority option in Catalonia, has grown immensely.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by dkmich on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 8:12am

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 9:53am

@dkmich

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Submitted by dance you monster on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 10:18am
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@gjohnsit

. . . do you want to associate with the civilians, young and elderly, being beaten in Barcelona, or do you align yourselves with those doing the beating or the jubilant group in that third video singing and saluting?

Because, make no mistake about it, it's not just those who are trying to participate in (or thwart) a referendum who are making choices today. All who watch this, and all who purposely avoid watching this, will be making a choice.

You have history for a guidebook. Which path do you want to take?

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Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 10:32am

@dance you monster
are singing a fascist song from the Franco era.

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Submitted by Ellen North on Mon, 10/02/2017 - 3:54pm

@gjohnsit

Damn, glad you pointed that out - I had no idea...

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by dance you monster on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 10:34am
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@dance you monster

And someone in Europe knows the referendum's significance surpasses the border.

Jeremy Corbyn calls on Spanish government to end ‘shocking’ police violence as Catalans vote in independence referendum

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2017/oct/01/catalan-independence-...

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Submitted by lotlizard on Mon, 10/02/2017 - 11:45am
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@gjohnsit  
to wield real, hard, centralized police and military power over the citizens of “obsolete” existing nation-states — just as Madrid is, at this very moment, determined to beat Catalonians back into line.

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Submitted by Ellen North on Mon, 10/02/2017 - 4:07pm

@lotlizard

Indeed, the 'Union' corporatized a large block of countries exchanging local and theoretically accountable governance for rule by international banksters and other ruthless corporate interests/billionaires.

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Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by dkmich on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 8:12am

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 9:41am

@dkmich
Catalan referendum: 'Hundreds hurt' as police try to stop voters

Catalan officials say at least 337 people have been injured as police used force to try to prevent voting in Catalonia's independence referendum.

The Spanish government has pledged to stop a poll that was declared illegal by the country's constitutional court.

Police officers are preventing people from voting, and seizing ballot papers and boxes at polling stations.

In the regional capital Barcelona, police used batons and fired rubber bullets during pro-referendum protests.

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Submitted by DunDealgan on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 11:06am
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Politics.ie (.ie is Ireland) has had a thread about his since Sep 25 which is up to date and has useful links. There have been many pages posted today and there has been a local person from Leon posting a Spanish perspective.
Politics.ie Catalunya

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"People always have been the foolish victims of deception and self-deception in politics, and they always will be until they have learnt to seek out the interests of some class or other behind all moral, religious, political and social phrases."

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Sun, 10/01/2017 - 1:53pm
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Includes some good interviews with election observers.

The whole world is watching.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?