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Post by pieter on Oct 19, 2019 10:22:44 GMT -7
 NOS: Dutch Broadcast Foundation, translated by Google translate by Pieter from Dutch to EnglishOutburst of Violence in Barcelona: "Rioters trained for what they do" Italian, Greek, French and also Dutch anarchists, who had been based in the city for years, would participate in the violence during the demonstrations in Barcelona.
They are no more than four hundred men. Dark clothing, almost always a hoodie and the faces to the eyes covered with scarves. And all they find around them is a weapon. For some, the sign of a taxi rank is a shield. Another draws a pole from a park and winds it around. Large metal planters are dragged away and used as a barricade.
Who are these rioters?
It has been restless in Catalonia all week after the Monday's sentencing of a number of separatist leaders. It has never been as restless as Saturday. Anarchist, far left, Black Bloc rioters in Barcelona, October 2019L'Eixample, the fashionable center of Barcelona, was systematically built in the nineteenth century in square blocks of houses surrounded by streets that are 133 meters apart. The streets are being blocked with the same precision.
Dozens of burning barricades from tilted waste containers are located at 133 meters - it has really been thought about. A little further on, groups of radical youngsters throw themselves into police vans that remain isolated. A journalist from the Spanish public broadcaster is also hit hard.Completely unexpected"Nobody had foreseen this violence," said Pablo Iglesias, leader of the left-wing party Podemos during a meeting with foreign correspondents. He is in close contact with Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona. "Large demonstrations were taken into account after the Catalan politicians were convicted of organizing the referendum. But the violence on this scale is completely unexpected for everyone."
Anarchist extremists use a catapult against the Spanish and Catalan riot police in Barcelona
The same surprise stands for the current security forces in Catalonia - a mix of Catalan police officers Mossos d'Esquadra, national police forces and the Guardia Civil. A week of serious order disturbances in Barcelona, Tarragona and Girona brings the balance to more than a hundred arrests and a multiple of injured people. But also - for the first time - the deployment of a water cannon that was taken over from the Israeli police 25 years ago does not bring any peace to the densely populated city districts.Hard core of campaigners "Behind the organization of unrest there is a hard core of activists who determine the strategy every day. They have their own communication systems. It cannot be other than these people are trained for what they do," quotes an anonymous police investigator La Vanguardia. "Otherwise, we cannot explain how we arrived in Barcelona in four days from zero violence to total destruction."
The attention of the public prosecutor focuses mainly on the anonymous, and until this week completely unknown, group Tsunami Democràtic who is supposed to be behind most radical protests.Following Hong Kong's example Demonstrators in Hong Kong in riot gearThe group operates on the example of activists in Hong Kong via its own app, where you only come in with a unique QR barcode. The app makes it possible to follow and manage actions via geo-localization. The protests are distributed at the last minute via a Telegram account. The group is said to have been behind a terminal at El Prat airport on Monday at least. At least a hundred flights must be canceled. An affected French passenger died after a heart attack.
More than two hundred officers were injured by the riots this week, and 107 police cars were also affected. Eight hundred waste containers and cars were burned. Not only radical Catalan separatist youth would be behind the outburst of violence. For many years Italian, Greek French and Dutch anarchists based in the city would participate in the violence, "with the sole purpose of destroying public order". Among the detainees are at least English, Moroccans and Romanians, a ossos d'Esquadra spokesman knows. Two Dutchmen were also arrested last night and detained for a short time. Riots in Barcelona past tuesday EPAA website of Tsunami Democracy was closed yesterday by order of the National Court, although that made little sense. Immediately appeared on internet replicas of the site. And then the text: "Our site is blocked by the Spanish state thanks to the cooperation of the major telecom companies. The censorship has begun. The question is: Can a tsunami be stopped?"
Also on Twitter and Instagram a group with the same name Tsunami Democràtic is still active. The court mainly investigates whether the group can be charged with terrorist violence.2200 agents from Madrid Armed police officers stand in front of protesters as objects are thrown during a protest over the jail sentences given to separatist politicians by Spains Supreme Court, on October 18, 2019 in Barcelona, Spain. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)In Barcelona, long columns of police busses with tired-looking police officers block the most sensitive institutions in combat kits. These include the police headquarters, the Spanish government delegation, the ferry terminal and the large Sants station. 2200 agents have now been sent to Catalonia from Madrid. On the combat kits, shattered paint bombs betray the tense days.
Demonstrations have been announced for today. Then the next night of charges and fierce fighting seems inescapable.Source: NOS, Dutch Broadcast Foundation. |
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Post by pieter on Oct 20, 2019 8:09:21 GMT -7
Hundreds of thousands of protesters are marching from five different Catalan cities to join the protest in Barcelona against the sentences of separatist leaders.
Friday 18 October 2019 13:26, UK: news.sky.com/video/hundreds-of-thousands-in-pro-catalan-march-11838518 A NYT report from New York. By AFP - October 19, 2019 @ 9:16amBarcelona on fire as half a million separatists protest BARCELONA: Violent clashes escalated in Barcelona late Friday, as radical Catalan separatists hurled rocks and fireworks at police, who responded with teargas and rubber bullets, turning the city centre into a chaotic battleground.
The deterioration came on the fifth consecutive day of protests in the Catalan capital and elsewhere over a Spanish court’s jailing of nine separatist leaders on sedition charges over a failed independence bid two years ago.
Around half a million people rallied in Barcelona earlier on Friday in the biggest gathering since Monday’s court ruling as separatists also called a general strike in the major tourist destination.
But while most marchers appeared peaceful, hoards of young protesters went on the rampage near the police headquarters, igniting a huge blaze which sent plumes of black smoke into the air, as police fired teargas to disperse them, an AFP correspondent said.
Other fires raged near Plaza de Catalunya at the top of the tourist hotspot Las Ramblas, where hundreds of demonstrators rallied in defiance of the police, who tried to disperse them with water canon. Demonstrators fling stones during a protest in Girona, Spain, 18 October 2019. Catalonia region lives its fourth general strike in two years in connection with the pro-independence process, a strike call that finishes a week of protests against the sentence against the Catalan accused in the 'proces' trial for their role in the organization of the illegal independence referendum held back in October 2017.-EPA“Anti-fascist Catalonia!” they roared. “The streets will always be ours!”
Scores of police vans could be seen fanning out around the streets, their sirens screaming as the regional police warned people in a message in English on Twitter “not to approach” the city centre.
Earlier, many thousands of “freedom marchers“, who had set out to walk from five regional towns on Wednesday, arrived in Barcelona wearing walking boots and carrying hiking poles.
The rally coincided with the general strike, prompting the cancellation of 57 flights, the closure of shops, businesses and several top tourist attractions, and slowing public transport to a trickle in a region that accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economic output.
Activists also cut off Catalonia’s main cross-border highway with France.
People wave 'Esteladas' flag, the unofficial flag typically flown by Catalan independence supporters, during incidents with police as thousands of people take part in one of the so-called 'Marches for Freedom' along Pelayo street in Barcelona, Spain, 18 October 2019. Catalonia region lives its fourth general strike in two years in connection with the pro-independence process, a strike call that finishes a week of protests against the sentence against the Catalan accused in the 'proces' trial for their role in the organization of the illegal independence referendum held back in October 2017. EPA/QUIQUE GARCIA
In downtown Barcelona, many shops and luxury outlets were closed on the city’s Paseo de Gracia, with blackened, charred patches a testimony to the nightly clashes that have raged since Monday.
“With these demonstrations bringing this large city to a halt, we are using Barcelona like a microphone,” said 23-year-old engineering student Ramon Pararada.
“It’s all in reaction to the injustice,” he said.
Retired lawyer Jaume Enrich agreed, saying the court sentence was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Madrid is putting Spanish unity above everything, including basic rights,” he told AFP, wearing a badge saying “No surrender.”
Nearby a banner fluttered reading “There are not enough cages for this many birds.”
The huge turnout came after yet another night of violent clashes, which Catalan regional interior minister Miquel Buch said involved “fewer incidents, but more violence.”
And Barcelona city council said the first three days of clashes had cost an estimated 1.57 million euros in damage, with more than 700 large wheelie bins torched and mob violence also damaging traffic lights, street signs, trees and the city’s bike-share service.
In Barcelona, Spain’s top tourist destination, the Sagrada Familia basilica closed as protesters massed outside, and the famous Liceu opera house cancelled Friday night’s performance. Debris are pictured on a street of Barcelona, on October 18, 2019, after violence escalated during clashes, with radical separatists hurling projectiles at police, who responded with teargas and rubber bullets sparking scenes of chaos in the city centre.-AFPBarcelona’s huge wholesale market, which exports around a third of the region’s fresh produce, was barely trading on Friday, and at the city’s famed La Boqueria market, most of the stalls were closed.
At one stall, Barcelona-born Susana Medialdea, 53, was selling olives and pickles entirely dressed in yellow.
“I came in voluntarily to work but only as long as I could wear yellow to express my total disagreement with the sentence,” she told AFP, saying she felt “very angry” about it.
But another veteran stallholder took the opposite view.
“I am a real Catalan but I don’t support this independence project at all, people are letting themselves be used, above all the youth,” said 75-year-old Carmen Isern, accusing the secessionists of dishonesty.
“We’ve had seven years of lies. They only tell the teenagers bad things about Spain.”
With the region mired in chaos, football authorities cancelled the Barcelona and Real Madrid Clasico set for Oct 26 at the Camp Nou stadium. Both clubs had reportedly refused an offer to hold the match in Madrid.
And Manchester City’s Catalan manager Pep Guardiola, an outspoken campaigner for the independence movement, urged European intervention to ease the crisis.
Pep Guardiola, Manchester City’s manager and an outspoken campaigner for the Catalan independence movement
Manchester City's head coach Pep Guardiola and Catalonian president Carles Puigdemont during a demonstration in Barcelona in Catalonia before the Independence Referendum in June 2017
“The international community must help us to solve the conflict between Catalonia and Spain,” he said. “Some mediator from outside (must) help us sit (down) and talk.”
The Supreme Court’s explosive decision has thrust the Catalan dispute to the heart of the political debate as Spain heads towards a fourth election in as many years, which will be held on Nov 10. - AFP
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Post by pieter on Oct 20, 2019 10:47:41 GMT -7
Dear friends, dear Jaga,
Jaga, it seems I met the mirror image of your Spanish friend in very fierce, fanatical and anti-Spanish Catalan nationalists I met in Oxford and Montpellier during English and French language courses in 1989 and 1990, and later Catalan expats and students during my vocational university student time in Amsterdam, The Hague and Arnhem and during European travels. I have never been to Spain nor Portugal, but I was on Spanish islands were there were Catalan and mainland Spanish people, and in Southern France I met Catalan people too. These were people from Barcelona and other Catalan cities. I was amazed, puzzled and surprised by the fiery, radical, passionate, temperamental; hot-tempered and rather agressive nationalism of these Catalans, who had contempt, disgust and antipathy for Spain. There was some extreme hatred for Spain combined with an intense pride of their Catalan identity. I have to admid that I met Nationalist Spanish people like your friend too. These Spanish nationalists were equally impassionate in their ardent support for Spain and Spanish Patriotism. Fact was that I spoke these people individually. Spanish people often avoid public discussions in public due to political tensions in Spain which go back to the Spanish Civil War, a Dutch woman who studied Spanish, lived in Spain and who has a Spanish art gallery, explained me. Many Spanish families have roots in the far right or the extreme left of the past. From families who are Falangist (read Spanish Fascist) supporters of the Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista (FET y de las JONS; English: Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx and of the Councils of the National Syndicalist Offensive) the sole legal party of the Francoist regime in Spain from 19 April 1937 until 7 April 1977 on one side to Leftist Socialist (Social Democratic), communist, leftwing Republican, Anarcho-Syndicalist and leftwing (regional) nationalist Catalan, Basque and other people. The Dutch woman and honest Spanish people told me that Spain is very complicated and segregated in the political sense. Spanish people from different regions always mock, make jokes about people of other regions. Spain is a country of regions with a strong regional and provincial identity. In staid of Spanish people you have Catalans, Basque people, Madridians, Andalusians, Valencians, Castilians, Extremadurans, Leonese people (Spanish: Leoneses), Cantabrians (Sometimes they are referred to as "montañeses" (meaning Highlanders)), Aragonese people, Asturians and Galicians from Spanish Galicia. Next to these peoples you have the Balearic people from the Balearic Islands Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, and Formentera. The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. And next all these kind of ethnic groups from Spain you have the Canary Islanders, indigenous to the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa, and descend from a mixture of Spanish settlers and aboriginal Guanche peoples. Sorry if I have made it complicated for you folks. This is the reality of Spain today.Personal note Pieter: Spain of course like all Western democracies today is divided in people who think locally and regionally one one side and other people who think nationally and again other people who think globally, universally and thus in an international sense. Local and regional thinkers and actors are people who feel very connected to their local community (village, hamlet, urban agglomeration, town, city or neighbourhood or borough of a city, their province, region of the country they live in). National thinkers are the Spanish nationalists and international universalist thinkers are Spanish people who are Globalists, libertarians, secular liberals and moderate conservatives who feel connected to the European Union, the EU Med (EuroMed 7), the Latin Union ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_Union / www.unilat.org/fr ), the Organization of Ibero-American States (Spanish: Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos, Portuguese: Organização dos Estados Ibero-americanos; abbreviated as OEI; www.oei.es/en) the larger West, the Latin Romanesque world (Iberian Peninsula, Occitan Southern France, Corsica, Malta, Italy, Romania and Central-America and Southern-America, the larger Spanish speaking world) and the United Nations. These separatist Pro-Independence Catalan nationalists have a strange mix of regionalism, nationalism, republicanism, socialism, liberalism and universalism. The movement is international due to the support of the Catalan diaspora and non-Catalan Greek, Italian, German, French and Dutch anarchists.  The territory where the Catalan language is spoken is large than Catalonia itself. QuestionsWhat is going on in Spain in the autonomous community of Catalonia on the northeastern corner of Spain? What are the historical, present and future dimensions for the Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy Spain, Catalonia itself, the EU Med or EuroMed 7 (the "Club Med" or "Med Group"), the alliance of seven Southern European Union member states in the Mediterranean region with a Greco-Roman heritage. What is the consequence for the EU, NATO, Spains relations with Southern-America, Africa, the Spanish Islands and the internal divide? Will the Catalan independence movement and agressive and violent demonstrations ignite a new fire in another Autonomous Community, the Basque Autonomous Community (Basque: Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, EAE; Spanish: Comunidad Autónoma Vasca, CAV) an autonomous community in northern Spain. If the radicalisation continues in Catalonia, will there emerge an ETA like movement in Catalonia?
ETA (Basque: Euskadi Ta Askatasuna; "Basque Homeland and Liberty" or "Basque Country and Freedom") was an armed leftist Basque nationalist and separatist organization in the Basque Country (in northern Spain and southwestern France). The group was founded in 1959 and later evolved from a group promoting traditional Basque culture to a paramilitary group engaged in a violent campaign of bombing, assassinations and kidnappings in the Southern Basque Country and throughout Spanish territory. Its goal was gaining independence for the Basque Country. ETA was the main group within the Basque National Liberation Movement and was the most important Basque participant in the Basque conflict. Will there emerge an extremist, violent, terrorist minority in Catalonia who will imitate the violent tactics and strategies of the ETA in Basque Country and the Real IRA (RIRA), also called the New IRA (NIRA) in Northern Ireland.
These protests and this movement doesn't stated in october 2019, but began with the Independence Referendum in 2017 which was suppressed by the Spanish Police on orders from Madrid, and have it's roots, heritage and history in the emerging 19th century Catalan Nationalism and the leftwing nationalist Catalan movement which fought on the Republican side of the Socialists, leftwing Spanish Republicans, Communists and Anarchists in Barcelona during the Spanish civil war which lasted from 17 Jul 1936 until 1 Apr 1939. The movement was silenced and oppressed and prohibited by the Franco regime which lasted from 1936 until 1975. All these years the flame of Catalan Independence, Catalan Republicanism, the strive for full Catalan sovereignty, Catalan Autonomism and Catalan Patriotism, the Catalan cultural identity, the Catalan Pride and Catalan Nationalism was kept alive by the Catalan people who spoke Catalan at home with their families, with their friends in Catalan pubs and restaurants and clubs, at cultural gatherings (theatre, musical concert places, inside churches, and in cultural centers), with their Catalan colleagues -when there were no Spanish outsiders -read import-, with their acquaintances, with their Catalan neighbours and with fellow Catalan citizens they met at the street, boulevards, in alley's, squares, in libraries, in Swimming Pools, in the fields of agricultural land, in the Catalan farms, at train stations, bus stops, and inside taxi's (cab drivers with their clients), in busses, trains and ofcourse in private cars and motor bikes when people traveled together. Police officers immobilize two people outside a Catalan Independence polling station in Barcelona in octoner 2, 2017.The Spanish central authorities from Madrid didn't manage to root out the Catalan culture, language, cuisine, customs, traditions, feelings and affiliations, nor did the Spanish managed to root out the leftwing seperatist nationalist spirit of the Catalans, and their leftist Anarchist, Autonomist and Marxist tendencies ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomism and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_Spain ).Catalonia's newest historyCatalan separatism reemerged in the 19th century in the support given to Carlism. The resurgence really began in the 1850s, however, when serious efforts were made to revive Catalan as a living language with its own press and theatre—a movement known as the Renaixença (“Rebirth”). Catalan nationalism became a serious force after 1876, when the defeat of the Carlists led the church to transfer its support to the movement for autonomy. Catalan nationalism had two major strands: a conservative, Roman Catholic one and a more liberal, secular one. The former was initially predominant, particularly in the first decades of the 20th century. By 1913 Catalonia had won a slight degree of autonomy, but the legislation conferring it was repealed in 1925 by Miguel Primo de Rivera, who attacked all manifestations of Catalan nationalism.
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquess of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930) was a dictator, aristocrat, and military officer who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during Spain's Restoration era. He deeply believed that it was the politicians who had ruined Spain and that governing without them he could restore the nation. His slogan was "Country, Religion, Monarchy." Historians depict him as an inept dictator who lacked clear ideas and political acumen, and who alienated his potential supporters such as the army. He did not create a base of support among the voters, and depended instead on elite elements. His actions discredited the king and ruined the monarchy, while heightening social tensions that led in 1936 to a full-scale Spanish Civil War.
Primo de Rivera’s policy led to the formation of a left-wing coalition party in Catalonia, the Esquerra Republicana. The Esquerra won a sweeping victory in the municipal elections of 1931, and two days later its leader proclaimed a Catalan Republic. A compromise was worked out with the central government, and in September 1932 the statute of autonomy for Catalonia became law. Catalonia played a prominent role in the history of Republican Spain and in the Civil War (1936–39). The Nationalists’ victory in 1939 meant the loss of autonomy, however, and Gen. Francisco Franco’s government adopted a repressive policy toward Catalan nationalism.
The present day Esquerra Republicana
The establishment of democratic rule in Spain after Franco’s death did not lessen Catalonia’s desire for autonomy, and in September 1977 limited autonomy was granted to the region. The pro-autonomy Convergence and Union party was founded the following year, and it served as the dominant political force in Catalonia over subsequent decades. Full autonomy was granted in 1979 with the establishment of the autonomous community of Catalonia. In 2006 Catalonia was granted “nation” status and given the same level of taxation responsibility as the Spanish central government. Spain’s Constitutional Court struck down portions of this autonomy statute in 2010, ruling that Catalans constituted a “nationality” but that Catalonia was not, itself, a “nation.”
Many Catalans, frustrated at the management of the Spanish economy throughout the euro-zone debt crisis, continued to push for increased fiscal independence from the central government. In 2013 the Catalonian regional parliament passed a measure calling for a referendum on independence from Spain to be held in 2014. Scotland’s referendum on independence from the United Kingdom in September 2014, although ultimately unsuccessful, galvanized the independence movement in Catalonia. Convergence and Union leader Artur Mas called for the long-promised, albeit nonbinding, independence referendum to be held on November 9, 2014. The move was immediately challenged by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, and the independence campaign was suspended while the Constitutional Court considered the legality of the vote. Ultimately, Mas proceeded with the referendum but framed it as an informal poll of Catalan opinion. With more than one-third of registered voters participating in the balloting, over 80 percent expressed a desire for independence. Convergence and Union leader Artur Mas speaking at a rally prior to snap parliamentary elections in Catalonia, November 23, 2012.With Madrid continuing to oppose his efforts, Mas called for snap regional parliamentary elections to be held in September 2015. Framing the contest as a de facto plebiscite on independence, Mas led the Junts pel Sí (“Together for Yes”) alliance that won 62 of the 135 seats in the Catalan parliament. The antiausterity Popular Unity Candidacy, which won 10 seats, entered into a coalition with Junts pel Sí to give pro-independence parties a narrow parliamentary majority. Those who favoured independence interpreted the result as a victory, while those who opposed it emphasized the fact that pro-independence parties received just 48 percent of the popular vote. On November 9, 2015, the Catalan parliament narrowly approved a measure to implement a “peaceful disconnection from the Spanish state.” Rajoy immediately reiterated the central government’s position that any such move would be illegal and opposed by Madrid. Pro-independence campaigners celebrating La Diada, Catalonia's national day, September 11, 2015.The Popular Unity Candidacy had opposed the retention of Mas as Catalan president, and the survival of the coalition hinged on an agreement between the pro-independence parties regarding a compromise candidate. On January 9, 2016, just hours before a deadline that would have triggered a fresh round of elections, the two groups settled on Carles Puigdemont, the mayor of Girona. Mas stepped aside, although he remained a member of the Catalan parliament, and Puigdemont vowed to continue the efforts to establish an independent Catalan state.
In March 2017 a Spanish court found Mas guilty of contempt for calling the 2014 referendum, and he was barred from holding public office for two years. Undeterred, a defiant Puigdemont announced in June 2017 that Catalonia would hold a binding referendum on independence on October 1, 2017. As the date of the referendum approached, tensions mounted between Barcelona and Madrid, and Spanish authorities took increasingly dramatic steps to avert the vote. In late September, Spanish police seized nearly 10 million ballot forms from a warehouse outside Barcelona, and more than a dozen pro-independence Catalan officials were arrested. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest, and the Spanish interior ministry responded by moving to assert central control over the regional Catalan police force. On the eve of the vote, opinion polls found that Catalans were roughly evenly split on the issue of independence, but an overwhelming majority favoured putting the issue to a fair and legal vote.
The day of the vote was marred by widespread violence as riot police fired rubber bullets into crowds and used fists and batons to physically prevent people from entering polling places. More than 900 prospective voters and dozens of police were injured, and members of the Spanish national police and the Civil Guard seized ballot boxes from polling stations. Catalan officials stated that turnout was around 42 percent, with 90 percent of voters voicing their support for independence; the chaotic nature of the vote and the confiscation of ballots by Spanish authorities meant that such figures had to be regarded as approximations at best. Puigdemont addressed both the violence and the result by saying, “On this day of hope and suffering, Catalonia’s citizens have earned the right to have an independent state in the form of a republic.” Rajoy countered by stating that the referendum was a “mockery” of democracy, and Spanish officials blamed police violence on the “irresponsibility of the Catalan government.” International human rights organizations condemned the violence against voters, but the response from EU leaders was largely muted, with most characterizing it as an internal matter for the Spanish government. On October 3 a general strike was called to protest Madrid’s heavy-handed response to the referendum, and an estimated 700,000 people took to the streets of Barcelona. King Felipe VI held a televised public address to urge unity, and he accused Catalonia’s leaders of recklessness that jeopardized the economic and social stability of all of Spain. Indeed, in light of the unrest in Catalonia, analysts scaled back growth projections for the Spanish economy, and observers characterized the situation as Spain’s gravest domestic crisis since a coup attempt in 1981 that had threatened to derail the country’s young democracy. Perhaps emboldened by the events in Catalonia, on October 22 voters in the northern Italian regions of Veneto and Lombardy overwhelmingly backed referenda that called for greater local autonomy. As Puigdemont hinted that he would make a formal declaration of independence, Rajoy threatened to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy and impose direct rule on the region. On October 27 the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence from Spain. Stating that he had been left with “no alternative,” Rajoy responded by asking members of the Spanish Senate to approve the invocation of Article 155 of the Spanish constitution, empowering the central government to take control of Catalonia’s police, finances, and publicly owned media. The Senate voted 214 to 47 to grant Rajoy the extraordinary powers over Catalonia, where lawmakers who had voted for independence faced the possibility of criminal charges of sedition.
 Rajoy promptly dismissed the Catalan parliament and called for fresh elections to be held in December 2017. After the Spanish government announced that it would be pursuing criminal charges against the sacked Catalonian leaders, Puigdemont and some of his closest advisors disappeared, resurfacing a short time later in Brussels. Puigdemont stated that he had no intention of seeking asylum in Belgium, but he did refuse to return to Spain. Spanish authorities then issued an international warrant for Puigdemont’s arrest. The question of his extradition thrust Belgium—a country attempting to address an independence movement in its own Flemish region—into the conflict between Madrid and Barcelona. The Spanish Supreme Court defused this tension in early December 2017 when it withdrew the international warrants; Puigdemont and his associates still faced the possibility of arrest if they returned to Spain, however. Puigdemont fled to Brussels to escape an arrest by the Spanish authoritiesCatalonia’s December 21, 2017, snap election was viewed by many as a de facto rerun of the independence referendum, and turnout was impressive at about 83 percent. The Citizens Party, which favoured continued union with Spain, received more than a quarter of the votes and was the winner. A collection of separatist parties, led by Puigdemont’s Junts per Catalunya (“ Together for Catalonia”), captured 70 of the Catalonian parliament’s 135 seats, however, giving the pro-independence movement an overall majority. Rajoy’s Popular Party posted its worst result ever in the region, winning just 3 seats. Puigdemont stated that the result highlighted Catalonia’s continued commitment to independence, and he called for talks to be held—in Belgium, where he remained in self-imposed exile, or in some other EU country—between Catalonian leaders and the Spanish government.[/font] Vicente RodriguezThe Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaAnarchism and radicalism in Catalonia The Anarchist estelada (an unofficial flag typically flown by Catalan independence supporters), with an eight-pointed star, each representing the 8 regions of the Catalan CountriesThe Urban anarcho-syndicalism has a strong tradition, heritage and thus roots in Catalonia. Anarchism gained a large following in Barcelona, already a bastion of proletarian rebellion, Luddism ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite ), and trade unionism. The already militant working class was, as in Madrid, introduced to the philosophy of anarchism in the late 1860s. In 1869, a section of the International was formed in Barcelona.
These centers of revolutionary activity continued to spread ideas, through speeches, discussions, meetings, and their newspaper, La Solidaridad (English translation: Solidarity). Anarchism had soon taken root throughout Spain, in villages and in cities, and in scores of autonomous organizations. Many of the rural pueblos were already anarchic in structure prior to the spread of "anarchist" ideas.
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The Black flag and symbol of Anarchism
An important event in these years was the Congress of 1870 in Barcelona, where delegates from 150 workers' associations met, along with thousands of common workers observing ("occupying every seat, filling the hallways, and spilling out beyond the entrance", according to Murray Bookchin). The Spanish section of the International was here renamed the "Spanish Regional Federation" (also known as simply the Spanish Federation), and outlines for future organization were discussed. The Congress had a clear anarchist flavor despite the presence of non-anarchist members of the International from other European nations. It was looked upon with disdain by the mainstream press and the existing political parties, for the Congress openly attacked the political process as an illegitimate means of change and foreshadowed the future power of syndicalist trade unions such as the CNT.
An Anarchist with an Anarchist flag. Anarchist flags are often a combination of Black and Red. Today far right Neo-Nazi groups have copied some of the extreme left Anarchist symbolism.
Socialists and liberals within the Spanish Federation sought to reorganize Spain in 1871 into five trade sections with various committees and councils. Many anarchists within the group felt that this was contrary to their belief in decentralization. A year of conflict ensued, in which the anarchists fought the "Authoritarians" within the Federation and eventually expelled them in 1872. In the same year, Mikhail Bakunin was expelled from the International by the Marxists, who were the majority. Anarchists, seeing the hostility from previous allies on the Left, reshaped the nature of their movement in Spain. The Spanish Federation became decentralized, now dependent on action from rank-and-file workers rather than bureaucratic councils; that is, a group structured according to anarchist principles.
Anarchists of the CNT, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (English: National Confederation of Labour; CNT), a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labour unions, demonstrate in Barcelona.
Following a strike in Barcelona on July 26 1909 a social revolution broke out in Barcelona. It was started by the Catalan people. No one led it. Neither the Liberals nor Catalan Nationalists, nor Republicans, nor Socialists, nor Anarchists." Police stations were attacked. Railroad lines leading into Barcelona were destroyed. Barricades sprang up in the streets. Eighty churches and monasteries were destroyed by members of the Radical Party (who, it should be noted, were generally much less "radical" than anarchists or socialists), and six individuals were killed during the disturbances.
A general strike broke out in 1917, mostly organized by socialists but with notable anarchist activity, particularly in Barcelona. There barricades were built, and strikers tried to stop trolleys from running. The government responded by filling the streets with machine guns. Fighting left seventy people dead. In spite of the violence, the strike's demands were moderate, typical of a socialist strike of the time.
Catalonia’s economic strength led to the reemergence of calls for self-rule, culminating in a period of semiautonomy from 1913 to 1923. In 1931 a Catalan republic was declared in Barcelona. The following year the region attained a significant level of self-government, and it was the main centre of Republican strength when the Civil War broke out in 1936. Its fall in January 1939 led to the final surrender of the Republic.The Spanish Civil War Anarchists march on the streets of Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.The Spanish Civil War, (1936–39), military revolt against the Republican government of Spain, supported by conservative elements within the country. When an initial military coup failed to win control of the entire country, a bloody civil war ensued, fought with great ferocity on both sides. The Nationalists, as the rebels were called, received aid from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. The Republicans received aid from the Soviet Union, as well as from International Brigades, composed of volunteers from Europe and the United States.
Armed fighters of an Anarchist militia in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War.
Defeat brought the loss of many regional rights and privileges, and even the Catalan language was prohibited for a time. Only in 1977 was the Generalitat, an autonomous Catalan government, restored. Agreements with the Spanish national government, signed in 1979, outlined new areas for self-government and encouraged a wide range of developments in Barcelona.
Today the radical, extremist and violent Anarchist movement in Barcelona is fanatic and quite international. It copies the extreme action and agitprop methods of the Hong Kong demonstrators, the extremely violent Greek Anarchists from Athens notorious Anarchist neighbourhood Exarcheia. Exarcheia is renowned for being Athens' historical core of radical political and intellectual activism. Exarcheia is a place where many intellectuals and artists live and an area where many socialist, anarchist, and anti-fascist groups are accommodated. Next to the Greek Anarchists who are in Barcelona, the Barcelona Catalan Anarchists have roots in the older Spanish and Catalan anarchist of the Civil war and in the Autonomist Anarchist radical left squater movements of North-Western Europe, the hard core and violent anti-fascist Anarchist and Ultra-Left anti-authoritarian Dutch and German Autonomists and Italian anarchists from Rome, Milan and Genoa.These Greek anarchist are active in Barcelona too
An example from Genoa during the 27th G8 summit which was held in Genoa, Italy, on July 21–22, 2001:
An international network of hardline, anarchist groups, including activists from Germany and the UK, spent months planning attacks on property and violent clashes with police in Genoa.
Calling themselves the Black Block, they regard the police as "guard dogs for the rich", and banks as legitimate targets for anti-capitalist actions. They wear black, along with masks to preserve their anonymity.
They communicate through internet chat groups and websites. In Genoa, members persuaded local anarchists to guide them through the maze of medieval lanes, giving them an edge over police commanders not native to the city.
Another tactic was not to put on black clothing, such as hoods or scarves, until the just before their attack.
The term "black block" was already in use when gangs ran amok during the anti-globalisation protests outside the World Trade Organisation meeting in Seattle in 1999. Since then it has been applied to the highly organised groups who plan "actions" separately from mainstream protesters and have no contact with them.
Most of the black block in Genoa came from Germany, Italy, France and the Basque region in Spain. Today some of the violent Anarchists in Barcelona and other Catalan cities might be Anarchists or radical leftist Basque separatists from the Basque region in Spain as well.
For me the situation in Catalonia is interesting, because many countries in Europe are nations which are build up from regions and in a lot of these European regions you have regionalism and thus Regional nationalism. In monarchies these movements are often Republican, like the Catalan Nationalists and Basque nationalists in Spain and the Irish Roman Catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland.
Cheers,
PieterSource: This text is a mix of Pieters statements (subjective opinions) and quotes from Wikipedia, Britannica and the Guardian. Please don't consider this to be my own text, but a creative mix for the sake of information, opinion and European news gathering and sharing.
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