The fight between the majority of Catalans and the Spanish State is escalating by the hour. Support for holding an Independence Referendum on 1st Oct is growing in reaction to a flood of repression.
The far-right PP government, direct successor to the fascist Franco regime has ordered thousands of militarized Guardia Civil into Catalonia where they are trying to try prevent the Referendum.
Some Key Events
- On 11th Sept over one million people demonstrated in favour of the Referendum, in perfect order and for the sixth year running.
- After a 48 hr ultimatum was ignored the State is seizing the bank accounts of the local Catalan Government, threatening all public employees,health, pensions, etc. http://www.elpuntavui.cat/barcelona.html
- Thousands of military police have arrived and seized millions of posters and leaflets in favour of the referendum. they also destroyed ballot papers at a printing works after a whole day of mass resistance. A cruise ship in the port is being used to house them. http://www.elpuntavui.cat/po…..The local police union, the Mossos, stated their priority is public order and not seizing ballot boxes.
- An investigation has shown there aren’t nearly enough riot police in the whole of Spain to shut down the Referendum at thousands of polling stations, though they may block routes, cut electricity, etc. It’s calculated that 50,000 troops will be necessary. suplement #DesobedientsDirecta,
- Autonomous ‘Defence Committees’ are springing up among youth all over Catalonia, which has a strong tradition of anarchist anti fascist guerilla resistance.
- Barcelona Football Club has come out against the latest raids and arrests of elected Catalan officials
- Dozens of laws made by the Catalan Parliament have been cancelled by The Supreme Constitutional Court controlled by the PP far right. Including repealing the law allowing the Referendum, the law that prohibited Fracking and even that banning bullfighting. etc.
You can be arrested for putting up posters in favour of having the Referendum. So thousands of people are holding a ‘human poster’ campaign, legal until now.
- Yesterday dozens of Mayors demonstrated after being threatened with prison for speaking in favour of the Referendum. The Mayor of Barcelona and her party ‘In Common’ have finally come out in support.http://kaosenlared.net/ada-colau-……
- The Madrid government have repeatedly threatened to close down Catalan TV stations and newspapers who report on the illegal Referendum or carry public information on voting. Twitter,and Facebook, etc, would also have to be closed down.
- The State controlled ‘Constitutional’ Court has fined 440,000 euros against Assamblea and Omnium, the two main civil organizers who have hundreds of local autonomous sections and hundreds of thousands of followers. http://assamblea.cat/
ETC … ETC …
Nothing has been forgotten.
The PP government coalition includes the deep state, Opus Dei and the sons and grandsons of those who destroyed the 2nd Republic. Those who seized the country, murdered hundreds of thousands and subjected Spain and Catalonia to 40 years of fascist/Catholic dictatorship, even prohibiting the Catalan and Basque languages. . 
There have never been reparations, and most mass graves remain uninvestigated. The same police, judiciary and ruling class are in power, having annulled the main part of the Catalan Rights Agreement (El Estatut, 2010) and continue milking us as their Cash-Cow.
The attempt to hold an Independence Referendum will be a turning point, either local rights and culture will be respected or Catalonia will eventually be another state.
“Like a mad bull in a china shop” the far-right and famously corrupt minority government continues its criminal campaign of clinging to power by whipping up obscene racist anti-Catalan hysteria.
These are the politics of Hitler which ended in genocide, or of the last Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic which finally provoked civil war and the breakup of his country.
Ironically it was possible that the Catalan nationalists could have lost the Referendum anyway, many of the country’s people are ‘immigrant’ families from Spain, (though their children are Catalan), and even some ethnic Catalans are anti nationalist or fed up with nationalist politics, while supporting the language and culture.. But recent polls show increasing support for independence.
Every detail and step towards the Referendum is immediately declared illegal by Madrid’s puppet courts, from declaring a date to buying the ballot boxes, and decisions need to be ‘signed by everyone’ so that they have to either prosecute and jail everyone or no one.
It seems like the authoritarian Central State hold all the cards. But this is not entirely so. Catalonia could commit financial suicide and bring Spain down with it. “It is desperately dependent on Spain for funding, and Spain is desperately dependent on revenues from Catalonia to service .. .. its own mega debts. Neither can keep these financial entanglements going without the other”.
“Without Catalonia’s (disputed) tax revenues, Spain would be bankrupt. As Columbia University Professor of Economics (and fervent Catalan separatist) Xavier Sala i Marti recently pointed in an interview on Catalan television, Spain would be unable to continue servicing its debt, which currently represents 100% of GDP”.
“The whole European system is surviving by ever bigger loans and ever more aggressive bond buying by the ECB, for example ‘Spain has issued €34.2 billion of bonds during the first six months of 2017, compared to the €30.7 billion it issued during the whole year 2016′.
Meanwhile, the situation with Catalonia’s separate home-grown debt gets more and more precarious. In recent days the value of debt issued by Catalonia has slumped to new lows”.
A default by Catalonia could upset the whole ‘rotten apple cart’ that the ‘European revival’ depends on.
“Catalonia issued most of this local debt, now €13 billion, before the debt crisis began biting really hard in Spain, in 2011-12. Catalonia’s finances went from terrible to disastrous.
Since the ECB doesn’t buy municipal or provincial bonds, it is essentially locked out of the credit markets.
Now Madrid is also threatening to turn off the liquidity tap, destroying public services in Catalonia. But will it actually follow through? The Rajoy government already set a similar ultimatum last year and failed to make good on it.
It’s easy to see why: if the Finance Ministry decides to suspend payments to the region, it could trigger a liquidity crisis in a regional economy that accounts for 20% of Spain’s national economy, represents almost 25% of Spain’s vital tourist sector and is growing faster than any other region. It would also put further strain on Spain’s already out-of-control financing of its regions.
Even many moderate Catalan nationalists now believe that the only way to win meaningful concessions from Madrid is to push it to the edge of the abyss. The more radical elements want to go a step further, if necessary, pushing it over the edge”. (from Wolf Street with thanks.)
Why not have Catalonia independent in the EU?
All modern Nation States have quickly become repressive extortionist mafias claiming a 100% control of violence over their subjects.
Yet within that context smaller states are clearly less dangerous and more likely to conserve local identity and language. Why not have 50 States in the EU instead of 28? Both Catalonia and Euskadi, for example, would perhaps be anti fascist, anti-fracking, anti nuclear and even anti NATO.
RELATED POSTS ON THE FREE
ECONOMIC TERRORISM AGAINST CATALONIA: THE BLACK HAND OF THE SPANISH STATE?
Catalonia and Spain set for Head-On Collision over Right to a Referendum
from La República Catalana .. Josep C. Vergés, Editor Verges Report 17.9.17 Poll 16th September: Yes 67%, turnout 64%/
SURVEY /POLL 16/9: YES 67%, INTEND TO VOTE 64%
Approval: Rajoy 7%, Catalan Pres. Puigdemont 44%, Speaker Forcadell 44%/http://www.ara.cat/polit….. and http://www.ara.cat/politic…..
‘You can‘t stop a flood with the law or the police, there‘s no crime in democracy of taking part in a referendum’/ ’/http://elmon.cat/noticia/23……
78% of towns in Catalonia have already confirmed polling stations/http://www.elmundo.es/gra…..
USA on Catalonia: ‘We will let the government and the people there work it out and work with whatever government comes out of it’/ http://www.catalannews.co…..
The Free 
Reblogged this on Secours Rouge Canada and commented:
La Confédération générale des travailleurs (CGT) de Catalogne a présenté un avis d’appel à grève générale. La manifestation doit être ratifiée par les assemblées des syndicats, ont déclaré des sources du secrétariat de l’organisation.
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Reblogged this on The Most Revolutionary Act and commented:
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The far-right PP government, direct successor to the fascist Franco regime has ordered thousands of militarized Guardia Civil into Catalonia where they are trying to try prevent the Referendum.
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