note: Facebook has banned me from sharing this post for 2 days
The CDR open the toll barriers of La Roca on Sunday afternoon
Àngel Garcia
The Republic Defense Committees (CDRs) have called for the first massive Civil Disobedience Action Today. Instead of blocking the froads they have called for a popular refusal to pay abusive motorway tolls on the return from the Easter Holiday.
The CDRs are a network of autonomous, horizontally organized, local defense groups which sprang up in response to the massive violent crackdown by the Spanish State on the Catalan Referendum which voted for a Republic.
Abusive motorway tolls are a sore point for Catalans because they hardly exist in Spain where the infrastructure gets more State finance
by Gemma Garcia at La Directa ..The CDRs calls for not paying tolls and raise the barriers in the Return Home operation .The Defense Committees of the Republic recovered the slogan of the 2012 campaign “I do not want to pay.”
Already on Sunday afternoon, they opened the toll barriers of La Roca and other points of the AP-7 north/south motorway and put bags over the cameras to avoid fines.
The return operation of Easter Week begins, but this year will be different. The Defense Committees of the Republic (CDR) call for not paying the tolls on the freeways of Catalonia, in what they call the first direct action of mass civil disobedience.
As previous, last Thursday, the CDR del Camp opened some barriers to the AP-2, at the Montblanc toll, but today, they send a message calling for massive insubmission: … and recovery of the action that characterized the movement ‘I do not want to pay’ in 2012, when thousands of people refused to pay tolls.
Then, it was a driver who stopped at a toll on the AP-7 and expressed that he did not want to pay. He recorded it with the mobile and then uploaded it to YouTube, with the message “If I just do it, nothing will happen, if we all do it, they will not know what to do,” and it went viral. 
The massive insubmission at that time wanted to stop payment on roads they considered already amortized.
Yesterday Sunday after four o’clock in the afternoon, the CDRs opened the first barriers to the La Roca AP-7 toll and vehicles continued to run without paying tolls.( or waiting in queues)
They covered the cameras with trash bags to prevent fines being imposed. The same action has been reproduced on different points of the freeway: minutes later at the toll at Cardedeu, to the south, at Hospitalet de l’Infant and also at the Vendrell-Coma-Ruga toll , in the link with the C-32.
After more than an hour, the workers restored the barriers to La Roca and the CDR disbanded. Even so, the action continued to replicate. On the C-16 highway in Terrassa-Manresa, they have also opened the barriers. Towards seven o’clock in the afternoon, all the actions were discontinued.
Abertis with Florentino Pérez
The Abertis company is the concessionaire of the motorways of Catalonia – AP-7, AP-2 and C-32- or motorways such as the C-17. In 2017, a net profit of 897 million euros was obtained, 13% more than in the previous year, and at the same time, tolls increased 2% this year.
Like other firms in the Ibex 35, in October, after the Catalan referendum, the company headed by Salvador Alemany agreed in an extraordinary meeting the transfer of headquarters from Barcelona to Madrid. As they said from the board of directors, “in the face of legal insecurity for the current situation in Catalonia”. (However the Catalan economy has grown instead of collapsing),
Police report on the CDRs points to 22 people based on tweets and journalistic articles
Note: in another development the fascist Guardia Civil paramilitary police have issued their first report on the CDRs, identifying 22 people as ‘ringleaders’ on the basis of photographs,
Having finally provoked a little violent resistance they are preparing a massive crackdown using the arsenal of anti terrorist laws built up over decades repressing Basque nationalists.
With dozens of politicians facing long jail terms for organizing a referendum demanded by the public the net is now being extended and hundreds of people may soon be branded as terrorists and jailed for decades. (post awaits translation).
original in Catalan
banner….’Welcome to the Catalan Republic’
Els CDR fan una crida a no pagar els peatges i aixequen les barreres en l’operació tornada
Comença l’operació tornada de Setmana Santa, però enguany serà diferent. Els Comitès de Defensa de la República (CDR) fan una crida a no pagar els peatges de les autopistes de Catalunya, en la que anomenen la primera acció directa de desobediència civil massiva.
Com a prèvia, el dijous passat, els CDR del Camp van obrir algunes barreres a l’AP-2, al peatge de Montblanc, però avui, llancen un missatge que apel·la a una insubmissió massiva: “no tindran a qui manar si nosaltres no obeïm”, i recuperen l’acció que va caracteritzar el moviment No vull pagar de 2012, quan milers de persones es van negar a pagar els peatges.
Aleshores, va ser un conductor el que es va aturar en un peatge de l’AP-7 i va expressar que no volia pagar. Ho va gravar amb el mòbil i després ho va penjar al Youtube, amb el missatge “Si només ho faig jo no passarà res, si ho fem tots, no sabran què fer”, i es va fer viral. La insubmissió massiva aleshores volia denunciar el pagament de vies que consideraven ja amortitzades.
Passades les quatre de la tarda, els CDR han obert les primeres barreres al peatge de La Roca de l’AP-7 i els vehicles han continuat circulant sense pagar els peatges. Han tapat les càmeres amb bosses d’escombraries per evitar que es puguin posar multes.
La mateixa acció s’ha reproduït a diferents punts de l’autopista: uns minuts més tard al peatge de Cardedeu, al sud, a l’alçada de l’Hospitalet de l’Infant després i també al peatge del Vendrell-Coma-ruga, a l’enllaç amb la C-32.
Després de més d’una hora, els operaris han restablert les barreres a La Roca i els CDR han desconvocat. Tot i així, l’acció s’ha continuat replicant. A l’autopista C-16 de Terrassa-Manresa, també han aixecat barreres. Cap a les set de la tarda, ja s’havien desconvocat totes les accions.
Abertis amb Florentino Pérez
L’empresa Abertis és la concessionària de les autopistes de Catalunya – AP-7, AP-2 i C-32- o d’autovies com la C-17. El 2017, va endur-se un benefici net de 897 milions d’euros, un 13% més respecte l’exercici anterior, i alhora, enguany, els peatges han pujat un 2%.
Com altres firmes de l’Ibex 35, el mes d’octubre, després del referèndum, l’empresa presidida per Salvador Alemany va acordar en una reunió extraordinària el trasllat de seu social de Barcelona a Madrid. Segons van expressar des del consell d’administració, “davant la inseguretat jurídica per l’actual situació a Catalunya”.
Precisament, a més del trasllat, la concessionària ara canvia de mans. Aquest mes de març, ACS de Florentino Pérez i la italiana Atlantia van tancar un acord per repartir-se el control d’Abertis, fins ara concentrada en mans de La Caixa.
The Free 