Tag: CDR

Catalan CDRs raise Barriers and Call for not paying Motorway Tolls

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. Continue reading “Catalan CDRs raise Barriers and Call for not paying Motorway Tolls”

Fascists burn Ateneu Popular Workers Centre in Barcelona

While the Spanish government and the press in Madrid have not stopped talking about violence by citizens and pro-independence groups, this morning they burned the Ateneu de Sarrià and painted it with Nazi and fascist symbols.Un incendio calcina el Ateneu Popular de Sarrià y aparecen esvásticasomberos y guardia180329132450

A fascist attack destroys the Ateneu Popular de Sarrià

The site had already suffered attacks in advance, which have intensified since the referendum was held. On the walls of the patio have appeared swasticas,”Death to the CDR” (Citizens Defense)

Again, today at about three in the morning, the Ateneu Popular de Sarrià has suffered a fire, which has left the site destroyed. Awaiting the firemen’s report, they have already advanced that the building will probably have to be demolished due to its bad condition.

The centre was still being rebuilt after another fascist attack last November. The fascists are well known but enjoy impunity, encouragement and even financial aid  via the Spanish State for hundreds of attacks in a bid to stifle public support for imprisoned Catalan activists and politicians. Continue reading “Fascists burn Ateneu Popular Workers Centre in Barcelona”

Defense Committees in the Catalan Uprising: anarchist style People Power can Win

  
Activists around Europe are buzzing with the  arrival of a new revolutionary force. The Catalan CDRs.. the Republic Defence Committees, characterized by direct, decentralized assembly action. Anarchist organisations except for their aim for a new StateIn just a few weeks over 172 CDRs have sprung up. This is in response to the neo fascist paramilitary repression, jailings and abolition of limited local government. CDRs,, for example in Manresa have called demonstrations up to 5,000 strong a few days after being formed.

The Defence Committees can be traced back to those created by the CNT in the Spanish Revolution to defend the 2nd Republic from  a fascist takeover, which morphed into the revolutionary militias. This time round the CDRs have largely been inspired by the small but influential CUP, a remarkable ‘anarcho-republican’ anti capitalist party.

And then there was the 2nd General Strike on Wed 8th Nov. It was billed as a big flop, called by the tiny CSC, opposed or ignored by all the Trade Unions and faced with massive paramilitary police repression and a pending banning order. Just days before the  Madrid based regime had sponsored  fleets of coaches and even trains to bring in thousands of violent right wing ‘demonstrators’, for a huge demo openly led by thugs sporting swastikas, zieg heils and Francoist symbols.

Is this 1936?? People are pouring out of the barrios and blocking the roads

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Nevertheless before 6.00am  on 8th Nov.  thousands of people were blocking the main North -South A7 Motorway from France and Spain in the freezing winter night. Northbound the motorway was closed for over 13 hours at the  La Jonquera French border. Southbound it was still closed at 9.00 pm at Ampolla. Continue reading “Defense Committees in the Catalan Uprising: anarchist style People Power can Win”

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