ANC wants new period of “direct action”

Elisenda Paluzie, the head of the Assemblea Nacional Catalana (ANC), yesterday announced a change of direction for the pro-independence organisation. After 21 of its members shut themselves inside the European Commission’s HQ in Barcelona on Friday evening, Paluzie said “we are at a different stage, one that is very complicated, in which we have to live with political repression, but which should not make us lose sight of our political goals, but which has to make us change the way we mobilise. Always following the principle of non-violence and peaceful resistance, we have to move towards classic mobilisations, to more direct action.” As an example, Paluzie pointed to the occupation of the EU building, which lasted until yesterday morning. The ANC sees the European Union as an accomplice of “the authoritarian and oppressive state” and calls its lack of action over the Catalan conflict “shameful”.