A NEW STEP FOR INDEPENDENCE

Last March 11 and 12, the Na­tional Con­fer­ence of the Pro-in­de­pen­dence Civil Move­ment was held, or­gan­ised by the Cata­lan Na­tional As­sem­bly. More than 50 civil so­ci­ety or­gan­i­sa­tions met to reach a major Na­tional Pact on the road to in­de­pen­dence. This con­fer­ence took place after the demon­stra­tion of more than half a mil­lion peo­ple for the in­de­pen­dence of Cat­alo­nia in Barcelona on the Na­tional Day of Sep­tem­ber 11.

In this con­fer­ence, the eco­nomic as­pects of the tran­si­tion to­wards in­de­pen­dence were dis­cussed, among other top­ics. In fact, in­de­pen­dence is the only way to elim­i­nate the colo­nial eco­nomic plun­der of Cat­alo­nia by Spain of 8% of the Cata­lan gross do­mes­tic prod­uct on av­er­age per year. In this way, it not only harms the well-being of the Cata­lan peo­ple, but the eco­nomic growth of Spain and the Eu­ro­pean Union.

On the other hand, the in­de­pen­dence move­ment aims to re­solve the cen­turies-long na­tional con­flict be­tween Spain and Cat­alo­nia by de­mo­c­ra­tic meth­ods. Thus, on Oc­to­ber 1, 2017, a self-de­ter­mi­na­tion ref­er­en­dum was held, with 90% of the votes in favour of in­de­pen­dence.

Con­se­quently, on Oc­to­ber 27, 2017, the Par­lia­ment of Cat­alo­nia pro­claimed the Cata­lan Re­pub­lic in ac­cor­dance with in­ter­na­tional law.

How­ever, Spain, which is pro­foundly un­de­mo­c­ra­tic, did not act in ac­cor­dance with ar­ti­cles 10.2 and 96 of the Span­ish Con­sti­tu­tion, which oblige it to re­spect rat­i­fied in­ter­na­tional agree­ments on human rights and the right to self-de­ter­mi­na­tion. Thus, Spain not only did not recog­nise the Cata­lan Re­pub­lic, but it con­tin­ued the dirty war against the in­de­pen­dence move­ment, with thou­sands of peo­ple af­fected and some of its lead­ers forced into exile. In ad­di­tion, last year the Cata­lan­gate af­fair was un­cov­ered, a se­ri­ous case of mass es­pi­onage in which Pe­ga­sus soft­ware was used against the pro-in­de­pen­dence move­ment. The Coun­cil of Eu­rope’s Plat­form to pro­mote the pro­tec­tion of jour­nal­ism and safety of jour­nal­ists in its re­cent an­nual re­port cites the case of four Cata­lan jour­nal­ists spied on by the Span­ish au­thor­i­ties.

Mean­while, the law­fare against the Cata­lan in­de­pen­dence move­ment does not stop. To the case of the ju­di­cial im­peach­ment of pres­i­dent Torra for hang­ing a ban­ner in favour of the free­dom of Cata­lan po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers, can be added the re­cent sus­pen­sion of the pres­i­dent of the Cata­lan par­lia­ment, Laura Borràs. The vi­o­la­tion of the sep­a­ra­tion of pow­ers has reached the point that the Span­ish Con­sti­tu­tional Court banned some de­lib­er­a­tions of the Cata­lan par­lia­ment and lately even a vote in the Span­ish par­lia­ment. But while the Eu­ro­pean Com­mis­sion has pro­posed sanc­tion­ing Poland and Hun­gary for anti-de­mo­c­ra­tic be­hav­iour, in Spain’s case it has so far looked the other way. The United States and the Eu­ro­pean Union have raised the flag of democ­racy against au­thor­i­tar­ian states such as Rus­sia and China. How­ever, their po­si­tion in the na­tional con­flict be­tween Cat­alo­nia and Spain takes away their cred­i­bil­ity. It is not by chance that Putin is in favour of Spain in this con­flict, while mem­bers of the Russ­ian de­mo­c­ra­tic op­po­si­tion, against the in­va­sion of Ukraine, are in favour of the in­de­pen­dence of Cat­alo­nia.

In the 1930s, the non-in­ter­ven­tion of the de­mo­c­ra­tic pow­ers in the Span­ish Civil War, when Hitler gave sup­port to the fas­cist side in Spain, led to the Sec­ond World War. Now, it seems that west­ern coun­tries have un­der­stood that it is nec­es­sary to stop Putin. How­ever, it must be done not only with weapons. And in this sense, now that there is a risk of a Third World War, the res­o­lu­tion by de­mo­c­ra­tic means of the na­tional con­flict be­tween Cat­alo­nia and Spain, which in­volves the recog­ni­tion of the al­ready pro­claimed Cata­lan Re­pub­lic, is a nec­es­sary con­di­tion.