A quick look at the historical antecedents of the Catalan referendum

Turning and turning in the widening gyre 

The falcon cannot hear the falconer; 

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; 

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, 

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere 

The ceremony of innocence is drowned; 

The best lack all conviction, while the worst 

Are full of passionate intensity.

---W.B. Yeats

Concerning the Catalan referendum

I will be the first to admit that I have never been to Spain and know very little of its history or culture, so to understand it Ihave to rely on backgrounders such as the following.

Already, on waking this morning I encountered articles linking the referendum with a colour revolution in which, yet again George Soros is the Hidden Hand behind everything.

Immediately this feels deeply unsatisfactory. It’s as if Spain is a perfectly stable society that has been singled out for destabilisation by the evil Mr. Soris who seems to have his finger in every pie.

I have no difficulty in believing that Mr. Soros has played a particularly odious role in all the colour revolutions in the former Eastern Bloc and is wanting to impose his ideas of open borders and New World Order on the world.

For me it beggers the iamgination that he is so all-powerful that he stands behind every event in the world like some evildoer from a James Bond movie.

The first thing that I can say for sure, that I agree with is the glaring double standards of the western Establishment. We know that if we were talking about the Middle East, Ukraine or Russia there would be no pussy-footing around and there would have been black vs white expalantions available instantly.

With this and every crisis around the world,in addition to the immediate geopolitics of the situation there are complex factors that lie in the history and culture of the country.

To understand the situation as it is today we need to understand some of Spain’s history.

I knew that there was something special about Catalonia relating to the Spanish civil war and then remembered that George Orwell had written a book called Farewell to Catalonia.

Homage to Catalonia

Turns out that Catalonia played a key role in the revolution in Soain during the Civil War and was the centre of the anarcho-syndicalist experiment in Spain which was defeated, first by the Stalinist central government in Madrid and then, miliarily by Franco’s nationalists.

I found this excellent 1983 documentary which explains this part of Catalonian history.

The entire series can be seen HERE

Catalonia was never a happy part of Spain and in fact was forcefully integrated into Spain and Catalonian nationalism was suppressed under Franco as demostrated by this letter.

“Catalonia did not voluntarily join Spain, it was brutally conquered” (from Mr. Geoff Cowling to The Finantial Times)

de Monsieur de Voltaire

Letter published on 2014, 26th February:

“Sir,

The article by Cayetana Alvarez de Toledo, “Europe cannot afford to give into the separatists” (February 19), deserves comment.

It is wrong to describe the Scottish independence referendum as “a grave challenge from regional separatists”. Scotland is not a region. It is a nation in its own right within the United Kingdom. The Scottish and English parliaments were joined in an “Act of Union” in 1707. It is the democratic right of the people of the Scottish nation to vote for the repeal of that act if they so wish. Catalonia too is a “nation” as defined by the estatut , an act passed by the Spanish parliament in 2006. To describe both nations as “tribes” betrays a colonialist mind.

The UN is quite clear on the rights of nations. “All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.” For the European Union to “confront separatism”, to “unmask the hypocrisy of nationalism” and “play the legal card of the EU treaties” against Scotland and Catalonia, would be to tread on very controversial ground.

The article accuses the Catalan government of distorting historical facts in this 300th anniversary year of the fall of Catalonia at the end of the war of the Spanish succession. It is worth recalling that Catalonia was effectively an independent nation until 1714. During that war, Catalonia was allied with England under the treaty of Genoa of 1705 and fought for the Habsburg cause against the Bourbon Spain. When the British government withdrew its support for the Habsburgs and signed the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, Catalonia fought on alone.

It took a one-year siege by a combined French and Spanish Bourbon army to break Barcelona’s defences which fell on September 11 1714. Thousands of defending Catalans were killed in the siege and in the retribution which followed. Catalonia’s ancient parliament, its identity, language and culture were crushed. Large parts of Barcelona were razed to the ground.

Catalonia did not voluntarily join Spain, it was brutally conquered.

Catalonia was treated little differently during the Spanish civil war when Barcelona was bombed by Franco’s rebel air force, killing 1,300. Catalonia’s elected President Lluís Companys was forced to flee into France. He was extradited by Franco and shot in 1940 at Montjuic Castle overlooking Barcelona. Lluís Companys remains the only incumbent president in Europe ever to have been executed. No apology or posthumous pardon has been given.

Catalonia remembers these historical facts – they are not “imaginary historical grievances”. On its National Day (La Diada) on September 11 2012, one and a half million Catalans filled Barcelona’s streets waving the Catalan Senyera flag and calling for independence. On La Diada last year they formed a 250-mile independence human chain from the French border to Valencia. The independence movement is deeply rooted in Catalan society, fuelled by every rebuff from Madrid.

Like Scotland’s, Catalonia’s parliament has a majority in favour of an independence referendum. The Westminster parliament has given Scotland the right to decide its future. In contrast, the Spanish parliament in Madrid refuses to debate Catalonia’s request. Democracy is not feared in the UK – it is embraced. Democracy should not be feared in Spain either.

Geoff Cowling, Bromley, Kent, UK, HM Consul General Barcelona 2002-05”

***

Once again Catalan nationalism has raised its head as, with financial and economic breakdown various parts of Europe are seeking to either leave the EU or,in one way or another,go their own way.

I cannot argue with Andrew Korybko’s geopolitical analysis although I feel very uncomfortable with it as it uses a formula that seems to go from Ukraine to Myanmar,and now to Spain.

The Catalan Referendum is a classic bait-and-switch operation by Barcelona

The economic elite in Barcelona merely plan to swap Madrid for Brussels as their preferred patron, and are relying on demagogic distractions such as the referendum in order to mislead the Catalan public into thinking that they’re voting for “independence”.

I cannot say very much about the nature of the people leading Catalonia into independence.

I can, though,recognise in the rsponse of the central government in Madrid under Rajoy a line that goes back to Franco’s fascists.

I also cannot see any way that this struggle can end in a positive way. It is only going to lead to a terrible ongoing struggle and to further destablisation throughout Europe.

The nameless bureaucrats in Brussels will,no doubt, be very nervous which is possibly why we have not seen Brussels react to the events and come down on one side or the other.

Not so Britain, which has refused to condemn the Spanish government for its violence while the propaganda outlet, the BBC, treats the whole thing as if it is just a “conflict” between groups of young men and the Spanish government is responding to an “illegal” referendum.

UK Foreign Office refuses to condemn police violence towards Catalan voters by 'close ally' Spain

But when the Foreign Office finally put out a statement it failed to even mention, let alone condemn, the violence.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The referendum is a matter for the Spanish government and people.

"We want to see Spanish law and the Spanish constitution respected and the rule of law upheld.

"Spain is a close ally and a good friend, whose strength and unity matters to us."

The BBC attitude is reflected in the following:

Al-Jazeera, however, explains the Catalan position well.

It looks as if they might be seeing another “Arab Spring” in the making.

In the meantime all I can say is “pass the popcorn”. Let’s just watch what transpires.