Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
Introduction:
The savage sentences handed down by Spain’s Supreme Court against nine Catalan independence leaders have been denounced by political leaders in Quebec, including Premier François Legault. In the forefront are the deputies of Québec solidaire, who will present a motion this week (…)
The publication of the Supreme Court ruling last Monday 14 October, after the trial of several independence leaders, has triggered a wave of protests in Catalonia and, to a lesser extent, in other regions of the Spanish state and even in some European cities.
The sentence of 12 pro- (…)
A reading of the 23 pages of the judgment devoted to rejecting the claim to the right to decide (199-222) reveals clearly the pirouettes resorted to by the Supreme Court (SC) in order to disqualify it. Notwithstanding its statement that “it is not our job to offer — or pursue or insinuate — (…)
Attempted occupation at airport was called by new group using an app to bring young people on to streets
Until this week, the images habitually projected by the Catalan independence movement were of its red, yellow and blue estelada flags and of the huge crowds that have gathered on the (…)
The long prison sentences for the organizers of Catalunya’s outlawed independence referendum are just the latest sign of Spain’s repressive turn. The Catalan crisis has brought the state’s authoritarian impulses to the surface — and set a terrible precedent for criminalizing dissent.
"This is (…)
Today we have learned of the penalties imposed against Catalan pro-independence political prisoners. After two years in prison, Jordi Cuixart, Carme Forcadell, Dolors Bassa, Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Sànchez, Joaquim Forn, Raül Romeva, Jordi Turull and Josep Rull have been sentenced to various (…)
Xavier Puig i Sedano spoke with Josep María Antentas following the publication of his latest book, “Spectros de Octubre” .
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In your book you locate the Catalan crisis as part of a general crisis of the Spanish state. Why?
Everything that has to do with Catalan independence is (…)
Compare these two scenes, which took place in Barcelona’s central St James Square after the election of the city’s mayor, the first four years ago and the second on June 15.
On June 13, 2015, successful candidate Ada Colau, former spokesperson of the Mortgage Victims Platform (PAH) and leader (…)
Ada Colau of Barcelona en Comú (BComú) remains mayor of Barcelona thanks to the promise of a pact with the PSC (Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya) whose content is not yet known but which will involve a distribution of power in the town hall, and three votes of the Barcelona pel (…)
On Friday, February 1, 2019, the nine leaders of Catalonia’s 2017 independence bid were transferred to Madrid, to face charges of rebellion, or rebellion and embezzlement, that can lead to prison sentences of 156 years. On the same day, mobilizations began in Catalonia. In the morning they were (…)
This week nine Catalan leaders will be put on trial for sedition. With the 2017 bid for independence thwarted, the Catalan left finds itself more divided than ever
On November 2, 2017 the recently deposed vice president of Catalonia Oriol Junqueras and five other ex-ministers arrived at (…)
To deny the political dimension of the Spanish judiciary and its crusade against Catalonia’s political prisoners is to deny reality.
EVERYTHING is political. Whether openly acknowledged or not, much of the world has gradually come to accept this argument, once the reserve of radicals and (…)
This week the trials began: the trials of Catalonian political prisoners in Spain, on trial for crimes of ‘rebellion’ and ‘sedition’. Let’s just pause to reflect on this. We have a leading European state putting 12 people on trial for peaceful political activities. All 12 were either elected or (…)
Ignasi Bernat and David Whyte report that Spanish central government has introduced new police powers to crack down on radical movements in Catalonia.
Over the past two weeks, Catalonia has witnessed the arrests and court summons of 128 political activists, signalling a major escalation of (…)
The challenge for progressive currents in Catalonia is to maintain the motivation and mobilisation of their own base while the strategic perspective becomes more complicated.
Last October we saw the collapse of the various projects for change put forward in Catalan society and politics since 2011 and 2012. Specifically this means the perspectives set out by the 15th May movement (Indignados) and its subsequent political currents, Catalunya en Comu and Podem or the pro-independence forces. (...)
Police figures show 315,000 protesters took to the streets, while organizers state that attendance is at 750,000.
Nearly six months to the day have passed since the imprisonment of the grassroots pro-independence activists Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sànchez, the last presidential candidate. They (…)
The most extreme Spanish reaction to the April 5 ruling of the Higher Regional court of German state Schleswig-Holstein that freed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was from radio shock jock Federico Jiménez Losantos.
“In the Balearic Islands there are 200,000 of them [Germans] as hostages,” (…)
The question of Catalonia has had ridiculously little coverage in the British media recently, though Scotland has been to some extent an exception. This is partly because there are parallels between the national questions in Scotland and Catalonia – and consequently a stronger solidarity (…)
Although parties supporting Catalonia’s independence from the Spanish monarchy won a majority of deputies in the autonomous community’s December 21 election, they have been unable to elect a Generalitat, or government, due in part to internal disagreements but primarily to blockages by the (…)
We previously posted on ESSF excerpts from this article, written December 31, 2017, translated by Richard Fidler . This is the full version as published by International Viewpoint.
1. The Catalan parliamentary elections of December 21st, 2017 (21D) saw an unexpected electoral mobilization, (…)
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