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While trying to vote in the Catalan Independence Referendum, at least 893 were seriously enough injured to need medical care due to the violence of the Spanish State with the Spanish national police as its instrument of repression. France’s Canal Plus has made a video underlining the unacceptability of this violence: https://twitter.com/canalplus/status/916294999561478144
Contrary to many reports, the numbers who managed to vote were approximately half of registered voters, with 90% voting for independence. The number voting is high considering the violence of the Spanish state which declared the referendum illegal.
Over a week ago, the President of Catalonia asked for mediation and dialogue, and was refused by the Government of Spain. It is worth recalling that the party of Spanish PM Rajoy was founded by fascists who served in Franco’s government; that Rajoy has been been soft on Russia, as well as the apparent importance of Spain to the Russian mafia: https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/spain-and-the-european-union-russia-conflict-the-impact-of-sanctions-aka-rajoys-erratic-russian-love-affair/
“… I reiterate what I said on Monday: this moment demands mediation. We have received several proposals in the last hours, and we will receive more: all of them know first hand my willingness to undertake a mediation process. We will reiterate it as many times as we need. Peace, dialogue and agreement are part of the political culture of our people. However, we have never received any positive response from the State to any of the mediation options that are already on the table, and I believe, with all sincerity, that it is again a serious irresponsibility not to attend the requests sent by people from within and outside of Catalonia and the State so that this conflict is directed by politics and not by the police.” (Catalan President Puigdemont, 4 October 2017 – see link and full text further below)
In the Quebec Independence referendum of October 30, 1995, 49.42% voted for Independence, and 50.58% voted against with a 93.52% turnout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_referendum,_1995 Even though a homeless woman made threats about bombs over Canada in a Montreal bus, prior to the vote, the women wasn’t arrested and continued to beg – there wasn’t police violence as in Spain.
In the Scottish Independence referendum of 2014, 55.3% voted against and 44.7% for with an 84.6% turnout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_independence_referendum,_2014
The Catalan Independence Referendum exposed the violence of the Spanish state, ruled by a party founded by Francoist-fascists, and raises the question of the basis of statehood: Nation State, or a State based on militarism, violence, or what? In the not so distant past, culture formed the basis of a nation state with language as the backbone of culture. 84.7% of Catalans are able to speak the Catalan language, 97.4% to understand, 90.5% to read, 62.3% to write. In Quebec, due largely to the protective Loi 101, 95% speak French Canadian and 81.4% speak it as their first language. In Scotland, a little less than a third now speak Scots (30% the Germanic Lowland Scots and 1.1% Scots Gaelic). Many times more Scots live outside of Scotland, as within. In Ireland, approximately 40% speak Irish Gaelic. Destruction of language and culture is part of domination. It is cultural genocide. Immigrants who do not learn the local language or culture have been used as tools of cultural genocide throughout the world, including Scotland, Ireland, Quebec, and Catalonia.
Trump’s baby language was reportedly Scots gaelic, since his mother was an immigrant from the Isle of Lewis. Had he been allowed to maintain his first language, might he have developed into a mentally balanced person? Is his love of money the product of a cultural and linguistic identity crisis? (NB: different people can react in different ways to the same conditions).
While each person’s vote counts more the smaller the population of a country, nation states based on language raise the issue of need for a lingua franca. While English increasingly plays this role, even between Swiss language communities, a grammatically simplified Latin would be more logical for Europe.
In Catalonia 5,313,000 should have had the right to vote. 770,000, who tried to vote, could not vote because 400 polling stations had been closed and ballots seized by the Spanish police. Thus, only approximately 4,543,000 actually had the right to vote, but apparently risked injury at the hands of the Spanish police. 2,262,424 voted anyway, meaning that the turnout was actually at around 50%. See the news release of Oct. 2nd 1.50 am update here (and at their twitter account): http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/AppJava/notapremsavw/303468/ca/el-si-simposa-amb-un-90-dels-vots-2-262-424-catalans-que-han-pogut-votar.do
If this referendum was not legally binding under Spanish law, and if only a minority were supportive of independence before the Spanish police crackdown, why then the police crackdown and violence? It is a crackdown on freedom of expression. Not surprising that the Spanish PM Rajoy’s political party was created by fascists:
“The People’s Party was a re-foundation in 1989 of the People’s Alliance (Alianza Popular, AP), a party led and founded by Manuel Fraga Iribarne, a former Minister of the Interior and Minister of Tourism during Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.”
“AP was born on 9 October 1976… Out of the seven founders the first 6 had held cabinet-level offices during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco. The odd one …. had also been part of the Francoist administration… Fraga… made a turn towards Neo-Francoism.” [1]
“Comment by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein on the situation in Catalonia, Spain GENEVA (2 October 2017) – I am very disturbed by the violence in Catalonia on Sunday. With hundreds of people reported injured, I urge the Spanish authorities to ensure thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all acts of violence. Police responses must at all times be proportionate and necessary.
I firmly believe that the current situation should be resolved through political dialogue, with full respect for democratic freedoms.
I call on the Government of Spain to accept without delay the requests by relevant UN human rights experts to visit.
ENDS” http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/media.aspx?IsMediaPage=true
The President of Catalonia is supposed to speak before parliament on Tuesday evening, but considering previous behavior by the Spanish State, he may not be allowed. One can but wonder if he will be kidnapped? Perhaps with the help of France, like Haiti’s democratically elected President Aristide was? Will the UK and Germany help with the kidnapping, as the US and Canada worked with France to kidnap Aristide?
Remember the run-up to the referendum? https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2017/09/21/arrest-of-catalan-government-officials-takeover-of-catalan-institutions-by-spanish-police-trying-to-halt-independence-referendum-francos-ghost-walks/
Something may have happened while this is being written.
Based on the Catalonia News Release, in Catalan, dated:
“09-Oct-2017 13.32:
The president of the Generalitat, Carles Puigdemont, will appear tomorrow, Tuesday 10 October, at his own request, in the plenary of the Parliament to inform them about the current political situation. The plenary session, which will begin at 6 pm, will be carried out in accordance with the provisions of article 169 of the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber, which establishes that the President of the Generalitat first intervenes, with no time limit, and then the parliamentary groups do do , for a maximum period of ten minutes. See original here: http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/AppJava/convocatoriavw/134437/ca/president-puigdemont-compareixera-parlament-peticio-propia-informar-situacio-politica.do
The original Catalan version of the English press release, found below, was posted last Wednesday, 04-10-2017 20.51 as “President Puigdemont: “El rei fa seu el discurs i les polítiques del govern Rajoy que han estat catastròfiques per Catalunya” http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/AppJava/oficina-president/notapremsavw/303501/ca/president-puigdemont-el-rei-fa-seu-discurs-les-politiques-del-govern-rajoy-que-han-estat-catastrofiques-per-catalunya.do. A better translation might be “The king adopts the discourse and policies of Rajoy’s government…, literally “the king makes his own”.)
Official English translation:
“05-10-2017 13.18 Statement by the President of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont
President Puigdemont: “The king praises the discourse and policies of Rajoy’s government which have been catastrophic in relation to Catalonia”
Dear compatriots,
We come from a few especially intense days, full of emotions and experiences that will be recorded in our minds. Once again, the people of Catalonia showed yesterday that it is united,it is a single nation , it painstakingly defends the values of democracy; and we did it in the way we always do and want to do things: with civility and peace. There were very symbolic images that help to understand this idea of fraternity and transversality with which Catalonia faces its national challenges: people with flags of Spain and starred flags sharing the same cause together. The rejection of violence, the rejection of the unjustifiable charges of police forces against the peacefully concentrated civilian population and the defense of civil rights that are elemental.
In this sense I would like to emphasize and value the attitude of the hundreds of thousands of Catalans that yesterday marched and brought the country to an unprecedented stop never seen before. You did it without incidents, overcoming fears and threats and above all being faithful to the peaceful attitude with which we always want to express ourselves.
That is why we have to feel strong if we are united and we remain in this attitude. For the more violence some want to bring, a violence which is not acceptable anywhere and that has been met with great concern in Europe, we must keep ourselves as one nation. With differences, with discrepancies, with errors and sometimes, because we also have to tell it to ourselves, with great success. Do not let them squander it, those who, for helplessness, fear or cowardice, would like us differently. You are not aware of the admiration that as a nation we are collecting from around the world because of such civic and committed attitude.
Unfortunately, not everyone wishes things to be all right for us. Some claim to present the Catalan claim as illegitimate, illegal and criminal. Some people think that chasing polls, ballots and voters is an unavoidable requirement of the rule of law, and that everything is allowed in preventing a nation from expressing itself and deciding. We should be all very calm and serene, and above all, very comforted: what we have done, what we are doing and what we are going to do is what other nations have already done and other nations will do in the future. We follow a path democratically traced by the will of the citizens, and this instead of being fought should begin to be understood and to be respected.
That is why I want to address the Spanish citizens who in these days have expressed their commitment to the demands of the Catalans; citizens who have sent us their friendship and their very valuable solidarity in these times we are living through. Surely the Spanish authorities should explain better what happens in Catalonia, with more pondered views that help to understand a political problem that we know is complex. However, I am grateful for the effort we know about from many people to accompany the Catalan people in their demands. We are one nation, who loves the languages it speaks, who has no problem with identities, nationalities and cultures, who wants to continue contributing to the development of the Spanish State and who will never dispense with the enormous wealth represented by plurality.
We are, in effect, a society that is enormously united in diversity. That is why the message that the head of the State wanted to address to a part of the population we cannot share it nor accept it. The king praises the discourse and policies of Rajoy’s government which have been catastrophic in relation to Catalonia, and deliberately ignore the millions of Catalans who do not think like them. Deliberately ignore the Catalans who have been victims of police violence that has moved half the world at their heart. The king yesterday missed an opportunity to address all the citizens to whom he owes the crown, and to whom he owes respect because the constitution so demands. A constitution that gives it a moderating role that he has not played in any case, and that yesterday he declined with harshness. He has not had any interest in knowing the opinion and the vision of the Government of the Generalitat at any time during this crisis, and he has accepted to assume an inadequate role that only seeks to flatten the decisions that the Spanish Government has long studied in order to liquidate the aspirations of sovereignty of the Catalan people. Aspirations that the Spanish Government does not hesitate to treat as criminal and illegitimate, and against which uses resources without limit.
I would like to address myself directly to His Majesty, in the language I know he knows and speaks: not in this way. With your decision yesterday, you disappointed many people in Catalonia who appreciate you and have helped you in difficult times for the institution. People who expected from you another tone and an appeal to dialogue and harmony
As president of the Generalitat, I think it is necessary to address the general public, to everyone, whichever is their way of thinking, in order to guarantee the commitment of the government that I preside to protect all citizens, to ensure their rights to express themselves freely and to respect their decisions.
We will do it with the commitment that we assume at the beginning of the mandate. A commitment to do so with an open door always to dialogue and towards each other. We will not move from here, and I want to assure the citizens that are listening to me that my government will not give an inch from the commitment of peace and serenity, but at the same time with the firmness, with which we want to do things.
That is why I reiterate what I said on Monday: this moment demands mediation. We have received several proposals in the last hours, and we will receive more: all of them know first hand my willingness to undertake a mediation process. We will reiterate it as many times as we need. Peace, dialogue and agreement are part of the political culture of our people. However, we have never received any positive response from the State to any of the mediation options that are already on the table, and I believe, with all sincerity, that it is again a serious irresponsibility not to attend the requests sent by people from within and outside of Catalonia and the State so that this conflict is directed by politics and not by the police.
Today we are closer to our historical wish than yesterday. On Sunday we were able to make a referendum in the midst of an ocean of unprecedented difficulties and repression; yesterday we gave an example in the compliance of the general strike; and I am sure that in the coming days we will return to show our best side when the institutions of Catalonia have to implement the results of the referendum.
Meanwhile, let’s maintain the confidence and isolate all provocations and intends of violence. We do not want it at home nor we want it anywhere else. Stay united in dignity and we will be a nation capable of making possible the dream that it sets.” http://premsa.gencat.cat/pres_fsvp/AppJava/oficina-president/notapremsavw/303502/ca/president-puigdemont-king-praises-discourse-policies-rajoys-government-catastrophic-relation-catalonia.do
Related reading: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/09/catalonia-president-to-bring-crisis-to-head-in-parliament
Notes:
[1] About the Spanish Prime Minister: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariano_Rajoy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Party_(Spain)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People’s_Alliance_(Spain)
vs. The President of Catalonia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carles_Puigdemont
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergence_and_Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scots_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottish_Gaelic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language_in_Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalan_language
Mining Awareness + 
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