Catalan news from my Twitter feed

• Albano Dante Fachin is Secretary General of Podem – the Catalan branch of Podemos. I liked his speech very much in the pre-independence debate and he is proving to be an interesting person to watch. He thinks for himself. He is Argentinian (a plus for me) and speaks great Catalan.  In a newspaper interview he said today, The Spanish and the Catalan Left need to make their minds up what side they are on – democracy or not. Today is is Junqueres and the others in prison – tomorrow it could be Ada Colau (Barcelona mayor) or Iglesias (leader of Podemos)

See what I mean – he’s not scared to speak out!

• Barcelona football club has hung a massive Catalan flag on one side of the Nou Camp ground in preparation for the match with Seville.  That is a match I would love to attend. I wonder if Pep’s brother-in-law will be there with the family Barça ticket?
• Today in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh there was a show of support for Catalunya with people holding up flags
• Over 40,000 people marched today in Bilbao in support of Catalunya and against the anti-democratic actions of the Spanish government
• 8 Catalan teachers have been charged by the Spanish courts with hate crimes. What did they do? They were leading discussions about the police violence on 1st October.
• Remember the Galician teacher who encouraged his class to discuss Catalunya?  He is now in prison.
• Meanwhile as I am sure you now know, the members of the Catalan government who returned to Barcelona from Brussels were sent straight to jail by a Spanish judge. They have not had a trial or been sentenced but are being held with no trial date yet decided. On the way to prison they were mocked, handcuffed, not allowed to eat and generally treated badly. Two were strip searched. All part of the Spanish government policy of humiliation and bullying. Lawyers have started putting in official complaints.

Someone asked me this evening what exactly Carles Puigdemont is doing in Brussels.  Obviously I don’t know the answer but I am confident that he is working hard for the Catalan people, speaking to other European leaders, and the press, and his lawyers and others who are taking a close interest in this matter. Even though EU leaders are quietly turning their heads away, there are many people who are outraged by what Spain is doing. Every day there are more and more statements from all over the world expressing dismay at the lack of democracy in Spain.

I see Puigdemont as a very rational and intelligent person – with integrity and a deep sense of responsibility.

He is not hiding.

He is not running away.

He is not pulling the duvet over his head and hoping it was all a bad dream

Catalans have long known the hidden side of the Spanish state and so all that now shocks us so deeply is not a surprise to them. It is a painful and sad time but it is a necessary process to take off the masks and see a new truth.

Now that Belgium has decided they will not extradite Puigdemont without a proper legal case being heard, there is the opportunity for the Spanish Constitution to be discussed, in public, in full view of the whole world. So long as the President is there, he is the best chance Catalalunya has of getting a fair hearing.

So, that’s my summary of some news that I read today. I also found a youtube video of a message written by a Spanish woman to her child – it was interesting and was a positive response to all that is going on. She denied the importance of the Spanish flag or the anthem, and gave a long list of what she feels it means to be Spanish – tortilla and tapas, friends teaching you the Sardana in Barcelona, drinking Orujo in Galicia, learning how to count in Euskadi, loving the Mediterrean, etc etc….a full description of all the cultures and the food of the peninsula.   I watched it then lost the link…..

If only there was a Spanish government that could embrace all of the land that is Spain and Catalunya and Galicia and Pais Basc. If only they would encourage people to love the diversity rather than fear it. If only Rajoy and his team would stop their mission of terror and decide to turn around and talk and make peace. Apologise perhaps for the mistakes they have made. Soften and open up their hearts rather than fuel the anger.

Ojala!

There is so much happening that I don’t have time to write an individual post about each event.  We travelled back through France and are now in Cornwall – physically far from Catalunya but emotionally still very connected.

Here are some of the things that are coursing around in my brain

• • As we drove through France I put on a Joan Baez CD. There is a track Last Night I had the Strangest Dream and as it played I suddenly began to cry. The events of the last weeks – the vote, the police violence and the horrific videos showing attacks on unarmed people, and the refusal of EU leaders to speak out, all suddenly felt incredibly sad.

• A teacher in Galicia is being investigated by the Guardia Civil after complaints from parents that s/he had led a class discussion on Catalunya.  We later saw students protesting outside the court in support of their teacher
• Many companies including my bank Sabadell have moved their main offices to Spain to avoid problems should Independence be declared.  Now Seat – I am proud to say this is my brand of car – has let out a nasty little secret – that both the Spanish government and the King (!!!) had been on the phone putting pressure on them to leave too. Offering incentives of course. Seat have refused and will stay.
• The more I watched videos of places where the police violently tried to stop the vote the more I realised that I was very lucky not to see any. I visited four places in the Emporda and actually there was a lot of police action in that area. It was just chance that Zero and I were not involved. Some places were small villages. Just like in my post about the voting – people were calmly and with determination protecting their communites and their ballot boxes. Until the Guardia Civil arrived. Someone suggested to me that places with Socialist majorities were not attacked but places with Independence parties in majority were targetted. No proof of this but it’s true that Granollers in spite of being a large town was left alone and its mayor is from the Socialist party.

• Stories about the urns.

  What we would call ballot boxes. It is almost surreal. Hard to believe when you come from a country like the UK where many people can’t be bothered to vote at all.  The voting boxes were ordered from China. They were delivered to the part of France that Catalan people call Catalunya Nord (once part of Catalunya, a long story, for another time)  Then very shortly before the day of the referendum they were brought over – in private cars – little by little – by brave people.  Can you imagine this?  Feeling that you had to hide a voting box in your car and then in someone’s house?  Because it was illegal!!!!

• Stories about the voting stations.

People I know, real people, slept overnight to protect the urns and the papers and the places. Others kept watch outside. There was a massive and well planned organisation to this referendum. Trust was important, and courage. It is so impressive.  And so sad that it had to be done like this.

• Rajoy announced that he will be invoking Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution to take over the Autonomy of Catalunya.

This hasn’t been done before.  So it’s still not really clear what will happen. But first he has to get the Senate to vote to go ahead. That is happening on Friday.  The plan seems to be to get rid of the democratically elected government and replace it with something else…..until more elections can be called.  They also plan to take over the police and the television and the radio.

• Catalan firefighters have said no

More and more people are publicly stating that they are not having it.  . Today there was a press conference by TV3 and Catalan Radio saying they will not tolerate intervention. And the Catalan government is meeting tomorrow Thursday 26th October.  Will they declare independence finally?
Press statement from TV and Radio

• It’s all big stuff. And it’s not just about Catalunya.

It’s about people and their right to be heard and to be taken seriously. Also democracy – and peaceful resistance to governments which abuse their power.  It’s about the lengths the powerful will go to when they feel threatened. Corruption is very central to the Spanish PP government and they have found a wonderful way to distract us from that – let’s attack the Catalans.  It’s also about the EU and how weak they have been in their response. Or maybe they want a showdown – to keep the masses in their place.  Even the UK Labour party has been quiet – I wonder about that one!  And there is fascism to talk about – and secrets and lies.

To me it is one of those times when you need to chose your side – whatever you think about independence this is a very human struggle to be heard and to be respected and to be treated as equals.

Isn’t that what we all want and deserve?

Hello.

I can’t let today slip by without mentioning that there have been some big developments recently.

Not so much in my life which continues much as before as we work on the house and start to build a new life here in Cornwall.

But yesterday there was another huge demonstration of Catalan solidarity and passion. Meridiana is the long diagonal road that cuts across Barcelona and on September 11th it was filled with people, calling for independence and for Catalunya to be a nation in its own right. Somewhere between one and a half and two million people were there!

Today the people’s choice, Jeremy Corbyn was elected as Labour leader. In spite of a vicious media campaign against him and attacks from within his own party, he came across as humane, honest, authentic and courageous. And people came out in support of him – hundreds of thousands of them.

Including me!

Then there was the terribly sad news that a body has been found near the Camino de Santiago which is presumed to be that of Denise Thiem.  A man has been arrested who was living slightly off the path that leads from Astorga to Santa Catalina.  I feel such a strange mixture of relief that at last we have news and also grief for her and for her family. I imagine anyone who has walked the Camino will be affected by this news – it casts a long shadow on what felt bright and clear.

There are days which slip by and you live life almost in a dream. These last two days have not been like that.  Things that have seemed to be locked in slow motion have suddenly come to an end.  Or they have reached a point of change that feels like one thing has ended and another has begun.

I am not going to make any more promises about writing here more often. It just seems hard to do it justice at the moment. But even when I am not writing here – I do think about you and about what I will write when the time is right.

There is so much change happening all around us now – and a great need to make decisions about where you are going, what you are doing and with whom?

Don’t you think so?