Tag Archives: Catalonia

Miquel Vila: “Why Catalonia Failed”

Posted on May 12, 2022 by

“Spanish authorities have recognized the continuing threat to state sovereignty. They have closely monitored the pro-independence movement and Catalan politicians since 2017. The events following the referendum left a scar on the activists and sympathizers of independence. Sympathy for civil disobedience like that seen in 2019 continues to rise. While Madrid has disciplined Catalonia’s politicians, the new generation of movement leaders is growing up with more radical, confrontational tactics and less faith in the electoral process.“

Posted in autonomy, defeat, governance, Nota Bene, performance

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“Catalonia: Trapped between nationalisms”

Posted on October 19, 2019 by

‘While both the Spanish and the Catalan regional governments, and their respective parliaments, are divided and paralysed over what to do next, anarchists find themselves again in the uncomfortable position of siding with neither, while opposing and fighting against state violence, and defending more radical forms of autonomy, beyond “national sovereignty”.’

Posted in anarchism, autonomy, governance, Nota Bene, power, resistance, rights

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“A conversation with Enric Duran: Do we have the right to financial rebellion? “

Posted on April 29, 2018 by

‘“Integral revolution means comprehensive transformation from below of all aspects of life like culture, economic, social, personal, ecological,” he says. “We achieve this by empowering communities from below to build a new society, new systems that are not based on the state or capitalism.” It’s the familiar goal of prefigurative politics: building a new world in the shell of the old.’

Posted in autonomy, disobedience, Nota Bene, power, revolution, the common

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Bue Rübner Hansen: “Winter in Catalonia”

Posted on December 22, 2017 by

“So to say the Catalan independence movement is Quixotic is not to suggest it has nothing to struggle against, but that it does so with ideals that have become abstract and formal, divorced from their material conditions. Behind the epic narrative of cultural and political resistance, Catalan independentism is deeply limited by the political economy, class composition and geopolitical intertwinements of Catalonia.”

Posted in autonomy, freedom, governance, Nota Bene, power, resistance, the common, tragic politics

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Thomas Jeffrey Miley: “The perils and promise of self-determination”

Posted on November 13, 2017 by

‘Democratic confederalism is a radical democratic project based on citizens’ assemblies, defended by citizens’ militias. It is a program and model which constitutes a radical reconceptualization of self-determination, one defined in terms of direct democracy against the state. A reconceptualization of “self-determination” that renounces as divisive and utopian the equation of the struggle for national freedom with the goal of an independent nation-state, and that seeks to overcome the danger of majority tyranny by institutionalizing a “revolutionary-consociational” regime. A consociational regime whose “social contract” guarantees multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, and multi-religious accommodation, by implementing quotas for political representation (concretely, in Rojava, for Arabs and for Assyrian Christians), by direct assemblies of different constituent groups, and by mobilizing these groups in their own militias of self-defense.’

Posted in autonomy, founding, freedom, governance, Nota Bene, revolution, violence

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“Barrage to Catalonia”

Posted on November 13, 2017 by

“The Catalan crisis is indicative of the general collapse of democratic politics in Europe. … Historic party bases are dying, in favour of more confused webs of identity. Yet this takes place in a fragmented and superficial fashion, no longer based in class blocs or even the politics of national unity. The temporary coalitions of referendums are an agent of this process, helping to destroy the old collective forms while replacing them with nothing.”

Posted in autonomy, crisis, democracy, freedom, governance, In The News

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“Catalonia Independence Fight Produces Some Odd Bedfellows”

Posted on October 10, 2017 by

‘BARCELONA, Spain — What links an anarchist youth group, a conservative party of free marketeers and a left-wing party committed instead to enhancing the welfare state?  The answer lies in the Catalan independence movement, which in the last seven years has morphed from a marginal force into a genuine threat to Spain’s territorial integrity, largely through a marriage of convenience among several unlikely bedfellows.’

Posted in autonomy, governance, In The News, power, the common

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Lluc Salellas interviewed on “Catalonia: From Referendum to Republic?”

Posted on October 5, 2017 by

“The next step is the declaration by the Catalan parliament. We still don’t know exactly what it will entail but we hope it will be a proclamation of a republic.”

Posted in autonomy, democracy, disobedience, governance, In The News, power, revolt

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Paul Mason: “‘We are with you Catalunya’ – the revolt in Spain is bigger than flags and language”

Posted on October 5, 2017 by

“Two million Catalans braved the threat of a police boot in the face to demand independence. As with Scotland and Greece, this was a modern, cosmopolitan form of nationalism.”

Posted in autonomy, democracy, freedom, governance, Nota Bene, revolt

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Boaventura de Sousa Santos: “The Left and Catalonia”

Posted on October 1, 2017 by

“First, the relationship between law and democracy is dialectical and
not mechanical. Much of what we consider democratic legality in a given
historical moment started as illegality, as an aspiration to a better and broader
democracy. It is therefore imperative to evaluate the political processes in
terms of their overall historical dynamics. In no case can they be reduced to
conformity with the laws of the day.”

Posted in autonomy, democracy, disobedience, emergency, governance, law, Nota Bene, the Left

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