1. First, we would like to congratulate all the volunteers who have participated in the organization of the polls on December 13th. We must recognize that, thanks to their work, it has been possible to extend the first poll at Arenys de Munt to more than 160 municipalites in only three months, generating a never seen feeling of hope among the voters. All of them have worked as one and for a goal. And they have succeded.
   


2. The polls, as primaries of our independence that they really are, have made possible the quantification of 200000 Catalans ready to become active promoters of the independence of Catalonia. This is only with the first wave of ballots, without support from the big mass media, without electoral campaign or public funding. And this is the big result of these votes. And it the clear symptom of the beginning of a civic and democratic uprise that will spread around our country and has no stop.



3. From the other hand, these polls have been the best campaign, at national and international level, never made for the cause of the freedom of Catalonia. We have achieved that the topic of the independence of Catalonia was at the centre of the political debate, with the big mass media unable to silence it. Thanks to the big international impact and follow-up, we have been able to let the whole world know our wish for independence. As for Spain, with these polls, Catalans have demonstrated that we do not accept to live kneeling and they have not conquered nor will ever conquer us.



4. These votes have put on the table a new form of politics that has left all traditional political parties disarrayed. However, the initiative has been carried out making feasible and close to the people and idea that was unthinkable a year ago, an independent Catalan State.



5. And finally, we would like to highlight that, with the organizational quality of these polls and the overwhelming affirmative result, have sent a first quality message of democracy and order to our main allies, which will have to validate and recognize the Catalan State as a full right member within the international context at the moment we declare our independence.

Barcelona, December 17th 2009.

Catalunya Acció UK wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year of freedom and Independence.

Image from the offering by Estat Català at Francesc Macià's tomb, on the 76th anniversary of his death, December 25th, 1933. Barcelona.

Ladies, gentlemen;

Firstly, I would like to thank all the inhabitants of Castellbisbal who with their commitment have made possible this presentation tonight, an I feel especially proud to have the honour to address to you in this historical moment for our country. Next Sunday, December 13th 2009, polls will take place in more than 150 towns and cities asking their inhabitants about the independence of Catalonia. Democracy in its purest state. In three months, we have gone from the first poll at Arenys de Munt to organize more than 150, thus we must be fully conscious of this qualitative jump and the political implications that this wave implies, and will imply in the future. Thanks to this initiative, to the determination and courage of the men and women from all these towns and cities, we may assure that Sunday December 13th will be a big success. It will be the beginning of our victory, and we can be very proud of.

Poster for the 13th December polls.

A recent survey by the UOC -Open University of Catalonia-, still hot from the press, indicated that the number of Catalans in support of independence of Catalonia has increased significantly to a slightly more than 50% of the population. This is the first time ever than a survey, using scientific methods of research, is corroborating what the poll at Arenys de Munt, in September, started to show; that despite all tricks made by our politicians -and leadership in general- to hide under the carpet the growing numbers of people disillusioned with Spain and France, the independence of Catalonia is not only possible but it will be a reality in the next few years. The success of the poll at Arenys and the fact that on December 13th more than 160 other Town Councils will emulate the ballot is only a sign that the 96% of positive result for independence in Arenys de Munt is achievable again.

Such result is only understandable when there is an extreme feeling of burn out among our people against the actual political status and politicians. Remember the poll at Arenys was forbidden by Spain, not legally binding and was threatened by the Spanish fascists. The same pattern is observed for the polls that will happen on December 13th.

But the survey shows a small detail that must not be overseen; the support for independence grows the further the person has been born away from Catalonia, being immigrants from Africa and parts of South America who see independence 'achievable', instead of own Catalans, who are the most numerous ethnic group to see it as 'not achievable'.

Certainly, belief is not rife among Catalans, perhaps too used to lies, tricks, calculated ambiguities and political leaders more preoccupied of reaching a seat at whatever the Parliament available, with the corresponding allowances and privileges, than sorting out the real problems of their people, like the scandalous fiscal deficit -better defined as looting- or the chronic deficient state of the infrastructures.

However, belief is basic to achieve any goal. Because nobody will give us the independence as next Christmas present, it will be our job to take it and to make it happen. In the understanding that the process will be democratic, with ballot boxes and voting papers, we need the rest of Catalans to gain the necessary belief in themselves. Like the heroes from Arenys de Munt, who showed us how it is done, now the rest of Catalonia has to follow suit. Yes! These unofficial ballots are only the starter of a long distance run that will conclude in the independence of Catalonia. As said by Santiago Espot, there will be a fierce dialectical fight between the defenders of the actual privileges system and who wish to achieve independence and only who is more prepared to stand their ground, with stronger belief in their ideals will win. And, the survey shows that people who prefer to remain subdued by Spain do so because of 'feelings' but not 'reasons'. What do you want clearer that that?

Of course, Catalunya Acció accepts this challenge because is composed by men and women not afraid of giants with feet of clay. We have strong confidence in our people because we believe that they will realize of the actual real chances of independence. Catalonia has been a great nation in the past, has been divided, oppressed and invaded, and yet still stands as the most important pain in the back side of Spain and France. We are natural born winners, otherwise would have disappeared centuries ago, but only need a little more belief in ourselves.

The battle for our future as Catalans continue.

Jordi Margalef i Turull
Member of Catalunya Acció UK

Should anything unite Spain and France, apart from their congenital culture of extermination, is that, in no time, will lose one of their last colonies.

November 4th 1926 is remembered in Catalonia for being the feat by Francesc Macià and the hundred other volunteer patriots, who from the Northern Catalan city of Prats de Molló, showed the Catalan nation’s conflict and her wish for independence to the rest of the world.

Following what is known as “The Actions at Prats de Molló”, Catalan claims were spread worldwide. The detention of the insurgents –summoned  in the county of Vallespir, due to  the betrayal of a spy, who was descendant of Italian revolutionary Garibaldi, paid by the French, the posterior trial of Francesc Macià and the other soldiers in Paris, the sentence –imprisonment and fines- and his exile in Brussels were highlights in the European and American press for quite some time.

Since 1714, the name of Catalonia had not been mentioned by so many people beyond the borders. Two-hundred and odd years after Spanish occupation of Catalonia, a new generation of patriots bore arms to demonstrate to the other Catalans how independence is achieved. The belligerent character of Catalans was well alive within those youngsters, and Catalan tradition was carried out once again despite prohibitions. Coming to age where the child would be considered a grown-up man, the head of the house gave him the key, the “duro” –money- and the knife. Catalans always considered ourselves “franks” –free-, as opposed to other humans, most of whom were subjects. Freedom, determined and regulated from the origins of the Nation within the Constitutions of Catalonia, cost blood and because of that, all well-born Catalans bore arms, to defend themselves and their freedom. With Macià, this atavistic spirit, the wish for recovering the snatched freedom was reborn, and a lot of his followers abandoned everything for Catalonia: family, job, study, social position … Until the last breath, all without exception had preserved the sparkle of Independence in their eyes. Eternal glory to defenders of the motherland! 

The first days of November 1926, more than a hundred Catalans demonstrated with desire for freedom and Independence that was claimed by the subconscious of a whole nation, which remained imprisoned and violated by the Spanish tyranny and barbarism represented by Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship. It was an all-level attempt of armed uprising, impregnated with courage and heroism; should it have succeeded, we would be a in front of a historical contemporary precedent of secessionism, surely very productive and hardly coverable by the “official” historiography, and actually provable. In any case, political leaders like Macià, are greatly missed in the actual Catalonia, where there is no audacity nor heroism but a great deal of complexes and genuflections.

President Macià had determination and a clear goal. This is a résumé of the declaration that Macià had to read when Independence was declared:

”TO ALL FREE NATIONS OF THE WORLD. It is Catalonia where we salute you from, free Nations of the World, at the moment of raising in arms in defence of her non-expiring right of self-government. We want a Free Catalonia for Catalans! We want a modern culture for our children, for our workers and our Colleges. We want the maximum improvement for our proletarian force and for our Higher Education schools. We want to manage our National wealth ourselves, in an Independent Catalan Republic.

Let the World know that we are not encouraged by hatred against the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, nor by any imperialist or conquering spirit. We would consider ourselves lucky, once free, to help the other nations of Spain that suffer under the same regime of reaction, so that they become free too.

We want to break the chains that have forcefully brought us under the yoke with them, and to exchange those for free and fraternal links that allowed us to work together towards international peace. Because international peace is, the ultimate goal why we raise in arms. And is to you, free nations of the world, to whom we address, first, the salutation and then an anguished yell, asking for your recognition of our right to become free.

We do this with hope and faith in freedom and justice, the fundamental principle of International Law for non-forced cooperation, but free, of all nations and for civil equality, against all privileges and against tyranny. We are convinced that peace in Europe will not be assured while the force of the armies supports imperialism and that the rights of the small nations to decide by themselves. For the right of the nations and the people! For international peace! Good Health!

Francesc Macià, Prats de Molló, 1926

Today, more that eighty years later, this declaration prepared by the Catalan volunteers leaded by Macià remains almost totally valid. A reason to reflect on, and that his experience and sacrifice be the example to not cease the fight for the independence of Catalonia.
 
Catalunya Acció, with an ambitious, and updated to the 21st Century project, without firearms, but with the same energy and conviction, gathers the spirit and courage of those Catalans that one day said enough and realized that the only solution is to break with Spain.

Oriol Escuté
Member of Catalunya Acció

"Independence is impossible, there is too much immigration." Here we have it. The mother of all lies. How many times have heard, especially (what a coincidence) from who would want us believing that we live in a fragmented country? On one hand there are those who disgustingly discriminate between immigrants (xarnegos –from Spain-, Moors or sudaques –from South America-) and Catalans at its root, ignoring many previous waves of immigration. But others bent on maintaining economically, not just philosophically, a fictional Andalusian collective (as if everyone thought the same or belonged to the same herd) as FECAC and other mafias. Even some people want us to believe that there is a language conflict, such as the virtual Catalan vs Valencian, when the only real problem is that Spanish is still, unfortunately, official language enforced to all Catalans. Yes, Spanish is my mother tongue, but is as foreign as English in the Netherlands, Turkish in Germany or Spanish to Portugal itself. It is no coincidence that these are precisely the most manipulative of all immobilizers. What makes so much fear to change ? That instead of Andalusian collective become Catalans? That we became normal people like any other in Europe? That, without distinction as to origin or family origin, everyone wants to free the land of welcome?

Well, a Catalan writes to you , son and grandson of people from Andalusia, this Baix Llobregat massively populated by immigrant people (now or 30 years ago, the concept is the same) and their descendants. This lie about immigration is about to end it once and forever. To begin, groups such as Catalònia Acord or, in the scope language, Veu Pròpia, are causing a mental short circuit to a more than one brain of the country, because of their clarity and forcefulness. Their words can be summarized as follows: "integrated newcomers and their descendants are simply Catalans. Full-stop. We are part of one nation: the Catalan. We do not need any protection from Spanish gangs or its patrons who live installed decades within our governments”.

Non-generalizing my particular way, I think is quite significant. In primary school I was lucky that the history teacher hit my child's brain –about 12 years of age- with the phrase: "Obviously that Catalonia is a country!". We all were spoken in Catalan (we were Catalan). Later, however, at high school I was amazed that the course of history was only in Spanish (I'm afraid it still does, but that needs go change it, and quickly). Gradually, that seed planted by that teacher was germinating. Knowing Catalan history is necessary but not sufficient. Fortunately, one (only one!) of my Catalan classmates spoke the language of the Catalans to me, perhaps only because he considered me a real Catalan. It was just so I could practice it enough to become a proper speaker . And get to college, finally I could make all social life entirely in Catalan, as should be, regardless of my mother tongue or childhood surroundings. Finally after all this process of maturation and have good eyes open to everything happening around me, obviously I am Catalan, I feel like a Catalan, I suffer like a Catalan, but I also have an enormous enthusiasm in the Catalan future than any other who knows to live in a colony and not just want our country be free, sovereign, independent, mature, prosperous, but also takes action to achieve it.

Thus, in many cases the same as mine, these new Catalans, only have the name, the mother tongue and (currently) Spanish passport. Incidentally, there is a clear symptom of the disease in the country regarding immigration: each day, knowing my name, many lifetime Catalans will address to me in Spanish. I, with my Spanish name intact, answer voluntarily in Catalan to create them a mental short circuit. It will be through mental short circuits, then, that we progress. I do not believe that I will ever translate my name, as, in fact, is not prompted to a son of Germans, Russians or Senegal, with foreign name to do so. Therefore I will always be a Catalan with foreign names, particularly Spanish. And what that has to do with the future I want for my country? The answer is easy: nothing. For independence is neither necessary nor wanted to change one's name, nor have great-grandparents of Cerdanya, or vote ERC , or stop having friends in Spain or France, or to speak Catalan own family coming from 30 years of Andalusia, China or Ecuador. Wishing for independence just needs loving the country and want it completely free. Nothing more.

The Catalan identity is merely a way of thinking, understanding and acting in the world around us. It is purely mental and, contrary to what some would like us to believe, is not genetic. This way of thinking and living that make up the life of the party (generally called the Catalan people), eventually becomes dominant in each of the individuals who are born, grow up or spend a significant part of his life in. The daily experience, how people interact, socio-economic structure and the physical environment in which we move, end up determining the formation of this way of thinking and acting (ie, of being) make, for better or for worse, different from the rest of the world. In this sense, indeed there is more than the Catalans now have it explicitly clear. Catalan is because, simply, anyone who thinks and acts (ie, who is) the Catalan way.

Right now, hundreds of Catalans should be doing like me the whole process of integration, so spontaneous and natural. However, with a normalized environment (ie with their own State as other people have) would make virtually all descendants of immigrants, or at least thousands, or hundreds of thousands ... What is wrong then? What are we doing wrong? Well this answer is too easy: almost everything. Because we do not have our own State, nor act against the phenomenon of immigration as we should act while we have not.

Not having a State means that Catalan people do not have their own space where to work naturally, relaxed, their way of structuring society, to integrate newcomers, to not alienate their offspring, leaving them in no-mans Land to develop their culture and show it to the world with pride. Someone will respond to all this, to some extent, as is done now. Well, at least try. With the continuous interference of the invader, Spain, a lot of energy is wasted to perform all this work of integration. Just as they wasted on thousand other fronts that we address incorrectly as separate; defence of the language; protest against tax plundering suffered by all of the Catalan population (including Spaniards who live there!); demand own sporting teams, voice and vote in international organizations, labelling, judgments, software, audiovisual entertainment in Catalan ... (and will not end up ever). From all this, why not directly achieve independence? The integration of immigrants as Catalans would also be positively affected having their own state, because the methods and objectives would be decided by us instead of the Spaniards, who is now trying to turn immigrants into Spaniards.

With immigration, we are already making mistakes now. It is not possible to refuse up front as Catalans those who do not speak Catalan. Because we adopt the language as a natural consequence of considering becoming a member of that different group. It is a step but not the cause. Not necessarily speaking Catalan makes one Catalan. Instead, being conscious or feeling Catalan yes it does, sooner or later, to adopt Catalan, it is only a matter of time. Because the Catalan language is obviously the most appropriate, to best express the Catalanity, namely, the fact of thinking and acting in the Catalan way, ie, be and feel Catalan. The nuance is needed, however, that progress in any of the other two fields provided, is fed to one another. The fact that you are spoken in Catalan (and therefore that is conducive to you speaking it in the long term) facilitates the fact of beginning to feel really Catalan, acts as a throttle for the entire process. Recall again my mate in high school that spoke to me in Catalan. If I had not sensed like being considered Catalan probably would not have been speaking in Catalan now, probably would not have adopted the language that to me, then, was neither mother nor social but only the school (and a little by TV3). If we do not consider newcomers and their descendants real Catalans, and we do not speak Catalan to them, they note that they are just being refused to be Catalans. And finally, they are rejected as Catalans will become something else (for example, are Spanish).

This is, summarized, the tragedy we suffer. This whole process that should happen more naturally having their own state, because we have not, is not happening yet. And if does not happen naturally, then in theory should make it happen consciously, voluntarily and everyday, but we do not. Because, over time, is simply exhausting. You can not always blame the people not to continuously and consciously do what the rest of the world's people do naturally and effortlessly because they have a State. But we can blame all together to not focus our energies on achieving it. Because not only do, but we regret that, day in and day out, the consequences of not having this status. Do not put a start to achieve it, and also we lose ourselves in the desert wrapped in our own miseries.

And bound to the principle for the construction of this new State not only can not leave out the newcomers for their own moral dignity, but they and their descendants are absolutely essential. Especially for the enormous wealth of pure winning character off those entrepreneurs, who for ambition or need, and unlike others who remain, leave everything behind in their homeland and are able to take roots and integrate to the land of welcome, living there, having descendants and assimilating their way of thinking and acting (exactly what the Catalan identity is), and ultimately succeed in the goal with the initial fear of the unknown. And this is precisely what is needed to achieve independence, do we realize? Character winning decision, assumption of risk in exchange for the option for a better and more dignified future than that of the submissive slave, because the gains are usually proportional to the risk assumed in the bet.

To conclude, once again I will use my own example. My parents came here because they wanted to have a prosperous future, and I also had too, and every opportunity in life. Well, one of the biggest reasons why I work to achieve independence is that I do not like to find myself soon in the same situation as them 30 years ago. They came to stay, and I do not want to have to go to another country for my children if I ever have all chances. The Catalans are still able to make our country prosperous for many decades if we take the independence we have now more than ever at your fingertips and abandon forever this nightmare.

Imagine the extraordinary and overwhelming positive feedback from a moral and collective enthusiasm at the beginning of this enterprise that will become common in our society. Nobody is aware of that involved in this spiral of positive energy, so the result of a referendum will not be more than simply a logical and natural to join this national cohesion and winning character, ie the the recovery of the Catalan spirit.

Therefore, the Catalans, started on the path towards independence, towards a country, adult, responsible and better. It is not only imperative but also an indication, an announcement: we have already begun the journey. And above all, we are starting together all Catalans, old and new.

Juan Manuel Rodriguez
Councillor Catalunya Accio

When most visible becomes our collective condition of submission, some of our compatriots inclined to demoralize would like to throw in the towel. This state of mind is not only due to our inexistent trust in our leadership –we are unable to see them giving us a victory as a nation-, but combined with the most diffused voices within the public opinion, which are constantly generating a perception that Spain is winning the battle. In addition to that, the occupiers publish what they loot in form of fiscal balances and it does not happen anything.

Among our most representative people, all are laments and calls to resistance, and the formulae to escape from them are always the same: to stay put, to use the little we have and pray to the Virgin of Montserrat. No one of our main opinion makers of the country is going  beyond describing the adverse effects of the viruses called Spain and France. We lack so much in patriotic gestures that there have even been who has seen Jose Montilla’s last attitudes in the financial theme some reincarnation of Pau Claris. A victory can never be built on these foundations. Hence, what must be done? To continue with the same old unsuccessful attitudes or to have the audacity to begin walking through new pathways?

There will be who believes that there is no life beyond new political parties with representation in the Parliament. Most of these think that everything has to go through the sieve of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya or Convergencia i Unio, and they limit themselves to force “one step beyond” the main leaders of these formations. We have been so many years without having political parties that we think that maintaining the actual ones is our least harm. But reality says that this way of seeing things has consolidated a harmful ruling of the actual political parties that has smeared all with subsidies, dropping their pants down in front of the government of Madrid and make all kind of buttering up to the great communication or economic groups. It is not strange, then, that the beginning of a sensation that who is really in power within the Principality of Catalonia are some people with office at the top floor of some emblematic buildings in the city of Barcelona.

However, I reckon that seeing the last Congresses of the two parties self-called of exclusive Catalan subjection –what a sarcasm!- it does not invite to a lot of optimism. Seeing their results and confirming that the sensation that the end of an era has arrived it is the same thing. Their principal leaders would like to lengthen to the infinite the era of blurriness, but the people with clear Catalan national awareness is fed up with waiting and want something happening. They are neither willing to wait another ERC congress in June nor they believe the euphemisms that came out in the last conclave of CiU. Patriotic people want clarity because they consider exhausted the times of fuzziness. Ambiguity would work in other times and being the essence of one political party. This characteristic has even become one of the polling clues to govern Catalonia for twenty-three years. What has remained? A profound deception and the sensation that they have eaten some ground. This is how the promoters of this politics have acted, what can we expect from their political offsprings?

For all this, the idea of a new political formation that embodies a real, authentic, modern and operative support for independence is taking shape. With faces and styles without any connexion with thirty years of abandoning own principles. Possibly, this feeling is produced at the moment in small cores but is spreading quickly, and without any doubt is combined with the incompetency of the actual leadership of the country and the colonial treatment that Spain is brooded about visualize constantly. However, who will thread the needle?
From Catalunya Acció, we shall never tire to repeat this necessary convulsion in our politic arena. Even more, we shall not remain here. We shall do everything possible to become one of the foremost makers shaping this new hope that every day claim more Catalan patriots.

Santiago Espot 
CEO Catalunya Acció
(Article published at El Punt, 10-10-08)

As well as being imperialist, excluding and false –because it does not exist as a Nation-, Spain is xenophobic and racist. Somebody save it from this strong qualifications, because there is always the common people, strange to the imposing politics of the centralist oligarchy from Madrid, who do not know anything and do not understand anything…

The extreme racism against Catalonia is silently promoted by the central Governments from two centuries ago. A careful silence that is represented in the highlights of the newspapers, radio and television stations that follow suite to the cavern and play the game throw the stone, hide the hand. This racist game against Catalonia is also played regularly by the representatives of the law, the CGPJ –Consejo General del Poder Judicial-, TS –Tribunal Supremo-, TSJC –Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Catalunya-, TC –Tribunal Constitucional-, National Police, Civil Guard. Numerous cases that might be attributed to any of them appear every day, do not make me list them all or we would fill the article.

The priority for the Spaniards promoters of racism, the disqualification and humiliating delectation against the Catalan people is to make us oblivious of, to minimize and to dilute the main; the daily looting of our wallets in the form of taxes that never return where they have been paid from and, later, divide equitably among the other poor communities as per inter-regional solidarity.

Spain obviate the 20th article of the Spanish Constitution to the Catalans. It talks about freedom of speech. They put us under the microscope when we meet and when demonstrate, and they will take very short time to apply any newly invented law to illegalize our political parties supporters of independence that do not follow the game of “the yoke and the arrows” –symbols of Falange Espanola- as it has happened in the Basque Country. The situation is worrying because in Catalonia nobody uses violence to expose their political thoughts. In Catalonia, ideas are exposed and arguments are used, not weapons. But some people from the Castilian meseta and other regions do not understand that Catalan people show their ideas within current legality.

Looking at it, is normal, because Catalans have been a mere colony of Spain, whose object for looting is not oil or copper but the money we earn working hard and that, year after year, is converted in infrastructures and equipments from the Ebro to the South.

The Spanish central government does not doubt to approve a fascist demonstration of the Falange Espanola, corroborated by the TSJC, which is the heir to those whom arrived at the people’s homes at night, loaded up the lorry and shoot our ancestors by the cemeteries and other dark places, something not heard of in the civilized countries of the Europe of the 15.

The Spanish central government does not doubt to hinder all those who, always within actual legality, demonstrate their Catalan nationality or their desire for independence, as if it was a crime. Something like trying to prohibit freedom of thought, freedom of choice by the citizens. To declare oneself to support the independence movement of Catalonia in Spain, or to declare oneself as nationalist, is to call oneself “red, hairy, mason, horny and tailed evil”. As in the best times of the Francoist regime.

One of the main conditions for a country to be democratic is freedom of speech, reunion and association. It seems that in Catalonia has not arrived democracy yet. Every time that one initiative that does not agree with the unity of Spain beyond universe takes off, no matter who is in power in Madrid (either PSOE or PP), all Spanish powers bring up the untouchable and holy book of the Spanish Constitution to suppress that movement. They know that with this movement comes the unification of the Spanish Budget, more that the unity of Spain.
Visca Catalunya Lliure!

Pedro Moron de la Fuente
Writer and journalist
President of the association Catalonia Acord

September 13th, 2009. The Catalan city of Arenys de Munt wakes up on that Sunday, two days after the National Holiday, being the first city in the Country to convoke their inhabitants to a plebiscite where the question is: “Do you agree that Catalonia becomes a State of right, independent, democratic and social, part of the European Union?” The two and only possible answers are “Yes” or “No”.

Everything seems peaceful, in order, until two coaches arrive in the city. Those two coaches are not welcome in there. Heavily protected by anti-riot police, they bring unwanted people to the city, people whose sense of evolution has never moved from the darkest ages and who bring sad memories of war, exile, bombings, censorship and fear.

They stop at the Placa Catalunya in Arenys de Munt and start unloading the object of such protection, fifty-eight militants of Falange Espanola. They are next to nothing in Spanish politics nowadays, but they were the only political party allowed in Francoist Spain (1939-75). Ideologically fascist, openly in favour of any Spanish dictatorship and against anything that questioned the unity of Spain. They do not accept any diversity of thought, “One Spain, not fifty-one”, they say. Obviously, they do not apologise for the crimes committed during the dictatorship period nor they show remorse for not doing so. Why? They were the winner side of the war; they had the power during that regime. Spaniards had the chance to make them pay for their crimes, and lost it thirty years ago. Catalans lost, they must feel the consequences.

Despite being allowed by the Spanish Supreme Court, the fascist demonstration only counted with fifty-eight members of Falange Espanola. In front of them, a crowd of thousands of Catalans, kept by the police at long range. Despite one megaphone, the voices of the thousands of Catalans for independence suffocated the fascist’s claim for unification.

The day went by with no remarkable incident, especially after the fascists packed up, jumped up the coaches and turned back to Spain. We did not want you here in the first place, goodbye.

While the Spanish Justice authorized the fascist demonstration, did not permit this poll to occur. So that the organizers had to put in practice the "Plan B".

However, there is an unsettling feeling that seems to keep flying over Catalonia every time and never disappears completely. It comes from the so-called Spanish Justice. Now, the Superior Court in Catalonia has made public a note where the judges do not understand why “the freedom of speech has been criticized”. From Catalunya Acció we ask the Judges of such Court to wander what the hundreds of thousands of people shot by Francoist forces during the fierce repression that followed their victory in 1939 would have said. And ask the hundreds of thousands who had to exile the same question too.

At the same time, a pacific poll –an expression of democracy- is forbidden. Double standards? No, exercise of freedom of speech, say the Judges. I understand that you have freedom of speech in Spain only if you follow the official discourse and do not pretend to see a Free Catalonia; otherwise there is silence, or prison. And the –Constitutional- threat of being sent the Army without request.

As you may see, all was very democratic. And freedom of speech was protected. The winner's side's freedom, the other does not deserve it. Because they were the losers, they must feel –and fear- the consequences.

Luckily, several MEP’s from different European countries pointed at the not-so-free Spain and its flawing Justice. Why is only one side allowed to speak and show symbols and ideas that are forbidden in most European countries? From Catalunya Acció we know it is because of lack of cleansing of the roots of the Spanish system after Franco’s death, which is still full of characters directly involved with the regime that killed and obliged to exile millions of Spaniards. To clear the whole Spanish system from undesirable elements, it is necessary a full and deep regeneration. Several very important Catalan politicians have tried to reform Spain over the last hundred and fifty years, clearly unsuccessfully. Therefore, we know for sure at Catalunya Acció that the only way that Catalonia will be free to speak is with independence, which Arenys de Munt voted massively for (96%). As in this case, it will be achieved by democratic means. The trend is unstoppable, nothing will refrain us from reaching freedom, and then, Catalonia, after three centuries, will stand among the free nations of the world.



Monument at the Montjuic Cemetery (Barcelona). In memory of the executed during the Francoist regime (1939-75)

Jordi Margalef Turull
Catalunya Accio UK

In the last article of this series, I presented the former union or group of countries under the sovereignty of the House of Barcelona and its political structure as origins of federalism, supposing the initial application of the denomination “Catalunya” to that union.

The original denomination: Catalonia

This typical Catalan conception might be the generalized usage, albeit not the only one, because there was no official name as we define it today to refer to that group of territories.

Perhaps at the very beginning the name of “Catalonia” was used to the whole Union because the inhabitants of the Counties of the House of Barcelona might not have any identity connotation, and so it could be applied to Aragon as another possession of the Sovereign. But surely, that denomination was identified as something different by the Aragonese and they did not accept it, hence there is not a single official denomination to the whole of the Crown.

While the Mediterranean countries knew perfectly the territories of the Monarchy as Catalonia –and in this case would be known as the actual Catalan Countries-, it was not rare that Aragonese, Castilian or Hispanic in general without that political culture would call it simply “Aragon”, giving importance to only one territory of the Union, the closest and the one that possessed the title of Kingdom in front of the County of Barcelona.

These contradictions and divergences are not more than another element of the incompatibility of the political culture between Catalans and Spaniards. In fact, the communal existence of the denominations “Catalonia” and “Aragon” within the Chronicles, makes very difficult to know if they are talking about the Principality, the Kingdom of Aragon or the whole Union. What is sure, though, is that in the Chronicles, like Muntaner’s, the term “Catalan” is common in front of the term “Aragonese” to refer to the inhabitants of the different territories.

Some other clear examples, amongst a lot more others, where the denomination “Catalonia” and its derivatives appears to refer to the different territories of the House of Barcelona, its given by Benplantat in his web:

-The Juries at Palermo (Sicily) wrote “Regnum Cathaloniae” when referring to the General Court of Caspe (Aragon).

-Edward III (England) “Mercatores fifeles de partibus Ispaniae, Catalonie et Majoricam”. Majorca was independent in 1340.

-Peter the Great called himself “Heres Cataloniae”, meaning he was the heir of all Kingdoms.

-King James II, in a letter to the Dux of Venice: “…partibus imperi Constantinopolis in Sicilia et Cataloniae”, where the expression Catalonia refers to all Iberian territories.

-King Ferdinand II differentiates between subject traders as “consuli mercatorum tam catalanorum quan castellanorum” (market trades so Catalans as Castilian).

-In the same Constitutions, Vol.I 1292, it says that is not possible to separate the Kingdom of Majorca from the Counties of the North with denomination Catalonia and Kingdom of Aragon, Valencia and Counties of Barcelona, “dominatione Catalonie e dictorum regnorum Aragonum, Valentie et Comitatus Barchinone”. It is clear that the name of these Kingdoms is Catalonia.

Other references:

-1365: the representatives of Majorca wrote to King Peter the Cerimonious, “as Majorcans and populates of that island were Catalan naturals, and that Kingdom was part of Catalonia”.

-1392: Valencian governors addressed to Majorca and complain of the insecurity at sea: “Where is the vigour of the Catalan Nation, that made payable all the surrounding Nations”.

-Vicent Ferrer calls “Catalonia” the Catalan speaking part of Valencia, while he preached in the region of Serrans (Aragonese speaking): “You of the Serrania, who are between Castile and Catalonia, and so take a Castilian word and another Catalan”.

-In the Catalan Civil War (1462-72), Minorca took sides for the Generalitat against the Trastamara’s John II, father of Ferdinand the Catholic. The commotion started in Ciutadella with the chant “Visca Catalunya!”.

Catalonia as a political concept encompassing a diverse Kingdoms and territories was a comparable denomination to what Spain would be in later centuries. The same way that Charles I was known as “King of Spain” without existing any Kingdom with such name, but a set of inherited Kingdoms –almost all them from the old Catalonia, neither Catalan Crown, because no kingdom with such denomination ever existed. The King, though, could receive the treatment “King of Catalonia”, as it is written in the Chronicle of Pere Marsili, 14th Century AD, where they call James I as follows:

"Capitol XXXVII

Lo maestre del Espital per nom Huch de Fuyalalquer ab XV cavalers frares del seu orde, lo qual lo rey havia char e amich especial, e l'havia fet fer maestre en lo regne e en las suas terras per lo maestre major del dit orde, vench al rey de Cathalunya, e demaná sol parlar ab lo rey en presencia dels companyons, e dix: Senyor, pus Deus ha feta la vostra via ó carrera tant be estruga e bona, pregam la vostra pietat que acabets á nos ab los nobles e prelats que el nostre orde haja alcuna rosa en Malorcha".

There are other denominations in use with reference to the King of Aragon, that was the official title of only one of the territories, used preferably to simplify and because it was the title that was superior in hierarchy –king in front of count- and seniority –Aragon before Valencia, Majorca, etc-, to refer to the sovereigns of the House of Barcelona.

-William de Baux, prince of Orange “… to the Emperor of Barcelona”, 1210.

-Marcabru; “Avec l'aide de Portugal et de Navarre e pourvú que l'emperateur de Barcelone", 1261.

15th and 16th Centuries AD: From Catalonia to Spain and the Crown of Aragon. The use of the term “Catalan Nation”

From the Compromise of Caspe (1412) and the enthronization of the dynasty of the Trastamara, Castilian, and the incorporation of more peninsular Kingdoms, like Navarre, Castile and Granada as new partners in the Union, the name of Catalonia as referent was being substituted by Spain, an initially geographical denomination that pretended to facilitate the integration of the new territories joined to the Monarchy of Catalan origins. King Ferdinand II talked of the “Spains” whereas his wife dona Isabella talked only about Castile. This change, from Catalonia to Spain, was not due by imposition of our sovereigns but had to be readily accepted due to the Catalan pre-eminence within the new Crown and as a symbol of our domain. The same adjective “espanol”, with suffix –ol is from Catalan origin. That Spain was an increased Catalonia with new territories and Barcelona as Imperial city where the Crown expanded to the New World, with Our Lady of Montserrat as Saint patron and with a culture that gave works like “Tirant lo Blanc”, “El Llàtzer de Tormos” or “La Celestina” from the Kingdom of Valenca. A rather different Castilian Spain of today, with centre in Madrid and which have been made us believe that existed since the Big Bang.

The denomination “Spain”, originated from “Hispania”, started politically from Catalonia in the Iberian era and in the 15th and 16th Centuries AD with the beginning of a new power –Rome in one case, a dynasty of foreign origin in the other- in our territory. In both periods, the power extended throughout the peninsula and became hostile to the reality of the autochthon Iberian or Catalan population.

But as we know, from Castile, in the same way that happened before with Aragon, did not want to see their incorporation to Catalonia -or Spain- in the same way that to our Nation, and they prefer to sell their “tanto monta, monta tanto” as a political conception of union of two crowns, theirs and Aragon, never Catalonia! Effectively, the name “Crown of Aragon” began at that time and in 1493 the old “Consell Reial” –Royal Council- was transformed into the “Consell d’Aragó” –Aragonese Council-. And naturally, the name “Crown of Aragon” was imposed by the revisionists when Catalonia was governed from Castile and in Castilian way during the 16th Century.

This is the vistion that has been imposed by Spain and that is observed today as “Crown of Aragon” or even worse, “Kingdom of Aragon”, which is what is learnt by Catalans and the rest of the world as the only certain and valid History, like they say that Catalan Kings were Aragonese, that the Catalan flag was Aragonese and that Catalan conquests in the Mediterranean were Aragonese –and exclusively Castilian were the territories in the Atlantic, something absolutely false-. Burying their Catalanism under a few layers of confusion, which pretends to exclude and erase us from the past.

The transformation of the political subject of what Catalonia was within Spain by their sovereigns, with the territorial enlargement in the Iberian peninsula and the application of the name of “Crown of Aragon” to the former Kingdoms would make the Principality become the only territory where the denomination “Catalonia” would apply, in spite of the name “County of Barcelona”. Consequently, inheriting the concept of “Catalan identity” which will be more difficult to maintain in the rest of the nation. In this context, the term Catalan Nation, used long before then, becomes the natural substitute of the term “Catalonia” to refer to the territories of the Monarchy inhabited by Catalans, in front of the official use that was made of “Catalonia”, limited to the Principality and not only to the whole of the territories of the King.

Document of 1444 by the Councillors of Barcelona where “Catalan Nation” is differentiated from “other subjects” of the Prince King.

Naturally, these changes are happening slowly and diffusely, because in the 16th Century we still can observe maps where the denomination “Catalunya” is still attributed to the original territories inhabited by Catalans. Evidently, is simpler to find these references in other countries than in Catalonia, where the Spanish censorship was already working fully. Please observe these two centuries:

Map of 1505 by Andrea Benicasa, preserved at the Vatican Apostolic Library. The denomination that appears in this map is still “Catalonia”, not “Aragon” or “Crown of Aragon”.

Map of 1540 by Battista Agnese. The names that appear are “Catalonia” in one side and “Ispania” on the other, apart from “Regnu Granate”. Do not appear “Castilian Kingdom”, nor “Portugal” that seem to be incorporated to the generic “Ispania”. Neither “Kingdom of Aragon”, “Valencia” nor “County of Barcelona”, included in the generic “Catalonia”.

Map by Americh Despuig (officially known as Amerigo Vespucci), where the name of the Nation is “Regnu Tarraconie et Catelonie”. The denomination “Kingdom of Aragon” is nowhere to be found.

In Naples, the Kings successors to Alfonso the Magnanimous, where treated by the Angevin Party as “Catalans” –“Sto catalano quante ne fa!”, said about Ferdinand I of Naples-.

In Castile, the very King Ferdinand the Catholic was known disrespectfully know as “old Catalan” and “catalanote”.

1554: M. Bandello. Novelle I: "Valenza, gentile e nobilissima, che in tutta Catalogna non è piu lasciva e amorosa città."

The qualification of “Catalans” is known to be given to the Popes of the Borja family, originally from Xativa, by the contemporary Italians -"O Dio, la Chiesa Romana in mani dei catalani"- but even by themselves: Calixtus III was known as “papa catalanus” and considered his pontificate as “gloria nationis catalanae”.

Also from that time, allusions to Catalonia as a Kingdom by Catalanist manipulators like Ferran Colom, son of the Discoverer, and Joan Miquel Servent, the writer. The first, calls “Kingdom of Catalonia” the old Principality, and the latter talks about the Kingdom but also the “viceroyalty of Barcelona”, so that gives the impression that there are diverse viceroyalties, Barcelona amongst them.

From suppression of the Catalan institutions to the destruction of territoriality

As it is known, the loss of the Succession war in the 18th Century AD meant the elimination of the institutions of the different Kingdoms of Catalonia, but the territorial conception does not change in great deal with regards the previous two centuries. The old territories of the Principality of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Valencia, and Majorca preserve their denominations even though their own institutions are not maintained and they depend directly from Castile.

It is with the division in provinces in the 19th Century where a new substantial conceptual change of our territories within Spain takes place. With this model, the conception of unity among the Catalan territories aside to Spain –that was already very precarious- is destroyed, and also the unity of each one of the historical territories, now divided in provinces. Now, the denomination Catalunya completely disappears, as also did Aragon or even Castile itself. The old Principality was divided basically in four provinces –the Western Strip, disputed with Aragon for many centuries, was included and spread within the three Aragonese provinces-, the Kingdom of Valencia was divided in three and the Kingdom of Majorca was initially converted in the province of Majorca and later in the Balearic Islands. The new administrative system, of French inspiration, would only admit one Spanish national reference, with clear Castilian base.

These trials of disintegration and destructuralization of the Catalan territories would go a higher level with projects that did never become real and which pretended to separate the South of the old Kingdom of Valencia from the rest of the territory, in a zone that would include Albacete, Murcia and Alicante, while the territory of Lleida was meant to be grouped with the Aragonese province of Huesca.

This way, we have Catalonia, that, from being the denomination of a whole of the territories was the official denomination of one of those that formed part of the Union, to finally disappear.

Beginning to revert the process

With the First Spanish Republic, only lasting a few months, the name “Catalunya” was recovered as denomination of one of the federate States projected, corresponding to the old Principality, and it would not be until the “Mancomunity”, beginning of the 20th Century, that an administrative organ was created, as a simple group of four Spanish provinces, suppressed with the Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship. The name Catalonia was restored with the Second Spanish Republic in the form of autonomous government as a substitute of Catalan Republic. This autonomy was equally suppressed by the Francoist dictatorship and being restored again within an autonomous regime that put back the Principality, the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands in charge of a minimal self management in the internal maps of the Castilian State, in company with and diluted at the same level of new autonomies within the Castilian nation like Madrid, the two Castiles, Rioja, Cantabria…

During all these centuries of Spanish distortion and with clear destructive will of our Nation, uninterruptedly have shown, throughout the territory, voices and references to the universal Catalanism of the Pricipality, Valencian Country and Balearic and Pine Islands, that more or less clearly due to clandestinity have arised. The question of the name of the Nation still reappears today, intermittently, to remind us that we have an unresolved question: recover the power to redefine us without the interference from whom question our existence as a Nation.

We must begin the recovery, without euphemisms, of the denomination of the old territories of the House of Barcelona, especially the Catalan speaking ones, as a minimal historical denomination. Aragonese Crown is not valid, and even less is Kingdom of Aragon, that would not be a denomination used by neither our Monarchs nor the Chroniclers, until it was created and imposed by the new Spanish powers in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries. Neither valid are other modern euphemisms like Catalano-Aragonese Crown, never used in that era which, more than reflect the reality, repeats the Spanish concept. Catalonia is a historical name that our Nation applied to the diverse territories, perfectly documented and real during the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th Centuries, no matter that some have wanted to bury it.

Published at “Es Poblat de’n Talaiotic”