Homage to Catalonia: a message for Europe
Yesterday, a referendum was held in Catalonia, in the north-east of the Iberian Peninsula, to decide whether the region should become independent of the Spanish State. To try to prevent this legitimate expression of speech, the Spanish State has used every device it can, finally unleashing its National Police and Civil Guard -- whose reputation for brutality is notorious -- to prevent people casting a vote. It’s the sort of thing one does not readily associate with a modern State which allegedly, conforms to the rules of membership of the European Union
Should we be surprised to have witnessed the scenes of extreme violence and brutality inflicted on the citizens of Catalonia this Sunday? No, we should not.
Police State
I remember Spain under Franco. It was a Police State. The Civil Guard, Spain’s paramilitary police force, were universally loathed. And so they should have been; they were the cudgels of the State, answerable only to Generalissimo Franco.
Free speech
In the 19th century, Simon Bolivar, along with Jose de San Martin, led the nations of South America to independence from Spanish colonialism. Bolivar’s claim — “A people that love freedom will in the end be free” — may well be as relevant today in the Iberian Peninsula as it was almost two centuries ago in Venezuela. The European Union must respond to how the Spanish Government is choosing to handle events in Catalonia.
Hi Ron. The EU is the part that worries me TBH. They are implacably opposed to Catalonian independence. This could rapidly slide out of control and moderate voices need to be heard.
Yes Rod – They are worried, because of the “Domino” effect. There are about 10-12 other regions in the EU that want Self Det or Independence they worry if the accept this, it will open a can of worms.
Also when will the EU finally die. I hate that institution its worse than my Federal Government!
Is it currently on Life Support?
Rick
I wish! The EU is not just undemocratic it is both anti-democratic and virulently opposed to the democratic nation-state, a model which appeared thousands of years ago in Greece and has never been bettered. Underneath its friendly skin, the EU is Marxist in its intentions and philosophy and the sooner it crashes and burns the better
@ Rod Fleming – I agree however even our (current form of democracy) is being destroyed by feminism and ID Politics However I don’t see this lasting too much longer. People can only take so much BS and Social Engineering. You can only push the un-natural so far before people say ENOUGH!
Also I would say Switzerland via its Direct Democracy is superior to the UK and USA system of Government. I also think (In the US or Fed Republics) the States should be able to overturn any Supreme Court and Federal Law. Our Court system is activist based!
I spent last week in the Spanish regions of Cantabria in the North of the country and then in Adalucia in the South. In every bar and restaurant we ate in this was the only topic on anyone’s lips. especially so in Cantabria where they were already talking about how the the proposed referendum would embolden the the Basque hardliners on their doorsteps. Men of the elder men were very serious about their fear of civil war.
The only thing which will suppress this brutality by Madrid will be economic force, a destabilised Spain will have serious effect upon the stability of the single currency and this is only where and when the Bundesbank and Banque De France will start to pull on their puppet strings and mobilise the EU into action.
The other danger is if this becomes a protracted civil war with the EU embroiled and distracted in peacekeeping it could convince our crazy neighbour Vladimir to entice discontent on the eastern borders of Europe, while Donald is busy in a pissing contest with his “Rocket Man”.
As somebody who grew up and lived through the “Cold War” which flourished through inaction. I can’t help but wonder at stupidity of our species in that we seem to learn nothing from our past mistakes.
Hi Amanda. hmm. I don’t think there is room for a conventional civil war. The Catalans have no army and no materiel. If push comes to shove and Rjoy re-annexes Catalonia, then it will become a guerilla war. As you say, Basque separatism has not gone away and an outbreak of conflict will certainly play into their hands.
It depends on Rajoy. He can try to defuse the situation and back down, but he has never shown the political refinement necessary to do that; he’s a thug, not a statesman. The Indie yesterday was saying that the Spanish response, to quell Catalonia, could be worse than the Black and Tans — and we kno9w where that ended up. The EU is the problem. The major EU leaders could just instruct Rajoy to negotiate and he’d have no choice: they are the paymasters and the puppeteers. But they are terrified of the collapse of the old nation-state.
Clearly that collapse is partly a function of the EU itself — as it becomes more powerful and centralised, and encourages regional devolution, the need for national governments becomes questionable. This is the dilemma at the heart of the EU — it is an organisation of nation-states which makes the nation-state redundant. But it wants to appear, at least, to support the nations because 1 they pay it and 2 they are instrumental in persuading people being governed by an unelected bureaucracy that democracy does still exist.
The EU will throw Catalonia to the wolves to pay lip service to the Spanish nation-state but the consequence will be years of instability in Spain and ultimately, with its economy ruined and its cities destroyed by bombs and tanks, Catalonia will get its independence anyway.
If there is any positivity in this it is that it appears to me, at least, to be one more crack in the monstrous megalith of the European Union, which is not just undemocratic but resolutely anti-democratic and at the same time is the greatest homogenising force active in Europe since Rome. Well, Rome over-extended itself, crashed and burned; with any luck, the EU is doing the same thing. The downside is that the fall of Rome left Europe wide open to invasion.
“We spend a great deal of time studying history, which, let’s face it, is mostly the history of stupidity.”
Stephen Hawking