As it happens, Counterpunch published this morning an essay that accomplishes two tasks, (1) furnish Spain's legacy in Catalunya; and (2) refute the ambivalent intentions of Spain's constitutional letter.

Whatever post-Franco party has been in power, Madrid has always done everything possible to suppress Catalonia's attempts to claim the right to self-determination but, this time, as October 1 looms, the response against a peaceful citizen movement has been much rougher than anyone imagined, including measures like police and Guardia Civil ships in the harbor, water-cannon trucks roaring along the highways, helicopters clattering overhead, taking control of Catalan finances, raiding the offices of the government's IT center, the Foreign Affairs Ministry and Catalan government offices, detaining fourteen officials, impounding close to ten million ballot papers (so activists took printers into the streets to make off new ones), shutting down websites about the election (swiftly restored with mirror sites), and placing the Catalan police (Mossos) under the command of a colonel from the Guardia Civil (who, from a long lineage of Franco supporters, was charged with torture in 1992).

"The Rule of Law Such As Ours" (And as Imposed in Catalonia)

Article 155 was damningly described by Pedro Cruz Villalón, none other than a former President of the Constitutional Court of Spain, as the most aggressive and unfortunate exponent of a conception of state unity which is latent in Article 2 as something preexisting, prior to and, accordingly, superior to the Constitution itself as well as the whole legal system. This absurd situation of a constitution that annuls itself in the name of the unity it hallows signals serious legal problems which, affecting Spain as a whole, date back to the "Transition" (from the Franco regime). This was actually a non-transition, or continuity dressed up as a formal, legal break with the past, and aiming to restore the monarchy and leave the hegemony of the dominant social group unscathed.

For my part I think, Orwell's and Chomsky's authority over English-speakers' image of Catalan revolution within Spanish Civil War of the '30s finally hit its nadir. I note with interest that Podemos is not mentioned here with Cuidados. It is as if for the authors political groups' dominion were indeed redundant and dissolved in unity of the bourgeois and "proletariat" sentiments since Colau's election. We shall see. We shall see how far civil disobedience can carry their cause.


Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Before 2015, the CC was not a Court of Justice. However, through the Organic Law 15/2015 of 16 October 2015, it was reformed to receive new powers with which to enforce its decisions, forcing judges, courts and public administrations to act with urgency if the court asked.

This was not only met with criticism by judges of the court, but also by many external jurists and the Venice Commission which strongly criticised giving the CC the task to execute its own judgments, usually attributed to other state powers.

In consideration of EU concern about Poland's and Hungary's constitutional violations, the EC mandate increasingly appears weak and petty.
Europe Can't Remain Silent Over The Catalan Crisis
Europe's silence on Catalonia risks EU credibility
The European Commission refuses to answer
Mayor of Barcelona calls for EU to mediate in Catalonia

"It is my obligation as mayor... to call on the European Commission to open a space for mediation between the Spanish and Catalan governments to find a negotiated and democratic solution," she wrote.

Barcelona "does not want a collision with unforeseen consequences. I am convinced most of our European partners do not want that either," she said.

Barcelona, one of Europe's biggest tourist destinations, is starting to resemble a war zone.

Thousands of national police have been moved into the city to stop regional authorities holding an independence referendum on Sunday.

On Thursday, students and other activists began staging protests and sit-ins to defend what they see as their right to vote. The city is bracing for what could be the worst civil confrontation since democracy was restored in the 1980s.

Despite several reports of polling stations being closed down by Spanish police across Catalonia, the Guardian's Sam Jones says hundreds of people are still queuing up to vote at Cervantes primary school and Escuela Mireia in Barcelona.

People waiting in line to vote are cheering those who have already managed to do so.

Voting has started. Guardia Civil is seizing ballot boxes. There has been some scuffles but nothing major so far.

Agentes de la @guardiacivil requisan las urnas instaladas en el pabellón deportivo de Sant Carles de la Rápita, Tarragona#EstamosporTI pic.twitter.com/AHMpbUSQAz

— Ministerio Interior (@interiorgob) October 1, 2017

Guardia Civil posted this clip of Mossos and Guardia Civil arguing (I think).

Algunos parecen no tenerlo nada claro. Vergonzoso. pic.twitter.com/NinygR2GMy

— AUGC Guardia Civil (@AUGC_Comunica) 1 oktober 2017

I guess the crisis will continue tomorrow. The Spanish government has done much today to strengthen separatism, as the momentum for separatism tends to a large extent rest on the present state being intolerable. Sending in police to bludgeon people and carry away ballot boxes should add to that feeling.

Las Palmas condemns Sunday's Catalan referendum, will wear a Spanish flag on their jerseys in the football match against Barcelona.

https:/tribuna.com/fcbarcelona/en/news/2365280

Match was played without fans, Fc Barcelona won 3-0.

[Still a few days in this oasis of heat, inequality and lack of democracy ... a state of wealth existing by grace of Allah, and migrant workers paid by pure capitalistic principles]

'Sapere aude'

Because the EU can't turn a blind eye to police violence!

👉 #EPlenary will debate situation in #Catalonia on 04/10#CatalanReferendum pic.twitter.com/NFZcD38YYn

— Europagruppe GRÜNE (@Gruene_Europa) October 3, 2017

It is not too late to stop the break-up of Spain

WHEN a democracy sends riot police to beat old ladies over the head with batons and stop them voting, something has gone badly wrong. Catalans say that almost 900 people were hurt by police in the referendum for independence on October 1st. Whatever the provocation from Catalan leaders in staging an unconstitutional poll, the reaction of Mariano Rajoy, the prime minister, has thrown Spain into its worst constitutional crisis since an attempted coup in 1981.

....

Will Mr Puigdemont declare independence? That would be reckless and irresponsible but, if he does, Mr Rajoy should resist the temptation to arrest Catalan leaders and, for the time being, avoid using his power to suspend regional rule. Just now, either measure would only compound his mistakes.

Only a negotiation can restore calm and it should start immediately. Even now most Catalans can probably still be won over with the offer of greater autonomy, including the power to raise and keep more of their own taxes, more protection for the Catalan language and some kind of recognition of the Catalans as a "nation". Mr Rajoy might even take up the opposition Socialists' idea of turning Spain into a federal state.

Any settlement, though, must include the option of a referendum on independence. Separation would be a wrenching change for Catalonia and the rest of Spain, so should not be done lightly. A majority of Catalans eligible to vote should be the minimum threshold for independence. A follow-up vote on the terms of a separation might be wise, too.

"We feel both Catalan and Spanish," Araceli Ponze, 72, said during Sunday's rally. "We are facing a tremendous unknown. We will see what happens this week but we have to speak out very loudly so they know what we want."

Puigdemont will address the Catalan parliament at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Tuesday on "the current political situation" amid speculation he could ask the assembly to declare independence.

Sunday's demonstration in Barcelona was organised by the anti-independence group Catalan Civil Society to mobilise what it believes is a "silent majority" that opposes independence.

"The people who have come to demonstrate don't feel Catalan so much as Spanish," said 40-year-old engineer Raul Briones, wearing a Spanish national soccer team shirt. "We like how things have been up until now and want to go on like this."

Reportage over the past week is developing a profile of businesses within the "silent majority" on which Cataluyna's prosperity purportedly rely.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

We must be responsible and de-escalate tensions to protect social cohesion. Declaration on the current situation in Catalonia: pic.twitter.com/XGdnkaAL7U

— Ada Colau (@AdaColau) October 10, 2017

The leader of the opposition Socialist Party, Pedro Sanchez, said meanwhile that his side and the government had agreed to study a possible constitutional reform to try to end the crisis. The debate would focus on "how Catalonia remains in Spain, and not how it leaves," Sanchez told reporters.