The Catalan lipdub for independence, world record

Up to 5730 people have finally participated in the historic Lipdub for Independence. It was  was recorded on Sunday at Vic (Osona), so the bulk interpretation of 'Flame', the Valencian band Obrint Pas (Opening Step): The lipdub get a certificate of World Records Academy as the most followed lipdub. You can follow this at Nació Digital.

Five parties claim Autonomy for Northen Catalonia

On September 26, five political parties met in Donibane Lohizune (French Basque country) to discuss the proposed land reform the French government. The parties issued a joint statement where they observe that the government's response is global even meeting different scenarios. The proposals, they say, tend to go back on decentralization and local democracy using the excuse of simplifying and good management committed to measures that reinforce centralism. Examples are made the suppression of "pays” (countries) in Brittany and Northern Basque Country (Iparralde).


However there are positive aspects as the mergers in Alsace and Savoie (now divided into two departments each), or the reunification of Brittany. The statement claims to transform the Catalan and Basque departments into news entities with special status. This figure already exists in Corsica as a self-government with limited powers.
The signatories of the declaration are Unser Land of Alsace, Parti Breton / Strollad Breizh Brittany, Democratic Convergence of Catalonia North Ligue Savoisienne and Basque Nationalist Party of Euskadi North.

Thousands demonstrated in València

Thousands of Valencian people demonstrated on October 9th in defense of their roots, the culture and social cuts against the Spanish government. Called by various organizations and parties led by the capital Acció Cultural del País Valencià (ACPV), Valencian Country Cultural Action resorted to 15,000 people according to the organization. The march commemorated the entry of Aragon and the Catalan troops of James I to the city from the river Turia on 1238. In Castelló de la Plana dozens of people stopped an Spanish fascist concentration.

Letter to President Obama about Catalonia

Harvard professor Obama can now apply his theories of democracy on Catalonia.
The Catalan independence star, here on July 10, is taken from the Cuban flag, whose independence leader was the Catalan José Martí.


Anthropology professor Susan M. DiGiacomo has written to former Constitutional Law professor Obama about the scandalous disrespect for democracy by Spanish nationalists and their corrupt Supreme Court denying fundamental constitutional rights to Catalans (Search Carter Calls for Catalan Independence).

I write to you not only in your capacity as President of the United States, but also as a former professor of Constitutional Law. In The Audacity of Hope, you propose we understand democracy “not as a house to be built, but as a conversation to be had. The American Constitution organizes the way by which we argue about our future. Implicit in its structure, in the very idea of ordered liberty, was a rejection of absolute truth, the infallibility of any idea or ideology, any tyrannical consistency that might lock future generations into a single unalterable course.“ In Catalonia what is happening is precisely this attempt to end conversation by arguing that the house is already built, constitutionally, and that no further debate is even legimate. A completely politicized court uses the Constitution as a weapon to crush the legitimate national aspirations of a people and to set absolute limits. Its statute of autonomy was approved no fewer than three times: by the Catalan parliament, by the Spanish Congress, and by the Catalan people in a referendum. What is happening here, then, is an assault on democracy. In the United States, when the will of the people is not reflected in the Constitution, the Constitution has been amended. What the Spanish court has done is to consider the Spanish Constitution untouchable, engraved in stone, and their reading of it is so restrictive that the democratically expressed will of the Catalan people has no place in it. Catalonia is an ancient European nation with an equally ancient tradition of representative government, predating the English Magna Carta. In the Middle Ages Catalonia was an independent polity. Catalonia did not lose its institutions of self-government until 1714, by force of arms when an absolutist monarchy came to power. With the death of General Franco, Catalonia began to recover once more its political institutions abrogated by the victorious fascists. On July 10, more than a million Catalans filled the streets of Barcelona to reject the court’s decision. Increasing numbers of Catalans see no other path to national survival except through full sovereignty within the framework of the European Union. There is nothing in international law that prevents a people from unilaterally declaring independence. Former president Jimmy Carter in Barcelona described the court’s decision as an error, and offered to send observers in the event of a referendum on Catalan independence. I ask only that you establish contacts with the Catalan government that will emerge from this fall’s election. Catalonia badly needs international interlocutors and international visibility.

Catalan News Agency: a fantastic tool

Next October 1st, the Agència Catalana de Notícies (ACN) will present its English news service, the Catalan News Agency (CNA). ACN’s director Saül Gordillo says that the CNA aims to publish main news stories from Catalonia for an international audience. “The CNA wants to inform people from abroad about Catalonia, but from a Catalan point of view, so that foreign media do not only have the perspective of the Madrid based press”, argued Gordillo.

The director of the agency says that the CNA is an “ambitious” project. He explained that the English website is not an automatic translation of the agency’s main contents. On the contrary, journalists elaborate the information in English starting from scratch, bearing international media and the public in mind. “We offer more contextualised information that helps to understand the Catalan reality (...) There is no news provider in Catalonia with the intention of being understood abroad”.
The director of the agency said that the CNA is a “strategic plan for the future”' in order to “open” the company to the world. “The Agència Catalana de Notícies is the national news agency of Catalonia. As a public service, we thought that we should project Catalonia into the world. And to do it in English, especially in this moment of economic crisis and when the relationship between Catalonia and Spain is widely discussed”, he stated.
The English language service of the Catalan News Agency has 3 parts:
- The first one is a digital newspaper that includes the main news stories of the day.
- The second part of the website is an opinion blog called 'Catalan Views' in which recognised figures from the Catalan political, cultural, economic and social spheres participate.
- The third one is a newsletter with the most important information from the last fifteen days that will be sent to Catalan institutions abroad, foreign media, enterprises, tourist operators and universities. All the content of the CNA website is multimedia.

A former Catalan regional minister with Solidarity

A former minister of the Catalan regional government has announced it will support the new coalition SCI. Carles Solà was born in Xàtiva, Valencian Country on 1945.He awarded a PhD degree in Chemistry, he has carried out research in Biochemical Engineering with 130 publications, having tutored 22 doctoral theses. Solà was Rector of a Catalan University (UAB). He also was president of the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities and member of the Executive Committee for the International Association of University President as well as member of the Board of the European University Association. He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa in Science from the University of Southampton (1999) and is member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Solà was proud to be in the last position in the Solidarity’s list. He says this is the best option fos catalan people to be independent and to be, withou filters, in Europe.
Other personalities are supporting the new movement as the Valencian writer Isabel Clara-Simó, prominent teachers of law and economics as Hèctor López Bofill and Emili Valdero or the notary Alfons López Tena. They are forming a storng team with key personalities of the “referendum movement” as uriel bertran and Anna Arqué. Last year about 500 referendums have been organized across the country with half a milion voters.

Reagrupament strong effort

The party lead by Doctor Joan Carretero is doing a strong effort to be visible. Some days there are ten meetings in several localities to explain the independence benefits. Reagrupament Independentista (Independentist Rally) will be the name of the electoral platform. About twenty electoral offices have been open last weeks to support their list. On eleventh September Reagrupament was one of the stronger movements to mobilize people with a popular lunch and a demonstration. The last one was followed by more than two thousand people.

Spanish terrorist attack against independentist meeting

Around 21 hours on Saturday 09.18.2010, during the presentation of the Catalan Solidarity Independence in Cervera (Segarra), unidentified individuals burned a Catalan Starry flag (cpopularlu called “estelada”), approximately ten feet. It hunged from the main facade of the Gran Teatre de La Passió de Cervera, the theather were the meeting took place. A number of firefighters personed immediately to the scene while the fire was initially turned off by a member of the organizing team. The fire did not caused any injury.

There were a strong crowd of four hundred people inside the building, who had not news of the fact until the end of the event. Sources firefighters ensured that the fire, very bulky, could jeopardize the integrity of the building, which housed hundreds of reminding people of all ages inside. Solidaritat Catalana per la Independència asked Spanish nationalist parties to denounce the terrorist attack. Nor PSOE, PP or C’s did it. This is a reason to be ilegalized in the Spanish law. Is this law the same for everybody?.

Fist meeting for independence held in Arenys

On September 12th was held the first gathering for Independence in Arenys de Munt. It celebrated the anniversary holding the first consultation on the independence of Catalonia. Since then there have been about 400 consultations with over 50,000 volunteers. Last three consultations were celebrated on September 11th with a 87-95 % of yes.

The congregation met a crowd of three thousand in the Maresme’s town In the framework of the festival was signed on Commitment of Arenys de Munt. The text says: "We are committed, and the political forces which be belong, to propose, to the Parliament that will emerge from the elections planned for this fall, to work to build, the most socially possible, to exercise our right of self-determination. After it we can break the constitutional pact and to hold a referendum that allows all people to express on the Catalonia’s desire to become an independent state "

It was signed by Catalan Solidarity Independence represented by Joan Laporta. Rally with his president Joan Carretero and ERC. The ERC’s representative was the European Parliament Oriol Junqueras. In the afternoon Moisès Broggi opened the monument to independence. A lot of people demanded Solidaritat and Reagrupament to unite.

Demonstrations for independence throughout Catalonia

September eleven is the Catalan national day. It evokes the last day of Catalan freedom before to be defeated by French and Spanish armies on 1714. The night before torchlights marched through forty villages. In Berga there were three hundred people, in Vilafranca the march was followed by 2.000 and three thousand lighted Manresa or Vic.


Demonstrations for independence were convoked the days ten and eleven. For instance in Vic, Reus, Lleida (half a thousand people for independence and 2.000 demanded more self-government), Girona (5.000 for independence and 200 for self-government) and Barcelona. In the main city division between several independentist proposals was highly lamented. Local police counted nine thousand people (last year they counted 14.000). Organizers counted 30.000 as the last year.

A fist march ended in the Fossar de les Moreres were 1714 martyrs are buried. There was a meeting and some masked people burned Spanish and French flags as well as a portrait of the Spanish king. All this acts are prosecuted with high penalties in Spain. In USA you have the right to burn a USA’s flag. The second march was lead by civical platforms with no political form (Plataforma pel Dret a Decidir and Sobirania I Progrés). It was followed by two new independentist parties, Catalan Solidarity for Independence and Rally. Some people demanded unity between them because their aims are the same. At last there was the ERC’s march with several members of the autonomous government. Scottish delegations supported ERC and Solidarity and the PQ’s president, P. Maurois, from Quebec, was in the ERC’s block. No violent incident was reported unlike unionists meetings as the World championship celebrations with dozens of people detained or the pro bullfighting who destroyed a ERC’s building last July.

35 Torchlight marches on 10-S

Every September tenth, at night, are held at various Catalan locations torchlight marches. It is a symbolic event the night before the national day: the eleventh of September. That day, in 1714, Barcelona surrendered to the Spanish invasion that turned the war of succession. Since then, Catalonia lost its rights and institutions.

All in all, on 2003 at Vilafranca del Penedès was held the first torchlight march. The torches symbolize the light of the Catalan resistance despite 300 years of military occupation, economic pillaging and cultural denial.
Gradually there were more people and adding more villages to the point that this year there will be marches in 35 locations. So, that the list is not yet defined. In Manresa, for instance, on last year was held the first of nearly 2,000 people.

Solidaritat (Solidarity) elects candidates in primary elections

Catalan Solidarity for Independence (SCI) has chosen its candidate.
 It has been done with primary elections.
The movement was founded with the intention of creating a grand coalition Catalan independence.
The response of the existing parties has been negative and SCI decided to launch a new electoral list. The primary elections have been an historical step in Catalan democracy history, SCI says.

The movement is led by Joan Laporta (FC Barcelona former chairman) and prominent members from CDC (the party founded by Jordi Pujol), ERC and Reagrupament (meaning Rally).
The lists elected will be lead by Laporta, Hèctor López Bofill (from ERC), and Francesc X. Segura and Toni Strubell (from Rally).

International sheepdogs competition in Catalan Countries

Catalan sheepdogs (gossos d’atura) are the dogs which help sheperds in the work of bringing cattle. They are used all over the Pyrenees (Aragonese, Basque, Catalan and Occitan parts).

Every year an international competition is organized in eight rounds. The fifth round was played yesterday in Castellar de N’Hug. The last one will be held in Felanitx (Mallorca’s island). Castellar de N’Hug is a small and beautiful village in the Catalan mountains. It is placed in the Berguedà region.
All dogs follow a unified regulation, which governs the area, laid out the evidence and gives a score according to the jury, usually composed of veterinarians. Obedience is first valued in the ability to drive sheep. The first contest was played in 1962. A Catalan federation organizes the competition. Josep Armengou, a shepherd from Castellar de N'Hug, once more won the first place. The second one was for Juli Bayoy from Ares del Maestrat (Castelló) and the third one for Miquel Adrover, from mallorca. The public was formed by more than six thousand people.

A Catalan Man in court over Northern Ireland riots

Roger Jorro i Costa, from Barcelona, has been charged with 'riotous assembly' by the British police. The 28-year-old Catalan man has appeared in court in Belfast accused of attempting to murder a policewoman during the Twelth July rioting in Ardoyne, Belfast. The PSNI had issued a photograph of a man investigators wanted to question in connection with an incident in which a policewoman suffered head injuries when a concrete block was dropped on her.
He went to a police station after a photo was released of a man police said they wished to question.

First meeting for independence to be held in September

On September 12 will be held at Arenys de Munt a big meeting (Aplec in Catalan) “for independence”. It will be a festive event coinciding with the first anniversary of the first consultation on independence from Spain organized by civil society. It was on 13thj September 2009. The organizers invite all promoters of consultations on the independence of the Principality to participate, and all the Catalan separatists in a meeting that will pay tribute to the organizing committee, will encourage consultation and decides Barcelona will coincide with the opening the 'Monument to Independence', in homage to the historic launch of the consultations.

The promoters are preparing a lot of festivities with a load of emotion and demands for independence, the desire to make the day 'shaken' again the foundations of current political structures. The celebration will be on September 12 and not 13 because this year falls on Monday, and want to use the conference to bring together the best of separatist movements and to become a day participatory at all levels', according to the Mayor Arenys de Munt, Carles Móra.