dilluns, 25 d’octubre del 2010

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.

dilluns, 18 d’octubre del 2010

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.

dimarts, 12 d’octubre del 2010

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.

dijous, 7 d’octubre del 2010

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.