Vol. 81/No. 44 November 27, 2017
Madrid steps up attack against Catalan
government, autonomy
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s governing Partido Popular party called snap elections in Catalonia for Dec. 21, hoping a slate of candidates opposing independence will win. However, they also said that if independence supporters are re-elected, they will annul the vote and keep running the province from Madrid.
Rajoy’s government has used the judicial system to overrule decisions by legislative bodies and issue arrest warrants against legally elected representatives.
Madrid started running the Catalan administration Oct. 30 after the regional parliament declared independence three days earlier, defying the government’s orders to stand down.
Catalonia’s President Carles Puigdemont and four of his ministers fled to Brussels to avoid arrest and speak out against Madrid. Spain’s Attorney General José Manuel Maza filed charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement against them. If found guilty, they face 30 years in prison.
Maza got a judge to issue an international arrest warrant — good across the EU — for the five Nov. 3. They are free in Belgium until a Nov. 17 court hearing that will decide whether they should be extradited to Spain. Meanwhile, eight other former members of the Catalan government are held without bail in pretrial custody in Madrid, facing the same charges.
Carme Forcadell, the speaker of parliament, and five other legislators were released Nov. 10, four of them on bail. They had to pledge to comply fully with Madrid’s emergency powers and “renounce any actions outside the constitutional framework.” That means they can’t run in the December election on a platform calling for independence.
Madrid hopes its suspension of Catalan self-rule will quell the movement for national rights that has grown in recent years. The clash came to a head Oct. 1 when the Spanish government sent in thousands of police and soldiers to attempt to stop a referendum on independence. The attempt failed and the vote passed overwhelmingly, but less than half of those eligible to cast ballots took part.
Support for Catalan national rights had surged in preceding years on the heels of the deep economic downturn in 2007-2008 and a 2010 ruling in Spain’s Constitutional Court that revoked key aspects of Catalan autonomy, including parts of the 2006 Autonomy Charter that had been passed by referendum in Catalonia and adopted by the Spanish parliament.
A demonstration of hundreds of thousands — 750,000 according to municipal police — came out to protest Madrid’s arrests and charges Nov. 11 in Barcelona, demanding the release of the prisoners. There have also been sizable actions in opposition to a split from Spain, drawing participation from all over the country.
The middle-class and professional layers that form the social base for Catalonia’s pro-independence organizations counted on a favorable reception to a breakaway from leaders of the EU. Instead, the bureaucracy in Brussels and capitalist governments of EU member states have backed Madrid’s crackdown, while remaining silent about the jailings and thuggish police assaults.
They fear a successful breakaway would encourage further splintering in the EU.
While street actions demanding the release of the prisoners have been numerous and sizable, a Nov. 8 general strike called by some smaller union federations and pro-independence groups did not draw large participation. Some roads and commuter train lines were blocked and caused traffic jams, but 85 percent of the union-staffed Metro services in Barcelona were running. The port area and other industrial zones were not affected.
The two main union federations — Commisiones Obreras and Unión General de Trabajadores — which represent 85 percent of union members in Catalonia, did not back the strike.
Support for separation is lower in the working-class districts of Catalonia. Both the federal rulers and the Catalan pro-independence government responded to the deep crisis of capitalist production and trade beginning in 2008 that hit Spain hard with “austerity” attacks on wages, social benefits and working conditions. While these attacks sparked anger, many workers don’t see breaking away from Spain as an effective way to fight back.
All pro-independence parties, as well as one that doesn’t back a split but says that it’s Catalonians’ right to decide, have announced plans to run in the elections.
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