Estatpropi.cat Press Release

The Estat Propi team will present the new www.estatpropi.cat portal in Valencia on February 14. The presentation of the new “Join the Map for Our Own State” campaign website will be hosted by Toni Gisbert of Acció Cultural del País Valencià (Cultural Action of Valencia) and Xavi Sarrià of Obrint Pas. On the same day, Estatpropi will also be present at the “Independentist Activism on the Net” round-table organised by Òmnium Cultural in Barcelona.

Next Thursday, February 14, at 7.30 pm, the Estatpropi team will present the “Join the Map for Our Own State” campaign portal at the Octubre Centre de Cultura Contemporanea (Octubre Contemporary Culture Centre) in Valencia. The public presentation of the new portal will help to explain the varied potential of the website which is to become the reference point for geopositioning via the web 2.0. The presentation will be hosted by Toni Gisbert of Acció Cultural del País Valencià (Cultural Action of Valencia) and Xavi Sarrià (the singer of rock and ska band Obrint Pas), who will analyse the situation in Valencia and assess the impact of the campaign there and in the rest of the Catalan-Speaking Countries.

The new website is to be presented at a gratifying time for the “Join the Map for Our Own State”, which has reached a membership of 17,000 and reached 63% of the towns in the Catalan Countries. The new portal represents one step beyond, of crucial importance, on the campaign’s path. The most obvious change is the design and usability of the site. Furthermore, the campaign logo has also changed, and is now a four-pronged pitchfork. You only need to surf the site to see the many improvements offered, which go from the technical to the conceptual.

From the functional point of view, the portal includes improvements to the membership process and map navigation. Likewise, a new area has been added for buttons, banners and customisable widgets so any blogger or webmaster can add the information that best suits their site: counters, patriotic phrases, Estatpropi news, etc.) Moreover, a personalised fundraising campaign for Estatpropi is to be started in both conventional and digital media, as well as a new novelty-packed statistics section.

Finally, the website is to open its doors to cooperation with other collectives, such as the Federation of Organisations for the Catalan Language (FOLC).

On the same day, but at 7.00 pm in Barcelona, the Estatpropi team will also be present at the “Independentist Activism on the Net” round-table held by Òmnium Cultural, as one in a series of “Thursdays at the Òmnium” salons. As well as Estatpropi, this event will also be attended by other emblematic Catalan independentist collectives on the web, including the Xarxa de Blocaires Sobiranistes (Network of Bloggers for Sovereignty), Llibertat.cat, Freecatalonia, Racó Català and Directe.cat, who will also be presenting their own projects.

Portal Presentation event
Place: Octubre Centre de Cultura Contemporània (OCCC), Sant Ferran, 12, Valencia
Date: February 14, 2008
Time: 7.30 pm
Organized by: Estatpropi
Collaboration: OCCC

Round Table
Place: Seu Nacional d'Òmnium Cultural, Diputació, 276, Principal, Barcelona
Date: February 14, 2008
Time: 7.00 pm
Organized by: Òmnium Cultural - «Els Dijous de l'Òmnium» Salon

In order to prepare an information pack for you, Estatpropi requests your RSVP if you wish to attend. Moltes gràcies.

The Estatpropi.Cat Team
www.estatpropi.cat
info@estatpropi.cat
(+34) 654 25 35 51

Catalan and the European Union

The European Union is made up of 27 member states, with an aggregate of 23 official and working languages. Catalan is not one of them, although its speakers are granted certain linguistic rights: they may use Catalan in written communication with the Council of the European Union, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee, the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman, as well as in the Committee of the Regions.

Catalan is spoken in three member states: Spain – in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon (in La Franja, a strip neighbouring Catalonia) and in Murcia (in the town of el Carxe); France – in the Pyrénées-Orientales department (known as North Catalonia); Italy – in the town of l'Alguer (Alghero). It is also the official language of Andorra, a small non-EU country in the Pyrenees.

However, although spoken by some 9.1 million European citizens the language is not officially recognised by the EU. Does this mean that there are different linguistic rights accorded to different citizens of the EU, depending on their mother tongue? It cannot be argued that this is an issue of economic rationale, that this is a so-called minority language: Catalan is spoken by more European citizens than Danish, Estonian, Finnish, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Slovak and Slovene, and about as many as Bulgarian and Swedish. All of these are recognised official and working languages in the EU, but not Catalan.

This is not democratic: Catalans are not a minority, we are a discriminated, colonised people.

Björk Declares Independence

On the 2^nd of this month, indie webzine Pitchfork published an interview with singer, musician and actress Björk. Björk is Icelandic and still keeps her country in mind, even though she is an international megastar with a manifest, unquestionable multicultural and multidisciplinary style. She is the daughter of a union leader and a politically active mother. You could hardly identify anyone further from the image of provincial nationalism or right-wing jingoism. She does not, however, renounce her roots.

The interview focuses on her album Volta and particularly on her latest single Declare Independence, whose video ends with Björk bearing the flags of Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. Pitchfork asks Björk about this…

It's Greenland's flag and the Faroe Islands' flag. Iceland became independent from Denmark 60 years ago. We were a colony for 600 years, and we were treated really badly, as all colonies are. And Greenland and the Faroe Islands are still part of Denmark. The song was partly written to those countries. In Iceland's newspapers, there's always some talk about the Faroe Islands and Greenland wanting independence, and Greenland seemed close, but then they found a lot of oil, and Denmark doesn't want to let that go. If you were to go into a local bar and ask about Greenland and the Faroe Islands, people get very feisty. People are very supportive of Greenland and the Faroe Islands getting independence. I think that Greenland and the Faroe Islands have looked a lot to Iceland as an inspiration, the way we set up our bank systems, the way we became more and more independent.

And I thought it was hysterical to say to your friend who is having a lot of problems with his girlfriend, to just say 'Declare independence and raise your own flag.' Maybe it's just my silly sense of humor. But it's definitely written to Greenland and the Faroe Islands.

For the full interview, click here.

Spain's Past: A rude awakening

An open letter to the Editor of The Economist on their article on the Spanish Historical Memory Law

Dear Sir,

Re. your article on the Spanish Historical Memory Law, I certainly hope Franco is turning in his grave. I am absolutely sure that many others are also turning in their unidentified roadside graves, along with those who were summarily tried and executed by military tribunals. The latter are still recorded as being criminals, and their descendants have suffered all sorts of discrimination through the years. In fact, this is one of the candent issues not dealt with by the Historical Memory Law: that these victims are not cleansed of the implications that having been found guilty by a military court brings. The Law may be to the satisfaction of Spain's prime minister, but it only qualifies the hearings as “illegitimate”, and nothing further. It does not explicitly annul the trials, leaving the victims’ descendants to bear the costs and burden of going through the administrative bureaucracy of having each hearing made void in order to clear their forbearers’ names. This is still worse for those whose sentences were not execution, and who have lived through a life of discrimination, including not being able to claim war pensions because they fought on the “wrong” side. Likewise, the widows of those who have since died, along with those of the executed, have never been able to claim war widows’ pensions and many have suffered consequent impoverishment. You mention that El Pais implies that the victims never lost their dignity. Is there any dignity in a life of discrimination and being forced into destitution?

Where in Italy or Germany, the authorities would not even dream of maintaining statues and other monuments to Mussolini and Hitler, throughout Spain one finds statues, memorial plaques, street names, etc. commemorating Jose Antonio, the founder of Spain’s equivalent of the Nazi party, many right-wing generals who supported Franco’s rebellion against the democratic government, as well as others paying tribute to Franco himself. These are not “few”, as you say in the article: just look up calle or avenida Jose Antonio or Francisco Franco in Google Maps. And that’s just street names. Can you imagine just one “Hitler Ave.” or a “Dr. Mengele St.” in Germany, or a “Mussolini Sq.” in Italy?

As to the repeal of the Francoist laws you mention, about time say hundreds of thousands of Spanish citizens. The fact these laws still exist after over thirty years of democracy, and that the governments that have come and gone have not found it convenient to repeal them because of the so-called “pact of forgetting", just goes to show the lack of understanding that some parties have of the deep, long-lasting pain suffered by the victims of the Spanish Civil war, brought about by an army uprising aligned with the fascist Axis powers the Allies fought later, and the dictatorial regime following that.

To paraphrase the Armenian guide you quote in your article on Turkish and US policy, “Our objective is not to attack this or that political party. It is to ensure recognition of the victims of the first total war of the 20th century, that of the Axis upon the people of democratic Spain.”

Catalan Independence and Political Activism: A very brief history

Since the end of the War of the Spanish Succession and the defeat of Catalonia by Spain in 1714 after the siege of Barcelona, symbolised annually by the Catalan National "Diada" or Remembrance Day on 11th of September, the Catalan people have constantly been reclaiming their citizens’ rights to freedom and their Constitutions. This struggle has been hidden away by a carefully planned strategy to wipe away the facts and reality of the Catalan polity, its culture and language.

Firstly, the Nueva Planta decrees suppressed the institutions of the lands that were formerly part of the Crown of Aragon (Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia, and the Balearic Islands), including the dissolution of the Generalitat (Catalan government):

"Having ceased with the entry of the arms of the King, Our Lord, to this City and place, the representation of the Council and Generalitat of Catalonia, the most Excellent Lord Marshall Duke of Berwick and Liria has ordered me to mandate that the councillors and judges of accounts (auditors) of the Generalitat of Catalonia furl all ensigns, cease totally, along with their subordinates, the exercise of their offices, occupations and posts, and surrender the keys, books and all other things concerning the house of the Council and its dependencies...." Decree of dissolution, dictated by José Patiño, President of the Spanish “Real Junta Superior de Justicia y Gobierno” (Royal Superior Committee of Justice and Government) on 16th September, 1714.

Having, with divine assistance and the justice of my cause, pacified entirely by my Arms the Principality of Catalonia, my sovereignty established shall govern therein…” Nueva Planta decree, 16th January, 1716.

The hearings of the Royal Audience (Court of appeals) shall be held in the Castilian (Spanish) language.” Article 45 of the Nueva Planta decree, 16th January, 1716.

The government of Philip V sent his Corregidores (Spanish royal civil servants locally representing the Crown) secret instructions that same year and again in 1727, indicating among other things that “You shall take special care to introduce the Castilian (Spanish) language, to which end you shall make the most tempered and disguised provisions, so as not to reveal our concern”.

The suppression of Catalan identity, went on and on. King Charles III signed a Real Cédula (Royal Warrant) whereby:

“I mandate that the education of the first readings, Latinity and Rhetoric be made generally in the Castilian (Spanish) language, wherever practised, and that the corresponding Courts and Justices take care to enforce its compliance, recommending also by My Council that the Bishoprics, Universities and the Regular superiors keep exact observation and diligence in extending the general language of the [Spanish] Nation for greater harmony and mutual bond.” Article VII of the Royal Warrant signed at Aranjuez on 23rd June, 1768

Yet another Warrant bans Catalan from mercantile records:

“.. that all Merchants and Traders, whether wholesale or retail, Domestic or foreign, shall observe the Law of the Kingdom therein and which provides for Records in the Castilian (Spanish) language.” Royal Warrant signed by Charles III of Spain on 24th December, 1768

This has continued to the present day, with further peaks of repression under the absolutist monarchy and the civil wars during the 1800s, the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera in the 1920s, and Franco’s regime from 1939 onwards.

Notwithstanding, the Catalan nation, defending her rights, culture, heritage and language, and thus Catalonia’s identity, has resisted without abate:

• 1734 – “Via fora els adormits” (Get out with thee the drowsy), a pamphlet against the Bourbon monarchy, is published.
• 1736 – A letter is published, addressed to George II and titled “Reminder of the Alliance, made to His Serene Highness, George Augustus, King of Great Britain” appealing for his commitment to recover the freedoms lost when the British crown turned its back on the Catalans after the War of the Spanish Succession.
• 1760 – The representatives of the Catalan-speaking countries (Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca) present at the Court of Charles III the first “Memorial de Greuges” (Record of Grievances) in which they denounce the perverse economical, institutional and cultural effects of the regime imposed by the Nueva Planta decrees.
• 1789 – Revolt in Barcelona against the Quintas, whereby one of every five able-bodied men is conscripted without compensation into the Spanish army to fight wars from which Catalan society is disassociated, and often deployed against the civilian population itself.
• 1789 – The “Bread Disturbances” break out in Barcelona, Vic, Mataró and elsewhere, brought on by the Spanish government’s economic mismanagement which had led to a famine, particularly due to the increase in the price of wheat, and also meat, wine and oil.
• 1835 – Further disturbances, the pro-liberal “Bullangues” break out spontaneously against the absolutist monarchy, the church, which supports the monarchy, and the Royal Statute of Prime Minister Martínez de la Rosa.
• 1842 – Another revolt leads to General Espartero’s bombardment of Barcelona and a successive repression by General Van Halen of the working population, banning al forms of association.
• 1843 – The “Jamànsia” revolt breaks out in reaction to generalised famine and poverty. General Prim follows Espartero’s example and bombards Barcelona again.
• 1855 – Workers’ leader Josep Barceló is executed and a general strike is called.
• 1873 – Republican leader Baldomer Lostau proclaims a Catalan State from March 5th to 7th. The proclamation is called off after the Spanish Prime Minister’s (unkept) promise to withdraw the army from Catalonia.
• 1888 – A message is presented to the Queen Regent appealing for attention to the Catalan issue.
• 1892 – The Catalanist Union holds an assembly in Manresa to approve the “Bases for a Catalan Regional Constitution”, a project for autonomy for Catalonia.
• 1900 – Anti-government riots upon the visit to Catalonia by Eduardo Dato, then minister of "Gobernación" (Home Office in the UK or Justice Dept. in the US).
• 1919 – The Mancomunitat or “Commonwealth” of Catalonia, which builds up infrastructures in the absence of initiative by successive Spanish governments, approves a project for a Statute for autonomy. This is rejected outright by the Spanish government.
• 1926 – Francesc Macià organises a foiled plot to invade Spain from Prats de Molló to rid Catalonia of Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship.
• 1932 – A Statute of Autonomy is finally approved under the Spanish Republic, but this democratic government is defeated after only seven years by a military uprising led by General Franco, who installs himself as Generalissimo at the head of a fascist dictatorship for over 40 years.

Catalan state on Facebook

Are you a Facebook user? Well, now you can add to your causes. How about advocating for the Catalan-speaking countries' own state?

Facebook's “Catalan Secessionist Cause for an Own State” is the sister of the Estat Propi (Own State) site where those who want to support the cause for independence of Catalonia can show how many of us there are worldwide, and where we are.

The Own State campaign has been created in the Catalan blogsphere, responding to the widespread need to find out what the true popular support is for the achievement of the Catalan Countries' own state.

Aims:

• Promoting favourable arguments for Catalan independence
• Spreading the Catalan secessionist cause
• Convincing people to join the Catalan secessionist cause

Just go and join to show a little flag on a world map. Obviously, most flags show up within the Catalan-speaking countries, and specially in Catalonia. But why not in India, or Australia, or wherever YOU may be? It's really easy!

What is Catalonia?

Well, for starters, what it isn’t. It isn’t a “region” of Spain, at least not in the political sense. It’s what is known as an “Autonomous Community” (see the Wikipedia entry). The only Spanish Autonomous Community that is formally termed a region is the Region of Murcia. There are articles on the Catalan people, nationalism and independentism in Wikipedia, although some items in the entries are highly debatable, even contentious, so a visit to the discussion page is a must. In any case, I do not intend to compete with Wikipedia. What I hope to do is to lay out different points of view, particularly mine, which is that of an Independentist.

More soon.