The Francoist ultras of the Spanish government have gone the whole hog, and are charging Puigdemont and his colleagues with sedition and rebellion. And before anyone can interject with any nonsense about prosecutorial independence, let me assure you that in no country, ever, in the history of the world, has anybody been tried for sedition or rebellion without the explicit approval of the political rulers.
Puigdemont is in excellent company. Gandhi was jailed for ten years for sedition in 1922 for seeking Indian independence from Britain. He served two years in dreadful conditions in jail. As Gandhi stated in his defence speech, he certainly was guilty under the law, and proud of it. Here is an extract from Gandhi’s speech:
Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence. But the section under which mere promotion of disaffection is a crime. I have studied some of the cases tried under it; I know that some of the most loved of India’s patriots have been convicted under it. I consider it a privilege, therefore, to be charged under that section. I have endeavored to give in their briefest outline the reasons for my disaffection. I have no personal ill-will against any single administrator, much less can I have any disaffection towards the King’s person. But I hold it to be a virtue to be disaffected towards a Government which in its totality has done more harm to India than any previous system. India is less manly under the British rule than she ever was before. Holding such a belief, I consider it to be a sin to have affection for the system. And it has been a precious privilege for me to be able to write what I have in the various articles tendered in evidence against me.
In fact, I believe that I have rendered a service to India and England by showing in non-co-operation the way out of the unnatural state in which both are living. In my opinion, non-co-operation with evil is as much a duty as is co-operation with good. But in the past, non-co-operation has been deliberately expressed in violence to the evil-doer. I am endeavoring to show to my countrymen that violent non-co-operation only multiples evil, and that as evil can only be sustained by violence, withdrawal of support of evil requires complete abstention from violence.
Exactly as I predicted, the Spanish governments imposition of elections is a ruse that was never in good faith, with the Catalan leaders exiled (and two of them imprisoned) and the main pro-Independence parties, and the act of seeking Independence itself, banned. The continued endorsement of all this by Western states, Western politicians and corporate and state media has become so self-evidently hypocritical that the tactic is now simply to relegate Catalonia right down the news bulletins and pretend it is all over and nothing much is happening, just as they ignored the violence and fascism around Sunday’s Spanish nationalist march.
But you would have to be extremely foolish to believe this extreme state repression has killed off the Catalan cause. It will backfire spectacularly, in due course.
It is true that Spain has the largest residue of Fascists and Fascism in Europe. This is a consequence of history.
Here are some “anti fascist” protesters in Germanu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rayofdQm5V8
These people could always form the equivalent of the 21st century International Brigade and travel to Catalonia in order to support the brave, peaceful, honest, enlightened and oppressed Catalans. After all it is both easier and cheaper to travel around Europe today than it was in the 1930’s.
That they will not do so tells you all you need to know.
I began to suspect that our democracy was unsafe when PM Gordon Brown reported that he had a favourite rock band, and it was the Arctic Monkeys. Whilst I completely accept that being utterly fucking tone deaf should not disqualify one from a position of power in politics, I became concerned.
I assume the same will apply to Scotland? Is it now prudent for us to continue with being a member of the EU?
Do we join Norway in their trade deals instead?
What is Scotland’s future now?
The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Albert Camus
In order to charge the Puigdemont and his ministers with rebellion, there has to be violence.
Well, not a problem as it turns out – remember those peaceful protestors you say on your TV screens with their hands in the air being beaten? ‘Violent!’ according to judge Maza. Welcome to Spain where black is white…
“…they ignored the violence and fascism around Sunday’s Spanish nationalist march.”
Has anyone got a source for this? I’ve not seen violence or overt fascism mentioned anywhere else, just that there was a demonstration opposing the push for independence.
Never mind, just seen the links on the last thread.
Catalan Independence may not be what it seems at face value. It is financed by George Soros, and I am extremely suspicious of anything financed by George Soros, as he is the main source of corruption of what would formerly be recognised as “The Left”. He has enormous power and uses it very widely in support of globalist neocon oligarchy. He has succeeded is corrupting political parties across Europe, not just by money, but also by infiltration at the highest levels of both main and opposition political groups, such that if an opposition gains power, the same policies of austerity which attack the very poorest will be continued.
Some of his articles and supposed philanthropy, may at first seem to be of merit, but there is almost always a hidden underlying agenda.
Read Thierry Meyssan, Gearóid Ó Colmáin and Wayne Madsen on the subject
http://www.voltairenet.org/article198571.html
http://www.gearoidocolmain.org/catalan-independence-tool-capital-labour/
http://futurefastforward.com/2017/01/12/soros-cementing-control-over-europes-left/
Even the BBC acknowledges that some of the photography purported to be of police brutality against Catalan Independence supporters, was from much earlier unconnected events, but that most of it was genuine. It’s hard to believe anything without significant independent coroboration.
Tony
Tony – when you’re on form, you’re good!
And as you say, it’s hard to believe anything without independent corroboration. Actually, independent corroboration is usually nonexistent when a polarised issue, like Catalonia, is considered. Consider this:
https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/press-releases/statement-catalan-referendum
Maybe Soros is lying through his teeth? Sure you haven’t got confirmation bias?
Sure your opinion hasn’t been formed by these?…
http://www.pravdareport.com/society/anomal/02-10-2017/138810-catalonia-0/
http://www.voltairenet.org/article198106.html
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201710061058019216-catalonia-europe-fragmentation-independence/
Spot the common factor….
The source listed by the last of those is interesting: the Generalidad – subsidised La Vanguardia (Barcelona). Which has noticed that Soros gave $27,049 to a media workshop exploring the rise of xenophobic nationalism in 2014…una jornada sobre la xenofobia y el euroescepticismo que se celebró en Barcelona en enero de 2014 ante las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo.
http://www.lavanguardia.com/politica/20160816/403969314802/george-soros-diplocat-financio.html
The ever-trustworthy Sputnik News seems to have got its translators in a twist. This is nothing to do with financing Catalan independence at all. And Soros’ denial is true, it would seem. Unless you can find some more independent corroboration?
And I don’t like Soros much, either.
I’d better spell that out, I suppose.
1.La Vanguardia gets its calzoncillos in a twist regarding Soros funding a workshop to counter populist nationalism.
2. Someone in Moscow, or a friend of his, sees this, and turns it upside-down. Soros is now funding the (populist, nationalist) Catalans
3, All compliant editors, please copy. The links above sing from exactly the same hymnsheet, in close harmony. Better add staves for The Saker, Global Research and Veterans Today, too, though I haven’t checked them out. I can find no authoritative sources other than Moscow-directed ones for the Soros allegation. Not even the Catalan paper cited. If you can, tell me I’m and idiot…but make it good!
@ Tony_0pmoc October 31, 2017 at 15:15
‘…Even the BBC acknowledges that some of the photography purported to be of police brutality against Catalan Independence supporters, was from much earlier unconnected events, but that most of it was genuine….’
The MSM do that a lot, showing pictures or videos that have nothing to do with the event they are passing them off as, so my suspicion would be that they have deliberately done the same with some of the ‘violence’ pics, so they can discredit true evidence by the victims or their witnesses.
They use stock or agency photos when the real thing isn’t available. Just like Pravda.
It is not financed by Soros, as Ba’al Zevul is saying. Vanguardia reported he contributed $52 000 to two organisations to hold one day conferences. $ 27,049 went to Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat) to hold a conference on “Xenophobia”. Diplocat was set up in 2012 by the Catalonian Generalitat to promote Catalonia internationally.
$24,973 was contributed to the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) to hold a one day conference on “Integration”. CIDOB is not a Catalan independence organisation, it’s a Spanish think tank based in Barcelona, it’s the oldest and most influential Spanish think tank, having been established during Franco’s reign. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Spanish Ministry of Defence sit on it’s Board of Trustees alongside the Catalan Generalitat and Barcelona City Council.
That’s not Soros promoting Catalan nationalism it’s Soros promoting his proclaimed concerns to the Catalans and spending peanuts while doing so.
But there has been violence, there was violence on October 1st and there was violence on October the 29th.
Problem is when the violence is between Nationalists and Spanish police then the Nationalists see that as police brutality but if the violence is between Unionists and Catalan police it is seen as Unionist brutality.
https://archive.org/details/archiveteam_videobot_twitter_com_924658914662240256
Catalan independence: Sacked leader Carles Puigdemont ‘not seeking asylum’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41819940
The government in Madrid has said Puigdemont is welcome to “take his chances” and stand in the Dec. 21 election.
http://www.france24.com/en/20171031-sacked-catalan-leader-respect-december-21-elections-puigdemont-brussels
They seem to be siren-calling Carles home.
@ fred October 31, 2017 at 15:24
The link you show shows the Unionists attacking the police, who strike back in defense. They are holding a line, not charging into the Unionists.
Can you not see the difference?
Those nasty Unionists headbutting the police batons, disgusting.
The police on October the 1st were defending the law, the referendum was declared illegal by Spanish courts. What the Spanish police were doing and what the Catalan police were doing was the same.
The great John McLean was jailed for five years for sedition.
Brexit – Full-Steam-Ahead
Brexit: Whitehall gets 3,000 new staff as planning ramps up
BBC
Please do not soil Gandhi’s name with that of the corrupt, lying and right-wing Puigdemont. There is little difference between Rahoy and Puigdemont – they both surely created and inflamed this debacle in order to draw attention away from all the corruption trials involving themselves and their respective parties.
Indeed. Neither of them are inspiring or credible. There are far more sensible voices emanating from Catalonia, who condemn both of them for their posturing macho BS. It suits them both for the media to set them up as heroes and anti-heroes. Neither of them are.
Couldn’t agree more. The previous two leaders of Puigdemont’s party, Pujol and Ras have both had their corruption exposed. Better to listen to the Mayor of Barcelona who is no fascist.
Martin, you might have missed out on the 35 or so social laws that Puigdemont and predecessors tried tp get ratified. They were all thwarted by the Spanish central government.
Calling Puigdemont right wing is unjustified.
None of these laws was under Puigdemont. He’s only been President of the CA for 2 years, after being flown in from Girona to replace Arthur Mas (of the 3%). Many of them were also put forward in other autonomous regions, mostly by PSOE governments, with the same results.
The great exception was the Estatut, where clauses allowed in the new Andalucían statute were not accepted in the case of the Catalan one. The Andalucian statute was not appealed by the central goverment. This clearly unfair and should have led to a solid campaign to oust the PP, but is hardly grounds for declaring independence.
The PP is bad for all the ordinary people of Spain, not just those of Catalunya. But getting rid of it requires the opposition to work together. Instead it wastes its energy, with egomaniac (Puigdemont & Iglesias) leaders trying to build personal power.
Solidarity could work wonders.
Drone warfare coming to an underdeveloped region near you
http://www.france24.com/en/20171030-usa-pledges-60-million-regional-sahel-counter-terrorism-force-g5
The United States will pledge $60 million to support the new G5 Sahel regional counter-terrorism force, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday, ahead of UN talks on the operation.
“This is a fight we must win, and these funds will play a key role in achieving that mission,” he said, describing G5 members Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger as “regional partners.”
http://uk.blastingnews.com/world/2017/10/four-us-soldiers-are-killed-in-niger-and-many-questions-remain-unanswered-002127045.html
Washington has previously expressed support for the force, and has troops and drone operators in the region supporting operations against Islamist militants, but opposes United Nations involvement.
Four USA soldiers are killed in Niger and many questions remain unanswered
The USA maintains a “small” military presence in the region of about a thousand soldiers to help train the Nigerien army.
The soldiers were able to kill about 20 of the insurgents but this is small consolation to the men who have died. An inquiry being conducted but preliminary evidence points to a grave lapse in military discipline and intelligence.
The Ghandi analogy may be apt. He was a bigot nationalist. He didn’t like the black population in South Africa nor the Dalik in India.
Carles has the air of a person who has yet to accept reality.
He is done and maybe done for.
Pulgdemont doesn’t consider it a ruse, announcing that he will accept its result. He doesn’t have a clue either about what is afoot.
Looks to me that Catalonia’s Fignols-St. Cornelius abandoned coal mine basin is an ideal area to hit. Like the qanats in Iran during the Gulf Wars.
O/T.
This is allegedly a list of lecherous Westminster MP’s, in regards with sexual discrepancies that’s in the news just now.
https://m.imgur.com/a/8XYe5
Liam Fox – Cabinet Minister – Adam Werrity
Fantastic! The BBC reported that Donald Trump was pissed on by prostitutes and blackmailed by Russia on the Six O’clock News on the basis of a single unverfied source so we will no doubt be hearing all about this at tea time…..
Well the BBC does not disappoint.
A mention of “several” Tory MPs being accused of impropiety. However the second top story was about a young former Labour member Bex Bailey alleging she was sexually assaulted by a party member at a Labour event in 2011. She told a party official about this in 2013 and claims she was discouraged from reporting the attack to the police. Her radio interview was edited for TV so that viewers would assume the two events were immediately concurrent rather than two years apart.
Bizarrely Bex Bailey is calling for an independent organisation to investigate allegations like this. We’ve have one, it’s called the Police.
Alun Cairns, the Welsh secretary, seems a proper old-skool Tory.
A severe quake in the area of Catalonia near Andorra would be a shock of epic proportions, historically, culturally and poltiicailly. Even a small quake there would change the province’s political landscape, but do go on about the scum in Britain.
It’s just as well Spain abolished the death penalty in 1978. Otherwise Puigdemont would be in fear for his life.
‘The 1978 Spanish Constitution bans capital punishment in Spain. Spain completely abolished capital punishment for all offenses, including during wartime conditions, in October 1995.
The last executions were carried out on September 27, 1975 when five members of ETA and Revolutionary Antifascist Patriotic Front (FRAP) were executed by firing squad for murder following a much-publicised trial in which a number of the convicted (including a pregnant woman) were given clemency by General Francisco Franco, and the sentences of the remaining five, due to the unavailability of executioners versed in the use of the garrote, were carried out by shooting. The garotte had been portrayed as a draconian act by the publicity after its last use in 1974, when Salvador Puig Antich was executed in Barcelona and Heinz Chez in Tarragona.’
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Spain
Dear Craig,
spot on!
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15626931.Former_SNP_MP__EU_leaders_are____defending_the_indefensible____on_Madrid_s_crackdown_on_Catalonia/
Amen.
Just finished reading the Inglorious Empire. The parallels between Scotland and India vis a vis the English Empire are striking. Jinnah a marginal figure was portrayed as a mainstream leader raised by the English to statehood (see Colonel Blimp Ruthie D.)to cause trouble particularly sectarian trouble that eventually resulted in partition. The English even dained to give Indians some control over their own affairs but just enough to tie them in knots to be more appreciative of English lordship. Of course this all came about after the landed elite were pro English and the native industries including the shipbuilding and steel industries had been destroyed along with the textile industry by the English.
The only light relief in the book is that English officials mocked the Tata founder for his efforts to restart the Indian steel industry in the early 20th century… there is still hope for Scotland.
Don’t forget the immense Scottish contribution to the Raj. Such was the Scottish fervour for Empire building that in many parts of India it could almost have been a ‘Scottish Raj’.
You’ll reply with “the colonised being forced to colonise”, or some other nonsense.
Isn’t Spanish insistence on catalan elections akin to Russian elections in Crimea?
Only if they were called by Ukraine.
Ukraine didn’t carry clout in Ukraine and didn’t have troops there. Russia did.
Whoops – correction:
Ukraine didn’t carry clout in Crimea and didn’t have troops there. Russia did.
*Breaking News*
Spanish court summons deposed Catalan leader Puigdemont to Madrid to charge him
MADRID (Reuters) – Spain’s High Court on Tuesday called former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and 13 members of his sacked administration to testify on Thursday at 9 a.m. (0800 GMT).
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-spain-politics-catalonia-court/spains-high-court-calls-puigdemont-to-testify-on-thursday-idUKKBN1D02J9
The Espaniards seem to be going all-out
for revenge
Is there any difference between being a rebel and being a paid rebel?
Any comments on this article: https://www.esdiario.com/596855660/Encuentran-la-factura-que-la-Generalitat-pago-a-Assange-por-mentir-sobre-Espana.html
“It will backfire spectacularly, in due course.”
If this is accurate as all your other predictions then I expect the opposite to happen.
Yes he’s not nearly as horrible as Gandhi, so far.
New York attack: Eight killed by man driving truck
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-41825577
Rajoy’s acting like a pound shop Pinochet. Puigdemont’s political view that Catalonia should be an independent country is a perfectly reasonable political standpoint. Whether that policy should win through or not should be decided democratically through a referendum. Brutality and repression will boost the number of Catalans who will support independence. It looks as if the Guardia Civil thugs and the PP may have won a Pyrrhic victory.
When Pinochet risked a referendum in Chile in 1988 he lost. There is a film by Pablo Larrain called ‘NO’ that examines how democracy was returned to Chile. Those who support independence in Catalonia will doubtless lick their wounds and begin to examine how democracy can be returned to Catalonia. The idea that a handfull of reactionary politicians can overthrow democratic processess must be anathema to most liberally minded people in Spain. Quite how that anathema will be expressed remains to be seen.
Having visited Cataluña 30 times over many years since the death of Franco I can understand the depth of distrust Catalans feel about Madrid. Esteladas fly from most towns, villages and rural areas. They feel that governing themselves independently will provide a fairer society. Sound familiar? Some EU leaders must put their heads above the parapet and offer mediation before this escalates into violence reminiscent of the late 30,s
O/T
“Ineos is now the only United Kingdom company with refinery and petrochemical assets directly integrated into the North Sea
and this deal provides the platform to potential future offshore Ineos investments.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-41826214
This is probably good news as it keeps much of the (integrated)businesses within
the United Kingdom.
Still a bit unsure of the Scottish Governments choice of “No Scottish Fracking”
yet, apparently happy for Grangemouth to process fracked Methane?
Shell selling half of its North Sea assets
Royal Dutch Shell has completed the sale of a package of UK North Sea assets to Chrysaor for a total consideration totalling up to $3.8bn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-41831164
This is all happening, while Brent Crude is at a high.