01 October 2017

An attack on self-determination

As voting proceeds in Catalonia, the Spanish government has escalated its efforts to shut down today's independence referendum, sending paramilitary thugs to attack polling places and using clubs and rubber bullets on Catalonian civilians.  Hundreds of people have been injured.  The BBC, the Guardian, and Deutsche Welle (in English) have current coverage.

I can't help contrasting this with Scotland's referendum on independence from the UK in 2014, which the British government allowed to proceed freely.  As it happened, the Scottish people voted to stay in the UK by a margin of more than 10%.  Spain may be able to hold on to Catalonia by force, but its present tactics seem doomed to create permanent hostility and resistance to its rule over the region.

4 Comments:

Anonymous nonnie9999 said...

These days, I feel like there is a giant hand shaking the world like it was a snowglobe, and everything is going to look different when the snow settles.

01 October, 2017 19:03  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

I was here browsing some if the link round up that I didnt get through yesterday, and some pretty good reads too. But seen this piece ... I been following some of this myself, I expect to see more of this in our so called free societies and elections in other countries too. This neoliberalism on steroids now (or what I see as corporate/ banking communism, even though this is about government, it's all connected), is working the clock like a football team in the forth quarter 2 minute drill, trying to make that comeback (at least that's how I describe this stuff in some of my postings), and you see the voting challenges, gerrymandering and related stuff in our country, austerity in countries, banks burning citizens, etc. I know as well the resentment is going to grow and a much stronger resistance ... in time (I mean, people have no choice, they are under attack ... resistance in various forms is justified already). A little more pressure from oligarch action will strengthen the reaction/ resistance ... right now, they are using economics to frighten people, such as in America, many folks are scared to lose their jobs or what they do have and keep their mouths shut, but with enough pressure and as people lose more (such as back during all the labour resistance early 20th century, when most was lost), they will reach a point of resistance that will be much heavier/ stronger ... long story. Enough from me ... Thanx for the reads.

02 October, 2017 05:20  
Anonymous PsiCop said...

What's bizarre about this is that there's an easy way for the Spanish government to have dealt with a plebiscite it considered illegal: And that is, very simply, to ignore it. Let it take place, refuse to take up the results, and only then engage in litigation to prevent it from having any real effect. To litigate it in advance, then have courts send out police to beat people up over it (among other things) is just plain foolish, given that alternative. It will make enemies they'd never have made otherwise.

03 October, 2017 10:16  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

That would have been a much better way of dealing with it. I almost feel like the government wanted a confrontation to put the Catalonians "in their place".

04 October, 2017 16:38  

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