Comparing conflicts in the USA and Spain. The power of the people
I have posted about Spanish fascism in the past, but it didn’t exactly raise eyebrows like I expected. I don’t know if the situation is difficult to understand without the countless years of context, or if people see me as a crazy radical that spews nonsense. But as America, a country that was once seen as a bastion of everything good in the world, inches closer to total polarization, and further from what it used to be, I urge people to read attentively. I spent a few days chipping away to write this. Be aware of the possibility that this can happen anywhere. You might be partly there already.
The law, or the constitution is useless if there are people that are willing to turn a blind eye. Fascism is not achieved by one person breaking the law and saying “look at me, I’m your new dictator”. It comes into existence when politicians and government officials on various levels of the government have a shared ulterior motive that they want to exploit. (Examples - https://similarworlds.com/6290870-I-Hate-Fascism/3183321-Lets-take-a-look-at-how-the-Spanish-judicial , https://similarworlds.com/18-Politics/3129073-Tomorrow-the-EU-will-either-take-a-stand-for-or )
But this “ulterior motive” can easily be disguised as something else. I’ll give an example for the USA and Spain here.
For example, meritocracy in the United States. It’s easy to say at the finish line of a race that the person who worked the hardest won, but is it really meritocracy if the starting lines were different for each person? If you’re over 60 years old reading this, there were American universities that didn’t even accept black students in your life time. Reparations for slavery is obviously a slippery slope, but to actively suppress a group of people for hundreds of years, make it difficult to get an education, a job, a house for several generations. To do all of that, and then claim that the FIRST generation who doesn’t have to experience active segregation is in just as good of a position as people who have had hundreds of years and wealth and property passed down, is deliberately ignoring history. It’s the modern way of keeping down the people that were historically kept down.
Similarly, Spain today parrots toxic chauvinism and this idea that all Spaniards must be unified with their national identity. Very ironic, considering Spain was created through war and the suppression of other kingdoms and cultures. It’s like taking 1 piece from 20 different puzzles and wondering why they don’t fit to make a pretty picture. Imagine the president of the United States saying “There is no such thing as ‘Native-American’, we are all just American.” It’s obviously not true, there is an extensive Native American history, just like Catalonia.
These people are desperate to preserve their old ways of life. It’s why they fear the voice of the people so much. It’s why republicans in America are fighting so hard against mail-in voting across the country. They know if everybody has a say, then they have no chance. It’s the same reason why Spain fought so hard against Catalonia’s independence referendum in 2017. Despite a 43% turnout of registered voters (due to the police and national guard forcibly keeping people away from polling stations, and destroying ballot boxes) Catalonia still got more than 2 million votes for independence. Despite the low turnout percentage, 2,044,038 votes for independence is 27% of Catalonia’s total population. For comparison, the UK received 17,410,742 votes for LEAVE during the Brexit Referendum (26% of the UK population) while they didn’t suffer from the police preventing people from voting.
Speaking from experience, if your country is willing to allow police to beat protesters, use teargas and rubber bullets with complete negligence, while those officers will not see any repercussions, your country is also willing to do much worse against you.
These are quotes from Catalonia’s exiled former President, Carles Puigdemont, who Spain is still attempting to extradite 3 years later.
This is not an even fight: we are facing a state that will stop at nothing. They’ve said it themselves. Remember what [former Spanish VP] Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said: we will pay the price, no matter how high. And they have: just the purchase of a Pegasus spyware license will set you back €250m. Not to mention [the violence on] 1 October 2017. We need to take that into account: our opponent will go to any lengths and won’t flinch at the price tag. We used to be certain about it, but now we have actual records of it: precious information that tells us that the state may indeed be tempted to resort to violence. However, that temptation reveals a weakness, an intellectual laziness that stops them from coming up with a complex solution. And that affords us an advantage.
When facing a side that will stop at nothing to get what they want, peace is essential. I think Palestine is a good example of this. Despite existing for even longer than Israel, the quality of life in Palestine today is poor, while Israel is one of the most technologically advanced nations in the world. Waging unwinnable wars and having a serious lack of leadership is the reason for that. Another one from Puigdemont.
If the only viable path to independence that Spain leaves us is to enter into a conflict, the lessons from 2017 will prove very useful. However, we must abide by our maxim, our ethical commitment: we mustn’t resort to violence. Violence and active resistance are two very different things. Every day we must ask Madrid if they are willing to renounce violence in their attempt to stop Catalan independence, the same way I am willing to do so in order to achieve it.
Keep your heads up my American friends. It might get worse before it gets better but you will get through this. Voting is the most powerful tool you have.
Visca Catalunya y visca USA 🇺🇸
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I dont agree with you on Catalan independence. I fully support your right to an independence referendum, though I personally would vote no.
Excellent post though. People forget that Spain was ruled by a military dictatorship as recently as the 1970s. A distatorship that was quite literally in alliance with Hitler when it was formed during the Spanish Civil War.
I'm a George Orwell fan and Ive read some Spanish history. I can definately see some parallels with the 1930s and the present day. 1984 with all the double think and surveilence is more prescient than ever.
Its much less extreme pronounced in my native UK than elsewhere, though we have a huge economic crash looming and creeping authoritarianism.
@Burnley123 I didn’t support full Catalan independence until it became clear to me that Catalan autonomy and culture can not survive in a Spanish state.
@NenaRussa No. Im a remain voter, though I support the resukt. I support national self determination.
I would also vote against Scottish independence though I also have symathy for their motives. I think smaller breakaway states woukd add to the world's number of tax havens. Even if they have progressive motivations, I cant see ot working out.
I think we need to build international left movements if we are ever gonna have the world we want. So I agree woth your critique but not with your solutions per say.
@Burnley123 A recent study claimed that 74% of Europeans believe that if a territory wishes to become independent, it is their democratic right to do so. What are your thoughts on this?
@Burnley123 We did decide. Despite some of the worst police violence ever in Europe to stop people from voting, 27% of Catalonia’s population voted for independence. A higher percentage than the percent of the UK that voted for Brexit. But 3 years later and our leaders are rotting in prison or in exile, and the EU still does nothing.
@NenaRussa Because the first ref wasnt official and turnout was low (due to abstentions and police repression) you would absolutely meed another referendum for a mandate. The police brutality is not on but its also a factor than many Spanish unuonists abstained because the ref was not official.
Unlike the Spanish state and mainstream parties, i support your right to have that. Also, even as a remain voter, Im highly critical of the EU. Im against the single currency and hate what they did to Syriza in Greece and others.
Yes, the EU are hypocrites and are anti democratic when it suits them.
Would Catalan independence be a good thing for its people if it happened? Would it work economically? Would be a social democratic and anti racist state? Thess are the qiestions on which we don't agree.
