The Independence struggle in Catalonia

By Steve Halpern

Recently Judi and I spent a week Barcelona, which is the center of the nation of Catalonia (Cataluñya). Today, Catalonia is ruled by the Spanish government. Before our trip, I did some reading about the history of this region. Then, in the middle of our vacation the entire city of Barcelona erupted in protests.

Two years ago elections were held in Catalonia where the issue of independence was on the ballot. Millions voted in those elections and the result favored independence. The Spanish government didn’t recognize that election.

While we were in Spain, the Spanish courts sentenced nine of the people who organized those elections to up to 13 years in prison. This action, perhaps, would have been analogous to sentencing the commander of the revolutionary army of the United States, George Washington, to prison.

Those actions provoked the uprising in Barcelona. The protests closed the street in front of the hotel where we were staying, as well as the airport. As a result, our flight home was canceled, and we had an extra day in the city.

Throughout my adult life, I’ve supported the liberation of nationalities that have experienced routine repression. In the United States, I’ve supported movements that defend Black, Native American, and Latino rights. I’ve supported the Irish independence struggle, as well as the struggle for the liberation of Palestinians. I happen to be Jewish and have joined in protests against anti-Semitic acts. Given my history, I was interested in the background to the Catalonian independence movement.

The history of Catalonia

When we think of the history of the continent of Europe, much of that written history started with the 600-year Roman Empire. The Roman language of Latin is the root language of the nations of Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Romania. Britain was also a colony of Rome, and many English words have Latin origins. However, English is also a derivative of the language of the German tribes of the Anglos and Saxons.

The Catalan language of is also a unique derivative of Latin. Before the Romans invaded what is now Catalonia there was a tribal people known as the Laietani. The Romans were the ones who established the city of Barcelona because of its rivers and deep-water port.

Because Barcelona is a port city, a considerable amount of wealth was created because of commerce. The commercial economy of Catalonia conflicted with the feudal regimes that dominated Spain for centuries. During feudal times Catalonia experienced more or less autonomy from the central Spanish royal government.

We might keep in mind that Spain was a dominant colonial power in the Western Hemisphere. Initially Spain took vast amounts of gold and silver from its colonies in Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia. Because Spain never developed a large manufacturing base, much of the wealth taken from the Americas went to the manufacturing centers of Britain, France, and Amsterdam. By the 1700s Barcelona also became a manufacturing center based in textiles. Many of these textiles were made from cotton taken from the slave labor camps in the Americas.

Barcelona and Philadelphia

I happen to live in Philadelphia in the United States. I noticed that there are some similarities between Philadelphia and Barcelona. While Barcelona has a population of about 1.7 million, the population of Philadelphia is about 1.5 million. Both these cities were at one time centers for industry. Many surrounding areas of both these cities consists of agriculture. Most of the factories in both these cities have closed and moved to nations where workers receive between $1 and $10 per day.

As in all capitalist cities, a tourist might visit the commercial areas without ever coming in contact with the less affluent areas. Clearly there are neighborhoods in both Barcelona and Philadelphia where people struggle to have the basic necessities. There are also areas in both cities where people live in opulence. While Barcelona is in the most affluent region of Spain, Philadelphia is the poorest of the large cities in the United States.

Visiting the docks of Barcelona, people will find rows of super-sized yachts, each worth extravagant amounts of money. In Philadelphia there are the two Comcast towers worth about $2.6 billion. The CEO of Comcast, Brian Roberts, lives on one entire floor, and this residence might be worth as much as $27 million.   

One big difference between Barcelona and Philadelphia is the international character of both cities. When I was growing up, I had very little contact with people from other nations. Today that environment has changed dramatically, and people from Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Caribbean are a big part of the population of the Philadelphia.

However, Barcelona is a much more international city. While people of this country routinely visit different areas in the United States, the people of Europe routinely visit the entire continent. Just by walking down the street in Barcelona, we came in contact with people from all over the world. We also learned that there are many people who work in the city who were born in other nations.

The Spanish Civil War

During the 1930s Spain became a republic and the government gave increased autonomy to Catalonia. Then, General Francisco Franco organized a rebellion against the government that was supported by the fascist government of Germany.

The British author George Orwell volunteered with the republican forces that defended the Spanish government against Franco. Orwell wrote about that experience in his book titled, Homage to Catalonia.

Orwell lived for a time in Barcelona and had the following impressions. In Spanish there are two words for the word you. There is the formal usted and the familiar tu. Orwell reported that while the republican government held power, the word usted was never used and everyone used the familiar tu. Everyone from the highest commander in the army to the lowest ranking soldier had the same salary. The church had been linked to the former ruling powers, and many Catholic buildings were destroyed. Orwell didn’t see religious markers in the graveyards.

However, food, as well as armaments were in short supply. Some of the rifles were decades old. While the people had food to eat, that food was oftentimes difficult to come by. Yet, the fascists had the aid of the German Air Force that was a huge advantage.

However, the primary difficulty of the Republican Army was the lack of clarity about the fact that this was a revolution aimed at liberating workers and farmers. In those days, workers toiled at jobs for long hours at furious paces for a wage that barely sustained them. Most farmers didn’t have enough food to sustain themselves throughout the year. These conditions were worse than those conditions in other European nations. Workers and farmers in Catalonia experienced conditions that were more analogous to the working conditions in India and China in those years.

After the Republican forces were defeated, Franco ordered the murder about 35,000 people in Catalonia. This was because Catalonia was a center for the resistance to his rule. People were then required to worship the Catholic religion. All forms of Catalonian independence and nationalism were repressed.

The new reality of Catalonia and other oppressed nationalities in the world

Then, in 1978 a new government came to power that gave some degree of autonomy to Catalonia and other nations within Spain. Today, the language of Catalan is used in municipal and government buildings.

One of the reasons why the Spanish government is so determined to hold on to Catalonia is because this region is one of the most affluent in Spain. Taxes from Catalonia subsidize projects throughout Spain. This means that those taxes also enrich some of the most affluent people who routinely profit from the labor of workers in this region.

We might consider that profits derived from the labor of oppressed nationalities contributes to the super-profits of capitalists throughout the world. Millions of African Americans migrated away from the states where Jim Crow segregation was the law, to states where many toiled in horrendous conditions in factories.

The most industrialized area in Canada is in the Quebec Provence, where French-speaking people were routinely discriminated against. The most industrialized area in Ireland is in the North, and Britain continues to rule that section of the island. Today, Israeli corporations are moving to the occupied West Bank to take advantage of the lower costs of operating in the area where Palestinians live.

Understanding these facts, we can say that working people have an interest in supporting the right of self-determination of oppressed nationalities. While these nationalities have a clear interest in controlling the governments where they live, capitalists routinely profit from discrimination against those nationalities.

Russia, before the revolution in that country, was known as a prison-house of nations. The Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and the Jewish ghettos were just some of the nations that experienced routine repression. Vladimir Illyich Lenin argued that the only way for the Russian Revolution to be successful was for a revolutionary party to ardently support the right of self-determination to oppressed nations.

After the revolution the new nation had the name, Union of Soviet Socialists Republics. This name signified a union of republics that had a common interest in advancing a socialist program. As a result, in the first years after the revolution there was a flowering of culture in the nations that had been oppressed in the past. That movement was stifled by the Stalinist regime that betrayed the revolution after the death of Lenin.

We can also say that there are nations in the world that are not oppressed. Adolf Hitler was a fascist who argued for a German national movement that would dominate the world.

While all Presidents of the United States promote a nationalist message, President Trump has been more open in his America First rhetoric. This same message has been promoted by union officials who have argued for a “Buy American” campaign.

Working people in these nations organize to defend our interests from the routine corporate drive to maximize profits. In the process of defending our rights, we also defend workers who are victimized because of their nationality.

In other words, we gain nothing by identifying as “Americans.” I identify as working person who lives in the world. Understanding this, I support the struggle to defend oppressed nationalities all over the world.

Today, the protests in Catalonia have been joined by protests, in Chile, Uruguay, Lebanon, Iraq, and Hong Kong. Autoworkers have been on strike against General Motors for about one month. To the best of my memory, we haven’t seen this level of international protests since the movement to stop the United States government’s war against the people who live in Southeast Asia.

My opinion is that the only way for these struggles to begin to be resolved is to put in place workers governments that make human needs a priority over corporate profits. Today, the nation of Cuba has that kind of government.

While people all over the world have been protesting over cutbacks and repression, Cuba has made education and health care lifetime rights. While Cuba is a relatively underdeveloped nation, Cuban infant mortality is significantly lower than the United States. This is because pregnant women and children routinely get regular checkups. Cuba has about three times more doctors per capita as the United States.

Ironically the flag of Catalonia was consciously designed to be similar to the Cuban flag. This was to symbolize the similarities between the Cuban and Catalonian struggles for independence.  

So, while many people bemoan the fact that Donald Trump is President, the demonstrations of working people all over the world, as well as the example of Cuba, gives us reason to be optimistic for the future.

Flag of Catalonia

Cuban National Flag