Spain’s plan to send boatloads of military police to Catalonia to prevent its independence referendum have backfired with dockers in two ports staging a boycott and a third refusing access.
The Express writes Police boats Blocked by Catalan ports as unrest threatens to Rip Spain Apart.
More than 4,000 members of Spain’s Guardia Civil are being dispatched to the troubled region amid concerns over divided loyalties in the autonomous community’s own police force, the Mossos d’ Esquadra.
Spanish authorities wanted to house the Guardia Civil officers on four cruise ships – two in Barcelona, one in Tarragona and another in Palamos.
But as thousands took to the streets to protest against the detention of Catalan officials, local dock workers joined the backlash.
The Assembly of Stevedores of the Port of Barcelona announced that workers would not provide any services to boats carrying security forces, a decision it said was taken “in defence of civil rights”.
Colleagues in Tarragona quickly followed suit and the Catalan government then denied permission to dock in Palamos – which, unlike Barcelona and Tarragona, falls under regional rather than national control.
More than 40,000 people have gathered in Barcelona to protest over the arrests and the intervention of the Spanish government in the Catalan independence vote.
Many of the angry protesters have been waving Catalonia’s red and yellow flag while chanting “We will vote” and “Hello Democracy!”
In a television address, Catalan’s President Carles Puigdemont said: “The Spanish state has by all rights intervened in Catalonia’s government and has established emergency rule.
“We condemn and reject the anti-democratic and totalitarian actions of the Spanish state.”
A spokesman for the Catalan National Assembly said: “They made a big mistake; we wanted to vote and they declared war.”
Catalans are split on the issue of independence but support for a vote is high and few are happy with Spanish police arresting Catalan leaders.
Tensions have been further fuelled by reports that some of those detained are likely to face charges of sedition, which carries a lengthy prison sentence.
Support for a Vote
The Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia (via Mish translation) notes ‘The Times’ joins foreign dailies asking for a referendum for Catalonia.
The Times joins the list foreign newspapers that support a referendum. Le Monde and the New York Times also support a referendum.
In an editorial, The Times, a historic British conservative daily, accuses prime minister Mariano Rajoy of “repression.”
The text of the British newspaper is especially blunt against the reaction of the Spanish state. The editorial maintains that Spain is in a serious “constitutional crisis” with risk of “rupture”, the greatest since “the end of the Franco dictatorship.”
The editorial also accuses Rajoy of “feeding the crisis”. The Times ventures to ask the central government to allow the referendum even if it is contrary to the Spanish Magna Carta.
Spain Seizes “.CAT” Domain
The New York Times reports In Catalonia, Spain Seizes the .Cat Internet Domain
On the same day this week that the Spanish authorities stormed the offices of the Catalan regional government, detaining at least 14 people, a less-noticed raid took place.
The puntCat foundation, which oversees the registry of websites with the “.cat” domain, tweeted Wednesday that its offices had also been raided and that one of its senior executives had been arrested.
Given the web’s rich cat history, you’d think that domain names ending in .cat would be another online feline gold mine. [But] almost all sites with the .cat suffix belong to the Catalan-speaking community thanks to the efforts of the puntCAT (“dot-cat” in Catalan), the foundation approved in 2005 to manage its registry by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a global organization. That made it one of the first domain suffixes to explicitly refer to a language and culture, paving the way for others, when it first appeared online in 2006.
In a letter to ICANN, the foundation said that the Spanish authorities had asked it to “block all .cat domain names that may contain any kind of information about the forthcoming independence referendum.”
“We are being requested to censor content and suppress freedom of speech,” the organization added.
The internet naming corporation said, “We are aware of the reports about Fundacio PuntCAT, the registry operator for .CAT, and we continue to monitor the situation.”
The Catalan President says “We Will Vote on Independence Whether Spain Likes it or Not”.
I support Catalonia Independence and apparently so do most Mish readers.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Spain may have assured a Yes vote. A little more carrot and a lot less stick would be far more effective
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Another Spanish Armada sails into history.
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The lesson learned?
To impose far greater controls on society to prevent these types of “notions” from taking hold.
Nip it in the bud.
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Franco tried that, didn’t work. Catalan is an independent language derived from the Latin Vulgate, with Barcelona having been an important Roman city. Having spent time in Spain, Barcelona has a different and more vibrant culture, which is why the area is much more productive…
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Spain has done more for the Catalan Independence movement than its proponents ever could have achieved….4th Generation warfare, with Spain making every possible blunder.
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+100
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US main street media hush Catalonia coverage : what happen in Spain should stay in Spain.
They keep themselves busy with hurricanes, NK, Trump tweets, health care.. but the real ugly face of Europe will be exposed, nevertheless, in two weeks. The American people, as usual, should be kept in the dark, play video games, watch sport.
The disintegration of phony Europe will continue. This is the LT trend.
They preached freedom & justice for decades to others and now start
paying the price.
The threats to Europe are coming from within.
For decades they allowed reverse colonialism, for moral and economic reasons. Within
one to two generations, they will be taken over by the old and new legal & illegals immigrants.
In core Europe, for centuries, people were fighting for the sake of global domination, colonialism and religious.
Lately, it’s clear, that Europe pressed the refresh button, to start the fights, all over again.
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–> “US main street media hush Catalonia coverage”
Mercifully, Trump is trying to stay out of everyone else’s business. There is a big difference between being global policeman (which may or may not be appropriate), and being the global babysitter.
The EU is failing under the weight of its own stupidity, it doesn’t need USA to help it.
Spain’s thug-like tactics are pretty much assuring a “yes to secession” outcome.
And beyond general distaste for Madrid rule, the Catalonians seem not to have thought out what they want their country to look like afterwards. Agreeing on what they don’t want (Madrid) is helpful, but not agreeing on what they do want will quickly become a problem assuming the vote goes their way.
Regardless of how many times the EU shoots itself in the foot, and regardless of how the Catalon referendum goes — the USA has no horse in the race, and plenty of problems of our own.
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Yes, it’s uncanny how much interest the US media had with Crimea – it was headlines throughout the MSM.
I just visited the Fox news and CNN websites. Couldn’t find a single story on Catalonia.
Which just reinforces my belief that the MSM is an arm of the US government.
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You´re wrong. Old Europe would pick up the swords.
And guillotines.
New alliances that you didn’t know of in America.
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Perhaps Spain should ask Russia to ‘interfere’ with their referendum?
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No money in Catalon referendum for Soros or for the Clinton foundation — so its a totally different situation from Ukraine
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How do you know that Soros isn’t supporting the Catalan referendum? Catalans are the most pro-refugee out of all Spain and also farthest to the left. If it was up to them, Europe would already be fully African.
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Some press accuses Russia of interfering on the side of Cataluña
https://politica.elpais.com/politica/2017/09/22/actualidad/1506101626_670033.html
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Probably the only two civilized country’s in the world Zcechs and the Slovaks who separated peacefully by referendum.
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Peacefully, but no referendum.
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No referendum?
Wow! Now that is REALLY civilized.
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In 1935 Spain was one of the poorest countries in the world, most people had no shoes, meat once a week,butter was one unknown substance surely they don’t to go back to that! Nobody wins in a conflict .
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Goldman Sachs, sorry, I mean the EU, will NOT permit these acts of rebellion by the “goyim”.
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Awesome!
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It’s important in Iberia but the EU couldn’t care less as EU power will only grow because of it.
Spain thinks it matters.
They don’t realise that with no border controls, currency under someone elses control, much of its regulations, law book, and soon defence – Spain is no longer Spain. It’s not really sovereign at all. It sold itself. Like all the others that sold themselves.
It’s a tiff between regions of the EU.
I can’t take it seriously.
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There is a hardcore too allright, whether they will make an appearance depends.
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Spain has given orders to block access to any external site that is part of the referendum
http://www.naciodigital.cat/noticia/138914/tsjc/ordena/tancament/web/dels/punts/votacio/1-o
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And will be/is looking to take direct control of the Mossos, under existing law. So far Spain accuses them of being apathetic, and it is unknown how loyalties will be if (when) Spain assumes command
http://www.ara.cat/politica/Zoido-desplaca-policials-Catalunya-mantingui_0_1874212677.html
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Spanish ultra demo end with aggressions, two lower videos in
http://www.ccma.cat/324/un-grup-dultradreta-es-manifesta-davant-lanc-i-despres-a-la-caserna-de-travesera/noticia/2810513/
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Or hope the link doesn’t give a long list of replies after the tweet…coverage of how events are outside of ms media.
From https://twitter.com/EliseGaz
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Catalans want FREEDOM and they will get it.
Only the timing is in question.
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It’s an illusion.
Rather than money going to Spain, Catalonian money will go straight to the EU and the back to Spain with a cut for the EU.
Neither side is very bright, just playing games whilst Brussels watches.
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That’s settled then…. go home and drop the show because Brussels is about?
But why aren’t they listening ?
We know that the circumstance is not smart, and nationalism never was smart in terms of EU thinking, which is supranational.
Just because countries dropped their pants doesn’t mean everyone wants to then take it lying down…and there are always those with their trousers still on, and those out to regain some honour, about.
The Catalans are as much a mixture in that sense, but arranged differently… they would like to move from 1/3 country to 2/3 country, even if it means leaving the previous 3/4 country.
Brussels will remain a place of insolences in all that, maybe people are finding out that taking arguments 2000 km away to be sorted out only amplifies them locally out of ignorance.
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The Mossos have not accepted a handover of their control to Spain.
So far it is courteous, as in ” No thank you, we do not see the need to, we will continue working to maintain order as always”.
The Mosso Union leaders explain the lack of participation of the Mossos on the ground as out of perplexion at the circumstance, say command has to be a political solution.
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“Spain’s plan to send boatloads of military police to Catalonia to prevent its independence referendum have backfired with dockers in two ports staging a boycott and a third refusing access.”
Newton’s Law at work. For each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
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I have to say that most people commenting here are clueless. Here you have the cliff notes for all of you to get into the subject:
This referendum is being push by the extreme left of Cataluña – as in Leninist/Marxist. That is not to say that other non left are not being duped into it (they are). However make no mistake. The goal of the people organizing this is to create a “communist utopia” in Europe and to influence other regions in Spain and EU. I suspect that “this drama” will end with many of the secessionists organizers in jail.
Now the only question I have is why Mish who normally is against communism is so much in favor of it when it comes to Cataluña. Perhaps he will write something on the subject in the future.
For those who don’t believe. Here in their own words.
“Izquierda Unida MP Alberto Garzón debates the Catalan independence referendum with the CUP’s Pau Llonch”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/09/catalonia-independence-spain-referendum
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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It’s hard not to laugh, so I did.
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