Free Republic of Catalonia?
The right to nation building is a human right. It belongs to the dignity of man, is inalienable and not relativizable. The law is based on the quest for independence and freedom from Hierarchy. A rule of law that can not be shaken off, that does not allow exit, is a system of rule that violates international law.
But if capitalism, which, like any other economic system, is not ideologically neutral, with its all-dominating goal of increasing returns, becomes the dominant social order, the other traditional values will recede into the background, and states such as Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia will fall apart, and so will the Catalans the pursuit of identity and dignity is granted.
The West holds Tibet to the Chinese and the United Nations intervened in Sudan, while in Ireland thousands died before the violence stopped. After the Soviet Union has proven to be a transitory stage, other violent entities such as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Spain, in whose society the devastation of Franco fascism can still be felt, are diverging and the individual parts are looking for a system of values that capitalism will bring them to can't offer.
If Catalonia were to make its way to wild Kurdistan, Puigdemont would have the least to blame.
The problem in Catalonia, in my view, is that a substantial proportion of the population is not for independence. Can one force such a radical step on this one?
Secondly, I sometimes wonder a little bit about the basic assumption that the Catalan independence movement is on the left. That's not the case. Of the three independentist parties, only the small CUP is a clearly leftist party advocating a change in the capitalist social order. Puigdemont's party, on the other hand, emerged from the former CiU, which ranks between CSU and FDP in its program. It is particularly close to the Catalan bourgeoisie, which, incidentally, had arranged very well with Franco at the time.
There is much to suggest that Catalan independentism is more in the field of identitarian movements.
SP 19.04.18
OK 23.04.18
I would like to thank you for your contribution on the subject of the Catalans' pursuit of identity. He speaks from my heart. I'm a Hispanic, but I have nothing to do with the Catalans in particular. I am (like you probably too) about the principle that the pursuit of identity and independence must not be a criminal act. Otherwise the Lithuanians, Estonians and Latvians would have made themselves liable to prosecution when they shook off the Soviet yoke.
I think it is a birth defect of the EU not to have anchored this right in its statutes. They rightly lash out that monetary and economic principles are overriding this right.
RH 23.04.18
When it comes to “Carles Puigdemont”, I am not on the side of the Spanish government. The first riots or demos were not exactly suitable to gain my sympathy. After the official referendum, things look a little different now.
Nevertheless, I am skeptical if there is to be a Catalan state. This would not be viable for the time being in my opinion.
When it comes to democratic legitimacy and self-determination, perhaps one should first reform Spanish democracy.
The successors Francos have my muck at the plug.