Tweet
Catalan Separatists to Link for Independence Cause
Secessionists Hope to Revitalize Movement With 249-Mile Human Chain
People practiced in Barcelona last week for a 400-kilometer human chain that will span Catalonia Sept. 11.
BARCELONA—Catalan independence activists want to revitalize their movement with a more eye-catching protest than a mass street rally staged a year ago: a 400-kilometer (249-mile) human chain traversing Catalonia from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea.
Secessionists in Spain's richest region are counting on the Sept. 11 spectacle, dubbed the Catalan Way Toward Independence, to help them recapture lost political momentum ahead of what could be a decisive year for their cause.
The chain, which will require at least 400,000 demonstrators to fill its ranks, will follow the ancient Roman route of the Via Augusta, snaking through canyons, beaches and farmland, as well as the streets of 86 communities. To transport demonstrators, organizers plan to deploy more than 1,000 buses, some of which will be brought from other provinces or neighboring France. Recording the event will be 800 photographers on the ground, along with a small fleet of drones and light planes in the air.
The demonstration, taking place on a regional holiday, is designed to press regional and national leaders for a referendum on independence in 2014, a year that coincides with the 300th anniversary of Catalonia's defeat by the Spanish crown after the bloody siege of Barcelona. (It is symbolically significant that participants will link hands at 5:14 p.m., or 17:14 military time.)
Catalonia, Spain's most industrialized region, has long asserted that the central government discriminates against its language and culture while siphoning off much more in tax revenue than it returns in investment. But the administration in Madrid has refused to hear any talk of a referendum, arguing that Catalonia has benefited from national policies, such as the central government's rescue of a poorly-run regional bank in 2011. Spain's painful recession has intensified the disputes over public finances—and pro-separatist sentiment in Catalonia.
This year's demonstration presents more challenges than last year's separatist rally—when some one million people flooded the streets of Barcelona—because of the daunting logistical chore of transporting participants to sparsely populated places along the route, organizers say.
"Last year we were bringing all of Catalonia to Barcelona," said Ferran Civit, a lead organizer for the Catalan National Assembly, the region's biggest pro-independence group. "This year, we're moving all of Barcelona to Catalonia."
Organizers are drawing inspiration from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where protesters formed a million-person human chain stretching 600 kilometers in 1989 to protest the oppression of those Baltic Republics under Soviet rule. Within several months, Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union, which then collapsed in 1991. Catalan organizers have flown in Baltic advisers to help them with the chain.
Catalans who oppose secession say they are offended by the implication that Spain's central government in some way resembles the Soviet Union.
"That kind of parallelism is worrisome because it distorts the reality of the relationship between Catalonia and the rest of the country," said Andrea Levy, a leader of the Catalan branch of the conservative Popular Party, which governs nationally.
[image]
The Barcelona march a year ago, which drew an estimated 15% to 20% of the region's population, briefly put the long-feeble Catalan independence movement at the forefront of the political debate over Europe's debt crisis. It also highlighted the strains between wealthier and poorer regions of nations on the Continent.
But a tactical miscalculation by the head of the Catalan regional government, Artur Mas, cut short the separatist movement's momentum. Seeking to ride the postdemonstration political wave, Mr. Mas and his center-right Convergence and Union party formally embraced independence and called an election last November to bolster the region's negotiating position with Madrid.
Pro-independence candidates on the whole gained ground in Catalonia's parliament in that election. But Mr. Mas's party lost seats, hobbling the leader who had styled himself the movement's leader. A spokesman said Mr. Mas, who has pledged to push through the independence referendum, supports the chain and will meet with organizers but won't take a place on the route himself.
As a consequence of Mr. Mas's electoral gambit "some people lost sight of the fact that this is fundamentally a grass-roots movement," said Elisenda Paluzie i Hernàndez, dean of economics at the University of Barcelona, who has registered for a spot in the chain.
In all, 14 nongovernmental groups are organizing the chain. Along each 500-meter stretch of the route, a coordinator will be charged with mustering and lining up the demonstrators. A special mobile phone app will offer demonstrators practical information on their portion of the chain. Catalans abroad also will form chains in dozens of cities, from Tokyo to Cincinnati, Ohio, organizers say.
Skeptics question whether independence backers can pull off a feat requiring such a combination of ideological zeal and organizational sophistication.
"As average Catalans realize that the independence leaders are actually serious about secession, they are having second thoughts about participating," said Ángel Hernández Guardia, leader of an anti-independence group called 12-O, named for Spain's Oct. 12 national holiday. It plans to stage a counter protest on Sept. 11.
One volunteer promoting the pro-independence chain is Anna Aroca, who runs Help Catalonia, a 3-year-old website that aggregates and translates articles about the region in five languages.
Ms. Aroca recently sent a message on her mobile phone asking contacts for status reports from Catalan communities that have been holding trial runs for the chain. Quickly she received a photo of activists forming a chain in a ravine and another of protesters hand-in-hand on a city street.
Then came another photo, showing denizens of a nude beach holding hands to support independence. "I told you, there is very broad-based support for our cause," she said.
One practice run recently took place in the town of Granollers, just outside of Barcelona. An hour before the trial was to begin, Maria Dolors Taulats, a 57-year-old translator who is leading local demonstrators, was pacing nervously around the ancient town plaza, unsure of how the event would come off.
"If only three people come, we'll form a chain around a rock on the square," she said. "If we get 150, we'll form a chain around the square itself. If it's 500 people, we'll hold hands out on the main street." In the end, a couple of thousand people turned out for the practice, and the chain wound from the square through the town's main downtown streets.
Secessionists Hope to Revitalize Movement With 249-Mile Human Chain
People practiced in Barcelona last week for a 400-kilometer human chain that will span Catalonia Sept. 11.
BARCELONA—Catalan independence activists want to revitalize their movement with a more eye-catching protest than a mass street rally staged a year ago: a 400-kilometer (249-mile) human chain traversing Catalonia from the Pyrenees Mountains to the Mediterranean Sea.
Secessionists in Spain's richest region are counting on the Sept. 11 spectacle, dubbed the Catalan Way Toward Independence, to help them recapture lost political momentum ahead of what could be a decisive year for their cause.
The chain, which will require at least 400,000 demonstrators to fill its ranks, will follow the ancient Roman route of the Via Augusta, snaking through canyons, beaches and farmland, as well as the streets of 86 communities. To transport demonstrators, organizers plan to deploy more than 1,000 buses, some of which will be brought from other provinces or neighboring France. Recording the event will be 800 photographers on the ground, along with a small fleet of drones and light planes in the air.
The demonstration, taking place on a regional holiday, is designed to press regional and national leaders for a referendum on independence in 2014, a year that coincides with the 300th anniversary of Catalonia's defeat by the Spanish crown after the bloody siege of Barcelona. (It is symbolically significant that participants will link hands at 5:14 p.m., or 17:14 military time.)
Catalonia, Spain's most industrialized region, has long asserted that the central government discriminates against its language and culture while siphoning off much more in tax revenue than it returns in investment. But the administration in Madrid has refused to hear any talk of a referendum, arguing that Catalonia has benefited from national policies, such as the central government's rescue of a poorly-run regional bank in 2011. Spain's painful recession has intensified the disputes over public finances—and pro-separatist sentiment in Catalonia.
This year's demonstration presents more challenges than last year's separatist rally—when some one million people flooded the streets of Barcelona—because of the daunting logistical chore of transporting participants to sparsely populated places along the route, organizers say.
"Last year we were bringing all of Catalonia to Barcelona," said Ferran Civit, a lead organizer for the Catalan National Assembly, the region's biggest pro-independence group. "This year, we're moving all of Barcelona to Catalonia."
Organizers are drawing inspiration from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where protesters formed a million-person human chain stretching 600 kilometers in 1989 to protest the oppression of those Baltic Republics under Soviet rule. Within several months, Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union, which then collapsed in 1991. Catalan organizers have flown in Baltic advisers to help them with the chain.
Catalans who oppose secession say they are offended by the implication that Spain's central government in some way resembles the Soviet Union.
"That kind of parallelism is worrisome because it distorts the reality of the relationship between Catalonia and the rest of the country," said Andrea Levy, a leader of the Catalan branch of the conservative Popular Party, which governs nationally.
[image]
The Barcelona march a year ago, which drew an estimated 15% to 20% of the region's population, briefly put the long-feeble Catalan independence movement at the forefront of the political debate over Europe's debt crisis. It also highlighted the strains between wealthier and poorer regions of nations on the Continent.
But a tactical miscalculation by the head of the Catalan regional government, Artur Mas, cut short the separatist movement's momentum. Seeking to ride the postdemonstration political wave, Mr. Mas and his center-right Convergence and Union party formally embraced independence and called an election last November to bolster the region's negotiating position with Madrid.
Pro-independence candidates on the whole gained ground in Catalonia's parliament in that election. But Mr. Mas's party lost seats, hobbling the leader who had styled himself the movement's leader. A spokesman said Mr. Mas, who has pledged to push through the independence referendum, supports the chain and will meet with organizers but won't take a place on the route himself.
As a consequence of Mr. Mas's electoral gambit "some people lost sight of the fact that this is fundamentally a grass-roots movement," said Elisenda Paluzie i Hernàndez, dean of economics at the University of Barcelona, who has registered for a spot in the chain.
In all, 14 nongovernmental groups are organizing the chain. Along each 500-meter stretch of the route, a coordinator will be charged with mustering and lining up the demonstrators. A special mobile phone app will offer demonstrators practical information on their portion of the chain. Catalans abroad also will form chains in dozens of cities, from Tokyo to Cincinnati, Ohio, organizers say.
Skeptics question whether independence backers can pull off a feat requiring such a combination of ideological zeal and organizational sophistication.
"As average Catalans realize that the independence leaders are actually serious about secession, they are having second thoughts about participating," said Ángel Hernández Guardia, leader of an anti-independence group called 12-O, named for Spain's Oct. 12 national holiday. It plans to stage a counter protest on Sept. 11.
One volunteer promoting the pro-independence chain is Anna Aroca, who runs Help Catalonia, a 3-year-old website that aggregates and translates articles about the region in five languages.
Ms. Aroca recently sent a message on her mobile phone asking contacts for status reports from Catalan communities that have been holding trial runs for the chain. Quickly she received a photo of activists forming a chain in a ravine and another of protesters hand-in-hand on a city street.
Then came another photo, showing denizens of a nude beach holding hands to support independence. "I told you, there is very broad-based support for our cause," she said.
One practice run recently took place in the town of Granollers, just outside of Barcelona. An hour before the trial was to begin, Maria Dolors Taulats, a 57-year-old translator who is leading local demonstrators, was pacing nervously around the ancient town plaza, unsure of how the event would come off.
"If only three people come, we'll form a chain around a rock on the square," she said. "If we get 150, we'll form a chain around the square itself. If it's 500 people, we'll hold hands out on the main street." In the end, a couple of thousand people turned out for the practice, and the chain wound from the square through the town's main downtown streets.
? it was more
Comment