Catalan Independence?

[Red Revolution]

A week and a half ago I came back from Spain. We had spent the holiday in a small fishing town called L'estartit (about 150 miles from Barcelona). Anyway, before going I was aware of the Catalan Language (one spoken in some areas of northern Spain). I was not however aware of the importance of it. On most menu's, tarriff boards etc there was a Catalan Translation when the was not even a portugese one. I was puzzled to observe many windows with the flag of Catalonia with english written on them "Independance for L'estsrtit" or more commonly "Independence for Catalan".

I wonder if anyone can shead some light on the matter -is it one of the things ETA is involved in?

http://www.guias-telefonicas.com/images/fl...lag_catalan.gif
The Calalonian flag.


(Edited by Red Revolution at 8:30 pm on Aug. 20, 2002)

[pastradamus]

Yeah,I too was in Cataluna.
I was staying in salou,but spent most of my time in Barcelona.

Catalans dont feel like part of Spain,Its Divided both geographically & culturaly.The communists seem to be present in Barcelona In a big way,because its so industrialised.
The catalan language is spoken is spoken more commonly than spainish in sum places.
The catalan flags are common,I bought a republican one when i was there,its cool
Theres the normal one with the red & yellow horazontal stripes,then theres the same flag with a red star (communist) & the republican has a white star on a blue background.

ETA has no involvement on the matter,they are euskadi seperatists,who are only involved in the basque matter.They have even set off bombs in the catalan provence.

[Conghaileach]

Catalonia was invaded and annexed by Spain, but because of its wealth and its geographical position (it's an important port, or was at least) the Catalonians have been given special status and semi-autonomy.

On the other hand are the Basques, who are treated as second class citizens. This is why they seek independence. The Catalonians are treated well by the Spanish, so have no real desire to fight for independence.

[Red Revolution]

Thanks Guys.
Pastradamus - I got a feeling that most of the population of the Costa Brava and Dorada were socialist, a lot of the shops sold che merchandise, also a massive amount of Bob Marley stuff. I saw a lot of posters and stickers on walls advertizing a "Popular protest" with the inclusion of the catalan flag. Their was a lot of other writing but my catalonian is just bits i've picked up. I recon its a little few seperatists, do you agree?

[pastradamus]

Little few! no way comrade! its huge over there!
Cataluna & madrid were the last 2 places to fall to franco's armies,thats how resistant to facism they were.
& did u see those thousands of people at the anti-globalisation protests? BIG TURNOUT!

I got sum che stuff there too,its a really cool part of the world & the chicks there are not only hot but nice people too.

[Maaja]

I do have some Catalan friends and they've told me that they would like to see Catalonia free. But there aren't any fighting and probabaly never will be. I don't think myself that Catalonia will never separate itsself from Spain. Although they do speak often their own language and have a high knowledge of being a different nation of Spanish.

[tyronelad]

Basques were given special treatment by the Spainish kings before the 20th century- then when Franco came to power he crushed the region (due to it being an ethnic area and anti-Franco). it was under the harsh franco regime ETA was established (in 1959 i think) where they launched attacks on the franco government. Just before Franco died ETA blew up his second-in-command, meaning no significant figure was in place to take over the dictatorship from Franco.
although the now 'democratic' government of Spain was socialist, the military and police were all mainly right-wing: fearing a military coup the POSE (socialist party) did not make concessions to ETA, but even went as far as to use state terrorism againist the Basque people. the French Basque country was a place of refuge for many ETA activists- the Spainish government began to attack it hoping the french government would begin to hand over ETA members. this backfired, giving ETA a powerbase of support which lasts to this very day.

Spain is mainly a collection of every different cultural groups- one way this is evident is in football, as all basuqes support Bilbao, Catalans support Barcelona and Gaelicans (i think) support Madrid. for a time in the early 20th century Spain had no national team as it was considered a greater priviledge to play for our region than country.
i imagine this would be something like Gaelic football in ireland - there is fierce rivalry between clubs and counties

[Politrickian]

I was in l'estartit too for the past 2 weeks, did you get a Che flag in the Bob Marley shop over there? If you did you took it when I wanted to get it.

Anyway, all i got was a Che Calendar and a shirt. Poor me. I wanted that flag.

Anyway. I think that the Catalan peopel want a revolution because it is the richest region of spain and they feel that they're sending money to Madrid, but there isn't money coming back.

I also found out that Catalan Revolutionists declared independance twice during the 20th century, if I remember correctly, the first was a few years before Franco took over spain, which lasted 3 days, and the second one was during Franco's rule which lasted one day and becuase of that 1,000 revolutionists were murdered by Franco.(I'm not sure about that, though)

[Conghaileach]

My mom was in Lourdes last week, and on her last day she decided to take a trip into the Basque country. She really enjoyed it, and brought me back a huge Che flag and a Basque bandana.