Internationalists must support Catalonia’s right to decide
Saturday 30th September 2017

On Sunday 1 October 2017, Catalonia is due to hold a referendum with the question “Do you want Catalonia to become an independent state in the form of a republic?” The Spanish state, where Rajoy’s right wing PP governs as a minority, is using all possible repressive measures to try to stop the vote.
The demand for a vote on independence is a product of many factors. The immediate explanation is Spain’s refusal to accept more moderate changes. An attempt in 2005 to reform Catalonia’s autonomy statute was sabotaged by the PP… and also by the Social democratic PSOE. In 2010 the Spanish Constitutional Court banned sections of a mildly reformed statute, provoking a million strong demonstration in Barcelona with the slogan “We are a nation. We decide.” Since then there have been half a dozen massive pro independence mobilisations, of one to two million people each, in ...