Comment: Why a dead fascist dictator haunts Catalonia's independence vote

By Liz Castro

Catalans were overrun by fascists in 1939.

The Spanish dictator Francisco Franco died in his bed in 1975, but his successors held onto power in Spain by co-opting a so-called transition to democracy.

The current ruling party, the Partido Popular or PP, was founded by one of Franco's senior ministers.

There remains an ostentatious mausoleum to the dictator near Madrid.

Spain, for many of us who support Catalan independence, has still to lay to rest the ghosts of his old regime.

Just this week some residents of the western Spanish city of Huelva cheered on officers  i the paramilitary Guardian Civil with cries of "Go get 'em" as departed for Catalonia, to stop a democratic vote.

All of this is the backdrop of one of the most extraordinary exercises in democracy the world has ever seen.

When has a people mobilised so massively and insisted on exerting its rights to choose its own political future in the face of such adversity, with such a determined, strictly non-violent, even cheerful demeanor?

And how did they think they could ever make it work? What gives them the confidence that next Sunday they can face down thousands of Spanish police to deposit their ballots in the ballot box?

Simply put, there is no other option. Spain has pressed Catalonia so far to the wall, arresting its civil servants, fining and barring from office its political leaders, confiscating posters that say 'democracy', blocking websites, shuttering conferences all over Spain, and more.

But the offence that Catalans cannot abide is simply being ignored. Over the past 10 years, Catalans have insisted on improving their relationship with Spain, and Spain has limited itself to one word: No.

In 2006, after the debacle of a new Statute of Autonomy, a new devolution deal, negotiated in the best of conditions between Socialists in both Madrid and Barcelona and then whittled arrogantly and publicly down by Socialists and PP alike, Catalans took to the streets in large numbers for the first time with the cry "We have the right to decide". *Only* 100,000 or so. Some 600 civic organizations under one umbrella.

The reduced Statute was grudgingly approved in a referendum only to be immediately challenged further in court by the now ruling PP. During the four years of deliberation (yes, four years), Catalans mobilised even more.

In 2008, a blog post sparked the organization of a demonstration in Brussels. A citizens' group began to collect signatures to demand the Catalan Parliament hold a referendum.

That initiative was rejected by the Catalan Parliament, but activists in a tiny town near Barcelona called Arenys de Munt decided to hold one anyway.

Franco

A Spanish court forbade it, while simultaneously allowing a fascist march there on the same day. The non-official poll went forward in a local civic centre, with higher participation than the official referendum on the Statute, and in addition to Yes winning 96 per cent of the votes, sparked similar polls across the country.

These non-official, non-binding referenda with no governmental support mobilized 800,000 people, but their most enduring contribution was a network of activists and volunteers: 60,000 people learned to organise debates, man information booths, print leaflets, ask for permits, and charter buses. When the polls finished in April, 2011, these committees evolved to form the backbone of the newly created Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a grassroots, strictly non-partisan, non-violent civil society organization dedicated to winning Catalan independence.

The ANC's first proposal was a massive march on Catalonia's National Day, in the fall of 2012. To make it a success, the network of now experienced activists organized 482 'practice rallies' all over the country. When they made it to Barcelona on September 11, they were joined by more than 1 million people.

The Catalan president did not attend, insisting on pursuing a fiscal pact with Madrid, which was (again) roundly rejected by Spain's prime miniser in person on September 20th.

Only then did the Catalan president call snap elections to run on a platform calling for an official (but as yet non-binding poll).

Five massive million-plus person demonstrations later, after thousands of conferences, debates, videos, books, twitter campaigns, and uncountable candles—but no violence—Catalans of every political persuasion, of every age and background have finally elected a pro-independence majority in the Parliament and convinced them to enact legislation for an official, binding referendum to be held October 1.

What is more democratic than that?

Catalan independence supporters

Make no mistake, Catalans have not insisted on non-violent action because they are 'soft' or 'weak', they have demanded non-violence because it is strategic and effective.

As Erica Chenoweth has documented, it is non-violent action that has more chances to overturn oppressive regimes, and more probability of resulting in a democratic, not oppressive, alternative.

Saturday there was an impromptu gathering in every city hall square in the country to put up posters advertising the referendum since Spanish paramilitary police - the kind of Guardia Civil seen off in Huelva - have confiscated more than a million "democracy" and "Hello, Europe" posters and 10 million ballots.

Among the crowd in my neighborhood, I saw a couple that looked about 65 with a sheaf of home-printed leaflets. The woman measured off pieces of tape and handed them to her husband who calmly put them up on the clock tower, in a sea of other signs. Peacefully and determinedly demanding their right to be heard.

Liz Castro is an pro-independence activist and writer based in the Catalan capital, Barcelona.