Nationalism

Ripples From Catalan Referendum Could Extend Beyond Spain

October 24, 2017 Simon Tisdall, www.theguardian.com Educate! Catalonia, Nationalism, Spain

By Simon Tisdall for The Guardian - The Spanish government’s attempted suppression of Catalonia’s independence referendum by brute force has raised urgent questions for fellow EU members about Spain’s adherence to democratic norms, 42 years after the death of the fascist dictator, Francisco Franco. Charles Michel, Belgium’s prime minister, spoke for many in Europe when he tweeted: “Violence can never be the answer!” Madrid’s pugnacious stance, while widely condemned as a gross and shameful over-reaction, has nevertheless sent a problematic message to would-be secessionists everywhere. It is that peaceful campaigns in line with the UN charter’s universal right to self-determination, campaigns that eschew violence and rely on conventional political means, are ultimately doomed to fail. In other words, violence is the only answer. Sorry, Charles. Spain’s prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, did everything he could to derail a referendum that the courts had deemed illegal, but his pleas and threats were not persuasive. That is democracy. Rajoy’s subsequent choice to employ physical force to impose his will on civilians exercising a basic democratic right carried a chill echo of Spain’s past and a dire warning for the future. That is dictatorship. Surely no one believes the cause of Catalan independence will fade away after Sunday’s bloody confrontations that left hundreds injured.

Wealthy Institutions Quietly Financing White Nationalism

October 22, 2017 Judd Legum and Danielle McLean, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Media, Nationalism, White Supremacy

By Judd Legum and Danielle McLean for Think Progress. The connection between Breitbart, a far-right website, and the white nationalist movement was hardly a secret. Steve Bannon, who served as Executive Chairman of the publication before and after serving as Trump’s chief strategist, called Breitbart “the platform for the alt-right,” a euphemism for white nationalists and their sympathizers. These extreme, bigoted viewpoints are frequently reflected in the site’s writing, which has included anti-immigrant screeds, sensationalized reporting of “black crime,” and other fringe viewpoints and conspiracy theories.

Pro-Independence Grass-Root Leaders Sent To Prison On Sedition Charges

October 17, 2017 ACN, www.catalannews.com Educate! Catalonia, Independence, Nationalism, Spain

By ACN for Catalan News - The leaders of two of the main pro-independence civil society organizations have been sent to prison without bail on sedition charges. A Spanish judge decided to imprison Jordi Sànchez, president of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), and Jordi Cuixart, president of Òmnium Cultural, for their role in the October 1 referendum. Both of them will already sleep in jail tonight. The same judge also decided to release without passport the chief of the Catalan police, Josep-Lluís Trapero, accused of not having done enough to stop voters from participating in the independence referendum. The initial investigation against Trapero, Sánchez and Cuixart focused on demonstrations on September 20 and 21, when fourteen high-ranking officials of the Catalan government were arrested and people protested massively, and peacefully, in the streets. But the case was extended to also include events during the October 1 referendum and the alleged “flagrant inaction” of Catalonia’s police corps, the Mossos d’Esquadra, to stop the vote. Sánchez and Cuixart lead two of the biggest pro-independence organizations in Catalonia, responsible for organizing the massive pro-Yes demonstrations of the last few years. The prosecutor argues that they mobilized people on referendum day, asking citizens to protest in front of polling stations, thus impeding police officers from closing them down.

Podemos’ Alternative For Catalonia

October 9, 2017 Eoghan Gilmartin, www.jacobinmag.com Educate! Catalonia, Nationalism, Podemos

By Eoghan Gilmartin for Jacobin Magazine - The stakes were increased when Regional Premier Carles Puigdemont told the BBC that Catalonia would unilaterally declare independence within “in a matter of days.” This was followed by a judgement from the Constitutional Court in Madrid suspending Monday’s session of the Catalan parliament. Radical independence party the CUP responded by demanding a session be held in defiance of the ban. However, with major corporations and banks threatening to move their legal headquarters outside the region, the conservative Puigdemont now seems less certain. Any move towards a declaration would most likely result in Mariano Rajoy’s right-wing government suspending Catalonia’s autonomy. Amidst an increasingly-polarized climate, international press coverage has tended to overlook the position of En Comú Podem, the political alliance which has won the last two general elections in Catalonia. This grouping comprising Ada Colau’s Catalonia En Comú and Unidos Podemos has tried to carve out a middle road in the current confrontation. It recognizes last Sunday’s vote as a legitimate political mobilization but doesn’t view it as a valid referendum. It also defends Catalonia’s right to decide but favors a plurinational, federal Spain.

Thousands Rally In Barcelona Against Catalonia Secession

October 9, 2017 Joseph Wilson, www.AP.org Resist! Autonomy, Barcelona, Catalonia, Nationalism

By Joseph Wilson for AP - BARCELONA, Spain — Thousands of people were rallying Sunday in downtown Barcelona to protest the Catalan government’s push for secession from the rest of Spain. Many in the crowd gathered in a central square carried Spanish and Catalan flags. Some chanted “Don’t be fooled, Catalonia is Spain” and called for Catalan president Carles Puigdemont to go to prison. Sunday’s rally comes a week after Puigdemont and other separatist leaders of the Catalan government held a referendum on secession that Spain’s top court had suspended and the Spanish government said was illegal. The “Yes” side won the referendum with 90 percent of the vote, though less than half of the region’s electorate voted. Puigdemont has pledged to push ahead for independence anyway and is set to address the regional parliament on Tuesday “to report on the current political situation.” Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy vows that his government will not allow Catalonia to break away from the rest of the country. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Pais published Sunday, Rajoy said that he will consider employing any measure “allowed by the law” to stop the region’s separatists. Rajoy said that includes the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which would allow the central government to take control of the governance of a region “if the regional government does not comply with the obligations of the Constitution.”

Flag Idolatry Is A Pathology That Crushes Real American Values

September 30, 2017 William Boardman, www.readersupportednews.org Educate! Nationalism, Patriotism

By William Boardman for Reader Supported News - The flag is a symbol, and there is no agreement as to what it actually symbolizes. By design, the flag’s thirteen stripes stand for the original 13 states, none of which would ban slavery. The 14th state, Vermont, was the first state to ban slavery, doing it weakly in its 1777 state constitution (not that the principle was enforced: in 1802 the Town of Windsor sued a State Supreme Court justice to get him to take care of an elderly, infirm slave he had dumped on town welfare; the town lost the case). The original flag had 13 stars for those same original 13 states, and it took over 70 years before all 36 stars in the 1865 flag represented states without slavery (but not states without racist Jim Crow laws and the freedom to lynch without consequence). The colors of the stars and stripes had no meaning in 1777, when it was adopted, as distinct from the colors of the Great Seal that did have meaning. Then there’s the Star Spangled Banner, written by a slave owner in celebration of the defense of a slave state in a battle against the British. The British force included a contingent of former slaves who were promised freedom if they fought for the British. How many people at the beginning of a sports event understand “the land of the free and the home of the brave” in its deepest historical irony?

Catalonia’s Battle ‘Is A Big Problem For Europe’

September 26, 2017 Greg Russell, www.thenational.scot Create! Catalonia, Government, Nationalism, Spanish

By Greg Russell for The National - A LEADING Catalan official has said Catalonia is in a de facto state of emergency and that its battle with Spain’s central government to hold a referendum on independence is a “big problem for Europe”. In an exclusive interview, Sergi Marcen, head of the Catalan Delegation to the UK, told The National the Catalan Government would work “to the last minute” to try to reach agreement with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government to go ahead with the October 1 poll. He said he believed Europe had remained quiet because Rajoy’s Parti Populaire (People’s Party) wielded significant influence and had been pressurising countries to stay out of it. But he added: “It is a European problem because 7.5 million European people – Catalans – cannot vote on their future; the Spanish Government does not have a majority in parliament and are using the laws in a bad way and this kind of behaviour is like the times of the dictator Franco. “So it’s a big problem for Europe, not only Catalonia.” Spain’s actions, he said, were denying Catalan citizens their basic rights. “Spanish Government and the police are going into media offices, lawyers, people’s houses looking for ballots,” he said. “Freedom of expression is banned. Police are seizing Catalan flags, posters or anything related to the referendum. Public events and meetings about it have been banned, so we don’t have the right to speak in public about the right of self-determination in Catalonia.

Catalonia: One Million Demonstrate For Self-Determination Vote

September 23, 2017 Esquerra Revolucionària, www.socialistalternative.org Resist! Barcelona, Nationalism, Self-Determination, Spain

By Esquerra Revolucionària for Socialist Alternative - On the 11th September one million people spilled onto the streets of Barcelona shouting loud and clear their intention to vote during the 1st October referendum, making it clear that they were not going to let the ruling Partido Popular (People’s Party/PP) deny them this right. Yet again, as has happened on each Diada [‘National Day of Catalonia’] since 2012, the Catalan people have demanded their right to democratically decide what links they wish to maintain with the rest of the Spanish state, including their legitimate right to independence. Against this protest in support of the right to decide, which the Catalan people are overwhelmingly in favour of (as confirmed by all the polls) backed up by increasing support from the those who live in the Spanish state, as a whole, the PP government and the Spanish bourgeois are using repressive measures not seen since the Francoist dictatorship; police raids and continual harassment against the press; judicial intervention to prevent a political event from taking place in Madrid concerning the right of self-determination; news censorship preventing the Catalan TV channel 3 from showing content on the referendum. The offensive has taken unprecedented steps and not just against freedom of expression and association.

Why A Team Of 8-Year-Old Football Players Decided To Kneel For National Anthem

September 22, 2017 Tyler Tynes, www.sbnation.com Resist! Activism, Nationalism, police brutality, Racism

By Tyler Tynes for SB Nation - A group of youth football players in Cahokia, Ill., decided as a team to kneel to protest racial injustice in America, mirroring Colin Kaepernick’s original stand that got him exiled from football. Members of the Junior Comanches football team demonstrated Sunday after kids asked team coaches about the protests in St. Louis over a not-guilty verdict of an officer killing a black man in 2011. Protests in the city over the unjust killing, sparked by a new verdict, have continued for days. Jason Stockley, a white officer, killed Anthony Lamar Smith in December 2011. Dashcam recordings showed Stockley saying he was going to “kill that motherfucker” while he and another officer pursued Smith assuming he was a part of an earlier drug deal. Stockley ended up shooting Smith five times. Following a discussion by the youth players who saw protests on televisions at home, Orlando Gooden, a Junior Comanches coach, told the Belleville News-Democrat that the idea came up during practice and that parents supported it.

The NFL Players Union Just Awarded Colin Kaepernick ‘Week 1’ MVP

September 18, 2017 Grant Stern, www.verifiedpolitics.com Resist! Activism, Athletes, Nationalism, Racism, Sports

By Grant Stern for Verified Politics - The NFL Player’s Association just picked a free agent quarterback as their Week 1 MVP for his charity work, even though he didn’t even make it onto the field. Colin Kaepernick has been blackballed by the NFL’s ownership – 97% of which is composed of enormously wealthy, mostly conservative white males – over his controversial stand to peacefully protest racial injustice by kneeling during the national anthem while playing for the San Francisco 49ers last year. Kaepernick guided the Niners to a Super Bowl just four years ago, turning in a stellar performance while his team came up just short against the Baltimore Ravens. Now, he’s still making good on his pledge to donate $1 million to charity, even though he’s unemployed. The Chicago Tribune reports: The NFLPA found particularly impressive, Kaepernick’s continued donations to charity, including a Sept. 7 gift of $100,000 split between four organizations. Kaepernick, who some say hasn’t been signed by an NFL team due to his political activism, gave $25,000 each to DREAM, a New York City after-school program that promotes sports in urban neighborhoods, the Gathering for Justice’s War on Children, a forthcoming initiative to tackle child incarceration, United We Dream, an organization focused on empowering immigrant youth and the Coalition for the Homeless.

Charlottesville To Palestine: Still N****, Still Arab

August 23, 2017 Miko Peled, www.ahtribune.com Educate! Charlottesville, Nationalism, Palestine, Racism

By Miko Peled for American Herold Tribune - I'll never forget the first time I heard JayZ's "The Story of OJ." I got into a Lyft and the driver, a young black man was playing music when this song came on. "That is powerful!" I blurted uncontrollably. "It’s the most powerful Rap song I've ever heard" the young man replied. He then played it over and over again and we were both swept into a conversation about racism in America and how little most people know and how little people care. I'm just back from Jerusalem and as I write these words I can't help notice the similarities between the US and Israel - what some like to call the "shared values" of these two countries. Both are brutal, unapologetically racist, settler colonialist regimes, thriving under the guise of liberal democracies. All oppressed people have one thing in common: a desire to live normal lives, to be part of society to and enjoy the benefits that society offers the privileged. But in racist societies that is not possible. Racist societies want to rid themselves of the other, and no matter how hard that "other" might try, the other will never belong, he and she will always remain a nigger, a dirty Arab, or whoever else that other may be. That is why there is resistance. That is also why the systems of oppression are so afraid of anything that might legitimize the call for justice by the other.

The Theft Of A Nation

July 1, 2017 Scott Foster, www.hawaiiankingdom.org Educate! Nationalism

By Scott Foster for Hawaiian Kingdon Blog - HONOLULU: JUNE 29, 2017 — Americans celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year, commemorating the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation in 1776. To mark an event from Hawai’i’s history, La Hoʻihoʻi Ea will observe this Fourth of July with a dramatic re-enactment of events that occurred over a century ago at ‘Iolani Palace. Beginning at 10:00 am July 4, 2017, on the front steps of ʻIolani Palace, La Hoʻihoʻi Ea will present a dramatic re-enactment of the events that led to proclaiming into existence of the Republic of Hawaii and the subsequent installation of Sanford B. Dole as President of the Territory of Hawaii. “With Bible in hand, pistols in their pockets and American Naval troops at the ready, men gathered on the steps of ʻIolani Palace on July 4th, 1894. Invoking the name of American liberty, they dismantled the liberty of the people of the Hawaiian Kingdom.” This exciting re-enactment is free and open to the public.

Honoring Oscar Lopez Rivera, Now More Than Ever

June 12, 2017 Johanna Fernandez And Carlito Rovira, www.counterpunch.org Educate! Nationalism, Political Prisoner, Puerto Rico

By Johanna Fernandez And Carlito Rovira for Counter Punch - Recently released Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera has announced that although he will march at the Puerto Rican Day Parade this Sunday, June 11, 2017, he will not accept the recognition bestowed on him by event organizers as the parade’s principal honoree. Lopez Rivera gracefully declined the award in response to the political controversy orchestrated by right-wing forces over his expected decoration. His public statement asserted that the honor should go to “those confronting the fiscal, health care and human rights crisis Puerto Rico is facing at this historic juncture.” But those who believe in the right to self-determination of all people who face military, economic, and/or political subjugation should continue to uphold that honor and defend the right of colonized people to determine for themselves, without outside pressure, who among them should be honored and why. In 1981, US federal courts convicted Oscar Lopez Rivera for seditious conspiracy and sentenced him to life in prison. Approximately 20 years before Lopez Rivera was so convicted and imprisoned, Nelson Mandela was convicted and sentenced of the same crime.

Trump Declares Today “Loyalty Day” To Remind Americans To Never Question Government

May 2, 2017 Claire Bernish, www.activistpost.com Educate! Government, Nationalism, Patriotism, Trump Administration

By Claire Bernish for Activist Post - President Trump has declared today, May 1, Loyalty Day, a day also dedicated to international workers’ rights, in what sounds on first impact to be an Orwellian holiday dedicated to love of one’s country — with all the mandatory overtones one would expect, given the current divisive climate present in the United States. May 1, the president declared, should be a day “for the reaffirmation of loyalty” to the United States; and that fealty to this nation — obedient citizens are encouraged to display the Stars and Stripes — should usurp any recognition in unison with some 80 or so other countries of the struggles faced by workers around the world. For as frighteningly nationalistic as the name implies, Loyalty Day is not Trump’s brainchild. In fact, once Loyalty Day garnered congressional approval in 1958, the oppressively patriotic holiday has been officially proclaimed by every president from Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1959 through Barack Obama — Trump just carried on its pretext “intended to replace” International Workers’ Day.

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