I’m torn on Catalonian Independence
Philosophically I’m for it. But Russia has ben very active in supporting separatist and secessionist groups in Europe and America. So does supporting Catalonia play into Putin’s grand plans to sow instability?
The Spanish government has stripped Catalonia of its autonomy and taken charge of its government.
The measures early on Saturday came after the Catalan parliament voted to declare independence on Friday.An official state bulletin dismissed Catalan leaders and handed control of Catalonia to Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.
Earlier, Spain’s interior ministry took charge of Catalonia’s police after firing senior Catalan police officials.
On Friday, PM Mariano Rajoy announced the dissolution of the regional parliament and the removal of the Catalan leader, and called snap local elections.Demonstrations for and against independence went on into the night. A large rally “for the unity of Spain and the constitution” is being held in Madrid.
Poignant when you consider Catalonia was absorbed into Spain at the point of Franko’s guns.
Like the UK, Spain is an artificial construct. Philosophically I don’t have any problem with any nation state fragmenting (including the US). The problem is that leaves Russian and multinational companies more or less in the driver’s seat.
Here is a link to the Second Vermont Republic website.
Petition of Grievances
We, citizens of this American land, haunted by the nihilism of separation, meaninglessness, and powerlessness, subsumed by political elites who use corporate, state, and military power to manipulate our lives, pawns of a global system of dominance and deceit in which transnational megacompanies and big government control us through money, markets, and media, sapping our political will, civil liberties, collective memory, traditional cultures, sustainability, and independence, and as victims of affluenza, technomania, cybermania, globalism, and imperialism, do issue and proclaim this…
“Like the UK, Spain is an artificial construct.”
You can employ this sentence with an almost infinite variety of proper nouns.
“Like Germany, Italy is an artificial construct,”
“Like Maryland, Delaware is an artificial construct.”
“Like New Castle County, Wilmington is an artificial construct.”
@Paul: I don’t think consolidation through royal marriages produced any better results.
That’s true, although I suppose there are degrees of artifice. Iraq comes to mind as a relatively recent ham fisted colonial creation.