divendres, 22 de juliol del 2011

Spanish Fascist Dictator is still València’s Honorific Mayor

Francisco Franco was the Spanish nationalist dictator from 1939 until his death in 1975. Spain is still a haven for fascists. For instance, Franco continues being the honorific mayor of València. An honor that he shares, on the other hand, with another fascist from Spain, Rincón of Arellano. Both of them are well known by their hate against the Catalans. The Valencian consistory distinguished him with this title the year 1939. Nowadays the City Council, which is governed by the Partido Popular, continues to honor Franco’s memory. Curiously, the same party has forbidden Catalan TV, closing TV signal boosters; it has forbidden cultural demonstrations, like last April's concert by singer Lluís Llach against the same closing of TV antennas; and is prosecuting schools for using Catalan instead of Spanish.
The mayor of Valencia, Rita Barberá, does not seem very willing to withdraw Franco's honorific title. In fact the PP already has denied to approve similar resolutions to Xàtiva, Alacant and Castelló, three towns where they have refused to withdraw the similar distinctions.

Rità Barberà, the current mayor of València, with President Camps who is involved in a corruption case and will be judged soon

diumenge, 17 de juliol del 2011

35.000 people demonstrate for independence convoked only by social networks




First it was a joke. If last year about a million Catalan people demonstrated to defend self-government...why not to demonstrate this year for independence?. Social networks were the only way to convoke people because autonomist parties were against a new demonstration. So the people convoked the people, without parties. First by facebook, then by e-mail and twitter and finally some parties (none of the biggest) gave support to the demonstration.
It was convoked on July 9th in Barcelona. About a thousand people were expected. Mass media ignored the march and some independentists too were against the march but 35.000 people marched by the Barcelona’s streets. The slogan was clear: “For our future: independence”. The organizers were anonymous citizens worried by the Catalan’s decadence in the Spanish State. Actor Quim Masferrer and veteran freedom fighters as Dr.Moisès Broggi and Dr. Oriol Domenech closed the march with vibrant speaking. With them there was Heribert Barrera, former Catalan Parliament President. Barrera said two things: all Catalan pro-independence parties should be united and secondly there should be a Catalan boycott to Spanish institutions.
The reasons behind it are many: Spain is against Catalan language to become an official one in the EU, Spain is a hungry thief who stoles 22.000 M € every year and spent it in megalomaniac projects: a train for only twelve people, the Madrid’s Olympic Games candidature, the fact that some Spanish regions have 25 % of people working as public employers (in Catalonia it is a 10 %) or the continued prosecution of the Catalan language and absurd spending in Spanish nationalistic projects. Only an example: last year Spanish football team was the most well payed in the World Cup. Nowadays Catalan hospitals are closing to pay things like this. And Catalan people is tired. Something is changing.

Pictures: Help Catalonia, Nació Digital. You can find more pictures here and here.

dimecres, 13 de juliol del 2011

Free beers to MEPs to defend the Catalan language labels


The Catalan company Moritz has given a bottle of beer to each member of the European Parliament. The reason is to protest the recent EP's vote to maintain the rule that all labeling must be in at least one official EU language. Catalan is no official in the European Union besides it is spoken by more people than some official languages. In Catalonia, the rule means Catalan-only labels may not be allowed, since the European Union has refused to make Catalan official, despite being the language of more than 7 million people.