CATALONIA -- Why Support Catalonia?
Why Support Catalonia?
The power of a pen! Sign to change the way things are!
To find out where you can sign abroad, check out: http://catalanassembly.org/events/
On September 11th 2012, around 1.5 million people filled
up the central avenues of Barcelona in the largest demonstration ever
held in the city. Who were they? What did they want? And why should you
bother about it?
The 2012 Catalan independence demonstration,
organized by the Catalan National Assembly, a broad and non-partisan
movement born out of Catalan civil society, marked a turning point in
the relations between Catalonia and Spain. For the first time in many
years, the demands for an independent Catalan state moved out of the
fringes of politics and occupied the central stage, as it became clear
that a majority of Catalan citizens, of all origins and backgrounds,
wished to establish a new political framework based on the principles of
democracy, liberty and human rights. They aspired, as the slogan of the
demonstration run, to form “a new state in Europe”. Rather than being a
sudden eruption of nationalistic feeling, this was the latest step in a
long and arduous struggle for self-rule and recognition, a fight that
Catalans have always fought peacefully and too often in obscurity. But
now, for the first time, the world was forced to look at Catalonia, not
as just another Spanish region, but as a self-standing nation with its
own legitimate and pressing demands.
